Remember when Google acquired Slide way back in 2010? A year after coasting smoothly down the chute into Mountain View, the social gaming company has finally begun to make a splash, launching Prizes (beta) last week, and now teasing Photovine, a social networking app that lets you connect with people through photo-driven themes. You could participate in a vine about your crazy weekend at the lake, join other users in a thread of kitten shots, or share unboxing pics of a new gadget while comparing regional discrepancies with users from around the world. For now, Photovine is little more than an amateurish three-page website with a brief FAQ and a somewhat-hidden reference to Slide and Google, but the service’s objective seems to be on-point, and it has potential to attract a diverse group of users.

SOURCE via Photovine

RIM is already losing their market share to touchscreen smartphones, and yet everybody still wants a piece of the BlackBerry pie that’s quickly shrinking, as the company attempts to maintain its position as the face of business-minded smartphones in an era ruled by iPhones and Android devices. It’s tough to avoid mentioning the company when looking at these shots unearthed by Italy’s Android World blog of the forthcoming LG Optimus Pro, whose form factor ought to prove comfortably familiar to BlackBerry devotees. According to the site, the Gingerbread device has a 2.8 inch screen, a three megapixel camera, an 800MHz processor, and will run €179 ($249) in that country. Not much more info is available at present, but there’s a video after the break, and the source link has a few more shots, if you need help imagining it in your hand at your next board meeting.

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It’s finally here: a 6Gb/s mSATA SSD, rocking those highly coveted SandForce speeds. RunCore’s new T50 series offers maximum sequential reads of 550 MB/s and writes of 470 MB/s, with the help of SandForce’s SF-2281 controller (formerly relegated to the big boys). The little guy’s being marketed for high-end portables and offers 60GB for $198 or 120GB for $358. The outfit’s also touting the new I50 line, serving up more modest 280 MB/s reads and 270 MB/s writes based on SATA 3Gb/s. The I50′s targeted at tablets and laptops, and ranges from $178 for 60GB to $308 for 120GB. These monsters will hit the market in late July, which is just around the corner.

Bowers & Wilkins have a headphone called the P5, but perhaps the price tag of $300 is too much for you to swallow if you just want to pair it with your iPhone. Well, don’t worry, because there’s another cheaper model for you. Here’s the company’s new and extra-mobile $180 C5 noise-isolating in-ear headset. Crafted mostly from aluminum, its bullet-shaped earbuds look like a posh blend of the Zeppelin Air and Mini geared for mobile. The ‘buds come equipped with an iDevice compatible inline remote / mic to get a handle on phone calls or swap though playlists, and have a few unique features to boot. To ensure a proper fit on-the-move, you’ll find Secure Loops that can be adjusted to hug the inner cartilage of your ear, along with added heft (Tungsten Weighting) near the inner-ear side for a tight seal. Internally, there’s a Micro Porous Filter to widen the perceived soundstage, while also preventing any leakage to folks around you.

After launching the original Zoom H2 SD some four years ago, the company, which is also called Zoom, has finally launched the next successor. The outfit’s launching the Zoom H2n today, complete with a bolder design, five “studio-quality” microphones and a foursome of recording modes: Mid-Side (MS) stereo, 90° X/Y stereo, 2-channel and 4-channel surround sound. The standout feature, however, is its ability to widen and narrow one’s recording range on the fly.

For reporters, you can hone in on the interviewee and block out other reporters / crowd noise, while concert goers can adjust to target audio from just the singer. Other specs include a 1.8-inch LCD, built-in reference speaker, USB 2.0 connectivity and a thing for pushing through for 20 full hours on a single set of AA cells. It’ll sell for $199 when it ships this September. Bieber fever pills sold separately.

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When Panasonic unveiled the Toughbook H1 tablet last year, it at least got the tough part down pat. This Windows 7 slate had a magnesium alloy chassis and met the military’s MIL-STD-810G standards for shock, dust, heat, water, and cold resistance — comforting claims for construction workers, soldiers, and pretty much anyone used to working in the wild (or, at least, standing up).

The problem was, it ran on a dinky Atom processor, and left the rugged types using it with just one miniature port for attaching peripherals. Clearly, Panny agreed those were some serious shortcomings, because the brand new H2 goes a wee bit beyond mere spec bumps. The latest generation leaps forward to a 1.7GHz Core i5-2557M ULV processor with Intel’s vPro technology, along with USB 2.0 and serial sockets, and space for either a second USB port or an Ethernet jack. Read more…

If you’re on Android 2.2 or above get ready for an update to your Android Market experience. Google has just informed us that a new version of the app is incoming, a version that will add tabs for easy access to Google Books and Movies.

Starting with the more visual purchases, at $1.99 you’ll be able to start watching movies almost instantly, and apparently see whether Chevy Chase will ever take his family on a successful vacation. But, if offline access is key, you’ll also be able to download the misadventures of the Griswold family for later viewing. Books is now integrated too, saving you the hassle of having to launch the books app, which required you to then open the browser to actually buy any digital tomes. Overall the new design looks cleaner, finger-friendlier, and the addition of Editor’s Choice apps should make it easier than ever to get to the good stuff.

The update will be rolling out gradually over the next several weeks and, once you’ve been admitted to the club, you’ll be able to download the Videos app as well. Check out the video preview after the break.

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