17-inch MacBook Pro delayed two weeks

Bad news for those of you waiting on pins and needles for the 17-inch MacBook Pro -- it's been delayed to at least February 19th. According to an email Apple's sending to pre-order customers, "wrapping up the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is taking a few days longer than we projected," and orders won't ship for another two weeks. Guess cramming all that fancy new sealed battery tech in that new unibody enclosure wasn't so easy, now was it? Full text of the email after the break.

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Samsung OLED monitors in 2009

It looks like there will be more to choose from in OLED TVs next year. Samsung SDI says that by 2009, not only will it have OLED panels for larger TVs, but also for monitors and notebook displays, according to a report in Digitimes.

The report quotes Samsung SDI's VP of mobile display marketing, Woo-Jong Lee, who says that Samsung SDI will be able to produce 3 million panels in 2009, which is double what they can crank out now. Lee said the company anticipates doubling its capacity again by the close of 2010.

The liquid crystal display (LCD) industry probably doesn't have much to worry about yet. OLED panels are incredibly expensive to produce right now, and, yes, they're awfully pretty. (Sony's 11-inch display achieves a 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio, which is by far the best available for a TV.) But even as production increases from one manufacturer, it doesn't necessarily mean the prices will drop down to where flat panels have sunk. The 11-inch OLED TV from Sony costs $2,500. For that price you could also get a 50-inch Pioneer Kuro, generally regarded as the best plasma TV on the market.

Though Samsung has previously discussed making OLED TVs, the company still has yet to release one. A year ago Toshiba also said it's planning on investing in OLED panels. Sony is betting on OLED's eventual domination of the display market, but it's also heavily invested in LCD.

However, Panasonic, which owns the plasma TV market, doesn't anticipate LCD or plasma TVs fading out anytime soon.

Logitech Harmony One

Harmony One, Logitech's latest universal remote is a bit distinct from other remote controls. It requires you to use some of your brainpower until you become friendly with it's touch screen and are over with the setup process.

Like it's previous version, the Harmony 880, it fits conveniently in the hand and also has a charging cradle. Its bright, 2.2-inch color touch screen has innovative navigation controls around its edges that make it easy to move up, down, and around the various options. The navigation controls are a huge advance from the 880's screen-side buttons. So is the new push-button area below; the new buttons have distinct sizes, shapes, and placement, making the remote easy to use by feel alone.

The touch screen shows commands and icons for common activities that initiate macros; touching 'Listen to Music' can turn on your stereo and media center extender, for example. And once you've started an activity, such as 'Watch TV', you can touch further selections like 'Favorite Channels', then use the standard push-button controls for changing volume or pausing playback as you would on any TV remote. It all works together intuitively.

While using the Harmony One is a joy, setting it up would not be much fun. You'll have to start the process on your PC or Mac by plugging the remote into your USB port and connecting to Logitech's online database of more than 225,000 devices and then getting your devices loaded on your remote.

The remote has a Help button to aid in diagnosing and fixing setup issues. The Logitech help staff can make changes to your devices and activities, which you can then sync to the remote and test in real time.

The holy grail of truly universal remotes is still elusive, but the Harmony One is your best option right now.

USB drive holds your presentations and also the software needed to run them

How many times have you taken your laptop somewhere to give a presentation only to find out that they won’t let you hook it up to the projector, but rather you must use their computer to run it? I don’t give a lot of presentations, so I’m not really sure how often that happens to someone. For most people it wouldn’t be a huge deal, but if their computer doesn’t have the exact presentation software on it you need, you’ll run into some major issues. If you’re ever worried about such an instance, this flash drive from NewSoft will put you at ease.

The drive seems ordinary enough, it holds 512MB worth of data, however, it also includes a copy of NewSoft’s Presto! presentation software which can be launched directly from it with no installation required. I’m sure that if you do nothing else during your presentation, you’ll at least impress those watching by your keen ability to adapt in a situation where you’re forced to ditch your laptop. You can pick yours up for just $45.

MOTO Z8 Ferrari Limited Edition Coming Soon

Motorola has hooked up with Ferrari to freshen up the MOTO Z8 handset. The Z8 Ferrari Limited Edition comes in a sharp red and black color scheme, but otherwise offers the same features as the original Z8, including the UIQ user interface running on the Symbian OS, a 2 megapixel camera, and a microSD expansion card slot. The keypad backlights on the Ferrari edition have been changed to red to match the paint job, and the handset ships with some Ferrari-related content pre-installed.

The Z8 Ferrari Limited Edition includes 2 Ferrari video clips, wallpapers and ringtones, and pre-registration for the Ferrari website. Curiously, the phone also has a full copy of The Bourne Identity movie pre-installed, though that doesn't have anything to do with Ferrari. The phone is scheduled to be available in Q1 2008, but pricing has not yet been announced.

USB Heating Gloves

The USB Heating Gloves seem to be really nice and cute at first sight. Have a look: warm fluffy woollen gloves of different colors that really warm up your hands and let you operate your fingers without any discomfort. Sounds fantastic, isn't?

But, unfortunately, these are just first emotions. The gloves warm up your hands while connected to the PC via USB. So, you are totally chained to your working place. While typing, playing or working on your computer I don't think that your fingers will get frozen. Then, if you work in a cold office or room you will also need warm clothes, maybe a fur-cap, USB warming slippers, etc. In that case just USB Heating Gloves won't save the situation.

Anyway, the design of the gloves is really cute. There are 2 design versions: a man and a woman version. It was well-thought that cut finger design gives the possibility to move your fingers. But here arises a question: if your fingers are bare, and the palms are in warmth, is it enough? Actually our palms freeze so rarely, but fingers always really need some warmth.

But the maximum temperature impresses - it is up to 53 degrees.
All in all, if you find this gadget useful for yourself - that will be great! Maybe the gloves will be very relevant for a kid that spends much time playing computer games in a cold room. But it can be also given as a funny gift, play a joke on your friends!