Sony Ericsson announces the Aspen

Sony Ericsson today announced the Aspen, the latest handset in its GreenHeart line of eco-friendly devices. A no-nonsense Windows Phone geared towards business users, the Aspen’s features include a full-QWERTY keypad, 2.4″ QVGA dispaly, 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and SPB Mobile Shell floating on top of Windows Mobile 6.5.3. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the Sony Ericsson Aspen is scheduled to drop in Q2. And yes, this puppy is available with some US 3G love, albeit only on the 850 MHz band. Oh well. 1900 is teh suck anyway.
[BGR]

Waterproof, Shockproof and Crushproof: Olympus' µTOUGH 8010 and 6020 Cameras [Cameras]

If you're even remotely clumsy, then it's a practical investment. If you occasionally go boating, swimming or like partaking in shower-based photography, then the double waterproofing build of Olympus' µTOUGH-8010 and µTOUGH-6020 will come in use. Really, you don't have to be a rock-climbing steroid-pusher to appreciate a hardy camera model.

Both the 8010 and 6020 have 14-megapixel sensors and 5x optical zooms, with the only real difference being how far you want to test that hardiness—the 8010 can be dropped from 6.6-foot, resist temperatures up to -10°C, and crushed under 220 pounds of pressure and still survive. The 6020 is a little more weak-skinned, surviving under only a 5-foot fall.

Both models have 2.7-inch LCD screens and shoot in 720p resolution, with the 8010 containing 2GB of internal storage. On sale in February, for $399.99 and $299.99 each.
[Gizmodo]

China Using Freebie Flash Drives to Spy on Britain [Espionage]

UK security agency MI5 has issued a warning regarding freebie flash drives and cameras. Apparently Chinese spies are handing them out to UK businessmen in hopes of infecting their computers with trojans and gaining access to corporate secrets.

Of course old-fashioned methods—sex and money—are still being used as well, but it seems that few people expect an innocent gadget gift to contain danger in the form of a trojan or malware. After all, why else would a security agency's 14-page report be focusing on this espionage approach more than it did on other tricks?

I guess it's time for me to become a bit more paranoid about the pile of flash drives I picked up at CES.
[Gizmodo via Times Online via IEEE]

Note: Pictured flash drive is not a known spy and belongs to Gadget_Guru

Is This How the Google Tablet Will Look in Action? [Google]

Looks like we're getting a first look at what Google's Chrome OS based tablet may look like. Apparently Glen Murphy, Google Chrome's designer, posted a UI demo concept video along with some images on Google's official Chromium site.


[Gizmodo via Chrome Source via TechCrunch]

Fujifilm HS10 Not-a-DSLR Packs Manual Optical 30x Zoom, 1080p Video [Cameras]

Fuji just announced a trio of megazoom (read: fixed lens) cameras in a Monday blitz, with the most impressive being this HS10. It won't give the level of control of a DSLR, but it looks to blow away any point-and-shoot.
The 10MP HS10, pictured, is an interesting beast: It's got a 30x manual optical zoom (24-720mm equivalent), meaning you can twist the lens like on a detachable DSLR (which does give faster and more accurate control), which is something I've never seen before in a fixed-lens camera. It'll also take 1080p video, including 'a new Super High Speed Movie mode' that can take slow-motion video at up to 1000fps, and it has a 7-frame burst mode at 10fps. It's also got great low-light performance thanks to its new BSI-CMOS sensor, and takes simultaneous RAW and JPEG shots. It'll be available in April for $500.
The other two megazooms, the S1800 and S2550HD, are pretty similar; they're both 12MP shooters with an 18x zoom, 28mm-504mm lenses, 720p video recording and a 3-inch LCD. The differences: The S1800 has automatic picture rotation and tracking autofocus, while the S2550HD has a miniHDMI-out port. The S1800 will cost $230 and the S2550HD $250 when they're released this March.
[Gizmodo via Fuji]

Samsung Producing First Integrated Touchscreen AMOLED Panels Starting Next Month [OLED]

Samsung Mobile Display has announced that they're going to begin mass production of the world's first 3.3-inch touch-embedded AMOLED panels next month. That means goodbye heavy glass display, and hello thinner, lighter, brighter phones.
The technology Samsung has developed places .001mm thin touch sensors on-cell on a 3.3-inch WVGA AMOLED, between the panel's substrate and the bottom polarizer film. The result is that you don't need the touch-sensing glass panel that currently sits above your phone's display anymore. The technology could also be integrated into cameras to provide a brighter display and/or longer battery life.
We've been enamored with AMOLED before, but this is the first time we've seen such a practical application hit mass production. Exciting! More so when we actually start to see some of these products hit the market—and see how much they cost.
[Gizmodo via Korea IT Times via OLED Info via Engadget]

Intel and Micron's 25nm NAND Flash: The Secret to Cheap SSDs [SSD]

Intel and Micron's IMFT joint venture's just announced they've started producing NAND flash using 25nm transistors—they're pushing 8GB on a single die—with products shipping sometime this year in fatter capacities (up to 600GB). In English:
Using the smaller 25nm manufacturing process, they can get roughly twice as much storage in the same amount of space as the current 34nm flash manufacturing tech. More storage in the same amount of space, as we learned before, doesn't just mean more storage, it means more storage for cheaper.
[Gizmodo via Anandtech]