Philips' silicone peripherals

A well-known brand in the home entertainment arena, Philips takes a stab at the peripherals market with a wireless laser mouse and desktop combo. The common factor between them? Both are covered in soft silicon cushioning.

Actually, we believe the proper term isn't silicon (found naturally in sand), but silicone (found unnaturally under Pamela Anderson's mammaries). Unlike hard plastic, these devices have a soft feel and are easy to clean.

The Philips Wireless Desktop has a spillproof design for the keyboard, perfect for those who love to eat and surf. The mouse companion has a 1,000dpi optical sensor and a four-way scroll wheel. Both units can survive on a single serving of four AA batteries for up to seven months. It goes for S$119 (US$79.64) per set.

The Wireless laser mouse has twin laser sensors and 1,000dpi resolution. It, too, has a four-way scroll wheel and two AA batteries will feed it for up to one year. It costs S$79 (US$52.87) per pop. Both products are available this month in Singapore stores.

Mac mini to be replaced by Mac nano?

We approach all Apple-related rumors with skepticism, but sometimes we get a certain feeling about them, and Mac OS Rumors gives us that tingle of plausibility. Word from one of that site's "oldest and most reliable sources in Cupertino" is that the Mac mini is going to be replaced before the end of the year by what they refer to as the "Mac nano".

"Overall volume will be shrunk almost 25 percent, weight by about 20 percent, and an all-new enclosure will be strikingly different from the design that has been the Mini's defining feature since its introduction," according to the report.

We buy this rumor because it's been two years since the Mac mini's debut, and since then, it's received no significant revisions (which lends credence to this other Mac mini rumor). Apple quietly updated it with new CPUs in August, alongside the more prominent new iMacs. But in order to truly keep its budget Mac alive, Apple has to do more than just throw a new chip inside, especially with growing competition from HP's and Dell's smaller PCs. Besides the fact that it's due, both the iPod and the iMac received significant makeovers this year, so it seems reasonable to us that Apple might extend that reinvigoration across more of its brands.

Via Crave CNET

Self-chilling soda bottles

Say goodbye to lukewarm soda. It's taken that long, but Coca-Cola has finally come up with a new bottle technology that causes the inside of the bottle to chill your drink once you twist off the cap. There are questions, of course. Will this still work with plastic bottles or are we back to glass ones? How long will the drink stay chilled? What premium will we customers have to pay for this? Will it be faddish like the self-heating container? Some people would probably also lobby for beer being the first test beverage instead of the rumored Sprite Super Chilled. Regardless, the idea of self-chilled soda in the tropics is like a drink to a thirsty man in the desert. No complaints here.

Souce mirror.co.uk (via GearLive)

Apple iPhone falls prey to the gold treatment

How do you make a bricked iPhone stand out among all the paperweights on your desk? Easy, coat it in luscious gold. That's exactly what Goldstriker is coming up with--a 24 carat gold plated 8GB iPhone, though it didn't say whether it will be AT&T locked, upgraded with the latest software, or simply an iBrick. Whatever it is, if you've been with us, you'd probably know that not all things gold will get our attention. But with the amount of flak the iPhone is getting, this could jolly well end up as a valid reason for current owners in Asia to turn their iPhone into a gold brick. Start saving the money.

Via Newlaunches
Picture credit: Goldstriker

Sony confirms cheaper 40GB PS3 for Europe; Asian version to follow?

The rumors were true, almost to the letter. Sony Europe has confirmed the existence of a new entry-level PlayStation 3. Scheduled to hit stores on the Continent on October 10, the new PS3 has been stripped down to hit a lower price point: it's got a smaller 40GB hard drive, no built-in flash media reader, and two (rather than four) USB ports. But the biggest change appears to be the loss of backward compatibility with PS2 games. Sony's release specifies that "[t]he new model is no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation 2 titles, reflecting both the reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive lineup of PS3 specific titles (a total of 65 titles across all genres by Christmas)." That seems to counter conventional wisdom, since the newer PS3s were already said to be using software emulation (rather than an actual PS2 Emotion Engine chip) to play older games. In brighter news, the new PS3s retain Blu-ray playback, HDMI output, and onboard Wi-Fi.

The 40GB PS3 will retail for...
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