I’ve always loved Nokia and its simplicity.  It pretty much jump-started the cell phone industry with its candy bar style phones that seem hard to part with.  When Nokia came out with their flip phones, it wasn’t that impressive or even nice to look at.  Now, Nokia is fighting back and getting smart with their very own, stylish and very functional smartphone, the N76.

 At $500 a pop, I think they need to try a bit harder.  Hey, at least they’re trying right?

Either that, or they’re just implying that the replacement for the PPC-6700 will be a very important person. Or a popular feature on a ski slope.

Odd naming choice aside, this looks like an impressive bit of phone tech, preferable even to the phone-that-shall-not-be-named due to a (potentially) wider distribution, physical keyboard, and faster Internet connection. It’s not as pretty, but then, what is?

Other notable features include a 2.8" QVGA display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, a microSD slot, 64MB of RAM, 256MB of flash ROM, and a 2 megapixel camera. It won’t be cheap, though: Sprint’s selling the Windows Mobile 6 smartphone for $399.99 with a two-year contract.

"Realism is a major goal in computer animation, but turning sketched-out ideas into decent computer models is normally a tricky and time-consuming process.

This is where an idea dreamed up by Microsoft could come in handy. Researchers at the company’s labs in China and Washington, US, have come up with a way to turn hand-drawn sketches into fully formed computer models.

A user simply draws a picture in two dimensions, but using perspective to create the impression of three dimensions. Microsoft’s software recognizes the perspective in the drawing automatically and converts the image into a 3D model.

When the 3D object in question is a building, the software can even determine which parts of the model are walls, windows, doors etc. It then renders the model automatically and presents it to the user on screen for further editing."

Info from New Scientific

No danger of knocking Sling out of the competition, but Evergreen is introducing  network TV tuning to its Japanese market with its JTV-100-F-PJ. It takes  coaxial cable inputs and composite video sources and converts them to MPEG4, which is then streamed to a network TV server or viewed on your web browser. Pricing: ¥19,999 ($163 USD).
Impress

Or so the VRX site says.This impressive looking racing sim is designed with a Forza Motorsports 2 theme and three 37-inch Sharp Aquos 1080p LCD TVs. The frame is constructed from CNC machined polished aluminum, and envelopes the gamer by curiously including just one Sparco seat along with four Xbox 360 Elites, four copies of Forza Motorsport 2, an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player, camera / wireless headset, a Zune, force feedback wheel, and surround sound as well.

I didn’t find anything even remotely related to a price tag, so perhaps if we have to ask we can’t afford it! Btw, there is a sales email link onsite, just in case your curiosity gets the better of you. — VRX