The USB 3.0 standard has been in development for some time now, but it finally looks like we might be seeing that blazing speed in our computers and peripherals sooner than later. In fact, Nikkei Electronics Asia is reporting that USB enabled devices will be making their way out of Taiwan as early as this summer. Certainly, but the end of the year, holiday PC's and external hard drives will be hitting the shelves.

USB 3.0 allows for transfers of data up 5GB/s. Yes, that is not a typo, we are talking about 5GB per second, which is the perfect speed for HD video transfer, HD streaming, blazing fast SSD devices, and almost instant backup. By the end of the year you might be able to carry around a 128GB flash drive capable of backing up your entire PC in just a few minutes. With that kind of data transfer, everything from gaming systems to laptops will become major media streaming hubs. This is a future that I certainly am looking forward to.

Just how fast the standard is adopted waits to be seen, but NEC Electronics Corporation, from Japan, has already begun shipping host controllers this June. With the speed of adoption in the technology world, I would expect us to see working storage devices by September, and PC's by December. I for one welcome the speed bump.

Via SlashGear

If you have a pension for for playing an eleven year old RTS game, and you really want to kick some butt at it, then I have good news. Starcraft classes are available to you right now in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can learn to be the best, from the best, and it will only cost you $25 - $35 per hour.

These aren't just any Starcraft lessons. No sir! These Starcraft lessons are taught by a genuine, 100%, no-foolin, full-blooded Korean. According to his add in Craigslist, Mr. ByunTae will teach you the intricacies of the game, specialized vocabulary, and other advanced skills. He advertises his race, I assume, because Starcraft is such a major past time in Korea, and he has some real game time invested in learning the ins and outs of the game. Mr. ByunTae will teach you:

• Basic and Advanced strategies and build orders for all three races.
  


• In-game bugs to be used to your advantage such as unit stack, stop lurkers, etc.
  


• Counter strategies and perfect attack timings.
  


• Learn Korean lango, like "chobo" "gosu" "ww" etc
  


• Basic Korean to communicate with Koreans on battle.net
  

If you act now, this Korean Guru of gaming promises that "Korean girls will be intrigued that you're such a good Starcraft player," and who doesn't want that? At $25 an hour, these classes are a steal, and a degree in Starcraft should only take you 6-8 hours. Heck, with the economy the way it is, you probably don't have anything else going on.

Craigslist via Crunchgear

Sometimes good ideas are not worth it, no matter how well it may work. Decapitating someone to cure a nose bleed is effective and efficient, but it is a bad idea. This Solar Vest from Chinavision might be one of those really bad good ideas.

Imagine a vest that could not only hold all of your gadgets, but charge them as well. If you ever found yourself without pant pockets or outlets, this would be a must-have, but I think must of us have access to pockets and plugs. This solar vest, which runs $140, comes complete with a 8,800mAh-capacity battery that is charged via the four solar panels across its back, enough pockets for a small Radio Shack inventory, and the words "Solar Vest" emblazoned across the back. I can't imagine this being very popular with the ladies, but who needs a girlfriend when your iPod or iPhone will never run out of charge.

If you are a survivalist, or an avid camper, this is the vest for you. If you are a metropolitan gadget hound, you may want to skip it. It is available from Chinavision for $140. Who knows, if there is a Zombie Apocalypse, then I am going to feel really stupid if I don't have one of these. Maybe I should get one.

Via Coolest Gadgets

There's been lots of rumours about a slim model of Sony's Playstation 3, and today we are hearing that agreements may have been made with Foxxcon and another manufacture in order to produce consoles for a July 2010 launchdate...however, the same rumour also states that this will be the last PS3... being replaced with a motion based console after... completely contradicting Sony's own clear statements.

What do we believe?

I love living in the United States, but for a technology buff and gadget head, it can be frustrating at times. Korea gets the most fantastic cell phones, and Japan has mobile television on everything, and Europe is about to have a unified cell phone charging standard. I am absolutely jealous. My kids share a Nokia phone, and it has its own charger; it is different than our last Nokia Charger. My wife upgraded her BlackBerry to an iPhone, and we have all of those chargers sitting around as well. Have you ever stopped by a Wal Mart and checked out the charger section? I did, and I counted 18 different charger types and tips. It is insane!

But next year in Europe, there will be one charger to rule them all. Thanks to a multi-company agreement which includes Nokia and Sony Ericsson, and the European Union. According to EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen,

"People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone."

That is something that we could use here in the states desperately. Think of all the industrial waste that we could keep out of landfills if we did he same thing. Companies could also shave millions in costs by adopting a standardized plug because they would not need to ship one with every new phone.

I am thinking that once the Californians catch wind of this news, they will jump on board and start pushing for similar legislation in the US. I, for one, would love to see the same standard. Now if I could simply figure out if there is some way to reuse the adapters I have.

Via Reuters UK

Perhaps I've managed to be under a metaphorical rock about this... but I found this news really, really suprising. Dell are set to be knocked off the number 2 spot of pc sales in the USA by none other than Acer, a non US company, making this esspeically significant.

One guesses it's due to the recent phenominal sales of things like the Aspire One range and the like which Dell just cannot compete with!

A wierd world indeed.

This little blury snapshot has turned up on the web, adding to the already persistant rumours of Dell entering the smartphone market, with an obviously dell branded handset pictured running Google's android.

The handset appears to take some queues from the iPhone design, and will hopefully have improved on some of the serious flaws the current main andriod phone (the G1) has, such as it's truely dispareing battery life!

More as we get it.

I love the PS3. I know there are Xbox diehards, and Wii fanboys, but I honestly believe that Sony did things right with that piece of hardware. The quality of the PS3 is exactly why I am wondering why Sony is flirting with disaster the PSP Phone. Yes, you read that right; according to Nikkei, a Japanese Business Journal, Sony is currently entering into a development phase on the bastard love-child of the Sony PSP and a Sony Ericsson cell phone. No good will come from this.

According to the Nikkei article, Sony intends on competing directly with the iPhone. That is a bad idea. The last time Sony went head-to-head against a piece of hardware that had sold millions and millions with an established user and software base, the PSP lost. Sony cannot have already forgotten the Nintendo DS lesson. Instead of competing with the iPhone, it seems more likely that they would be competing with the PSP Go!, and it makes no sense to compete with yourself.

Theoretically, the research and development team has been at it since last July, and announcements are expected soon. My fear is that Sony will continue to struggle, and they will continue to not focus on the PS3. If developer support fades, or if Sony cannot afford new development on the system because of some silly PSP Phone, it would be a tragedy.

Source 1UP!

Starting today, and lasting an undetermined amount of time, Windows 7 is available for pre-order; for a few of the varieties, pre-ordering will get you a pretty descent discount. I would act fast, because this deal is limited to an amount of licenses sold, not a set amount of time. Trust me, you want Windows 7, and you want to save money.

Here are the specifics: if you wait until Windows 7 releases on October 22nd, it will cost you $119 for Home Premium, $199 for Professional, and $219 for Ultimate. Starting tomorrow, when you order directly from Microsoft or from "major retailers" you can snag Home Premium for a cool $49.99 and Professional for a mere $99.99. Unfortunately, Windows 7 Ultimate will not be discounted... yet. $50 dollars for what is undeniably a fabulous operating system is a pretty good deal, but it was obvious that they would have to price competitively because Apple's OS X Snow Leopard will ony cost $29 an many great Linux distributions are free.

There is no official list of "major retailers" yet, but my money is on Best Buy, Wal Mart, and Amazon at the least. Let me know how the pre-ordering goes; I am interested to know how many pre-order licenses there actually are.

Microsoft Windows 7 Pre-Order Page

I have written about conductive chargers, the wireless charging technology, before; I am completely in love with the technology. WildCharge, the leader in wireless charging technology, has charging pads and adapters for all sorts of devices from cell phones to gaming controllers. Now, the iPhone and the iPod touch join in the wireless charging fun. I am ecstatic.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of conductive charging, it is a very simple concept. A device charges simply by sitting on a pad and drawing energy from contact leads that are in the adapter on the device. You never have to plug in a device, find the right cable or adapter, and cables never get lost; you simply throw your device down and it starts to charge. The Palm Pre uses this charging technology with their Touchstone charger, and know iPhone can have it too. WildCharge has released a silicon skin for the iPod Touch and iPhone that have the necessary "third rails" built in so that it can make use of the charging base. The iPhone is the perfect device for wireless charging technology. Because of the small profile, simplicity, and beauty of the iPhone and iPod touch, it makes sense to just set the device down to charge it.

Right now, the iPod touch skin is available, and the iPhone skin will be available by mid June. The charging pad and skin will cost $79.99, but if you already have the pad, the iPhone skil will only cost $34.99. If you have a household with multiple phones and devices, the WildCharge pad can charge up to five devices simultaneously as long as you have the necessary skins and adapters.

Via NY Times