PMP’s coming from Asian countries such as China and Japan are really nice and innovative, it’s a shame that most of these devices never make their way to the States. That is the case with this latest PMP from Ramos Digital, called the V8. It’s still being worked on, but as of now, we know it supports MP4, AVI, DivX, RMVB, MP3, WMA, and FLAC. Other features include an integrated e-Book reader, and TV-Out functionality. Finally, it comes with a 4.3-inch screen and can automatically detect the way you hold it, meaning it will go from portrait to landscape mode, and vice versa automatically. Sounds a bit like the ipod Touch, eh? (Read the full post about ‘Ramos Digital announces new, sleek V8′…)

According to French newspaper Les Echos, Apple is pushing Orange to subsidize iPhone handset prices in order to shift more units. French iPhone sales have so far been poor, at a measly 825 units per day. These slow sales are no surprise. Europeans are used to paying little or nothing for handsets. Even top of the range models can be had for pennies if you sign up for a big enough monthly tariff. Paying €400 ($630) for a handset and also being tied to a contract and carrier? No thanks. If Orange does cave to Apple’s demands (and Les Echos’ sources suggest that there is considerable pressure coming from Cupertino), then France will join Britain and Germany in offering cheaper iPhones. (Read the full post about ‘Apple Squeezes Orange To Subsidize iPhone Pricing’…)

It looks like we may have all misinterpreted PayPal’s announcement that it will block users who are using old browsers when doing online transactions at PayPal. Some reports have included Apple’s Safari browser as among those that will be blocked by PayPal. PayPal has denied this report by saying that it has no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers that include the Safari browser from accessing it’s site. And to clarify, it will only block customers from logging into the PayPal when using obsolete browsers on outdated or unsupported operating systems, such as IE4 running on Windows 98. (Read the full post about ‘PayPal clarifies; we are not blocking Safari users’…)

So you’re driving around at night with no idea where you’re at, and your partner is having trouble reading the map? Obviously you haven’t heard of GPS navigation devices, so the next best thing is to flood the map with a light source, and what better way to do it than with the Seatbelt Light? Just clip it onto your seat belt and turn it on when you need to read a map or follow directions. Passengers can use it without distracting the driver. Two levels of brightness from 4 LED lights (included). Uses 3 AA batteries (not included). A set of two will retail for $14.99, although I’d say that using your car’s ceiling light ought to be good enough. (Read the full post about ‘Seatbelt Lights to the rescue’…)

Horse Racing Extravaganza You can have this for ?39.95 Tags: hdtv, lcd, dvr, cool gear (Read the full post about ‘Horse Racing Extravaganza’…)

Light sabers just made their way into the best edge-weapon fighting game around: Soul-Calibur IV. As you can see, Darth Vader is providing some serious stabbing in this image, but he’s not the only one, Yoda is also in the game, and although the doesn’t turn in to an over-energetic chipmunk like in the movie, it’s cool. Warning: I’m a fan of the franchise since the playstation 1 version, so I might be slightly biased. (Read the full post about ‘Darth Vader and Yoda in Soul Calibur IV’…)

Transcend Information has a new MP3 player in our midst, the T.sonic 615. This mp3 player takes after the ipod in terms of color, coming in a glossy white casing complete with a dual-color OLED display and features an integrated FM radio, A-B repeat, and variable playback speed functions. You also get seven built-in equalizer modes to help you achieve the best listening experience possible (as far as something as tiny as this goes anyway) and Lyrics Sync. With a 13-language support and Transcend’s T.sonic Utility that allows users to add password protection to files, the T.sonic 615 will come in 2GB and 4GB capacities. (Read the full post about ‘Transcend Information T.sonic 615′…)

The wonders of the built-in accelerometer are put to good, legitimate use by Nokia as it enables an automagic screen rotation feature on any European Nokia N95 8GB handset. This move makes Nokia look like it has accepted that the feature is really in-demand with users. It might seem a novel idea, but who would’ve thought that this little trivial thing could become one of the most popular features ever on mobile phones? (Do I really need to say it? Um, iphone? Hello?) Unfortunately, Nokia N95 8GB NAM owners still have to wait a bit for official support to roll out on local shores. But you can ask your European friends how this old new feature fares out with their handsets. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia N95 8GB firmware update enables automatic screen rotation’…)

Head over to Amazon’s Kindle page and you’ll see these long-awaited words: Availability: In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available. Whether it was excessive demand or a mess-up at the factory which caused the Wii-like shortage, Jeff Bezos’ ebook reader (and always-on internet appliance) is back. It’s still $400, it’s still ugly, and it still won’t make you look like a romantic intellectual when you read it whilst sipping espresso at a Paris pavement café. But it is the first step towards a cheap and useable ebook reader, unless Apple gets there first. We particularly like Amazon’s tagline for the Kindle: “Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device”. Yes, Wireless reading device. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon’s Kindle Back In Stock’…)

Forget quad-core, AMD is preparing a dodeca-core chip. If you didn’t stay in boarding school if you need refreshing with your greek vocabulary, dodeca means 12, and that’s 12 cores for you right there. Imagine, a dozen times faster than a normal chip. But how fast does one’s computer ever really need to be? AMD doesn’t seem to care if there’s an answer to that question or not (just as its closest competitor Intel doesn’t), and moves on with their plan to produce a 12-core processor to be released by late 2008. It will reportedly be called the Shanghai, and will be a 45nm successor to their not-so-successful Barcelona chip. (Read the full post about ‘AMD readying 12-core 45nm processors for late 2008′…)