Generally speaking, Americans can count on the US price of any particular piece of kit being a fair bit less than the straight pound-to-dollar conversion. Unfortunately, the exchange rate here is nearly on point, with the £299 NC10 10-inch netbook on sale for $480 (give or take a few nickles) in the US of A. Granted, it looks as if it'll be a fortnight or so at the very least before any Yanks can wrap their grimy paws around the germ-shunning PC, but we've already got the e-tailers lining up to hold your place in line. Who knows -- maybe our version will come with built-in WiMAX and 12-hours of battery life to really sweeten the deal.

[Via Liliputing, thanks Michael]

Read - Pre-order NC10, option 1
Read - Pre-order NC10, option 2

This shouldn't be surprising at all to anyone even remotely familiar with HTC's tendencies, but the Touch HD is officially not ever shipping to America (unless you import, obviously). The news was dropped via a Tweet (of all things), but evidently, the outcry over what we figured was common knowledge has caused some windows to be rattled in the penthouse offices. Another official Tweet followed to thank everyone for "expressing their desire for the HD," with the author noting that "US management now knows there's a grassroots demand for high-end HTCs here." Really, HTC? You needed a flood of angry Twitter comments to understand that Americans would give their second born for a phone like the Touch HD?

[Via WMExperts, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We've received official word from HTC that they've been really overwhelmed by the "strong" demand for the HD in the States and other markets where no launch has been planned (with that insane display, it seemed like a no-brainer to us!). Sadly, due to the engineering time required to get a North American 3G version in the pipeline, they say they're better off just waiting until the next round of products launches -- hopefully with some extra bands in the radio this time, eh?

Read - Touch HD not coming to the US
Read - Thanks for the concern

Before we go any further, we'd like to inform this here Telson UMPC that if Pandora can finally get out of the starting blocks, so can you. Today, we're looking at new evidence that Digital Cube (the handheld's new parent) could be inching ever closer to bringing this shockingly thick gaming handheld to market. Out of seemingly nowhere, images have emerged of the portable posing beside a USB 3D camera dongle (saywha?); additionally, we're told that it will pack a 1.2GHz VIA C7M CPU and feature a 4.3-inch display, 512MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive and Windows XP. Oh, and we're also informed that it'll be "released in October" in at least one section of the world, so we've got T-minus 27 days to see if that claim is legit.

[Via Pocketables]

It's shocking to even hear ourselves admit that we're licking our chops for a particular MID, but it's true. BenQ seems to have nailed most everything on the long-awaited MID S6 by including an 800MHz Intel Atom CPU, 4.8-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display, 512MB DDR2 RAM, a 2GB SSD, Bluetooth 2.0 / WiFi, microSD slot, inbuilt G-sensor and support for a myriad of multimedia file formats. On top of all of that, the Italian superstar could be coming to other corners of the globe as evidenced by an elaborate press page on its Global website that details its features in plain English. Said said provides an exhaustive list of capabilities and specifications, not to mention a bevy of press shots. The real kicker? That little note telling us that the built-in 3G module supports UMTS / HSDPA on "Band: 2100" and GSM / GPRS / EDGE on "Band: 900 / 1800 / 1900). Sound familiar, Americans? Hype video posted after the break.

[Via Pocketables]

Let's do a quick recap, shall we? So we pretty much know everything there is to know about Verizon's forthcoming BlackBerry Storm save for the price and release date, and so far as we can tell, Verizon's version of the Touch Diamond is still expected to be totally underpowered compared to Sprint's iteration. Now that we've rounded the tables, let's have a look at this image above. This here is Verizon's internal training schedule, and given that employees have to complete their Storm courses before November 2nd and their Touch Diamond courses before December 3rd, we'd say you now have a pretty good idea of when these two will be landing. Hey VZW -- think you could make that "Blocking Features Assessment" available to the public? We're guessing it'd be a real hit.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Let's be honest here -- there's precisely two three things you still need to know about the BlackBerry Storm. Launch date, price and whether it'll play Doom. Sadly, we're no closer to helping you on those last two, but the datasheet you see above does give us a general idea of when we'll see this puppy in stores. Obviously looking to get this out before the holiday rush, it looks as if the carrier will be making things official sometime between September 22nd and October 1st, and that little "eligible for Annual Upgrade (by 11/1/08)" bit gives us hope for a November 1st release. In case you were wishing for the impossible, Verizon gets all red-text up in here with a note that this thing will not, come hell or high water, be sold sans an e-mail / data package. Interestingly, the Boy Genius has asserted that VZW is playing the fiddle by loosing all these "leaks" on the unsuspecting public. We're not very confident of that being true, but it's decent fodder for discussion if nothing else.

Read - BlackBerry Storm pre-launch information
Read - Verizon slipping Storm details?

We had a hunch that Sony's VGF-CP1 was just too svelte to stay locked in Japan forever, and now that CEDIA is upon us, we're finally getting the news we've been waiting for: it's coming to the United States. Rechristened the VAIO CP1 WiFi photo frame, this device features a 7-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, support for Google Picasa streaming, 128MB of internal storage space, an SD / Memory Stick / CF multicard reader and an RSS reader to keep you abreast on the latest happenings. Furthermore, it touts built-in stereo speakers and an internet radio player, not to mention the digital / analog clock. Check it in mid-October for three bills.

Don't rule out the possibility that this is a complete and utterly disgusting fib, but a recent writeup in The China Post about HTC's financial situation very clearly states when the hotly-anticipated Touch Diamond is coming to Sprint: this month. If you're looking for the play-by-play, the article proclaims that the "company released its Diamond phone in Asia in June and will begin selling the handset through Sprint Nextel Corp. in August." Look, we've seen a CDMA version of this thing donning Sprint garb, we've watched it fall into the capable hands of the FCC and we know it has to arrive sometime. If all of this doesn't add up to Sprint getting the Touch Diamond in August, well, we'll let you do the math.

[Thanks, Sumit]

Unfortunately, we've yet to hear if the Digifriends MID we toyed with at CES will be updated before launching in the US of A, but either way, you can bank on it coming. Reportedly, Peter Kim, the project supervisor at Digifriends USA, has informed Pocketables that the unit spotted in January will be arriving Stateside with "contracted sales through Sprint and NextWave." Pricing remains a mystery, but we're told to expect said unit to be available "very soon." The edge of our seat can barely take all of this pressure.

Update: Peter Kim pinged us to say: "We have made contact with Sprint and NextWave, but have not yet made contracts with them."

Just like we said, the Zune has made its first retail appearance in Canada. Come June 13th, our friends to the north will be able to get their hands on Microsoft's media players, starting at $139.99 (for the 4GB flash variety), up to $249.99 for the big-daddy 80GB version. Pre-orders are being taken now, but something tells us you'll be able to get one on launch day regardless.

[Thanks, Andrew]

We fully expected that Ferrari logo and lacquered paint job to add a stuff premium to Meridian's F80, but this is undeniably insane. The "transportable home entertainment system," which has been hovering about since last March, is at long last ready to be purchased. Finding prospective buyers, however, will likely be challenging. The unit is now available in silver, yellow, white, black and the obligatory red, and each one will set you back a dumbfounding $2,995. We're thinking the unit itself would go for around three bills sans branding, but apparently Italian ponies aren't cheap.

Microsoft's still isn't solid on a final consumer release date for XNA games for the Zune, but they are aiming for the first CTP (community technology preview) to be released in May. We also learned that Zune games can support ad-hoc wireless play with up to eight players, the devices won't support any hardware 3D acceleration, the "16MB for storing games" we heard before actually refers to how much Zune RAM games can take over, and Microsoft's got at least four games running on the platform (which may or may not ever be released to the public): Zauri (which we've already seen -- video after the break), as well as Hexic, Potato Chase, and Alien Takeover.

Don't act like you didn't have April 24th circled in your day planner -- heck, you probably stayed up all night hoping Hardy Heron 8.04 would be launched as the 24th dawned in Australia. Regardless of your level of fanaticism towards the OS, the latest flavor of Ubuntu is finally ready for mass consumption. You know what's waiting for your torrent manager right down there, so why on Earth are you still reading rather than downloading? Get!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, image courtesy of doninside]

Don't look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you're one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the "first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices." According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will "spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members," and it's restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. Not one to sit idly, the entity has also announced that Release 2 is currently "being specified and developed," and should escape testing and greet the real world in late 2008.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Ah, after long last, HTC's first UMPC, the Shift, is finally making its debut in the US. The early results are in: the keyboard and the Sprint EV-DO are good, but the $1,500 price tag might be a bit heavy to swallow -- especially considering our European counterparts are paying about $400 less, and we also get to tack on another $60 per month for the 3G.