Hasta La Gadget!

You could say that the advent of the MP3 format as well as Apple’s slick marketing (coupled with decent hardware, of course) of the iPod certainly fueled the boom of digital music, while signaling the death knell for the cassette Walkman and eventually, CD-toting Discman. Microsoft must have seen Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s Cloud Player to be a viable business to be in, hence they have announced a potential heavyweight in the department, calling their service the Xbox Music which will be available for their Xbox consoles from tomorrow onwards.

The Xbox Music service will be expanded to Windows-powered computers and tablets in due time, including the Windows 8 and Windows RT versions of the upcoming Surface tablet when October 26th rolls around to coincide with the Windows 8 operating system launch. Not only that, smartphones (definitely the ones running on Windows Phone 8) will also be getting the Xbox Music service as well. With Xbox users spending up to 60% of their time on entertainment services on the Xbox 360 console, Microsoft figured out that this is a good time to enter the fray with Xbox Music, which will continue where the ill-fated Zune service failed to take off. Microsoft will make Xbox Music available in 22 countries first, and hopes to deliver the service to iOS and Android-powered devices from 2013 onwards. [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Leaked screenshots reveal Xbox Music Pass pricing, Halo 4 leaks, Microsoft targets pirates,

BenQ has launched the 21.5-inch VW2230H and 24-inch VW2430H monitors. Both models use a LED backlighting and a VA panel. The BenQ VW2230H and VW2430H feature a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 4 ms (GtG) response time, a 5,000:1 contrast ratio, a 250 cd/m2 brightness, an asymmetrical design, a white coating and a unique mobile phone holder. There are also several connectivity options such as D-Sub, DVI and HDMI. The BenQ VW2230H and VW2430H adopt the Senseye 3 Human Vision Technology, providing seven pre-set viewing modes such as Standard, Movie, Game, Photo, sRGB, Reading and Eco. The BenQ VW2230H and VW2430H VA monitors are priced at 169 Euro ($218) and 219 Euro ($282), respectively. [BenQ]

When it comes to smartphone displays, we tend to see higher and higher resolutions being introduced these days, and that should keep consumers happy. After all, who does not want to enjoy a Full HD movie right there and then on their smartphone? The thing is, you can only see so much detail on such a small display, so it does not really make sense to cram in that many pixels, but on the other hand, it could very well be a selling point. The Sony C660X Yuga which we caught on the AnTuTu benchmark earlier today, has also been seen to carry a 1080p display as revealed by its NenaMark2 scores under the 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution category.

The benchmark score has since been removed from the NenaMark2 database, where we are looking at a maximum resolution of 1794 x 1080 pixels. Where do the remainder of the 126 pixels go to? Chances are, those will end up as the Android on-screen buttons. It would be interesting to see just what kind of visuals other smartphone manufacturers will come up with in the future for their flagship devices.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony patents Move controller that will heat up or cool down during gameplay, Sony C660X Yuga seen in AnTuTu benchmark,

It looks like our second report on rumors of Softbank of Japan picking up a stake in Sprint for $19 billion is far closer than our first attempt that touched on a $12.8 billion purchase, considering how it is now official – Softbank of Japan will fork out a cool $20 billion to purchase up to a 70% stake in Sprint, according to Business Insider. The deal will be officially announced on Monday as well, reports CNBC. Just what is the breakdown in cost for the $20 billion? Well, $8 billion will go to the amount of shares directly from Sprint, while the remaining $12 billion will be used to purchase shares from the public. This particular deal will not require a shareholder vote due to the deal’s structure. As to the repercussions (if any) of this in the mobile industry, it is hard to tell – we will just have to sit back and wait. I wonder if Sprint’s CEO, Daniel Hesse, will start looking elsewhere as chances are he will have different a “boss” to report to, so to speak.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Softbank reportedly looking to acquire MetroPCS as well, Softbank might just purchase a stake in Sprint,

You know that by October 23rd, the world would have had their fair share of iPad mini porn. Apple has yet to officially announce this smaller form factor tablet of their signature iPad (although it does lead us to wonder, how come the company has made a U-turn in the tablet segment when the late Steve Jobs did mention that the 7” tablet market was not exactly the one they would want to get involved in), but this does not mean that the rumor mills have remained inactive. On the contrary, rumors surrounding the iPad mini have increased many times over, and the latest screenshot from the internal system of Europe’s largest electronics retailer, Media Markt, shows up to 16 different iPad mini configurations.

The most basic model would be an 8GB Wi-Fi iPad mini which will retail for around $250 thereabouts, while those who want the highest end model will have to fork out a whopping $650 – where it will carry 64GB of internal memory, and one can only speculate as to whether this will include 4G LTE and 3G connectivity. It would be interesting to see just which kind of crowd would purchase the iPad mini if the current iPad serves them fine at the moment. Expect the iPad mini to arrive in classic black and white shades, too. Image via methodshop.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPad Mini rumor roundup: what we think the iPad Mini will look like, iPad mini is Wi-Fi only (Rumor),