HTC Rhyme comes with feminine style and matching accessories lineup

HTC has unveiled its new Android 2.3-based smartphone, the HTC Rhyme. Although the unit is not gender specific in any particular way, available colors and accessories such as HTC Charm might suggest it is primarily aimed at the fairer sex. The smartphone comes with a 3.7-inch WVGA super LCD touchscreen and a refreshed HTC Sense 3.5 user interface. The Rhyme will be hitting Verizon Wireless in the U.S. on September 29.

Powered via a 1GHz CPU and 768MB of RAM, the Rhyme features 4GB of total built-in storage (up to 1GB available storage), 5-megapixel camera and a 1600 mAh power supply. Connectivity comes courtesy of quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0 with FTP/OPP and A2DP profiles support, and DLNA support. Encased in a unibody housing, the Rhyme weighs 130 grams (4.58 ounces) with battery and will be offered in three "nature inspired colors": clearwater, hourglass and plum.

Its 5-megapixel camera comes autofocus- and LED flash-equipped, offering 720p video recording and instant shutter to speed up the snapping of images. Options such as face detection, action burst scene, panoramic mode and instant sharing via social websites are also present.

The refreshed HTC Sense interface includes a new home screen that provides "previews of your appointments, messages or whatever is important to you," HTC says. The Rhyme's lock screen is also customizable to display chosen content. The smartphone comes with HTC Watch service on board, offering a selection of movies and TV shows for download.

The Rhyme also has a number of accessories:

• HTC Rhyme docking station - provides charging and comes with Bluetooth speakers built-in
• HTC Rhyme Charm - a wired dongle that flashes in case of an incoming call or message, and reportedly makes it easier to pull the phone from a purse
• armband
• "tangle-free" headphones
• Bluetooth headset
• Bluetooth car speaker

Let it be your next smart phone!

ARCHOS G9 tablets get release dates and pricing

ARCHOS has confirmed release dates and pricing for its new breed of G9 Android Tablets, which hold the promise of satisfying mobile storage junkies thanks to spacious HDD options being available. The only change to the specs announced in June is that the new ARCHOS tablets will launch with Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) instead of 3.1.

ARCHOS says that pre-sale of the 8-inch, 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, 1 GHz ARM dual-core CORTEX A9 OMAP 4 processor version of its third generation ARCHOS 80 tablet with 8GB flash storage will start online from September 20. This will be followed with worldwide availability through outlets (including HH Gregg, Amazon, Newegg, Tiger Direct, Brandsmart and Electronic Express) from September 30. This flavor is priced at a suggested retail of US$299.

Come October, the 1.5GHz Turbo edition with 16GB flash storage will be made available for US$329, as will the version featuring a 250GB Seagate Momentus Thin HDD with an intelligent caching system that makes use of 4GB of dedicated flash memory to help speed up data access. The latter will cost US$369.

The larger ARCHOS 101 - with a 10-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display - will also be available from October in two versions. The 16GB flash storage/1.5 GHz processor model will cost US$399, while its 250GB HDD/1.5GHz processor sibling is priced at US$469.

Both media tablets offer AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, MPG, PS, TS, VOB, MKV, FLV, RM, RMVB, and ASF video format support, and can handle MP3, WAV (PCM/ADPCM), AAC3, AAC+ 5.13, OGG Vorbis and FLAC audio formats as well as the popular image formats. The Lithium Polymer battery is said to offer up to 36 hours of music playback, 7 hours of video or 10 hours of online enjoyment before needing some attention and the devices come preloaded with Google mobile applications like Google Talk with video chat, Gmail, Google Maps with Street View and Navigation (beta) and Google Calendar.

Even though the Android tablet market is becoming very crowded, I have to confess that I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the new G9's - particularly the capacious storage models.

Concrete speakers sound like a strange idea

We've seen a number of unusual speakers before, such as the Whamodyne glass speakers or Solid Acoustics' dodecahedron speakers, but concrete speakers are definitely something new. It's definitely not a very popular material for audio systems, but Israeli designer Shmuel Linski would like to change that with his "Exposed" concrete speakers, each of which weighs 123 pounds (56 kg). They're just one part of his line of unusual creations, that include a concrete coffee maker and a concrete canoe.

Most speaker casings are made of solid wood or MDF (medium-density fiberboard), while the cheaper models utilize plastic, but non-resonating concrete doesn't seem to be the right material for transmitting sound. "When concrete meets sound, it might distort the sound because the concrete is very stiff," Linski explains. "The speakers might therefore sound strange." Why make loudspeakers that sound strange? The designer gives a rather unclear explanation, saying that the Exposed speakers are capable of "invoking a sense of nirvana for concrete lovers and audiophiles."

To design the speakers, Shmuel used horn loudspeaker technology. The driver, located at the top of the speaker, is linked through a 96 cm (38 in)-long externally-lined pipe, with a large horn-shaped bass port at the bottom resembling a megaphone.

The concrete speakers are Linski's graduation project at Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan, Israel. There's no word on any possible commercialization of the product.

His other concrete projects are also unusual. The "espresso solo" is an espresso-making machine in a concrete casing, and the Orca concrete canoe was made for a concrete canoe-building competition held last year in Israel.