News@8: iPod Nano 6G design and LoveFilm/MGM deal

iPod Nano case reveals design? It seems with all the talk about the new iPod Touch everyone’s forgotten about a possible revamp of the other music spouting devices that Apple makes. In fact a leaked picture of cases gives a huge hint as to what the new iPod Nano could look like, pointing towards a possible 1.7-inch touchscreen whilst ditching the click-wheel altogether. In other Apple news, the Splashtop remote app is available for iPad and lets you mirror your computer back home over the internet. This means you can edit documents, play music and more importantly watch Flash videos. Finally a video has been released comparing the Samsung Galaxy Tab with the Apple iPad showing just how small Samsung’s tablet is.

Consoles with discs has 10 more years: Sony’s CEO the rather cool looking Kaz Hirai has said that due to the slow uptake in developing network infrastructures consoles will use discs for up to 10 more years before reverting to a download only format. Also with the motion-controlled rivalry picking up for Christmas two games have been debuted at Gamescon showing of the features of the new peripherals. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) and Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest will be available for Microsoft’s Kinect and Playstation Move respectively. Also in true release lead-up fashion there have been a welter of shots showing the new Xbox 360 Dashboard beta which can be controlled through Kinect, it’ll include an Avatar editor and motion-controlled environments.

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App of the Week | Premier League 2010
Finally Premier football updates directed straight to your handset and for the only teams that matter.
T3 App Chart | Top 10 Windows Mobile apps | Premier League 2010 review
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44 million people use Facebook iPhone app: Rather than the biblical 100 million users which was previously suggested, Facebook has now clarified that it is only a paltry 44million that use the Facebook application. We are of course being sarcastic, that’s a stupidly high amount considering Apple will had sold 59million iPhones by June this year. In other online news, LoveFilm has signed a deal with MGM which will enable users to stream all the films in MGM’s library, in case you were wondering that’s a rather wonderful 4,100 titles.

Philips concept bendy OLED phone: Every now and then a concept comes along that really has us wishing a scientific breakthrough was actually around the corner and not in 10 years time. The Philips Fluid Concept Phone is one of those items. Boasting a fully bendable OLED screen, it functions as a totally normal smartphone, but then when you’re finished you can just wrap it around your wrist. Genius. Finally and back to reality, the Nokia C6 is available on Vodafone. Whilst it can’t bend, and we certainly wouldn’t recommend that you try that, it can boast a full touchscreen, Symbian and a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Posted by Thomas Tamblyn

Supernova x1 promises glasses-free 3D

Engadget China has shown the first images of Fuzhou Rockchip’s new glasses-less 3D media player. Due to be shown at IFA next week and sounding like a failed Gerry Anderson puppet show, the Supernova x1 is rumoured to use a lenticular display to display its 3D content.

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Related links
- Cowon iAudio A2 personal media player
- Grundig VP6200 personal media player
- MSI D310 personal media player
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Information is still scarce at this point, users are said to able to switch between 2D and 3D displays at the touch of a button, and current rumours say that some ‘processing’ needs to take place, before the footage chosen can be shown in 3D.

Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company are best known for manufacturing the Rockchip, a key component in many media players and smartphones. T3 will be at IFA next week, so make sure to stay tuned to T3.com, the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds for further updates as they happen.

Link: Engadget

Posted by T3 Online

HTC Smart 2 render leaked

HTC has decided to update the original Smart with a brand new shiny handset it seems. Or at least that’s what this leaked render seems to show.

With a much more high quality appearence the Smart 2 will undoubtedly be the Brew OS equivalent of its own Desire model which is touted to be updated this quarter also.

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Related links:
- Android 2.2 FroYo review
- HTC Wildfire review
- HTC Smart lands at MWC
- HTC Desire review
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Details on specs are sketchy at best at the moment but expect something almost identical to the original Smart but with WiFi connectivity and the Office Suite set of programs which will allow you to create basic word documents and edit office documents.

If you’re a fan of the Brew OS will you be looking forward to the Smart 2′s arrival? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted by Thomas Tamblyn

Weird News: StreetView snooping and an InDecent bed

We hand pick a few of the last 7 days’ weird, quirky and just plain funny tech happenings…

Man gets shot in the head. Discovers five years later:

We’ve seen it all here at T3, from near-death escapes to hordes of Apple fans waging fierce civil war to get their hands on the iPad, but this has to be a first. A 35-year old German construction worker from Dortmund began to realise he had a bit of a lump on the back of his head; thought it was a cyst and so went to the doctors. Turned out it wasn’t a cyst, but a .22 calibre bullet, unsurprisingly the doctors were keen to understand how the man had been shot, unfortunately for them, our head-hardened construction worker just remembered it as a good new years eve drinking. Bravo.

Playboy Mansion stalked by Brits via Street View:

According to a survey carried out by Scotland Joinery we’re all nosey, jealous, paranoid and incredibly aroused every time we use the internet, Google Street View to be more precise. According to the survey carried out, a third of us Brits use Street View to snoop on celebs, with the Playboy Mansion, Steve Job’s pad and the White House being amongst the top searches. It goes on to reveal that 16 per cent also use it to spy on their ex’s house, whether that’s to make sure they haven’t built an extension or cut down a tree we’re just not sure. Either way it appears as though we’re doing everything except what Street View was created for: To help you get around. Well, that’s unless your ex works in the White House and you’re a Playboy bunny.

Solve a Rubiks cude, in a dinghy at 4,500m? Easy.

In fact, the student who did indeed accomplish this astonishing feat was not the first. He however decided to be different and throw a dinghy into the equation. Jumping from 4,500m Ludwig Fichte preceded to then sit in the dinghy whilst two mates held the floatation device in place. With the ground rapidly approaching Ludwig manages to complete the Rubiks cube with 2,500m to spare. There is of course another aspect to this strange accomplishment; if it had all gone wrong we still would have got a great story of dinghy’s falling from the sky.

Climbing like Spiderman a reality it seems.

Researchers at Stanford University have decided that they’ve had enough of watching these daredevils scale buildings with those ridiculous suction cups. It’s ‘inefficient’ and looks silly. To combat their visual distress they’ve come up with a synthetic micro-hair which when grouped together imitates the hairs found on a Gecko’s feet, making an object stick to a wall. At the moment they’ve only managed to get a robotic Gecko to stick to the wall, but the research is well on the way to creating a material strong enough to support a humans weight.

Selfridges sells sexy bed for up to £50,000:

Found that your King size was lacking in a certain, ‘je ne se quoi’? Well Selfridges is here to help with their latest item for sale: The InDecent bed. For the ‘standard’ version you get a solid High Gloss Oak frame and on the headboard is a overly pixelated stitching of a woman pulling what can only be describe as a provocative pose, look closely and it’ll just be a blur of colours though, clever eh? But if instead you’ve decided that this immortalised goddess isn’t up to your standards then you can pay £50,000 and have a photographer take some raunchy pictures of you and have yourself staring cheekily down at you everytime you catch ’40 winks’.

Sumo wrestlers given iPad’s:

Now we’re not sure what the Japanese Sumo Association has been giving their wrestlers to communicate with, but we can only hope that it’s not an Xperia X10 Mini, mainly because that would just be a cruel joke. However it does seem that even the largest of handsets may just be too small for their overly sized fingers, so in response the JSA has issued the Sumo wrestlers with wonderful 10-inch iPads so that they can type away to their hearts content. In a hugely suspicious and highly amusing twist, this also coincides with the JSA’s investigation into Sumo wrestlers who have been illegally gambling. It’s highly amusing because the JSA admitted that the best way to track the Sumo wrestlers responsible was through email. iPad anyone?

Trombone/Close-quarters weapon.

Now before we leave you to enjoy the weekend ahead we knew that there was something missing from your life. It is of course a flame-throwing trombone. Fear not then for this gentleman below has managed to create such a machine. Its purpose we can only assume (apart from being awesome) is to be a last line of defence against the stern-faced and dictator-like army of music teachers that inhabits this Earth. No more shall ye have to spend hours and hours doing scales practice and playing ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’. Check out the video below, oh and if you do go out this Bank Holiday weekend, check for bullets in the morning, you never know.

Posted by Thomas Tamblyn