All 4 Toys

Truthfully, we’re having a hard time coming to grips with this. For as long as we wished that these two would stop bickering, it’s actually tough to swallow the fact that we’ll never again be able to write about “yet another lawsuit” between Qualcomm and Broadcom (in theory, anyway). After nearly three full years of fighting with pencils, papers and soulless words, the courtroom throwdowns are finally ceasing. In a shocking development, the two rivals have entered into a settlement and multi-year patent agreement that will “result in the dismissal with prejudice of all litigation between the companies, including all patent infringement claims in the International Trade Commission and US District Court in Santa Ana, as well as the withdrawal by Broadcom of its complaints to the European Commission and the Korea Fair Trade Commission.” The exact terms of the deal are posted after the break, though you should know that Qualcomm will have to shell out $891 million in cash (ouch!) over the next four years. The lawyers may be out of work, but you can rest assured that there’s no shortage of abhorrence between these frenemies. Read more »

Available very soon, the MSI X-Slim X340-021US ultra slim notebook has finally made an appearance on MSIs official web site with a listed price at $1099.99. Hold a title as the worlds first notebook to be powered by Intels Core 2 Solo Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (or CULV) 1.4GHz processor, this 13.4-inch notebook PC also packs a 2GB RAM, a 320GB of SATA HDD and GMA 4500MDH integrated graphics. Other features include 1366768 display resolution, WI-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, SD/MMC card reader, a 1.3 Megapixel webcam.

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Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies Company, which we will absolutely never call by its full name again, has just dropped a juicy nugget about its forthcoming netbook. If you’ll recall, we recently caught wind of the ARM-based, Android-powered rig (the Alpha 680), which is expected to be a stripped down portable useful for web surfing and light duty Office use. Nixon Wu, Skytone’s co-founder, recently confessed that it’s aiming to sell the machine for around $250, and if all goes well, it should have prototypes ready by June and final products ready for consumption a month or two after that. Call us crazy (or just greedy, really), but we were totally hoping for this to ring up at $199 or less. Read more »

With Cowon’s S9 going 32GB a couple of weeks ago, and the iPod touch doing 32GB for eons, Samsung’s finally matching its touchscreen brethren with the 32GB P3. Unfortunately, it’s only available in Korea at the moment, for the quite reasonable price of 389,000 won — about $291 US. On an unrelated note: we hear it’s nice over there this time of year.

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Samsung has recently announced its new WF419 eco-friendly front load steam washer that incorporates the companies Vibration Reduction Technology (or VRTTM), which promises to offers easy and smooth operation even at very high spin speeds like 1300 or above revolutions per minute. It helps to reduce the vibration as well as noise at tremendously high rate and also manages the unbalanced loads. For starter, the Samsung WF419 operations at 109 kWh/year with a large capacity of 4.3 cu. ft., makes the washer truly energy-efficient. It rates 127 percent better than federal energy standards, providing savings and reducing the total number of loads that consumers have to run. In addition, the WF419 provides increased water conservation. Consumers will save money by using up to 70 percent less water than comparable top-loading washing machines. The WF419 will be available in May for $1,199.

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Uh, MSI. The $1,100 price tag you’re showing for the X-Slim X340 CULV-based thin-and-light laptop on your retail site is not “under $1,000” as you promised three weeks ago. Then again, maybe you’ll slip in a lesser spec’d model by the time the “Out of stock” badge changes to “Shipping?” Know this MSI, we’re watching you.

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Not that we haven’t seen LCD monitors get less demanding when it comes to energy, but we’ve yet to see a company take eco-friendliness this far. Professional LCD maker Eizo has just announced a new pair of panels (the 20-inch FlexScan EV2023W-H and the 23-inch EV2303W-T) that boast a “human presence sensor.” As the phrase implies, these displays are designed to shift to power saving mode when it realizes that its master has vacated the area, and when they return, it automatically flips back on in order to keep from being bashed by one of many USB-connected peripherals. Unfortunately, it seems the human detection timer can’t be changed from 40 seconds, and no, there are no current plans to implement a robot presence sensor once the Apocalypse is realized.

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Along with the MV622, MSI also released its MV882A HD PMP, which supports to playback a 720p videos, including a variety of video and music codecs just like the MV622 model. Other features include a 2.4-inch LCD screen and has a built-in S-video out. The MV882A is available in 4GB and 8GB models, whilethe price is set at 399 yuan ($58) and 499 yuan ($73), respectively.

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We’ve got Aliph’s new Jawbone Prime in hand, and while it’s not much different to look at compared to its predecessor, there’s enough new on the noise reduction and ergonomics front to warrant a quick look. Follow along after the break.
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