Palm to announce a new Treo next month

The handheld maker is set to unveil a new Treo smartphone in the UK next month. According to various news sources, a spokeswoman from the California-based firm has confimed that the official announcement will be made on September 12. Information on the new Treo is sketchy for now, though it was reported that the new handheld will run on the Windows Mobile OS and operate on Vodafone's 3G network.

Unfortunately, Palm does not comment on future products. Thus, like the Treo 700p and 700w PDA-phones, it is not known whether the company will eventually offer the new Treo in Asia. Stay tuned for more updates.

Hi-Fi-looking system for less than S$500

Do you have the urge to go component-grade audio equipment but decided eventually to hold back that thought due to the lack of space? Philips may just have the proposition for you with its latest MCD708 DVD micro theater system, retailing at just S$499 (US$366.91).

The classy-looking micro component offering resembles a miniature high-end stereo system with its combination of independent audio decks, real rosewood speakers and metallic damping spikes. Fine aesthetics aside, the system is also powered by an efficient 100W digital amplifier coupled with its unique neodymium ribbon tweeters. The integrated disc player supports playback of DVDs, VCDs and CDs and is compatible with popular multimedia formats such as DivX, MP3, JPEG and WMA.
Click here for larger image

Dell Dimension embraces AMD

It all began when Dell, previously retailing only Intel boxes, started to offer AMD's Opteron processors in its server lineup. Today, the Round Rock, Texas, manufacturer announced that it is expanding its relationship with the California chip maker by putting AMD processors in the Dimension desktop series. According to Dell, the first AMD-based systems are slated to retail in September. Coincidentally, the first Intel-based Core 2 Duo PCs are expected to hit in stores during the same time frame.

Japanese know-how makes a difference

Editors' update: There is an update on Fujitsu's use of third-party notebook batteries. According to new information from its engineers, some laptop models sold outside Japan are bundled with third-party power cells instead of Fujitsu-made batteries as mentioned in the article.

With Dell's recall of its Sony-manufactured notebook batteries early this week, the safety of power cells have hit the spotlight. Since Sony laptop cells are used by several other vendors, the question of how this may impact non-Dell systems has been raised.

According to a recent report by Reuters, a Fujitsu spokesman claims that most Japanese makers design their charging systems such that high voltage does not pass directly from the AC adapters to computer batteries, hence avoiding spectacular pyrotechnic-like power cell failures. We spoke to Fujitsu PC Asia Pacific and were told that it manufactures its own notebook batteries for models sold outside Japan and does not rely on third-party power cells.

When approached by CNET Asia on whether its VAIO notebook line would be impacted, Sony Asia Pacific mentions that there have been no reported cases of battery failure in its product line. Moreover, "Sony's VAIO adopts its own design for safety technology," says the the Japanese vendor, "the battery charging system that VAIO uses is different from that of Dell."

Managing your photos on Vista

We had our hands on Windows Vista recently and can't help but feel that Microsoft has either taken a leaf out of Google's Picasa book, or the Redmond software giant is taking a stab at the free photo management software. We've had our fun. Now we show you the pictures.

Archiving pictures in chronological order is probably the easiest way to manage a huge database of photos. Like we mentioned, the Windows Photo Gallery program on our copy of Vista Beta 2 works very much like Google's Picasa. For example, if you have a series of similar snaps taken over a period of time, you can label them with a common tag and pull all of them out at the same time.

	You can watch video clips with the program too.

Star ratings are for rating which photos you like best and those you'd rather not show to relatives and friends. You can select from a maximum of five stars or leave your pictures without a rating. For images that turn out less than pleasing, there's a built-in editing function even though the options are somewhat limited.

Though there's still some catching up for the Windows Photo Gallery, we won't want to place our bets, yet, on which program will emerge the winner since what we're seeing is only the beta version.

Editors' note: We ran our copy of Windows Vista on a Vista-ready HP Pavilion desktop computer.

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