The new iPowerRush increases the run time of the iPhone, iPod and iPod Touch devices by more than 50 percent. The first charger capable of operating and quickly charging every iPod device, iPowerRush is powered by six AAA batteries and equipped with a power on/off slide switch. A push-button power indicator indicates the amount of reserve left in the unit. An automatic limiting circuit prevents overcharging the device.

Apple estimates the iPhone battery can accommodate up to eight hours of talk time, six hours of Internet use, seven hours of video playback, 24 hours of audio and 240 hours of standby time. It’s estimated that iPowerRush extends talk time by four hours, Internet use by three, video by 3.5, audio by 14 and standby by 120 hours.

Software giant Microsoft unveiled some of its future technology at its fourth annual Innovation Day in Brussels on December 4. And from virtual family organizers to tabletop touch-screens, their vision of the future sees technology move from the traditional desktop computer to become seamlessly integrated in all aspects of our lives.

One key area that’s set to change, says Microsoft, is user interface. MD of Microsoft Research, Cambridge, Andrew Herbert told CNN, “Sitting at a keyboard with a screen in front of us is an old-fashioned view of computing. Technology is going to be around us, it’s going to be much easier to use.”

This isn’t a vacuum cleaner, but it sucks. This isn’t a fan, but it blows. This isn’t a dog, but it bites. Wow, who knew GE could make something so sucktacular? I’m talking about the GE Halogen toaster oven. This thing is firing ass on all cylinders. It’s dangerous, it’s annoying to operate, and it works poorly. It’s also the most expensive toaster oven Wal-Mart sells and you should not buy it.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

Agendus for Windows Mobile version 2 incorporates a year of product design, development and user feedback around its first iteration which marked our entry in the Windows Mobile world. It brings in a variety of new features and numerous improvements making it suitable to both the first time users, thanks to its “out of the box” set of defaults and ease of use, as well as to the most demanding users, which are welcome to dwelve into its straightforward yet powerful customization options.

Most noticeable added features are four brand new calendar views, including a Week Grid View, Month Expanded View, two Quarter Views, two Daily views including the handy Agenda Split View. Another major point of focus has been usability, now translating into seamless one-handed navigation capabilities, which WM5 Smartphone/WM6 Standard users will particularly enjoy. Finally, the product’s user interface underwent a complete rehaul, and now sports a glassy 3D look, smoothly blending into the latest Windows Mobile 6 themes.

Palm and PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk (XL) announced the Treo 500v smartphone on the XL network in Indonesia. The Treo 500v, with the new and exclusive Vodafone user interface running on Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, delivers unparalleled usability and ease of navigation to customers who want to keep on top of their work and social lives while on the go. It combines multiple forms of communication and multimedia capabilities with high-speed 3G/UMTS mobile Internet capabilities, allowing users to access popular Web sites. The Treo 500v has a full keyboard, large screen, audio- and video-streaming capabilities, comprehensive multimessaging functionality (Instant Messaging, SMS and email), phone and personal-information-management software in a new design.

Electric Pocket announced the availability of the new FlipSide music player for BlackBerry smartphones (8100 series, 8300 series and 8800 series). FlipSide delivers a uniquely designed music player for BlackBerry smartphones that allows users to visually shuffle through their music quickly and easily. Early users have been impressed with the attractive user interface that makes FlipSide both visually enjoyable and very easy to use. One of the most popular features is the ability to “swoosh” through the full-color cover art of an entire music collection within seconds using the BlackBerry smartphone trackball.

FlipSide downloads and displays each album’s cover art and even links to FlipSide Extras to provide biographies of the artists, recommendations for similar artists and more. Flipside plays music in MP3, WMA, M4A and AAC formats, and allows users to create their own playlist, bringing their favorite tunes quickly to hand. FlipSide retails for $19.95 and a free trial download is available now from the FlipSide Web site.

In mid-July, as Palm Inc. was putting the finishing touches on its new $99 Centro smartphone, the gadget’s development team received a stark message: It wasn’t good enough. The warning was delivered by Jon Rubinstein, a former top Apple Inc. executive who this year joined Palm as executive chairman with a directive from Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan to shake up the struggling smartphone maker.

Palm, which helped originate the smartphone earlier this decade, has been straining to get back on the right track after stumbling against hipper competitors. Although he officially joined Palm in October, he’s been on-site since July and putting in 70-hour weeks, say people familiar with the matter. Alongside Mr. Colligan, he has cleaned up the company’s product plans, overhauled its engineering staff, and made several strategic new hires.

Someone somewhere seems to have enabled VoIP calling on the iPod Touch. Hopefully you can make more out of this blog posting than I can.

Security predictions released by Arbor Networks reveals that the iPhone will be a major target for cybercriminals in 2008. The forecast also highlights Chinese specific crime as a major issue for the New Year.

Arbor’s Security and Engineering Response Team (ASERT), who have put together the forecasts, believe that the iPhone will become the victim of a serious attack in 2008. These assaults are likely to be in the form of drive by attacks–malware embedded into seemingly harmless information, images or other media that actually perform dangerous actions when rendered on the iPhone’s Web browser. With the scrutiny the iPhone has received since its launch earlier this year over network lock-in, ASERT believes that hackers will be enticed by the possibility of attacking Apple users and the opportunity to “be the first” to hack a new platform.

Dataviz is having a 40% off sale on the mobile Exchange ActiveSync client, RoadSync. The regular price of $49.99 has been reduced to $29.99. This limited time offer runs now through December 31, 2007.