Filed under: Laptops

HP's obviously getting ready to expand its netbook line beyond the well-received Mini-Note 2133 -- the company recently started teasing the Vivienne Tam Digital Clutch, and now images and pricing for a "Mini 1000" have appeared on the HP shopping site. As expected, the new rig is basically a non-glam version of the Digital Clutch, and specs appear to be right in line with what we've seen: 10-inch screen, sub-1-inch thickness, and 2.25-pound starting weight -- and we're guessing the Mini 1000 also gets the upgrade to an Intel Atom over the 2133's VIA C7-M. Not bad at all for a starting price tag of $399 -- hopefully we'll find out a lot more soon.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

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Filed under: GPS

Garmin launched its updated 7x5 series of nuvi navigators back in August, but the high-end MSN Direct-equipped 785T is just hitting stores, and GPS Magazine says it's a solid improvement over previous nuvis -- but if you're not willing to pay the $50 / year for the MSN service, you're probably not going to miss it. The 785T drew high marks for its fast frame rate, nice 3D lane guidance / upcoming turn features, and semi-realistic building displays, but the MSN Direct traffic implementation was less accurate than the free traffic service built into lesser T-series nuvis, and download speeds for the service weren't particularly swift. We're not all that sold on the connected GPS concept yet, so we're inclined to take the reviewer's advice and pick up the otherwise-identical non-connected 765T, but click on for the full exhaustive review to decide for yourself.

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Filed under: Cellphones

With all sorts of outlandish figures being bandied about regarding sales / expectations for the T-Mobile G1, someone intimately close to the situation has finally chimed in with his take. Peter Chou, chief executive and co-founder of HTC, stated in a recent interview that it expects to ship over 600,000 G1s this year, and while he wouldn't come clean on an exact figure for 2009, he did proclaim that "in general, we think we can do more next year." We aren't betting the farm that his prediction will come true or anything, but it certainly falls within the realm of feasibility. Oh, and if you were wondering how Mr. Chou planned on convincing potential iPhone buyers to opt for the G1 instead, he reckons that the full QWERTY keypad will handle that for him -- after all, "Americans are very keyboard-oriented."

[Via mocoNews]

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Hundreds of video game fans dress as characters from their favourite games to set a new record in east London.

Filed under: Robots

If this here press releases didn't have a date of February 1997 on it, we'd swear this was some sort new fancy new development. Sure, robots have been playing sports for ages, but seeing this here creature revived begs the question: why don't we all have one or two of these laying around the house by now? The prototype seen in the video linked below can recognize spoken commands, react to incoming spheres, identify actions of nearby humans and spike volleyballs in your grille all day long. In all honesty, Tosh probably converted this into some sort of elderly assistant bot that didn't catch nearly as much press, but we're still holding onto a sliver of hope that this thing is just about ready for commercial release.

Read - Volleyball robot video
Read - Original volleyball robot press release

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