Angry Birds Slingshot Ensues Hours Of Enjoyment/Broken Things.

If you’d like to keep the Angry Birds fun going long after your batteries die/make things real physical, come this June/July you can do just that. The slingshot isn’t part of its own game per say, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t set up a few random objects to stand in as pigs for target practice. Pricing is said to be around ~$15 when the slingshot eventually drops.

Google Releases Android And iPhone Weather Web App.

Weather apps on both Android and iOS are a dime a dozen these days. With that said, I happen to be a weather junkie on top of my usual gig as tech junkie. So when it comes to weather apps, I’ve been there and done that many times over. Though in all honesty, you don’t really need a stand alone app for such things. The mobile web is full of websites and portals from which you can get your weather information. And today, the non-app weather scene just got a bit more crowded with Google’s new Android and iOS app weather web app.

Simply search “weather” on either of the platforms mentioned above (sorry BlackBerry OS 6 and pretty much everyone else) and watch the HTML5 wizardry develop right before your very eyes. Speaking of HTML5, the slider you see is functional, and when drug across the screen, causes the background gradient and weather icons to change accordingly. Enough to make you kick the app habit?

HP Topaz Breaks Cover!

Well well well. The HP/Palm Topaz. PreCentral managed to snag a huge assortment of internal documentation and diagrams detailing the upcoming webOS-powered tablet. Everything from the 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processors to 9.7″ WXGA (1024 x 768) display to support for the revamped Touchstone charger complete with wireless gaming support are included. HP and Palm are said to be targeting Apple’s iPad with the Topaz, and for good reason. The iPad is the hands down most successful and popular tablet of 2010. And with the iPad 2 a sure thing for 2011, HP needs to get their foot in the door now if they ever plan to compete.

Of course, with 512MB of RAM, the 1024 x 768 display, and many other common features, we have to ask exactly which iPad HP is competing with — the old and outdated original iPad or new and certainly more advanced iPad 2? Nonetheless, the Topaz appears to be one of the better tablets we’ve seen (on paper at least). Thankfully we haven’t too much longer to wait.

Perhaps more exciting, however, is the detailed information regarding the revamped Touchstone wireless charging accessory. It will be bigger and support more than just charging. According to the slides (more after the jump), everything from syncing to gaming will be possible over the Touchstone’s wireless connection. Sounds pretty sweet to us.

What do you think of the Topaz so far?

Dumb Law #4,301,223: Running With iPod Ban.

As if we didn’t already have enough pointless laws swirling through local and federal governments alike, New York and Arkansas would like to push the boundaries of stupidity with a new anti-media player while running law. Lawmakers from both states want to make it so that running is more or less treated exactly like driving in that you should be distraction free. Of course, to people with at least a few ounces of common sense, this is the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard. But to a politician who hasn’t been “in touch” with their “fan base” for years to decades, it’s nothing surprising. Hopefully common sense prevails and any such laws are turned down, buried, and never brought up again.

As for those who actually think it is needed — “I don’t see anybody being stopped to check what’s in their ears”, says Sen. Jimmy Jeffress. A little helpful tip for you Jimmy: if you don’t expect anyone to obey or enforce a law, there is absolutely no point in creating it in the first place. Our tax dollars hard at work…

Another One Bites The Dust: T-Mobile USA Cancels Nokia C5-03.

Nokia’s attempts to break through in the U.S. market are getting tougher by the day. First, the flagship Symbian^3-powered X7 destined for AT&T was nixed at the last second. And now, T-Mobile’s own C5-03 (Nuron 2 to some parts) appears to have been chopped as well. The big hurdle Nokia seems to be unable to overcome is the whole concept behind buddying up with cellular providers in order to get their hardware discounted. In many other parts of the world, phones are sold unlocked and free of contracts. But here in the U.S., we do things backwards. Complicating matters, Android devices and Apple’s own iPhone are updated at breakneck pace.

Regardless, it’s another sad tale in Nokia’s relatively short U.S. novel. Hopefully (constantly delayed) MeeGo can finally woo us. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt if Nokia could slap it inside some fancy hardware too. Will 2011 finally be Nokia’s year?

Tegra 2 3D Suport Coming Later This Year.

Tegra 2 is still barely crawling and already the tech world is beginning to move on to the next bigger and better item — “Tegra 2.5″. While not the official numbering scheme from Nvidia, the reason for the added “0.5″ is 3D support and a 200MHz higher clock speed for each core. Production of this slightly tweaked Tegra 2 chip is slated for Q1 of this year, with release sometime soon thereafter. In our opinion, the 200MHz on two cores is much more exciting and beneficial than glasses-free 3D only because (1) we can always use more speed and (2) the glasses-less 3D we’ve seen thus far has been…a let down. But that won’t stop Nvidia who is currently in full steam ahead, beast mode. We expect to hear Nvidia divulge more information on this updated Tegra 2 processor (and it’s successor, the Tegra 3) at MWC in the not too distant future.

Dual-GPU AMD 6990 Spotted!

It may not be an * official* unveiling, but it is welcome nonetheless. AMD’s Matt Skynner displayed the gem you see above at a Fusion APU press event in lands far from here. While no specs or actual mention was offered for the device itself, the new black with red racing stripes design signals it is the latest generation of card. And, the two silver spots seen on the back of the card are nothing else but dual gpu cores.

If we go on current speculation, the upcoming AMD 6990 will come with 3,840 stream processors total (half and half) and 4GB of memory pumped through dual-DVI and tri-mini-DisplayPort connections. Finally, power requirements are somewhere along the lines of 30/300 idle/load. Look for more information on the AMD 6990 in the second half of February.