The fresh trend of shooters is on the rise, thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that more glass-makers are jumping on the MFT bandwagon. Joining the likes of Panasonic, Olympus and Kodak as part of the Micro Four Thirds Group, is a trifecta of third-party lens manufacturers: , and ASTRODESIGN. Following closely behind rival Sigma, the newcomers are looking to make a dent in the four-thirds universe. Better late than never, right? There's still no sign of these optics being available for you to stack in your camera bag, but the news just came in, so it shouldn't be too long before you can get some extra glass for your shiny new .

originally appeared on on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 02:27:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

It's not the out there, but the boffins at IBM have constructed the tiniest carbon nanotube transistor to date. It's nine nanometers in size, making it one nanometer smaller than the presumed physical limit of silicon transistors. Plus, it consumes less power and is able to carry more current than present-day technology. The researchers accomplished the trick by laying a nanotube on a thin layer of insulation, and using a two-step process -- involving some sort of black magic, no doubt -- to add the electrical gates inside. The catch? (There's always a catch) Manufacturing pure batches of semiconducting nanotubes is difficult, as is aligning them in such a way that the transistors can function. So, it'll be some time before the technology can compete with , but at least we're one step closer to carbon-based computing.

originally appeared on on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

All of fresh ideas will apparently still be revealed to the company's board in a couple of weeks, but he's already dropped some gems in interviews with the Wall Street Journal and Reuters (update: and Bloomberg). First item on the agenda? Getting current users upgraded to the latest and greatest BlackBerry hardware. Citing internal statistics that indicate 80- to 90- percent of the company's customer base aren't running hardware yet, it will work closely with US carriers to promote upgrades until the new devices hit later this year. There's no word on what the carrier deals include, but he hinted at device or preloaded app bundles. He also promised an would arrive this spring, with LTE connected handsets also planned for the BlackBerry 10 lineup. Is that enough to turn around RIM's fortunes in the US, where he acknowledged the company is "a turnaround candidate"? We'll find out, but as obvious as the need to placate the already BBM-addicted may be, execution of the plan is everything.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our .

     , ,     

is all over the map when it comes to mobile payments. The credit company will partner with , , if it means getting new customers and making a buck on the deal. Its latest offering is called , an Australian effort with support from the Hoyts chain of movie theaters and Commonwealth Bank. The initial trial run will be at La Premiere cinemas, where customers will be able to order and pay for food and beverages right from their seat with the app. To initiate the transaction a you scan the QR code or tap the NFC tag attached to the arm rest, and a staff member delivers the trough of popcorn and kiddie pool of coke right to your seat. Now all we need is this sort of high-end treatment in American movie theaters. Check out the video after the break to see it in action.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

Israel is home to a tech industry, but the country's broadband infrastructure hasn't really been able to keep pace. In terms of broadband penetration, in fact, Israel ranks just 21st out of 34 developed nations, according to statistics gathered by the OECD. All this may be changing, however, now that the country's state-run electric company has announced plans to create a new national broadband network. According to the AP, the forthcoming network will use so-called fiber to the home () technology, which is capable of providing connections at speeds of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps. That would be about ten to 100 times faster than the connections most Israelis have today, and could offer obvious benefits to a wide array of businesses and industries. The electric company is aiming to have 10 percent of the country connected to its new network by next year, and to have two-thirds covered within the next seven years.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

We here at Engadget tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest , be it on the net or directly on the ol' Federal Communications Commission's site. Since we couldn't possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we've gathered up an exhaustive listing of every phone and / or tablet getting the stamp of approval over the last week. Enjoy!

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:15:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

Seriously, we can't caveat this one enough -- there is no way of knowing if this is in fact the or, if it is, when it might come to market -- but, it looks like Samsungs "" just made a cameo on the company's support pages. Listed as the GT-i9300, the mystery device reared its head over at the Global Download Center of the United Arab Emerites site. If Sammy is to keep with its naming scheme i93XX would be a flagship device -- the i90XX line was the , i91XX represents the series, while the i9250 and i9220 are the and respectively. As we warned before though, this could be some mid-range device and Samsung could be changing its naming conventions. Or, perhaps, its yet another variation of an existing model. Still, we'll take this as a good sign that Seoul squad has something interesting brewing.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:26:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

The ability to control a Windows desktop with a simple hand gesture could become reality sooner than we once thought. The Daily got a sneak peek at two Microsoft-developed Windows 8 notebook prototypes with built-in Kinect sensors. The system would allow for gesture recognition in portable devices for the first time.

Sony's PlayStation Vita hasn't exactly sold like hotcakes , so the company has sweetened the pot for the portable's potential Stateside buyers. Those who placed pre-orders will get a couple of extra goodies for their $350. To go with the limited edition case, 4GB memory card and copy of Little Deviants, you'll also receive 250MB of and a PlayStation Network game gratis as soon as you activate 3G on the device. Furthermore, folks buying a Vita on launch day can look forward to the same free data and PSN game, plus an 8GB memory card in exchange for their $300. So, that enough to get you on the handheld's bandwagon? Sound off in the comments below.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

The Lark isn't the first wearable device to track one's sleep patterns, but the system adds a clever coaching element that other sleep trackers don't include. It's an important addition, as competing devices tend to smother the user in sleep data, but don't provide many tools to make sense of the data in an actionable way.

Just wake up from a very restful week-long slumber? First of all, we're envious of your good fortune. Second, Research in Motion made a few changes to its leadership chart. Third, you must be really hungry right about now. So grab a sandwich, come back in an hour and join , , and our very special guest (yes, Mr. himself) as we discuss the northern news, as well as anything else that happened this week.

Be sure to send questions or comments you have for us or Kevin via Twitter (we're @), or make your voice heard in our Ustream chat room during the show!

January 27, 2012 5:00 PM EST

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:05:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

He was appointed with a fair bit of fanfare as the United States' first Chief Technology Officer back in May of 2009, but it looks like Aneesh Chopra has decided that it's now time to make room for the nation's second CTO. The White House confirmed today that Chopra is stepping down from his position, noting that he has amassed a "dizzying array of accomplishments." Among those are his contributions to the Obama administration's , a set of internet policy making principals, and a number of efforts related to the President's open government strategy, including the . No word on his successor just yet, nor is there any official word on what Chopra plans to do next -- although The Washington Post reports that he's expected to run for lieutenant governor of Virginia.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

What's that? An HTC PI86100 Windows Phone with AT&T-specific LTE (bands 4 and ) showing up in the hallowed halls of the FCC? Why, this must be the , announced a tad over . Docs show that a production unit of the device, sporting the aforementioned LTE bands as well as 850 / 1900 3G (also AT&T compatible), is ready to take on its new Windows Phone competition sometime soon. Is it a guarantee that the phone is nigh at hand? Not quite, but at least it signifies that the 16 megapixel beast is one step closer to showing up in our hands.

Gallery:

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

It's MacWorld, which means those providers of Apple gear are busting out wares for aftermarket insertion into your objects of desire. latest offering is a slender solid-state drive ready to be crow-barred into last year's . The bombastically named OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is a SATA Rev. 3.0 drive with a promised 6GB/s data speed at sizes of up to 480GB. Since the stock drives are limited to the 3GB/s SATA Rev. 2.0 (but the controllers run 3.0), you should find a significant performance bump when swapping in the new unit. The toggle-synchronous NAND drives come in a variety of sizes from 120GB ($260) all the way to 480GB ($1,150), but you'll get a three-year warranty for all that cash. We may never give you our money, nor our funny pages, but you can have the press release that's after the break.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our .

         

It wasn't long ago that we first with the ZTE V66 tablet, though at the time we were unfortunate to only meet its dull black-and-white renders. Those of you unfamiliar with the tab won't have your jaws dropped by its innards, which are expected to be missing out on the . Aside from the OS letdown (still, it's not as bad as ), the V66 is pretty standard fare for a modern tablet. It'll be running on Verizon's speedy LTE network, sporting a 7-inch (1,280 x 800) display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 4,000mAh battery will help keep it chugging along. We've yet to hear an official word from the Big Red about price and availability, so we'll let you know how deep into your wallet you'll have to dig as soon as we find out.

originally appeared on on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our .