After Samsung and Sony joining the bandwagon of Google TV partners, Toshiba and Vizio are now said to have firm plans to participate, and is in plans to introduce new Google TV products at CES 2011 in January. This comes oddly, as content providers have banned Google TV from accessing their contents, yet hardware partners have not seemed to lose their enthusiasm into Google’s product. Read more…

Just when I’m thinking about Windows Phone 7 and how it’ll get jailbroken, here comes a new software that’ll “unlock” your new tile smartphone so that you can install whatever you like without going through the marketplace. Microsoft’s been insistent so far about keeping side loaded apps out of the equation unless you’re a developer, but a new tool called ChevronWP7, compatible with Windows XP SP2 and up, will let you throw nearly any rubbish into your new handset. Handy for installing stuff Microsoft will never approve.

SOURCE via chevronwp7

Here we have a sneak peak of the upcoming Gingerbread, aka Android 2.3 courtesy of xda-developers. You can see some icons on the redesigned, status bar, the redone phone keypad, and the About screen which somehow proves that it is indeed a Nexus S running Gingerbread. Sadly, this shot is not that clear and there’s really lack of info other than this screen so we can’t really tell much what’s the difference for 2.3.

SOURCE via xda-developers

Back in iPhone OS 3.0 (remember Apple changing it to iOS this year?), mandatory content ratings were added to Apple’s App Store. That was quite some time ago. Now, Google has followed what Apple did, and they’ll become compulsory for Android developers soon. The company teases the fact that they’ll be showing the ratings for all apps along with other “Android Market upgrades in the coming weeks”, probably coming along when Google announces Gingerbread. It is said that. Read more…

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PowerColor has been playing around in their lab with the new AMD Radeon HD6850 chip, and is now nearly ready to introduce a new Radeon HD6850 with passive cooler. The company is currently evaluating a new design that makes use of a large GPU heatsink featuring an aluminum fin array that ensures the card occupies just two expansion slots, while adding surface area by propagating to the top of the card, in an L-shape. Read more…

Here comes yet another worthy HTPC contender into the market. This is Habey’s ION 2 nettop, the EPC-6568. It’s powered by Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom D510, which is a dual-core Atom. Obviously Nvidia’s ION 2 is present, aside from a 4GB RAM, two 2.5-inch HDD or SSD bays, two mini-PCIe slots, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port and can be pre-loaded with either Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Linux OS. The Habey EPC-6568 sells for $260.

SOURCE via Habey

Portable scanner has not been a hit lately. After being a great idea, the thing just died down after the mass invasion of 3-in-1 printers. The Mustek ScanExpress S324 portable scanner is a somewhat comeback to mainstream scanners. The scanner accepts face-down up to full 8.5-inch x 11-inch documents and photographs, scanning them at up to 300dpi resolution. This portable scanner also provides a preview of images on a built-in 2.4-inch (480 x 234) color LCD. The Mustek ScanExpress S324 is compatible with the Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, or XP and Mac. Additional specs include an SD card slot. If you want one, you can purchase this pocket scanner for $169.95.

SOURCE via Hammacher

Grado headphones are always lovely, and now here comes along a new one from the audiophile company. The Grado RS1i reference series headphones feature handcrafted Mahogany earpieces, a new upgraded dynamic transducers, the new 8 conductor cable design and an open-backed cup configuration. Weighing at just 9oz, these high-end headphones also provide a frequency response ranges from 12-30 kHz with an impedance of 32 Ohms. If you are interested, you can buy the Grado RS1i reference series headphones for $695.

Order yours at Ipmart

Here’s a multipurpose monitor from Mitsubishi, though I’m not sure why it’s called multipurpose. It’s a 27-inch Full HD monitor featuring LED backlight panel. The panel has a 6.5ms response time and a 25,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and a 300cd/m2 brightness. The monitor also has a couple of 3 Watts Stereo speakers, two HDMI ports, a DVI-D port, RGB, Line-in and Line-out. That’s probably why it’s called “multipurpose”. It can also be used in the living room, if you can’t afford anything above 40-inch. The Mitsubishi RDT271WVat is priced at 52,800 Yen or equal to $632.

SOURCE via Akihabaranews