While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers; at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used with handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday. One charger for any mobile phone... where's the catch?

Think the megapixel race is bad? Now we've another to worry about, with both Toshiba and Intel hastily approaching 0.01nm technology in order to make chips faster, more nimble and smaller. According to undisclosed sources at Digitimes, Intel has actually canned production plans for its 45nm Havendale processors, which were originally slated to slip into machines later this year. The cause? It's heading straight to 32nm, reportedly hoping to ship its Clarkdale line in Q1 2010 with entry-level prices ranging from $60 to $190. In related news, Toshiba is joining the likes of IBM, Samsung and Globalfoundries in an effort to dish out chips based on 28nm process technology. Needless to say, the move is being made in an effort to "stay relevant in an area dominated by the likes of Intel Corp and Texas Instruments." Now, if only we could get one of these potent, low-power chips inside of a netbook, we'd be pleased as punch.

Read - Intel cans Havendale in move to 32nm
Read - Toshiba speeds to 28nm

IBM seems seriously intent to beat Intel to the tiny, 28nm processor punch, and has enlisted even more help to get there first. After securing deals with Samsung, Globalfoundries, and a few other merry chipmakers in April, NEC and Toshiba are now joining in on the Semiconductor Alliance fun to create next-generation processors before the biggest name in current-generation processors. Goals are smaller footprints, lower power consumption, and of course greater performance. Mind you, that greater performance is still likely two years away from anything we can hope to buy.

We're big into 3G routers, don't get us wrong, but with a bit of WiMAX on tap, the concept becomes all the more succulent. NEC is showing off a vaguely defined Mobile WiMAX Router at Interop Tokyo 2009, which can run on battery and shares its connection over WiFi. NEC isn't talking launch plans just yet, but plans on rolling out the device alongside local WiMAX rollouts.

See that? All 43-inches of this curved NEC monitor with 2880x900 pixel resolution can be yours in July. Ok, it'll cost you $7,999 but it's, well, it's curved! The CRV43, first spotted at CES in January 2008 and again on video in 2009 (where it was expected to cost $6,499), measures in with a 200 nits brightness rating, 10,000:1 contrast, 0.02ms "Rapid Response," covers 99.3% of the Adobe RGB color gamut, and packs at least one USB2.0 jack and DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 connectors. Unfortunately, gaming is not listed amongst its targeted uses so you'll be on your own to find a release supporting the CRV43's 32:10 aspect ratio. Unfortunately, there's some junk in that trunk so deftly hidden by the glamor shot above. See what we mean after the break.

How do you make an otherwise plain, unassuming monitor one that's worth paying attention to? You make it run off of sheer joy, that's what. Sadly, we've yet to see an LCD that gets all the juice it needs from the smiles on our faces, but NEC's 22-inch MultiSync E222W is unquestionably a step in the right direction. Said panel is said to utilize 50 percent less power and contain half the amount of mercury compared to traditional LCD monitors, and as for specs, you'll find a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, 250 nits of brightness, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a five millisecond response time, DVI / VGA sockets and a 4-way adjustable stand. Check it this July for $269.

[Via iTech News]

Another challenger enters the ultrathin notebook arena. This time it's NEC, prepping its lightest and daintiest edition of the UltraLite line, the Type VS. Its thickness ranges from 15.8mm to 29.9mm, comparing unfavorably to the 19.4mm MacBook Air or the 16.51mm Adamo. But, its 725g weight (about a pound and a half) definitely undercuts the competition, and its three USB slots, Ethernet port, and SD card reader give reasonable connectivity without external adapters. Its 10.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1208 x 768, the CPU is Intel's 1.86GHz Atom Z540 (the same as found in the higher-spec version of the Vaio P), 1GB of RAM is on tap, and a 64GB SSD keeps things persistent. Solid specs for sure, and with an asking price of around ¥99,750 (a little over $1,000) it should be reasonably solid value when it hits Japanese retailers in July. Just don't go wasting your summer waiting for these to appear domestically.

Update: That ¥99,750 is actually a special promotional price for those who pre-order directly through NEC. The device's MSRP after that will be nearly double, ¥176,000 ($1,850), and while we're guessing it'll sell for something less than that, it still won't be nearly the bargain early-adopters will receive.

[Via PC Watch]

We've seen oodles of dual-mode handsets, but none quite like this. Rather than boasting two radios, two keyboards or two faces, NEC's N-06A -- which is gearing up to debut on NTT DoCoMo over in Japan -- actually has two purposes. Aside from making calls on the carrier's FOMA network, the phone can actually double as a wireless access point when AP Mode is enabled. The handset packs a cutting-edge Atheros AR6002 module, which enables handsets to operate in infrastructure mode, the primary wireless connectivity framework employed in access points, routers, laptops and other WLAN devices. In other words, your netbook (and seven other WiFi-enabled devices) can hop online via your handset, and it's far easier than the wacky tethering methods we deal with today. Other specs include an 8.1 megapixel camera, HSDPA / WLAN models and a miraculous 3.2-inch touchscreen with an 854 x 480 resolution. There's no mention of a price or ship date for the handset, but more than that, we're thirsty for details on when this chipset will be featured in a handset that's headed to US soil. Check the full release after the break.

8 megapixel cameras and 3-plus-inch wide VGA displays are the order of the day in NTT DoCoMo's 18-strong summer 2009 range of phones from Panasonic, LG, Fujitsu, NEC, Sharp, HTC, and Toshiba, but a few are definitely standing out for us. First would be the unforgettable N-09A from NEC, integrating patent leather right into the phone's case; it's not often that you need to condition your handset with saddle soap, so that one definitely caught our eye. Next up, we have a couple smartphones (not to say that anything in this lineup can be labeled "dumb" by any stretch) from HTC and Toshiba -- the expected HT-03A and T-01A, respectively, which are localized rebrands of the Magic and TG01. Only a Japanese carrier lineup oozes enough machismo to make a TG01 look like a 16-ounce can of weak juice, so our hats go off to you, NTT DoCoMo -- thanks for ruining one of 2009's most promising devices for us. Hey, at least they're offering the Magic in both white and black.

Yes folks, we're back to the drawing board. Again. With a litany of wireless technologies floundering about and struggling to find real traction in the market, a cadre of market powerhouses have joined up to take wireless streaming to the next level -- or so they say, anyway. The newly formed WiGig Alliance aims to use unlicensed 60GHz waves in order to stream just about anything you can think of: HD video, images, phone contacts, instant messages, audio, etc. This "unified" approach differs from most other alternatives, which generally pick one niche (1080p video, for instance) and stick to it. If the more than 15 technology firms have their collective druthers, the WiGig specification will find its way into everything from set-top-boxes to telephones to home stereos, ready and willing to stream to other WiGig-enabled devices at a moment's notice.

The group consists of household names such as Microsoft, LG, Dell, Samsung, Marvell, Nokia, NEC, Intel and Broadcom (just to name a few), and when we spoke to executives about the announcement, they told us that plans were to have the specification available to member organizations in Q4 of this year. The sad part is that this likely means we won't see shipping products with the WiGig logo for another year after that -- if we're lucky. We can't argue that some stability would be nice in this volatile sector; after all, we've been waiting for promising products like Belkin's FlyWire to ship for well over a year. The execs we spoke with couldn't speak on behalf of the partner firms in terms of what WiGig products were looming on the horizon, but as we alluded to earlier, the playing field is wide open. Honestly, we'd love for this to take off and finally give high-bandwidth wireless applications the support it needs to flourish, but as we've seen over the past few years, the road ahead ain't an easy one to walk. The full release is after the break.

We're always up for a good semiconductor merger, and it looks like NEC Electronics and Renesas are prepping the biggest one we've seen this week. The two companies have agreed to team up, creating a combined force of $13 billion in yearly sales, and the largest chip company in Japan -- Renesas was already the product of a chip merger between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric. They'll still be behind Intel and Samsung in the overall game, but we won't hold that against them. Tokyo analysts believe this might lead to other "defensive" mergers by other Japanese chipmakers, but we'll have to wait and see. NEC and Renesas hope to finish talks by July and become a single company by April of next year.

[Via Electronista]

Sometimes it seems like the worlds of science and marketing are in a constant struggle to present us with the future described in science fiction. Whether its flying cars, the OS from Minority Report, or robots that play "rock, paper, scissors," the old saw is true: you can't fight progress. And now it looks like Yahoo Japan has jumped into the fray, with a little help from Comel, a Japanese company that manufactures billboards. The two firms are collaborating on electronic signage that photographs passersby, analyses it using NEC's facial analysis technology, and guesstimates his or her age. Once the demo is confirmed, the device spits out appropriate advertising content. According to the poorly translated press release, the "face image data" is then erased, saving only a record of the passerby's age and sex -- so you Civil Libertarians can rest easily. Right.

[Via Trading Markets]