Sony has three new VAIO series notebooks for the UK, namely the VGN-AR51SU from the VAIO AR50 Series, the VAIO FZ20 Series, and the VAIO L Series. The VGN-AR51SU features Blu-ray playback, a full HD 17″ X black LCD display and an integrated hybrid digital/analogue TV tuner complete with remote control, all powered by an Intel Centrino Duo processor and HD decoding capable hardware. As for the FZ20 Series, you get HD playback as well albeit at a smaller screen size of 15.4″. Movie buffs won’t be too pleased with this, while the VAIO L Series come with an integrated slot-in Blu-ray drive in an ultra-slim chassis. There is no word on pricing and availability for all three, but rest assured they won’t be cheap. That’s the price one has to pay after all to remain at the forefront of technology.

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Filed under: Rumors, Products and services, Google (GOOG)

Is Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s ‘gPhone’ going to be a reality soon? Rumors of a Google-branded wireless handset have been floating in the air for more than a year in many circles, with everyone sounding off that it was a great idea or a completely stupid move. In my estimation, it’s a great move for Google to do this if, in fact, the company is looking towards the future. So, let’s run with that idea, shall we?

Although Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has had a stronger presence in the mobile space for years, Google has really ramped up its mobile efforts in the last few. The company, which derives almost every bit of that spectacular, current revenue from text ads on the web knows (like everyone) that there are far more mobile handsets in use than all the PCs in the world combined. The next frontier is the mobile one, and with Google probably frustrated at the locks and control many wireless carriers clamp on top of that mobile phone before the customer can use it, it probably wants “handset democratization” of sorts, kind of like the net neutrality it seeks regarding internet access for all.

Are current cellphones full of hard-to-use features and unnecessary complexity? By all means. Any current cellphone is so full of features that they are jacks of all trades — but masters of none. My guess is that Google seeks to end that nonsense with its own branded handset, free of complexity and clampdowns by wireless carriers. Will the company make a new mobile phone from complete scratch, though? That would be quite an undertaking by any company, but Google has the money and moxy to do it.

Google wants to free customers from the shackles of servitude most carrier impose, like long-term contracts, overly-branded handsets and limitations on what customers can do. If Google can pull it off, it’s next money-making machine may just lie outside web-based text ads. Wait — maybe it will give these new handsets away free for having wireless text ads delivered to all those new wireless screens!

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Filed under: News

We knew there was supposed to be a public beta in addition to Sony’s invite-only private beta for Home, but we thought it was going to be similar to an open beta, where most anyone could join in and report bugs. Not so. Sony’s own Jamie MacDonald described the scenario as this: “At the moment the closed beta is employees, trusted third-parties and people like that. An open beta will be a wider audience but it won’t be open to everybody … We haven’t worked out the exact way of doing it but it will be invites to people to ask if they want to be part of it, and then depending on what the response is, we’ll have to have some way of deciding who can and who can’t take part.”

So the next stage of Home will still be invite-only, but it’ll reach a wider audience. After that beta concludes, the program will simply pop up on our XMB’s after what we assume will be a low-key firmware update. MacDonald implies this by saying Home isn’t the typical game, so it won’t get a typical launch. “There isn’t going to be this ‘big bang’ launch. That’s how you do it in the web 2.0 world, if you’re familiar with the launch of Gmail or something like that.” Initially scheduled for an October release, with a public beta not yet out, we’re estimating that Home will get pushed back to November. We could be wrong, though.

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Filed under: iPod, iPhone

Get the rumor mills rollin’! Apple has sent out an invite to a September 18th press conference at the Regent street Apple store in London. There is no indication as to what the event could be about on the invitation itself — only a cryptic headline, “Mum is no longer the word,” graces the top. We’ll take it upon ourselves to start the wild speculation.

Rumor number one, Beatles on iTunes.
Jobs keeps toying with us. We’ve been waiting oh, so patiently (and some of us not so patiently). London seems as good a place as any to announce this long-speculated news, but we feel like Apple would probably choose a bigger venue for this announcement.

Rumor number two, movie rentals on iTunes.
There seems to have been a bit of a slip up and Apple accidentally uncorked its movie rental plans last week. No confirmation yet, but not much point in denying their desire to launch such a service.

Rumor number three, TV show price drop.
If, and this is a big if, Apple can get the studios on board for this price drop, then we may be getting our TV fixes on iTunes for a lot less by this time next week.

Rumor number four (and our favorite), iPhone goes 3G.
Our friends at Engadget think Apple will not only announce the iPhone for Europe, but it will run on Europe’s high-speed 3G network, which is quite a bit faster than the Edge network that the iPhone runs on stateside. Will Americans revolt? Will they insist they, too, get high-speed iPhone data transmissions?

From Engadget

Related Links:

• iTunes to Offer 99 Cent TV Shows?
• The Skinny on Apple’s New iPods
• What Will Apple Announce Tomorrow?

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PocketMac has just released a new version of their Mac/Windows Mobile sync tool that targets devices running on both Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6.0. In a nutshell, this software enables you to synchronize contacts, calendar, tasks, email, and more between your Windows Mobile device and Entourage, iCal, and Address Book among others. Guess this is a relatively untapped market, but a lucrative one nevertheless. The new PocketMac version retails for $29.95 per copy.

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Filed under: Gaming

Now that the PSP Slim is in the wild, we know you’re aching to see what it’s like up close, and Joystiq and PSP Fanboy have got you covered with an in-depth three-part series that should answer virtually every question you might have — and them some — about Sony’s littlest console. Check it out!

Read — Part 1: Firmware, Video-out, button response
Read — Part 2: Load times, size comparisons, pricing
Read — Part 3: Cables, cases, battery charging, battery life

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Dessert, Grains, Recipes, Fruit, Baking, Comfort Food, Spices, Sugar

Among the many things I love about fruit crisps, one of my favorite features of this versatile dessert is that once you learn the basic technique of making one, you really never have to measure again. Saturday afternoon, I put together a blueberry-nectarine crisp to take to a potluck later in the evening. Back in August, I froze half the blueberries I picked, along with a quart of sliced nectarines. I plucked both bags out of the freezer, and after an hour of defrosting, tumbled their contents into a large bowl. I sprinkled them with some sugar (I didn’t measure, but if I was forced to guess, I’d say it was a little more than half a cup), some cinnamon (a good shake), fresh nutmeg (a third of a meg) and a teaspoon of cornstarch (the only thing I measured, because you always want to err on the scant side with cornstarch). I tossed the fruit around with my fingers until coated and them spread them out in a large baking pan (it was a lot of fruit).

The fruit went into the oven at 350 degrees plain for the first fifteen minutes, as it was still a little frozen and I didn’t want the topping to burn while the fruit was undercooked. While it baked, I whirred up topping in the food processor. In went about 2 cups of oats, 1 stick of butter (unsalted please), cane sugar (about a third of a cup), some cinnamon and a bit more nutmeg. This is my favorite way of making a crisp topping, because some of the oats get worked down into flour, while other bits remain intact. It comes together into a sort of dough that has a terrific texture and makes you think that what you’re eating has some relationship to healthy eating. I toss in a couple of handfuls of chopped pecans just before spreading it out over the fruit. It baked for another 45 minutes, until the top was lightly browned and the fruit was bubbly and soft. Eaten with vanilla ice cream, it was one of the better treats I tasted in recent memory.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Thrillers, Lionsgate Films

Lionsgate must be very happy with its upcoming comedy Good Luck Chuck. The movie is the directorial debut of Mark Helfrich (unless you count his second-unit work on Critters), who is better known as Brett Ratner’s editor of choice. According to Variety, the studio has already signed Helfrich for a follow-up, this time trusting him with an action-thriller titled Five Killers. The movie is yet another hitman story, and it sounds like a lot of other movies we’ve seen before. You know the plot: a perfect hitman or assassin becomes the target of other hitmen. Let’s see, there’s The Bourne Identity, Assassins, Grosse Point Blank, Road to Perdition, this weekend’s new release Shoot ‘em Up and the upcoming Hitman. And there’s certainly more indie neo-noirs that I didn’t bother to see and so can’t cite as examples (feel free to list them in the comments section — I know I’m forgetting some classics). This one was written by Bob DeRosa, who co-scripted Jieho Lee’s The Air I Breathe, which screened earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. DeRosa is currently co-writing Lee’s next movie, an adaptation of the video game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

I have a feeling that Five Killers will be heavily influenced by Ratner, because Helfrich probably has the guy’s style imprinted in his brain after editing all three Rush Hour movies, as well as The X-Men: Last Stand, After the Sunset, Red Dragon and others. Actually, Helfrich has worked on a lot of bad action movies, such as I Come in Peace, Striking Distance, Stone Cold and Action Jackson. It would be great if he learned something from John McTiernan back while editing Predator or even from Tony Scott while working on The Last Boy Scout, but it’s doubtful. Five Killers will be produced by Christopher Pratt (The Air I Breathe) and Chad Martin. We will get our first chance to see Helfrich’s worth when Good Luck Chuck is released September 21. As for The Air I Breathe, with which we can judge DeRosa, the film currently has no release date in the U.S. (it opens in the UK on December 14.

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Filed under: Cellphones

In a move that could be described as “totally unsurprising,” Palm shareholders have approved the much-discussed partial sale of the company to a private equity firm called Elevation Partners (of which Bono is a member), and also a change in the board of director’s makeup. The plan, if you’ll recall, is for Mr. MacPhisto and co. to pay $325 million for a 25-percent stake in the company, while Palm itself will pay out a $9 per-share distribution of cash to current shareholders for a reduction in ownership. There will also be a new executive board chair, namely, Johnathan Rubenstein, an Apple alumni who ran the iPod devision from 2004-2006. Fred Anderson (another former Apple officer), and Roger McNamee (a Silicon Valley investor) will also join the board. Our man Ed Colligan said of the switch, “There are a lot of moving parts here, but the goal is to bring in a transformation and change the dynamics of the company,” er… okay. Apparently, Palm has hopes that Mr. Rubenstein will help create “innovative products” and “bring them to market quickly.” In our dreams guys, in our dreams.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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