Yesterday we told you about NVIDIA's new mobile platform, Tegra, and today, we've got some videos from the company showing off the system, and giving you a good impression of just how much less juice this architecture uses compared to the competition. Check the videos after the break demonstrating the systems' lean energy needs, HDMI output capabilities, blazing fast gaming, and that fancy UI we keep telling you about.

According to the Boy Genius, it's not just iPhone users that will be getting / not getting the telco's WiFi on the house -- the company has plans to offer use of its hotspots for free to Laptop Connect and smartphone users. An internal memo from the provider appears to state that effective May 20th, anyone with a $60 or higher Laptop Connect plan will be able to take a ride on AT&T's networks in 17,000 locations, and the service will be extended to smartphone users later in the year. Of course, the company hasn't exactly wowed us with its rollout of this service for iPhone customers, so don't be surprised if nothing goes the way it's planned.

What would you do if the US patent office gave you the go-ahead on a far-reaching, non-specific application filed for a "mobile entertainment and communication device"? If your answer was that you would immediately draw up lawsuits against almost every major electronics manufacturer that even looked at a smartphone funny, you get a cookie. Yes folks, as impossible as it is to believe, the holders of the aforementioned patent have just sued Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, AT&T, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, and Samsung... amongst others. So eager was this company to sue, in fact, that legal papers were filed a day before the patent was granted, and subsequently had to re-submitted. The real sucker-punch here is that the patent simply combines a list of prior technologies jumbled into one product, a practice which has recently been ruled against by the Supreme Court. Still, we doubt it will stop the holders from trying to nab a few dollars in settlements, staying the work of real innovators, and generally making a mockery of our patent system. Bravo!

[Via Slashdot]

We've had our eye on this willowy little minnow ever since we first gave it a proper once over at CeBIT earlier this year, and now E-TEN has announced that its everything-but-the-keyboard Glofiish X800 WM6 Pocket PC is finally shipping (we saw it unlocked on MobilePlanet for $650). Very similar to a number of 3.5G HTC devices already on the market, the X800 steps up the game by offering a sexy 2.8-inch, 640 x 480 screen, 500MHz Samsung processor, and dedicated SiRFstar III GPS chipset. Still, if you can hold out just a little bit longer, a QWERTY-fied M800 boasting the same specs is right around the corner.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Last year marked the tenth anniversary of Windows CE, now the underpinnings of what is called Windows Mobile. Few Microsoft market entry forays have tested the software giant's patience as its miniature embedded operating system. At its debut on PalmPCs, as they were known before threats of litigation ensued, Windows CE was slow and ungainly while the incumbent Palm OS was speedy and elegant. Palm seemed to leave Microsoft in the dust when it unveiled the Palm V, the slim PDA that carried the kind of design buzz in 1999 that the Motorola RAZR or iPod nano did at their debuts.

But among developer platforms, Palm OS licensees vanished one by one as the operating system languished during Palm's notorious hand-changing history. Symbian -- begun as a reaction to Microsoft's mobile designs -- has so far failed to achieve the smartphone success stateside that it has in Europe. And despite the promise of Linux as a cellphone operating system, it has become a handset market force only in countries hosting next year's summer Olympics. All this had left Microsoft strongly positioned in a nascent market, but its perseverance is only now starting to pay off.

It was a total mob scene after Palm's DigitalLife press conference, but we managed to fight the crowd and get our hands on the new Treo 680. Click on for a bunch of jumbo pics!

Ready for the Treo 680? We're liveblogging the event from DigitalLife, so keep your fingers on that F5 button and follow along after the break...

Update: Pics are up; keep reading for the the full text and images...

We wouldn't even think of buying a cellphone that didn't incorporate both WiFi and Bluetooth, so you better believe we were excited to learn of semiconductor manufacturer Marvell's new combo 802.11a/b/g - BT chip for portables, which is supposedly the first of its kind. The so-called 88W8688 -- which supports Bluetooth 2.0 and hardware acceleration for UMA, IMS, etc. -- has a footprint of less than 80-square-millimeters, or about half the size of current two-chip combinations. For consumers, this will mean smaller versions of all the gadgets we love, and most importantly for us, those super-functional-but-chunky smartphones that we feel naked without. Although the chip is currently shipping to select Marvell OEM partners, it has yet to announced which specific device categories will see the first implementations; our plea: get these puppies to HTC as quickly as possible!

Even if you're a die-hard Palm or Windows Mobile fan, it's hard to deny the appeal of Nokia's N-series lineup of S60-powered "multimedia computers," whose connectivity and imaging options are some of the best you can find on a smartphone today. As promised, the company has just officially released both the N73 (pictured, bottom) and N93 (pictured, top) handsets that we've been following for some time, and although you probably won't be able to pick them up through traditional channels, we know that they'll definitely be available at your local Nokia retail outlet. As a quick refresher, both of the phones (we know, we know, we're not supposed to call them phones) are highlighted by 3.2 megapixel, Zeiss lens-equipped cameras, with the N93 throwing in a 3x optical zoom and support for 30fps VGA video. Both models also feature high-res 2.4-inch displays, Bluetooth radios, a miniSD slot for image capture or rocking tunes, and quad-band GSM plus 3G UMTS capability. On top of all these attractive features, the N93 also gives you built-in WiFi with UPnP functionality, video out for replaying your precious memories on a big screen, and what sounds like better-than-average in-camera editing. We're still gonna stick with our current smartphones for now, but these models are so hot that we're seriously reconsidering our snobby insistence on rocking those handy QWERTY thumboards at all times.

Read- N73
Read- N93
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

So Palm has officially announced one of those three Treos we were promised at the end of last year, and just as we expected, this Windows Mobile 5 AKU2-powered model will be sold exclusively overseas. Unfortunately the company neglected to include a detailed spec sheet in its press release -- more information will be available closer to the as-yet-unspecified launch date -- so all we really know at this point is that it's destined for Vodafone's 3G UMTS network in several European countries. Also unclear is how this model relates to other upcoming Treos we've seen under such codenames as Hollywood, Lowrider, Nitro, and Lennon -- we sure wish Palm would be a little more forthcoming with its product roadmaps. As usual, though, you can always count on us to bring you every little bit of Treo news we get our hands on, even if Palm and friends don't give us much help putting it in context.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It's been a crazy few years for the once unknown Taiwanese OEM known as High Tech Computer. Although still not a household name like Sony or Samsung, HTC has leveraged its strong ties with Microsoft to offer tantalizing products that have made us early-adopters stand up and take notice, and now the company feels that it's in a strong enough market position to ditch the Qtek brand and begin selling phones under its own name. The Qtek phase-out was announced as part of HTC's official unveiling of the 3G Hermes Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone -- now known as the TyTN -- as well as the compact, UMTS-capable Breeze smartphone -- which is now called the MTeoR (yeah, we're noticing a MOTO-like naming trend too; see the rebadged STRTrk for further proof). In announcing July's European launch of these self-branded handsets, HTC reemphasized its dedication to the many carriers selling its products under their own names, but this development certainly bodes well for the company's overall name-recognition; imagine, instead of lying and telling people we have a Treo because Sprint-branded-UTStarcomm-PPC-6700-based-on-the-HTC-Apache sounds so nerdy, we may one day be able to proudly proclaim "Oh, it's an HTC." [Warning: PDF link]

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

Having already conquered the US and much of Europe, Canada's most famous contribution to consumer electronics is poised to take over yet another Asian market, when the ubiquitous BlackBerry hits phone-mad Japan this fall. Coming hot on the heels of KT Powertel's introduction of the 7100i in South Korea, wireless giant NTT DoCoMo has announced that it is partnering with BlackBerry-maker RIM to offer customers GSM / WCMDA "worldphone" versions of the addictive handhelds -- which is yet another step towards the carrier's commitment of having an all-GSM-enabled lineup within the next two years. Besides the traditional push email functionality that we've come to know and love, nothing is known about the specifics of these upcoming foreign models, like how the pocket-sized BlackBerries will manage to pack in the thousands of keys necessary to represent all those Japanese glyphs.

[Thanks, Gina]

Microsoft just dolled-up Windows CE in a new beta dress dubbed Windows CE 6 and turned her out at the Mobile and Embedded DevCon show in Vegas baby, Las Vegas. The new flavor of this embedded OS features a redesigned kernel with expanded capacity for up to 32k simultaneous processes while remaining true to the features and functionality of previous CE generations. So what the hell does that mean to you? Well, as the basis for Windows Mobile we should see new products based on both embedded CE (set-top boxes, industrial automation and medical devices) as well as sophisticated SmartPhones and PocketPCs coming sometime in 2007.

[Thanks, kerunt]

For the first census of the 21st Century, the US Census Bureau is finally entering the 20th. In 2010, when the next census is conducted, the agency will use handheld computers, rather than relying on notepads for door-to-door visits. The agency says the plan will keep costs down as well as making the count more accurate. The handhelds will be made by smartphone manufacturer HTC, and will run a version of Windows Mobile. Concerned Census Bureau officials have been assured that the HTC units won't replace their BlackBerrys, and will be used solely for data collection, not as smartphones (despite the fact that, coming from HTC, they'll probably be very capable smartphones with messaging and calling functions turned off for this project). The equipment is expected to be deployed this year or next by Florida-based Harris Corp., which won a $600 million contract to run the field operation. According to Census Bureau officials, the switch from paper to PDA will save money, though the total cost for the 2010 census is still expected to be as much as $12 billion, double that of 2000.