Official Droid Froyo update leaked!

many of you may have already been running Froyo on your Droids in one form or another. Hell, just a few days ago we saw the official Froyo source code let loose, providing devs the needed material for hours of fun. And then today, reports saying the official Froyo FRF85B update for the Nexus One is starting to live. Continuing on that gravy train, the official Froyo FRF84B for the Motorola Droid as apparently been leaked.

I’m downloading it now and will let you know how it all goes. **Rooters make note, the official leak which is being provided compliments of MyDroidWorld, comes already rooted with Busybox and a custom kernel. Hit up the link above, flash the update, and let us know how it goes for ya!

By the way, if root action isn’t your think and you instead want to play it safe, word is that the “official” OTA release will be in early August (as we’ve already heard before).

Optimus Popularis keyboard shots revealed. Still more expensive than most computers.

There’s something special when geek and art come together. Some would call Apple the master of such things. But in reality, there are many other talented designers out there who have an eye for geeky art. Take for example, the Optimus Keyboard from Art Lebedev.

Some may cringe, point, and laugh at a nearly $1,000 keyboard. But as is common in the world of art, high fashion comes at a high price. But it’s not just all looks.

All of those keys are actually mini LCD’s that are completely user-customizable. Furthermore, the display bar located near the top of the keyboard can act as a home to several different widgets as well as keyboard functions making this keyboard “the” defacto standard for those who like to control it all.

It’s all very sexy. Though past failures at meeting price plans and release dates coupled with the already stratospheric price tag means CES is the only place I and many other geeks will ever be able to coddle one in our loving arms. *sighs* To dream…

Look for the Optimus Popularis keyboard to drop late this year “for less than $1,000 (read: $999 I’d guess). Larger shot after the jump…

[Update 3] Hulu Plus goes live. More content, more devices, and more HD for $9.99/month. “Plus” stands for “plus ads”

The day of reckoning has come — Hulu is no longer the completely free online video uber-giant. Now, it’s a free + premium offering. Today marks the official debut of Hulu Plus, a new $9.99/month service that aims to monetize Hulu and keep studios interested. What exactly does the new surcharge get you?

Those looking for mobile Hulu privileges such as iPhone, iPad, TV, and countless other mobile devices as well as gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 will need to upgrade to Hulu Plus. Further sweetening the pot, Hulu Plus members will have wider access (read: full seasons of full length episodes as well as back catalogs of archived content) to movies and TV shows as well as HD content. Unfortunately, the HD carrot is only 720p, rather unflattering and disappointing in a world full of 1080p TV’s and even higher resolution computer monitors. But we’ll take what we can get I guess.

Overall it looks like a solid offering with a price tag that isn’t too restrictive. Only time will tell if Hulu Plus will sink or swim. Looks like another wait and see approach here.

What do the readers think? Is Hulu Plus offering up enough premium content and features for $9.99/month of your hard earned cash, or are you jumping ship to other free services? Let us here it in the comments…

Update: A comment from reader, “Jaych” highlights a really good question: “Will Hulu Plus feature ads?” I’m looking for an answer now, as if it will continue offering ads, even in smaller numbers, failure is all that comes to mind. I’ve shot off an email to Hulu asking about that as well as why they chose to stick with 720p, so stay tuned.

Update 2: Now seeing a few reports that ads will in fact be part of Hulu Plus. Waiting on confirmation from Hulu themselves. If true, Hulu Plus already sucks.

Update 3: And that’s all she wrote. Ads will officially be a part of Hulu Plus. The reasoning given was that ads were kept in play to keep the price at $9.99. Fair enough. Though I’m sure plenty of you out there in internet land would gladly pay a few extra bucks to keep ads out. I mean, the whole reason people flocked from cable/satellite to Hulu in the first place was (1) free TV and (2) the lack of ads. Looks like they killed two birds with that stone. Thoughts?

Lenovo Skylight delay to result in processor swap, dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon en route?

Delays are rarely a good thing the gadget world. More often than not, as release dates are pushed farther and farther back, interest in the gadget/service wanes and ultimately kills it. In the case of the unusually stylish Lenovo Skylight and its Qualcomm 1GHz processor, “delay” killed it for a lot of people. But a new rumor surfacing on DigiTimes sheds new hope on Lenovo’s baby. Specifically, the unfortunate delay has resulted in Lenovo having time to swap out new internals such as the much talked about dual-core Snapdragon processors.

In regards to the Skylight, the dual-core Snapdragon that’s said to be making its debut in the Skylight will hum along at a brisk 1.5GHz. That’s pretty remarkable that we’re talking about 1GHz+, multi-core processors on mobile phones, isn’t it?

We’ll follow this story as it (does or doesn’t) develop. Surely you’ve got to be excited, no? If netbooks aren’t your thing, don’t worry. Chatter of dual-core higher clocked Snapdragons coming to smartphones have been circulating quite a bit as of late. Q3/Q4 looks to be very exciting, wouldn’t you say?

iMovie easily hacked to run on older iPhones and non-iOS4 devices. [Liberation]

There’s always something liberating about sticking it to the man, whomever he may be. Going above and beyond false or real limitations feels good, plain and simple. On that note, after Apple showed off iMovie for iPhone, at least a few people were bummed that it wouldn’t run on anything except the iPhone 4. Choose for yourself if you’re going to believe Apple’s spin that “it doesn’t perform up to standards” on older 3GS hardware. But such things are smokescreens and false restrictions put in place to provoke people to shell out more money for the newer model. (Completely legitimate business decision, though it sucks for consumers)

Thankfully a little jailbreak love and a simple editing of an iPhone info.plist/.ipa file is all that’s needed to trick your non-iMovie compatible iDevice and iMovie into playing nice together.

Want to see it work? Jump in….

Seagate ushers in 3TB hard drives with new external offering.

The limits of platter-based hard drives have yet again reached a new hight today, with Seagate finally releasing a 3TB external hard drive. Speed isn’t the object here. Sso ripping that external apart and slapping it in your desktop while novel, probably won’t satisfy any speed itches you have needing to be scratched. Then again, it’s 3TB in a tiny (relatively) footprint. And the race to the top continues.

Hit up Seagate’s site and squander away $250 for the privilege. Press Release inside.

Nearly decade old MP3 player finds its way to Walmart clearance rack. [Humor]

Some gadgets age well, growing more valuable and priceless with age. Others do not. This “Intel® Personal Audio Player 3000″ that was found on a Walmart clearance rack for a steal of a price — $20 (previously on “sale for $50). It’s a nice look back to yesteryear when the MP3 movement was just starting. I can’t knock it too hard though, I had an old Rio mp3 player with 32MB of memory. This would have been an upgrade. Thank god the human race has progressed…

If you need a good laugh (or look back into the past), hop inside for the official press release all the way out of 2001…