Personal Technology News

There's a lot to look forward to in the upcoming New Xbox Experience -- set to launch on November 19 -- but for those who own Xbox 360s without a hard drive or a 256MB memory card, you may have to go through a few headaches before you can download it.

Digital Lifestyle Outfitters (DLO) on Friday announced it's shipping the TransDock Direct, a new dock and charging system for the iPod. It costs $59.99.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Apple Inc. rallied more than 9 percent Friday, as investors saw a newly attractive valuation in the battered stock and anticipated new laptop computers.

LOS ANGELES - Now that Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG have broken off their troubled relationship, known as Sony BMG, the Japanese company hopes to harmonize its consumer electronics and its music, a duo that was badly out of sync.

When Apple released its MacBook Pro laptop, reviewers called it an evolutionary improvement and touted its new GeForce 8600 GT mobile graphics processor, made by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia. Now some models may have faulty chips.

Research In Motion and its U.S. carrier, AT&T, are being careful to avoid the problems Apple had with its launch of the iPhone 3G.

If you've ever been stuck with a non-functioning computer and a functioning Apple iPod that has all your music on it, you are not alone. Now Senuti ("iTunes" reversed) offers a solution.

ezGear has released its ezView Leather Case for the iPhone 3G. The new case costs $34.99.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Mobile gaming companies say they will book few new sales from Nokia's N-Gage phones or Apple's iPhone, but are betting on a market boost next year as more phones of these kinds are taken up by consumers.

Earlier this week, U.K. telecom Orange decided to hold off on the Blackberry Bold for two to three weeks, due to quality concerns. Why? Software problems, apparently. It's one possible reason why AT&T has taken so long to release the Bold here in the United States.

We recently got a chance to grab a controller and play around with the latest in-development version of the Microsoft Xbox Live Experience at a demo here in San Francisco. The highlights? Revamped avatars and a "party system".

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Apple has swept the board at Britain's T3 technology magazine's annual awards, winning four top prizes, including gadget of the year for its iPod Touch.

Microsoft is raising Xbox 360 forecasts in Japan amid rumors Sony might drop the price of its PlayStation 3 even more. Meanwhile, Microsoft is planning to release an Xbox 360 with a Blu-ray drive, putting it on more equal digital-media footing with its main rival.

The Web is percolating rumors that a new Apple laptop is in the works with an $800 price tag. Currently, Apple lists its lowest-priced MacBook at $1,099.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Apple is expected to unveil new notebook computers, perhaps even one priced for those with tight budgets, at a "town hall" gathering at its northern California headquarters next week.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - TiVo Inc said on Thursday it has received the $104.6 million in damages from EchoStar Corp that it won this week when the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal of a patent infringement case.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc will unveil its updated laptops on October 14 and they may cost less, but analysts say the company's drooping stock has already taken any change into account.

Intel-backed start-up ZPower may be the first to introduce an alternative to the ubiquitous lithium-ion laptop battery, with a silver-zinc technology the company says will make its debut with a large laptop maker in 2009.

TOKYO (AFP) - Sony said Thursday it will launch a beefed-up version of its PlayStation 3 in Japan this month at the same price as the current version but with double the storage capacity.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DVD rental company Netflix Inc on Wednesday said it will begin adding $1 to monthly membership fees to provide unlimited access to high-definition Blu-ray movies.

Incipio has introduced the Feather, a new case for the iPhone 3G. It costs $19.99.

(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge temporarily halted sales of RealNetworks Inc's RealDVD software, which allows users to copy DVDs, after Hollywood studios sued the company over copyright issues, court documents showed.

CHIBA, Japan - Microsoft Corp. will be releasing games developed by top Japanese designers for its Xbox 360 console, a senior executive said Thursday, the latest effort by the U.S. software maker to make inroads in a market where it has long struggled.

CHIBA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp said on Thursday it will launch PlayStation 3 game consoles with an 80 gigabyte hard disk drive, bigger than previous models, in Japan at the end of October for 39,980 yen ($398).

It took quite awhile, but Apple has finally received a patent on one of the most recognizable features of Mac OS X.

As IBM sets out to launch its Bluehouse corporate social network to compete with Cisco and Google, word comes that Facebook and MySpace are the most popular social-networking sites for mobile-phone users.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Research in Motion Ltd (RIM), maker of the Blackberry, unveiled its first smartphone with a touch-screen on Wednesday, its answer to the popular Apple iPhone.

BOSTON (Reuters) - The cost of talking on the go is coming down, thanks to an increasing number of options for using Internet calling services on mobile phones as an alternative to traditional cellular service plans.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion will roll out a touch-screen model of its BlackBerry smartphone later this fall, thrusting it into direct competition with Apple's popular iPhone.