While the HD DVD camp is busy with its 51GB disc, the Blu-ray side has a new creature of its own to talk about. Co-developed by Pioneer and Mitsubishi, the LTH (Low to High) BD-R reportedly utilizes an “organic dye recording layer,” and is said to be a recognized format within the Blu-ray Disc Recordable Format v1.2 standard. Additionally, the two companies boast that this disc won’t require “large-scale plant investments” to manufacture, which is music to the ears of anyone who enjoys lower costs. Regrettably, it sounds like existing Blu-ray drives won’t play nice with the LTH BD-Rs as-is, but here’s to hoping that firmware updates could fix that. Click on for a shot of a prototype drive gettin’ cozy with one of the new discs.

[Via CDRInfo]
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Fujitsu attracted a fair bit of attention back in August with its $1,000 U810 convertible tablet PC, and it’s now out to prove its worth when it comes to reviews, one of the first of which looks to have come from the folks at Laptop Magazine. While it’s apparently not without its faults, they found quite a bit to like about the device, saying “you can’t beat the price for a unit with a usable built-in keyboard and tablet functionality.” They also especially dug the tablet’s sharp 5.6-inch screen, and it’s long battery life, which wound up around 5 hours and 14 minutes in their tests. On the downside, they were less impressed with the performance from the 800MHz A110 processor (no surprise there), and by the lack of integrated mobile broadband, not to mention the somewhat lackluster keyboard and mouse. That apparently wasn’t enough to keep it from getting a decent 3.5 out of 5 rating, however, with that $1,000 price tag working considerably in its favor.

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Hasselblad may have already hit 39 megapixels more than a year ago, but that doesn’t make the company’s new H3D II DSLR any less impressive, which hits that same mark with a few other improvements. Those include a new 3-inch display, which promises both a clearer view of images and lower power consumption, as well as an apparently revamped menu system that’ll let you tweak settings using the thumbwheel controls on the camera. Otherwise, you can expect just about everything you could ask for in a $37,000 camera, including 48×36 mm CCD image sensors (the largest currently available), a Global Image Locator that tags photos with the exact geographic co-ordinates at the time they were taken, and an array of features that promise to keep your shots free of noise and moiré effects, to name just a few. What’s more, if 39 megapixels and $37k is just a bit too much for you, you can opt for one of two lesser models that Hasselblad’s also just introduced, including the 31 megapixel H3D-31II ($30,000) and the 22 megapixel H3D-22II ($25,000).

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Intel’s announced USB 3.0 specification could push throughput beyond 4Gbps (300MBps) at the application level while introducing Quality of Service in support of HD video streams. Besides supplanting Firewire once and for all, a clear goal of the new “SuperSpeed USB” is to keep up with the transfer speeds of flash chips. “We don’t want to be the bottleneck in the system,” says Intel’s Jeff Ravencraft who is overseeing the 3.0 initiative. Intel, HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP, and TI will present the initial spec for a design review in November with first silicon to be stamped in “early 2009.” While the new interconnect (pictured) will remain backward compatible with USB 2.0 and prior devices, new cables laced with an optical link and a max length of 2-meters will be required to take advantage of those high speeds according to a senior engineering manager with NEC. Meanwhile, a 1Gbps throughput is being targeted with Ravencraft’s other baby: Wireless USB 1.1. Sounds great, but with existing 480Mbps Wireless USB silicon only achieving about 40Mbps in practice, Intel would be wise to focus on efficiency, not theory. Of course, it’s all just a lot of smack-talk ’til they deliver, but with Apple running Intel inside now, Sony putting USB in their camcorders, and eSATA proliferating for external disks… well, Firewire’s days sure seem numbered.

[Via EETimes and The Inquirer]
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Well folks, the reviews are in concerning Sony‘s latest and greatest Walkman, the NWZ-S610 family, and the word is… not bad. CNET is feeling the sound quality, price point, and UI, commenting that the player has a “polished interface overall, and it makes browsing pleasant.” The cats from PC Magazine seem to have similar vibes when it comes to the device (which is available in a variety of colors, as well as 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB capacities), though they do take issue with the quality of the earbuds, and the lack of video and photo file options. Skatter Tech just generally seems to be hot-to-trot over the whole affair, loving Sony’s new “open” sensibilities (and just about everything else, truth be told). There’s no doubt that Sony dropping SonicStage and opening up file formats on the player are value-added in the eyes of these critics, and overall everyone seems to feel pretty positive about the new entry. Don’t take our word for it, though, browse on over to the reviews and bask in the critical light.

Read – CNET (7.7 / 10)
Read – PC Mag (3.5 / 5)
Read – Skatter Tech (“Big thumbs up!”)

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We already caught sight of one Mobile Internet Device that made its way to Intel’s currently-happening Developer Forum, but it looks like that was just the tip of the MID iceberg, with at least five other devices also making an appearance in prototype forum. In addition to that BenQ unit, the prototypes include devices from Asus, Compal, Elektrobit, Inventec and Quanta, each of which are based on Intel’s Menlow platform, and at least some of which are apparently on track for a release in the first half of 2008. Unfortunately, there’s not much in the way of specs for any of them just yet, although we’re sure we’ll be hearing more about them soon enough. In related news, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth was also on hand to demo a pre-alpha version of Ubuntu for MIDs, as was Adobe’s Al Ramadan, who showed off the company’s Adobe AIR application, which will supposedly “extend the reach of rich internet applications” and “bring compelling new experiences to the user.”

[Via Phoronix, thanks Steve]
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For all of getting jazzed about your future filled with high capacity SDHC cards, we’ve got some stirring information for you. If you bounce over to Amazon’s German wing, you can find yourself knee-deep in a Patriot 16GB SDHC card, selling for the low, low price of 279.99. Of course, good luck finding a device that can access the card’s full capacity — but hey, you’re planning for the future, right?

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