Spy shots of Nokia's 870 Internet Tablet!

We knew it was shiny, but that was about it. Now we've got ourselves a few more angles of Nokia's upcoming 870 Internet Tablet, and a few more specs to be getting on with.

As noted last time around, Nokia's main addition here is a fancy new webcam, which can apparently rotate to face towards or away from the user. According to our anonymous tipster, things have pepped up quite considerably under the hood, and internal memory has been bumped to 180MB, but the architecture is relatively unchanged.

The 870 runs the exact same Internet 2006 OS as the 770, so no update love there. There is a fancy new integrated deskstand, however, along with a much-appreciated SD slot behind the battery cover in addition to that old RS-MMC slot which remains in the same easily-accessible spot.

As you might've guessed from the pics, there's no more slide-in "dock" casing for this new version, but Nokia is including a fancy leather case, along with a microphone/headset for getting your VoIP on.

Overall, the new version looks to be quite the svelte little number, and while we mourn the continued lack of a physical keyboard, we're sure we can find a few ways to have a good time with this little thing whenever it launches. Catch the rest of the juicy shots after the break.

Thieves Steal $1.9M Worth of Microsoft Xbox 360 Consoles

The police are searching for at least three thieves responsible for stealing thousands of Xbox 360 game consoles

Around $1.9M USD worth of Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles have been stolen from a U.K. depot center located in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. An initial shipment of consoles worth $1.4M USD was stolen from a depot center. Police later revealed that there was another theft on Thursday morning after two vehicles flagged down a truck that was carrying around $500,000 worth of Xbox consoles.

According to U.K. police, At least three men, believed to be driving a Range Rover and Rover Saloon, were involved with the truck jacking. Police have successfully recovered the stolen truck. An investigation is underway to see if the two thefts are related.

Police believe the consoles are being stolen so that they can be sold on the black market for the Christmas holiday shopping season. The Xbox 360 retails from $386 to $579 in the UK and is a top choice for consumers, according to The Times of London.

The police have made statements to the public warning them that anyone purchasing stolen consoles could find that their warranty is no longer valid. Also, the Staffordshire police department put out the following statement to viewers in the UK: "We are appealing for information from anyone who is offered games in suspicious circumstances, such as in a pub, at a car boot sale or off the back of a lorry."

Approximately 4,000 consoles were stolen in the heist by rough estimates.

450 GB on usual paper? Piece of cake!

According to a report from the Arab News, a university technology student named Sainul Abideen has invented a method of storing massive amounts of digital data on a plain piece of paper that he claims could store many times the capacity of the best Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs. In fact, Abideen says that his Rainbow technology can enable him to store up to 450GB on a piece of paper. As far as a real life demonstration of a 450GB paper goes, the technology still needs development.

Abideen claims that that his Rainbow system is better than a binary storage because instead of using ones and zeros to represent data, Abideen uses geometric shapes such as squares and hexagons to represent data patterns. Color is also used in the system to represent other data elements. According to Abideen, all that's required to read the Rainbow prints is a scanner and specialized software.

The reporter at Arab News claims to have seen 450 pages of fully printed foolscap being stored on a 4-square inch piece of Rainbow paper. The reporter also claimed that he was shown a 45-second video clip that was stored using the Rainbow system on a plain piece of paper. Interestingly, 45-seconds of video isn't a lot, and if the Rainbow system can store up to 450GB, then we need to be watching full length high-definition videos from a piece of paper.

One of the major advantages of the Rainbow system is the fact that it should cost a lot less to produce than typical polycarbonate DVD and CD discs. Abideen claims that huge databanks can be constructed out of Rainbow-based storage mediums. Although the main attraction is cheap paper right now, other media can use the Rainbow system too.

As of right now, Abideen's system is still under research at the Muslim Educational Society Engineering College and although no major companies have expressed interest, Abideen is confident of the system's future. According to the report, Aibdeen is hard at work at developing a Rainbow scanner that would be small enough for integration into notebook computers. If developed, a Rainbow printer will likely be next up.

In other high-capacity storage news, DailyTech previously reported that Hitachi-Maxell is in the progress of producing holographic media for shipment this year. Holographic storage is one of the biggest forward-looking storage technologies and holds a great deal of promise -- as well as data.

Sigma SGM2 mouse looks more like a hearing aid

You are sure to mistake Sigma SGM2 mouse for an oversized hearing aid. It is basically useful as a presentation device as it locks between your index finger allowing you to control the roller with your thumb, it also has a scroll wheel and a double click key which is activated by the index finger. It offers a resolution of 400/800dpi and connects via USB too bad it is not cordless as no one would want an extra wire dangling around. The mouse is compatible with Windows XP only.

The Sigma SGM2 measures 58×84×64mm and weighs 97 grams. It will be available by December in Japan for 3,480 Yen ($ 30)

Top 10 data disasters revealed

Hard drives kept in dirty socks and the dangers of oiling your PC feature in a top 10 list of data disasters.

In one case, a university professor needed help after he tried to fix a squeaky desktop computer by squirting it with WD-40 solvent.

The squeak went away, but so did his data.

In another case, the decision to send a damaged hard drive to a data recovery company in a pair of old socks did even more damage.

Importance of back up

Mistreatment of laptops also featured highly on the list, with one dropped from a helicopter, another given an unnecessary wash from a leaking shampoo bottle, while several were run over.

In another incident, a customer left an old banana on the top of his external hard drive which proceeded to seep its contents and ruin the circuitry.

The list was compiled by data recovery firm OnTrack, which receives thousands of requests each year for help in finding information lost through damaged computer hardware.

In all cases, the data was recovered from these potentially fatal situations.

Losing data can be incredibly frustrating and has become more of an issue as people increasingly store photos, songs and other vital information on their computers.

"No matter how catastrophic the situation may seem, it pays to have your hard drive or storage device evaluated by a professional service because chances are good that we'll be successful in recovering critical data regardless of how it was lost in the first place," said Phil Bridge, managing director of Ontrack UK.

One of the firm's customers this year was comedian Dom Joly.

He dropped his laptop and damaged a hard drive containing 5,000 photos, 6,000 songs and half a book he was writing. He wrote about the disaster in a newspaper column and was contacted by OnTrack, who successfully recovered the data.

"Individuals and companies can avoid the hassle and stress this can cause by backing up data on a regular basis," said Mr Bridge.

"Ego" luxury notebook for only $350 000

San Francisco (CA) - If you are driving a Lexus instead of a Toyota, or perhaps a Bentley instead of a Mercedes, a Dutch company may just have what you need to replace a dull notebook. The company, known for selling the world's most expensive jewelry notebooks, is bringing its least expensive "Tulip Ego" to the U.S.
Least Expensive, of course, is a relative term for Ego's computers. Being more a lifestyle accessory than a true computing device, the Tulip will be offered in only one version for $5000 at Barney's in New York, Beverly Hills, Chicago and Dallas next week. The shape of the device is slightly reminiscent of first iBook notebook computer: When folded together, the Tulip looks more like a hand bag than a notebook.

However, instead of cheap plastic, Tulip owners can dress up the curvy shape of the device with interchangeable "skins" that come in a variety of pricey designer fabrics, colors and finishes.

Don't expect a powerful workhorse when buying the Tulip, as the system relies on a single-core AMD Turion processor. However, the 5.7-pound package also offers a 12.1-inch WXGA (1280x800) widescreen, ATI's Radeon Xpress 200M chipset, Bluetooth 2.0 and 801.11 abg Wi-Fi, as well as a front-loading DVD/CD burner. The DVD player can play movies without turning the notebook on. And, there is a customized USB-stick cap that comes with the laptop.
The Tulip Ego originally debuted at the Fashion week in Milan and, according to the company, has been a "resounding success." While the price of the computer can inflate quickly by adding new skins, it is the cheapest notebook the company currently offers in Europe. There are also limited edition Platinum and Diamond versions that have been designed by Laurent de Beer with diamond inlays (250 for the Platinum and 358/4.98 ct for the Diamond) as well as the "Otazu Ego Diamond:" The flagship of the series has been designed by Rodrigo Otazu with a total of 470 flawless diamonds that are reflected in tulip, heart and Otazu logos as well as a customized phrase. The Otazu currently sells for $350,000.

There are currently no plans to bring the Platinum, Diamond and Otazu to the U.S.

How NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX defeat ATI Radeon X1950 XTX. Performance test

NVIDIA is set to launch its upcoming G80 GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS graphics cards next week, however, we took a GeForce 8800GTX board to run a couple quick benchmarks on. The GeForce 8800GTX used for testing is equipped with 768MB of GDDR3 video memory on a 384-bit memory bus as previously reported. Core and memory clocks are set at 575 MHz and 900 MHz respectively. Other GeForce 8800 series features include 128-bit HDR with 16x anti-aliasing and NVIDIA’s Quantum Physics Engine.

Previous NVIDIA graphics cards in single card configurations were limited to lower levels of anti-aliasing. With the GeForce 8800 series, users can experience 16x anti-aliasing with only a single card.

The physical card itself is quite large and approximately an inch and a half longer than an AMD ATI Radeon X1950 XTX based card. It requires two PCI Express power connectors and occupies two expansion slots. An interesting tidbit of the GeForce 8800GTX are the two SLI bridge connectors towards the edge of the card. This is a first for a GeForce product as SLI compatible graphics cards typically have one SLI bridge connector.

Having two SLI bridge connectors onboard may possibly allow users to equip systems with three G80 GeForce 8800 series graphics cards. With two SLI bridge connectors, three cards can be connected without any troubles. NVIDIA is expected to announce its nForce 680i SLI and 650i SLI chipsets with the GeForce 8800 series. NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI and 650i SLI based motherboards are expected to have three PCI Express x16 slots.

The test system configuration is as follows:

• NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI based motherboard
• 2x1GB PC2-6400
• NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX
• PowerColor ATI Radeon X1950 XTX
• Western Digital Raptor 150

Power consumption was measured using a Kill-A-Watt power meter that measures a power supply’s power draw directly from the wall outlet. The power supply used in the test system is a Thermaltake Toughpower that carries an efficiency rating up to 85%.
Expect NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS graphics cards to be available next week. As NVIDIA has had plenty of time to ramp up production and ship out cards, this will be a hard launch with immediate availability.

10 things to hate about smartphones

What's with all this hate lately. At least when we decide to post an editorial, it discusses both sides of the story.

One study has already decreed that all-in-one devices are not up to snuff, and now we've got a few more reasons why you may not want one. In fact, CrunchGear has compiled ten reasons why smartphones suck. The top ten things to hate are thus:

10. Propriety connectors and software
9. Quick access to important functions are buried
8. No OS X support
7. All-in-one makes "smartphones that look like boat anchors"
6. Poor battery life
5. Confusing user interface "full of arcane symbols and strange readouts"
4. So much software, none of it pre-installed
3. Crippled features (looks at Verizon and Telus)
2. Not very useful as a phone
1. Windows Mobile 5.0 is teh suX0rs