For those of you with tons of questions about Windows 8 and can’t wait to find out what it’s like, this year’s MWC is going to give you some of the answers. Microsoft has started sending out invitations for a February 29th event titled “Windows 8 Consumer Preview” – which is the Wednesday of MWC 2012. And if you’re wondering why Microsoft would choose to a mobile event to showcase the latest version of Windows it probably has to do with the changes in the operating system that make it a more suitable choice for mobile devices.
Windows 8 will run on ARM processors (in addition to X86) and will feature the Metro UI that was first introduced with Windows Phone 7. With all the similarities between Windows 8 and Windows Phone, previewing it at MWC could also signify Microsoft’s plans for the two operating systems. Either way, if you’re keen on trying out the Start button-less Windows, mark February 29th on your calendar and be sure to free up a rig or some disk space on your computer for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Who’s excited?
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Miniature cameras and video cameras seem to be all the rage right now, with tons available from the market to choose from. Well if you’re looking for one that you can easily stow away in your pocket without arousing suspicion, Swann’s HD PenCam and PenCam 4GB might fit the bill. The HD PenCam is capable of recording 720p videos and 1600 x 1200 JPEG images while the PenCam 4GB records videos at 640 x 480 and still images at 1280 x 1024.
The HD PenCam has a slot for a microSD card (supports up to 16GB) and has a battery life of 45 minutes on a full charge. The PenCam 4GB has 4GB of built-in storage, and a battery life of up to 90 minutes on a full charge. Both cameras can be plugged into a computer’s USB port for easy recharging. Oh, and when you’re not busy recording videos – they function as regular pens as well.
The HD PenCam is available now with an MSRP of $99.99 while the PenCam 4GB has an MSRP of $69.99.

Great news for Amazon Prime customers –
As if LED lights weren’t efficient enough, it looks like we might be introduced to a new generation of LED lights in the future – provided
Soon, all of your Nokia handsets will be created in the Far East, with news of Nokia planning to shed another 4,000 jobs from their payroll, affecting those working in Finland, Hungary and Mexico in a cost cutting exercise. The Finnish phone company will then consider shifting over their smartphone assembly work to the vast continent of Asia instead, where the profit margin is far higher as wages paid out are lower. This strategy is not new, as many multinational companies have already been doing so for decades, although some higher profile ones like Apple has certainly received some flak for it. Guess CEO Stephen Elop is rather liberal with the axe in his plans to help Nokia regain its former glory, as this move will see him cutting over 30,000 jobs since he took over the reins in September 2010. According to Nokia, the job cuts will happen in phases throughout 2012. Hopefully Nokia will be able to pull itself out of the doldrums with such austerity measures.
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Want to tell the time in style? Forget about those future forward timepieces from Tokyoflash that sometimes makes it extremely annoying since there is a steep learning curve in knowing how to tell the exact time at a glance, as you revert to an era which never was – steampunk. This solar powered steampunk watch will rely on the power of the sun to power its mechanical turbine, which subsequently will be used to turn the dial and let you know of the current time. At least there is no sundial to worry about here. The full name of this timepiece? Brace yourselves, it is known as the “Ezekiel Empire Rosenstein Patent Solar Powered Turbine Steampunk Fob Watch”.
There are some of us who are colorblind, and in this case, we might not be able to tell whether a traffic light is red, amber or green – but after a while, we get used to the sequence of the traffic lights, and follow them accordingly. Professor Taro Ochiai of Japan’s Kyushu Sangyo University might be on to something here, where his imagination resulted in a redesigned LED traffic light that can be seen by everyone – colorblind or not. After all, Red-green colorblindness is the most common type of colorblindness, which affects up to 10% of the worldwide population, and LED signals might be the solution to solving the equation.
We all know that sports outfit Nike has just about any and every form of merchandise that you can think of under the sun to do with sports – be it shirts, shoes, and the like. Well, it seems that Nike is working on the Nike Sole which was specially designed to work in tandem with Össur’s Flex-Run prosthetic running blade, where it sees action under the domain of competitive amputee athletes. Developed alongside world-record holding amputee triathlete Sarah Reinertsen and Össur, the sole boasts of a stacked design, and comes with a stretch rubber leash over a rubber waffle outsole. Nike has a heart for the environment, where they used ‘regrind‘ materials that were salvaged from reused shoes, a polyurethane foam midsole which has been topped by a thermal plastic that was created from recycled air bags. Plastic tabs do the job of locking the sole in place well enough, and something tells me with even greater advancement in this area, the Nike Sole might eventually see a disabled athlete outrun their able-bodied counterparts – and perhaps break a world record or two in the process.