LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd. has launched three new handsets, the KF510 - a slim slider phone, the KP320 - a stylish phone with a 3 MP auto focus camera, and the KP110 - music cell phone.

Targeting different segments, these three mobiles will cater to the requirements of high-, mid- and entry-level consumers, respectively. All the three handsets are rich in features and boast of best technology.
The KF510 has a distinctive look and is further reinforced by a dynamic touch sensitive navigational keypad with interactive touch lighting and emotional animation. At 10.9 mm thick, it combines a slim design with strength created by its metal frame and scratch resistant tempered glass. Its design is ruled by the metal body and slim stylish slider form factor. At the center of its design are metal gradation paint schemes available in dark gray.

The LG KF510 has been dubbed as the "Touch Lighting Phone". Its unique inner type slide gives it a very clean look. The phone's tactile and visually interactive user interface includes captivating animation. The LCD includes power saving auto luminance control and is covered by tempered glass, which gives the phone a great sheen and lasting durability and also remains unaffected by minor scratches.

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World: Say hello to the RIM BlackBerry Bold. *Cue dramatic music* You may know it as the RIM BlackBerry 9000, but today, Research in Motion officially took the wraps off the highly anticipated and much-rumored smartphone, complete with a new name. The "Bold" is in reference to the smartphone's gorgeous display, but it's also bold in that it represents a number of new moves for the company. Oh, BlackBerry Bold, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways.

The bold and the beautiful
As we just mentioned, the device gets its name from its screen. The BlackBerry Bold features a half-VGA (480x320 pixel resolution), 65,000-color display, and during some initial product testing, research group participants repeatedly called the screen "bold" and "brilliant." The Brilliant moniker didn't really jive with the company, thus the BlackBerry Bold was born.

So just how bold is it? Well, RIM stopped by our office late last week to show us the device, and let me just tell you, I was absolutely blown away. I can pretty much say I've never seen a better-looking display on a smartphone. Colors pop off the screen, and it's really amazing how sharp and crisp everything looks on the display. We watched a couple of videos, and for the first time, we didn't notice any of that pixelation or blurriness that you typically get with phones. In addition, the menu interface has been revamped with a much more modern look and icons.

Also, as you can see from the images, the BlackBerry Bold boasts a new design. It's more elegant than models past, with curvier edges and a silver trim that complements the black casing. If you turn it over, you'll also notice that the back has a leatherette texture. No more slick plastic and RIM will sell replaceable backplates in different colors, including blue, gray, and red, if you want to spruce up your phone a bit. Sizewise, the BlackBerry Bold measures 4.5 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep and weighs 4.7 ounces. Kevin Michaluk over at Crackberry.com took a gamble, bought one off eBay, and posted a hands-on review. He made a good comparison and likened the device to the Motorola Q9h.

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Microsoft plans to release Office 2007 Service Pack 1 via the company's automatic update service starting June 16.
The advanced announcement is a result of the software maker's promise to give at least a 30-day notice before making Office service packs available through Microsoft Update, which is a part of Windows Vista and Windows XP,

Microsoft released Office 2007 SP1 five months ago as a download on the company's Web site. Over that time, Microsoft claims to have had tens of millions of downloads and "a very good reaction" from customers.
Microsoft said the automatic update would be rolled out gradually to ensure that the service's infrastructure can handle distribution of the software. "Think of the 16th as the earliest possible start of distribution and that no sooner than that date will SP1 start to become available to customers' systems via this channel," the company said.

The strategy of rolling out service packs in phases gives the market plenty of time to evaluate the software and gives Microsoft time to address specific customer concerns, the company said. Microsoft used the same strategy with Service Pack 3 for Office 2003.

Among the new technologies in Office 2007 is a controversial new document format called Office Open XML, which was approved last month as an open standard by the International Organization for Standardization.

The ISO's action sparked an outcry from critics who claimed Microsoft stuffed local voting committees with supporters of OOXML, an allegation the company denies. The ISO said 75% of its member nations voted to approve OOXML as a standard, 14% voted against the format, while the rest abstained, the ISO said.

Carphone Warehouse will put its European and U.S. retail business, which operates from more than 2,400 stores, into the joint venture, in return for a cash payment of GBP1.1 billion from Best Buy.

The two companies said the deal aims to accelerate the development of Carphone Warehouse's retail business and to introduce Best Buy stores across Europe.

Carphone Warehouse is Europe's largest independent mobile-phone retailer by sales, while Best Buy is the largest electronics retailer in the U.S.

The pair already have a partnership whereby Carphone Warehouse operates out of Best Buy stores in the U.S.

Carphone Warehouse said it will use the proceeds of the deal to repay existing debt, invest in broadband customer growth and infrastructure and to invest in new areas of growth. Carphone Warehouse Chief Financial Officer Roger Taylor said the deal will be 10% to 15% earnings dilutive initially but despite the short-term hit to earnings will deliver long-term value for shareholders.

Analysts said the deal was a positive move which will reduce debt and free up capital to invest in the telecoms business. Landsbanki analyst Dan Gardiner said that based on earnings dilution of 10% to 15%, Carphone Warehouse's shares trade at 14 times estimated 2009 earnings which "still represents a significant premium to both the general retail and telecoms sector."

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The Spring Auto Glass Show™, held as part of the Independent Glass Association's (IGA) annual conference in Las Vegas last week, saw several new brand-new product and tool launches.

One popular item was AEGIS Tools International's brand-new SOLO™ II Windshield Setting Tool. The updated tool features a reversible arm to allow technicians to work from either the passenger or driver side of the vehicle. The arm also extends to accommodate extreme windshield rake angles, wing windows, heavy-duty and loop arm mirrors and larger truck windshields. New pivoting cup brackets allow work on virtually any curvature also, according to the company.

"We haven't come across any windshield we can't use it on," says AEGIS president Bob Birkhauser, who also mentioned it's designed to be ergonomically safe for the operator's back, neck and shoulders.

 
An IGA attendee considers Crystal's new "HammerHead" tool. 
Crystal Glass also launched a new tool-the "HammerHead." The tool is designed to separate the lower corners of windshields that cannot be cut with a cold knife. It utilizes standard Extractor blades and is easily adjustable in length, so it fits right inside the installer's toolbox.

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Vodafone will sell Apple's iPhone in ten countries later this year, it said Tuesday.

Customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on Vodafone's networks there later this year.

However, Vodafone will not sell the iPhone through its subsidiaries in the U.K. and Germany, where Apple has struck exclusive agreements with local operators O2 and T-Mobile.

Vodafone would not say whether it will sell the current iPhone model or an oft-rumored future 3G version. A spokeswoman declined to comment on pricing, or whether the company will sell the iPhones locked to its own network.

Tuesday's announcement will mean a significant increase in availability of the iPhone, which today is sold in just six countries: the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Ireland and Austria.

IT SEEMS THAT Raul Castro has made good on his promise to let the Cuban people gorge themselves on all things electrical, with home computers going on sale in Cuba for the first time ever this Saturday.

Last month, the lesser Castro, Raul, who took over from his either already dead or dying brother Fidel, announced that Cubans would soon be allowed to buy coveted electronic devices like computers, DVD players, mobile phones and even toasters. If, of course, they could afford to.

In typical Cuban style, the masses pressed their eager faces up against the shop windows, trying their very best to catch a glimpse of the shiny new desktops on sale at central Havana’s Carlos III shopping centre. In a country where many survive on about $15 a month, the $800 computers are well out of most people’s price range, but a lucky few have managed to stash some hard earned cash under their mattresses, whilst others with generous relatives abroad have also been able to splash out on a new machine.

This is the latest freedom for Cubans since just a few short weeks ago, when they queued in their thousands to snap up newly legalised mobile phones and DVD players.

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Wii owners pounced at Mario Kart Wii last week, giving it enough momentum to leap straight into first place in the overall Australian game charts for the week of April 21-27, according to data trackers GfK Australia. The game was officially on sale for four days during that period and shipped with the Wii Wheel.

The other game to ship with a peripheral last week Time Crisis 4 comes in just below Mario Kart Wii at number two. EA playground is back in the charts in third spot, pushing Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the PlayStation 2 down to number four. Last week's top dog--Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii--has fallen four places to five, while the DS version trails behind in 10th position.

In other charts news, The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff remains at the top of the PC chart, despite falling out of the top overall 10 last week. The Sims 2 also continues to sell strongly, moving up two places, to number four.

All sales stats, including console-by-console breakdowns, can be found below:

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The NPD Group released some of its retail sales tracking data Wednesday that showed sales of Blu-ray standalone players (not a PlayStation 3, combo player, or PC with Blu-ray drive) had mostly decreased since the beginning of the year.

Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the U.S. decreased 40 percent from January to February and saw a very slight increase (2 percent) between February and March, according to NPD.

HD DVD players fared even worse player unit sales dropped 13 percent from January to February, and 65 percent from February to March--which was expected. Toshiba stopped production of HD DVD units in February, and the format's promotional group disbanded in March.

So what does this mean for Blu-ray player vendors? Why haven't sales experienced any sort of substantial uptick without a competitor? Prices offer one clue. Blu-ray player prices were at their peak for the year in mid-March, around $400. During the holiday shopping season the average price had been closer to $300.

But more likely is what NPD's high-def video analysts have been harping on for a while: that DVD is "good enough" for most consumers. And that the picture offered by a Blu-ray Disc and accompanying player doesn't appear so overwhelmingly better than a standard DVD and an upconverting player that many consumers can't justify the dramatically increased cost.

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Intel and Cray Inc. Tuesday said they have launched a joint effort to develop new multicore technologies as part of an effort to build multi-petascale systems.

The chip manufacturer signed a multiyear agreement with Cray, a supercomputer manufacturer. The two noted that under the agreement, they hope to develop a range of technologies and high-performance computers over the next several years.

"We aren't disclosing specific technologies or products today," said Richard Dracott, general manager of Intel's high-performance computing organization. The company did say in a written release, though, that they will be working on multicore technologies and advanced interconnects.

Dracott did note that Cray "has indicated" that its upcoming Cascade project will include Intel-based computers. The Cascade program, sponsored by the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was launched to build relatively inexpensive supercomputers by 2011.

"The two companies are interested in seeing the word's fastest multi-petascale-class systems brought to market through a combination of Cray's systems expertise and Intel's processor leadership," said Dracott. "The high end of supercomputing has an insatiable demand for more performance. We believe that the fruits of this collaboration will be used to help solve some of the world's most important humanitarian, medical, scientific and engineering challenges."

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