Latest news

Less than a week before their official announcement Neogaf has posted what appears to be the hardware specs for the upcoming Wii 2 (Project Cafe).

If the leaked specs are accurate, the system will bring a very powerful console, Blu-ray support, backwards compatibility and finally, HD graphics.

The leaked specs:

Graphics:
Custom AMD RV770 Chip “WOLF” @ 766Mhz on 32nm process
1398 Gflops

CPU:
Custom IBM Power 6 Chip “FOX” on 32nm process
4 cores, each two way SMT-capable and clocked at 3.5 GHz
175.9 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance (single-precision)
87.6 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance (double-precision)

Memory:
512 MB XDR2 DRAM main memory
+ 1024 GDDR5 video memory
+ 16 MB eDRAM

Storage:
2.5-inch SATA hard drive with 250 GB / 320 GB capacity
Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 64 GB)

Twitter may be ready to introduce its own photo-sharing service as early as this week, say multiple reports.

The service will be announced tomorrow at the D9 Conference in California, with CEO Dick Costolo as keynote speaker.

Currently, there are a number of competing photo services for Twitter, with the most popular being TwitPic, Lockerz and Yfrog.

The new service shouldn't be anything too mind blowing, but will be likely integrated into Twitter's official Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Web apps/sites.

Twitter recently acquired popular client TweetDeck for $40 million.

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, saw its stock fall to a 13-year low today after the struggling company warned its fiscal year outlook would fall way short of previous guidance.

The company was down as much as 16 percent today to $6.79 per share, a number last seen in June 1998.

Nokia lowered its operating margin to 0 percent for the Q2 2011, down from an expected 6-9 percent, a massive collapse.

Says analyst Thomas Langer:

I think it is devastating now that shortly after the AGM we have this very negative news out from Nokia. Q2 and Q3 is one story, but I think this will raise doubts about the potential recovery trend based on Mango.

What worries more is that Nokia will not be the only one with Mango and the Nokia hardware and user interface has to be more compelling than those from competitors.

Given the internal turmoil that will be generated by this news it is increasingly difficult to see that Nokia can leapfrog one handset generation and be on par with the competition in early 2012. Investors should be more than concerned about the dividend possibility.

In a strange move for the company, Apple has pre-announced that it will unveil the iCloud, iOS 5 and OS X Lion next week at its annual Developer's Conference.

CEO Steve Jobs will do the unveiling and the keynote speech, despite still being on medical leave for cancer.

In launching the iCloud service, Apple is said to have deals in place with Sony, Warner and EMI but not with Universal, the world's largest record label. Users will be able to upload their music to a "cloud" server, thus saving space on their hard drives and smartphone memory while being able to stream their whole libraries when connected to the Internet, and from anywhere.

OS X Lion is the company's latest Mac operating system while iOS 5 is the latest operating system for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. It is unclear what new features the mobile OS will bring.

The official press statement:

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011
CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

Samsung has confirmed today that it will stick with the Android mobile OS for its upcoming tablets.

Notes Samsung mobile boss JK Shin: "We'll continue to work with Android on future tablets."

The company has already announced the new Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, both of which will run Android Honeycomb 3.1. They expect tablet sales to rise to 7.5 million this year.

Samsung, despite being a major player in the mobile phone business, has trailed Apple in the tablet and smartphone market and both companies are now in a flurry of lawsuits against each other over alleged patent violations.

Adds Shin:

We didn't copy Apple's design. We have used many similar designs over the past years and it (Apple's allegation) will not be legally problematic.

Sony has noted today that the PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Store will be full restored in all territories except for Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea by the end of the week.

The EU and NA territories have had online gaming and other features restored for a number of weeks, but no access to the PlayStation Store.

Adds Sony:

The company implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions.

We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online so that our fans can again enjoy the first class entertainment experience they have come to love. We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time.

ZiiLABS has showed off their new line of Jaguar Honeycomb tablets for OEMs this week, introducing the powerful "energy efficient" Android devices at Computex 2011.

The company, owned by Creative, uses their own processors, specifically the ZiiLABS ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 StemCell Processors.

Says the company:

As consumer demand for a wide-range of smarter, more connected tablets increases, so do the OEMs' needs to innovate while also shrinking their time-to-market. The JAGUAR platform combines our deep understanding and experience working on consumer devices and tablets with our ZMS processors, reference platforms, software and certification know-how to deliver a state-of-the-art platform that minimizes the complexities of introducing next-generation tablets.

Timing is everything and a frenzied land-grab is taking place in the tablet computing market. Android 3.X and ZMS-20 are designed and engineered specifically for this new and exciting tablet market where growth is expected to approach 100 million next year. The JAGUAR platforms based on ZiiLABS' ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 processors push performances to a new level that the world has never seen before and OEMs and ODMs can leverage this with JAGUAR to quickly stake a sizeable claim in this explosive market.

Nvidia showed off their quad-core Kal-El (Tegra 3) processors at the Mobile World Congress, going as far as to say that the first tablets with the powerful processors should be available by August.

Smartphones using the processor could be available before Christmas, added the company.

Today, we have our first Tegra 3 rumor, with sources claiming Motorola will be first with a quad-core tablet, with that device coming as soon as late August, in time for "back-to-school" specials.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says they have 10 OEMs working on Tegra 3 devices, but would not name the companies or give a time table.

The Tegra 3 features performance up to 500 percent better than the dual-core Tegra 2 processors and gaming performance that far outperforms any current device.

PBS has confirmed that hackers planted a fake story on their website late Saturday night after taking over the company's computer systems.

The group, identifying themselves as "The Lulz Boat," posted a fake story that famous rapper Tuapc Shakur, murdered in 1996, was really alive and living in New Zealand.

Additionally, the group started posting email and passwords for PBS users.

The group still had control as of this morning, posting defaced pages at an alarming rate.

Via the group's Twitter page, the Lulz Boat say they were angry about a recently aired "Frontline" episode about WikiLeaks.

ViewSonic has showed off a 10-inch tablet today, one that dual-boots Android and Windows 7 and runs on Intel's brand new Oak Trail processor.

The ViewPad 10Pro will run Windows 7 Professional and Android 2.2, with users able to switch the operating system by pressing one button on the display. The tablet can do so by virtually running Android using BlueStacks technology.

Intel unveiled the 1.5GHz processor Oak Trail chips in April, the first designs that Intel has put out that can compete with ARM chips seen in mostly all current smartphones and tablets.

Additionally, the tablet has 32GB Internal storage, a 3500 mAh battery and dual cameras.

The tablet will be significantly heavier than the market leading Apple iPad 2, weighing 28.21 ounces compared to 21.16 ounces. The device is expected to be priced at $800 when it goes on sale in Taiwan next month.

Asus has launched the ultraportable Eee PC X101 netbook today, a device that can run Windows 7 or MeeGo.

The netbook is just 0.7 inches thick and weighs in at 2.1 pounds.

If you opt for the MeeGo model, the netbook will run you just $200, a new leg down in netbook pricing.

MeeGo, originally a mobile OS created by Intel and Nokia, includes an app store, runs perfectly on Intel Atom processors and has good third-party support (relatively).

The Eee PC X101 will run on a new Intel Atom N435 processor and a special X101H model will have a hard drive/SSD hybrid drive.

Here is a hands-on video via Engadget:

Asus has shown off their much-hyped tablet/phone hybrid device, the Padfone.

The smartphone can be placed into a dock built-in to the back of the tablet, allowing users to have all the features of a phone (calls, GPS, texting, etc) on the larger screen of the tablet.

There were little other details revealed on a hardware basis, but the tablet will be 10.1-inches while the phone will have a large 4.3-inch screen.

Asus did not reveal pricing or a set release date.

It appears this weekend that Google has pulled a number of popular gaming emulators from the Android Market.

All were created by developer Yongzh and include Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, and Gameboid.

The developer says his account was removed without any prior warnings and he is now looking to move his emulators to the third-party "SlideME" app store.

Just last month, Google pulled the PSX emulator, PSX4droid from the Market, as well.

While emulators are legal, as standalone apps, 9 times out of 10, the ROMS (games) used by gamers are obtained illegally thus making the whole legal standing of the software sketchy.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of social networking giant Facebook has said this week that his new personal challenge is to "be thankful for the food I have to eat."

In doing so, Zuckerberg says he will only eat meat from animals he has killed himself.

Says the world's youngest billionaire:

I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have.

Nokia has won a partial review of the patent case it lost to Apple in March, with the six-member ITC reviewing 2 of the 6 patent claims that were thrown out by an ITC judge earlier in the year.

The ITC will focus on a few specific terms in the two patents.

Nokia is looking for a full injunction on the iPhone in the United States.

The first patent relates to speaker and antenna quality and the other is for reducing energy consumed by phone cameras.

Nokia first filed the lawsuit in October 2009, asking for the injunction and demanding royalties from all iPhones sold.