Nikon's 1080p CoolPix P100 superzoom up for pre-order, shipping soon.

The compact superzoom party is the place to be, and while Nikon's P100 may not be the most slinky model at soiree, it's got a great personality with its 26x zoom lens, backside-illuminated sensor, HDR functionality, and the ability to shoot H.264 video at 1080p. It's also newly available at a few different retailers for you to put your money where your mouth is, most sites listing some variation on "shipping soon." Amazon is the only one brazen enough to apply a date, but it's a rather vague and general one: three to five weeks.

Sony's DSC-TX5 is waterproof, freeze-proof, dust-proof, and headed for retail this April

You'll be able to go down to 10 feet under water with the TX5, drop it from a 5-foot height, or explore the tundra at temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius) without the camera throwing in the towel. So Sony claims anyhow. Other features include a now confirmed 10fps burst mode, a 10.2 megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor, 4x optical zoom plus optical image stabilization, and a 3-inch touchscreen on the back. The one thing that doesn't make the transition from rumor to reality is the reputed 1080p movie mode -- the TX5 makes do with a still desirable 720p video recording. Sony's also kicking out the DSC-H55 (pictured after the break) today, which will have the same video mode, but adds a 10x optical zoom and a thicker, non-weatherproofed body. Both cams will happily write to Class 4 and above SDHC cards when they debut this April, priced at $350 for the TX5 and $250 for the H55.

HP to undercut iPad price, iPad to undercut Amazon e-books prices,

Today's Apple rumor roundup is brought to you by the word "money." First up is a piece carried by the New York Times citing no less than three people familiar with provisions that would require publishers to discount best seller e-book prices sold on Apple's iPad. In other words, below the $12.99 to $14.99 price dictated by the new agency model -- prices Amazon is being strong-armed into accepting. Apple's prices could be as low as Amazon's previously magical $9.99 price point for some titles just as soon as they hit the New York Times best-seller lists. Discounted hardcover editions could be priced at $12.99 even if they do not hit the best-seller list.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, has a pair of sources saying that HP will be meeting with its US and Taiwanese partners to "tweak prices and features" on its upcoming Slate. The move is meant to capitalize on a recent uptick in tablet interest with hopes of undercutting the $629 price of the similarly spec'd 3G-enabled iPad. Although it was introduced before the iPad, HP deliberatly held back on announcing a ship date or pricing so that it could tweak the Slate accordingly.

Also noteworthy is renewed attention given to Microsoft's Courier. The WSJ says that Microsoft continues work on its two-screen Courier tablet at its Alchemy Ventures incubation laboratory in Seattle. However, it's still unclear whether Microsoft will launch the device.

Kaspersky scores patent for hardware-based antivirus

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Kaspersky Labs a patent for a hardware-based antivirus. The Moscow-based security company is behind one of the most popular paid antivirus applications, and offers a range software security options.

Filed last September, the firm's freshly minted patent (7,657,941) is for an antivirus system "based on a hardware-implemented AV module for curing infected computer systems and a method for updating AV databases for effective curing of the computer system." The device is installed between a computer's disk drive and CPU/RAM, and is connected to the system bus or integrated into the disk controller. Once in place, it determines what data will be permitted to write to the disk and issues threat alerts.

The dongle is basically a separate system running an embedded antivirus program. It has its own processor and memory, and it can work alone or with AV software installed on the primary computer. Such a solution offers several benefits. For starters, it's situated below the level of rootkits and thus cannot be bypassed by them. Also, since the device carries its own CPU and RAM, it would require few to no resources from the main computer to operate.

Whether Kaspersky's hardware-based AV is more effective remains to be seen, but some are already criticizing it. It's said the device doesn't have network access, so it can't update on its own and will require the assistance of software installed on your machine, introducing another possible security risk.

MSI shipping new CR-series notebooks stateside

MSI has begun shipping a handful of Arrandale-based notebooks stateside, including three iterations of the 15.6-inch CR620 line. All models come with Windows 7 Home Premium, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, VGA and HDMI-out, three USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, a four-in-one card reader, a six-cell battery, and a three-year warranty.

The systems have few differences elsewhere, too. The CR620-030US is cheapest at $650 and features a 15.6-inch 720p display, an Intel Core i3-330M processor and GMA HD graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320GB HDD, and a DVD burner. For $730, the CR620-033US has a Blu-ray reader instead, and at $750 the CR620-031US packs a Core i5-430M and 500GB of storage (no Blu-ray, though).

The company is also offering the CR600-234US, which carries older hardware and a lighter price tag of $530. Specifications include a 16-inch 720p display, an Intel Pentium Dual Core T4500, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8200MG graphics, and the same connectivity options as its snazzier counterparts.

Kingston intros speedy Class 10 16GB microSDHC card

Kingston has launched a new microSDHC memory card that is among the first to boast the speedy Class 10 specification. The card offers 16GB of storage and has a minimum data transfer rate of 10MB/s, which is significantly faster than previous Class 2, 4 and 6 cards, making it a perfect match for devices like HD cameras. In fact, Kingston's Wendy Lecot says such devices are "being designed to optimize their write performance to take advantage of the more responsive memory card speeds."

Kingston is selling its latest creation in a few packages. It's compatible with microSDHC, miniSDHC, and SDHC readers and ships for $138 by itself, $139 with an SD adapter and $140 with both SD and miniSD adapters. Granted, that's over double the price of some 16GB Class 6 microSDHC cards, but the price will come down eventually. In the meantime, you can try to justify the purchase with Kingston's lifetime warranty.

Acer launches neoTouch P300 / P400, beTouch E110 / E400 smartphones

If you thought the (admittedly weak) Liquid e was all Acer had in store for Mobile World Congress, you'd be badly mistaken. We've got a foursome of other smartphones on tap, so we won't waste any time breaking 'em down. Up first is the neoTouch P300 and neoTouch P400, each of which ship with Windows Mobile 6.5.3. The P300 gets a luscious 3.2-inch WQVGA touch panel, slide-out QWERTY keyboard (backlit, no less!), WiFi and a March ship date, while the May-bound P400 packs a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, 600MHz Qualcomm 7227 CPU, WiFi and a 3.2 megapixel camera. Moving on, there's the beTouch E110 (shipping in March in black and dark blue), complete with a 2.8-inch touch panel, Android, 3 megapixel camera, FM tuner and a 1,500mAh battery. Finally, the beTouch E400 touts Android 2.1, the same 600MHz power plant as on the P400, a 3.2-inch HVGA resistive touchscreen, smart LED lighting (acts as a message indicator) and an April ship date. Pricing remains a mystery on the whole lot, but we're hoping to learn more as we dig our heels in at the show.

Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win

Windows Phone 7 Series. Get used to the name, because it's now a part of the smartphone vernacular... however verbose it may seem. Today Microsoft launches one of its most ambitious (if not most ambitious) projects: the rebranding of Windows Mobile. The company is introducing the new mobile OS at Mobile World Congress 2010, in Barcelona, and if the press is anything to be believed, this is just the beginning. The phone operating system does away with pretty much every scrap of previous mobile efforts from Microsoft, from the look and feel down to the underlying code -- everything is brand new. 7 Series has rebuilt Windows Mobile from the ground up, featuring a completely altered home screen and user interface experience, robust Xbox LIVE and Zune integration, and vastly new and improved social networking tools. Gone is the familiar Start screen, now replaced with "tiles" which scroll vertically and can be customized as quick launches, links to contacts, or self contained widgets. The look of the OS has also been radically upended, mirroring the Zune HD experience closely, replete with that large, iconic text for menus, and content transitions which elegantly (and dimensionally) slide a user into and out of different views. The OS is also heavily focused on social networking, providing integrated contact pages which show status updates from multiple services and allow fast jumps to richer cloud content (such as photo galleries). The Xbox integration will include LIVE games, avatars, and profiles, while the Zune end of things appears to be a carbon copy of the standalone device's features (including FM radio).

Besides just flipping the script on the brand, the company seems to be taking a much more vertical approach with hardware and user experience, dictating rigid specs for 7 Series devices (a specific CPU and speed, screen aspect ratio and resolution, memory, and even button configuration), and doing away with carrier or partner UI customizations such as Sense or TouchWiz. That's right -- there will be a single Windows Phone identity regardless of carrier or device brand. Those new phones will likely look similar at first, featuring a high res touchscreen, three front-facing buttons (back, start, and perhaps not shockingly, a Bing key), and little else.

Carrier partnerships are far and wide, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, while hardware partners include Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm. We're told that we likely won't get to see any third-party devices at MWC, though Microsoft is showing off dev units of unknown origin, and the first handsets are supposed to hit the market by the holidays of this year.

Acer Liquid e rolls with Android 2.1, underclocked 768MHz Snapdragon

We knew good and well Acer was prepared to ship a few more Android phones in the new decade, and it's sure starting off on the right foot here in Barcelona. Just a few months after the original Liquid began to ship, along comes a minor upgrade in the Liquid e. The main improvements? For starters, Android 2.1 has supplanted Android 1.6 as the onboard operating system, but much to our displeasure, the Snapdragon in this bad boy is still underclocked to 768MHz. If you still have the will to care, you'll get to enjoy the 3.5-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel camera (with AutoFocus), inbuilt GPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, 256MB of RAM, an accelerometer, 3.5mm headphone jack and support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Head on past the break for the full release, but don't expect to find any pricing or release details.

Adobe brings AIR to Android, promises Flash 10.1 in the first half of the year

Convergence has always been a big theme in tech, and its focus at MWC this year seems to have landed firmly on procuring an application platform that is OS-agnostic. Earlier today, we heard of the big carrier cabal intent on slaying the beast that is multi-platform development through cooperation, but if you ask Adobe the answer is much simpler: just slap AIR on your phone. The company's grand vision of the future sees AIR as the facilitator of a "feature-rich environment for delivering rich applications outside the mobile browser and across multiple operating systems." If that sounds like your cup of tea, it's now available on Android and there are a number of cool demo videos at the DevNet link below. As to Flash Player 10.1, that's also heading to Android, to be completed within the first half of this year, while also including support for WebOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. We all know who's missing from that party, but Reuters reports Adobe has expressed confidence that Apple will "eventually bow to market pressure" and join in on the fun as well. We shall see. Video of AIR apps running on the Droid awaits after the break.

Gmail shut down in Iran, state e-mail service on the way

The wonderful bastion of free speech, liberty, and general all round niceness the Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to close access to Google's Gmail service. Like that other champion of human rights, the People's Republic of China, it seems Iran has gotten a tad miffed with pesky Google and to have decided that enough is enough.

The story goes that Iran will soon shut down access to Gmail on a pretty permanent sort of basis and will instead be offering its own national e-mail service. Whether the recent launch of Google Buzz has anything to do with this is anyone’s guess, but Google was able to confirm Gmail access problems in Iran; they declined to finger point at the actual Iranian authorities as being those responsible, though.

The initial shut down was reported last Wednesday and as of today the service has not been reestablished. With many opposing journalists arrested and private newspapers closed in Iran, the Internet is considered the most prominent medium for citizens to get informed outside of the government's spectrum.

Meet Square, the iPhone credit card processing device

Ever since I was a little boy technology shows and technical magazines have carried articles about the death of cash. Whether it was Mondex, the smart card electronic cash system which was originally developed by National Westminster Bank in the UK or that cybernetic implant we were all meant to be getting in our hands that we could just swipe at tills to pay for things. I mean, there's been plenty of predications that notes and coins will vanish one day now we are in the information age.

Well whilst it’s unlikely that traditional money will completely disappear any time soon, the notion of paying for most things just using plastic might have come a lot closer with the introduction of Square - an iPhone credit card payment system that's the brainchild of Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

Currently in public beta, Square (watch the video) is a nifty little iPhone add-on that lets anyone with an iPhone accept payments from a credit card. Basically, it’s the combination of an iPhone app and a small card-reader. Any individual can use the devices - you don't have to be a registered company or anything. All you need is the app, the dongle and an account. So if you say, owe me $1000 (which would be nice for me) all you would need to do is swipe your card into my iPhone and we’d be square, if you pardon the pun. Once customers have swiped or keyed in their credit card numbers, the phone allows them to write their signature using the touch screen to verify the purchase. What will an iPhone do next?