Taiwanese computer vendor Acer is planning to introduce an Android-based smart phone by the end of the year to add to the ten phones based on Windows Mobile already in the works for 2009, reports Bloomberg. Acer’s head of mobile-phone products Aymar de Lencquesaing said that the world’s third largest computer maker had made no formal announcements around Android, though “it’s likely that we’ll have one in 2009.”
Source: Moco News
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Looky here, it’s yet another smallest flash drive ever! The EagleTec Nano flash drive measures a minuscule 19 x 15 x 6mm and weighs only 3 grams. It manages to stuff as much as 8 gigs of memory in there somewhere… To be fair, I can’t really see how a flash drive could get much smaller than this without being totally impractical and an accidental inhalation risk. But, I have faith that those issues aren’t going to prevent it from happening anyway. The EagleTec Nano flash drives comes with 4 gigs for $22, or 8 gigs for $33.
Source: Oh! Gizmo

Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department’s costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks. Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force’s air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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Samsung has just announced their new 6, 7 and 8 LCD TV series with LED as well as non-LED LCD-TVs. Now we have gleaned the first info on the new 9 LED series. Besides the 6, 7 and 8 LCD TV series with the LED, the new high-end - and replacement for the A950 series - 9 series is on its way. At the moment we do not have the entire spec list but the 9 series will be launched in summer/autumn 2009 with the official name B9000.
Source: FlatPanelsHD
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Researchers at the Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) (part of the Department’s Photonics Research Group at the University of Cambridge) are leading the way towards the development of extremely high colour resolution laser displays using liquid crystal laser technology. CMMPE has been performing extensive research into a new form of laser technology based on liquid crystals.
Source: OLED Display
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The Nokia 1100 was never an especially alluring device, even at its launch, but a select few versions of the simplistic cellphone are said to be changing hands for up to €25,000 ($32,328) among criminals. According to unconfirmed reports, the specific 1100’s each show a specific software flaw that, with the correct reprogramming, allows them to intercept the one-time passwords used to authorize online bank transactions.
Source: SlashGear
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PSP is slowly adopting more and more features of the PS3. With firmware update 5.50, PSP will add “Information Board” to the XMB (PS3 version pictured above). This feature will allow PSP owners to quickly access news bits from Sony about new additions to the PlayStation Store. In addition, the firmware update will allow users to create and access sub-folders on the Memory Stick for music, photos and videos. The internet browser will also feature a trial of Trend Micro’s “Kid’s Safety” service, so parents can finally put an end to their children’s insatiable appetite for PSP porn.
Source: Joystiq
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Although the all-electric Tata Indica on display at the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week is not the soon-to-be-released model, there’s a lot we can learn from the vehicle - and from TM4’s Eriz Azeroual - about how the technology will be implemented when the new model goes on sale in Norway either later this year or in early 2010 (yes, this is later than previously expected). Tata Motors showed off the Indica EV at the Bologna Motor Show in December, but the hatchback is making an appearance in Detroit because of the work that TM4, a subsidiary of Hydro Québec, did providing the permanent magnet motor and the inverter.
Source: Autobloggreen
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Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are bringing the minimalist approach to medical care and computing by coupling USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, enabling a compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device that fits in the palm of a hand.
Source: Physorg
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Scientists at the Singapore-based Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have made an unprecedented breakthrough in transforming carbon dioxide, a common greenhouse gas, into methanol, a widely used form of industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel. Using “organocatalysts”, researchers activated carbon dioxide in a mild and non-toxic process to produce the more useful chemical compound.
Source: GizMag
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