TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Fujitsu’s new T70m packs a lot of punch for a lightweight. With a 1.2GHz Pentium M processor, up to 1.5GB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive, the 2.6-pound ultralight looks fit for some serious work. Its 10.6-inch display supports resolutions up to 1,280 x 768 pixels, and the system comes with the usual round of desirable features, including a dual-layer DVD-R drive, 802.11g wireless, and a multicard flash slot. Read a full review at Akihabara News, or buy one for a little over $2,000 at GeekStuff4U.com

Here’s a sign that thin displays are reaching critical mass. The IntelliMat is a 1.5cm-thin floor mat made from a durable, lightweight thermoplastic alloy. Designed to be placed on retail floors, the mat combines four LCD displays for a total diagonal width of 30 inches. With its built-in wireless computer, retailers can constantly update ad content remotely to keep consumers on their toes.

Samsung is demoing two new handsets at 2005 APEC IT, showing off the company’s WiBro (WiMAX) technology. The H1000 (pictured right) and the M8000 (pictured left) are the world’s first WiBro phones, and likely won’t be the last. Even here in the United States, several companies are working feverishly to build WiMAX networks in most major metropolitan areas, and many will go live in 2006.

The H1000 is a QWERTY-enabled clamshell phone that opens both horizontally and vertically.

Slim Devices rolled out its $299 Squeezebox 3 today, which — as astute readers may have guessed — is the follow-on to the Squeezebox 2. This audio streamer pitches music from your PC or Mac all ’round the house with no muss or fuss. It’s especially nice for slinging tunes from a computer with crappy speakers to a stereo with really good ones.

I don’t think this was quite the device many iPod nuts were hoping for, but the video-playing iPod is here. Announced just minutes ago at a special press conference, the new iPod is more or less an iPod Photo with movie-playing software built in.

Lest I sell this thing short, it’s worth noting that there are other enhancements to the latest player from Apple. Selling for $399, the 60GB version has a 2.5-inch color screen, a thinner case than its comparable predecessor, and a purported 20-hour battery life. Plug this thing into your TV via S-Video, and you can play back digital recordings on the big screen. Apple claims you can store up to 2,000 music videos on this thing, but that sounds like a pretty vague measurement of capacity.

Videoconferencing is the holy grail of telecommunications. Although the technology has existed at the consumer level for more than a decade now, precious few people ever walk over to their video phone to see what Grandma’s up to. Of course, there are plenty of good reasons for this, not the least of which are high cost and an almost total lack of standardization. But Qualcomm may be poised to change all that with its new Forward Link Only (FLO) technology for wireless phones.

In a demo today at CTIA, Qualcomm cranked up the FLO with a robust display of video streaming at 30 frames per second.

It looks like there’s just no stopping the convergence of digital music and car stereos. Today Volkswagen announced that it will begin selling USB ports as an option for its 2006 cars. Installed in the center console, the USB port will accept either thumb drives loaded with MP3s or, via an adapter, you can plug your digital audio player directly into the port. This announcement comes on the heels last week’s revelation from Apple that VW will also begin offering built-in iPod slots in its new cars.