In case you missed it today, there's a big conference happening in Europe called IFA at the moment. And while we haven't yet seen the Panasonic presentation, the guys from Trusted Reviews did, and they scored a photo of the presentation slide for Panny's new Blu-ray recorder. Although when we say new, we mean new to Europe, not new to Australia - the DMR-BW500 has been out in Australia for a couple of months.

But is it the same device? Eagle-eyed reader Anthony pointed out that the slide Panasonic showcased at IFA explicitly says that it features BD-Live technology, which we know for a fact that the Australian version doesn't. Considering you need an Ethernet port (or inbuilt Wi-Fi, I guess) plus some dedicated storage on board to be able to use BD-Live, it would mean that the DMR-BW500 for Europe would have different hardware to the Australian model.

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If you read what Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said about Wii shortages this holiday season and didn't get angry, well, you're not paying enough attention. Forbes paraphrases him as saying "demand for the device in the U.S. is unusually high in contrast to either Europe or Asia," which is why you might not be able to get one this Christmas. Oh really?

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The EU antitrust investigation into Intel's business practices has just got a little nastier for Intel. Three new charges are being levelled against the chip manufacturer, including charges that Intel paid a leading European retailer to sell only PCs powered by Intel, and also paid a "leading" OEM to delay the launch of an AMD-powered product line. Taken together, the charges indicate a "single overall anticompetitive strategy aimed at excluding AMD" according to the European Commission document. This may come as interesting news to AMD's recently departed CEO. Intel has two weeks to respond. [EU Statement via Ars Technica]

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A new report from CERN allegedly puts the final nail in the coffin of doomsday theorists claiming the Large Hadron Collider will result in a reality-ending black hole on Earth. In a word, the report calls the project "safe," and reiterates CERN's original argument that even the most powerful collisions planned for the LHC are nothing compared to what nature has done already for billions of years. "The universe as a whole conducts more than 10 million million LHC-like experiments per second. The possibility of any dangerous consequences contradicts what astronomers see - stars and galaxies still exist," said a layperson's summary of the report. Conspiracy theorists will no doubt keep on keeping on about the LHC, regardless of the report, but for the more level-headed amongst us, there's a certain finality to CERN's findings. Not end-of-the-world finality, mind you, just peace of mind. The countdown timer says 16 days until activation. [Cosmic Log]

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Hot on the heels of the announcement that iPhone users in Spain and the UK will get their iPhone 3G for free zip nada gratis zilch if they sign up for a US$88-a-month plan, let's see what Vodafone Italy is planning for its countrymen. Pay-as-you-go fans will be able to buy an unsubsidised iPhone for either 499€ or 569€, depending on the model. Translated into buckaroonies, that's $823 or $938. What we want to know, however, is whether it will be unlocked or not. [Vodafone Italy]

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Available in five colours, the Volcano T7 is the latest DAP player. Reminiscent of a memory stick and with a small OLED display, it's available in both 2GB and 4GB versions. There's also a USB 2.0 port, an FM radio, and an equaliser. There's also a recording function, both for voice and radio. Now available in Europe in five colours—white, black, pink, blue and chocolate—the Volcano T7 costs the equivalent of $US48 for the 2GB and $US78 for 4GB. [Akihabara News]

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For those of you who don't consider the mobile phone a status symbol, and could do without live updates on mysterious Apple cargo ships, comes the "disposable" 1800 from Hop-On. The US$10 GSM phone is another in a long line of cheap, no frills Hop-On mobile phones, but before you decry the company for creating more e-waste, hit the jump for specs and the company's rebate program.

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With 5 million PS3s sold on the continent, Sony has announced that they've overtaken the 360 in Europe. And not only that, but Sony has been outselling Microsoft in the market since October.

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In a move that's sure to make the EU giddy at the possibility of levying more fines, Microsoft's been circulating some internal memos brainstorming ways to better connect the next version of Windows with the next version of Windows Live. The author dreams of a system where each user can log into their Live accounts (usually your @hotmail.com address) and be automatically connected as you're setting up your computer for the first time.

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While mobile TV mobile phones are ten-a-penny in the Far East, the West is pretty much virgin territory for them. Samsung's P960, however, may have got the ball rolling, a mobile TV phone aimed at European consumers. A sleek grey slider, the P960 supports both European mobile TV standards, DVB-CBMS and OMA-BCAST, and its 2.6-inch QVGA TFT screen even lets you watch two channels at the same time. As to whether we're going to see a US-friendly version later on in the year—well, that's not clear yet, but since the menu behind the dude is in dollars, perhaps the Koreans are making their press budget go a little further. Press release is after the jump.

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