Windows Mobile 6.1 to be announced on April 1?

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that an April 1 date sure makes the whole announcement thing sound rather dodgy. But word is that Microsoft will be launching its rumored update to its Window Mobile 6 operating system on April Fool's Day, regardless of the implications, and which coincidentally (or not) is also the first day of the CTIA Wireless tradeshow in Las Vegas.

According to a report on Pocket-lint, Windows Mobile 6.1 is designed as the temporary upgrade solution for Windows Mobile handheld users before version 7 is introduced. The former will offer several enhancements over the Windows Mobile 6 version which debuted in February 2007, including a cleaner user interface, new homescreen, task manager and the ability to copy-and-paste in Internet Explorer.

We'll be in touch with Microsoft for the official statement, so keep a watch out for our upcoming updates.

Via Pocket-lint

Fujitsu's 2.5-inch 320GB drive does 7,200rpm

Bigger, faster, thinner is the name of the game in hard drives.

Fujitsu is only the latest drive maker to use superlative adjectives to market its newest product. In this case it's the MHZ2 BJ series of its 2.5-inch harddisk drives, which the company claimed Monday is the "world's first" 320GB drive that rotates at speeds of 7,200 revolutions per minute.

That claim can be a tad misleading since there are drives out there that do the same spin speed, though they're smaller in size. Plus there are higher capacity drives already announced and on the market. Heck, Fujitsu has bigger hard drives--the 500GB 2.5-inch drive announced last month is bigger (half a terabyte!), but spins (reads and writes data) at 4,200rpm. So "world's first" really refers to that specific combination of features.

The 2.5-inch drive is meant for higher-end notebooks and even compact desktops, Fujitsu says. It uses a Serial ATA 3.0 gigabits-per-second interface, which enables high-speed data transfers from the drive to the PC. And on the green front, this Fujitsu drive needs only 2.3 watts of power while it's reading and writing data.

The drives will be available to Fujitsu's customers starting in June.

Via Crave CNET

Wii will shred Rock Band, starting June 22

It's only rock 'n roll, but Wii like it. Harmonix, the game developer acquired by MTV Networks to create the Rock Band video game, announced Monday that the software will be available for Nintendo's Wii console on June 22. Currently, versions of Rock Band have been created for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.

Rumors of a Wii edition of Rock Band first started to circulate early last month. The game was originally released in November amid the soaring popularity of Activision's Guitar Hero franchise, which had a Hollywood-worthy US$115 million opening weekend for its most recent game, Guitar Hero III. MTV's Rock Band puts a spin on the concept by letting participants play bass, drums, and vocals in addition to guitar.

Despite the inherent similarities to Guitar Hero, Rock Band has been a huge hit, too.

But, just like a rerun of Behind the Music, the guitar-playing video game craze has been ridden with drama. Harmonix developed the original Guitar Hero, but MTV Networks acquired it in 2006 to create rival Rock Band and distribute it through gaming mega-publisher Electronic Arts. Meanwhile, guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band as well as six major retailers--according to Gibson, it's held a patent on a guitar-playing video game since 1999.
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The world's lightest cell phone

The Guinness World Records named the Modu phone as the lightest cell phone in the world. At just 1.5 ounces and 2.8 inches by 1.4 inches by 0.3 inch, the Modu is a full ounce lighter than the already miniature Pantech C300. Without a doubt, it's the tiniest cell phone I've seen outside of Zoolander.

In case you're not familiar, Modu is a modular cell phone that can be placed into "jackets" that change the both the appearance and the functionality of the handset. The Modu only has a tiny display, a couple of navigation controls, a mini USB port, and a charger jack. It's a normal cell phone in most respects but you're not really meant to use by itself. Instead, it's designed to be inserted into one of the jackets, which basically are the shells of a larger candy-bar phone. My Modu hands-on from the GSMA World Congress will give you the full report.

Via Crave CNET

Everybody's jumping on the Eee PC bandwagon

We like the ASUS Eee PC as much as anyone else, but does this US$499 (S$598) mini-notebook really need its own line of third-party branded accessories?

A-Data, a Taiwanese company that calls itself "The Global Leading Brand of Memory Products", is introducing two Eee-PC-branded accessories, a USB flash drive and an SD memory card.

A-Data says: "One of the limitations of ASUS' Eee PC is the limited storage," and while the 8GB SD card is already double the capacity of the Eee PC's standard built-in 4GB SSD hard drive (other options are available), you could really use any brand of card in the system's SD card slot.

The same could be said of the 8GB USB memory stick, although the Eee-PC-branded version does include a white leather strap, if that's your kind of thing.

No word on US pricing or availability yet--but everyone we know treats USB keys and SD cards as commodity products, so we don't expect a big market for upsell versions. Although the Eee PC has become such a cult hit, so we can't rule it out.

We'll give the final word to one of our ASUS contacts, who wearily told us recently that he was going to get "Eee PC" tattooed on his forehead, because that's all anyone wants to talk to him about lately.

Via Crave CNET

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