Sony is still working very hard to turn a profit. To do so, the company is betting on (stereo) 3D, among other things, to charge a premium, in a bid to increase its margins. This was largely visible during our recent trip to CEATEC in Japan: stereo 3D was everywhere, in TVs, but also in the PS3 graphics driver itself. With it, Sony can turn the PS3 (an Uber10) user interface and most games into "3D Stereo" games. So what's in it for Sony? Sell more expensive TVs, for one.

It is not surprising to see Hollywood and TV makers are pushing (stereo) "3D". While customers have sometimes been willing to pay an extra to go from 60Hz to 120HZ, I doubt that the same is true for 240Hz. Thinness is also worth only so much: when it comes down to it, customers aren't willing to pay twice the price to get half the thickness. Instead most will patiently wait until the prices fall into the 1500-2000 range.

Olive Media Inc has released this 4HD high-end music server that aims to match the 24-bit/192Khz standard used in recording studios (for reference, CDs are encoded with 16-bit values at 44.1Khz). Assuming that you have the speaker setup that matches what the Olive 4HD can output, you would hear how "music sounds as it is recorded".

The Olive 4HD comes with 2TB of storage, which is equivalent to 20,000 HD songs, or 6000 CDs. Users can move data from a PC or copy tracks from a (low-res!) CD. It costs $2000, and my question is: where do I find the HD audio content?

Asus and NVIDIA have just announced that several new models of the award-winning Asus Eee line are shipping with NVIDIA's Ion chipset (the same one used in the Macbook Pro). The new products include:

• Eee PC 1201N: Ion + dual-core CPU (Atom) netbook
• EeeTop PC EB1012: All-in-one 20" with touch screen and DVD
• EeeBox PC EB 1012: Nettop that is HD video capable
• EeeBox PC EB1501: A more powerful box with 4GB of memory and Windows 7 Home Premium
• AT3N7A-I: A mini-ITX motherboard for home theater PCs

With the upcoming Flash 10.1 (final release), Ion will be extremely potent, not only for hardware-accelerated DVD or Blu-Ray playback (it has been since day 1), but also for playing fullscreen Flash videos from sites like Hulu or YouTube, which are quickly becoming critical to a Media Center experience. This is a major design-win for NVIDIA.

Our friends from netbooknews.de have posted a lot of (official!) details about the Lenovo X100e. In short, it is going to be a 11.6" Netbook with a new industrial design and powered by an AMD Neo processor. It will weigh 3lbs and have a battery life of about 5.1 hours. This is a far cry from the ThinkPad X200, but it will cost more than half the price: this is a sub $500 Netbook. And by the way, the images (in the full post) also show that the ThinkPad X200 will have 12 hours of battery life. More in the full post.

Wireless Dynamics has announced iCarte, an iPhone add-on that adds NFC and RFID capabilities (read and write) to the iPhone. This could be used in many ways, like contact-less micro-payments, public transportation tickets and information gathering (ads, promos...). NFC is very popular in countries like Japan. In France, the subway system is equipped with NFC to replace paper tickets. Last summer, there were rumors that Apple would integrate NFC in the next iPhone, and if that was the case, Wireless Dynamic might be able to build on the momentum with iCarte. This product uses a smart chip from NXP Semiconductors. They too would benefit from the NFC boom predicted by some.

Today, Kurt DelBene, Senior Vice President of the Office Business Productivity Group, announced the release of the public betas of Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 (for Windows Mobile 6.5), and Office Web Apps. The betas can be downloaded at: www.microsoft.com/2010.

Looks like the e-book reader market is heating up, with so many more players making their entrance. Case in point, the new nReader K60 from BenQ which will come with a 6" touchscreen e-paper display which relies on SiPix Microcup technology, boasting 800 x 600 resolution alongside the capability to display 16 grey scales. Pretty much similar to the Amazon Kindle in terms of technical specifications, although it misses out on the Kindle's keyboard while being a wee bit smaller and lighter. Other features include 2GB internal memory, a microSD memory card slot, a microUSB port, an USB 2.0 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. Expect this puppy to handle all relevant file formats, including ePub, PDF, TXT and HTML alongside audio and image file formats as well. While it comes with Wi-Fi connectivity, a USB port on top of the device could prove to be its trump card, allowing USB 3G dongles to be connected for portable Internet access. BenQ touts a 7,500 page turning experience per full charge, but this rules out Wi-Fi and 3G access.

NEC and Soundpower have come together to develop a remote control prototype that does not require any battery to run at all, where it will target home electric appliances when commercialized. This remote control was made possible thanks to a vibration-based power generation device developed by Soundpower, coupled with NEC Electronics' microcomputer supporting RF remote controls which require radio waves with a frequency band ranging from several tens of MHz to several GHz in order to transmit and receive data. All of that will work in tandem with a power supply control technology which drives electronic circuits thanks to a small amount of electricity. Guess couch potatoes would be pretty happy with this, eh?

The boffins at GE are currently working on a new batch of wearable RFID sensors that are smart enough to detect airborne chemical agents. No idea on how they're going to commercialize this though, but that's a good problem to have (and solve down the road). Apparently, the final product can be part of a badge and worn on clothing, being fully capable of detecting chemical agents in the air even when they're at ultra-trace concentrations. Could this help alert ordinary folks to the presence of anthrax or other poisonous gasses during a terrorist attack? Might be a tad too late then, but at least it will be able to pinpoint who was the culprit that let out a silent fart in the elevator. [Press Release]

The VOT550 mini computer has been spotted online during the summer, but ViewSonic just launched it (as in: you might be able to buy it soon). Don't mistaken the VOT550 for a Nettop - despite its small size, it packs a lot of punch: 2.2Ghz Core Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard disk and a Blu-Ray drive. ViewSonic has cleverly used a slim optical drive design, and has extracted the power supply from the main box (like laptops). The result is a very small box that is a fully featured PC. We have not cracked one open, but we expect to see a single fan, which will make it a relatively quiet computer. In the back, all the ports are there... except the HDMI output, which *might* be an issue with HDCP (the HD digital copy-protection scheme) at some point. At $949, it is relatively expensive, but there aren't many small Blu-ray home theater PCs like this one. If Blu-ray is not a priority for you, the Mac Mini could be a decent alternative, although you need to price in the cost of getting Windows. I doubt that it will be cheaper.

With the Exilim EX-G1, Casio enters in for in the rugged camera territory with a camera that can thrive in places where most cameras wouldn't even survive. With its two-layer body (steel + polycarbonate), the Exilim EX-G1 is protected from shocks, dirt and humidity. How much protection are we talking about? According to Casio, the camera can survive drops from 7 feet (2.13m) and be plunged 3m deep underwater for one hour.

Physically, the Exilim EX-G1 is 19.9mm thick and has a non-extending 3X optical zoom (38-114mm). In the back, there's a 2.5" LCD display that is protected by an acrylic plate. The impact zones (zones where the camera is likely to fall on) are ruggedized and it is even possible to add a detachable protector similar to the one found in the Casio GzOne rugged phone - the one that started it all.

T-Mobile seems to have finally flushed the Sidekick data loss incident out of their system, having released this statement.

“T-Mobile is pleased to announce that Sidekick sales have resumed. New pricing for the Sidekick LX 2009 will be $149.99 with a two-year contract and the Sidekick 2008 will be $49.99 with a two-year contract.”

One thing remains though - sales of the devices might begin, but will customers have any more faith in the infrastructure anymore? After all, once bitten, twice shy. Only time will tell.

But not out - at least that's what we hope. The essential BlackBerry Internet Service, also known as BIS, is not working for a whole lot of people globally. This has been happening for a few hours already, and there is still no official announcement on why this outage has happened. We could even be looking at up to 80% of users being affected here. Do leave a comment if you're upset at this outage, leaving you with little choice but to do actual work in front of your PC instead blogging or updating your Facebook.

Want to look cool while knowing that your pair of shades will remain there even when you're thrown a really hard punch to the eyes? That's what the Japanese militarty is endorsing - the Japan Self-Defense Force Sunglasses. Its lens won't fracture even if it is hit at 106mph by a 0.3" object - that's just how strong it is. Also, it is capable of holding up to a 500g piece of iron dropped on it without batting an eyelid. Would you fork out $317 for some virtually indestructible cool?