This is a new item from Logitech. It’s the S715i and it is a rechargeable iPod speaker dock which will keep the tunes gong for about eight hours on a single charge. It will cost around $150

• Eight custom-designed drivers separate sound frequencies, so you hear crisp, clear high notes, a rich, full mid-range and deep powerful bass.
• Rechargeable battery lets you enjoy your tunes at home or on the go for up to eight hours.
• Wireless remote control gives you access to important functions like power, volume, play, pause, shuffle, skip and repeat from up to 30 feet (10 meters) away.
• Trayless dock works with any iPhone or iPod with a Universal Dock Connector.
• Made for iPod and iPhone means you can play and charge your iPhone and any iPod model with a Universal Dock Connector.
• Auxiliary input lets you connect other portable music players through a standard 3.5 mm jack.

Well this was unexpected: Apple has quietly enabled its devices to stream music to iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches from online storage through iDisk. It’s the very next-best thing to putting iTunes in the cloud. UPDATED:

The new feature was unearthed by Michael Robertson, who also provided the screen shots above showing clearly that iDisk allows both background music streaming and public file sharing among multiple devices at simultaneously. Matt declared iDisk “halfway there” in his lightning review—this seems like as good a second half as any.

You’ve apparently been able to do this with iDisk for a while, but this is the first time you get backgrounding support and controls.

It’s not totally effortless and there are a few limitiations: you need to drag your music files one by one [or whole folders] to iDisk, there’s no playlist support, and you’re limited to 20GB of storage. That’s still a whole lot of songs, but some users may not be able to fit their entire music library. The app itself is free, but you’ll need a MobileMe subscription ($100/year) to use it. There’s also the tricky question of legality—music companies aren’t generally in favor of streaming music without a license, something that may be holding up iTunes Live.

But that’s Apple’s problem, not yours. The only thing you need to worry about for now is which tracks are hitting your iDisk first, and where you want to play them from.

UPDATE: Sam’s been testing this out, and it works like a charm over Wi-Fi and 3G alike, with “decent” audio quality. [Michael Robertson]

Send an email to Brian Barrett, the author of this post, at bbarrett@gizmodo.com.

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Rejoice, Facebook users with Android smartphones, because there’s a new Facebook app looks good at last. It also comes with a handful of useful new features:

• There’s a notifications bar.
• There’s a new photos drawer on the home page, for easy access to photos and videos from your news feed.
• Events support.
• Now you can update your status with one click.
• Video playback inside the app.

The application is free. [Lifehacker and Gigaom]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

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The LifeStudio™ Desk Plus external drive automatically finds and organizes photos, movies, music, and files into a stunning 3D wall* so you can easily view all your content from your computer and popular sites like Facebook™. The included auto-sync USB key delivers ultimate flexibility for your content on-the-go.

With plenty of capacity for automatic local backup and with the included online backup capabilities, it’s easy to protect your entire digital library. And you can access your files from any computer or smartphone using an internet browser, or share with others by sending a web link. iPad and iPhone aps are also available for an additional cost.

• Automatic Organization and Easy Sharing: First drive in the industry that automatically pulls together and organizes your photos, videos, music and documents from your computer, any connected USB device or your social media outlets; making them easier to access, view and share. Easily upload, view and interact with photos on Facebook™, Flickr™ and Picasa Web Albums™ without leaving the app.
• Stunning 3D Navigation: The only external drive that effortlessly displays all your favorite memories on a 3D wall so you no longer need to dig through folders and files to find them.
• Backup Redefined: Hitachi LifeStudio drives take data protection to the next level, offering both local and online cloud backup in one integrated solution, within one interface – no more downloading and installing two separate programs. All online content is stored in its natural format, so files are available from any Internet browser anywhere in the world, and even from an iPhone® and iPad®.
• Access to Favorite Premium Content: For the first time within an external drive, users can search, filter, watch or subscribe to millions of titles from online content providers. Catch the latest news, TV shows and music videos, or even play online games all from within the LifeStudio app.
• Grab n’ Go Flexibility: Pushing design boundaries beyond a hard drive in a box, LifeStudio Plus external drives are the first in the industry that feature an integrated USB key for ultimate flexibility. The USB key easily syncs content for grab n’ go convenience.

Inside the box:

• 3.5” external hard drive
• 4GB MicroSD USB Key
• USB 2.0 cable
• AC power adapter
• Preloaded Hitachi Backup™ software
• Preloaded LifeStudio™ software
• QuickStart guide

This is the new iHome iB969. If you require a device to replace all your device charging cables then take a look at this new device. This may look like a serious multifunction gadget but it is only a charger. It will charge almost all of your gadgets which have a USB connector. It comes with built in stands for iPad and it has an integrated cable management system.

Charging Station for iPad, iPod, iPhone, BlackBerry and eReaders

• Charges iPad. Built-in stand included.
• Dual universal docks: One to charge and sync to iTunes
• Second dock for quick charge of iPhone/iPod
• Charges (via USB port) iPad, Blackberry, and most eBook readers, including Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, etc.
• Expandable, rubberized rest area accommodates Blackberry, and most eBook readers
• Integrated cable management

INCLUDES:
Dock inserts for iPhone
36″ sync cable to sync with iTunes
12″ USB to mini USB cable for charging devices
12″ USB to AC adapter plug for charging Sony Reader
Two mini USB to micro USB adapters
Universal Voltage AC adaptor with folding pins
100 – 240V, 50/60Hz

Amazon is said to be preparing for a major makeover of their MP3 Store; the online retailer is said to be set to re-launch the store’s API’s and web services according to anonymous sources over the web. Moreover, the sources also stated that partners have been asked to delay Amazon MP3 integration until the said portal makeover has been officially launched to the public. Aside from that, the unconfirmed reports, Amazon’s job listings somehow contains various relevant position; further, a page that is referred on the MP3 Store’s Twitter account also contains a lot of entries for positions in engineering and business departments as well; jobs would range from Web Applications Manager, to various engineers for mobile endeavors on platforms such as Android. For now, Amazon is yet to publicly disclose their plans on the said re-launching of their MP3 store while tighter integration of third-party devices also seems to be a likely focus and that full details about the possible changes that may transpire in the future still remains a mystery to us all. Whether or not the change would do us all good, still remains unknown as well so all we are left to do is to wait for them to announce it formally in public.

Just six weeks after launch, Microsoft’s Kin, the social phone we wanted to love, is dead. Microsoft is ending its short life, sources close to Microsoft tell us. There won’t be a separate Kin product anymore. Effective immediately, Andy Lees is shoving the entire Kin team into the core Windows Phone 7 team, so there will just be one big group to focus on Windows Phone 7.

The major reason? Sales. Microsoft never confirmed (or denied) that only 500 Kins were sold, but it’s clear that the response has been completely underwhelming. Otherwise, why kill a project that was in development for years after just a few weeks? (And cost millions.) A major reason it bombed, besides the weird, non-specific faux hipster marketing? Price. Verizon priced Kin’s monthly service like a smartphone, even though it wasn’t one. Evencutting the device price drastically didn’t alleviate the high cost of the monthly plan. (The confusing Kin, a Windows Phone 7 Phone by Microsoft flustercluck branding didn’t help.) The few people that did buy a Kin will still get support from Microsoft, but the future of promised software updates is up in the air. It seems safe to say, though, Kin isn’t going to evolve into the things we hoped it would. At best, we have to hope the things we did love—Kin Studio—will make it into Windows Phone in some guise. Microsoft’s official statement on the matter, for what it’s worth, is vague but telling: “We have made the decision to focus on our Windows Phone 7 launch and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.” [emphasis mine]

It’s not the first major innovative E&D project Microsoft’s slaughtered in recent months, but it’s the first that’s actually made it to market before being gutted. Verizon, for the record, says “The phone is still an important part of our portfolio.” All in all, still kind of astounding. Send an email to matt buchanan, the author of this post, at matt@gizmodo.com.

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Pantech and Verizon has announced that the Pantech Jest will be landing on Verizon shores very soon and will come off as an exclusive device; the new device is a slider phone that is built around keeping the user in touch with friends and family by means of social networkingand messaging as well.

Pantech Jest to Arrive in Verizon Next Week

The jest comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the screen of the handset is a 2.6-inch 262K color TFT and users are given the opportunity to customize everything on the phone from icons to contents. Further, the device comes equipped with a 2mp digital camera that can shoot stills and record video as well.

Moreover, the handset will come with full text, video and voice messaging features as well as Mobile IM and Chat apps; the phone is also capable of access to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and can be owned for free during the special launch promotion and will land in stores on the 5^th of July for $69.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate; so, if you want to own one of these phones, you can only get it from Verizon starting next week.

Toshiba Satellite A665 3D-Ready Laptop Brings New Dimension to Entertainment

Laptop Delivers Immersive Entertainment Experience Powered by NVIDIA 3D Vision Technology

IRVINE, Calif. – June 15, 2010 – Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the introduction of its first 3D-ready laptop for the U.S. market.

The Satellite® A665 3D Edition laptop features a 15.6-inch diagonal TruBrite® widescreen LCD display with LED backlighting and a 120Hz refresh rate. NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ software and hardware technologies drive the stereoscopic 3D experience, delivering out-of-the-box compatibility with hundreds of PC games, as well as videos and photos. Equipped with a rewriteable Blu-ray Disc™ drive, the A665 is also ready to support content playback in the Blu-ray 3D format as it becomes available in the marketplace.

Encased in the all-new Fusion™ X2 finish in Charcoal, the Satellite A665 laptop delivers enthusiast-class performance and features with the processing power of the Intel® Core™ i7 quad-core processor with TurboBoost technology, plus the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 350M graphics processing unit (GPU) with 1GB of GDDR5 video memory. The included NVIDIA 3D Vision kit, which includes software, a pair of wireless active shutter glasses and an emitter, enables users to get in the action quickly with easy set-up and intuitive conversion of supported content for stereoscopic 3D viewing.

“With this active shutter 3D technology, we are able to provide consumers with dynamic, high-quality stereoscopic images right from the laptop screen,” said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. “We designed this system to support functionality that will become available in new drivers and software enhancements, so early adopters of 3D technology will be able to take advantage of new capabilities such as the ability to play Blu-ray 3D content and more.”

“3D Vision technology is for more than just PC gamers,” said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision technology at NVIDIA. “We are working closely with our partners to ensure a wealth of 3D content, including games, photos, movies and even the Internet can be fully enjoyed on a 3D laptop.”

The Satellite A665 is also packed with premium multimedia features. Built-in harman/kardon® speakers deliver impressive sound while Dolby Advanced Audio™ further optimizes audio quality so games, movies and music sound more vivid and true to life. Toshiba’s unique new Sleep-and-Music technology is also included, enabling users to play music from their MP3 players through the laptop’s speakers – even while the laptop is powered down. For movie lovers, the laptop includes Toshiba’s Resolution+™ DVD upconversion technology, which improves the quality of standard definition DVD content by boosting contrast, sharpness and saturation to near high-definition quality.

Rounding out the list of premium features is an LED backlit keyboard that provides convenience in low-light conditions, while raised-tile style keys deliver a comfortable typing experience. A wide TouchPad™ also offers multi-touch control for easier navigation, allowing users to pinch, swipe or zoom through files, applications and webpages.

“3D technology has captured a tremendous amount of mindshare in the display industry. Flat panel makers and graphics chip makers are developing next-generation technology to provide consumers with a rewarding 3D experience,” said John Jacobs, director of notebook market research at DisplaySearch. “While much of the discussion has centered on the TV market, the notebook PC stands to become the next major platform for consuming 3D content. Toshiba’s new Satellite puts them at the forefront of the 3D adoption curve.”

Features available on the Toshiba Satellite A665 3D Edition include:

* 15.6-inch diagonal HD TruBrite™ LED Backlit widescreen display with 120Hz refresh rate
* Intel® Core™ i7-740QM quad core processor with TurboBoost technology
* NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 350M with 1GB DDR3 discrete graphics memory
* NVIDIA 3D Vision™ kit with active shutter 3D glasses and emitter
* Blu-ray Disc® Rewriteable (RE) and DVD SuperMulti drive with LabelFlash
* Premium audio with harman/kardon® stereo speakers and Dolby Advanced Audio™
* Windows® 7 Home Premium operating system
* 4GB DDR3 RAM
* 640GB hard drive
* 802.11b/g/n wireless and 10/100/1000 Ethernet
* Bluetooth® V2.1 + EDR (available on select models)
* Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
* TouchPad™ with Multi-touch Control
* 12-cell battery
* One eSATA/USB combo port with Toshiba USB Sleep-and-Charge and three USB 2.0 ports
* HDMI port
* Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition
* Microphone input port with Toshiba Sleep-and-Music
* 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader and ExpressCard slots

Pricing and Availability

The Toshiba Satellite A665 3D Edition laptop will be available on June 20 at select retailers, e-tailers and directly from Toshiba (www.toshibadirect) with a starting price of $1,599.99 MSRP.

Toshiba Rolls Out 2010 Models of Feature-Packed Laptops Designed for Entertainment and Style

Built for HD Entertainment, Satellite A665 and Satellite M645 Series Entertainment Laptops Deliver Premium Performance with In-Demand Technologies, Superior Audio and All-New Style

IRVINE, Calif. – June 15, 2010 – Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced its feature-packed entertainment laptops, the Satellite® A665 and Satellite M645. The laptops seamlessly blend style with multimedia performance, incorporating an all-new stylishly durable finish, the latest performance-class components and cutting-edge technologies designed to boost high-def entertainment, productivity and creativity.

Strikingly crafted in an all-new Fusion® X2 finish, which blends a durable textured surface over the cover and palm rests with a glossy trim, Satellite A665 and M645 series laptops offer premium raised-tile keyboards and wide multi-touch touchpads to make typing and navigating comfortable and easy, as well as a TruBrite® HD widescreen display with LED backlighting in two screen sizes – 16-inch and 14-inch.

“These laptops are ideal for people who want to get the most out of their multimedia and entertainment – whether it’s HD videos and photos, gaming or music,” said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. “After 25 years in the laptop business, we are still pushing the boundaries of what a laptop can do by inventing new technologies so our customers can experience content in ways they’ve only dreamed.”

New Exclusive Features

Building on the success of Toshiba’s convenience-driven smart applications and features, including Toshiba USB Sleep-and-Charge, ReelTime™ and Bulletin Board, the Satellite A665 and Satellite M645 series laptops, include new practical innovations that enhance the entertainment experience.

* Toshiba Sleep-and-Music: Users can now take advantage of the laptop’s premium speakers even when the laptop is powered down. Simply connect an MP3 player into the Mic jack, hit play and enjoy.
* Resolution+™ DVD Upconversion: Built into the Toshiba DVD Player software, Resolution+ technology upconverts standard-definition movies and instantly improves sharpness and color for a picture that looks and feels more like HD.

New High-Performance Technology Options and Features

The Satellite A665 and Satellite M645 series laptops feature high-performance multi-core processor technologies to deliver enough power for demanding everyday multimedia tasks. Equipped the latest processors from Intel®, including the Core™ i3, Core i5 and Core i7 and the new AMD Phenom™ II Quad Core processors, Satellite A645 and Satellite M645 series laptops also feature fast DDR3 memory and optional 7200RPM hard drive configurations.

In addition, select models featuring the NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M and GeForce GT330M graphics processors also include NVIDIA Optimus™ technology, which intelligently optimizes the laptop to provide outstanding graphics performance when needed and extended battery life for longer enjoyment.

“NVIDIA Optimus technology solves a key issue for consumers looking for high-performance laptops – the tradeoff between great graphics performance and battery life,” said Rene Hass, general manager of notebook products at NVIDIA. “Now they can have both in a system that automatically directs the workload to the most efficient processor. This is switchable graphics done right.”

Continuing Toshiba’s legacy of providing superior audio, the laptops are equipped with booming harman/kardon® stereo speakers that provide stunning sound for music, movies and games. In addition, Dolby Advanced Audio™ technology enhances and optimizes the audio experience and can expand the audio signal to 6.1 or 7.1-channel playback for connecting the laptops to a home theater system via the built-in HDMI port.

Intel Wireless Display, Gigabit Ethernet, WiMAX, Slot-loading DVD drives and Blu-ray Disc® drives will be available on select configurations.

Detailed specifications and configurations on the Satellite A665 can be found at laptops.toshiba.com/satellite/A665

Detailed specifications and configurations on the Satellite M645 can be found at laptops.toshiba.com/satellite/M645

Availability

The new Toshiba Satellite A665 (starting at $799.99 MSRP) and Satellite M645 laptops (starting at $729.99 MSRP) will be available on June 20 at major retailers, e-tailers and direct from Toshiba on toshibadirect.com.

HD video, photos and music — they’re on your computer, your USB drives, and the Internet. Now it’s easy to play a whole world of Full-HD, 1080p media on your TV with the WD TV Live HD network-ready media player.