LG UP3

Meet LG's latest DAP, the UP3. That name gives a hint as to the device's objective to double-up as both a USB drive and MP3 player. Of course, the vast majority of all MP3 players already do this -- something apparently lost on LG's marketing department. The all metal UP3 shares the stylings of their FM37 touch-screen player and comes packing 1GB, 2GB, 4GB of storage; an FM radio; MP3, WMA, and OGG audio and ASF video support; and an itty bitty OLED display of unspecified dimensions supporting 65,000 colors. 4GB will cost you just ₩84,000 (about $92) whenever these pop for retail.

Nanotech drives

Wired has a write-up of a new storage technology developed at Arizona State University that could produce flash thumb drives capable of storing terabytes of data in the near future, that also happens to be cheaper and more energy efficient than flash memory. The new technology has been branded programmable metallization cell, and differs from present storage technologies in that it "creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros." It all sounds very interesting -- if slightly too optimistic -- to us, and we'll get to find out relatively soon just how effective the new chips are: Arizona State's business arm has licensed the technology to three companies, which may be ready to sell a product containing the chips within 18 months. Watch this space.

iPhone .. no cash!!

Coincidence or not, Apple has stiffened up the requirements to pick up a new iPhone shortly after announcing that 250,000 or so of the 1.4 million it sold in Q4 went to unlockers. In an admittedly intriguing move, Apple has decided that it will "no longer accept cash for iPhone purchases," and moreover, each individual will only be allowed to buy two (on plastic, of course) in an effort to "stop people from reselling them." More specifically, spokeswoman Natalie Kerris stated that the company is "requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers," so don't even bother bringing the greenbacks if you're lookin' to grab an iPhone from Apple.

ikon PDA phone

Last we heard from Psion Teklogix, it was busy cranking out a handheld workhorse for those rough days in the field, but now the outfit is celebrating its 40th year in the biz by offering up the iKon. This PDA / smartphone features a 3.7-inch VGA display, an integrated camera, built-in GPS, GSM / GPRS / UMTS connectivity options, Bluetooth, WiFi, a barcode scanner and your choice of Windows Mobile 6 Classic / Professional or CE.net 5. Furthermore, this tough guy can withstand falls from five feet to polished concrete, and it'll also hold its own when faced with sandstorms and downpours. Sadly, Psion Teklogix isn't fessing up to what the iKon will cost, but you can certainly contact the firm directly when it goes on sale this December should you be interested.

Apple touch keyboard

Tactile feedback isn't exactly new to the mobile device arena, but Apple is apparently looking to add a bit of tactility to on-screen keyboards of the future. In a recent patent filing, the gurus in Cupertino have described four arrangements for accomplishing the aforementioned goal, some of which include adding dots / bars to keys and throwing an articulating frame underneath the panel to enable users to feel varying levels of resistance when mashing down. Per usual, we're left to imagine where such technology could eventually end up (tough job, we know), but considering that this is the third touchpad-related filing seen from Apple in the past 20 days, who knows what is (or isn't) brewing.

Plam treo 800w revealed...

Are we staring at the new Treo 800w? We obviously know what's up with the Centro and the 500 (namely the 500v), so the only missing ID in that lineup is the 800, successor to the 700-series flagship throne. Well, if this thing is the 800w we do kind of hope Palm tosses that fish back. Rearranging the WinMo buttons and giving the phone a more industrial, geeky look does not a greater Treo make, so unless this thing is like half as thin as current-gen devices (which it won't be, Palm seems pretty dogmatic about keeping its devices thick), it'll just be more of the same.

Motorized chairs?

Yes, it is possible for your lazy boss to intensify his slack. This automatic chair is on display at the Tokyo Motor Show 2007 under the "abnormal vehicle" classification. Who knew that Orca's could be so comfy and high tech? Details are nil at the moment so by all means, give us a clue if you know more dear readers. Another picture after the break.

Dell XPS 420

Sure, it's a bit short on surprises, thanks to a couple of detailed leaks in recent months, but the Dell XPS 420 is now prepped for your ordering pleasure on Dell's online store. Prices start at $1,499, which will get you a fairly specced system and a 20-inch LCD. Other perks in the base system include a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, a 13-in-1 card reader, SideShow and an option for an "Xcelerator" to speed up video encoding, but on the traditional specs it's pretty firmly middle of the road: Vista Home Premium, 2GB of RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor and 256MB Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT for graphics. But hey, who needs muscle when you've got SideShow?

Philips medical tablet PC

Although the tablet form factor hasn't exactly taken the consumer market by storm, they're ideal for specialized applications like medicine, and Philips' Cliniscape "Mobile Clinical Assistant" is the latest device to target the hospitals. Designed by Intel's Digital Health Group, the Cliniscape features a 10.4-inch touch screen, a custom installation of Vista Business running on a Core Solo processor with 1GB of RAM, a 60GB disk, 802.11n, RFID and Bluetooth radios, barcode scanner, a 2 megapixel camera, 3.5-hour battery and a single USB port, all contained in a sealed "medical-grade" enclosure that can be wiped clean with disinfectant and withstand a 1 meter drop. When docked in the "grab-and-go" base station, the Cliniscape can be used as a desktop machine with three additional USB ports and an Ethernet jack. Philips says software vendors are working to optimize their patient-care apps for the MCA platform, and that the Cliniscape should be on sale in Spring 2008.

citizen and bluetooth watches

Truthfully, we've no idea whether Citizen really did replace its VIRT design team or if they all just had an epiphany, but whatever the case, the outfit's latest lineup of Bluetooth-enabled wristwatches actually look... marginally wearable. The i:Virt collection, which comes in four colors along with a metal-banded sibling, is capable of playing nice with your Bluetooth mobile, and moreover, they all boast a battery life of up to five days with BT turned on. Furthermore, the units are water-resistant and feature a color LCD, phone battery meter, caller ID, signal display, call history list and email viewer. Unfortunately, it seems as though the watches all sport the elusive "open price" for now, but feel free to take a closer look at the gang after the jump.

Nokia N81 update...

Nokia's N81 is now, at this very moment, "available globally" according to Nokia. Pre-tax, pre-subsidy €360 / $515 for the 2GB microSD model or €430 / $615 for that full 8GB of on-board flash experience. Since the revamped N-Gage platform isn't online yet, the N81 comes pre-loaded with three playable demos of FIFA 07, Asphalt 3: Street Rules, and Space Impact Light. Those same games will be available for free download-and-preview over HSDPA when the service goes live sometime "later in 2007." Still, while Nokia touts a global launch, the fact that this quad-band GSM phone only sports 2100MHz WCDMA will limit its effective use in North America -- even if it is FCC approved.

Ferro electric RAM?

If you've fantasized about how wonderful your life could be if the merits of DRAM, SRAM and Flash memory could all be mixed harmoniously into one "dream semiconductor," listen up. You may not be up to speed on all the advancements in ferroelectric materials, but we're pretty sure even the technological newbie could appreciate a new discovery by Korean researcher Dr. Shin Young-han. Reportedly, this fellow has "succeeded in figuring out the operational mechanism of ferroelectrics," which could potentially lead to FeRAM -- a technology that could "store data ten times faster than Flash memory and keep it for longer than ten years." Kudos to you, Dr. Shin, now let's get this stuff on the production line, shall we?

Palm Centro , what would you change?

Palm's Centro hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, but might it have if it were simply tweaked in a few key areas? As we've done a number of times before, we're presenting to you yet another Palm device that could probably use some refining, and we're curious to know what alterations you would've made if given the chance. It's been an interesting past couple of months for Palm, to say the very least, and while the firm's CEO has shockingly responded to an open letter, saddened us all by announcing yet another OS delay and inexplicably (okay, maybe not so much) nixed the Foleo during that period, it still found time to officially introduce the sub-$100 Centro at an admittedly underwhelming DigitalLife press conference.

We're not setting out to beat a proverbial dead horse or anything -- after all, you know precisely how we feel about the device -- but there's nothing like a healthy dose of criticism (or adoration, to be fair) from the masses. So, here's your chance to let loose and tell the rest of us Earthlings exactly how you would've re-engineered the Centro. Are those keys a tad too diminutive for your liking? Is the whole "Sprint-only" thing cramping your style? Or is Palm's latest darling exactly what your heart desired? Rant away.

Wimax officiall part of 3G

We remember when WiMAX was just a twinkle in a wireless engineer's eye, and now it's all ready for the big time, as the ITU officially approved the spec as part of the 3G standard today. That's doubly special since WiMAX is the first non-cellular tech to get approval as 3G, but with services like Sprint's Xohm blurring the line for consumers, we can see how it's easier to just lump it all together. Of course, Sprint confusingly says Xohm is "4G," but it looks like they may need to tone it down now that the ITU has spoken. Either way, the ITU's decisions usually get enacted by governments, which means carriers with 3G spectrum will soon be able to start building out WiMAX networs without additional regulations. It's so bittersweet when they grow up, isn't it?

Nokia N810

The Nokia N810 was launched this week, and among the main details, I've got a few more impressions for you. (What few impressions I could draw from the quirky device.)
• Screen is A+ in sharpness, color, brightness and res (800x480). It's not multitouch, though, and you'll need a stylus.
• The keyboard's clicks are a bit shallow and the space between each is not so well defined, but it is something you could get used to.
• The Linux apps were not readily available yet, and some.
• An app I missed in my video walkthrough is that Gizmo has video conferencing support using the front-mounted cam. (And there is no app for using it to take straight- up photos.)
• Would I buy it? I'm not sure I need it. But the dev community for Nokia tablets is pretty popular (although not as popular as s60) so I'm sure there are untold uses for many inside of this thing.
• When WiMax hits, an upgraded device like this could be very useful. Right now, it's a Wi-Fi or tethered over Bluetooth device.

The best home theatre display?

We're a bit short on reader-submitted questions on Ask Engadget this week -- speaking of, send your questions to ask at engadget dawt com and you've got a good shot at getting it some air time -- but it's alright 'cause we've got a question of our own:

A buddy of ours is setting up a home theater, and has decided to really go all out. Unfortunately for him, there's no clear choice between display technology. DLP claims this, plasma claims that, LCD claims another, and there's always some dang projector floating around promising the bliss of unlimited screen size. So, assuming price is no object -- in the sense that he's willing to really invest here, not that he just likes flinging his money around -- and our buddy is looking for the best possible quality in his 42-inch+ display that will be situated in a moderately sized, fairly glare-free living room, what would you pick for him?

Hopefully that's enough to go on, but if not you can always resort to calling the DLP kids cheapskates and making fun of the LCD fans' refresh rates.

PS3? PS2?

While we're not going to complain about the launch of the cheaper 40GB PS3, we are still kind of miffed that it isn't backwards-compatible with our huge library of PS2 games -- especially since newer PS3s retain compatibility through software emulation and not specialized hardware like earlier models. Not to worry though, because Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack "Daniels" Tretton is here to dazzle you with mathematics: according to Jackie, the consumer actually benefits from Sony's move to cut emulation, because now you have the opportunity to buy both a $399 PS3 and a $129 PS2, for a grand total of $528, which is -- wait for it -- less than the original 60GB PS3's price of $600! Of course, what Mr. T here is forgetting is that most people would prefer a single, $399 PS3 with backwards compatibility (and rumble, for good measure), but really, once you get spinning that fast it's awfully hard to stop.

blu-ray burner

Nah, Panasonic's LF-PB271JD couldn't hold a candle to Sony's BWU-200S in a runway competition, but when it comes to performance, we'd say the two are practically neck and neck. This unit fits snuggly within any Windows-based machine lookin' for a 5.25-inch optical drive, and it has no problems burning dual-layer BD-Rs at a furious (ahem) 4x pace. Additionally, you'll find a SATA interface along with backup software bundled in, and just in case you're not working exclusively with BD-R, it can also toast BD-RE at 2x, DVD±R at 16x, DVD±R DL at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x, CD-R at 40x and CD-RW at 24x. Of course, you'll be paying through the nose for the luxuries presented when it lands on November 10th, but the ¥55,000 ($468) asking price is still a good bit lower than what Sony's demanding.

iRobot's new machine

It looks like those that found iRobot's earlier Warrior robots a tad lacking could soon have some of their demands answered in the form of the new and improved Warrior X700, which the company recently took the wrap off. Weighing in at a hefty 250 pounds, this one promises to carry a 500 pound payload with ease, and lift upwards of 150 pounds with its robotic arm. Of course, with a name like "Warrior," it'll also be doing more than just carrying supplies, with it just as capable of firing a machine gun or some 40mm explosive rounds, the latter of which can be done at 16 rounds a second. The bot's apparently not ready to be put into service just yet, however, with it currently only able to muster up a top speed of ten miles per hour, although iRobot says it'll be able to do a four-minute mile by the time it ships out in the second half of next year.

185K for a cellphone?

If a burglar with exquisite taste somehow managed to snag a million dollar Goldvish, asking for just $185,000 for its safe return wouldn't be too far-fetched. Apparently, the mobile in question wasn't of the princely variety, as this particular thief managed to lower his asking price to a rock-bottom $200. The suspect, known initially through police paperwork as "Baby Boy," was lured into a trap after police tagged along for the exchange and arrested him at gunpoint. When Mr. Boy (later found to be Randy-Jay Adolphos Jones, which is only slightly better) was questioned, he just couldn't put a finger on why he blurted out the $185k figure versus something more reasonable, but hey, not everyone can be right on top of current market conditions, right?