LaCie has been one of the leaders in the home digital media set-top box market, and at CES they’ve unveiled their newest creation, the LaCinema Mini HD – a new HD-ready digital media box for getting your digital content onto a big HDTV.

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The HP TouchSmart tm2 builds on HP’s existing TouchSmart software, and updates the tx2. "With the convertible tm2, customers can choose the product configuration and input method that is most comfortable and natural, whether on a couch, in an airplane or while surfing the web," the company says. "As a traditional notebook, the tm2 offers a keyboard and touch-enabled display for input. Converted to a slate, the tm2 morphs into a sketchpad with digital pen, allowing artists to sketch on the go and students to take notes in class."

HP lists the following new touch applications that enhance the tm2 experience:

- BumpTop, a touch-enhanced 3-D interface for photos and documents that allows users to spatially organize and “toss” or share files and photos to social media sites or email.

- DigiFish Dolphin, an interactive 3-D screensaver that recreates an ocean environment to be experienced via touch or a mouse.

- Corel Paint it! Touch, which allows users to draw and paint or turn photos into paintings using fingertips.

More details about the TouchSmart tm2 can be found here.

The HP Mini 5102 is described as a "full-performance "netbook designed for mobile professionals and students. It comes in either a standard or touch-enabled version. The touchscreen option includes multitouch gestures, finger taps, and swipes across the screen for navigation. More can be read about this here.

Finally, unveiled the HP Mini 210 and HP Mini 2102, with optional 3G broadband connectivity and GPS in multiple color options. HP says new software enhances the HP Mini 210′s multimedia experience:

- HP CloudDrive powered by ZumoDrive allows users to access their synchronized content – documents, photos and music – from the cloud, without having to store it on a local drive.

- HP MediaStream allows users to stream multimedia content from one PC to another over the Internet, without requiring data to be downloaded.

- HP QuickSync software, also available on the HP Mini 2102, automatically synchronizes files created or edited on the road with a home or business PC over a wireless connection when connected to the same network.

- HP QuickWeb allows users to access the web without booting up the notebook by simply pushing a button. In seconds, users have a connection to the Internet and can access websites and other content that normally requires a standard browser, as well as photos, music and more.

More details about the Mini 210 and Mini 2102 can be found here.

The HP TouchSmart tm2 is expected to be available in the US on Jan. 17 in all colors with a starting price of $949. The HP Mini 5102 is expected to be available in the US this month with a starting price of $399. The HP Mini 210 is expected to be available in the US tomorrow with a starting price of $299 for Windows 7.The HP Mini 2102 is also expected to be available in the US tomorrow with a starting price of $329.

Watch for more WebProNews coverage of CES, with exclusive video interviews coming soon.

Related Articles:

> CES About to Kick Off the Year in Technology

> Cisco Leaving a Big Mark on Consumer Electronics Show

> Looking Back on CES

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Innergie has shown off the mCube Mini, a small cube-shaped white little aircraft/auto notebook charger. Innergie is claiming it’s the world’s smallest. The mCube Mini can be powered by either a 12V or 15V outlet from a car or passenger seat of a commerical airliner.

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Plus d’informations sur le site officiel.

Previously on Fubiz

• Typo Project
• The Pop-up Book of Phobias
• The Krink Mini

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Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users worldwide showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month, according to the report. The number of page views in November went up 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% compared to October.

In Africa, Facebook has taken a strong lead and ranks as the most popular site in six out of the top 10 countries, Opera says. The company highlights the following global trends:

- In November 2009, more than 41.7 million people used Opera Mini, a 5.3% increase from October 2009 and more than 154% compared to November 2008.

- The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Poland.

Opera also highlights the following trends for Africa:

- The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in Africa are (in order): South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia.

- Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets are extremely popular in Africa, but Samsung is a significant exception, boasting the most popular phone used by Opera Mini users in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia.

"It is heartening to know that Opera Mini continues to grow consistently in all regions and categories — specially in continents like Africa where mobile phones are more likely the only way for people to access the Web," said Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "At Opera, we are striving to bring the most innovative and affordable way for people to access the mobile Web and expect 2010 will prove just as successful for us as the case has been in previous years."

Related Articles:

> Opera Turbo Sees 60% User Growth in One Month

> 40 Million Reasons You Need a Mobile Web Presence

> Opera Releases Latest Version of Popular Mobile Browser

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Ever since Intel took the cover off their Pine Trail Atom series of processors early Monday, almost all popular netbook manufacturer have come out of the woodwork declaring that they will start packing the Pine Trail Atom processors into their netbooks soon. You can count HP in that camp, as a online retailer has broken the news early that a new HP Mini will becoming with the new chips.

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Read the rest of HP Mini 210 Netbook Redesigned [HP's Netbook Getting New Atom Pine Trail Processor]

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Hours after Intel announced a new line of netbook processors, Dell revealed the new Dell Inspiron Mini 10– the first to feature the new Intel Atom N450.  The new Dell Inspiron Mini 10 has received a design refresh and hardware upgrade to take advantage of Intel’s new netbook powerhouse.

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Read the rest of New Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Gets Atom N450 [Dell Revamps Mini 10 Netbook Line With Next Gen Processor, Design Refresh]

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The Nokia N97 Mini, a downsized version of the Nokia N97, is now shipping in the United States from some retailers. The Nokia N97 Mini had been released earlier Europe (around October) but is now available here in the US from online stores Amazon and Dell.

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ViewSonic have released two new mini PCs in the form of the ViewSonic VOT530 and the VOT550 (we actually previously featured the ViewSonic VOT550 back here) both of which come with Intel Core Duo processors under the hood, run Windows 7 and, lending themselves to being great front room entertainment hubs, integrated wireless connectivity.
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Read the rest of ViewSonic VOT530 & VOT550 Mini PCs [New Mini PCs with Windows 7, Core 2 Duo Processors & Wireless Connectivity]

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About 40 million people used Opera Mini in October, according to the company. That’s an 11.3% increase from September 2009 and more than 155% compared to October 2008. page-views and data transfers increased at an even more impressive rate. Opera says that because of this, consumers can save 9.4 billion USD per year just by using Opera Mini. If you want to know how this translates to you personally, Opera has a cost calculator in its new State of the Mobile Web report.

"Because Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90%, people everywhere can reduce the amount they pay each month for mobile data," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "By making the Web accessible and affordable on mobile devices, we can usher in a communications revolution on an unprecedented scale. Opera Mini is helping to spur this change — potentially affecting the lives of billions — not just by making mobile browsing possible, but by making it affordable, as well."

The 39.6 million people using Opera Mini in October viewed 17.2 billion pages.

From September, page-views increased 14.8%. From October 2008, they increased 238%. A few more interesting stats from Opera’s report include: 

- Opera Mini users generated more than 263 million MB of data for operators worldwide in October 2009.

- Since September, the data consumed went up by 16%.

- Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%, meaning Opera Mini servers processed up to 2.5 petabytes of data this month.

- Since October 2008, data traffic increased 233%.

The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage are (in order) are Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Vietnam. This is exactly the same as it was in September.

As mobile web use is clearly growing rapidly, it is important that your site has not only a good, usable mobile presence, but it is also essential that your site be visible in mobile search. We recently looked at some advice from Google on making sure you’re indexed in Google’s mobile web search, and how to handle the two different versions of you site (mobile/desktop). Read more here.
 

Related Articles:

> Ensuring Your Site is Indexed in Google’s Mobile Search

> Smartphone Sales Up 12% In Q3

> Usage of Mobile Web and Apps Doubles in 2 Years

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Engadget has reported on a sleek new wireless travel/mini mouse that’s coming out of Japan. It’s named the ‘Like A Spoon’ Mouse (I’m sure it sounds better in Japanese), and as you can see, is a sleek little wireless number. It runs off a single AAA battery and weights on 115g, and connects to your computer via a very discreet USB knob.

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Read the rest of Straight From Japan, Sleek ‘Like A Spoon’ Mouse [Japanese Gadget Company Elecom Releases 'Like A Spoon' Mouse]

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The AT&T – Verizon war keeps on going no matter what. After today’s truth about the 3G ads, we caught wind that there’s a race for netbooks, too. If last month we found out that Big Red has announced availability for the new HP Mini 110 netbook, today AT&T has done the same announcing that they’ll add to their range of 3G mobile broadband equipped netbooks with the new Mini 110.

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See: AT&T HP Mini 110 3G Enabled Netbook Release & Pricing Official [3G HP Mini 110 to Harness AT&T's 3G Mobile Broadband Network]

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In reality, designers do not take advantage of using favicons for the websites they design. Favicons are the mini graphics for a specific website and is displayed in the URL bar of a browser. It is found next to the name of the site in the bookmark list and next also the title of the page in an interface format of a tabbed document.

These favicons should be attractive so that it is seen at once by the users and should fit the logo or design of the corresponding page.

If your website has a favicon, the URL of your site is easily found in the bookmarks of your users. And then there will be a visual relationship between the visitors of your site and your website.

Making a favicon design can be very tricky. It is not that easy to make a beautiful mini favicon icon that measures around 16×16 pixels in size. But some designers may be able to do it with such great effect. The type of logos with clear geometric structure is much simple to work with than abstract images or the typefaces.

Here is my list of 55 awesome favicons that may be able to inspire you to make some more great and attractive designs.

Do you know of any sites with really great favicons, I would love to hear about it.

Related posts:

1. The Importance of Website Graphics
2. Top websites that will help you become awesome at Photoshop
3. Get your Groove Back to be Inspired on Web Designing

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Plus d’informations sur le site officiel.

Previously on Fubiz

• We Believe
• Lace Head
• Ryan Robinson

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It’s not that easy to improve on a mobile phone that is that close to perfection, but it looks like Phones 4U in the UK has found a way to get more attention to the new Nokia N97 Mini by adding a stylish and exclusive white coating to the whole package.

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See: White Nokia N97 Mini Exclusive on Phones 4U [Nokia N97 Mini Dresses in White, Becomes Official in the UK]

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Previously on Fubiz

• Basement Jaxx – My Turn
• Kisses from Paris
• Mao Bao Dishwashing Liquid

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With Opera’s mobile browsers, things are quite simple: if you’re not happy with whatever browser came with your smartphone, you’d probably do well to try either Opera Mini or Opera Mobile. The difference between the two often confuses users: Opera Mini is Java-based and works on almost all phones, while Opera Mobile is aimed at specific smartphone platforms, namely Symbian and Windows Mobile.

Now, Opera Mobile 10 Beta is available for owners of Nokia’s smartphones and other Symbian S60 smartphones, and it’s essentially a more polished version of the recently released Opera Mini 5 Beta.

The slick interface includes the revamped speed dial, touch-friendly keyboard, and tabbed browsing. On the performance side – as always – the new version promises to be much speedier than the last one, with speedier zoom, 50% faster page downloading, and full support for Opera’s Turbo mode, which compresses web pages on Opera’s servers, making your browsing faster and monthly mobile data bill lower.

Check out a video introduction to Opera Mobile 10 beta below.

Tags: Nokia, Opera Mobile 10, Symbian

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I’m navigating the Internet from a 4.6 x 2.2 inch screen belonging to a Nokia N97 smartphone using a pre-release version of Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian Series 60 phones. Opera Mobile 10 beta is available as of Tuesday morning, Central European Time.

Opera Mobile 10 beta previews tabs in a flashy new design.

(Credit:
Opera Software)

What’s new? The tabbed browsing treatment and speed dial thumbnails you see when you load the browser anew or launch a new page are the spotlight-grabbing features. The entire interface, in fact, gets a fresh coat of paint using the same brush that drew in Opera Mini 5 beta. The visual encore works. In looks alone, the inviting Opera Mobile 10 beta bowls over Opera Mobile 9.7 beta‘s design.

While the speed dial thumbnails and multiple browser tabs were far more impressive in the comparatively resource-light Opera Mini 5 beta, a proxy browser, the design continuity we see in Opera Mobile 10 beta, a standalone Web browser, is a welcome refresh that also joins the two cell phone apps in a unified design philosophy.

Opera’s 4MB version 10 beta browser retains many of the features from prior releases, like the password manager, and the abilities to zoom in and out, copy text, save images, download files, and open links in a new tab. From Opera Mobile 9.7 beta, the version 10 beta has carried over Opera Turbo, Opera’s compression engine that uses Opera’s servers to punch up performance (and deliver less detailed images) when the Internet connection is slow.

In addition, Opera claims that Opera Mobile 10 beta is twice as fast as its Symbian predecessor when it comes to downloads and zooming and panning.

Opera's Speed Dial and expandable search box make the jump to Opera Mobile 10 beta.

(Credit:
Opera Software)

As a beta build, Opera Mobile 10 beta does have several bugs to work out. First, Opera Link, the bookmarks-syncing service available in Opera 10 desktop browser and in the stable builds of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, is absent from this build (it’s also missing from Opera Mini 5 beta.) Opera Link will return by the time Opera Mobile 10 leaves beta.

Other known issues include the virtual keyboard popping up even when you’re using the physical keyboard, as it did in our tests on the Nokia N97. The beta browser is also known to freeze at times, and has only partial support for the IMEs (Input Method Editors) that make typing Asian languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean work. As a result, this beta build won’t function on handsets with Asian language packs and won’t render Asian fonts in this version, says Opera, but the input incompatibility should be fixed in the next release.

Opera Mobile 10 beta is available now for Symbian users on Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson smartphones running Symbian Series 60, 3rd and 5th editions. Try it by pointing the mobile browser to
http://m.opera.com/mobile.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

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We previously reported regarding Nokia’s new N97 mini that it was expected to be available in stores starting October 23rd, but things took a wrong twist and the mobile phone has been delayed for another week. But this seem to be about it, as the new Nokia N97 Mini has been officially announced to be available in stores with an estimated retail price of EUR 450 (some $660 at today’s rate) before taxes and subsidies.

(more…)

See: Nokia N97 Mini Starts Shipping [Nokia N97 Gets Software Upgrade, Everybody's Happy]

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Verizon has just announced two new netbooks that are going to be available together with new 2-year Mobile Broadband plans. Both are made by HP and they are the Mini 311 and the Mini 110.
(more…)

See: Verizon Wireless Announces HP Mini 311 & 110 Netbooks [New HP Mini Netbooks Get Bundled with 2-YR Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband Plans]

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Split screen is Bolt's take on zooming.

(Credit:
Bitstream

We were impressed with the Opera Mini 5 beta browser, which came out in mid-September. At CTIA Wireless 2009, a smaller player, Bolt Browser, leaves its beta behind to chase after Opera’s dominance as an alternative browser for Java phones.

We liked what we saw the first time we tested out Bolt as a beta (video review) on a Samsung Propel. Bolt’s rendering felt truer than Opera Mini 4.2 on many sites, but it didn’t seem faster. Now that Bolt has shucked off its beta, we find performance essentially unchanged.

True, Bolt has undergone some cosmetic alterations, such as a Google search box that’s separate from the URL bar, and a welcome download manager that lets you download files as well as upload. It also caches pages now, so you can jump back to the previous page without reloading it. Bolt 1.5′s new video manager selects the best of three delivery mechanisms for streaming video on your device, including triggering your media player if the phone isn’t well equipped for playback.

But what of those speed claims? Bolt, a proxy browser built on Webkit, now claims that it’s about 15 percent faster than before and compresses data at a 23:1 ratio. In other words, 2.3MB from the Web shrinks down to 100KB. That may be, but we pulled up our online stopwatch to run our own surf tests.

Without ever budging from our roost, we tested navigation three times on each of three sites, keeping the routine the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2. We would have thrown Opera Mini 5 beta into the mix, but it didn’t seem compatible yet with our testing phone, a Samsung Propel on AT&T’s 3G network. We’re telling you this because we know what a difference carrier, data strength, and handset type makes in each user’s result. Were you to run the same test, you might get slightly different numbers.

Bolt took 12-14 seconds to load and navigate on Nordstrom.com versus Opera Mini’s 9-13 seconds. It took 26 seconds to load The New York Times site and two other stories on Bolt. On Opera, the same stories loaded in 19, 11, and 10 seconds. Yelp was about the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2, about 14 seconds, but one Bolt page ran 2 seconds slower. Our tests clearly favor Opera Mini for speed, but there are one or two other caveats and clarifications to consider before declaring an all-around winner.

First, Bolt renders pages more faithfully than Opera Mini, with sharper text and photos, and with all the photos intact. Opera Mini 4.2 tended to overly compress some, but it bought it speed. On some sites, Opera Mini stripped an image or two out, or the photo footprints drastically condensed. Bolt also has an interesting feature that Opera doesn’t–the capability to split the screen. This is essentially Bolt’s zoom feature. As you pass the cursor over the zoomed-out section up top, the same area is zoomed in below. The 5 key toggles split-screen view on and off.

So which Java browser prevails overall? It’s a tough call: Bolt renders graphics more clearly, but Opera was speedier. We’ll see if these numbers continue to stand up when Opera Mini 5 comes out of beta. In the meantime, try them both out and chime in with your own views. You may find that a few seconds are worth it to you to use Bolt’s interface. Maybe speed is all that matters and you’ll stick with Opera Mini for now. You tell us.

Bolt browser 1.5 is free to download. BlackBerry owners should download the optimized version for BlackBerry phones, which integrates RIM’s typical operating system shortcuts.

Originally posted at CTIA Fall show

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Split screen is Bolt's take on zooming.

(Credit:
Bitstream

We were impressed with Opera Mini 5 beta browser, which came out in mid-September. At CTIA Wireless 2009 (all stories), a smaller player, Bolt Browser, leaves its beta behind to chase after Opera’s dominance as an alternative browser for Java phones.

We liked what we saw the first time we tested out Bolt as a beta (video review) on a Samsung Propel. Bolt’s rendering felt truer than Opera Mini 4.2 on many sites, but it didn’t seem faster. Now that Bolt has shucked off its beta, we find performance essentially unchanged.

True, Bolt has undergone some cosmetic alterations, such as a Google search box that’s separate from the URL bar, and a welcome download manager that lets you download files as well as upload. It also caches pages now, so you can jump back to the previous page without reloading it. Bolt 1.5′s new video manager selects the best of three delivery mechanisms for streaming video on your device, including triggering your media player if the phone isn’t well equipped for playback.

But what of those speed claims? Bolt, a proxy browser built on Webkit, now claims that it’s about 15 percent faster than before and compresses data at a 23:1 ratio. In other words, 2.3 MB from the Web shrinks down to 100 KB. That may be, but we pulled up our online stopwatch to run our own surf tests.

Without ever budging from our roost, we tested navigation three times on each of three sites, keeping the routine the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2. We would have thrown Opera Mini 5 beta into the mix, but it didn’t seem compatible yet with our testing phone, a Samsung Propel on AT&T’s 3G network. We’re telling you this because we know what a difference carrier, data strength, and handset type makes in each user’s result. Were you to run the same test, you might get slightly different numbers.

Bolt took 12-14 seconds to load and navigate on Nordstrom.com versus Opera Mini’s 9-13 seconds. It took 26 seconds to load the New York Times site and two other stories on Bolt. On Opera, the same stories loaded in 19, 11, and 10 seconds. Yelp was about the same for Bolt 1.5 and Opera Mini 4.2, about 14 seconds, but one Bolt page ran two seconds slower. Our tests clearly favor Opera Mini for speed, but there are one or two other caveats and clarifications to consider before declaring an all-around winner.

First, Bolt renders pages more faithfully than Opera Mini, with sharper text and photos, and with all the photos intact. Opera Mini 4.2 tended to overly compress some, but it bought it speed. On some sites, Opera Mini stripped an image or two out, or the photo footprints drastically condensed. Bolt also has an interesting feature that Opera doesn’t–the ability to split the screen. This is essentially Bolt’s zoom feature. As you pass the cursor over the zoomed-out section up top, the same area is zoomed in below. The ’5′ key toggles split screen view on and off.

So which Java browser prevails overall? Tough call–Bolt renders graphics more clearly, but Opera was speedier. We’ll see if these numbers continue to stand up when Opera Mini 5 comes out of beta. In the meantime, try them both out and chime in with your own views. You may find that a few seconds are worth it to you to use Bolt’s interface. Maybe speed is all that matters and you’ll stick with Opera Mini for now. You tell us.

Bolt browser 1.5 is free to download. BlackBerry owners should download the optimized version for BlackBerry phones, which integrates RIM’s typical operating system shortcuts.

Originally posted at CTIA Fall show

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