Bank holidays more often than not spell bad weather in the UK and we’ve all got our fingers crossed for the one fast approaching. To celebrate or commiserate, Proporta would like to offer you a 15% discount off all Proporta branded hardware products on orders placed between the 23rd and 25th August 2008. Just enter BROLLY when prompted at the cart page to receive your discount.

An Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone 3G’s network is slower than advertised. In a 10-page complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama, Birmingham resident Jessica Alena Smith charged Apple with breach of express and implied warranty and with unjust enrichment.

Smith, who refers to the phone she purchased throughout the complaint as “Defective iPhone 3G,” is seeking class action status. The lawsuit claims that Apple’s iPhone 3G advertising campaign is misleading.

IBM continues sounding the charge on bringing its enterprise software to mobile users by introducing several new offerings, as well as partnerships with carriers AT&T and Sprint to extend its Rational, Lotus, and Domino applications to wireless devices.

Products include Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS), an application that allows mobile devices users to access mainframe applications. The new WebSphere Business Monitor software, which enables enterprises to measure business processes and performance, is now available for Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices, and will be provided for the Apple iPhone in the fourth quarter of 2008. IBM also said the carriers certified its Lotus Notes Traveler software for select smartphones.

Now that $4-per-gallon gas is here — and, although fluctuating, it’s showing no signs of going away soon — the time is high for Detroit to learn once again that small is beautiful. Sadly, it appears the Big Three aren’t quite hip to that yet — and they might not be for some time.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Intel showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionize modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets. Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link as he spoke at the California firm’s annual developers forum in San Francisco.

Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer. Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.

Palm introduced the Treo Pro, an effortlessly usable smartphone for businesses that want to simplify their IT infrastructures and lower costs, and for users who want to stay on top of their professional and personal lives. With its streamlined design and Palm shortcuts layered on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, Treo Pro is a unique combination of sleek simplicity and robust productivity–including email, Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities–that meets the needs of businesses and end users alike.

Treo Pro, which will be available from Vodafone and O2 in Europe and from Telstra in Australia, also will be available in an unlocked version in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Chapura, innovator of synchronization technology, has released KeyTasks for iPhone OS, offering owners of iPhone and iPod touch devices an easy-to-use and reliable way to carry Microsoft Outlook Tasks. Similar to MobileMe and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, KeyTasks allows users to wirelessly synchronize and manage Outlook Tasks from anywhere.

Intel revealed the Intel Atom 330, a dual-core version of its Atom (“Diamondville”) processor for low-cost “nettop” PCs.

Like the Intel Atom 230, the Intel Atom 330 uses 45nm technology, features a 533MHz frontside bus and is designed to work with Intel’s 945GC chipset (the 82945GC northbridge and 82801GB southbridge). Unlike the Intel Atom 230, however, the Intel Atom 330 features dual cores, plus second-level cache that has been doubled from 512MB to 1GB.

The Atom 330 will ship initially in a low-cost D945GCLF2 mini-ITX board that has gigabit Ethernet, S-video, six-channel audio, eight USB ports and PCI expansion.

The Speck SeeThru hard-shell case offers drop protection, rubberized side grips, and a clever two-piece design. Pop off the bottom of the case to sync your iPhone or prop it up for movie watching; the bottom end doubles as a stand.

Made from translucent polycarbonate plastic, the SeeThru is available in five colors: clear, black, pink, red, and purple, and sells for $29.95.

Credit card giant Visa is teaming up with with eight North American banks to deliver fraud alerts in real-time via SMS (text messages) and emails to cell phones.

The pilot program will allow about 2,000 Visa cardholders to set thresholds that will trigger an immediate transaction alert to a mobile device. Once an alert is received, a cardholders can verify the transaction details, and if the transaction appears to be irregular, can immediately contact their bank to help stop further transactions on the card.