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Twitter outs advertising plans: “Promoted Tweets” incoming
MeeGo smartphone and netbook design revealed: photos
Panasonic HDC-SD600: compact full HD camcorder
MeeGo: new partners hint at future gadgets
Gears Of War 3 dated: photos and video!
New MacBook Pro line unleashed!
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi confirmed for UK!
Last.fm retires on-demand music streaming
Sony Ericsson Zylo and Spiro Walkman phones peeped
Lunchtime Lowdown: Nokia phones galore, Microsoft Kin and Opera Mini for iPhone

Twitter outs advertising plans: “Promoted Tweets” incoming

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT

Twitter has just announced its much rumoured advertising plans to start generating money. Called Promoted Tweets, the paid for tweets will appear at the top of search results for now, but the start up has more ambitious plans in the pipeline too, including adverts in Twitter clients.

In a post today on the official Twitter blog, co-founder Biz Stone announced plans for a Promoted Tweets scheme, where partners will have a relevant tweet appear at the top of relevant search results. While Stone doesn’t say exactly when we’ll see it begin rolling out, he does confirm the first partners include Best Buy, Red Bull, Starbucks and Sony Pictures, so if you see flagged up messages from them soon, you’ll know why.

Twitter is naturally keen to make its plans sound more friendly to its users, and insists that while these tweets will be visible to you even if you’re not following the feed of the partner, they are simply tweets still rather than banner ads, and they must show organic activity (Users must retweet them and click through links or they won’t be shown again), so partners will have to make them interesting.

Twitter buys Tweetie

Stone says this is the first phase of Twitter’s advertising scheme, and that if it proves successful, updates will allow Twitter clients, third party apps such as TweetDeck which many people use to access their stream, to show Promoted Tweets, and it will also look to add them to your timeline, not just search results on Twitter.com.

Of course, we’re yet to see any advertising we really enjoy just about anywhere (Though Apple’s iAd for iPhone could change that), so we’ll hold judgment on just how relevant they’ll be until we see them. But Twitter can’t live off seed funding for ever, so we hope it works, for Twitter users and bean counters alike.

Out TBC | £TBC | Twitter

MeeGo smartphone and netbook design revealed: photos

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 09:00 AM PDT

MeeGo, Nokia and Intel’s new merged mobile OS, was announced back in February, but we’ve not seen any images of what the software will look like when it finally ships in new gadgets – until now. Intel’s just outed some new screens showing an early design for both phones and laptops, so read on to see them, plus further MeeGo details.

Intel’s just revealed slides showing MeeGo in action at its IDF conference in Beijing, and they give us a first glimpse at an early design of MeeGo – or at least the chip giant’s interpretation of it so it could change. But what we have here is certainly interesting: first up is MeeGo on a netbook, with Google Chrome as the browser, and social networking tiles eating up much of the home zone space. Another Intel slide from a MeeGo presentation at the conference also confirms that MeeGo for notebooks will support 3G and WiMAX, as well as touch and gesture support.

MeeGo: new partners hint at future gadgets

Then we’ve got MeeGo as it could appear on a smartphone, and well, it looks a lot like Symbian 3, especially the photo gallery. More revealing than anything is the Activity screen shown in one slide, which would appear to collect your web surfing and media playback history, which would be an interesting extension of the the social network streaming many handset makers are focusing on now.

A further slide also reveals that you can expect Fennec (Or Firefox for mobile) as the standard browser for MeeGo on smartphones, complete with Flash support for streaming video, cloud data syncing, an on screen keyboard and VOIP integration, though the latter is hardly surprising since Nokia bundled the Nokia N900 with a solid Skype app, and the Maemo 5 fuelled phone is one of MeeGo’s main predecessors.

Take a look at the early MeeGo designs and let us know what you make of them. Would you ditch a Windows netbook for a MeeGo machine?

Out TBC | £TBC | MeeGo (Via Carrypad)

Panasonic HDC-SD600: compact full HD camcorder

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 08:30 AM PDT

Here comes the Panasonic HDC-SD600, the latest consumer camcorder to come whizzing out of the Japanese company. It may not be quite as filmmaker-friendly as the pro-quality Panasonic AG-AF100 revealed yesterday, but this 3MOS model is capable of capturing full 1920 x 1080 HD video at 50fps.

That’s as pixel-packed as any other consumer camcorder on the market. And these capabilities are wedged into a compact body that Panasonic describes as “stylish and robust.” Panasonic has in fact concentrated on keeping the size of the HDC-SD600 as small as possible and making everything user-friendly: it says that performance-wise it’s virtually identical to the existing HS700, TM700 and SD700 models, but leaves out the electronic viewfinder and manual functions.

The Panasonic HDC-SD600 boasts a lens that goes to 35mm at the wide end, and also features 12x optical zoom, 18x intelligent digital zoom, and Power OIS optical image stabilisation to counter the effects of unsteady hands.

Out May | £TBC | Panasonic

MeeGo: new partners hint at future gadgets

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 07:30 AM PDT

MeeGo, Nokia and Intel’s new mobile OS, just got a slew of new official partners. Hardware and software giants have come out en masse to give support to it, including laptop peddlers Asus and Acer. Are MeeGo Eee PCs and Aspire Ones on the way?

The Linux Foundation, which is helping host and oversee the development of MeeGo, has revealed new partners and companies voicing public support for the Maemo and Moblin replacement, first unveiled back at Mobile World Congress in February.

Nokia MeeGo iPad rival on the way

We knew that MeeGo was destined for more than just smartphones, but now we’ve got a few more clues as to what to expect. Both Acer and Asus have voiced public support for it, and while the former doesn’t go so far as to say an Acer MeeGo machine is coming, Asus vice president SY Shian has stated that “Asus is continually exploring offerings that optimize this computing experience and address the specific needs of today's netbook customers." That could be seen as a sign Asus is investigating an Eee PC with MeeGo, or even a tablet.

Handset tech manufacturer ST-Ericsson has also joined the MeeGo initiative, and promises the “best reference design to the developer community”, which is good news as ST-Ericsson supplies kit and graphical gear to manufacturers all over the world. In other words, it won’t just be Nokia who can make MeeGo phones.

Game developers and publishers have also announced intent to support MeeGo, including iPhone OS giant EA Mobile and Gameloft, which should mean we’ll be seeing some big name game franchises on MeeGo gadgets.

It’s great news, but Nokia, if you could be so kind as to actually reveal your first MeeGo phone, we’d be grateful.

Out TBC | £TBC | MeeGo (Via The Linux Foundation)

Gears Of War 3 dated: photos and video!

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT

Gears Of War 3 has been given an official release date: the massively successful Xbox 360 alien blastathon saga continues, and to celebrate, we’ve got some new screens and a very first trailer for you right here.

Perhaps optimistically accurately given how far ahead Microsoft and Epic Games are planning, the pair have announced that Gears Of War 3 is coming to the Xbox 360 in Europe and UK on 8 April 2011, in just under a year’s time.

While not a great deal is known about the game at this early stage, we do know that Gears Of War 3 sees you once again play as soldier Marcus Fenix, with the last human outpost destroyed, and survivors holding out against all odds. Intriguingly, the official Gears Of War 3 announcement states that the game will “conluder the current story arc”, suggesting it could open up the potential for further games or spin offs with a new setting or storyline, Halo style.

Gears Of War movie will be “huge”

Help tide the time with the first trailer for Gears Of War 3 below, Ashes To Ashes, as well as the news screens in our Gears Of War 3 photo gallery.

Out 8 April 2011 | £TBC | Epic Games

New MacBook Pro line unleashed!

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 06:01 AM PDT

A new MacBook Pro line of aluminium laptops has just been outed on Apple’s website. As rumoured, Intel’s latest Core chips are on board for super speeds, but that’s not the only change. Read on for the details.

Apple’s keeping the lowly 13-inch new MacBook Pro to Intel’s older Core 2 Duo chips (2.4 and 2.66GHz), but has upped the battery life to full 10 hours, and thrown in Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics to boot. Both models ship with 4GB of RAM within five working days for £999 and £1249 respectively.

But the big changes in the new MacBook Pro line have been made to the 15 and 17 inch models. Both get options for Intel’s speedy Core i5 processors (2.4 and 2.53GHz) while the 15 inch gets a 2.66Ghz Core i7 choice too if you’re prepared to part with £1,799 – the lowest 15-inch model will set you back £1,499 meanwhile.

The bigger new MacBook Pro models also get NVIDIA GeFore GT 330M with 256 or 512MB of memory, with the twist of “automatic graphics switching”, which is likely to be Nvidia’s Optimus graphic switching technology, though this is still unconfirmed. The upshot for you is that the new MacBook Pro line will now switch the dedicated graphics card on and off seamlessly for only when it’s required, keeping up the power while saving you battery life.

New MacBook Pro: 5 things Apple can learn from the iPad

A couple of other minor tweaks have also been made across the new MacBook Pro line: the trackpad now supports inertial scrolling, iPhone style, and there are options for solid state drives in 128, 256 and 512GB capacities, though you’ll have to pay extra.

The new MacBook Pro line is on sale on the Apple store right now, so figure out what human necessities you’re prepared to forgo to get one, then head on through to order your new MacBook Pro right now.

Out Now | £from999 | Apple

Palm Pre Plus and Pixi confirmed for UK!

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 05:35 AM PDT

UPDATE: Palm UK just confirmed to us that the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi are coming here.

The Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi are on their way to the UK – and that’s official. We’ve just got word from an O2 UK spokesperson that the network will be carrying the long-awaited followups to the webOS-toting Palm Pre, although we don’t have a date or pricing details.

There has been a storm of rumours surrounding an April launch for the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi, and the appearance of huge O2 billboards advertising the Pixi in Germany all but confirmed them. O2 Germany got the original Palm Pre at the same time as O2 UK, you see.

We contacted O2 UK and they confirmed that the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi were heading our way, although we still don’t know if that’ll be this month. We also got in touch with Palm in the UK, but they declined to comment.

We’ll bring you more on the UK launch of the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi when we get it.

Out TBC | £TBC | Palm and O2

Last.fm retires on-demand music streaming

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 05:30 AM PDT

Music recommendation service Last.fm has abandoned its on-demand streaming service in order to focus on its role as “the definitive online home of your music taste” and integrate more effectively with partners like Spotify and We7. So what does that mean for the average Last.fm user?

Basically, it means you can now navigate to a track page on the Last.fm website and immediately see a link to play the song on Spotify or Hype Machine – and if you do so it’ll scrobble (become logged on your Last.fm profile). There’ll likely also be a YouTube video of the track, and in the near future a link to purchase it via We7. Links to videos on Vevo will also be made available to Last.fm users in the US and Canada.

So on-demand track streaming is out of the window to make way for those new functions. But don’t worry – Last.fm’s radio service remains untouched, and we reckon it’s still one of the best music discovery tools on the web.

Out now | £Free | Last.fm blog

Sony Ericsson Zylo and Spiro Walkman phones peeped

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT

A brand new brace of Sony Ericsson Walkman phones have just been outed. The Sony Ericsson Zylo and Sony Ericsson Spiro are a pair of music-centric mobiles that might not offer the smartphone skills of a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 or , but should do just as good a job of belting out the new Gaga track.

We’d recently heard rumours about Sony Ericsson unleashing more touchscreen Walkman phones, but neither the Sony Ericsson Zylo nor the Sony Ericsson Spiro features a finger-friendly display. Both are clearly pitched at the more affordable end of the market, but as you’d expect there are some interesting music-related features on both.

The Sony Ericsson Zylo is the first Walkman phone able to play lossless FLAC files, with Sony Ericsson claiming that it offers the best sound quality ever heard on a mobile phone. There’s also TrackID to identify any song the phone “hears”, as well as access to the PlayNow online music store. There’s also Facebook and Twitter functionality, plus the ability to share photos on Flickr and Picasa and videos on YouTube.

The Sony Ericsson Spiro features a 3.5mm headphone socket, Bluetooth stereo and FM radio, plus TrackID, PlayNow, Facebook and Twitter.

Out Autumn 2010 | £TBC | Sony Ericsson

Lunchtime Lowdown: Nokia phones galore, Microsoft Kin and Opera Mini for iPhone

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 04:30 AM PDT

It’s been one hectic morning in tech, with an avalanche of brand new mobiles phones and more hitting officialdom. Read on for everything you’ve missed here in the lunchtime lowdown.

Nokia stole the show this morning, outing no fewer than three messaging mobiles, all armed with QWERTY keypads. First up is the super cheap, Symbian S40 infused Nokia C3. Then we’ve got the Nokia C6, with the smarter Symbian S60, and the Nokia E5, which is a Nokia E72 in all but price.

Those weren’t the only social networking phones we saw this morning though: Microsoft’s Pink project has finally come to fruition, in the form of the Kin One and Kin Two handsets, and they’re headed to the UK this year.

Sticking with mobile, there was one more bit of major news this AM: Opera Mini has landed on the iPhone, much to the surprise of many, and it’s as fast as we’d hoped.

Finally, be sure to check out the latest Android Invades features, as well as a full breakdown and dissection of the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Google phone right here.

Still want more news? It’s all yours, over on the homepage, right now!