For 799 yuan or just about $117, it’s the cheapest WiFi-enabled MID to date, cheaper than the Chuwi W3000. The Cube MID B53WIFI runs has a 4.3-inch touchscreen and runs on Linux. It plays multiple video formats including RMVB and AVI. Apparently, the Cube B53WIFI has a server multimedia search engine. Not sure what it is exactly, though, whether you’ll have to live in China to use it.

[via pcpop]

Hot off the release of the iPhone 3.0 and iPhone 3G S, Apple has now made available iPhone OS 3.1 beta to developers. We’re still not quite sure what exciting new features this latest firmware will come with, but taking a cue from its name, it’s probably more a set of bug fixes with only a handful of new treats to spice up the package. We’ll report more on this once additional info is made available, but nonetheless, this is a sure sign that work on an iPhone 3.1 jailbreak/unlock should now finally commence.

Likewise, we’re still waiting on an iPhone 3G S jailbreak to the public. For those running iPhone 3.0 already, iPhone 3.0 jailbreak Pwnage tool and redsnow are already available for your jailbreaking needs as well as ultrasnow to unlock your iPhone.

[via engadget]

This is by far the best news this year for true music fanatics. The amazing COWON S9, which was our PMP of the year last year, just got significantly better with firmware update 2.31b. Additionally, there’s now support for M3U playlists. Wow. The new firmware also provides playback support for damaged AVI videos. Got a lot of that in my computer.

Features of 2.31b (international version) firmware for the Cowon S9

• Gapless playback for FLAC, APE and Lossless WMA, as well as Ogg Vorbis and WAV
• M3U support
• plays damaged AVI
• support for AVI containers
• typist feature: notepad with keyboard

[read more at dapreview]

We’ve heard about the mouthwatering features of the Nvidia Tegra chip and seen it go to work on the Zune HD. Now, get ready as we hear this versatile Nvidia Tegra chip also plans to invade smartphones before 2009 comes to a close. Both Samsung and Motorola are the ones currently rumored to be producing the Tegra-powered smartphones with Android as its possible OS. Apart from that, details are still pretty scarce at the moment. However, as far as its release is concerned, the early part of Q4 of 2009 has been mentioned as the likely period when we’ll see the first Tegra-based smartphone hit the market. With the entry of the Nvidia Tegra into the mobile phones scene, the competition is definitely shifting up to the next level.

[via unwiredview, the street]

Even the Chinese cloners are steering clear of the PSP Go. Venus has a new all-around PMP that coincidentally resembles the PlayStation Portable hardware. The JXD300 supports GBA, NES games as well as various video and music files like RMVB, RM, AVI, MPG, FLV and playing DVDs and VCD files directly is not out of the question either. Oh, it’s an e-Book as well. Not much more details and no pricing yet but it’s crystal clear we probably won’t see much PSP Go cloning.

[via imp3]

I used to own a Sony Walkman that played cassette tapes. It wasn’t as brick-like and huge as the Sony Walkman Scott Campbell swapped with his iPod. It was as big as a book and cassette tapes were absolutely alien technology for Scott. It was three days of using before he figured out it had two sides. Also, it doesn’t shuffle. Scott has to be careful since Walkman’s actually destroy music…

I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured. I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don’t have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, “Walkmans eat tapes”.

Scott has a number of cons going against the old cassette player. Sound quality wasn’t as good as the digital music nowadays. I totally agree with the hissing, and battery life, those AAs, just didn’t last long enough. Of course, Sony Walkmans have gone more hi-tech since then.

[read: bbc, via engadget]

Yes, the iPhone Dev Team has already released the iPhone 3.0 jailbreak Pwnage Tool, ultrasnow, and redsnow for the 2G iPod Touch, but a lot of people are probable wondering when will the iPhone 3G S jailbreak be made public. While they still haven’t given us an exact date on when it will be released, a hacker by the name of “geohot”with the help of the Chronic Dev team has unveiled these first images of the iPhone 3G S jailbreak in progress. If you’ve forgotten, “geohot” is the same guys who released an easy-to-use iPhone unlock in the past, and is responsible for the first injection vector for the iPhone 3G unlock. Needless to say, he’s very well versed in this kind of stuff. Unfortunately, there’s still no word yet on when this will be outed, but this does give us hope that things are moving along quite well for the iPhone 3G S jailbreak.

As far as the iPhone 3G S unlock is concerned, the iPhone Dev Team says that ultrasnow apparently works on the iPhone 3G S as well. Try it out and tell us how it goes for you.

[via bgr, iphone dev-team blog]

We’ve heard about the awesome treats loaded on the iPhone 3G S and its new fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coated body, but did you know that it also possesses some amphibious traits as well? This short video demonstrates how an iPhone 3G S managed to stay alive even after taking a brief dip into the swimming pool. We’re not exactly sure if there are any long term effects to this heart-stopping and jaw-dropping accident, but I guess there weren’t any immediate problems as they still got the chance to upload the video of this amazing yet horrific tale. Granted that this news of the iPhone 3G S being slightly water-proof is certainly good to hear, we wouldn’t suggest you go out and try this one out for yourself. Just enjoy the video and be thankful you’re not the clumsy dude who dropped his new iPhone 3G S into the pool.

[george ruiz via engadget]

Hot for the new HTC Hero Android phone and living in the US? Well, here’s a new rumor that might be of interest to you. Word is that Sprint is testing out the HTC Hero suggesting its possible debut on the US carrier later this year. If that doesn’t manage to get you excited, this next one should. In addition to the HTC Hero, talk is that they’re also trying out a CDMA/WiMAX capable Samsung Android phone. We’re sure if this will be a completely new model or just an enhanced version, but this is clearly something we haven’t heard about before. Of course, being that this is still just a rumor, take this latest bit of info with a grain of salt until we get more concrete data on this.

[phonenews via unwiredview]

No one is pre-ordering the PSP go in the United kingdom. People in the U.K. are not too keen in going UMD-less, or maybe they just find the retail price of the go, which is £130 pricier than the old PSP, too prohibitive. Joystiq reports:

The sticker shock may be scaring off customers, as independent shops are telling Edge some frightening pre-order stories. “I don’t have a single pre-order for PSP Go at the moment,” Chips’ Don McCabe told the outlet. “We haven’t got any [PSP Go pre-orders] at all,” repeated Grainger Games’ Chris Harwood. While the head of SCEE believes consumers will pay an early adopter premium, McCabe believes otherwise. “We can’t see where that price justification comes in when effectively it’s a lighter, slimmer PSP. It’s got a bit more memory, but memory’s not that expensive. It can’t handle UMD so part of the mechanism disappears, so where does the price come from?”

Well, that is shocking if no one at all, and I mean nada, went out of his way to pre-order a PSP Go. Still, that may stillchange. Perhaps before the official release on October 1, someone’s favorite uncle may have his eyes set on one before Christmas and making sure he has his hands on one by pre-ordering

[joystiq via engadget]