It may have already been teased, poked and prodded, but the TG01 from Toshiba still insisted on making a big splash on its arrival to the UK and we were only too happy to oblige and join in on its launch event in London. As you should know by now, this is Toshiba's most significant attempt to date at penetrating the consumer smartphone market, and it's coming equipped with a battering ram named Snapdragon. Head over to Engadget Mobile for the juicy details on the UI, construction and general feel, as well as a neat stash of images and videos of the phone in action.

Orange has come out this morning, in advance of the official UK unveiling of the phone, to confirm it will be the exclusive UK carrier of the TG01. We can confirm availability from July 10 (i.e. tomorrow), and the phone can be had for free on a 2-year contract costing £39.15 per month. To figure out if that sort of investment is worth it, we'll have an intrepid reporter stationed at this afternoon's event, who'll be bringing you up-to-the-minute details and imagery of the first Snapdragon handset to hit British shores. You'll find the full PR at the read link, or continue reading for an unshaven Orange rep walking you through the phone's specs.

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

Augmented reality applications to this point could be best categorized as tantalizing to the mind, but otherwise pointless. Thankfully, it seems as if that's no longer the case. AcrossAir, a nascent app builder for the iPhone, has conjured up a slickly executed digital guidance application that augments video with real-time distance and directions to the nearest subway station. With the iPhone 3GS pimping an improved camera, inbuilt compass and GPS, we had a hunch that it wouldn't be long before someone slammed them all together and gave commuters and tourists alike a reason to smile. Presently only capable of serving up directions in London, this app should find plenty of user interest that will hopefully drive its development for other metropolises around the world. Click through to check it out for yourself, and expect to see it ready for download as soon as someone (or something) at Cupertino decides to start approving live video programs. Any day now, Apple...

[Via Tokyo-Genki]

Knitting is one of those acquired crafting skills we just never fully warmed up to. We'll embroider, crochet, or quilt until the sun sets for the last time on the day of the apocalypse, but knitting is just so... boring sometimes. Luckily, ingenious artist Merel Karhof has a solution for the monotony of the knit - purl - knit - purl routine. She's designed and invented a machine that knits all on its own, harnessing the ever-present power of the wind. Called the Wind Knitting Factory, the automatic knitting machine itself looks like a cross between an old-timey coffee grinder and a medieval torture device (which we like about it very much), and knits a scarf in about two hours. This isn't likely to be the type of thing that every hits the retail market, but we'll tell you this: if it did, we'd be first in line. Hit the read links for video, more photos, and an explanation of the machine's design.

Read - Merel Karhof's blog
Read - Show RCA Wind Knitting Factory

It's already out in Japan and a few select countries in Europe, now Toshiba's skinny TG01 is hitting London on Thursday, July 9th. Presumably the invite will be met with an official UK launch of Tosh's deftly skinned Snapdragon handset with a Windows Mobile 6.1 core. Then again, it could be a lot of tech reporters eating mini triangular sandwiches slathered with pickle spread discussing the HTC Hero for four hours. We'll let you know next week.

We'd already pretty much figured that HTC's London event tomorrow would have something to do with Android -- the invite for the shindig playfully teases us with a rose in the picture, after all, which is probably a reference to HTC's Rosie UI that's been circulating in leaked ROM form for a while now. Indeed, Pocket-lint points to a fellow journalist whose "colleague" has apparently played with the new hardware and gives it a "rave review," so we're excited to find out what it is exactly that HTC's got brewing -- and as we've said before, it certainly lines up nicely with T-Mobile UK's promise of more G1 Touch details "soon." At any rate, we'll be on hand to find out what's good as it happens, so stay tuned for all the HTC news that's fit to print starting at 6:30AM ET, 11:30AM London time.

What a difference 18 months makes, eh? The relative short line for today's iPhone 3G S launch at Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London could be attributed to any number of factors: the economy, the steep cost of upgrade for iPhone 3G owners, or the fact that Apple allowed for advanced iPhone 3G S orders with home delivery. Or maybe people just aren't willing to wait in line for a bump in speed, improved graphics, and video recording. We wouldn't call it apathy but the iPhone halo doesn't seem as shiny beneath a spotlight now shared with Android and the new Pre. Regardless, the iPhone 3G S is now on sale in the UK and a few more European countries with North America up next after a few degrees of the Earth's rotation.

Update: According to O2, sales for the 3G S have already surpassed numbers for the iPhone 3G during last year's launch. So it's possible that the pre-orders were in full effect here. However, you have to remember that Europe and O2 in the UK in particular had very serious problems meeting demand at the time of the iPhone 3G launch last year. So this statement likely says more about inventory management than it does the demand of the 3G S vs the 3G.

[images courtesy of Richard Lai and mrgeoffb]

HTC's throwing itself a little party starting at 11:30AM local time in London on Wednesday, June 24, though it's not saying what sorts of goodies will be unveiled there. As you might recall, the Touch Diamond was unveiled at a similar event just over a year ago, so it's very likely an important product that's going to be shown; the odds-on favorite would have to be the HTC Hero and its customized Android-based interface, but at this point, it's anybody's guess.

Update: Here's an interesting clue -- that's a rose on the dude's chest, as in the Rosie interface. Get it, eh? Eh?

Europe still isn't the place to be for limitless HD content, but London in particular could be a 3D extravaganza come 2012. The host city for the next Summer Olympics may be coming to your living room like never before, as Brian Lenz, head of product design and innovation at Sky, proclaimed that "there is a very good chance you'll see the London Olympics in 3D." The satcaster has already confessed to filming events in 3D, and given that the wide distribution of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in HD was all the rage, we suppose the third-dimension is the next logical step forward. Mirroring our own hopes and dreams, Lenz stated that what it really wanted was "glasses free technology." Here's hoping we inch closer to that at CES 2009.

[Thanks, Ben]

You probably remember 3 network subsidiary INQ's announcement of the INQ1, their first stab at a phone? Well, it's launched in London and is officially "coming soon." As previously mentioned, the phone is nothing fancy or revolutionary, but its integration with Skype (just like 3's Skypephone), Facebook, and a handful of other consumer-friendly apps is something worth taking note of. When available, the slider will come in black and silver and though we don't know the exact price, last we heard it would cost under £99 with no contract. No details on the handset making its way to the US as of yet -- it's complicated -- but we'll keep you updated. Don't forget to check out a few shots of the (very attractive) packaging after the break.

[Thanks, David M.]

London will be the first city to test out new bomb-proof garbage cans, which are also going to multitask as recycling bins with LCDs that stream travel info and news. Security concerns (AKA fear of terrorists dropping bombs in them) have kept rubbish bins out of subway stations and many of the city's streets since the mid-80's, causing frustration among citizens, not to mention what amounts to forced littering. The new cans, developed by British company Media Metrica, weigh one ton each, and were tested in the lifeless deserts of New Mexico for five years to ensure they are completely, totally indestructible, can absorb heat from explosives, prevent shrapnel spread, and extinguish "fireballs." Eh. Put 'em in New York City -- someone will surely figure out how to utterly destroy them in 24 hours or less.