SlashGear Week In Review - Week 31 2009

Another week has come and gone and we are a week closer that that wondrous day parents look forward to all summer — back to school! Lots of goings on this week and much of it was centered on mobile phones. Spotify announced that it would have an official app available on the iPhone that works for subscribers on Premium packages. Monday, a bit more light was shed on the much anticipated Android donut update, alas it's said to not be the OS 2.0 update we hoped for and won't have multitouch.

We also ran across a dude that may have the coolest living room around. The guy is an architect and he designed the first floor of his home so that it is a living room shared with hits sweet Maserati Granturismo. I don't think any fan of exotic cars will argue that the Maserati isn't a work of art. Acer whipped up a new Aspire Revo this week sporting an Atom 330 dual core processors. The new nettop can also be fitted with more storage than previous modes if desired.

Western Digital revealed a massive 1TB 2.5-inch HDD this week that is called the Scorpio Blue. Before you get all hot and bothered thinking about cramming 1TB of storage into your netbook, the drive is too thick for 9.5mm drive bays. We got our first glimpse of the Samsung 1GHz Hummingbird processor on Monday that is set to take on the Snapdragon. More competition in the CPU market is always a good thing.

More rumors of the Apple tablet computer cropped up with the tablet said to be launching along with "cocktail" interactive album goodies. The cocktail albums will be bundled with video and other items to try to woo consumers back to buying full albums, not just singles. Panasonic announced new Lumix 12.1-megapixel cameras called the FZ35, FP8, and ZR1 with the FZ35 having a massive 18x zoom lens.

Last week we talked a lot about the Foxconn employee who killed himself. This week Foxconn offered the family of the man a paltry $44,000 and a free Apple laptop as compensation for their loss. The offer seems a bit low ball to me. A slick Pegatron netbook was spied on Monday that uses the same platform as the Palm Pre smartphone. There is no word on availability or pricing of the netbook though. Acer unveiled its new Timeline 1810I CULV notebook officially Tuesday available in two models, both selling for under $1000.

That much ballyhooed Apple Tablet rumor surfaced again on Tuesday with claims by a Chinese leakseter than the device is set to launch in September. The Chinese paper Apple Daily claims Wintek will be building the tablet. I mentioned that sick video of the three Tazer employees getting zapped with the company's new X3 triple shot weapon earlier this month. The new weapon is officially available now.

Clearwire launched its WiMax service in Las Vegas this week and along with the new service came the Samsung Mondi MID. We posted up our first impressions of the Mondi this week and it's a slick looking little device. Sprint announced this week that it will be building up its pre-paid service offerings by dropping $483 million on Virgin Mobile USA. That much loot only gets Sprint the license to the Virgin Mobile USA name though.

Rumors came in mid-week that Acer and Asus would be delaying their new netbooks from the last quarter of 2009 to 2010 after Intel was freezing the Pine Trail launch. Wednesday we found out that the HTC Touch Pro2 would be hitting T-Mobile on August 12. It's a nifty looking little phone for sure.

Belkin offered up a solution to the woes of iPod shuffle owners longing to get a better set of earphones for their device. The adapter allows users to control the iPod and use any headphones they want at the same time. AT&T and Barnes & Noble announced free Wi-Fi service in all Barnes & Noble stores. The idea is to make it easy for users to access the digital bookstore that Barnes & Noble offers while they are in the store.

Blackberry users that really enjoy playing games can now get their hands on the Zeemote JS1 for Blackberrys. The little controller is actually very cool and would make gaming on the blackberry much more fun. Creative unveiled a sweet little PMP this week called the Zii EGG that runs Android and have all the features we always wished the iPod touch had. MicroSD card slot FTW!

The coolest thing I read about this week was the newly introduced Ferrari 458 Italia. The beast has a 4.5L V8 and can hit over 200 mph; I should have gone to medical school. I guess the folks at Foxconn realized that the puny $44K they offered as compensation for the loss of a son was not enough. They came back with an equally puny offer of about $52,000 and a yearly stipend of about $4,385 for the family of the deceased engineer making headlines.

After courting for a long time, Yahoo and Microsoft finally tied the knot this week with Yahoo agreeing to allow Microsoft's Bing to provide search for the Yahoo web properties. Now we will see if Google can withstand Bingahoo. Sprint unveiled its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, and they were bad. The company posted a loss of $384 million and lost 257,000 subscribers over the quarter.

Nikon announced a couple new DSLR cameras Thursday with the D3000 shouldering the entry-level responsibility with a slick Guide mode to make using the cam easy for new users. Nikon also unveiled the decidedly not entry-level D300S capable of shooting 720p HD video and more. The sexy LG BL40 Chocolate went official Thursday with a launch date of Q3, we can't wait to see this thing in person.

Lenovo's Windows 7 OEM key leaked this week and allowed users to crack the new OS. That had to be bad news for Microsoft. One game publisher for the Xbox 360 has confirmed that Project Natal equipped consoles will ship in 2H 2010. That is certainly a long time to wait, it had better be good.

If those two new Nikon DSLRs just weren't good enough for you, Leica has announced a new S2 DSLR with 37.5-megapixels and a price tag of $26,000. The lenses for the thing start at $5,000 so a complete kit is going to set you back the cost of a new Mustang GT. WiMax is getting a few more cities with Time Warner launching WiMax service in Dallas and Charlotte soon. The media giant also says it will offer service in two more areas, but declined to specify where the other two areas would be.

Motorola announced this week that its handset sales were down 45% compared to the same quarter of 2008. The company also says that it will have two more Android phones by the holiday season and will try to push Android as far down the feature phone tiers as it can for cheaper devices. Mac users looking for more storage for backing up on an external drive can now get the new 2TB Time Capsule for $499. That should be plenty of space for your Britney Spears music collection.

WildCharge is now providing wire-free charging for the iPhone 3GS that will help remedy the iPhone owners Pre Touchstone envy. The company plans to start licensing its tech to other firms so we should see some cool new gear hitting market soon. Insiders are claiming that Intel is cutting the supply of netbook Atom Z processors and that no more orders for the parts will be taken. Intel is said to be ending the Z production by the end of 2009.

That sexy CrunchPad we talked about earlier in the month got a launch date and price Friday. The device is set to hit market in November for $399. I know what's on my wish list for Christmas! The Motorola Shules Android phone was snapped all on the DL style Friday. It has a strange looking keyboard.

Friday Microsoft fixed Lenovo's shame when it blocked the OEM key hack spawned when Lenovo's OEM key was leaked. EBay is scaring Skype fans this week with threats that it may shut down the Skype service after Skype founders have pulled the license agreement Skype relies on. EBay is said to be working on new software that wouldn't involve licensing fees.

Well there you have it, another week behind us! See you next week for another round up!