Technologist

The inexpensive T-Mobile Tap is a stylish touch phone. - Technologist

Silverlight will "optimize everywhere," Microsoft tells developers conference. - Technologist

There's a decent chance you North Americans in attendance won't ever see the likes of AOpen's XC Mini GP7A-HD, but for those in places where having a say on what innards are shoved into their next nettop (we're lookin' at you, Japan), this mini PC is apposite to fill quite the void. Boasting only a small frame, NVIDIA's Ion graphics technology and space for a multicard reader, it's up to the buyer to slap in a Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of RAM, a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD and a DVD burner or Blu-ray drive. You'll also find six USB 2.0 sockets, an HDMI port and a VGA output, and while gigabit Ethernet is included, it looks as if the WiFi module is on you. Mum's the word on pricing, but we're guessing it'll be as close to nothing as NVIDIA will allow. AOpen's Ion-powered XC Mini GP7A-HD puts the 'choice' in 'nettop' originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Impress, Akihabara News  |  AOpen  | Email this | Comments - Technologist

Hudson River water landings? Those are so yesterday, man. Somewhere in the Congo today there's a pilot who, after a slight, um, miscalculation, crash landed his plane in a lava field. Now, we can make light of this incident because all 117 passengers and crew walked away from the crash largely unharmed. The only real casualty was the captain's ego, although I think he's probably the talk of the terminal this morning. I mean come on—lava! And check out this crazy quote from MSNBC: The plane was flying from Kinshasa to Goma, and passengers had warned the crew that there were heavy clouds, Radio Okapi said. Since when do the passengers do in-flight risk assessments for the crew? [MSNBC via Geekologie] - Technologist

The Selphy CP780 is an inexpensive and nearly idiot-proof snapshot printer, but you make major compromises in performance and price per page. - Technologist

Russell Beattie: Android is splintering, just not how you think it is...  Not to be too condescending, but I think it's amusing to watch the old-school techies in the past couple years finally get around to paying attention to the mobile market that I've had been ranting about exclusively for the better part of the past decade. - Technologist

At least two companies aim to make smartbooks different enough from laptops--and Netbooks--that consumers will take notice. Think of the device as a large smartphone. - Technologist

Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris aren't strong on Exchange mail support, security, and configurability -- all needed for business use. - Technologist

Most users have played games on their phones, and the trend is likely to keep growing, researchers say. - Technologist

Olympus' PEN E-P2 is destined to be a fine product, we're sure. What we aren't sure of, however, is how exactly the company came up with the nearly laughable MSRP. The second-ever Micro Four Thirds offering from the outfit is up for pre-order right now at Amazon, though the $1,099.99 asking price is just far too lofty for us to recommend snagging a place in line. That said, you're still probably interested in learning more about the device, so we'll be pointing you in Gadling's direction for that; the crew over at our favorite travel blog managed to snag one of these buggers early, and exterior color aside, we're told that it looks practically "identical to the E-P1." Hit up the links below for a closer look -- just keep your credit card far, far away until we see a full review. [Thanks, Misael] Olympus' $1,100 PEN E-P2 up for pre-order, played with early originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Amazon,... - Technologist

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch: VideoLobby Wants To Help You Create Your Own Custom-Branded Live Webcasts  —  Today at the RealTime CrunchUp we saw the launch of VideoLobby, a new service founded by Peter Urban that's looking to make it easier to create professional-looking webcasts, complete with custom branding. - Technologist

You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He's reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He's also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him. Mario, the pot-bellied Italian plumber with a penchant for rescuing princesses, collecting golden coins and gobbling magic mushrooms, has been around for nearly three decades. - Technologist