Archos is one of the more popular players in the media player market, and now the company looks set to release six new generation 8 World Wide Web tablets, with display sizes ranging from 3 to 10 inches and priced from $100 to $350. As previously speculated, the devices will be powered by an ARM Cortex processor from 800MHz to 1GHz, and will be capable of handling 3D acceleration and multi-touch. There aren’t too many additional details just yet, but we’ll be keeping an eye on that, as they certainly look like they’ll end up as rather popular devices.

Permalink: Archos Intros Six New Devices In Its Gen 8 Web Tablets from Ubergizmo | Hot: Sony Vaio Z Review, ipad-review.html">iPad Review

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Olivetti’s Olibook M1025 is a new generation netbook that could prove to be quite the performer, featuring an Intel Atom N450 processor, a GMA3150 graphics chipset, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, all the relevant USB ports as well as VGA output just in case you can’t prepare do with the current display size. It will run on a version of Windows 7, where folks living in Italy ought to be able to pick up that slim netbook sometime next month for a yet undisclosed price.

Permalink: Olivetti Olibook M1025 shows up from Ubergizmo | RSS Sponsor: Win a Fellowes Microshred Paper Shredder!

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Hmmm, some boffins from South Korea managed to use human skin as a medium to transmit input, with a recent experiment capable of touching the 10Mbps mark – putting many World Wide Web connections around the world to shame. that experiment relied on small, flexible electrodes to achieve such a aftereffect, and could possibly be developed into a new generation of medical devices which is capable of monitoring blood sugar or electrical activity in the heart. These devices will reduce energy needs for a monitoring network by about 90% compared to wireless devices running on batteries. Shame on you, copper wires!

Permalink: Human arm transmits broadband signals from Ubergizmo | RSS Sponsor: Win a Fellowes Microshred Paper Shredder!

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It seems that HTC has suspended the work on its tablet computer, which doesn’t seem like very good news to us. The folks by at Channel News have quoted Anthony Petts, HTC’s sales and marketing director, as saying that the company will be focusing their efforts on a new generation of mobile phones. When talking about a bunch of new mobile phones, you can safely bet that a whole lot of them (if not all) will be powered by Google’s Android OS. The (temporarily) shelved tablet project was rumored to be powered by either Chrome OS or Android. There aren’t any technical details on the tablet, but it’s probably academic, as it seems like that device won’t be released anytime soon (if ever).

Permalink: HTC Tablet Suspended from Ubergizmo | Hot: Nexus One Review

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A new fourth generation iPhone rumor has tipped up that has the device coming in April. The new phone is rumored to have an OLED screen, dual-core CPU, and a removable battery.

iPhone users who like the Facebook app and upgraded to version 3.1.1 have found that there are issues with the new version. Users are getting error messages when they comment on pics.

Orginal post by Shane McGlaun

Folks who trawl the Android Market might just realize that ports of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein games for Android handsets have been removed, and here’s word on why that is so from one of the developers of a Doom port.

Some of you may have noticed that Doom for Android (FREE) no longer shows up in the market. ZeniMedia, which owns iD Software had filed a DMCA notice with Google Android Market and requested all Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein games be removed do to copyright infringement. Although the Doom source cipher, was open sourced, and the application was based on a port of the PrBoom engine, the application is still suspended. My mistake was allowing the download of the Plutonia and TNT WADs, at least that is what I suspect. Although I may not be able to distribute the application through the Market, the APK can still be downloaded and installed through the web.

Why are these folks so tight fisted and don’t want a new generation to enjoy the classics of yore?

Permalink: iD Software frags game ports from Ubergizmo | Hot: Nokia Booklet 3G Review

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America’s favorite geek newsletter. * * * Read it here, or in your browser.

Why Android Could Fail

The gold standard for market success in the cell phone handset market is, of course, the Apple iPhone. In today’s market, only three things count: sort appeal, simplicity and applications.

In all three of these measures, the iPhone earns an A+. Apple has a top sort, easiest-to-use phone and the most and best applications. As a conclusion, the iPhone is steadily — and predictably, I might add — devouring the smart phone market with no sign of slowing down.

This is the problem competitors face with creating the elusive “iPhone killer.” In order to beat the iPhone, a cell phone would have to at minimum equal the iPhone in two of these measures, and surpass it in the third. In other words, an iPhone Killer would have to, say, be associated with as good a sort as the Apple and iPhone qualitys, be every bit as simple to use as the iPhone, and have more applications.

See what a challenge that would be? How will any competitor achieve that?

Microsoft, for example, has a pretty good type, with both Microsoft and Windows as part of its Windows Mobile platform branding. But Windows Mobile gets a C on user simplicity, and a D- on the apps experience. That’s why Windows Mobile is a market loser, falling from 11.1 percent market share in the third quarter of last year, to 7.9% that year. (During that same period, Apple’s iPhone rose from 2.8 percent share last year to 13.3 percent that year.)

The success of the Android-based cell phones is much harder to predict, considering so much about future products — and which companies will build them — is unknown. But even without that info, Android has serious disadvantages. So far, Google is failing in two of the three measures: make appeal and simplicity. And the jury’s still out on applications.

Specifically, here are the potential barriers to Google’s Android success.

New generation of rugged gadgets hits

When the going gets brawny, the unbreakable get rugged PCs, phones and other gadgets. Just a few years ago, there was hardly anything worth buying in that category. But now, there’s a world of devices that can survive water, shock, dirt and extreme temperatures. Three of the hottest are Dell’s Latitude XT2 XFR rugged touch tablet, Casio G’zOne Brigade full QWERTY keyboard cell phone and Ryobi headsets. Check them out!

Service lets you send paper mail via the Internet

For 99 cents, a service called Snailmailr will take the electronic note you type on their web site, print it, stuff it into an envelope and mail it anywhere in the world. (That price covers the first two pages. Additional pages cost 25 cents per page, with a maximum of 20 pages. whether you want your envelope to not have the Snailmailr logo on the front, you pay another 10 cents per letter.) Here’s the best bit. You can upload Word files, pictures, PDF files, PowerPoint files, and Snailmailr will print them all in full color.

What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive

Gadget blog Gizmodo published an item that week headlined “Is There Any Point to the World’s First Wireless USB Drive?” In the post, writer Jesus Diaz pointed out that other drives are Wi-Fi enabled, and they don’t require a proprietary dongle. He asked, “So why not just leave a regular drive on the desk, and plug the cable for a better transfer rate at a much cheaper price? And whether you want wireless, why don’t get a drive that is Wi-Fi enabled?”

Diaz’s criticism makes sense for humans working in their homes or offices. But for location-independent professionals, the Pro WX Wireless USB hard drive makes a lot of sense. Here’s why.

Gloves keep hands warm, but give you the finger (and thumb)

Etre sensitive gloves are a cross amidst regular and fingerless gloves. Only the thumb and index fingers are exposed, so you can use your touch-screen gadgets without removing the gloves. Will these catch on?

Found Video

Why you shouldn’t rely on local cable TV for PC tips.

USB Gadget Hall of Shame

                            
Who’s the genius that came up with USB flash drives in the shape of hand grenades? Good luck with airport defense.

This “USB Alien with Illuminated Tongue,” doesn’t store info. It’s not a hub. So what does it do? Well, all it does is randomly pop out its inner mouth, which lights up in red when it does so.

News You Can Lose

The Net weighs at least 498,438,559,990 kilos.

Since when are video games considered athletic equipment? Sports Authority to sell Wii.

Need to hack a combination lock? There’s an iPhone app for that.

60% of Xbox 360s fail.

How low can they go? Chinese company sells $80 netbook.

Made In Japan

A Japanese man legally married a “virtual girlfriend” in a dating simulator video game.

 

Bad Robots

The St. Louis Zoo was having trouble keeping its polar bears alive, so it outsourced the job to some “electronic” polar bears.

Hollywood Spy

New Blu-ray “Fight Club” comes with a prank by the director. It pretends for a moment to be a “chick flick.”
 

Gotta-Get-It Gadgets

Digital picture frame additionally scans photos for display.

Wacky Web Sites

When you start to type a search in Google, the site offers autocomplete suggestions in a drop-down menu. These are based on previously entered searches that were popular, and they reveal what a strange and sick  — and funny — world it is out there. Autocomplete Me.

You may lose your lunch when you find out what school kids around the world are forced to eat in their school cafeterias in that blog: What’s For School Lunch.

How about an entire web site devoted to photos of people’s parents when they were young and awesome: My Parents Were Awesome.

Mystery Pic o’ the Week

What is it? Post your guess here! whether you’re first with the right reply, you’ll earn the dubious honor of getting your name in the next issue of Mike’s List!

LAST WEEK’S MYSTERY PIC: No, it’s not Thomas Edison’s Commemorative Chess Set, an R2-D2 repair kit from the 1970s or even Tom Cruise’s first e-meter, as suggested by some readers. In fact, it’s a street cell phone charger cart in Afghanistan. Nokia Design researcher Jan Chipchase maintains an incredible blog called “future perfect.” In the blog, she showed photos of Kabul, Afghanistan, street vendors, who charge cell phones for a small fee, and last week’s Mystery Pic was one of those pictures. Here are the rest.  Congratulations to Chris of Santa Cruz, California, for being first with the right reply!

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STEAL that NEWSLETTER!: You have permission to post, e-mail, copy, print or reproduce that newsletter as many times as you like, but please do not modify it. Mike’s List is written and published from deep inside the black heart of Silicon Valley by Mike Elgan. The Mike’s List newsletter is totally independent, and does not accept advertising, sponsorships or depraved junkets to sunny resorts. Mike writes and speaks about technology culture, smart phones, smart citizens, random gadgets, poor ideas, weird computers, painful implants, malicious robots and the Net.

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Orginal post by Mike