Ooh, Qualcomm you been naughty. You might remember that last year Qualcomm was banned from selling various 3G chips that infringed on Broadcom's patents, but the big Q apparently believes that being in trouble is a fake idea, because it kept right on doing it -- to the point where a judge yesterdaty found the company in contempt for violating the injunction and ordered it to pay up gross profits from sales of its QChat push-to-talk tech to Broadcom. The court gave Qualcom 30 days to figure out how much it owes -- Sprint's paid over $93M to use the tech since last December, so it's not going to be peanuts. Qualcomm says it'll immediately comply, but is planning on appealing the order, so we'll how this all goes down.

Trying to divine what Apple's up to from patent applications is never easy, but every now and again the diagrams actually make it obvious -- and it looks like Steve and his elves are hard at work on large-format touch interfaces, possibly for a tablet Mac of some kind. The latest touch-related filing is some 52 pages long and details everything from working with multiple finger inputs to onscreen keyboards how window controls would work, but we're mostly transfixed by the claw-like demon-hands that seem to be operating all this kit -- apparently Apple engineers have the same nightmares as the rest of us. If we had to bet, we'd say that a tablet Mac is still a long ways off, but we've been wrong before -- and there's always a chance Steve's got something wild in store for next month.

[Via AppleInsider]

Blaupunkt's TravelPilot nav units have never really stood out from the pack, but it looks like that's about to change -- the new TravelPilot 700 and 500 feature an integrated camera that displays realtime video with nav overlays on their 16:9 screens. That's definitely a novel and intriguing feature, but there's not a lot of information on how it works or what kind of hardware is under the hood to keep it running smoothly -- with the 700's estimated list price of $740, we're guessing it's pretty beefy. Both units also feature voice control, DVB-T traffic, live traffic, Bluetooth, and the usual PMP features, and the 700 also has a browser, email app, and VoIP client that work over Bluetooth tethering with your phone. Yeah, definitely intriguing -- hopefully we'll see this thing make it Stateside soon. Video after the break.

[Via Navigadget; thanks, Khattab]

We're still pondering the difference between Toshiba's Cell-based Resolution+ technology and its "good enough for everybody else" XDE tech, but we got a look at Resolution+ today -- featured in Toshiba's new ZF575 Regza TVs -- and it seems to work well enough. Unlike XDE, which is designed with DVDs in mind to mess with contrast and colors, in addition to sharpness, Resolution+ just focuses on sharpness, for a multitude of SD inputs, and seems to do a decent job of it. Comparison shots up ahead, don't poke your eye on any jaggies!

Although Lenovo's slick IdeaPad U8 has been floating around in prototype form for a while, it only made its formal debut at the Olympics recently, and now it's starting to appear on Chinese websites -- Zol.com.cn has a huge unboxing and review, while Yesky says it'll be priced at 4,999 yuan, or about $731. That's a little more than the "smartphone pricing" we were promised, but we're guessing those of you looking to import this Asia-only piece were likely always expecting to throw down some coin for it. Tons more pics in the read links -- we're not going to try and depend on machine translation to understand the review, anyone care to give us the gist?

[Via Pocketables]

Read - IdeaPad U8 unboxing and review
Read - Yesky pricing info

HTC is keeping the S740 under wraps at IFA, but the crafty folks at newmobile managed to score some time with the new QWERTY slider, and it looks pretty decent. Thinner than the Touch Pro, the keyboard is basically the same, with the same sort of stealth-look backplate as the Diamond. No motion sensor, so the display only rotates when the slide is open, but that's really all we know -- the unit wasn't running a production-ready version of Windows Mobile, so impressions are a little up in the air. Hit the read link for more shots.

[Via Coolsmartphone]

Look, we wouldn't want to be paused for your wicked, Quad HD amusement either. But seeing such a vivid demo on JVC's 4K2K (4,096 x 2,400), super high definition LCD as we strolled through IFA's digital playground reminded us of something: maybe not everything looks better in Quad HD. Think about it before you hustle on over to Japan for Panasonic's 150-inch Quad HD set next year.

All juvenility aside, the image above was created using JVC "soon to arrive" ultra high-definition player attached over dual-link DVI to the 4k2k display. The video uses MPEG-4AVC compression to convert the 6Gbps original 4K source into 50Mbps. More pics in the gallery below.

With hope of a summer release fading with the passing of each and every day, Boy Genius Report cites a "pretty solid bit of info" that the BlackBerry Bold is now pegged for launch on AT&T on Thursday, October 2. So if you see a throng of three-piece suits starting to gather around your local store around September 28 or 29, yeah, that's probably why.

Fujitsu finally got official with its Amilo Mini netbook yesterday after not exactly keeping it a secret these past few months, and it's now gone out and announced another curiously similar netbook, the M1010, which may or may not actually just be slight variation of the Amilo Mini. Like the Mini, the M1010 weighs in at 2.2 pounds and will pack an 8.9-inch display, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, plus some removable clip-on covers in an "array of delightful colors." Fujitsu doesn't seem to be quite ready to go any further than that, however, which could certainly suggest that it's not one and the same as the Amilo Mini, as could the fact that Fujitsu describes the M1010 as "easy on the wallet," which doesn't exactly apply to the nearly $600 Amilo Mini. We should know for sure soon enough either way though, as the netbook is set to launch sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

[Via Laptoping, thanks Danijel]

Although it's impossible to tell without another object in the display box, that's Panasonic's 150-inch TV up there -- here at IFA, intimidating its neighbors. Now get this: this massive plasma sporting a 2,160 X 4,096-pixel (4 times 1080p) Advanced HD display will hit the assembly lines just as soon as Panny's newest factory comes on-line in the May 2009 timeframe. At the moment, the single 150-inch sheet of glass is hand-made and fitted into four of these behemoths currently touring the world. That means 150-inches of goodness could be yours before the year is up. College shmollege, this is quad HD!

Toshiba is pulling an EyeToy, minus a diabolical plan to actually sell the thing and make a killing off of collectable elemental decks. The company's Cambridge-based Research Lab has some new video camera-based feature they're prototyping for possible eventual TV implementation. The real highlight is a fist-based cursor control -- just stick out your hand, make a fist, and control a cursor on-screen for navigating the TV's functions. You can also put up your palm to stop the madness, and even rotate 3D images on-screen, but it's all a little shaky for now. Another thing we saw was picture recognition: hold up a cue card to the TV with an image on it and the TV recognizes it and performs a pre-assigned function. Tosh is also working on speech recognition and some other things; not really changing the world, but some fun stuff all the same.

In a stunning attempt at making us afraid to pick up another Samsung DAP ever again, Samsung's set-up for its new YP-Q1 and YP-U4 players was in the ass end of the huge Samsung hall at IFA, with lights enough to cook a chicken and some technical errors to boot. For starters, the Q1 (pictured) is just a pain to use, with capacitive touch controls that only work through tapping in the four directions (or center for select), instead of a more natural scrolling motion. The screen is nothing special, and the interface seems a step back from Samsung's other full-featured DAPs. If we were to say anything positive, the Q1 does feel nice and solid in the hand, but it's nowhere near as thin or sexy as it could / should be. The U4 we tested wasn't charged, and had rather infuriating surface and side controls that made us a little happy it wasn't. It's nowhere near as sexy in person as it was in those press shots, and could really do to lose a few millimeters here and there. Wake us when you're ready to start trying, Sammy.