JooJoo smartbook gets a new look, shipping March 25

Setting aside all of those troubles that Fusion Garage had with Michael Arrington and his team, the new JooJoo tablet (the smartbook formerly known as CrunchPad) didn’t have the most attractive of operating systems in its initial showing. But now a new user interface is born making the whole package a lot prettier with only just a few weeks left before the companies ship date of March 25.

As you may recall, the old user interface consisted of a near monochrome-like design with icons on a simple grid, still hot when next to the Kindle, but a Commodore 64 when next to the iPad.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand iPhone game free for now

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a fighting game iPhone app in the vein of their Soul Calibur series. You play as Spartacus in story mode or select from other gladiators and go head to head in a battle to the death. Story mode attempts to follow the plot of the first few episodes, and faithfully shares in the gore. Little clips from the show are also spliced into cut scenes to tell the story but there are no voices, just subtitles.

Pink Floyd music could be removed from iTunes, load up your iPods

In a landmark decision, British courts have ruled in favor of popular rock band Pink Floyd, against its former label EMI. According to the BBC, the court ordered EMI to pay the band over ten million pounds in unpaid royalties due to online sales. This ruling greatly impacts digital music sales, and could result in Pink Floyd’s music being pulled from iTunes.

iTunes releases and sells more digital music than anywhere else in the world. Songs bought on iTunes can be transferred to iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

Hydrogen fuel cells power hybrid bus on Vancouver’s Island

Having grown up in Vancouver, I’ve already been accustomed to the majority of the city buses running on electricity. They tether themselves to the overhead lines and move the commuters around town. Over in Victoria, they’re testing something so much better. They’ve got the “most technologically advanced bus on the planet.”

Instead of relying on those overhead lines, the new hybrid-powered bus gets its juice from a fuel cell.

City of Edmonton solicits iPhone apps for $50,000 award

There is more to Edmonton than the legacy left behind by one Wayne Gretzky. There’s the Valley Zoo where you can find Lucy the Elephant. There’s historic Chinatown, where you can buy ethnic produce and eat at some interesting restaurants. The City of Edmonton wants people to know about these things and they’re offering cold hard cash.

Recognizing the importance of modern technology, the municipal government is running some sort of contest to solicit iPhone applications.

Transonic fuel injection system could make for green high performance cars

There was an era when muscle cars and other high performance vehicles ruled the road. If you had one, you were appreciated for your good taste. If you drive one today, you may be frowned upon for being a green hater, but there usually is a bit of envy under those patchouli smelling dreadlocks.

The hybrid cars on the market today are oh so cute and economical, but they sure take all the fun out of owning an automobile. A savior has been born and it’s name is Transonic Combustion.

Intel preparing a dual-core Atom N500 processor for netbooks

Asus really revolutionized the world when it introduced its first generation of netbooks, the market has grown rapidly since that time and Asus continues to wow us with new netbooks. We’ve now progressed to new processors and bigger screens, blurring the line between netbooks and notebooks. That line is about to get even more blurred, because Intel wants to load netbooks with dual core Atom processors.

There’s word on the street that we should expect to see the new Intel Atom N500 processor at some point in the near future.

Fido adds “Check Your Usage” to online account profiles

Fido Check Your Usage

I remember reading some time back when that Rogers would be adding a utility to allow wireless customers access to their current usage, helping to ensure that they don’t go over their monthly allotment. Then, they released an iPhone app to do the same. It seems that the pet dog is getting a similar service now.

When I logged into my online Fido account this morning, I discovered a new banner in the “My Account” area. The banner, displaying a rather relaxed dog, told me that I could “view your usage for your minutes, data and messaging.”

PlayStation motion controller takes a stab at Sony couch potatoes

It was the Nintendo’ Wii that proved you do not necessarily need a faster processor and powerful graphics card with glitzy games to have fun. The Wii was just a tad more innovative than the PS3 and XBox 360 with the introduction of the Wii Remote.

Sony has now announced a three dish buffet for it’s motion controller called the PlayStation Move, a standalone Move controller, or a package with the PlayStation Eye + Move + a game, or an entire console. Couch potatoes are warned: gone are the days of button mashing and exercising your wrists and fingers only. Where the PlayStation Move stands apart from the Wii is its fewer buttons and no cable!

Freescale tablet reference design “smartbook” supports 3 OSes

It is a reference design, so contrary to the blogosphere’s reports, Freescale will not release this device. It will allow OEMs to quickly and easily manufacture a devices similar with these specifications at a very economical price. At seven inches in size at an OEM cost of $200, it should set Freescale clearly apart from the iPad.

The key is support for three flavors of operating systems. Google’s open source Chromium operating system, the mobile Android operating system, and variants of Linux: ThunderSoft’s Millos Linux and Ubuntu. No Windows 7?

ASUS Eee PC 1005PR netbook gets a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator

It’s remarkable to see how far Asus has come in terms of hardware manufacturing. There was a time when Intel would supply its latest processors to larger and better reputed companies such as IBM, all the while Asus played second fiddle to the larger companies, but that was the 90’s. Now in 2010 Asus’s new Eee 1005PR Netbook is truly a winged horse of ancient Greek mythology.

The Asus Eee 1005PR Netbook packs quite a punch with its Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator chip, this means HD playback for video streams is a go. You won’t have to worry about jittering freezing pictures, just a smooth cinematic experience.

iPhone App Store fires up with Street Fighter IV

Hadouken! Sonic Boom! I’ve been big into fighting games ever since I first played Street Fighter II in a smelly old arcade, so this news hits really close to home. If you’re ready to take Ken and Ryu with you on the road, you’ll be glad to hear that Street Fighter IV is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch via the App Store.

Not surprisingly, there are several things missing from the iPhone version of the game compared to its console counterpart. For starters, you don’t get all 19 characters. Instead, you are restricted to just eight world warriors: Ryu, Ken, Guile, Blanka, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, M. Bison, and Abel. I would have liked to see Akuma and Gouken in there, but no such luck.

Kanguru Defender Elite is DoD worthy

Kanguru Solutions is trying to entice organizations such as the Department of Defense (DOD) who have recently banned flash drive use by their employees for carrying sensitive information. The ban extended for 15 motnhs and has recently been “partially” lifted.

FIPS 140-2 is a rigorous federal security accreditation program, a standard for the encryption used for protecting sensitive government information.

Mobile YouTube now showing banner advertisements

Oh Google. Why must you own every aspect of my life and then choose to fill it with advertisements and monetization attempts? While I’m not as inclined to watch YouTube videos on my phone, there are many people who do and, well, Google wants its cut. As such, mobile ads will now be showing up on the mobile YouTube site.

The annoucement mentions that the banner ads will be displayed in several areas on m.youtube.com, but they’re only targeting the United States and Japan in the short term

Vancouver area graveyard getting a Rogers cell tower?

Vancouver is easily one of the most expensive and least affordable places to live in the country. That’s why more and more people are moving into the suburbs and this has created an added strain on the cellular coverage in the ‘burbs. To better address these concerns, Rogers wants to set up a new cell tower… but they want to do it in a cemetery.

Apparently, Rogers Communications wants to erect a new cell tower in the middle of the Port Coquitlam Cemetary. This tower will be forty meters in height and will provide better coverage to people living in the Port Coquitlam area, which is about half an hour from Vancouver proper.

Samsung R1 and R0 portable media players launched

If you’re looking for yet another option to take your music with you on the road, Samsung has you covered with two new offerings. The Korean juggernaut has just announced the new Samsung R1 and R0 portable media players.

For the Samsung R1, you get a form factor that is smaller than a credit card to go along with the 2.4-inch TFT LCD touchscreen. The drag and drop feature allows you to shift those files around with a swipe of a finger.