As we all know, Google recently joined Microsoft and Apple in making their own web browser. Well, with any newly created software comes the headache of trying to sell the browser to hardware manufacturers.. To make things easier, Google has cut a deal with with Sony to have their Google Chrome web browser pre-packaged into Sony PCs when it ships to the consumers.

Sony and Google are still not sure what models will ship with the Chrome browser but they did agree that they were going to go through with the deal while Google looks for other hardware manufacturers to run their browser. While partnering with Sony is not the biggest of deals, it is still a step forward in the right direction for Google. More »

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If you like using the crappiest phones out there, then you’ll love this horribly done mod on old Nokia cellphones. Istanbul based industrial design lecturer, Mehmet Erkok, from Teknik University’s Department of Industrial Project Design department, was behind these awful looking creations for his own pleasure. Hopefully, Erkok is the only one who has to use these pieces of junk and Nokia never decides to manufacture and sell these. Whatever crappy mods happen in Istanbul, stay in Istanbul. More »

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Google may finally have a plan to make some money from YouTube. YouTube Execs are planning to offer a $3.95 charge to rent a movie, which is the same price Apple charges for movies and very close to video-on-demand prices. If Google can get movie studios on board, they’d be competing in a very crowded field. Apple, Netflix, and Amazon all offer movie rental services but YouTube is the most popular video site, so it may become a decent competitor. It’s just a question of whether or not users are willing to switch from their current rental services to go with YouTube.

The deal is reported to be in the early stages, with a final agreement three to four months away. Google has been pressed for the past few years to make money but have yet to come up with a solid revenue stream. YouTube has a great chance to make a splash in the video rental market. YouTube had over 121 million viewers in July according to ComScore. More »

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The Jenn-Air fully flush refrigerator blends in so well with the cabinets in the kitchen, no one would be able to tell it’s even there. In the picture is the 42 inch French door bottom-freezer refrigerator with custom cabinet panels. Jenn-Air has announced three other fully flush models, a 36 inch with doors with a pull-out freezer at the bottom, and also a 42 and 48 inch side-by-side fridges. The gaps between the fridge and the cabinets are all the same size which is what makes the flush mounted tech so amazing, the fact that it can swing open over 90 degrees with that much room in between.

One feature that amazed me is the customizable coolness where you get to put different temperatures in different areas of the fridge. With all of these features, the Jenn-Air fully flush refrigerator will cost you a total of $6,900. It seems like a lot but when you price some of the other conventional flush models from GE, Monogram, and Bosch, you’ll see that this one isn’t so bad. More »

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Apple’s frustration with NVIDIA has boiled over and now Apple will be replacing them with AMD. AMD announced today upcoming Macbook Pro and iMacs will have the Radeon 4000 series graphic cards. The 4000 series supports DirectX 10.1 with OpenCL, which is now supported on Snow Leopard.

The Macbook Pro will be getting the ATI Radeon 4870, while the iMacs get the 4850. This news comes after NVIDIA graphic cards were blamed for over heating, higher failure rates and graphic issues. NVIDIA will definitely feel the loss, since Apple was one of their biggest partners. NVIDIA did say their next generation graphic cards will correct the heat issues and will once again have Apple as a partner. If things go smoothly over at AMD, Apple may never come back. More »

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If you’re one of those people who can’t put their phone down, even when they want to shower, you may never have to with the help of the Luce 120. You can now talk on the phone in the shower with the built-in Bluetooth capabilities. Along with Bluetooth, the new Luce 120 shower cabin offers a variety of other activities, to keep you in the shower longer and keep you cleaner.

There are various colors and lights to choose from to spruce up the interior. When you turn on the water, it offers you steam shower with scents, body jets, and a head shower with rain effect. If you think it can’t get any better, think again, the over-sized head shower has multiple effects - cascading water, tropical rainfall, soft rainfall, and Turkish bath. It comes with Krion roof, Sytek electronics, chromotherapy and as said before, Bluetooth audio capabilities. More »

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Apple may be releasing another iPod next week but that’s not keeping companies like Creative from coming out with their own new PMPs. Creative released their latest PMP, the Zen X-Fi2. It comes with some pretty nice features:

- Three inch touchscreen - 8GB, 16GB, 32GB SSD options with MicroSD slot option - TV-Out - FM Radio - Built-in Mic

The Creative Zen X-Fi2 prices are very competitive and with the features offered, it’s not such a bad option for the non-Apple lovers. The smallest capacity devices retails for $130, the 16GB at $180 and the 32GB for $230. Press release after the break. More »

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BMW’s Vision Efficient Dynamics concept is truly amazing and its the first time I’ve ever seen lit-up grills and I have to say, not hating it at all. The front of the car looks like a blend between a standard BMW, a Chevy Camaro and a cow but it’s done nicely, so I’ll leave it alone. BMW says the futuristic car will be a three cylinder turbo diesel hybrid electric 265 hp. You can read all the details about the concept from BMW, with pics after the break. More »

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Sony and Microsoft had their mini, price cut war last week. Both cut the prices on their primary machines by a $100. Microsoft lowered their Xbox 360 Elite to $299, while Sony went ahead and cut the price on their current PS3 to $299 but also introduced the PS3 Slim for $299. If I had to choose, I’d go with the Sony PS3 Slim but there are hard core Xbox 360 fans, who are loving this price cut.

Are you more likely to buy a Xbox 360 or PS3 because of the price cut? If so, which console would you opt for?

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Check out the new promo video for the Nokia Booklet 3G. It doesn’t do much to make me want to go buy it. Here are the specs:

- Intel Atom - 120GB HDD - 1GB of RAM - WiFi - HDMI - 3G Guess how much Nokia wants for this Netbook? An astronomical price of $853 for a netbook. And we thought Apple had a tax. I’m in need of a portable netbook like device but I think I’ll just wait till Apple released their tablet. (Video after the break) More »

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Google is continuing their attack in the ebook market, this time partnering with COOLERBOOKS, the online ebook store from British company, Interead, to provide . If the name Cooler sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve heard the name COOL-ER eReaders.

They were one of the hot items this year, the ones that were designed to look like iPods and retailed for $250 in the states. Interead is the company behind COOL-ER eReaders and now has Google providing over 1 million ebooks to the British company.

This will mark the first time Google has served ebooks to a company outside of the U.S. Google had previously partnered with Sony to provide over one million ebooks in their online ebook store. With Google broadening their horizons on the ebook platform, Amazon has to be worried a little bit, right?. More »

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Creative unveils Vado HD pocket camcorder, OS X-compatible Vado Central

If we recall, the previous Vado HD could at one point hold its own against pocket camcorders, but times have changed and new challengers have entered the competition. So how does Creative’s second generation Vado HD keep up? We actually don’t know — the press release is sparse on details, except to say the 4GB / 60-minute white-and-green model will cost $180 and the 8GB / 120-minute black-and-red one is $200. Also on the horizon early this month is Vado Central software for OS X machines….Engadget

EBay’s Skype Sale Looks Like a Win-Win

EBay Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe says there’s no downside to his company’s plan to sell most of its Skype division. “EBay was able to have its cake and eat it, too,” he says.

So far, he’s not getting much argument. In a deal announced Sept. 1, eBay (EBAY) will sell a controlling share of the Internet-calling service to a group of investors led by private equity firm Silver Lake for $1.9 billion in cash and $125 million in short-term debt. The sale values Skype at $2.75 billion, not far below the price eBay paid for the business in 2005, and higher than the value recently placed on Skype by some Wall Street analysts…Businessweek

iPhone not exclusive in China, talks with China Mobile go on

Apple has confirmed that its agreement to sell iPhones via China Unicom, which lasts for three years, isn’t exclusive. China Mobile says it is still in talks with Apple to carry the iPhone, though Apple hasn’t said what Chinese carriers it is in talks with. And while that company—China’s largest mobile carrier by a wide margin—cited control issues with how the App Store is run, there may be further legal hurdles to cross before Apple can offer apps via the App Store to Chinese users…ArsTechnica

Original Zunes go towards the light

I think we all knew it was coming. After all, the new interface, while aesthetically similar to the old Zune UI, is totally incompatible with the old hardware. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, unfortunately — though I would add, that doesn’t mean you have to throw away the dog…CrunchGear

8 Cases Of Exploding iPhones and iPods In The Papers

These past few months have not been good for Apple at all. Not only are they being investigated by the FCC for rejecting the Google App but yesterday there were reports that the SEC was now investigating insider trading of Apple stocks. This is all on top of recent cases of exploding iPhones and iPod Touches floating around in the news…Ziggytek

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These past few months have not been good for Apple at all. Not only are they being investigated by the FCC for rejecting the Google App but yesterday there were reports that the SEC was now investigating insider trading of Apple stocks. This is all on top of recent cases of exploding iPhones and iPod Touches floating around in the news.

We’ve been hearing a lot about them and have gathered 8 cases of exploding iPhones, iPod Touches and iPods that have been reported to the news or an outlet that’s recorded the incidents. Of course there are possibly hundreds of other cases that went unreported or swept under the rug by people. More »

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For the second time in the last few months, Gmail is down again. Tuesday afternoon, Google’s popular free and paid version of Google Mail has been down since the outage began at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. Google’s status dashboard says it’ll be restored for everyone soon, while some already have the service.

Google has apologized for the outage in their Gmail blog but service has still not been restored as this post went live. Today’s outage, (the first was back on May 14th), brings into question whether or not cloud computing could ever be a reliable.

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Using Twitter and Facebook to alert everyone of everything you are doing is not only annoying but dangerous. Those who tend to constantly write what they are up to are easier to track, therefore, letting burglars know when you’ll be out or away. Duh right? Except some folks don’t get it.

A survey conducted by British-based Legal & General on 2,092 social media users showed that almost four in ten (38%) of people using social networking sites post details on holiday plans and 33 percent put details about a weekend away from home. It was also found that a lot of social network users don’t really know their “friends”. More »

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