Sony Vaio Y11, S11 and F11 leaked ahead of launch, Z and CW series refreshed

It appears that the Vaio T's return is only the tip of a giant iceberg of refreshes coming out from Sony HQ this month. Greek e-tailer Compuland has a trio of new models listed seemingly prematurely for sale: the Vaio Y11 (pictured) is a relatively standard 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 machine with 4GB of DDR3 memory and 320GB of storage, and its nomenclature seems to fit given that its specs land somewhere between the underpowered X and fully-equipped Z series. Speaking of the latter, Sony is adding a Core i5-520M to its refreshed Z line, as well as to the new 16-inch F11 model which adds a half terabyte storage drive just for kicks. The lesser Core i3-330M Arrandale chip finds a home in the new 13-inch S11 laptop, which may or may not be replacing the SR series we know and love, as well as a freshened up CW number. Hit the read links for early pricing and more details, and if you hope really hard maybe we'll get proper announcements from the official channels some time soon. Read More!

Researchers develop tiny, autonomous piezoelectric energy harvester

Folks have long been using piezoelectric devices to harvest energy in everything from dance floors to parking lots, but a group of European researchers have now shown off some novel uses for the technology at the recent International Electron Devices Meeting that could see even more of the self-sufficient devices put to use. Their big breakthrough is that they've managed to shrink a piezoelectric device down to "micromachine" size, which was apparently possible in part as a result of using aluminum nitride instead of lead zirconate titanate as the piezoelectric material, thereby making the devices easier to manufacture. Their first such device is a wireless temperature sensor, which is not only extremely tiny, but is able to function autonomously by harvesting energy from vibrations and transmit temperature information to a base station at 15 second intervals. Of course, the researchers say that is just the beginning, and they see similar devices eventually being used in everything from tire-pressure monitoring systems to predictive maintenance of any moving or rotating machine parts. Read More!

Plethora of new HP laptops, desktops leak ahead of CES

Holy smokes! A ton of unannounced HP laptops and desktops just came across our desk, in addition to those Envy models we saw just a few days back. Ahead of what we presume will be their formal announcement next week right around CES, we've got some details on 14 new models some more interesting than others. Now, before you get too excited, we don't have full specs on any of these, but we do have pricing information, and here are some highlights: the 14-inch HP Pavilion dv4i, a Windows 7 laptop with a flush display and fingerprint reader that should run about $785. Up next is the 10-inch Mini 210 HD Edition, which will come in red, black, silver and blue, boast Intel's brand new Pine Trail platform (a 1.66GHz N450 CPU), plus GMA 3150 graphics. Another goodie here is that this one is expected to ship with Broadcom's Crystal HD video playback chip. The Mini 210 HD is expected to cost around $330. Logic Buy (the point of origin for all this info) is reporting that these models should ship on or around January 7th, though keep in mind that all of this information is extremely unofficial, so don't blame us if it all changes. If you simply can't get enough, hit the gallery for a look at a few of the systems. Read More!

An Android Phone That Can Beat the iPhone?

Android phones are being thrusts into the consumer market from all angles these days. In this podcast, the panel goes into detail on Android phones’ strengths and why these new smartphones are more than just an ‘iPhone wannabe.’ With every Android phone that comes out there is always something unique and new about it. That panel digs deep to predict what Android phone will be the next ‘it’ phone, and what carrier and marketing efforts will be needed for an Android phone to out sell the iPhone. Read More!

LaCie Brings USB 3.0 to Dual-Drive RAIDs

Lacie's 2Big USB 3.0 will offer throughput of up to 275 MB/s and capacities up to 4 terabytes.

Peripheral and storage vendor LaCie has announced its 2Big USB 3.0 dual-drive RAID system, which the company claims is the first of its kind on the market. The 2Big USB 3.0 offers a dual disk configuration supporting up to 4 TB of storage and RAID 0 and RAID 1 support—and, thanks to a USB 3.0 bridge controller from Symwave—can push up to 275 MB/s, which is the kind of number that makes high-definition video editors get a gleam in their eye.

“Our customers have long awaited a robust, super fast interface to enable a better workflow. Symwave’s industry-leading dual SATA bridge controller enabled us to address this demand, and to achieve the highest speed ever obtained with a dual-disk solution,” said LaCie marketing director Minh Lê, in a statement. “LaCie intends to lead the market transition to USB 3.0 technology and will launch a full range of products in the coming months.”

LaCie plans to ship the 2Big USB 3.0 in early 2010, and will have the drive on show at CES in January. No specific ship date, capacity options, or pricing information has been announced. Read More!

Nokia ships E72 and 5800 Navigation Edition to the USA

We know it's the N900 you're jonesing for, but if you're looking to let those "other guys" put Maemo 5 through the ringer while you continue to use an OS that's been around the block, Nokia's got two more for you to choose from starting today. Both the QWERTY-packin' E72 ($407) and eager-to-route 5800 Navigation Edition have started to ship to America (according to the company, anyway), with the former listed as "coming soon" on Nokia's webstore and as "in stock on December 10th" over at Amazon. The latter is available to order now for $299 sans contract, so good luck holding off for Google Maps Navigation to make this thing look dated.

Update: Seems this is the second time Nokia has stated that its E72 was available in the US, so we'd probably wait for at least another notification or two before pulling the trigger. Can't ever be too careful!

[via: E72, 5800 Navigation Edition ] Read More!