Logitech the world’s leading developer of force feedback gaming wheels, announced the Logitech® Driving Force™ GT racing wheel, the official wheel of Gran Turismo™. Featuring powerful force feedback and an innovative 24-position real-time adjustment dial for on-the-fly control of brake bias, traction and damper settings, the Logitech Driving Force GT gives gamers the most accurate and authentic PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3™) racing experience.

“We’re excited to be working with Polyphony Digital again to deliver a wheel that will satisfy the needs of car enthusiasts, like me, around the world,” said Ruben Mookerjee, Logitech’s director of product marketing for gaming. “People who love the striking realism of the Gran Turismo racing series will discover that Logitech’s latest wheel will allow them to experience the cars the way they were meant to be driven. With the Logitech Driving Force GT, you’re not playing games anymore – you’re racing!”

Logitech’s latest racing wheel was meticulously designed by Logitech and Polyphony Digital, Inc., the developer of the Gran Turismo series. The companies worked together to add the unique real-time adjustment dial, a first for force feedback wheels, allowing people to fine tune the car’s balance by adjusting the brake bias, traction control and damper settings. Now Gran Turismo drivers can have precise control over the car’s setup to achieve maximum performance.

The Logitech Driving Force GT turns 900 degrees lock-to-lock allowing drivers to navigate hairpin turns with greater accuracy. And with anti-backlash gearing, there is no slack in the steering response, making any race a smooth, realistic experience. In the centre of the 11-inch wheel, the Driving Force GT features an illuminated horn button with the official Gran Turismo logo. Using the authentic sounds of the car being driven, racers can quickly alert other cars when they are approaching fast. Or when playing online, people can simply use the horn to taunt other players as they speed by.

The Logitech Driving Force GT wheel is engineered for use with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on PS3, which will be available on Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) and as a download on the PLAYSTATION®Network in North America on April 17 and in Europe on March 28. The Logitech Driving Force GT wheel is also compatible with Gran Turismo™3 and Gran Turismo™4 on the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system.
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GPS manufacturer Garmin sprang out of left field on Wednesday with an unexpected entry in the mobile phone market that will challenge the iPhone. Garmin’s ambitious Nuvifone will feature a totally touch-based interface, wireless Internet access, a browser along with a host of other Web accoutrements, and of course, GPS.

Garmin’s biggest assault on Apple will come by way of the Nuvifone’s 3.5G Internet access , which promises download speeds significantly faster than the iPhone’s much-bemoaned 2G access. Garmin has also challenged the iPhone’s ease of use with an usual proprietary menu system that presents three initial selections: call, search, and view map, along with a handful of other side options.

GPS features will be similar to Garmin’s standard line of GPS units, but with some ramped up capabilities made possible through Internet access. The Nuvifone will include built-in maps and points of interest, but also integrated Google local search capability. This will allow travelers to find destinations through Google and have them immediately plotted and routed to on Garmin’s own mapping system instead of Google Maps.

As an interesting twist on the more traditional camera phone, all of the photos taken with the Nuvifone’s built-in camera will be geotagged with exact latitude and longitude coordinates. This makes it possible to navigate back to the spot where a photo was taken later, or share on sites like Google’s Panoramio which allows users to to sift through geo-tagged photos using a map interface.

So far, the Nuvifone’s most critical spec, price, still remains a mystery. Garmin anticipates a third-quarter 2008 release for the phone.

Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s new Macbook Air at MacWorld Tuesday in SanFrancisco.

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, took several big gambles Tuesday, betting that he could repeat his success in selling digital music by persuading Hollywood to allow Apple to rent digital movies, while at the same time returning to his original Macintosh roots with an elegant — but limited — ultralight computer called the MacBook Air.

The Macbook Air, as it’s officially called, will be startlingly thin, a mere .76 to 0.16 inches thick (it tapers back to front) and just 3 lbs (note “thinnest,” not “lightest” — I’ve personally owned Sony Vaios that were lighter). It’ll come with a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and a 1.8GHz option and sport a 13.3″ LED-lit widescreen display @ 1280-by-800, built-in iSight, MacBook-style illuminated keyboard (but with an ambient light sensor like the one found in a Macbook Pro), a magnetic latch, an iPhone-inspired multi-touch trackpad, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and a 1.8″ hard drive — 80GB standard or 64GB super-speedy solid state, you pick.

Unfortunately you only get 5 — as opposed to the rumored 10 — hours of battery life. I get about 3 right now with my 90% healthy Macbook Pro battery.

Apple says it asked Intel to shrink the Core 2 Duo by 60%, which Intel purportedly did, though I’ll bet less for Apple explicitly than simply naturally dovetailing interests. Intel’s Paul Otellini says the processor is “thick as a nickle and wide as a dime.”

What else do you get?

45 watt MagSafe power adapter

1 USB 2.0 port

Micro-DVI to DVI or VGA

Display polishing cloth

Audio out (Given iSight, I’m assuming audio-in as well)

Fully aluminum case

First fully mercury, lead-free display

Retail packaging that uses 56% less volume than MacBook

“Remote Disc,” a feature that lets you access nearby DVD or CD drives, though I don’t get how this is any different from sharing a network drive?

What don’t you get?

An optical drive (a superdrive accessory is available for $100). How do you watch movies? Apple’s answer: Buy or rent from iTunes.

An ethernet jack (Jobs says the MA “was built to be a wireless machine,” but you can buy an optional USB Ethernet adapter)

Arsenic in the display or brominated flame retardant (BFR) on the circuit board (hooray!)

A decent 3D processor (it’s not officially spec’d, but almost certainly integrated, i.e. ridiculously feeble)

More major product announcements from Apple Inc. Tuesday:

MacBook Air: A laptop less than an inch thick (.16 inches at its thinnest point). The machine has a full-sized laptop keyboard, 13.3-inch screen and 80-gigabyte hard drive. No optical drive for reading CDs and DVDs. Retail price: $1,799. Pre-orders are being taken now.

iTunes movie rentals: Under an alliance with all six major movie studios, iTunes users can download movies and watch them any time within 30 days, as long as they take no more than 24 hours to view them. Prices: $2.99 for older titles, $3.99 for newer releases. Add $1 for high-definition.

iPhone upgrades: New features include the ability of users to pinpoint their location on Web maps, text-message multiple people at once and customize their home screens. No upgrade to faster network. Available now as a free software upgrade.

Apple TV upgrades: Jobs cut the price of the Apple TV set-top box from $299 to $229 and announced new software that allows users to order movies through the device — sans a computer — and play them directly on a TV.

iPod Touch upgrades: New software will allow the iPod Touch music player to process e-mail and perform new mapping functions. The software will be built into new iPod Touch models, but existing Touch users can buy the upgrade for $20 over iTunes.

Time Capsule: A new product called Time Capsule allows Mac users to back up their data wirelessly on a 500 GB drive for $299 or a drive with a terabyte of storage for $499. Time Capsule goes on sale in February.

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Sandio Technology Corporation, a California-based 3D input company, is demonstrating five different 3D Internet mice, wired, wireless, laser and optical, at 25519 South Hall, in CES Las Vegas.

The definition of 3D Internet differs among different IT players. For Google and Microsoft, it may mean a 3D digital Earth, e.g. Google Earth and Virtual Earth, on which the search results are presented. For IBM, it may mean 3D virtual world where users can run a meeting, conduct training sessions, play and shop.

The Sandio 3D Internet Mouse enhances 3D Internet users’ total experience in the 3D world. They can now use only a 3D mouse to “fly through” 3D Internet without having to use keyboard or on-screen navigation tab. Google SketchUp, a 3D CAD for Everyone, users can move along and rotate about x, y, z axis in both Screen Mode and Camera Mode, using only Sandio 3D Mouse.

Second Life residents can now move forward, backward, sideways, fly, crouch, turn right and left using just a mouse, leaving left hand for controlling Avatar’s gestures.

3D Internet mouse works great for RTS and RPG games too. In addition to 3D navigation functions, Sandio 3D mouse equipped with 16 programmable (yes, 16) keys for PC gamers to enjoy more and to gain some unfair advantages.

Two of Sandio’s licensees, Primax and Dexin, will also show 6DOF 3D mice developed using Sandio 3D input technology in their booth in CES 2008.

In addition to enjoying the unique 3D navigation function and 40 pre-configured PC games, the 3D Game O2 allows them to customize 16 additional programmable keys for keyboard functions, gaining an unfair advantage.

The Sandio 3D Game O2 was designed and developed based on feedback from users of Sandio 3D Game O’, which Sandio introduced in 2006. The hardware quality and software usability are drastically improved in the new unit; Sandio has partnered with Primax, a top-tier input device OEM, to develop and manufacture the 3D Game O2. From a software perspective, the new mouse offers auto-loading of the following 3D application drivers and plug-ins: 3D Internet – Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth, 3D CAD for Everyone – Google SketchUp, and 3D Virtual World – Second Life.

The Sandio 3D Game O2 mouse is now available in the U.S., Canada, Japan and China. It will be available from e-tailers, retailers and even v-tailers in Second Life, the 3D virtual world. Customers can also order the Sandio 3D Game O2 from Sandio’s website at www.sandiotech.com, where demonstration videos of the mouse can also be viewed. MSRP in the U.S. is $79.99
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