A year before, we were all excited and happy that Panasonic announced the new 7-series ToughBooks. Today you can feel the same “emotion” if you’re a fan of Panasonic laptops because the new and improved 8-series (F8,T8 and W8) ToughBooks have been announced, and good news : they all pack Qualcomm’s Gobi dual-3G chipset.

Toughest of them all is Panasonic F8 (pictured) a lightweight (3.7 pound) 14-inch ToughBook that runs thanks to Intel’s 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor and among other things features a 160GB hard drive and a DVD drive. Less tougher than the F8 are both the T8 and W8, both with a 12-inch display running on a low-voltage 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor. There are slight differences between the two of them. Panasonic T8 has a touchscreen while the W8 features a DVD drive.

All three models will be available from November and should be priced at $2,499 for the F8 and $2,099 for the other two. - via Cnet

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Now if the 50-megapixel Hasselblad camera (pictured above) is no longer a good choice for whoever needs/buys it, then we have news for you. The company is launching a 60-megapixel Hasselblad dubbed H3DII-60 and it should hit the shelves in April 2009. That makes the old H3D-31 look so … old. But back to our little monster over here, it should cost some £18,750 (~$34,600) and that’s £4,000 (~$7,400) above the H3DII-50. I’m not sure if it’s worth investing that much money in a camera that provides 94% full-frame , 645 coverage, and with a sensor that measures 36×48mm which is twice the size of all 35mm DSLRs.

“We feel that it’s important to emphasize the 94% coverage, because, although we hear the phrase ‘full-frame’ being used quite frequently, no manufacturer has yet achieved true medium format full-frame,” said CEO Christian Poulsen at the Photokina show, in Germany.

Check out a gallery with Hasselblad H3DII-50

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Just the other day I talked about the GPS tracking device from LandAirSea and I wanted to make sure people got the right idea, because I’ve looked at a couple other videos and I understood that this is not just a vehicle tracking device. It’s more than that.

By all means it’s great to have it under your car sticked really nice because of a great magnet and knowing that it’s waterproof. It’s also great to know that 24 US satellites are moving in the sky to keep track of everything that moves, 24 hours a day, or the fact that all the data from these satellites can be so easily downloaded if you use USB connectivity and a computer. Or how nice you can spot it on Google Earth.

But I forgot to emphasize the “detective skills” it has. It even helped out the police officers to solve a murder case. The story short, George Ford was arrested in Chenango County for the death of a 12-year-old girl. He turned around recklessly and accidentally ran over the little girl. But the police had no real evidence, until Ford’s wife testified that she installed such a vehicle tracking device to see if her husband cheats on her.

Based on the information from the tracking key the police found out that the guy chased the little girl really and intentionally ran her over around 3:00 am. Authorities charged him with murder.

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For those that love Lexus IS-F we do have good news to bring you. Apparently the folks at Fox Marketing / Artisan are going to work on a tuning program that will include both mechanical and design upgrades that not only make it look better, but will make it run “fast as the wind”.

Under the hood this Lexus is going to get a 5.0 liter V8 engine that delivers over 600 hp, the IS-F is also equipped with JE pistons, Crower rods, Mishimoto radiator and Artisan exhaust.

On the other hand, the body kit is going to change the way it looks, in a positive way. It’s now going to have a Glasurit Sunset Orange paint finish and blacked-out headlamps, grille and emblems. But that’s not all because the new Lexus IS-F will feature custom front and rear bumpers, new side-skirts with blistered rear fenders and integrated 20 inch special wheels that run on Toyo T1R tires.

Honestly, I’d love to get my hands on such a beauty, if not to own it at least to stress-test it a little bit because that orange - excuse me, that Lexus … sure flies. Would you like one of your own, too? My bet is on a loudly “yes”.

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I always though that a thief is just as good as they guys building car alarms, and that if he “really” wants it, you’d be pedaling on a bike next day at work, because he’d be able to steal your car. The only solutions I really trusted were those that used GPS tracking devices to alert the police or the owner where the vehicle is.

For almost 15 years, the guys at LandAirSea Systems (http://www.landairsea.com) has been developing some of the most innovative and powerful GPS tracking systems, that are able to track the location of your car with an accuracy ranging from 10 to 15 meters. That makes them one of the biggest providers in the surveillance technology industry.

How do they do that? Well there are 24 U.S. government owned satellites that manage to cover the earth two times each day (some 12,000 miles) which send signals to a GPS Tracking Key (which is a small, pocket sized device) which sends it to a computer that accurately determines the GPS location of the device and records the data. That happens every second.

There are other advantages to their system and that include the fact that all data can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth just by plugging the Tracking Key into the USB port of a computer. Another great point is that their GPS Tracking device has an extremely powerful magnet that can be placed easily under your car, is waterproof and will not fall down unless manually take off.

LandAirSea Systems’ technology was also used to solve murder cases and has helped with convicting criminals. Check out the video below.

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