July 02 - 07:25pm EDT   QuickerTek has launched a new external battery, the Apple Juicz, for iPhones, the iPod touch and other iPods. The 2200 mAh polymerized Lithium-ion battery measures 1.75- x 2.5- x .375-inch and connects through the data port and offers roughly three times the battery life of the iPhone internal battery. The Apple Juicz is rated for an additional 30 hours of music, six additional hours of video or three extra hours of talk time when used with an iPhone. the battery charges via the iPhone's USB charging cable, taking about three hours to fully charge. It has a built-in LED battery level indicator. [full story]

July 02 - 04:50pm EDT   MCS Music America has filed a lawsuit against Real Networks, Yahoo and Microsoft over alleged music copyright infringements earlier this week. The copyright administration company claims the defendants breached copyright on several pieces of music and their artists. MCS represents a large number of other plaintiffs and says streaming music services such as Rhapsody, Zune and Yahoo Music allow users to retain the copyrighted tracks for an extended period of time, saying the defendants are required to obtain the rights for such a form of distribution. [full story]

July 02 - 04:30pm EDT   Digital Vision on Thursday announced the upcoming launch of its GiGo Digital TV Recorder, which allows users to record Freeview digital transmissions straight onto a USB thumb drive in MPEG2 format. There is no built-in hard drive, as with other DVR products, and the GiGo is meant to appeal to users who miss their VCR rather than avid home theater enthusiasts. [full story]

July 02 - 04:15pm EDT   First spotted just over a month ago, the Nokia 6790 Surge got a one-month delay in its launch date at wireless provider AT&T. While an exact date is not announced, sources believe the phone, which used to go by the codename Mako, will appear sometime in mid-July. Some preliminary specs of the sliding QWERTY handset include a 2.4-inch, 240x320 display, and quad-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA support. The Surge is also one of a handful of mid-range Nokia phones equipped with the smartphone-grade Symbian S60 operating system. [full story]

July 02 - 03:50pm EDT   While it was reported just yesterday that Toshiba's first full touchscreen smartphone, the TG01, will be officially unveiled at a launch event in London on July 9th, it is now known the handset will make its debut in the UK at provider Orange on the same date. The wireless provider already has a product page up for the device; pricing is unknown but may be unveiled at the July 9th launch event. [full story]

July 02 - 03:40pm EDT   Chinese electronics maker Inkia has recently launched a pair of nameless Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) powered by 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPUs, with both 7-inch and 5-inch versions. Each is equipped with an 800x480 resolution touchscreen, 1GB of RAM and solid state drive storage up to 32GB. The preloaded operating system is either Linux or Windows XP. Other features common to either system include 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. [full story]

July 02 - 03:25pm EDT   Sony's PlayStation product planning head Naoya Matsui today told Japanese publication GameBusiness that the company had always planned a version of the PSP without the UMD drive. He claims that the company had wanted downloadable games from the handheld's launch in 2004 but that it wasn't feasible until the PSP Go due to infrastructure. It was necessary to have not just simple download to the system itself but a means of getting games from a PS3 to the PSP as well as an easier sync process for loading games, movies and music. [full story]

July 02 - 02:55pm EDT   Sprint this week staked its ground and claimed it would be the first US carrier to have a 3G femtocell. The company was already the first American firm to have any kind of femtocell in the Samsung Airave but now says to Unstrung that it should beat AT&T to having a device that can share 3G data with the home, improving reception for some smartphones and other devices that don't have their own Wi-Fi. Most current femtocells only boost voice service by creating a miniature cellular signal that pipes all data through a home Internet link. [full story]

July 02 - 01:40pm EDT   With the introduction of its latest A4-sized electronic paper display, Bridgestone recently announced it will begin supplying e-book makers with the product. At the same time, Bridgestone will offer a development kit to help developers create prototypes of new devices using the Bridgestone e-paper technology. The latest e-paper display from Bridgestone is ten times faster than the company's previous effort, with a 0.8-second rewrite speed for the 8.3 by 11.7-inch display. [full story]

July 02 - 12:20pm EDT   In some good news for local cell phone manufacturers, the European Union's plan to introduce new taxes for handsets sold throughout Europe has been scrapped, says a Wednesday report. The new taxes would have raised prices customers pay for new phones and most likely lowered the sales numbers of an already falling market. The decision came from Sweden, which hosts the rotating presidency of the EU, and will mean the Customs Code Committee will continue to treat cell phones as duty-free items. [full story]