Online latest technology news

That Sony S-Series Walkman we spotted a couple of weeks ago has reared its speaker grill-laden head once more, only this time in what looks like an accidental unveiling on French retailer Materiel's website. According to the specs list -- accompanied by some new official press shots that give us little reason to doubt its validity -- the 8GB NWZ-S544 and 16GB NWZ-S545 feature a 2.4-inch QVGA widescreen display, stereo speakers, a microphone, FM tuner, a Li-ion battery for a reported 42 hours of audio / 6.5 hours of video, and what appears to be a built-in stand for convenient video watching. Codec support includes MP3, non-DRM AAC, WMA, H.254, MPEG4, and WMV. No fanciful colors like in the first pic, we've only got black listed for now, to the tune of 129€ ($182) for the 8GB model and 149€ ($211) for 16GB. We're still waiting on Sony to fess up to the device, but really, it can't get much more official. A price and release date for US would be nice, though.

You didn't have to read much of our recent Kindle DX review to get a handle on our opinions of the super-sized e-reader, but as you've likely gleaned from the headline, this one's not about us. Instead, we're asking you to chime in with your take on this here device during this week's How Would You Change. Did you really gain anything from the larger screen? Have you found it useful in your line of work / education? Are you down on the keyboard? Given Amazon's history, we can't imagine that the DX will stay in this form forever, and listen, wouldn't you want to have a say in what gets changed on Revision B? Drop your most intimate thoughts on the matter below -- who knows, maybe Sir Bezos is tuning in just to cash in on your two pennies.

Look, ioSafe said when it was announced that the Solo external HDD was rugged enough to withstand both fire and submersion in water, so really, it was only a matter of time before at least one of those things happened, right? The hardy woodsmen over at TestFreaks have taken ioSafe at its word and run a 500GB version through the paces. Running it through the benchmarks, they found that the Solo holds up very well when compared with similar makes with regards to speed and performance -- it gets the job done, if you will. Transfer rates were a bit slower when put up against a Seagate BlackArmor WS110 -- but not enough to be terribly disappointing. The real fun, of course, comes with the drowning of the poor little hard drive. Now, we don't want to give anything away, but we'll say this: watch the video (which is after the break) all the way to the end when the protector of Camp Crystal Lake makes a stunning, shocking performance. Hit the read link for the full review, a ton of photos, and even more video.