Microsoft takes Marketplace to 19 more countries

Microsoft opened the gates to its application store last year when it launched Windows Phone 7 but so far it has been available only in handful of countries. Those outside these countries had to fake their location, which meant they could only download free apps from the Marketplace. Now, however, the list of supported countries has been expanded with 19 new names added to the mix, taking the grand total to 35. If you are in any of the following countries, you can now download apps officially from the Marketplace:

These are the countries where you can download your apps from.

GSM Arena, Microsoft takes Marketplace to 19 more countries

Microsoft reveals Droid-themed Xbox 360 bundle for Star Wars Kinect

What you see above is an R2-D2-themed Xbox 360 and accompanying gold C-3PO controller, which are both part of a new Star Wars Kinect bundle that Microsoft officially announced at Comic-Con today. Also included in the bundle is a matching white Kinect sensor, as well as a 320GB hard drive, and both the Star Wars Kinect and Kinect Adventures games — all for $449. Did we mention it also has some custom console sounds.



2DayBlog.com, Microsoft reveals Droid-themed Xbox 360 bundle for Star Wars Kinect

Ultra slim Swiss Army USB tool has no knife

Earlier this year, Victorinox, makers of the original ‘Swiss Army Knife' announced their line of Swiss Army USB drives. Unfortunately you won't be opening any bottles or slicing through any packaging with these, since there are no blades or other miscellaneous tools attached. Coming in a Slim and Slim Duo with sizes ranging from 4GB to 64GB, the Victorinox Swiss Army USB drive is finally shipping and can be purchased with a price range of $39.99 to $249.99 at the Swiss Knife Shop. Although these drives aren't much smaller than traditional flash drives, they are as resilient as the rest of Victorinox's Swiss Army products.


2DayBlog.com, Ultra slim Swiss Army USB tool has no knife

Samsung Wave 578 with NFC and Bada 1.1 will be out tomorrow in Singapore

The Samsung Wave 578 is the first Bada phone to have support for NFC. We first heard about it in April, and back then the story was that it would hit the streets in June. While that hasn't happened, the Wave 578 will become available in Singapore tomorrow. Samsung's Singapore arm announced that on Twitter earlier. If you're in Singapore, tomorrow you'll be able to pick up a Wave 578 for S$338. The Wave 578 runs Bada 1.1 and comes with a 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen, a 455 MHz processor, quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support, a 3.2 MP camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a microSD card slot.

Unwired View, Samsung Wave 578 with NFC and Bada 1.1 will be out tomorrow in Singapore

Pink Sprint Samsung Replenish will be available on July 24

Here's some great news for those of you who are Sprint customers (or don't mind switching), like smartphones, the environment, and the color pink. This Sunday Sprint will release a device that ticks all of those boxes. And while the phone itself isn't new, the color version will be. So brace yourselves, for the Samsung Replenish will be available in ‘Raspberry Pink' starting on July 24. The Samsung Replenish, if you remember, is partially built with recycled plastics and has recyclable packaging (don't all phones?).

Unwired View, Pink Sprint Samsung Replenish will be available on July 24

BoBook's Wacom-Powered eReader is Big in Europe

Until you turn it on, the BeBook eReader is pretty good looking. Quick. Name me five e-readers without asking Google. Tricky, right? After the big names — Kindle, Nook and Sony — you might remember Kobo, but then you'll be left scouring your memory. That's not to say there aren't any other e-readers. It's just that in the U.S the market is already dominated by these big brands.

Over in Europe it's a different story. On a recent trip to London, I saw a lot of Kindles, but the U.K has its own Kindle store on Amazon. Back in Spain, I see no-name readers and Sony readers, and not much else.

Gadget Lab, BoBook's Wacom-Powered eReader is Big in Europe

Apple surpasses Nokia in global smartphone shipments

There was a time when Nokia was the king of the smartphone segment thanks to its Symbian platform. In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone and changed the smartphone game altogether. After four years from the launch of the first iPhone, Apple has beaten Nokia at its own game, by shipping the most number of smartphones in a quarter and becoming the top smartphone vendor in the world.

GSM Arena, Apple surpasses Nokia in global smartphone shipments

Panasonic releases its new Android Base E-Book Reader the Raboo UT-PB1

Unveiled as a "Prototype" two weeks ago during the e-Book Expo Tokyo, Panasonic new E-book reader is now official. Behold the Raboo UT-PB1. Schedule to be launched August 10 in Japan at around 34,800 Yen, the Raboo is comes with a 7x1024×600 color touchscreen, a Dual Core CPU (No details on the exact Chipset/CPU), comes with 8GB of internal memory with only 4.5GB available to users, Wi-Fi BGN, Bluetooth, a 1.3Mpix Camera and microSDHC Support.





Akihabara News, Panasonic releases its new Android Base E-Book Reader the Raboo UT-PB1

Toshiba introduces a new HD TV equipped with power saving button

Toshiba announced yesterday the REGZA 32BC3 in Japan a new LCD TV featuring an 1,366×768 IPS panel with a 1,100:1 contrast ratio and equipped with a Digital TV Tuner and USB Recording features that comes with a new Power Saving button on its remote capable to reduce the TV's brightness up to 75% without image quality loss or any other kind of image degradation when watching a Movie or TV Program. Press the Button on your remote once and your TV brightness will go down to 50%, Twice and you will reach 75% of brightness reduction.





Akihabara News

See also:
computerworld, Toshiba introduces a new HD TV equipped with power saving button

Snugg Magic Cube Virtual Laser Computer Keyboard

I'm not sure how this will be an improvement over the virtual keyboard on a tablet screen, but the Magic Cube Virtual Laser Computer Keyboard  from Snugg will project a full-sized keyboard on your work surface.  It can be used with tablets, smartphones, and any computer that can use a Bluetooth keyboard.

The Gadgeteer, Snugg Magic Cube Virtual Laser Computer Keyboard

India bans filesharing websites

Well it was only just yesterday that we reported about how a 15 year old kid in Sweden got into legal trouble for downloading movies. He's not the first and he will probably not be the last, but there seems to be an increasing rate of filesharing websites being banned in certain countries (such as Malaysia who has blocked the Pirate Bay website) due to the abuse by users who upload copyrighted files onto them. As it turns out, India has also recently started banning filesharing websites, and it seems that the Indian populace is none too happy about it.

Ubergizmo, India bans filesharing websites

STATS: Android now has 30% of global tablet market share

Industry analyst Strategy Analytics has released some interesting data on the worldwide tablet market share battle, showing that Android accounted for a whopping 30% of the market in Q2 of 2011. This is quite amazingly fast growth, as during the same quarter of 2010 Android barely registered with only 2.9% of the tablet scene. Here's a man from SA explaining the data:.
“Android captured 30 percent share of global tablet shipments in Q2 2011. Multiple Android models distributed across multiple countries by multiple brands such as Samsung, Acer, Asus, Motorola and others are driving volumes.

Eurodroid, STATS: Android now has 30% of global tablet market share

KDDI introduces Phone-capable Pedometer For The Elderly

KDDI has announced the Mi-Look, a GPS-capable pedometer with mobile network access for the elderly. The Mi-Look has a waterproof body, QVGA display, and three main buttons. It can also be used to communicate with family members. The Mi-Look is targeted at families with older parents who aren't familiar with using mobile devices. It automatically e-mails relatives, letting them know the user's distance walked and current location. The Mi-Look also has an emergency buzzer, which is operated simply by pulling the strap.




Akihabara News, KDDI introduces Phone-capable Pedometer For The Elderly

Photo tour: This is the future of Sprint's network

Earlier today we gave you a glimpse at Sprint's Overland Park campus, its Usability Lab, the Sprint Technology Integration Center and the carrier's Mobile Technology Lab. Within that Mobile Technology Lab is a huge amount of fascinating equipment that we were not allowed to photograph. One box Sprint was happy to let us snap, however, was the Ericsson E-Node Base Transceiver System (BTS) pictured above. These devices find themselves at the center of Sprint's forward-looking network efforts.




Boy Genius Report, Photo tour: This is the future of Sprint's network

Another Foxconn worker commits suicide?

I'm starting to wonder whether the Foxconn factory has some sort of nefarious powers behind it which tend to cause humans who work there to take their own life – after all, the most recent case where a worker fell to his death from the sixth floor of the factory dormitory, in addition to past cases where underpaid, depressed and stressed workers decided to take their own lives which caused quite an uproar. Why did Foxconn make the news then. It could be because the company is one of the major contractors for the iPhone, in addition to manufacturing devices for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and Sony Ericsson amongst others.

Ubergizmo, Another Foxconn worker commits suicide?

Western Digital Scorpio Blue packs quite a punch

Western Digital, one of the names that is closely associated with quality storage devices for the computer (desktop or otherwise), is back again with the new WD Scorpio Blue. This is a new 2.5″ mobile hard drive which measures a mere 9.5mm thin, and to sweeten the deal, the Scorpio Blue will feature up to 1TB of storage space, being specially designed for mainstream notebook computers. How is the 1TB storage space possible on the new WD Scorpio Blue.

Ubergizmo, Western Digital Scorpio Blue packs quite a punch

Rogers Samsung Galaxy S Infuse 4G will cost $149.99 with three-year contract, $549.99 outright

Last month we first heard that Rogers was getting ready to release the Samsung Galaxy S Infuse 4G, which is its version of AT&T's Infuse 4G, an Android superphone that comes with a mammoth 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen. Since the original announcement in June though we haven't heard a thing about Rogers' Infuse 4G. Until now, that is. MobileSyrup managed to get information about the pricing for this device from a source that we hope proves trustworthy.

The Samsung Galaxy S Infuse 4G will apparently launch in the next few days, and it will cost $149.99 if you sign a new three-year contract with the carrier.

Unwired View, Rogers Samsung Galaxy S Infuse 4G will cost $149.99 with three-year contract, $549.99 outright

Australia: HTC Wildfire S now available at Telstra

The HTC Wildfire S has finally made its way to Telstra in Australia, a couple of months after we first heard it would. The HTC Wildfire S is the Taiwanese manufacturer's lower-midrange Android offering for 2011, and it comes with some pretty decent specs and is generally quite affordable (at least compared to HTC's other smartphones). You can now get a Wildfire S from Telstra for $0 upfront if you get it with the carrier's $49 per month Freedom Connect Plan.

Unwired View, Australia: HTC Wildfire S now available at Telstra

Motorola Triumph from Virgin Mobile Available Now for $299

Never mind that Best Buy was selling the thing a bit early, Virgin Mobile’s stock Android handset the Motorola TRIUMPH is now available in stores and online. The phone will set you back $299, a hefty price if we were talking about a two-year contract, but there won’t be any of those with Virgin. For the price you get a 1GHz processor, dual cameras (5MP rear, VGA front), and a 4.1-inch display, not to mention HDMI output with 1:1 mirroring. Calling plans with unlimited data start at a very reasonable $35.

Android Phone, Motorola Triumph from Virgin Mobile Available Now for $299

Newer, Faster MacBook Airs Launched, Old Plastic MacBook Killed Off

The new MacBook Air comes with i5 processor, Thunderbolt and backlit keyboard. As expected, Apple has updated the MacBook Air. The super-portable laptop has now become a serious rival to its big brother, the MacBook Pro. In fact, read the specs and you'll wonder why you would bother to buy a Pro ever again. And if you want a white plastic MacBook, you'd better rush to your local reseller — Apple has discontinued it.

The biggest internal changes are the processor and the new Thunderbolt port.

Gadget Lab, Newer, Faster MacBook Airs Launched, Old Plastic MacBook Killed Off

Photoshop (Elements) Comes to the Mac App Store

Off with his head. Serial blinkers are no longer a problem with Photoshop Elements 9. Grab your coats: Hell has just frozen over. Or rather, Photoshop has come to the Mac App Store. For $80, you can now download Photoshop Elements 9 from the App Store.

Ever since the Mac Store was announced, there have been two standout examples of apps that would “never” be sold through Apple's strictly-controlled channel. The first is Microsoft's Office suite. The second was Photoshop. The reasons? Price and compatibility.

The thinking goes that Adobe and Microsoft wouldn't want to give 30% of the revenue of their flagship products to Apple.

Gadget Lab, Photoshop (Elements) Comes to the Mac App Store

Lenovo Unveils Windows 7-Powered IdeaPad P1 Tablet

Lenovo has unveiled a new Windows 7-based tablet. The Lenovo IdeaPad Tablet P1 features a 10.1-inch capacity touch screen with 1,280 x 800 resolution, 1.5GHz Intel processor, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, up to 64GB of SSD storage, integrated 2-megapixel front-facing webcam, stylus input support, built-in Bluetooth/ 3G/ WiFi connectivity, a USB 2.0 connector, microSD card slot, and a docking port. The tablet measures 14.5mm thick, compared to the 10.9mm thickness of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The problem, however, with Windows 7 tablets is that all of them have the same issues: Too bulky and too slow to touch response.

Gadget.com, Lenovo Unveils Windows 7-Powered IdeaPad P1 Tablet

Are these the specs of the upcoming refresh of the MacBook Air?

Looking forward to the refreshes of Apple's MacBook Air. If you have, you will be interested to know that specs of the upcoming MacBook Airs have been leaked, which could possibly be rumors or the real thing, but we'll let you decide that for yourself. For starters, most of us probably know that the refresh of the MacBook Airs will most probably be featuring OS X Lion, and some have speculated that the delay in the refresh was due to Apple wanting to wait for OS X Lion to be finalized before installing them on the new MacBook Airs.

Ubergizmo, Are these the specs of the upcoming refresh of the MacBook Air?

Lenovo IdeaPad P1 introduced

Another day, another tablet – and the Lenovo IdeaPad P1 is a new model that has just been introduced. This will be powered by Windows 7, and that alone ought to caution the more informed out there. After all, have you actually seen a Windows 7 tablet that was actually extremely successful in the market. I rest my case. Still, perhaps Lenovo is able to create some form of magic with the IdeaPad P1, so I would not want to shoot it down too son.

Ubergizmo, Lenovo IdeaPad P1 introduced

Hands-On: Motorola's Droid 3 Wants to Kill Your BlackBerry

Motorola's Droid 3 comes with business-friendly features, much like RIM's BlackBerry phones. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com. As the latest iteration of Motorola's Droid-branded devices, the Droid 3 caters to the professional crowd. With its pre-loaded QuickOffice software and slide-out keyboard, it's meant for those accustomed to doing more on their phone than just playing Angry Birds. After we spent some time with a test device, we're ready to get to work.

Immediately noticeable is the phone's physical bulk. Like its two predecessors, the Droid 3 is chunky, almost an electronic brick in your pocket.

Gadget Lab, Hands-On: Motorola's Droid 3 Wants to Kill Your BlackBerry

Nissan updates 2012 LEAF with more features and a higher price

Folks thinking about getting the Nissan LEAF but haven't invested their hard earned cash into getting one will be pleased to know that their patience has paid off. Nissan has just announced that it launching an updated Nissan LEAF based on feedback of thousands of owners who have already driving one around. The new features will be available in the 2012 model which will also be sold in more regions in the US.  

The updated Nissan LEAF will feature additional standard equipment like quick charging, and cold weather optimizations.

Ubergizmo, Nissan updates 2012 LEAF with more features and a higher price

Samsung Says Anymode's Smart Cover Clone was Never Approved, Pulls from Site

The Anymode Smart Case isn't shy about it's resemblance to Apple's iPad 2 Smart Cover – they barely had the decency to change the name — but it's the fact that it is designed for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that really created a bit of a stir. In light of an ongoing lawsuit from Apple, it seemed a bold move for Samsung to market the obvious knock-off through their own retail channels.

Android Phone, Samsung Says Anymode's Smart Cover Clone was Never Approved, Pulls from Site

Casio Exilim EX-ZS15 Touchscreen Digital Camera

The Exilim EX-ZS15 is the latest touchscreen digital camera from Casio that sports a 14.1-megapixel CCD image sensor, a 26mm wide-angle lens, a 5x optical zoom lens, a 3.0-inch touchscreen display, an SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot and 720p HD video recording capabilities (30fps). Pricing and availability are still unknown at the moment.

TechFresh, Casio Exilim EX-ZS15 Touchscreen Digital Camera

LeapFrog LeapPad pre-sale units sold out in two weeks

Remember the LeapPad educational tablet designed for kids. Who would've thought it would sell like hot cakes. Well LeapFrog Enterprises, the company behind the LeapPad tablet has just announced that the LeapPad that became available for pre-sale at major retail websites on June 29th has officially been sold out. If you'd like to get your hands on one of these nifty tablets, you would have to wait until late August when stock will be resupplied.

Ubergizmo, LeapFrog LeapPad pre-sale units sold out in two weeks

KDDI mind-reading app tells you how stressed out you are

While we don't need an app to tell us that we're stressed out, wouldn't it be interesting to find out how stressed out we are. In a quantifiable manner. The folks over at KDDI thought so too, and came up with an app and hardware combination for Android phones to do the job. While it's not available for sale (it currently is an experiment by KDDI's R&D team), it was recently demonstrated on video.
A user puts on some sort of headband that is used to monitor the user's brain activity, and then he/she is given a simple game to play on the Android device.



Ubergizmo, KDDI mind-reading app tells you how stressed out you are

C5 In-ear Headphones Coming Soon from Bowers & Wilkins

Following on their 45-year tradition of quality components, excellent build quality and amazing sound, Bowers & Wilkins has built what they consider to be a best in class product in the über-competitive in-ear headphone market. Priced at a not (for B&W) unreasonable $179.95, the C5 could very well be an introduction to that famous B&W sound for those previously put off by the high price of admission. They are priced well below many competing brands of universal fit earphones. The C5 has a few unusual features.



The Gadgeteer

See also:
digitalblog, C5 In-ear Headphones Coming Soon from Bowers & Wilkins

ZTE reveals their upcoming Windows Phone 7 device

As we all know, ZTE will be one of the manufacturers that Microsoft had listed for their Windows Phone 7 devices. In fact, one such device was shown during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 last week, and it is the device pictured to the right. However it looks like Dr. Luo Zhong Sheng, General Manager of Mobile Communications at ZTE, posted on his Weibo account (China's version of Twitter) a photo of ZTE's upcoming Windows Phone 7 device, which looks nothing like the one they revealed the week before.

Ubergizmo, ZTE reveals their upcoming Windows Phone 7 device

Is the iPod becoming less popular these days?

When it comes to listening to our music on the go, and before the emergence of smartphones, there was a good chance you would see someone on the street sporting an iPod or the Zune MP3 player, or even an iRiver. However all of that has changed, especially with smartphones these days sporting the ability (and the capacity) to play our songs while on the go, which means that unless you need to bring with you your entire 160GB collection of MP3s, chances are you will let your smartphone double as your music player instead.

Ubergizmo, Is the iPod becoming less popular these days?

ITC finds HTC guilty of infringing two of Apple's patents

At first HTC told Apple to eeff off and learn to compete, but it seemed like the International Trade Commission may not agree with HTC's point of view. The ITC has just made an initial determination in the ongoing patent infringement case between HTC and Apple and it's not looking great for HTC. The judge ruled that HTC had infringed on two of the ten patents in question, and if this ends up flushing through, it's possible that select HTC products would be banned from ever arriving in the US.

2DayBlog.com, ITC finds HTC guilty of infringing two of Apple's patents

Schenker XIRIOS W710 Mobile Workstation

Here comes a new mobile workstation from a German-based company Schenker, the XIRIOS W710. The system packs a 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 glossy or matte finish display, up to Intel Core i7-990X Extreme or Xeon X5690 processor, an Intel X58 chipset, up to two NVIDIA Quadro FX 5010 graphics cards, up to 24GB RAM and up to three hard drives, hybrid hard drives or SSDs. Price starts at 3,568 Euro (about $5,020).

TechFresh

See also:
trendygadgets, Schenker XIRIOS W710 Mobile Workstation