RIM just released the BlackBerry Bold shown here, but could have a touch-screen model coming soon.

(Credit: RIM)

Research in Motion has a touch-screen BlackBerry in the works that should be out in the third quarter, according to a report Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal has echoed a previous report from The Boy Genius Report that RIM's BlackBerry Thunder will arrive later this year exclusively on Vodafone and Verizon's networks. The device is seen as an answer to Apple's iPhone, which will likely be running on AT&T's 3G network by the time the Thunder arrives.

RIM is by far the leading smartphone company in the U.S., but Apple has come out of nowhere to take second place, and the competition should intensify with Apple's plans for business-friendly software and RIM's continued advance into the consumer market. RIM has started advertising the BlackBerry during consumer-friendly shows such as the NBA playoffs, and Apple's getting set for The Second Annual Month of iPhone Ridiculousness in the coming weeks.

The eMachines T5254 is our favorite recent budget desktop.

(Credit: CNET)

We've reviewed a steady stream of low-cost desktops over the past few weeks, and we the posting of our eMachines T3646 review this morning, we finally achieved critical mass. Click on through to our round up of five budget desktops, which includes systems from Dell, eMachines, HP, and Shuttle. You won't find WiFi or graphics cards on these systems, but you might be surprised at what kind of system you can get for the same price as a game console.

(Credit: Digital Cowboy)

If there's any company that's in dire need of international marketing help, it's Digital Cowboy (need we say more?). As if the Japanese manufacturer's name weren't bad enough, it instantly casts doubt over seemingly decent products like the unfortunately christened "Movie Cowboy."

Moniker aside, this portable multimedia storage device will work with any 2.5-inch hard drive, then provide a dock that can transmit the video for viewing through its USB port, according to Engadget. It claims to have all the outputs needed for the full HD experience, including stereo, coaxial digital, and HDMI.

It will be available soon for about $237, but only on the Japanese market. That may not be a bad thing anyway, because they'd probably want to consider changing the name before sending it westward.

I've been looking at quite a few good desktop applications built on Adobe AIR (such as eBay Desktop and Twhirl), and am pleased to report that ReadAir, a Google Reader released on Thursday that is coded to run on Adobe's cross-platform solution, ranks among them.

ReadAir synchronizes with your account to deliver news with a Mac feel.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

ReadAir mirrors Google Reader's functionality with a cleaner interface and the deliberate adoption of the Mac OS X look. The left sidebar sorts items by the total harvest, starred favorites, and shared stories, with your tags directly below. In the top-right pane, elements such as story titles, sources, and dates are displayed. The selected story fills the lower panel, with gleaming blue scroll bars to guide you to the conclusion.

Readers can interact with content much the same way that they can online. A plus sign in the bottom left allows for adding and removing feeds and tags, and a search bar up top lets you skip the scrolling to find articles of interest by keyword. There are also links at the story's end for permalinking, e-mailing, and leaving comments that transport you to the source URL. Trend analysis is absent on ReadAir, but so far that's not preoccupying early users as much as the reader's inability to minimize the window to the task tray. Note that the app is in early alpha and will change often, making it a good idea for users ... (Read more)

(Credit: CXC Simulations)

If the line between gaming gear and professional simulators is increasingly blurred, this is why. We've already seen sims that are FAA-approved, but CXC Simulations has taken the concept to a new level on the ground.

The "Motion-Pro II Simulator" combines the latest 3D technology with 505-watt 5.1 surround sound and a huge subwoofer that can be felt as well as heard through four vibration transducers. The result, according to BornRich, is "the unique sound and physical vibrations of a high-powered race car."

And to make sure your visual senses aren't left out, it has three 46-inch HD LCDs for its triple-panel display. Who needs that jDome thing, anyway?

We always tell laptop shoppers not to sweat those "This week only!" deals at the online stores of major PC vendors. If you miss this week's free shipping, free hard drive upgrade, or $50-off offer, there'll be an equally good set of deals offered the next week. Like the "call in the next 10 minutes" line used in infomercials, it's just way to push shoppers to make an immediate buying decision.

Still, free shipping is usually a good bonus, but sometimes you have to read the fine print. We saw this bogus deal on Consumerist.com--one of our favorite consumer advocacy sites. Gateway is currently offering free shipping on its P-172X laptop--a low-end entry in Gateway's current 17-inch series, which we generally like. However, the text of the offer actually reads: "The powerful P-172X is just $949.99, plus free shipping! $20 Handling Charge applies."

So, the shipping is free, but the handling (putting the laptop in the box, perhaps?) is extra. We peeked around the Internet to see how much shipping usually is for a laptop. Dell offers overnight delivery for about $70, but plain old 3-to-5 day shipping is--you guessed it--$20, even on a 17-inch laptop, and there's no separate handling charge. We looked up how much Gateway normally charges for shipping--and maybe $20 is a bargain after all. Ground shipping from Gateway is $60, while overnight is $136.

The moral of our story is twofold. One, don't fall for "... (Read more)

Calling it the iPod of the book business, CitiGroup analyst Mark Mahaney says the Kindle e-book reader will generate three-quarters of a billion dollars for Amazon.com in less than two years.

That should account for up to 3 percent of Amazon's business. See his chart and reasoning here.

(Credit: Amazon.com)

His calculations assume that unit sales will grow from 189,000 by the end of this year to 2.2 million units in just two years. By then he assumes the price of the device will be just below $300. Mahaney also points out that Amazon does have the largest selection of e-book content.

Sure, Amazon has the e-book/e-book reader synergy going on, but still, his projections seem more than a little optimistic.

Besides the fact that the design leaves more than a bit to be desired, and it's expensive ($399 currently), his reasoning assumes people will completely change their reading habits, and that they'll be up for buying a separate device to do it.

More people would likely be onboard with the concept if it were rolled into their current device of choice, like a portable music player or smartphone with a decent-size screen.

Despite the fact that competing DVRs from cable and satellite companies have made great headway in the past few years, we're still fans of TiVo's intuitive interface and constantly improving feature set. However, the knock against TiVo is that it's expensive--you have to buy the box and pay a $13 monthly fee, while a DVR from your cable company usually costs less than $10 a month with no up-front cost.

As of late, TiVo has been offering a lifetime subscription plan as a promotion that was slated to end in February, but the eagle-eyed TiVo fans over at Gizmo Lovers noticed that the offer has been extended to July 2, and Dave Zatz writes that he's received word that the lifetime subscription deal is here to stay. The lifetime subscription plan costs $400, plus the cost of the TiVo box itself.

The real question is whether the lifetime plan is a good deal. The key thing to remember is that TiVo's lifetime subscription plans are for the lifetime of the box, so if your TiVo dies or you want to upgrade to a new model, your lifetime subscription is tied to the device. (In some cases, TiVo has allowed customers to transfer their lifetime subscriptions for an additional fee.)

Acting as a new subscriber, we were able to get a TiVo HD plus a lifetime subscription for $700, and a TiVo HD plus a three-year subscription for $600 from the TiVo Web site. So unless ... (Read more)

(Credit: blogeee.net)

It seems as if only yesterday we were marveling at Asus' new 9-inch Eee PC 900 (actually, it wasn't yesterday, it was Monday). About the only thing we didn't love about this pocket-sized marvel was its dated Celeron processor--especially since the fine folks at Intel have been talking up this whole Atom thing for so long (that's the company's new low-cost, low-power CPU especially made for netbook-style laptops).

We knew Asus was working on an Atom-based version of the Eee PC, and now we have the first photos of what will be called the Eee PC 901--posted on French site blogeee.net. It looks pretty much the same--we see a slightly reworked hinge, the AC adapter plug has been moved from the rear to the side, and there seems to be some unlabeled quick-launch buttons right above the keyboard.

No pricing or availability information has been released, but the Magic 8-ball points to summer 2008, and it probably cost about the same as the current $550 model.

(Credit: Crave UK)

Crave knows two screens are better than one. Many of us use twin 19-inch displays, while the real high rollers rock twin 30-inch Dell 3007WFPs. We don't need to--but that's just how we roll. So you can imagine just how intrigued we were when Samsung showed us its Dual Display 2263DX, a 22-inch monitor with a second 7-inch monitor poking out of the top.

It may look odd, but Samsung says it lets users have their favorite applications running uninterrupted in a totally separate, always-visible desktop space. It's right, too: We can definitely see ourselves running common apps such as Outlook, or a media player on the 7-inch display, while the main 22-incher gets on with the serious stuff. Like Facebook. See it in action here.

(Source: Crave UK)

RIM just released the BlackBerry Bold shown here, but could have a touch-screen model coming soon.

(Credit: RIM)

Research in Motion has a touch-screen BlackBerry in the works that should be out in the third quarter, according to a report Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal has echoed a previous report from The Boy Genius Report that RIM's BlackBerry Thunder will arrive later this year exclusively on Vodafone and Verizon's networks. The device is seen as an answer to Apple's iPhone, which will likely be running on AT&T's 3G network by the time the Thunder arrives.

RIM is by far the leading smartphone company in the U.S., but Apple has come out of nowhere to take second place, and the competition should intensify with Apple's plans for business-friendly software and RIM's continued advance into the consumer market. RIM has started advertising the BlackBerry during consumer-friendly shows such as the NBA playoffs, and Apple's getting set for The Second Annual Month of iPhone Ridiculousness in the coming weeks.