Android update junkies are in for a treat from Sony Ericsson. The handset maker’s serving up the freshest batch of Gingerbread to its Xperia line of smartphones starting this October. Bundled in to this 2.3.4 rollout are a bunch of OEM enhancements, bringing along deeper Facebook integration that’ll let you like and share your app discoveries with friends, and “3D sweep panorama technology,” so you can snap those self-portraits for 3DTV viewing. SE’s also thrown in a native screen capture function and, of course, there’s Google Talk with Video Chat. The Neo [...]

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Flush with cash, but not a fan of spending it on litigation? We hear you, and apparently so does HTC. The Taiwanese firm announced today it’ll purchase S3 Graphics and its patent portfolio from VIA for a cool $300 million, giving the smartphone maker 265 new weapons in its IP arsenal. Also part of the deal is a perpetual license to the patents’ former owner, so that the chipset manufacturer can keep cranking out silicon without fear of legal reprisal. Given HTC’s competitors recently went on a giant patent shopping spree, we’d surmise that strengthening its warchest is, [...]

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Seems like the 3D era has alot to expect. While humans from all walks of life were busy enough in getting their hands on the 3D LED’s, computer maker HP decided to make a jump which would surely result as a leader in the market and for others to follow. HP unveiled its first ever 3D technology Laptop for the users who want something exclusive. The kid has been named ‘HP Envy 17 3D Laptop‘ which delivers the 3D view on the big 17.3 inch screen. Fitted with speakers and subwoofer to bring out the best, the company is surely aware that they would be making a big bunch on the name of it [...]

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It’s been awhile, eh Eking? The elusive handheld maker is storming back onto the scene today with an all new UMPC, despite that fact that UMPCs have been largely left behind and covered up by this new “tablet craze.” All that aside, the E5 is definitely one of the more delightful units that we’ve seen, and we can’t help think of HTC’s Advantage when it’s opened up as shown above. Specs wise, this guy is boasting a 5-inch WSVGA (1,024 x 600) Sharp-sourced display that tilts and slides back, and an Intel Atom Z515 (1.2GHz) is powering things under the [...]

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The $35 Android tablet we talked about the other day is only the beginning, it would seem, as yet another Indian tablet maker is preparing to unleash a purportedly low-cost, full featured device on the masses. Meet Allgo: She’s a prototype for now, and the $50 price tag is only the cost to build one (retail will be higher), but nevertheless the trend toward seemingly mass-produced, throw-away tablets is closer today than it was yesterday. Here’s quick demo of the unit from back in April: What little we know of the Allgo comes from Techie Buzz, which is reporting this weekend [...]

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From PC case maker Lian Li comes the T1 Spider, which, as you can see, takes its namesake quite literally in shape. The design isn’t just meant to catch eyes, though — it’s an open-air test bench. It’s shape allows easy access to all of its Mini-ITX motherboard and components, allowing someone to quickly build it up and tear it down. That’s useful in testing the performance of different system configurations. For us, though, it just looks silly and awesome. Check it out in the gallery below. Lian Li,

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Junkbot artist Andrea Petrachi has the true gift for conjuring the inner friendly robot from random piles of techno-detritus. A rare and increasingly valuable skil.

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Mike Pusateri sez, “This week is the NAB Conference and I saw this steampunk style VTR controller on the show floor. I thought you might get a kick out of it. It was fully functional and not just a mockup. Each button does a real task that broadcasters need in a VTR controller. The workmanship was excellent. The guys who made it are HiTechSys.”

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Big-time maker of small-form kit 3M has announced an update to its pico projector range – the ultra-portable MPro150. Weighing in at a rather lean 160 grams and measuring just 125mm long, the projector is said to be around the same size of a mobile phone and can handle piping out images for two hours. The image that is projected is anything up 50-inches in size, which is pretty impressive. The resoultion for this is 1280×800, in VGA, SVGA, XGA and WXGA formats. The projector can handle main Microsoft Office apps out of the box (Word, PowerPoint and Excel), so is great for the space-saving [...]

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InSite Medical Technologies, maker of a medical device used to safely deliver epidural anesthesia during childbirth and other procedures, has just brought in $1.06 million of an expected $2.08 million round of equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Saratoga, Calif., the company has no information on its web site, but a Stanford newsletter reports that it also received a $100,000 award from the National Science Foundation.

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