Porsche's phone ready for starting flag

Considering how much publicity is given to high-profile phones these days, it's surprising that more hasn't been said about Porsche's entry into the handset race. That all could change soon, however, as the phone's launch apparently isn't too far off.

Pocket-lint says the 3G mobile handset will make its UK debut in November, sporting a touch screen, a 3.2-megapixel camera, an MP3 player and, as we reported earlier, fingerprint-recognition security. Perhaps most impressive, Porsche's "concierge service" will handle any issues to arise with the handset.

Of course, all this comes at the premium price of 800 pounds, or just under US$1,600. For that kind of money, they should at least throw in a free oil change.

Via CNET Crave 

HTC handhelds get European colors

When the HTC Touch was launched in Europe, it came in two shades--black and green. When it arrived in our region, the company decided to make it available only in black. Its reason given was to concentrate on production volume before anything else, and that the green would be made available at a later date. Well, it seems the Taiwan-based company has made good on that promise, and the "Wasabi green" Touch will soon arrive. It will cost the same as the black Touch (S$848), and go on sale first in Singapore at the end of this week during the computer fair COMEX. It will then be available elsewhere in the region, though no specific dates for these have been given.

Also getting another shade is the Dopod U1000. This feature-packed handheld was released in silver here, but has been sold as the HTC Advantage in black all this time elsewhere. The black version will start to go on sale here as well at the same time as the green Touch. It will still retain the Dopod brand, and the silver version will remain in stores, too. Its retail price remains the same at S$1,998.

Razer Lachesis gaming mouse brings 4,000dpi laser, new buttons

Razer's forthcoming Lachesis gaming mouse finally addresses our chief complaint with its DeathAdder and other gaming mice: No easy-access buttons for switching dpi settings on the fly. Logitech's G5 Laser mouse has them, Microsoft's new SideWinder will have them, and now the Lachesis gets them when it hits in October.

Otherwise, the Lachesis seems to be simply a revamped DeathAdder. The only other major change is its higher-end laser sensor, which gives you a 4,000dpi ceiling, and thus a greater range of sensitivity settings. No other mouse on the market goes that high, although we'll admit we find even 2,000dpi more than fast enough. What the new Razer mouse doesn't have is a weight kit. If you have a soft enough touch to get excited about the 4,000dpi sensor, you might miss the weights. Unless the Lachesis is unusually light, we probably won't.

Via CNET Crave

Philips/Swarovski Active Crystals

This isn't either company's first high tech-high fashion collaboration. Loewe recently showcased its Swarovski-studded 32-inch offering in limited quantities worldwide. So fraternizing with the tech elite is by no means new to Swarosvki. Nor is going bling a surprise outing for Philips which recently went upmarket with a 42-inch flat TV encrusted with 2,250 diamonds. Yes, count that.

So by the time Philips and Swarovski came around to Asia with its Active Crystals, we were more interested in just how rich the price tags would be. If there's one common denominator for high tech-high fashion gizmos, it's the sticker shock.

We were also surprised that given the whole luxury slant here, Philips could certainly have afforded more than just measly 1GB for its memory keys. After all, a 1GB thumbdrive in the market costs about S$20-S$25, while a 4GB is just a scant S$50-S$65.
Read more »

Let's get PhysX-al

Unless you're a hardcore gamer type, you've probably never heard of Ageia and its PhysX processor. This addon card for your desktop PC works with certain supported games to provide additional processing power for in-game physics, leading to bigger explosions, more interactive environments, etc.

Of course, there are only a handful of games that support PhysX (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Unreal Tournament 3 are the only notable ones that come to mind), and game developers aren't exactly lining up to create extra content for a proprietary physics system that very few consumers will ever be able to experience, but they at least get points for trying.

Now Ageia has announced the PhysX 100M, the company's first physics chip for laptops. The new part is specially designed for mobile computers and, according to Ageia, "features incredibly low power and thermal design with power dissipation of nearly 10W under gameplay conditions. It also includes active power management to throttle down the clock in high heat system conditions and reduce the clock when not active".

We know of at least one big-name gaming laptop hitting the US market soon that will offer this as an option, but so far adoption on the desktop side has been slow, so don't expect this to be a must-have addon for your next laptop.

Via CNET Crave

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