This strangeness is a leaked photo of an upcoming Nokia handset, dubbed “Wahoo” internally, and we can’t decide if it reminds us more of Motorola’s aging RAZR range or the BlackBerry Kickstart. It’s got a half-QWERTY keypad, is quad-band and UMTS/HSDPA, has an internal and external display, 2-megapixel camera with flash, Bluetooth and AGPS. BGR thinks it’ll be coming to AT&T sometime, though of course there’s no data on pricing or timings. The irony of successful Nokia aping a failing Motorola design isn’t missed on us though. [BGR]
Last week Sony Ericsson predicted quite a few things for the cell phones of 2012: faster processors, high-resolution screens, superfast connectivity and most specifically, 12-20MP cameras. Well what do you know! Sony — that Sony — has just announced a 12.25MP CMOS sensor for phone cameras. Looks like either a horrible breakdown of internal communication or a hilariously obvious example of gaming expectations. In either case, expect these to start showing up in CyberShots (and others) well before 2012. [Akihabara]
This 130m skyscraper has been approved for building in London, but unlike “dead” conventional buildings, the Sky Garden includes plans for two three-story gardens to be built inside it. The idea is to “create a space for social interaction” and “foster micro communities,” which sounds like a neat way of combining green eco-friendliness and dense urban buildings. The gardens will cover about 2,500 square metres in total: a significant proportion of the building to give up from your normal retail/accommodation space. And it’s just going to be way cool to take a stroll in the “park” in your own building. [DesignBoom]
Almost immediately after news of a release date and lovely little price on T-Mobile in Germany, RIM has let on a little info as to the new Curve’s US release: it’s imminent, and should come within Q1 of next year. RIM is just going through the motions with the FCC for now, but T-Mobile and AT&T are likely carriers for the neat little handset. Neither has formally staked their claim. [Gearlog via Engadget]
Sometimes a simple idea will make you react with ambivalence, but designers Yoon-Hui Kim and Eun-Kyung Kim’s Solar Vertical Lamp probably isn’t one of those. At its core it’s a solar-powered lighting system, but unusually it’s embedded in standard window blinds. During the day tiny solar panels charge up the individual lighting elements (LEDs?), and at night they light up. These guys have conceptualised the eco-friendly solution being an elegant lamp shape, but basically you could arrange the pixels however you liked. We wouldn’t recommend the legend “love palace” and a great big arrow pointing at your bed. [Yanko Design]
Last year Ooma, the only VoIP provider starring Ashton Kutcher, announced an unlimited VoIP calling package, available for a one-time fee of $US400. It sounded crazy then, and it sounds crazy now — but they’re somehow still at at. Now the price is $US250, and they’ve got a new phone and router on the way. Details are slim for the time being, but considering that this one is at least wireless — unlike the first retro-handset — I’d say it’s an improvement. [Gearlog]
Mathmos‘ eight-inch tall windlights are pretty simple—just a generator, 2.4-inch propeller and two LED lights—but that doesn’t stop them from having their own cute, glowing eco-charm. Basically when the wind blows strongly enough, they light up: dot them about your garden and you’d have a great display, but only if the wind is blowing. If you’re in London, Jason Bruges Studio has arranged hundreds of them into a 45-foot high Aeolian Tower scultpure at the Southbank which is showing until November 16th. But if you want just one, it’ll cost you around $US18. [Technabob]
Rumours of a RED DSLR had been confirmed a long time ago, but what of the Scarlet and EPIC übercamcorders? On the REDUser forums, RED CEO Jim Jannard has explained it all: Scarlet and EPIC are the DSLR — all cameras are “part of the same DSMC system”, so each and every camera will be part of a modular, build-your-own, still and video product line based on the Scarlet and EPIC ‘Brains’. To do this, RED has furnished an insanely diverse new collection of components, with sensors ranging from the $US2500 3k Scarlet to the $US55,000, 28k EPIC 617 Mysterium Monstro. galleryPost('redannounce1', 10, '');
AMD’s just revealed its quad-core Opteron chips manufactured with its new 45nm process. Based on the “Barcelona” chipset, the new “Shanghai” chips have a few extra tweaks: the L3 cache has risen from 2 to 6MB, giving it about 35% boosted power performance over the previous generation. The new chips also have better power management, meaning they can draw up to 35% less power under idle conditions, are compatible with DDR2-800 memory for faster memory accessing, and are backwards compatible with existing Socket-1207 mounting. These 75W server chips are out now, between 2.3 and 2.7 GHz clock speeds, and a desktop variety, dubbed “Dragon” is due early 2009. [AMD and PCWatch]
If you got one of those 8.9-inch Eee PCs and found that the 12GB of included drive space just wasn’t enough, don’t despair! GreenHouse Japan has released two new SSD modules which sport 35MB/s reading speeds and 15MB/s writing speeds. The modules are specifically made to work with the 901 and 900 lines, and will cost $US143 for a 32GB version and $US292 for the 64GB one. [Greenhouse via Akihabara News]
