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TUAW has received an anonymous tip suggesting that an audio/video company has been reportedly been contracted by Apple to work on an event at the end of February. It is way too early for an iPhone 2 announcement, so what could this be about? Some speculate that the iPhone SDK might be launched in fanfare, while others hope that the event is about the new MacBook Pro with Multi-Touch. Of course, this is just a rumor, but whatever this turns out to be, we’ll keep you posted. (Read the full post about ‘Apple Rumored to Hold an Event Soon’…)

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Posted Feb 7th 2008 1:01PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: LaptopsThe last Dells we saw with a slot-loading Blu-ray drive were the XPS One and monster XPS M2010, but it looks like Round Rock’s taking it mainstream soon — the latest BIOS update for the popular XPS M1330 lists support for an unspecified “Blu-ray / DVD +/- RW Combo Drive.” No word on when we’ll see these actually for order, but if you were in the market for an M1330, you might consider holding off until these become available.[Thanks, Rupert] (Read the full post about ‘XPS M1330 BIOS update hints at upcoming Blu-ray / DVD combo drive’…)

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Star Wars - Yoda Dashboard Driver Attach to your cars dashboard or on your desk, then press the button for the 5 inch Yoda figure to loudly and forcefully express your feelings. Speaks 10 classic Yoda phrases! The Yoda Dashboard Driver has an authentic movie dialogue speech such as: “Reach out, sense the force around you”, “Hard to see the dark side is”, “May the force be with you” and much more.   The figure is fitted with a velcro attachment and stick one half to a surface such as a car dashboard. Switch on the motion sensor for Yoda to activate from your car’s vibrations.   If you are stuck for words to respond, let Yoda do it for you with it’s powerful speaker sound. (Read the full post about ‘Star Wars - Yoda Dashboard Driver’…)

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Maker Keith Lam has recreated World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros, and he’s done it in meatspace. Instead of the level scrolling by, the TV itself moves along the background and the player has to follow. It’s superbly low tech, from the wobbling screen to the pulley-operated paper Mario (no, not that Paper Mario).

Lam gets a little caught up in the fact that video gamers don’t actually control the character, but the background. (Read the full post about ‘Mario Moves into Meatspace’…)

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Posted Feb 7th 2008 1:48AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: HDTV You want to know — nay, you deserve to know — which service provides the most HD content. Engadget HD’s got the answer, see how your HD provider stacks up. (Read the full post about ‘Engadget HD definitively answers: does cable, satellite, or fiber provide more HD?’…)

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While we can all appreciate someone (Toshiba) trying to break the norm, there are some things that just don’t make any sense.  The phone in question is the Toshiba G450 due to arrive in the UK next month for a whopping $300.  Even a four year old could tell you dialing on this thing is going to be dicey. Two round number pads to get all 10 numbers seems a bit far fetched.  The tiny screen, though it is sweet OLED, is only 96×39.  Those small features add up to only 57 grams. The phone, to its credit, can be used as an USB modem, storage device (160MB), Mp3 player and if you can figure out the number pad system: a phone.  Genius! (Read the full post about ‘New “stoplight” phone design will, in fact, drive you batty’…)

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We reviewed the T-Mobile Shadow a while back, and we did not really like it, but if you own one, you might want to know that there’s a big firmware update for this Smartphone. Among the new/updated features: Audio postcards (MMS with Audio) Bug fixes Hang-up by sliding down Multiple alarm improvement New media files (ring tones, wallpapers…) Portrait mode camera viewer (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile Shadow Update’…)

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I suppose that the only way the next generation is going to learn is in electronic interactive formats. Fortunately, ViewPlus is prepared for this educational era as the company unveiled the IVEO Hands-on Learning System. The basic kit comes with an IVEO touchpad, a touch-sensitive pad that the student interacts with using raised and embossed templates. Touching pictures and diagrams on the pad turns on the software for descriptions including sound, music, or even links to websites. It sounds a lot like the Leap Frog LeapPad, true, but it is based on scientific studies that have shown that students today learn more with the interaction of sound, light, and touch. (Read the full post about ‘ViewPlus IVEO Hands-on Learning System’…)

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If your looking for a nice looking Blu-ray drive for your PC, maybe for your media center or just movie watching the new Sony BDU-X10S Blu-ray drive for the PC shoud suit you very well. The BDU-X10S is priced well at $200 making it very tempting for people who wan to make the leap over to the HD world, especial now that it seems Blu-ray has won. The Sony BDU-X10S is a reader only, but can read blu-ray, dvd, and CDs. Included is a copy of CyberLink PowerDVD BD Edition software that can play back Blu-ray discs in MPEG-2 and H.264 formats, along with DVDs and MPEG2 or AVCHD formats. The interface of the Sony BDUX10S is SATA. Looks very tempting, I might even order one myself. (Read the full post about ‘Sony BDU-X10S’…)

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Posted Feb 6th 2008 7:41PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: CellphonesToday’s iPhone unlocking / jailbreaking update comes by way of Zibree, who, as you may have heard, announced a new version of AnySIM that unlocks v1.1.3 phones with the baseband 4.03_13_g; be warned, though, bootloader 4.6 won’t work, only 3.9. If none of this makes sense to you, we envy the blissful, pain-free life you’re not whittling away tracking this stuff. (Read the full post about ‘AnySIM updated to unlock some v1.1.3 phones’…)

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