You probably know that laptops come with a fair amount of cardboard boxes, plastic and other potential pollutant, but you might not know that retailers get even bigger boxes than you do! Yes, we’re talking about an enormous box that contains a smaller one, with foam and all that padding material. HP and Walmart are trying to tackle the problem by shipping several laptops in the same (small) box. The laptops come in their protective bags and not a cardboard box. Not only this pollutes less, but it probably saves a lot of storage room and probably money too.

Add a comment | From: HP and Walmart make laptop packagings eco-friendly | Visit Ubergizmo

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The details are unofficial so take it with a grain of salt (the photos supposedly come from Sprint’s system, but we can’t vouch for it).. It’s expensive, but with the excitement around these phones, but the pricing seems plausible:

• HTC Diamond: $550 (no contract), $250 with a 2 yr contract
• HTC Touch Pro: $580 (no contract), $329 with a 2 yr contract

And you thought that the iPhone was expensive… I wonder how much the contracts monthly are going to be. (via vmpoweruser)

Add a comment | From: Rumor: More details about the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro launch | Visit Ubergizmo

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Who cares if the WiFi-N specs is still a draft? “N” Devices are all over the place, so it’s a done deal at this point. Now, engineers are looking at Gigabit Wi-Fi (1000Mbps), which would match the fastest wired networking speed that consumers and can get on a desktop PC. VHT stands for Very High Throughput and would call for traffic to top 1Gb/sec at a *minimum*, which means that theoretical speeds would be even higher. Looking back at previous generations, it is safe to say that it will take many years for WiFi VHT to become a prototype. More details at extremetech. WiFi Alliance site

Add a comment | From: Gigabit WiFi Next? (802.11 VHT) | Visit Ubergizmo

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There are always bragging rights when you are the first to do something (intelligent). Dual-core Atom UMPCs might not be far away, the Raon might be the first dual-core ultra mobile PC (UMPC) to make it to the market, but we can never be sure in this industry as “paper launches” are extremely common. At close to $1000 with taxes and shipping, this is not cheap, but it is more powerful than similarely sized UMPCs (it needs 2GB of RAM, in my opinion). Here are the highlights of the Raon Digital Everun Note:

• AMD Turion X2 dual-core CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 12GB SSD or up to 80GB HDD
• 7″ 1024×600 display, DX9 graphics


• Wifi B/G


• PCIe mini port


• 748g, 200×118x27.5mm


• $879

Add a comment | From: Raon Digital Everun Note, Dual-Core UMPC | Visit Ubergizmo

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Nokia made an offer and “they (Samsung) have accepted it” (Nokia spokesman). Now, we can speculate on what happened: it might mean that Samsung doesn’t believe that Symbian can hold Apple and Windows Mobile off in the longer term. And they might very well be right. Honestly, I like the idea that Nokia heavily invests in software and applications, but unless Symbian has something big up itsr sleeves, I don’t see how they can fight in the long term. On the other hand, Nokia probably prefers to hold its fate in its own hands, rather than wait for a mobile miracle from Microsoft (and pay the license). I’m curious to see what will come out of this. I heard that samsung is big into developing its own low-level software to increase device response time and licensing fees.

What’s your take?

Add a comment | From: Samsung sells Symbian stake to Nokia for $410M | Visit Ubergizmo

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We obtained a free DEMOFall 08 pass to give away to one of our “fans”. If you would like to go to DEMO, you probably know what the show is about. For the curious out there, DEMOFall is an event during which the coolest startups are going to present a new product and/or their company. Ubergizmo is a media partner of DEMOFall 08.

The rules are simple, please read:

• We will choose at our discretion who gets the pass
• Ubergizmo employees, contractors and family members cannot participate
• Step1: You’re a fan, right? So become an ubergizmo fan in Facebook
• Step2: Add a comment to this entry to tell us why you should get the pass. Add a link to your Facebook profile, so that we can contact you, if you win.
• Step2 bis: one entry per person, please
• This giveaway will close on Thursday Sept. 4 at noon (Pacific Time), but we reserve the right to extend the deadline (a bit).

We will cover DEMO live starting from Sept. 7, so we’ll hopefully see one of you there, and if not, come to Ubergizmo to check out great new tech products and services. Good luck!

Add a comment | From: Ubergizmo fans: free DEMOFall 08 pass! | Visit Ubergizmo

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Google’s browser called Chrome is out of the box and of course, we had to take a look. So after a quick download and a quick install, we started to browse the web just to see how it feels. And right now, it doesn’t feel very different from Firefox 3. Chrome might be a little faster, but it’s hard to tell on a fast computer. Also, my Google Chrome does not have any plug-ins installed right now. Overall, the first impression is good. This is something that I will continue to play with, although I suspect that I will keep my Firefox 3 around until Chrome has equivalent plug-ins, which is the real value of Firefox.

Now there are all kinds of cool architectural ideas around Google Chrome, but right now, they don’t matter so much to me. It’s not like Firefox 3 is a horrible piece of junk that crashes every 10 minutes. The new architecture might pay off down the road, but right now, I don’t see a strong case for switching.

There’s one highlight that we would like to point to: Chrome can consume considerably less memory than Firefox 3. In our tests. This means that Chrome might be more suitable for Nettops than Firefox, and this might be the most obvious benefit of Google’s software architecture for Chrome. How do YOU like it?

Add a comment | From: Google Chrome, first impressions | Visit Ubergizmo

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You may or may not know about it, but leaving many of your devices plugged into the wall socket means that they’re still consuming electricity, and thus increasing your monthly electric bill, this is due to standby power, or the phantom load. If you’re hardworking and diligent, you could go around unplugging all your devices from the wall socket, but let’s face it, you’ll get sick of doing that after a while. Belkin has noticed this and has introduced their latest Conserve Surge Protector for $49.99. The surge protector looks fairly normal at first glance, but the difference is the bundled wall-mountable wireless switch, which can cut the power to your gadgets when it’s not in use. If you want to leave certain items on all the time, such as your router or clock, Belkin has understandingly provided two outlets that are “always on”. All this sounds real handy, and of course, it’s a good surge protector to boot.

Add a comment | From: Belkin Energy Saving Power Outlet | Visit Ubergizmo

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The idea of every child having their own laptop for class is coming closer to reality as every day passes. This time IDEO and Project Inkwell have a concept called the Spark, which looks aimed at bringing the laptop-like devices to students, where they can easily learn anytime and anywhere. The Spark will have wireless networking for Internet-based learning, which will also allow students to learn in any environment. Some of the rather interesting points of the Spark include a zipper pocket which is designed to hold a spare battery, and even a Bluetooth wireless mouse. The slim keyboard will also make toting this gadget around easier, as opposed to the usual thick keyboards. It sure looks like every child in the near future will have their own laptop.

Add a comment | From: The Spark By IDEO And Project Inkwell | Visit Ubergizmo

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It has been confirmed that the invites for the Sept. 9th Apple event have been sent. The tagline will be “Let’s rock”, which is appropriate for the iPod refresh that is widely expected. Earlier today we posted about the 10 iPod SKUs that were rumored to have been spotted in a European store database, among them the weird-looking nano 4G. At some point, there were rumors that new Macbooks would also be launched. Let’s see what happens.

Add a comment | From: Official: Apple Event scheduled next Tuesday (9/9) | Visit Ubergizmo

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