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As expected, Nokia has gone by its word and launched the Ovi Store. Though it’s accessible only from countries like Australia, Ireland and Singapore, more countries are expected to join the list soon. Nokia also confirmed about moving the Ovi Store to ‘production servers’ which means a global access will be possible by the end of this week.

After being available in the other market for quite some time, Nokia has announced to sell the 6208 Classic in the Indian region. 6208 Classic is Nokia’s first touchscreen attempt on Series 40 platform and features a 3.2MP sensor with dual LED flash, 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen display, handwriting recognition, music player, FM Radio and microSD card slot expandable up to 8GB.

The phone is priced at Rs. 13,259 which makes me think why would one go for this one when they can get a better phone in the form of LG Cookie or Samsung Star?

Underpowered, cramped keyboard, not-so multimedia friendly tags bestowed on netbooks will be a thing of the past. Lenovo has announced its first 12-inch IdeaPad netbook, S12 that also happens to be the first netbook based on Nvidia’s ION platform. For the uninitiated, the ION platform is cooked up together with Intel’s Atom processor and Nvidia’s 9400M GPU.

The 12-incher promises to give a full 1080p playback, full sized keyboard, WXGA LED backlit screen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM, up to 320GB HDD, LAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3 USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard slot, card reader, VGA or HDMI out (depending on model) and optional 6-cell battery.

Lenovo will start selling in US from next month with the price starting from $449.

PS: Laptop-Mag have published their hands-on but the unit was sans ION, powered by a Via Nano processor.

We take Sony’s portable noise cancellation solution for a spin to see if it’s worth Rs. 4,500. Does it fulfill the promise? Well, read on.

MDR-NC7 comes in a small package that includes headphones, one carry pouch and a dual pin adaptor for in-flight use.

Sony products are known for its aesthetics and NC7 is no surprise. The headphones look stylish with its white hue and silver accents on the side of the earpads. The NC7 is adjustable to suit everyone’s ears and folds down completely to be carried easily. The earpads consists of sponge that is covered with leather-like material to give it a classy look.

Making the NC7 work is a no-brainer. Just plug the pin into a 3.5mm slot supporting player and you could delve into uninterrupted music instantly. The noise cancelling feature actually works two ways – passively and actively. The passive noise cancelling is done with the help of the thick layer of sponge covering your ears while the active part kicks by activating the noise cancelling feature with a switch located on the side. However, this feature requires a single AAA battery to work.

We tested the noise cancelling feature by commuting in the ever crowded Mumbai local-train and even though it did not fully block the outside noise as promised, it effectively cut the noise by half. There is also an obvious difference when the noise cancellation is turned on. Apart from blocking noise, the music quality is also enhanced. It sounds better and is easy to pick up low notes, which with a regular set of earphones might be impossible.

However, despite the fact that it fared well in other departments, it lacked something which many users look out for – the bass thumping effect. The bass is not totally absent but we can say it has a minimal effect. Another thing is that it cannot be used for prolonged sessions. Not that its not ergonomic but the leather-like material is the culprit. Continuous use tends to make the ears sweaty.

Overall, MDR-NC7 performed decently for an entry level headphone but the price is the dampener here. Maybe lowering it to around Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 3,000 could give users more bang for their buck.

KDDI au has unwrapped its new offerings that will amaze the Japanese citizens this summer. There are some interesting phones out of the eight models announced.

First is Hitachi’s Mobile Hi-Vision CAM Wooo, capable of recording videos at 720p, 30fps and comes with an HDMI-out to view the HD recorded video on an HDTV.

Toshiba’s Biblio is touted as an e-book reader. It features an EZ Book service, a 3.5-inch screen, 7GB user storage, QWERTY keyboard and Wi-Fi.

Sharp will be selling its SH002 Solar Phone. The phone is waterproof and claims to give a minute worth of talk time or about 2 hours of standby on a 10 minutes recharge.

There’s also Casio’s rugged G’z One CA002, Sharp’s waterproof Sportio water beat and another waterproof from Toshiba, T002.

All the phones will launch consecutively after May 29.

Samsung and CPSC have initiated a recall of the a110 and a120 Jitterbug phones. The reason for the recall is that the phones are equipped with BB14 software and cannot connect to emergency 911 services when it’s in a no-service area. The recall affects Jitterbug phones sold from March 2008 through May 2009 and are eligible for a free software upgrade.

LG will be wooing Korean businessmen with its new KU4000. The 3G phone will come to KTF and brings in various features like 60 types of LED illumination, Mobile Planner, documents viewer and accelerometer for various games like fishing, darts and baseball.

Specifications:

- WCDMA HSDPA 7.2 support
- Size and Weight: 105.9×51.5×15.3mm / 111g (Battery included)
- Internal Display: 2.8-inch WQVGA (240×400 pixels)
- External Display: 5×23 LED Matrix (Red)
- Memory: microSD slot (up to 8GB supported)
- T-DMB
- 2MP camera + video camera
- More than 160 countries with global roaming
- File Viewer (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, pdf, text) / Outlook Sync Support
- MP3 capability, motion sensor (photo switch, games, etc.), a removable disk, noise removal
- Battery: 800mAh
- Continuous currency: about 140 minutes or more / video calls over 80 minutes
- Continuous Standby: 160 hours
- Color: Black, Wine Red, White (additional colors planned)

The ASUS Eee PC 1000HV is the company’s latest netbook that features an ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics with 256MB of memory. Other interesting specs you’ll find within this new system include a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, a 1.3MP webcam, a 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a VGA port, three USB 2.0 ports, an SD/SDHC/MMC card reader, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and a six cell battery. If you happen to live in Italy, you could pre-order the ASUS Eee PC 1000HV through Computer Discount for about €449 ($628).

Romania-based engineering student Stephen Shepeleff has designed the Q-SOUND Bluetooth solar powered headphones. The solar cell across the top of the headband will recharge two removable rechargeable NiMH batteries with an electric capacity of 800mAh and operating voltage of 1.2Volts. A fully charged headset is able to run for up to 40 hours, running Bluetooth, an MP3 player, or other Bluetooth-enabled device.

If you happen to visit San Francisco anytime soon, don’t forget to grab one of this Cable Car USB Flash Drive for a souvenir. This 2-inch long rubber USB drive has up to a 16GB of storage and comes pre-loaded with over 30 stunning photos of San Francisco. It’s available in two original color options: blue and green, and priced at $36.99 for the 16GB version.

Good news comes from the FCC. The Magellan Maestro 4700 has been approved, which means we will be able to purchase this gadget in the States very soon. The Magellan Maestro 4700 features a 4.7-inch LCD display, voice commands, Bluetooth connectivity, a live traffic option, and the Magellan OneTouch interface. Sadly, there is no info on pricing so far.

Acer has recently rolled out a new member for its netbook series by releasing the LT3000 11.6-inch wide netbook. It comes with a 1366×768 resolution display, a 1.33 GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, a 1GB of RAM, 160GB of HDD and US15W chipset. The netbook also sports three USB 2.0 ports, IEEE 802.11 b/g wireless LAN, Bluetooth 2.0, card reader, a 3MP webcam and Windows XP operating system. Unfortunately, the battery lifetime is only enough up to 3 hours. The Acer LT3000 is priced at 65,000Yen($685) in Japan.

Here is a Qosmio netbook that was touched by a fragment of the All Spark cube that turns it into a robotic alien lifeform. The netbook doesn’t necessarily work, the body serves as a 4-port USB hub. It comes with four USB 2.0 ports on the front and a fake image of the Windows XP desktop on the display.

If you’re a proud owner of Asus’s flagship ROG motherboard then you can now tweak it with the ROG OC Station. This bay-mounted overclock assistant allows you to tweak parameters on the fly, ROG-exclusive features, fan speeds, system information and even a photo slideshow function. To overclock your ROG board all you have to do is connect ROG OC Station to your board and change various parameters. No info on pricing so far.

The Leica M8 White Edition is now available for pre-order. This very limited edition camera is accompanied by a high-quality, real leather carrying strap, embossed with the Leica logo. The control elements are finished in silver chrome. The Leica M8 White Edition is only available for 275 units. You can now pre-order it for $8.500 a pop.

Recordex has created a series of efficient and low cost CD/DVD inkjet printers. Known as the Studiojet 50 and 100, these CD printers feature disc labeling software and uses standard HP ink cartridges to bring down the CD printing cost by around $40 per set of ink cartridge. The Studiojet 50 features Discus LE software, while the Stodiojet 100 uses Apple QuickTime 7.0 software for printing.

The iRiver B30 Portable Media Player has been released. Available in white, black, or silver, the gadget has an FM tuner, a 2.8-inch QVGA display, a microSD expansion slot, a 4/8/16GB storage capacity, USB 2.0 connectivity, and a user-selectable equalizer. Its battery provides enough juice for 40-hours on audio playback or 5.5-hours with video playback. The 4GB, 8GB retail for $155, $183, respectively. The pricing for the 16GB model is still unavailable.

AT&T is set to launch another smartphone from Hewlett-Packard namely the iPAQ K3 — codenamed “Obsidian” on November 30. This new smartphone works on triband HSDPA as well as quadband EDGE connectivity and features Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, a 2.8-inch QVGA display, a 2MP camera, a full QWERTY keyboard, a 256MB of RAM, a 512MB ROM, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS and WiFi connectivity. Pricing info is still unknown at the moment.

Iiyama has added a new 23.6-inch full HD LCD to their range in the form of the ProLite E2407HDS. This new LCD boasts a full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 1000:1 contrast ratio (up to 60000:1 with the ACR), a 300cd/m2 brightness and supports both DVI-D and HDMI connections. The ProLite E2407HDS is available in either black or white for a retail price of 29,800 Yen ($314).

LG Korea just released their new business-oriented cell phone. Known as the LG-KU4000, the handset features a 2.8-inch LCD display with an external LED display, supports Microsoft Word, PPT, XLS, PDF files and the Mobile Franklin Planner. Other features include a DMB TV tuner, and a 2MP digital camera. No word on pricing so far.

The CR-D2LTD from Onkyo is a compact Hi-Fi with a CD player and an FM tuner. The gadget has 40watts x 2ch speakers at 4-Ohms impedance with VLSC and VL Digital technology to produce a crystal clear audio quality. The Onkyo CR-D2LTD is priced at approx. 73,500 Yen in Japan ($775).

That’s right! PC-KouBou today introduced the Lesance BTO CLG629, its new BTO (Built To Order) laptop that is powered by a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 CPU, a 4GB RAM, a 500GB SATA 5400rpm HDD, an 8x DVD Super-multi, a 15.4-inch WUXGA (1920×1080 pixel) LCD screen, WiFi, 1Seg TV tuner and an nVidia GeForce GTX 260M with 1GB of VRAM. If you are interested, you can purchase the Lesance BTO CLG629 via online through PC-KouBou Online Store for 189,980 Yen ($1,999).

The Sanyo Gorilla NVA-GS1609FT and NVA-GS1409DT in-dash navigation systems boast a 16GB SSD and 8GB SSD, respectively. Both gadgets feature a 7-inch QVGA touchscreen display with Sanyo Eco Drive, an improved GUI and 3D maps. Pricing info and availability info are still unknown.

Lenovo comes back with its brand new nettop. Dubbed as the IdeaCentre C300, this mini computer features a 20-inch LCD display with an Intel Atom 230 processor, an Intel 945GC chipset, an integrated graphics, up to 2GB DDR2 667 RAM, a 2.5-inch HDD slot, a 1.3MP webcam, card reader, and built-in speakers. The Lenovo IdeaCentre C300 is priced at $450 each.

The Shuttle XS92 and XS92F nettops will be powered by VIA’s Nano CPUs, with the former getting the faster but more power-hungry L-series processors meanwhile the latter will be powered by the highly energy-efficient U-series of Nano CPUs. Shuttle will release more specifications at Computex in Taiwan. Stay tuned for more updates.

Here is another pico projector that is currently available in the market. The FAVI PMJ-1000 is so tiny so that it will fit into your pocket comfortably. Measuring 4.4-inch x 1.9-inch x 0.6-inch and weights 180grams, the projector has manual zoom and focus controls. You can buy the FAVI PMJ-1000 for $280 a pop.

Sanyo has released the world’s first Wi-Fi LCD projector in the US. Dubbed as the PLC-WXU700, it supports USB connectivity, LAN port, 500:1 contrast ratio, 3,800 lumens brightness, WXGA resolution, HDMI, D-sub, S-Video, and Composite inputs. The Sanyo PLC-WXU700 LCD projector will be released next month for $2,995.