The French manufacturer Waterfall Audio will introduce its glass speakers to American market at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show next month. The company announced two models for launching suggestively called Victoria EVO and Iguasçu EVO (after the names of two famous waterfalls).

According to the press release the “Victoria EVO and Iguasçu EVO are slim, pure-glass towers standing 40 inches high but just 10 inches wide. The Victoria EVO, a three-way/four-driver design, includes Waterfall’s proprietary, downfiring, 8.5-inch passive woofer, the Iguasçu (34 inches tall by 10 inches wide) employs identical drivers (including the passive woofer) in a two-way/three-driver arrangement. Both models use a key Waterfall technology: the Acoustic Damping Tube (ADT), which performs near-total damping of mid- and low-frequency ‘back-wave’ artifacts, and precise damping control of midrange reflections, allowing the speakers to produce superbly accurate, high-end performance within their effectively undamped glass enclosures.”

Victoria EVO speakers retail for $5,400 a pair, while their little brother, the 34-inch Iguasçu EVO costs $3,900 a pair. The glass speakers will be available in February 2008.

You might be wondering what’s Apple planning for the next year. Well, we have searched some information and we have found interesting news. Apple plans to release a 3G iPhone, a modified version of Apple TV and a flash memory-based Mac.

The analyst David Bailey, from Goldman Sachs bank has written a research report based on information obtained from component suppliers in Asia. Apparently the 3G iPhone is a certain release for the next year. Apple will launch the 3G iPhone with AT&T network. Although no official reports were made, the second generation iPhone is currently being designed. Some observers speculate the announcement for the MacWorld conference in January. Another news regarding the iPhone says it will receive more flash memory in the first half of 2008.

Furthermore, the Apple TV will be upgraded and redesigned. It will feature an LCD display to attract more customers and to increase mobility. It’s obvious they try to revive the Apple TV which has been a total fiasco for the company. And there is more! Bailey’s report and other well known agencies sustain that Apple develops a 12-inch Mac laptop with flash memory instead of a hard drive. Also, it is possible that the new revolutionary Mac to be ready for MacWorld. Its could go around $1,500.

via Yahoo News

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has confirmed the testing for Samsung SCH-U940. The mobile phone will be probably released with Verizon Wireless.

As I have said above, Samsung U940 will be compatible with Verizon’s CDMA and EVDO network. It is an American version of the F700 model. The phone sports a 3.2″ touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard. It has a single key on the front panel, but the side-sliding unveils its keyboard.

Other features of this phone include a 2.0 megapixel camera, 150MB of internal memory, a microSD slot and Stereo Bluetooth. We cannot tell for sure the exact release date nor its price. But we should expect it somewhere in the first half of 2008.

via Electronista

MacWorld 2008 will be held in January in San Francisco and this is where all the rumors will either confirm or burst. The last one coming down the pipe is TomTom to offer a GPS module on the iPhone. You can see that we already have a spy shot of the application working but since the Dutch manufacturer didn’t bother to answer we keep it in the rumors shelves.

Probably Apple is going in the right direction, now that Google’s Android threatens to take over the open-source applications for mobile phones, and they allows third-party developers to take a peak inside the iPhone. Another reason is the possible partnership with Volkswagen that would create a car full of Apple gadgets, which means Apple is interested to win the car industry?

We’ll have to wait and see what’s up at MacWorld 2008.

Source: Engadget

Have you ever heard of super li-ion batteries? They were hot last year when the first details came out and apparently they charge “super fast” and last for much more than we are expected with the batteries these days. However, these days Toshiba just announced that they developed the Super Charge ion Batteries (SCiB) that will be used for industrial purposes at first and should be able to recharge in just 5 minutes (a 90% recharge).

This would probably be the development we needed to make hybrid cars a success and this is where Toshiba’s batteries will head at first. Another interesting feature is the fact that it can be recharged 5,000 times so I’d say that’s a lifetime of more than 10 years.

We should see it live in March 2008.

via DoDevice

Toshiba has presented Monday its new slim tablet PC - Portege M700. The laptop sports a 12.1-inch touchscreen at 1280 x 800 (WXGA) resolution supporting digital pen and touch. It is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 CPU. It comes in two models with 2GB of RAM and running Windows Vista or with 1GB of RAM and having the popular Windows Xp. The storage capabilities include a Serial ATA hard drive of 160GB (or 80GB lower versions) and memory card slots. No problem for chat lovers, because Toshiba Portege M700 features incorporated web cam and microphone.

Other important features would be the WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n), the Bluetooth V2.0 and the Ultra SlimBay optical disk drive. The Toshiba Portege M700 will retail for $1,799 (2GB RAM model) or $1,699 (1GB model). Also a standard version with 80GB hard drive and 1GB memory starts from $1,499. Toshiba offers 3-year warranty, I believe, enough until you will replace it.

Product page via Crave

Check out this “digital video brush” or call it the smart brush if you want. It has LEDs, a camera and a touch sensor that allows you to reproduce the selected thing, in a drawing on a special display screen. Maybe in the near future we will be able to paint a dog into a cat or things like that. Funny!

[metacafe]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/937927/magic_digital_video_brush/[/metacafe]

via ControlledRandomness

Computer games have been always considered harmful for kids. But Nintendo has produced a spectacular turn in the industry. Their great invention called Wii, provoked a revolution in gaming use. Nintendo Wii Sports addresses also to elders and other population categories that don’t play games.

Recently some therapists have recommended the game console for their patients. Also some hospitals used Wii to help people recovering from strokes and spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries. The game increases coordination and also help patients to gain strength. Furthermore Nintendo’s Wii Fit game is also expected for launch in US. By using a Balance Board, the player can perform moves specific to sport games like soccer, ski, aerobics and even yoga.

The bad news comes from the stores, whose shelves are currently empty. So if you intend to buy one for Christmas, you should start looking from now.

via Switched

Holidays rush! Everybody is looking for something cool in order to offer a nice and fashionable gift. What could be more wanted than a high tech device? iPhone? Oh, yeah! iPod Touch? No problem. Apple’s latest iPod, looks alike the iPhone, but it doesn’t have so many features. However the Touch has a 3.5-inch touch-sensitive glass screen and is able to connect to Internet via built-in Wi-Fi.

I wouldn’t mind to receive one as a present. The Touch features a web browser for surfing the Internet and comes with 8 or 16 GB of storage. iPhone’s applications work perfectly with iPod Touch. So there is a lot of entertainment provided. It plays photos, videos and music, and you also have YouTube. The gadget retails for $299(8GB) and $399 (16GB).

I would certainly opt for the Touch against a Zune or Sony mp3 player, even the price is higher. I have heard about many people who put the Touch on their wish list for Santa. The player can substitute the iPhone in those countries where it wasn’t launched yet.

via Apple news

Did the remote control ever made it to the “most loved gadgets” category in your heart? Probably not because other than allowing you to be lazy and change the channel from a few meters away there’s nothing unusual with it. Things are about to end because a company called Lantic Systems released Gold RC1 a pure gold remote control.

Specialized in high end products, they did a great job this time. With yacht owners in mind they Lantic Systems will sell this crazy golden gadget for $55,000 while a normal gilded remote control sells for somewhere around $1,000.

If the price is nothing I really think you should try it because lots of friends will be amazed. Make sure you don’t break it or something, otherwise you’d lose a lot of money.

via NewLaunches