Erstwhile known as Homestar EX, Sega Toys will soon be releasing Homestar EXTRA, a home planetarium system. Aside from being a home planetarium, Homestar EXTRA is also marketed as a system for schools, bars, and other more professional venues. It exhibits five times the brightness of earlier version, Homestar Pro, and hence can be used even in dimly lit rooms.

Additionally, while the Pro version only has 10,000 stars and clusters, EXTRA can have 45,000 to over 120,000. It also has a shooting star function that instructs falling heavenly bodies to appear in random locations on the projection and in random times. Homestar EXTRA will start shipping on December with a multifunction remote control for an expected retail price in the range of $700 to $800.

When One Laptop Per Child designed its low-priced, low-watt, neon-green XO laptop, the company never intended to make it commercially available to consumers in developed countries. The purpose of the program, after all, was to benefit children from poor nations.

When consumers began asking for the computer, however, OLPC got a idea: Why not let people buy one notebook for the price of two? One would go to the consumer and the other to a child in need. Dubbed Give One Get One, the program was a marked success, generating a good deal of money and raising the company's profile even higher. In fact, the program's success pushed the organization's shipping infrastructure to its limits. OLPC received a number of complaints from customers lamenting the company's inability to ship units in a timely matter.

OLPC today released plans to begin selling the XO notebook via Amazon.com. Like before, the laptop will be available to consumers only through the G1G1 program. If anything, it seems that such availability could increase the potential demand for the low-cost, low-powered system.

Volunteers excepted, the organization employs about 25 workers. Is OLPC more prepared to meet the demand for its product this time around? We put the question to an OLPC spokesperson, who answered simply, "OLPC has factored increased volume into its plans."

According to the spokesperson, Quanta in China will continue to manufacture the systems, and Amazon will be handling the shipping to customers in the U.S.

Who couldn't use a bit more memory? Samsung, the largest global producer of Flash memory, apparently does. The company announced today that it's considering purchasing card-maker SanDisk.

"We are exploring all options, including a buyout and an alliance, but nothing has been decided at this time," said Samsung in a statement.

According to Market Watch, Samsung currently pays up to $500 million to SanDisk yearly to cover the company's Flash memory patents. The news of the potential acquisition pushed SanDisk share up more than 25 percent this morning.

Leveling up your Dark Elf or reading blog posts about technology might be your idea of pixelated paradise, but that doesn't mean your eyes are happy about all the time you spend staring at your monitor. And squinting at email on your phone during the commute home doesn't help matters either. With all the time we spend staring at screens, it's surprising that our eyes work at all.

But if filing TPS reports all day and fragging foes at night leaves you with headaches, dry eyes, and blurred vision, you might be suffering from Computer Vision Syndrome. And unless electronic ink displays suddenly take the world by storm, your eyes aren't going to get any better on their own.

Getting away from the computer screen would help. But for those of us who need to be glued to our PCs, a pair of yellow-tinted glasses from Gunnar Optiks just might be the solution to happier, healthier eyes. If the plethora of graphs and slick marketing copy on the company's Web site is any indication, the lenses in a pair of Gunnar glasses will greatly reduce the muscle strain and dryness that eyes typically suffer after hours starinng at a computer screen.

The company sent us a pair to try for ourselves; here's what I thought.

Stream music from a
variety of sources.
Sounds great, even loud.

—Tim Gideon

For the full-length, free-verse Logitech Squeezebox Boom review check out PCMag.com.

T-Mobile has finally seen the light. The upcoming Sony Ericsson TM506 is the first T-Mobile feature phone in ages to actually allow third party Java applications to access the Internet. This enables T-Mobilizers to run important, free applications like Google Maps and Opera Mini (shown at left) on T-Mobile's new HSDPA network, at speeds that our tests have shown exceed 700 kbps/sec.

Since 2007, T-Mobile has locked third-party Java apps off of their feature phones, most recently even crippling some phones' built-in Web browsers to lock them into a walled garden of T-Mobile-only content. It's been a huge step backwards for the mobile Web, and T-Mobile has never really had a good justification for it. With the TM506, they seem to be leaping forward towards Internet freedom on their phones, and I'm hoping this won't be the only one of its kind.

The TM506 looks to be a good all-around 3G phone, too. We'll have a review up soon.

Schlage LiNK is a system of locks and deadbolts that use Z-Wave technology for locking and unlocking. Through the use of the internet on either the computer or the phone, home owners could access the locks and command them using a 4-digit access code. To ensure that the code won't get stolen, a Secure Socket Layer commonly used by the banking industry is in place. The lock itself is embedded with an 11-digit keypad that's used to change the access code.

The Schlage LiNK system allows the owners to set access codes for specific days and specific times of the day. It also presents users with stats and sends them emails or text messages when certain access codes are utilized. The Z-Wave Bridge device that provides the wireless connection necessary to access the lock can be plugged into an Ethernet port. The Schlage LiNK Starter Kit costs $299 and requires a $12.99 per month subscription fee for the service.

In Japan, cell phones can just about be used for anything such as paying for train tickets and even downloading discount brochures. Yet another venue for some cell phone swiping action is currently being tested by SoftBank Mobile, NTT Data, Hitachi, and Dutch smart chip maker Gemalto. The devices currently undergoing a test run are called "smart posters"--movie posters that come preloaded with digital goodies.

These posters use Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which is a "short-range high-frequency wireless communication technology." Users would just have to swipe the posters using their phones with NFC-USIM cards to download trailers and movie stills. They can even get access codes that could be used with a compatible Hitachi HDTV to watch high-quality trailers. The technology is currently being tested on WALL-E and Tinker Bell movie posters.

Ryan Block and Peter Rojas, formerly of Engadget , today pointed their Twitter followers to a preview of their new consumer electronics site. Called gdgt, the site will give Ryan and Peter new ways to share their mutual gadget obsession with the world. From the site:

We've got our work cut out for us before we can get gdgt out the door. (By the way, we say it with each letter, but you can call it "gadget" if you want.) So while we can't talk too much about the final site just yet, we can definitely listen. What are you -- the gadget hound, the first-adopter, the Engadget and/or Gizmodo reader -- looking for in your online consumer electronics experience? Now that we've redefined (tech) news for the always-on, always-connected world, what comes next? Where can we add value without adding noise? That's the kind of stuff we're thinking about.

Go take a peek; and listen to their first podcast, called gdgt weekly. We can't wait to see what the talented guys will bring to this very crowded genre.

Sony announced three new all-in-one PCs on Thursday at the CEDIA show in Denver, complete with Blu-ray technology built in.

The Vaio JS, LV and RT each are designed for a certain piece of the PC experience: the JS is more of a traditional PC, focusing on networking and communication; the LV is intended for the living room; and the RT is tailored for video editing and content creation. Prices start at about $1,000 for the JS, while the LV will cost about $1,600. The RT, which Sony calls a "High Definition Studio PC," will cost about $3,300.

All include a Blu-ray drive.

"These new all-in-ones address all your entertainment and computing needs-- they're an HDTV, Blu-ray Disc player and PC in a fashion-forward, clutter-free design," said Xavier Lauwaert, product manager for Vaio product marketing at Sony Electronics, in a statement.

Dell today made official its entry into the netbook market with the Inspiron Mini 9, a $399 notebook that runs Windows XP Home.

The netbook will be available through Dell and wireless carriers. The company is also offering a $349 version that runs Ubuntu. It should available in a few weeks time.

The Mini 9 packs in a 1.6-GHz Atom N270 processor, 512Mb of RAM, and a 4GB SSD in its default configuration. It also features 802.11g, Bluetooth, three USB ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, and a 32 W/hour battery. The screen is a 1024-by-600 8.9-inch LED-backed display. Users can expand the notebook to 1GB of RAM and an 8GB or 16GB SSD, and can tack on an optional Webcam.

Also of note: an integrated 3G card that Dell failed to mention upon the device's launch. Bonus!

When Sony says its new Vaios are hot, the company isn't screwing around. It has recalled a total of 440,000 units worldwide, due to concerns about overheating and short circuiting.

The recall includes some 74,000 units in the U.S. The notebooks were recalled after 15 users called Sony complaining about overheating--one of whom suffered a minor burn.

"Sony has initiated a voluntary program to perform a free inspection and, if necessary, a repair to ensure these units meet our high quality standards," the company stated on its Web site.

The recall units include the VGN-TZ100, VGN-TZ200, VGN-TZ300, and VGN-TZ2000 series.

A toy called StellarWindows from Japanese company Fairy Devices can give you a peek of outer space. The toy, game, or educational system (depending on how you view it as) comes in the form of a CD software that you need to install on your tablet or notebook PC and a USB dongle that contains the compass and an accelerometer. To use, you would need to hold up your tablet or notebook PC to the sky; the USB dongle tells the software where your computer is pointing and the software shows you the corresponding 3D view of the sky object selected.

While it's ideal to use StellarWindows on portable computers so you can easily move it around while positioning it against the sky, the software can also be installed on desktops. The system comes off a bit pricey at $240, but for those really interested in space, I imagine the price is well worth it.

Ghostbusters is the first full-length movie to be released in USB flash drive format, PNY Technologies and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced today. The 1984 film will be immediately available pre-loaded on a 2GB USB from Argos stores nationwide.

The standard features of a PNY 2GB USB -- including 12 hours of video play, 33 hours of music and 1080 pictures -- are also featured on the newly released Ghostbusters USB. The movie is included in addition to these capabilities in a DRM format that will prevent copying. You can download the movie to your laptop or PC, but the USB must be plugged in for the movie to work.

It's one small step for a movie, but it could be one giant leap for moviekind, assuming that the price is right and that enough people will want to begin their USB movie collections. Unfortunately, the USB itself contains no visual reference to the cinematic gold that is contained within, representing the loss of the collectible potential.

The Ghostbusters USB is already available on the UK Argos site for £29.99, or just over $53. So is the future of movies in USB? The search for the keymaster continues.

Wall-mountable or
Upward-firing, this wireless
set has a few flaws.

—Tim Gideon

For the full-length, free-verse Altec Lansing M812 review check out PCMag.com.