Japanese Web and telecom conglomerate Softbank Corp. is working with Apple Computer Inc. to develop mobile telephones with built-in iPod music players reports the Nihon Keizai Shimbun a news agency in Japan. The music playing phones can download songs directly from Apple’s iTunes store. Last year Apple along with Motorola had developed the Rokr phone which was a major flop due to limited number of songs it could store. Speculation has mounted that Apple is developing its own mobile phone — popularly labeled the iPhone — that will combine the stylish design of its iPod music and video player with mobile phone features.

[from New Launches]

The rumours about the VGN-UX50 were true and Sony has officially announced the sleek VGN-UX50 Ultra Mobile PC. It is powered by Intel Core Solo U1400 (1.2 Ghz) or U1300 (1.06 Ghz), Intel 945GMS Express chipset, 512MB RAM and comes with 20/30 GB hard drive. The UX50 has 4.5 inch WSVGA (1024×600) touchscreen display and with the onboard Vaio touch application you can use it in a vertical position. The display slides up to reveal the 69 key QWERTY keyboard. Other features include 1.3 Megapixel Motion eye camera, VGA res camera, Wi-Fi a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, Fingerprint sensor, Memory stick / Compact Flash card slot. Upon docking with the stand you get 3 x USB ports, 1 x Firewire port, Ethernet jack, 1 x VGA out and Felica reader (wireless payment service in Japan).

[from New Launches]

The Korean company NAVIsis has developed a technology that can transform any old regular monitor into a touch screen monitor of sorts. Their EZ-Canvas is a pair of sensors that you attach to the upper corners of your monitor, and when combined with a special stylus and their own proprietary software, you can treat your monitor as if it were a touch screen one: write on it, edit and select text, pretty much anything you can think of. And if using a computer all day has completely destroyed the quality of your penmanship, fear not, for the included software attempts to interpret what you’ve written and turn it into legible text. Of course this brings up the question of just how “special” that stylus of theirs is, seeing as though many LCD monitors are coated with a special scratch prone coating, guaranteed to be destroyed with just the smallest hint of pressure applied. Better keep that warranty handy.

[from Gizmodo]

As the 2006 edition of the Mille Miglia historic auto race prepares to kick off, BMW has unveiled this stunning concept car to commemorate its involvement with the classic road races.

The BMW Concept Coupe Mille Miglia 2006 evokes the lines of the classic BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupe, which won the Mille Miglia in 1940. The Touring Coupe reasserted its mastery of the classic road race in 2004, when it claimed victory in the Mille Miglia storica - the reincarnation of the event for historic racing cars.

The carbon fiber bodywork of the Concept Coupe is a modern aerodynamic interpretation of the aluminum-bodied Touring Coupe, and wraps around the capable chassis and drivetrain of the BMW Z4 M Coupe.

The Mille Miglia Concept Coupe is a pure styling exercise - BMW has no plans for a production version.

The BMW press release follows the jump, with lots of pictures of this unique car.

[from Autoblog]

I just got word that Eric Willis’ DigForIt, a small meta search engine, is for sale on eBay. A similar search engine, Jux2, sold for just over $100,000 on ebay late last year. The starting price is $0.01 and there is no reserve - so if you’re in the market for something like this, you may get it for a steal.

Bid for DigForIt here. The auction ends on May 14.

[from TechCrunch]