It’s been a few months coming, but today, Nokia announced that its Lumia 710 handset has finally hit store shelves in Taiwan, ahead of its broader international release. Priced at around €270 (or about $332), the Mango-laced handset will arrive in stores across Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia over the next seven days, before expanding to other global markets “over the coming weeks.” The 3.7-inch device joins the Lumia 800 as Nokia’s latest Windows Phone offering, though it remains to be seen whether or not it’ll make its way to T-Mobile anytime soon, as earlier rumors indicated.

SOURCE via Slashgear

Take a look at the new steel door that is now protecting one of the world’s closest-guarded secrets, perhaps only second to Elvis Presley’s current secret identity and location. It’s the Coca-Cola vault, the new centerpiece of the World of Coca-Cola museum in downtown Atlanta.

Check out that big steel Coca-Cola bottle right with a keyhole in it.

The formula had been stored in a vault in the SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, Georgia, since 1925. Now it has left that bank for its new vault. According to Coca-Cola’s CEO, “the time has come for our secret formula to come back home.”

SOURCE via AJC

Microsoft this week pushed its big Xbox Live Dashboard update out the door, launched an iOS app and its companion app for Windows Phone 7 users. As if that weren’t enough, the company is polishing off the week with a spot of free Xbox Live Gold. This means all Xbox users will soon be able to enjoy all of the perks usually reserved for Gold members.

Of course, while it’s nice to think that Microsoft is just feeling generous this season, the company’s free weekend will likely inspire some people to sign up for Gold come Monday, when their two free days run out. It’s also worth noting that to get this comes right after Microsoft released its latest dashboard update. Microsoft likely wants as many users as possible to grab the update and is willing to give away a weekend of Xbox Live Gold in order to get people to to turn on their consoles if it means the company push the update to more units.

Still a free weekend of Xbox Live Gold is a free weekend of Xbox Live Gold, so it’s nothing to turn your nose up at. Enjoy your extra Gold perks including Netflix, Hulu, Video Kinect, Facebook, online gaming, and all those special deals Gold users are offered.

SOURCE via CVG

Intel has notified its partners to prepare for a significant change in desktop processor supply in 2012, which clears the company’s product portfolio to accommodate the Sandy Bridge-E processors as well as the upcoming 22 nm product generation.

Intel is set to phase out the Core i7-860, Core i7-860, i7-930, i7-950, i7-960, i7-980 and i7-990X on the LGA 1366 platform to its end-of-life cycle. The LGA 1366 platform was first introduced in November of 2008. It represented Intel’s high-end desktop platform. To this day, this platform continues to hold its own in performance against to today’s top processors (Bulldozer, Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E). The LGA 1366 was replaced by the LGA 2011 (Sandy Bridge-E) on November 14, 2011.

Intel is set to send the Core i3-540, i5-650, i5-660, i5-670, i5-680, i7-860 and i7-870, along with the Pentium G6950 and G6960 on the LGA 1156 platform to its end-of-life cycle. LGA 1156 was first introduced in September of 2009. It represented Intel’s mainstream desktop platform. The LGA 1156 platform was short-lived with its replacement by the LGA 1155 (Sandy Bridge) in January of 2011.

The LGA 1366 and LGA 1156 boxed parts will be available for order until June 29, 2012. Tray SKUs will be available until December 7, 2012 or until supplies are depleted.

Along with the processor discontinuance, Intel also announced the phasing out of its H55, P55 and H57 chipsets.

SOURCE via Intel

What’s the best way to attack both the notebook and tablet market without losing the best features of both? Release an ultrabook with a touch-based, swiveling display. Unnamed industry sources are now reporting that Asus will do just that next year, and reveal the first model during Computex Taipei in June.

The news follows previous reports that ultrabook manufacturers are incorporating touch-based screens into their designs starting next year to support Windows 8′s touch-based features. To make this possible, back-light unit (BLU) manufacturers are reportedly mounting lighting devices, optical films, and light guide panels onto the upper covers of ultrabooks by using an open cell (which depends on the lid of the ultrabook for protection) or hinge-up process. This is to reduce the thickness of touch-based ultrabooks and keep them in line with Intel’s sub-0.83-inch specification.

That said, an ultrabook twisted into a tablet mode won’t be quite as thin as an actual tablet, but consumers will have the option of pulling the keyboard back out once typing on the touch screen gets too annoying. The Asus ultrabook making its appearance in June is already slated to launch alongside Windows 8 when it’s offered by Microsoft for public consumption in September… and it probably won’t be the only swivel ultrabook on display.

The swivel screen idea reportedly stems from Intel itself who is offering a handful of design ideas to its “downstream” partners for their upcoming ultrabooks. Future models will also sport Intel’s Ivy Bridge as of May 2012 which is expected to reel in even more demand for the new form factor. Still, the combination of Ivy Bridge and a swivel touchscreen may just be what the ultrabook market needs to pull consumers away from the lure of tablets — if they’re kept at a reasonable price point, that is.

Just recently, Acer president Jim Wong said that ultrabook prices will drop down to $799 to $899 USD by 2Q12, and then to $499 USD in 2013 — this is partially due to a $100 subsidy finally provided by Intel. But will touch-based swivel ultrabooks be just as cheap? Probably not, so there’s a good chance we’ll begin to see two tiers of ultrabooks come September 2012.

SOURCE via DigiTimes

This image shows Apple lawyers’ wet dream for a Samsung tablet. It demonstrates one thing: the Apple lawyers who described it are imbeciles and/or clueless mischievous snakes. Just as much as Samsung’s product designers are unimaginative shameless cloning bastards.

These are Apple’s demands verbatim:

• Shapes that are not rectangular with four flat sides or that do not have four rounded corners.
• Front surfaces that are not completely flat or clear and that have substantial adornment.
• Thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface.
• Profiles that are not thin relative to [Apple patent D'889] or that have a cluttered appearance.

Apple is right to point out that the design and packaging of Samsung’s Galaxy tablet is a clone of the iPad. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s clearly made to look like the iPad. But Apple’s demands are just plain stupid.

Instead, they should have just asked Samsung to design a tablet that nobody could mistake for an iPad in a reasonable way. This could have been really easy. You only have to look at the Playbook or the Kindle Fire or any other tablet out there except for Samsung’s. They are well designed and nobody can confuse them. Samsung could have done this:

Pretty simple. Nobody would mistake that for an iPad but it would retain optimal usability. In fact, using that dark grey—like color professionals use for color proofing—would make this tablet better for color perception and give it its own distinctive look.

Incidentally, except for the change of hue from black to neutral grey, this is actually the tablet that Samsung has made to avoid more legal trouble. Apple is suing them again because they think it’s not enough. I bet that if they changed the color no judge in the world would rule against them. And yes, please make it real, with pink color! I’m sure Samsung can pull something unique out of this.

There’s a vehicle for you if you have reoccurring nightmares about uncertain river crossings in the classic computer game Oregon Trail. The Iguana 29 is an amphibious vehicle designed to slowly go where no boat has gone before.

At the push of a button, the craft can lower two tank treads to pull itself across land at around five miles per hour, or about a quarter of the speed of the average automotive journalist shuffling his way to an open bar. So, it’s not quick, but the machine could be incredibly useful in areas with exaggerated tides where docking your craft can be a hassle. The Iguana 29 simply allows owners to drive their boat up onto the beach, safe and sound.

With the treads stowed on open water, the Iguana 29 is good for a top speed of 35 knots, which is a far cry quicker than its land capability. How much will you have to pay for such a fine piece of engineering? Try $290,000. On second thought, we’ve never been much bothered by tides, exaggerated or not. Hit the jump to check out a video of the Iguana 29 in action.

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