Taiwanese industry and rumor site DigiTimes is reporting (without citing a source) that ASUS expects to deliver "whole-day" battery options to its Eee PC range of netbooks. In addition, ASUS also plans to offer some level of Internet storage, apparently beyond the 20GB they already offer to new Eee PC 901 and 1000 owners -- a move that we hope will become a trend amongst netbook providers in order to offset the miniscule flash drives found inside the lowest of the low-cost, mini laptops. Both changes are expected before the year is up. Incredibly, ASUS also plans to push out new software and hardware upgrades every month to "fill gaps in the netbook market." Funny, we didn't think any gaps remained in this over-saturated niche.

For what it's worth, Buffalo just announced the world's fastest Blu-ray recorder capable of burning through your data at an 8x clip. The only problem is that BDA-approved media maxes out at 6x, assuming you can even find it. Available in Japan starting next month, the external USB 2.0 and eSATA BR-816SU2 and internal SATA BR-816FBS models hit that 8x recording speed on single-layer BD-R media only -- 2x for dual-layer BD-R, BD-RE, and LTH BD-R. CDs and DVDs are supported too naturally, with a max 16x burn to DVD±R or 48x/24x for CD-R/RW. Each drive comes bundled with Cyberlink's PowerDVD 7 suite and are priced at ¥46,700 (about $435) for the external drive or ¥41,000 (about $380) for the internal optical spinner.

[Via BIOS and CDRinf]

Happy 3rd birthday mister Walkman phone. To celebrate, Sony Ericsson is getting official with its W902 "Patti" (pictured), W595 slider, and W302 candybar Walkman handsets. We knew the celebration was coming with the exception of Patti making a last minute substitution for Alicia. SE's quad-band GSM/EDGE W902 is the all-singing, all-media workhorse with UMTS/HSDPA 2100 data, 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of M2 memory, and 2.2-inch, 240 x 320 pixel display. It comes bundled with a pair of premium HPM-77 headphones and the promise of a clear audio, bass-thumpin' experience similar to that offered by SE's W980. The W595 shares the same radios but packs in stereo speakers, 2GB of M2 memory, a 3.2 megapixel camera, motion sensing Shake control, and a stereo Share jack to split the music with a friend. The quad-band GSM/EDGE W302 neglects 3G entirely in favor of a low price tag and dreams of mass adoption. As such, it offers a number of middling specs like a 2 megapixel camera, 512MB of M2 memory, FM radio, and stereo Bluetooth. All three Walkmans will hit select markets in Q4.

If you're an owner of the first generation iPhone then one of the (many) annoyances you've discovered with your new curvy and slightly chubbier 3G sib is the fact that it won't fit your existing dock -- be it the dock bundled with the iPhone or with the Bluetooth headset. To make matters worse, Apple chose not to bundle a compatible dock with the iPhone 3G -- you have to purchase that separately for $29... you know, assuming you can find it. Fortunately, that old dock can be made into a suitable charging base for your iPhone 3G with just a bit of simple Dremel action and elbow grease. Sounds like a bargain to us.

There's no OS to speak of, no optical drive, just 4GB of flash storage and 256MB of RAM, and you're limited to a 400MHz Freescale 5121E processor with integrated graphics under the hood. But the CherryPal desktop PC -- just revealed with a $249 price tag -- is definitely worth making a fuss over. About the size of a plastic paperback sporting a pair of USB ports and VGA-out, the mini PC plugs directly into the CherryPal Cloud via 802.11b/g WiFi or 10/100 Ethernet for 50GB of free Internet storage, automatic system updates, and access to a number of webified apps (which also reside locally) including iTunes, OpenOffice, and a CherryPal-branded instant messenger and media client (though we figured iTunes would have taken care of the media playback). Of course, the lack of traditional specifications results in just a fraction of the power consumption used by that electron gobbler sitting on your desk. Not bad if your PC's primary function is to playback audio, surf the web, and occasionally edit an Office document. Oh, and that name, CherryPal? It originates from an early tester who declared it, "sweeter than an Apple." We'll see when the first CherryPal desktop ships at the end of this month -- order today.

[Via Crave]

So much for early 2008 or even July for that matter. Sony's David Reeves now confirms that PlayTV -- the €99 PS3 TV tuner / DVR add-on -- will hit the UK on September 10th. The service will then march onto the continent before completing the European rollout in December -- Australia and New Zealand get theirs in January or February. Notably, the service will in fact record television in the background without interrupting your regularly scheduled gaming regimen thanks to the recent 2.41 firmware PS3 update. Phew, for a moment we felt threatened by a lack of manufactured distractions.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

When you're Intel, everyone from governments to gamers wants to know your next move. So pay attention, DigiTimes has it on shaky word from "motherboard makers" that Intel's next quad-core, 3.2GHz Extreme "Bloomfield"-class gaming processor for overblown desktop rigs will hit for $999 when purchased in bulk by PC manufacturers -- a traditional price-point for Intel's top o' the line Extreme silicon until the launch of its $1,499 Core 2 Extreme QX9775 earlier this year. We should also expect $562, 2.93GHz and $284, 2.66GHz versions before the year is up.

It's neck-and-neck but Nintendo looks to have just slipped past Microsoft in terms of total US sales for current generation game consoles. What's more, it's pulling away with a 3:1 sales lead for the month of June. NPD Group reports more than 666,000 Wii consoles were sold in June compared to 405,500 PlayStation 3s and 219,800 Xbox 360s. That makes for a total of 10.9 million Wiis sold in the US since it launched in November of 2006. Impressive. Even more so considering that Microsoft had a one year head-start to reach a second place position of about 10.4 million US console sales.

We've been waiting for this day ever since Opera first announced its Opera Mobile 9.5 web browser back in February. Today, it's out for a beta 1 launch. In other words, it'll be buggy but likely far more useful than the browser already installed on your touchscreen-based (PocketPC) WinMo professional phone. The initial release includes support for double-tap zoom, landscape flip, off-line page save, tab-like browsing, auto-URL complete, and a Google-search bar to name just a few of the 9.5 features. More functionality will be added later including Google Gears and support for Flash video on WinMo and Symbian devices. CNET already has the hands-on video review up for your pickings. Better yet, download and install for yourself and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Update: PhoneArena has chimed-in with a video hands-on of its own. Check it after the break.

Read -- Opera Mobile 9.5 beta 1
Read -- CNET first look

As the saying goes, the great thing about standards is that we have so many to choose from. Enter TransferJet, as much as we'd like to ignore it, it won't go away. In fact, today the nascent close (real close, as in 3-cm or less) proximity wireless technology just snowballed itself into a proper consortium which lists a who's who of consumer electronics and camera manufacturers including Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Samsung, Kodak, and interestingly enough, Sony Ericsson. Sony will lead the effort to develop the specs, guidelines, and licensing schemes required to interconnect TransferJet-compliant products offering a 375Mbps data transfer rate (560Mbps theoretical) without requiring any complex setup (just touch the devices together). Right, they're looking directly at your NFC and Wibree shortcomings Bluetooth SIG. Full list of TransferJet members after the break.

The New York Times is reporting that Amazon is scrapping its Unbox service in favor of a new online TV and movie store called Amazon Video on Demand. Unlike iTunes and Unbox, Amazon's new digital store-front will stream any of 40,000 movies and television programs to customers. According to Bill Carr, Amazon's VP for digital media, "Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can't help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button." In this regard, the first 2 minutes of every video will begin to play when customers visit the video's product page. Movies can be purchased and downloaded to your hard drive or stored in an Amazon video library allowing you to stream the content to other (any?) Internet connected devices. Films and TV shows from "almost all the major studios and television networks" will be available for sale or rental in the US at undisclosed prices -- only Disney and its ABC subsidiary are holding out for uh, obvious reasons (Steve Jobs is Disney's largest individual shareholder).

[Thanks, setteB.IT]

Toshiba just bested its own 320GB hard drive with a 400GB offering in the same 9.5-mm height form factor favored by most thin laptops. That's as good as it gets unless you can track down Sammy's elusive 500GB Spinpoint M6. The MK4058GSX spins just 2 platters which means the disk sports an impressive 477Mbit/mm2 (308Gbpsi) areal density while consuming 20% less power (0.0015W/GB energy consumption efficiency) and 2dB less noise than its own 320GB predecessor. Rounding out the specs are a 12-ms average seek and 8MB cache. Toshiba also boosted the rest of its 9.5-mm, 2.5-inch, 3.0Gbps SATA disk lineup to 7,200rpm including the 320GB MK3254GSY. Mass production of the 400GB slab is expected to begin in September while the 7,200 HDDs will hit the market in August. No prices announced.

[Via I4U]

Bringing an end to the Samsung slush fund probe, a South Korean court has fined Lee Kun-hee, Samsung's former Chairman and son of the chaebol's founder, $109 million for tax evasion. A rather favorable decision when you consider that prosecutors sought a seven-year jail sentence and a fine of $347 million. The court said that his crimes did not justify a prison term. Lee, appearing relieved by the decision, apologized again saying, "I'm sorry for causing trouble to the people," presumably while adjusting his monocle and top-hat from atop his golden chariot.