Energy Efficient PC's

Students will soon have a more energy-efficient way to play Oregon Trail and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing with the release of the Tangent VITA LT, an all-in-one "green" PC that costs less than $1,000 and is aimed at the education market. The VITA LT uses Intel's Atom N270 processor, commonly found in netbooks, to draw up to 72 percent less energy than standard Energy Star 4.0-compliant PCs.

For a sub-$1,000 all-in-one, it's loaded with perks for class projects, including a 18.5-inch touchscreen display, a 4-in-1 media card reader, an integrated webcam, and built-in wireless. In addition, the computer is 1.4 inches thick and seems to be taking style tips from Apple (which is never a bad idea).

Tangent's emphasis with the VITA LT is to provide a client for their virtual desktop infrastructure solution, which allows students (or employees) to take their desktop with them over a network, regardless of what computer they're on. This type of application doesn't require the latest and greatest in processing power, so it makes sense to power it with an Atom-based machine. The decrease in energy consumption is a definite plus too.

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New iPhone finally gets video and Lot more

At the World Wide Development Conference, the new iPhone, dubbed iPhone 3GS (speed) introduces a much faster interface and processor, cut and paste, yada yada yada, but what iPhone fans will really enjoy is the new 3MP camera with autofocus, auto white balance, and VIDEO!

BUt that isn’t more. Not only can users capture those priceless moments in video, but they can also edit those clips with the new editing app and then upload either to YouTube, Mobile Me, or email.

The camera shoots in standard definition VGA with audio and at 30 frames per second. Users can also swap between still photo and video mode on the fly. And a new API will enable integration of video capture into applications so that apps of the future will enable the video feature to it’s fullest potential.

There are plenty of other features as well, including vastly improved battery life, a digital compass, voice control, remote wipe in case users find they’re in the unfortunately position of having their iPhone lost or stolen, but the video option means that long weekends and vacations can now be enjoyed and remembered on the fly without lugging around yet another camcorder for video. Very nice.

Cost is $199 for 16GB, 299 for 32 gigs, and the 8GB stays at $99. Comes in black or white and is available June 19th.

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T-Mobile's Next Android Phone Coming This Summer

T-Mobile will offer their next Google Android phone "early this summer," according to an e-mail we got from T-Mobile. They say they'll have more to tell us about the specific device later this month.

Their existing phone, the T-Mobile G1, has been a million-seller for them and recently got a major upgrade to Android OS 1.5. According to T-Mobile, there are now more than 4,900 apps available for download in the Android Market.

We're pretty sure that the next T-Mobile Android phone will be the HTC Magic, which Google handed out last week at their Google I/O conference. The Magic we got was loaded with 30 days of T-Mobile service and worked on T-Mobile's unique 3G band. You can read our news editor Mark Hachman's impressions of the HTC Magic in his Gearlog post.

Samsung's 12 megapixel phone

Samsung Electronics unveiled on Monday the world's first cellphone model with a 12 megapixel camera, a higher resolution than most digital cameras.

The roll-out of cellphones with high-resolution cameras has hurt the camera industry badly in recent years. The world's top cellphone maker Nokia says it is also the largest maker of digital cameras.

Samsung said the new Pixon12 model would go on sale in Europe later this month, a blow to struggling rival Sony Ericsson, who has been touting a 12 megapixel model since February but will sell it only in the fourth quarter.

The phone has a Xenon flash and features a touch auto-focus tracking. According to Samsung the phone has a fast-image saving feature that lets users take the next photo within about two seconds