Pioneer Churns Out the World's First 12x Blu-ray Burner

The BDR-205 is pretty much like any other mainstream 5.25-inch internal Blu-ray writer, in terms of looks and features, except for the fact that it, get this, spins slightly faster than the current crop of 8x writers. Slightly! I was tempted to try to find a late-90s press release for Pioneer's first 12x CD burner to see how closely the language matched this one—let's just assume "very"—but a) I couldn't find one, and b) I didn't want to diminish Pioneer's achievement here too much—any device that cuts into the atrociously long Blu-ray burn times we've become slowly and begrudgingly accustomed to is a categorically good thing. The BDR-205 is due in October for $250.

Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 Commander's Challange

Red Alert 3 Commander's Challenge (video http://portal.commandandconquer.com/portal/site/redalert/cncra3_commchall/) features many new missions. There are 50 new challenges to be done. The objective is to beat the par times on each mission and unlock new technology. Almost everything in this game is new. It is only 10 dollars on the Playstation 3 store and on Xbox live.

Microsoft Cafe in Paris

How do you get the French excited about Windows 7? Apparently, the sales pitch goes down better with some coffee and pastry. That's why they're building a full-on cafe in the heart of Paris (47 Boulevard Sebastopol). The cafe will open for a few weeks starting on October 22nd. Patrons will be treated to, well...treats along with the opportunity to play around with various Microsoft products—although nothing but food will actually be sold there. So we get Microsoft stores and they get a cafe. Do you think the cafe concept would fly in the States?

Intel's "Tangent Bay" Laptop Concept Has 3 OLED Multi-Touch Screens Above the Keyboard

That's four screens in total. Crazy, right? The prototype's three mini-screens let you organize and play files without taking up room on the main display. You can also use multi-touch gestures, and drag files between screens. Watch it in action. This week's Intel Developer's Forum has a history of weird and wonderful prototypes. As it has with MIDs and UMPCs, the company uses concepts to as reference platforms in the hopes that manufacturers will take interest and use its chips. No word if anyone has signed up on this one, but it's a nice juicy insight of what type of products might be around the corner. [Crave Asia]

Sensia DAB and Wi-Fi Radio Delivers Big Touchscreen, Twitter and Facebook Apps

Taking cues from devices like the Chumby, Squeezebox and HP's DreamScreen, Pure is throwing a kitchen sink full of features into their new Sensia radio—including Wi-Fi, DAB and FM support, a 5.7-inch touchscreen and plenty of popular widgets.
Other features include: two full-range 3" drive units, an optional rechargeable battery, RF remote and a 3.5mm input for hooking up additional audio sources. Widgets like Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, weather and news are available now, but the lineup should grow over time. Plus it kind of looks like something the Jetsons would have. The Sensia will be available in Europe for the equivalent of $406, but there is no word on when or if it will ever be available in the States. [Sensia via Slashgear]

Remember how Sony Ericsson was going to make it so "the way you listen to music changes forever"? Well, apparently they're doing so with a fancy headset. Really, guys?

The rumor is that it'll be a headset that automatically starts the music when you put it on. Interesting, I guess, but not mindblowing. I'll reserve judgement until the official announcement on the 21st, but it seems like SE should cut down on the hyperbole a little bit. [Eldar Murtazin via DailyMobile]

Logitech's Portable Lapdesk N315 Has a Clever Slide-Out Mouse Pad

If you use your laptop on the couch, or in bed, laptop-desks stop it sliding around, or warming up your nether region. And while we like Logitech's Comfort Lapdesk, the new N315 adds a mouse-rest—pretty good for $30.

The washable, anti-slip top has room for notebooks with screens 15.6-inches or less, but definitely isn't as padded underneath as the $40 "Comfort" model. Still, the N315 is thin enough to fit into a laptop sleeve.

Companies like Belkin and Levenger also make decent laptop-desks, but the N315's retractable mousepad and portability are a good twist. Even if it does kinda look like a fast food tray... [Logitech]

Wii Price cut

A Toys R US ad for Sept. 27 follows a Walmart list that makes it seem pretty damn likely the Wii's gonna drop to $199 in the next couple of weeks. With Wii Sports intact, even.

Court Overturns Microsoft's $358 Million Payment to Alcatel

Microsoft has won an appeal to overturn a US$358 million award it had been ordered to pay to Alcatel-Lucent in the latest ruling on an ongoing patent-infringement dispute that began in 2003.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the ruling of a federal jury in San Diego that Microsoft infringed on the so-called "Day" patent at issue in the case. However, the court said there is not enough evidence to uphold the damages the lower court had awarded Alcatel-Lucent, according to its decision, which is posted on its Web site.

The court sent the calculation of damages back down to the trial court for further proceedings, according to its ruling. The "Day" patent concerns how technology is implemented in Microsoft's Outlook e-mail application.

New Nano Nice iTunes 9 Is Nicer

Forget the new Nano, or the reinvention of the LP record, Apple's two biggest announcements this week were features hidden inside iTunes 9. We finally get to share iTunes music between computers and have new control over iPhone menus.

Previously, moving iTunes music around has required a separate application, such as Senuti.

iTunes' new Home Sharing allows up to five PCs to share their music libraries as their owner desires. My huge library of old-time radio programs can now live on my largest hard drive and get copied to and from my laptop, as I desire. Likewise your music collection,

New purchases can also be automatically copied across multiple machines, solving the challenge of needing to make all your iTunes buys on a single piece of hardware.

SCAD

Today a SCAD representative came to CHAMPS and discussed the college SCAD. She talked about the many majors and minors students can take at SCAD. They have an 80% work rate within a 6 month period in most majors and a 100% in architecture. This college you will need a scholarship for because it is over 29,000 dollars a year.

Ps3 Slim

It’s confirmed! The PlayStation 3 is now available for $299. Yes, NOW! Today, Kaz Hirai also announced a new, slimmer form factor 120 GB PS3 (available September 1st). SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton shows off the new hardware in this video. Released September 1st 2009.

Google Plans Update to Android Market

Google is promising changes to the Android Market, the same week that a prominent application developer complained about issues with the store.

With the updated store, developers will be able to better market their applications by featuring screenshots in the description of the application, Google said in a blog post. That was a simple shortcoming that Larva Labs wondered about earlier this week in a blog post where it outlined the poor revenue potential for games in the Android Market.

Google will also make it easier for users to find paid apps in the store. Currently, it's extremely difficult to find the folder in the Market that includes applications that users must pay for. "It is possible to get to the paid-only apps in the Market now, but it requires some tricky navigation through a submenu," Larva Labs' John Watkinson wrote on the blog.

Sprint Cell Phones with Android Phone

Sprint will be the second operator in the U.S. to sell an Android phone, when it starts selling the HTC Hero on Oct. 11. The Hero will cost US$180 after an instant $50 rebate and a $100 mail-in rebate. Users will be required to sign up for an unlimited data plan with the phone. Those start at $70 a month up to $100 a month, depending on how many calling minutes and texts are included.

Sony is releasing 3D TVs

Sony will next year launch a television capable of showing 3D images, it said on Wednesday at the IFA electronics fair in Berlin. The TV will be the first step in what is expected to be a big push by the consumer electronics company to popularize 3D movies, TV and computer games. The TV, which will be part of its Bravia LCD range, will launch sometime during 2010 and require users to wear special glasses to get the 3D effect. The glasses have filters in them that switch on and off at high speed matched to the image coming from the TV set so each eye sees a slightly different image. In addition to the set, Sony said it would add 3D compatibility to other electronics products including Vaio laptops, the PlayStation 3 games console and Blu-ray Disc players. Earlier in the day the Blu-ray Disc Association said it would add 3D support to the format thus helping to create a common standard for content on video discs.