Noticing a pattern with Centrino 2? For Toshiba's part, they've got a biz-set triple bump: The Satellite Pro S300, Tecra A10 and Tecra M10 all have Toshiba's EasyGuard with shock and spill protection, a business card reader, a combo USB 2.0 eSATA port, and sleep-and-charge USB ports. A point of differentiation is that the Tecra A10 and M10 both rock Centrino 2 vPro, which has tech for the enterprise set so IT can fix your comp wirelessly, even when it's frozen.

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Elektrobit is bringing satellite phones to the masses with its new Satellite/Terrestrial Reference PDA Phone. Gone is the bulky antenna sported by satellite phones of yore, replaced with a sleek, qwerty-keyboard PDA look that's just a touch thicker than a Blackberry 8800. The concept product runs Windows Mobile 6.1 professional and contains a packed feature set—including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, VoIP, a touch screen, and a 3MP camera.

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Generally speaking, the state of broadband in the United States sucks. (AU: It's worse over here)Hard. You know what sucks harder than your crappy DSL line? Satellite internet—it's stupid expensive and super slow. Except in Japan. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency is reporting that their tests of the world's fastest satellite internet—155Mbps downstream to homes, and 1.2Gbps to businesses with properly endowed antennas—have been successful. Not only to they plan to cover all of Japan, but a fair bit of the Asian Pacific region. Meanwhile, we shit ourselves over 50Mbps cable that runs US$150 a month. [JAXA via Impress, JAXA (More Info, readable)]

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Along with the re-designed and cheaper Satellite notebooks from last week, Toshiba's tossing out a pair of gaming notebooks packing Penryn chips (Core 2 Duo 8300 or 9300) and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT running in SLI, with HDD configs up to 400GB. Starting at two grand, which isn't bad for "gaming" notebooks, but churning the 8600M GT seems a bit old and busted with 9-series cards right around the corner. Plus, the plain Jane looks aren't going to turn any heads. [Toshiba]

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I could say that Mobile Satellite Ventures' touchscreen offering is nice for a satellite phone. But screw that, this thing just looks nice, period. The L-Series phone is .6 inches thick, slides up to reveal a 0-9 keypad, has Wi-Fi and also works on cellular bands. The strangely-familiar interface of the homescreen looks as nice as any smartphone, and has drawn comparisons to the the satellite phone used in LOST. Unfortunately, Desmond won't be tracking Penny down with this thing anytime soon, because MSV won't drop the phone until 2010, satellite service will only cover North America and it doesn't have a quick launch icon for the wonderful works of Mr. Charles Dickens. Seems like a waste to me, brotha. [Gearlog]

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I used to sleep through class by tuning my mobile's FM radio to a classical station, sitting in the back, and putting a jacket over my face, so this XM Radio on BlackBerry is pretty spectacular news. All you need is a BlackBerry 8800, 8700, Pearl or Curve and US$7.99 a month. You'll get 20 "exclusive" XM channels (list after the jump), and you can download the app here or text "XM" to 47201. Time for a nap. Since this uses the phone's regular data connection, you hopefully won't be forced to wear giant ridiculous looking headphones in order to get reception.

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Mr. T's favourite laptop maker rolled out slick, useful and budget-minded updates to its Satellite line today. First up, the 13.3" U400, 14.1" M300, 15.4" A300 and 17" P300 have a new look called "Fusion," a shiny finish with pinstripes and smoothed edges, not unlike that sucka HP's successful smooth-n-shiny-n-pinstripey look. The eight shots in the gallery make the design look a bit greenish, so we'll have to wait to pass final judgment. It's one thing to look nice on the outside, but like T, these have a lot going on on the inside, too...

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NASA will definitely beat the Mt. Everest phone calls when they launch mobile phone service on the moon around 2012. Their MoonLite system will link astronauts, the lunar base and Earth via satellite. Even though there is over four years until launch, the service will only have a speed of 3kbps down/2kbps up. One small call for man...ah forget it. [Silicon.com via Newlaunches]

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The Beef: I am not a shortwave enthusiast, by any means, but the industrial design, open for a literal interpretation on the industrial. It's got AM, FM, shortwave, longwave, SSB and aircraft band frequencies. There's a scan or manual input by 10-key. And check the analogue gauge and yellow-glow back lighting. Very nice. There's also an aux in for audio input.
The Catch: It's shortwave. And $350.

Awesome: The Eton FR1000 Voicelink is maybe one of the most pornograpic survival radios I've ever seen, but functionally so. IT has AM/FM/NOAA Weather/2-Way GMRS Radio. And a Flashlight, siren, and Cellphone charger. It runs off of 4AAs, but has a hand crank. The design seems superfluous, but those cutouts actually protect the knobs. There's a large handle on the back. If I were to die stranded in the wilderness, I might be slightly less upset clutching one of these beautiful machines. $US150.
The Catch: No word on water resistance, and the recessed knobs seem hard to turn with gloves on.