We're super short on info here, but it looks like Sony is about to intro a new Z4500 LCD TV with a "world's first" of 200Hz Motionflow -- yeah, you could've gleaned all that from reading the headline, but it's just so much more awesome down here. Stay tuned.

Sony's IFA press event isn't for another couple of hours, but we managed to sneak these shots of Sony's minor refresh to its Walkman lineup. Everything is looking nice and sleek, and the screens on the S-series players we saw that were on looked sharp and bright, but we're still waiting to see the fruit of Stringer's talk last year about not suffering at the hands of Apple as badly in portable video as they did with portable audio -- these Walkmans just aren't doing it. Stand by for official news as we get it.

We got a brief glimpse at Garmin's new nüvi navigators, the 7x5 Series and 2x5 Series. Since we weren't on the road, the 755T treated us to 3D views of the IFA building we were chilling at, spinning at a blistering 10 fps. The Lane Assist also does what it says on the box, giving you a crystal clear look at your next merge. The 265T was considerably less dramatic, and both units show a considerable amount of boredom on the industrial design front. Garmin clearly knows what it's about when it comes to navigation devices, but we could use a bit more spice with those maps to keep us coming back.

Oh, Nuvifone, how you disappoint us. Over here at IFA we just managed to get a Garmin rep to whip out his Nuvifone prototype for a quick look, but sadly, almost a year after the device was first announced, there really wasn't anything new to see. We still aren't allowed to take video of the interface, or really see much of the phone other than the home screen, and when the rep tried to show us how the Nuvifone kicks the iPhone's ass in navigation, the Nuvi promptly crashed -- so at least those two have that in common. Not that we should be surprised, Garmin mentioned last month that the phone had been delayed into 2009, but we're quickly running out of patience, as well as any scrap of remaining hope for this thing to actually matter when it does arrive. Peep the gallery for a little bit of iPhone 3G versus action.

We're not really sure if Microsoft is peddling a revolution here or just the mousing tech flavor of the month, but we've got ourselves a much better idea of where things might be going. After that little "Say Goodbye to Laser" teaser turned our pointing device world upside down, a reader spotted this MS Explorer Mini Mouse with "Blue Track" technology over on Amazon.de. Coincidence? We're guessing no. We followed a bit more of the PI work done by our fine commenters and discovered Blue Track to be based on a blue LED combined with a wide-angle lens that's supposed to work on more surfaces than laser and optical. Microsoft only really seems to be aiming this at the portable spectrum, hence the wireless adapter and miniature size, so perhaps Blue Track isn't the end of laser after all.

[Thanks, awesome commenters]

Read - Amazon.de's Blue Track gallery
Read - Blue Track explained... in Italian

So, Nikon finally fessed up to its new D90 prosumer DSLR, which means all that's left for us is to do is to pick through the spec sheets, drool on the product shots and imagine ourselves taking the film industry by storm with that D90-shot indie flick we're plotting.

INT. SUBURBAN HOME - DAY

BLOGGER sits at his computer typing. He looks inspired, witty, unkempt. The camera's short depth of field captures the writer in his element.

Oh, right, the tech specs:

• New 12.3 megapixel Nikon DX-format CMOS image sensor with Integrated Dust Reduction System.
• Low-noise from ISO 200 to 3200, ISO 6400 available.
• D-Movie mode records in 320 x 216, 640 x 424 or 1,280 x 720 in AVI format.
• Scene Recognition System based on 420 pixel RGB sensor for improved autofocus, autofocus and auto white balance, in addition to Face Detection.
• Multi-CAM 1000 autofocus with 11 AF points.
• 3-inch, VGA Live View LCD.
• 4.5 fps continuous shooting, 0.15 second startup, 65ms shutter release lag.
• SD / SDHC storage.
• HDMI output
• 5.2 x 4.1 x 3.0-inches.
• 1 pound 6 ounces without battery.
• $1,299 kit price.

Read - Nikon D90
Read - D90's "D-Movie" samples
Read - D90 tested out by Chase Jarvis

While the Vostro 2510 might be Dell's primary bid for dual-use small business computers, that doesn't mean they have to keep beating the rest of the Vostros with the ugly stick. The new Vostro A860 and A840 feature spiffed up looks and aggressive prices for emerging markets. Unfortunately, "emerging markets" means we won't be getting these in the States for the time being. Both laptops are naturally light on specs, with 1GB of RAM, 160GB or 120GB hard drives, CD or DVD burners, WiFi and optional Bluetooth. The 15.6-inch A860 sports an "HD" resolution, while the 14.1-inch A840 runs at WXGA. Processors range from Celeron to Core 2 Duo, both laptops can be outfitted with Vista or Ubuntu, and they both weigh in around 5 pounds. Oh, and if you're more of a desktop sort, Dell is also offering the new Vostro A180 and A100 desktops, with the A180 offering a range of specs and both OS choices, while the A100 sticks with an Intel Atom processor and Ubuntu. No word on price for any of these yet, since pricing will vary from country to country, but we might be looking at a new low for Dell in both categories.

Well, they're here. Nokia's latest and greatest N-series devices just hit the market like a trio of well-aimed bricks -- or at least that's what Nokia's hoping. We got to spend a little bit of hands-on time with prototypes of the new devices, and while we came away slightly impressed, we were nowhere near E-series impressed. Here's our biggest problem with the lineup: the only one worth talking about is the N85. Other than minor screen size disparities, the 16GB built-in memory of the N96 and the fresh candybar form of the N79, these three phones are pretty much exactly identical on specs, and yet the N96 manages to be inexcusably bulky, while the N79 sports an inexcusably terrible screen -- we're hoping that was just the prototype being funky, but we saw two versions with the same problem. The N85 isn't exactly the pinnacle of thinphoneness, but its amazing OLED screen and more refined design make the N96 look like more of a rough draft than a sibling. On the interface side, the phones are much more responsive to S60's new motion and transitions, but Nokia has oddly chosen to disable the Navi Wheel scrolling in all three phones -- a weird move, but we can't say we blame them, we haven't had a single good experience with Navi Wheel since Nokia introduced it. In all, we're not exactly thrilled about Nokia's prospects for winning over the masses with this new series of devices. Sure, Nokia will protest that it's going after the high-end users, but 5 megapixel cameras, GPS and WiFi are no longer the differentiators they once were, and users have begun to expect thinner, sexier devices at prices far below the N96's gargantuan $895 pricetag.

Correct us if we're wrong, but the Lian Li XB01 chassis for the Xbox 360 marks a notable departure for the case mod industry. Far from making the 360 "more badass" or "more laptopy," the Lian Li XB01 merely aspires to make the 360 what it should've been out of the gate: cool and quiet(er). The folks at bit-tech.net put one through its paces, and have discerned that it "looks pretty pimp." They do note that the $150 case isn't built with quite as high of standards as Lian Li is known for, and there were a few minor quibbles, but once they tossed the Xbox 360 innards inside and booted her up, it became clear what the XB01 is all about: the 360 run silently without a disc, and only makes a bit of noise with a DVD in. Unfortunately, as soon as you toss a game in the drive noise is once again deafening. Oh well, maybe next year we'll get a 360 that doesn't require earplugs to play... and at least hard drive-based games are right around the corner.

It's official: Dr. Trung doesn't have a day job. He's been tweaking his fembot "Aiko" for almost a year now, and his latest creation is a rather amazing hand that can be used for Aiko or for human augmentation. The last time we saw them the hand was a clumsy golf glove affair, but now Trung has slimmed it down to more feminine, creepo proportions, while keeping the five movable fingers and pretty stunning dexterity for what seems to be a primarily individual effort on the part of Dr. Trung. The next step seems to be feedback sensors, and we still haven't seen this bolted onto Aiko, but we like where this project is headed. Video is after the break.

Let's try not to read too much into this one. Here are the facts: two dweebs thought it would be a good idea to hook up treadmills to their PCs, don brightly-colored wigs and cardboard swords, and race their avatars across about a mile of virtual turf by jogging in place with only a modicum of coordination and zero athletic ability. The folks at Mana Energy Potion were complicit in the event, which failed to prove treadmill gaming is a good idea, but made great strides in proving just how low World of Warcraft addiction has brought certain members of our society. Video is after the break, we recommend you look away.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Move over, Child's Play -- well, don't move over, keep being awesome -- there's a another outfit in town looking to bring the joy and life long addiction of video games to hospitalized children. The Starlight Starbright foundation has been teaming up with Nintendo for over 15 years to bring games to hospitals, and the latest effort of the team up is the Wii Fun Center, a $4,250 unit which includes a Wii "costumized for hospital use," a Sharp AQUOS LCD and a DVD player. Lest you think somebody is ripping off the children, that price includes shipping, setup and repair the lifetime of the unit. Starlight Starbright is hoping to have about 500 of them in hospitals by the end of the year, but kids let's try to stay away from sending yourself and others to different wings of the hospital, yes?

AMD wasn't kidding around about trimming and down and driving hard after profitability. The company just struck up a deal with Broadcom to swap its TV-chip unit for $192.8 million in cash to help fight debt and seek out profitability. Broadcom is getting 530 AMD employees out of the deal and AMD's considerable experience in the digital TV chipset game, which will become the "core" of Broadcom's line in that market. The deal should close by the end of the year, and is unrelated to AMD's efforts to spin off its foundry biz.

[Thanks, Keith L]

Despite the best attempts of computer manufacturers, most of us still need two computers to make it through the week: perhaps a laptop for the daily grind and a desktop for transcoding h.264 files... whatever works for you. IOGEAR is looking to cash in on this trend with its new USB Laptop KVM Switch, which, unlike traditional KVMs, allows you to use your laptop's keyboard, mouse and display to control a second computer over USB. Setup couldn't be simpler, with a USB 2.0 plug on each end of the widget, and a USB port in the middle for hooking up to printers or external drives and such. You can drag and drop files between environments, and obviously switch on the fly between the two computers. Only trouble is that it only works with Windows operating systems -- no cross-platform switching -- and it'll run you a steep $130.

There's no telling how legit these shots are: the impressively extensive spec sheets and well-done product shots make us want to believe that no one on earth is actually bored enough to fake these, but at the same time we're really hoping Canon has something better in store for its A-series cams and other budget shooters -- they're all cute, but perhaps overly so. Here's the breakdown:

• A1000IS: 10 megapixel, 4x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD
  
• A2000IS: 10 megapixel, 6x optical zoom, 3-inch LCD (pictured)
• SX110IS: 9 megapixel, 10x optical zoom, 3-inch LCD
• E1: 10 megapixel, 4x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD

All four cameras include Face Detection and Digic 3 processors, and the ones with the "IS" suffix include image stabilization. Pictures are after the break.