SlashGear Week in Review - Week 14 2010

Happy Easter everyone, and welcome to this week's Week in Review. The big news this week was the pending launch of the iPad on Saturday. We learned on Monday that the device would land in Apple Stores on April 3 at 9am and would be in Best Buy stores then too. Of course, if you want all the details on the iPad, check out the full SlashGear review!

We reviewed the HTC Desire last week and found the device to be brilliant. The handset supports Flash Lite and has lots of other features. The Wall Street Journal reported early in the week that the iPhone was heading to the Verizon network. The publication says that Apple is work in on two versions of the iPhone.

The iPad EULA turned up during the week and outlined some info about the device. iPad buyers will get the 3.x and 4.x firmware updates free. The Microsoft Zune HD 4.5 update was is coming sooner than many though and will add new features. The new features include Smart DJ and the update adds new codecs.

Dell unveiled a new notebook called the Precision M4500. The machine packs in Core i5 or i7 processors and Quadro FX graphics. An interesting concept notebook turned up this week that folds up like a box. The screen folds down and the ends of the keyboard fold up for portability.

Microsoft showed off a new Xbox 360 Slim next to the current generation Xbox and the thing looks like a waif. It's cool to see hardware get so much smaller. We reviewed the Nintnedo DSi XL Tuesday and thought it looked like a DS on steroids. In the end, we figure if you already have a DS or DSi it's very hard to justify the upgrade.

Asus offered up a new Eee 1001PX netbook that has a matte screen option. I am so glad to see more matte options; I hate the glare that shiny screens produce. Asus unveiled a new video card called the Republic of Gamers MATRIX 5870. The card automatically overclocks itself for a performance boost of 19%.

Logitech unveiled a new and very cheap Harmony remote this week called the Harmony 300. The thing lacks many of the cool features typically found in the line like the activities buttons, but the 300 only costs $50. Integra debuted the DTA-70.1 9-channel THX-Ultra2 certifies home theater amp this week that sells for 1800. The amp has 150W per channel and supports new 3D positional speakers.

Remember that strange and abrupt letter that was posted in Japan by Nintendo outing the 3DSi console? Apparently the reason for the brief letter was to squash a press leak that was going to be unveiled.

Some enterprising robot building geeks have taken an Android smartphone and used the voice control features to control a robot. The Android device lets you tell the robot exactly what you want it to do. The PS3 3.21 firmware landed this week. The bad news was that the update kills the ability to add an alternate OS to the device.

A cool concept for Google Envelopes was tipped this week. The concept is an envelope that you can have an email sent to a person with in the physical world that shows the route on a map the letter took. The coolest April fool's joke we saw this year was the ThinkGeek iCade arcade cabinet. The thing was supposed to be a small arcade cabinet that you slip your iPad into for playing old school video games.

That iCade from ThinkGeek was so cool and so many people liked it that the company is considering making it a real product. I want one! The long talked about JooJoo tablet finally landed in the hands of a publication for an unboxing. Presumably that means there are a number of them ready to ship, not only the one that Engadget received.

If you want an iPad, you might still be able to find one in Best Buy stores near you. The product search engine Milo will help you find it in stock near you using your zip code. The ITC is investigating the patent theft claims that Apple has leveled against HTC. If Apple wins HTC might have to block functionalities in their devices. Thanks for reading this week's edition! See you next week!