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Vodafone puts BlackBerry Storm2 up for 26 October preorder

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 15th 2009 at 4:34AM

And it's out. The BlackBerry Storm2 just made its first official carrier appearance with Vodafone. The promising followup to the much maligned BlackBerry Storm will be free on pay-monthly contracts from £35 on up. Specs include a 3.25-inch 360 x 480 pixel capacitive SurePress (new and improved) touchscreen display, 802.11b/g WiFi and 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA data, 256MB of flash memory (double that of the original Storm), 2GB of onboard memory with microSDHC expansion, 3.5-mm standard headset jack, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, built-in GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and 1400mAh battery giving about 6 hours of 3G talk. BlackBerry OS 5 too, of course, when it lands on October 15th in the UK, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Spain -- France, Italy, and South Africa in time for Christmas.

Update: Now on official RIM page too with a detailed comparison against the original Storm.

Gallery: Vodafone and RIM introduce the BlackBerry Storm2 Smartphone

[Thanks, James]

Read -- Press Release
Read -- Pre-order

Nokia puts Booklet 3G netbook up for pre-order... in Italy

by Darren Murph posted Sep 12th 2009 at 5:51AM

So, we've got some good news and bad news. The good news is that Nokia's already offering up its Booklet 3G netbook for pre-order over in Italy, which is becoming an all-too-familiar scene for Nokia wares. The bad news is that the posted price is, um, absurd. During a keynote at Nokia World 09, listeners were told that the Windows 7-powered machine would ring up at "just" €570, yet Nokia's own Italian e-store has it listed for €699. That's just over a grand in Greenbacks, though we get the feeling it'll be selling for substantially less once the feel-good emotions fade and cold, hard economics take their toll.

Update: As pointed out in the comments, the announced €570 price was likely pre-tax and pre-carrier subsidy as is typical for Nokia's European announcements. The €699 price is thus VAT inclusive.

[Via I4U News]

Nokia N900 now giving Germany and Italy a way to pre-order

by Ross Miller posted Aug 28th 2009 at 5:09PM

Now that Nokia's Maemo-powered N900 is looking mighty nice and official, the company's Germany and Italian arms have no problem going ahead and taking your hard-earned Euros in exchange for a pre-order. Both sites are actually listing it for €599 (US $860), or €99 more than what we heard yesterday. A pretty huge discrepancy, to be sure, but it's not unlike Nokia to have a flagship phone fluctuate in price. That October release date is a ways off, but if you're absolutely convinced this must be in your pocket by Halloween, you know where to go.

[Via Slashgear]

Read - Nokia Germany
Read - Nokia Italy

Olidata Conte ultraportable finally shows itself, looks mighty good

by Darren Murph posted May 31st 2009 at 11:07AM

My, my Olidata -- why on Earth have you been depriving our wandering eyes from this beauty for so long? After being originally introduced at CES, we've heard precisely nothing since... until now, obviously. At long last, the striking Conte ultraportable has found its way outside of the lab over in Italy, sporting an ultrathin frame, chiclet-style keyboard, a bezel that's a bit too wide for our tastes, an HDMI output and a price tag starting at just €799 ($1,129). From what we can gather, a few versions of the machine will be available, one of which sports an SU2700 CPU, 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, a 120GB hard drive, 3GB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi and a multi-touch trackpad. Another variant is slated to include a Core Solo SU3500 CPU and a 120GB HDD, while yet another gets a Core 2 Duo SL9400 and a 128GB SSD. Peek the read link for a few more looks, including one of the most bizarre advertisements we've ever seen for a mere laptop.

[Thanks, Andrea]

Video: Dustbot takes out the Eurotrash

by Thomas Ricker posted May 29th 2009 at 7:37AM

Push up those Armani shades and tighten your white trousers, the Dustbot is coming to wash the scum off the streets like a Segway riding Travis Bickle. Give him a call from your mobile and the Dustbot will come to your house and dispose of the rubbish. At least that's the plan for this Italian disposal-bot fitted with GPS navigation, gyroscope, and a bevy of sensors meant to keep it from crushing the innocents. Look, we get that it's a prototype and is meant to traverse the narrow streets of ancient cities, but a trash collecting robot with the capacity of just two kitchen cans seems like a serious limitation. Watch the long slow ride after the break.

[Thanks, Craig]

Continue reading Video: Dustbot takes out the Eurotrash

Enicycle, the electric unicycle, gets ridden on video

by Darren Murph posted Apr 19th 2009 at 6:55PM

While the Enicycle may look eerily similar to Focus Design's SBU unicycle, it's decidedly different when looking at the nuts and bolts of things. As of now, just two of these devices exist in the entire world, and one Ortis Deley was able to scoot over to Italy in order to give one of them a ride. Thanks to what is described as "a clever system of gyroscopes, embedded processors and a 1,000W hub motor," the bike was said to be exceptionally easy to control, and the foot-steering apparatus seemed to also work quite well. We'd say that this doesn't really have a chance in hades to make it in the commercial market, but if the P.U.M.A. can find buyers, absolutely anything is possible. Check the exhilarating vid in the read link.

[Thanks, Steve]

Automakers agree on common plug to recharge electric vehicles

by Darren Murph posted Apr 19th 2009 at 4:24PM

Just hours after General Motors put forth a proposal for a standardized plug for electric vehicles, in flies this. German energy firm RWE has stated that a cadre of respected automakers and energy firms have all come together in agreement on a three-point, 400-volt plug that will enable electric cars the world over to be recharged anywhere, regardless of which recharging station they stop at. Caroline Reichert, an RWE spokeswoman, noted that the idea here is to ensure that "a car can be recharged in Italy in exactly the same way as in Denmark, Germany or France." We're told that the agreement includes nods of acceptance from the likes of Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Eon, Vattenfall, EDF, Npower, Endesa and Enel, and while there's no time frame for when it'll be introduced, we're pretty stoked to hear that at least something has been decided upon.

'Let's Pizza' machine cooks you a pie in three minutes, won't ask you to enter any contests

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Mar 26th 2009 at 11:26PM

Bob Bibleman has had bad luck with technology lately. The last time a robot cooked for him he found himself involved in some sort of quasi-military intrigue, and his robot lawnmower sure seems like it's up to something. But when ol' Bob ran across a report in the Times (UK) that a venerable Italian gentleman named Claudio Torghele had invented "Let's Pizza" -- a machine that makes pizza from scratch, in three minutes -- he decided to give technology one more chance. The device sports a glass window through which you can watch the machine mix and knead the dough, spin it into shape, add the sauce and toppings, and cook it to perfection. A pie will run you about €3.50 (or just under five bucks), and the machine is due to hit the streets sometime this summer. Now that Mr. Bibleman has that sorted out, maybe he'll be brave enough to let technology help him with other areas of his life -- we hear that JDate's really something.

[Via The Raw Feed]

V12-designed dual-screen laptop going into production?

by Laura June posted Feb 15th 2009 at 7:03AM

Sure, we were skeptical when we first saw V12 Design's dual LCD concept -- but it seems to be one step closer to production. Named the Canova, the Italian designed laptop boasts an LCD where the keyboard and trackpad traditionally are. We don't have any specifics about the construction or innards of this crazy-looking beast yet, but they've hooked up with an American company, Estari, to bring the laptop into reality. We also hear it's going to cost somewhere around $400 when it hits the streets sometime "soon." Check a few more photos after the break.

[Via Notebook Italia]

Continue reading V12-designed dual-screen laptop going into production?

Tazzari Zero's preliminary specs released

by Ross Miller posted Feb 4th 2009 at 2:54PM

Italian industrial firm Tazzari has announced preliminary specs and launched a new website for its plug-in auto, the Zero. Measuring 113.5 inches long and sporting 15-inch wheels, the city-bound electric car weighs in at 1,200 pounds -- 312 of that from the lithium-ion Fe battery. It'll handle 88 miles with a full charge that takes 9 hours to fill, but you can reportedly juice up to 80% in just 50 minutes. Top speed is 56 MPH, so don't expect to be driving this on the highway, and it can go from 0 to 31 in under 5 seconds. The company says it's due out later this year in Europe and the Carribean for less than 20,000 Euros ($25,760), and yes, there's a dozen Crayola-inspired colors available. Hit up the official site for a trailer.

[Via Autoblog Green]

Read - Preliminary specs
Read - Official Tazzari Zero website

Nokia's Comes With Music goes on European tour, Asia next, Americas deemed too boring

by Tim Stevens posted Jan 21st 2009 at 8:17AM

It was just yesterday that Reuters predicted Nokia's Comes With Music service was headed for something of a pilgrimage through the wilds of Europe, and now we have the official confirmation of this "pan European" expansion. The company has secured partnerships with music licensing and publishing big-wigs in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, and is indicating that Singapore and Australia are next on its to-do list. Alas there was no mention of other nations getting any sort of attention, meaning Nokia handsets in the New World are unlikely to come with anything but guilt for the forseeable future.

Gemalto embeds DVD-compliant optical disc into WIND SIM card

by Darren Murph posted Sep 15th 2008 at 7:47AM

Movies on flash drives aren't looking like the next big thing, but Gemalto reckons its approach to getting DVD content on smaller surfaces is different enough to get noticed. In an admittedly bizarre release, the digital security firm has announced a new Smart Video Card for Italian carrier WIND, which "embeds a DVD-compliant optical disc into the card body of a regular SIM card." The card can store practically any digital content (including video, software or URLs) and can reportedly be played back on any DVD drive. So what, we buy a new SIM card each time we're looking for a new batch of miniaturized content? Fabulous!

[Via FashionFunky, thanks Bob]

Unsubsidized iPhone 3G priced at ?499/?569 in Europe

by Thomas Ricker posted Jun 12th 2008 at 1:30AM

This morning we're getting a first look at unsubsidized prices for the iPhone 3G in Europe. Vodafone Italy has set an out-of-contract price for the iPhone 3G at 499/€569 ($773/$881) for the 8GB/16GB models, respectively. Subscription rates have not yet been announced. While steep, those prices are actually smartphone-reasonable in Italy (and around Europe) where an HTC Touch Cruise with its WiFi, tri-band HSDPA data, GPS, and touchscreen sells for €549. Capisce?

[Thanks, Andrea]

Vodafone Station brings FMC service to Italy

by Darren Murph posted Jun 2nd 2008 at 10:15AM

Truth be told, Fixed Mobile Convergence still isn't talked about much (comparatively speaking) 'round these parts. Yeah, we've seen a few FMC routers scattered about, but Vodafone's taking a stand by rolling out its Station in Italy. The box, which was developed in cooperation with Huawei, is an integrated switch / router with ADSL2+, WiFi, UMTS / HSPA (via a removable USB key) and four Ethernet ports. Essentially, it's designed to combine voice with fixed and mobile broadband services, and it enables users to make calls on their handset through a fixed line connection when they're kicking back at home. We're also hearing that the device will eventually make its way to other Vodafone markets, but there's been no word yet on future rollout dates.

[Via GigaOM]

EADS Astrium unveils European manned spaceship

by Joshua Fruhlinger posted May 28th 2008 at 9:32AM

It's been a great week for space geeks, what with the Phoenix Lander doing its Mars sniffing and toilet drama at the space station. Meanwhile, over in Europe, EADS Astrium Space Transportation is showing off a manned version of its Automated Transfer Vehicle (also known as the Jules Verne). This space vehicle has already been used to bring equipment to the International Space Station, but new designs reveal that Germany, France, and Italy are on board to retrofit the vehicle with seats and touch screens for humans. There's just one little problem -- the Jules Verne can't return non-humans (let alone humans) to Earth safely yet. Astrium is hoping to get the stage flying by 2013 on top of the Ariane 5 rocket in time for the end of the American Space Shuttle program in 2010, when it would replace it as the largest-payload space transport.