It’s amusing but, to be honest, its not much weirder than some of the real convergence devices out there (See exhibit A and exhibit B.) [EyeShots via Dezeen via Boing Boing Gadgets]

At this stage WARP won’t be intended as a gameworthy replacement for dedicated graphics cards, but it could help avoid another “Vista Capable” type debacle by standardising essential graphics capabilities across virtually all hardware. That said, it’s not that slow: Microsoft reports that when paired with the rather awesome i7, it runs Crysis faster than Intel’s integrated DX10 solutions. Like, 42% faster. Granted, that’s still only 7.36FPS on the game’s lowest settings, but don’t miss the point here: Windows 7 will run Crysis—or any other game—without a video card. [CustomPC via Slashdot]

It’ll pause your tunes automatically when a call comes in, so be careful about singing along with that hot new Britney Spears track when your mum calls. Due to come out in Singapore next month, it’s priced at S$139, or $94 USD, or 4 cans of beans PEC (post-econopocalyptic currency). Oh, and it’s really, really sparkly. [PMP Today]

The question here is: why the hell would anyone want to build such a device? Microsoft’s justification for the project is that PCs can often do the same things that dedicated devices can do (like mobiles), but there is a learning curve involved :

User studies carried out on a number of users have shown that entertainment, communication and information retrieval are the three main motivating factors for people to use devices like a personal computer. However since a personal computer is a general purpose device, some amount of learning is associated with achieving the same task as compared to achieving the same task using a special purpose device like a telephone, a music player, or the like.

For example making a telephone call using a computer involves knowing what application is used on a computer to make a call, starting the application and figuring out how to use it using input devices attached to the computer like keyboard and mouse. Instead if the device had a hardware keypad that is normally used in a telephone, along with appropriate software then dialing a call would just involve pressing “Dial” button, followed by the numbers to be dialed on hardware keypad and the required software will come up and complete the call for the user. In this way the interaction of the user with the device would be the same as the interaction with a special purpose device for making a telephone call.

So, instead of focusing on user friendly smartphones and portable PC software, they have basically duct taped a mobile phone to a laptop. The future is here…today! [WIPO via Unwired View]

Ok, so it won’t blow you away on the specs, but it could be a handy device, especially when you consider that the pocket sized photo viewer can be removed from the base for easy transport. No pricing or release date information has been announced. [WinWin via Coolest Gadgets]

The idea is that you can do more detailed work with your information using the laptop, but access that shared info using your handset while on the go. While there are currently plenty of ways to sync info between mobile devices and computers, the Couple-IT promises a more thorough coupling using twin SIMs and software. Perhaps a concept like this might be able to hold the fort while we wait for handsets to become more robust convergent devices. [Alloy via 3g via Core 77]

I can imagine some problems if your passengers disagree with your music tastes though – it will be a competition to see who can shout their choice the loudest. It should be available in the fall. Jalopnik had a review of Ford Sync at the start of the year, see it here. [TrendHunter]