If you’ve always wanted to make your own applications to use on your Android phone but have never had the time or interest to learn all of that programming syntax, this just might be your chance. Google has announced the beta of the App Inventor for Android, a visual programming tool for creating mobile phone applications on Android devices.

Google says that no programming knowledge is necessary and you can begin building apps within minutes of getting started with the software. App Inventor uses a block-editing tool developed at MIT and tested at educational institutions around the country for the past year.

We are all for protecting that expensive iPhone with the bad reception, but if it looks like you’ve wrapped a cinder block around your phone, we’ll pass. And that’s just what this case does. The ArkHippo is made of a proprietary material which is somewhat similar Crocs shoes, so you can drop it without worrying.

Of course portability goes out the window. And your once lovely device is now just plain fugly. Nothing on pricing and availability yet, but I don’t see many of you buying this thing anyway.

LG is finally preparing to make a really big push into the 3D market as it has started to offer its first Blu-ray 3D players and 3D TVs, and even putting both together into 3D bundles. They recently rolled out the Infinia LX6500 47″ LED TV along with the LX9500 55″ LED TV, which are its first 3D-ready TVs.

To compliment these new TVs, LG is rolling out its first Blu-ray player that can handle Blu-ray 3D movies. The 3D active shutter glasses will cost extra. LG will even give a $100 discount if you pick up a 3D TV, 3D Blu-ray player and two pairs of activate shutter glasses. Not that that helps much.

According to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, there are several Windows 7 tablets coming. Ballmer made the remarks at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference today. We knew that Windows 7 tablets were coming. We already know about the Asus Eee Pad after all. But in addition to Asus, Ballmer also mentioned Dell, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony and Windows 7 tablet partners, with products on shelves “in the coming months.”

It’s pretty ambitious to announce this at this time. Apparently the idea is that they’ll be IT department-friendly, but we aren’t sure how since tablets are mostly about content and not productivity. I guess we will see soon.

This is not good news for Apple. After initially saying that the iPhone 4′s reception issues were no big deal, Consumer Reports has changed its stance, recognizing that the software fix won’t help matters, and retracting their recommendation. Apparently, they finally got around to testing the device.

And they’ve just discovered the phone’s reception problems, which we have known about since the beginning.

A listing for the 1005PX has appeared on the company’s site, although it’s broken link. But we do know that it’s available in white, black, red, blue, and that little girl friendly pastel pink above. It looks nice and pleasing to the eye, but aside from looks, there’s nothing too exciting.

It sports a 1.6GHz Atom N450 CPU, 1 or 2GB of RAM, up to 320GB of storage, and a 10-inch matte 1024 x 600 LED-backlit LCD. You’ll get 8.5 hours with a six-cell battery, but we don’t yet have a price or date.

Rumors had previously said that the first batch of BlackBerry 6-powered devices could launch as early as last month, but obviously we don’t yet have them in hand. So why not enjoy the video below which shows off some new features?

RIM just published this official YouTube video on the BlackBerry 6 and it shows off features like aggregated social network integration, universal search and the all-new WebKit-based browser. The video shows 6 running only on full touchscreen phones, so it’s becoming more obvious that we will see this launch on the rumored 9800 or something very similar.

There have been a number of lawsuits filed against Apple in the years since the iPhone debuted. Many of the suits were for alleged patent infringement. One of the early suits was against Apple and AT&T over the exclusive deal for the iPhone.

The suit was recently granted class action status, which means anyone who purchased an iPhone all the way back to June 29, 2007 is part of the suit. The core allegation is that consumers who entered into the 2-year agreement were actually in a five-year agreement due to the exclusive deal with AT&T.

One summer my cousin had a metal detector and we went all around the beach on vacaiton lookgin for buried treasure. The closest we can to treasure was a bunch of those old-fashioned pull tops from cans and someone’s lost glasses.

A guy in the UK has had much better luck than I ever did with a metal detector. The person was working in a field in south-west England and discovered a pot filled with Roman coins. The pot held 52,500 coins and the estimated worth of the coins today is about $1 million.

It’s been a long time since Sprint had a handset that most people actually wanted. The Evo 4G that landed on the Sprint network back in May was popular from the start and shortages quickly ensued.

The Evo 4G is the first smartphone to support 4G service with Sprint, which is WiMax. The WSJ reports that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has stated that the shortage of the Evo 4G is hurting the lead Sprint has in 4G service.

T-Mobile landed the exclusive Asus-Garmin GPS phone called the Garminfone back in April .I think most of us will agree that at the $199 price point the device surfaced at it was very unappealing.

T-Mobile has cut the price of the Garminfone in an effort to make the device look better to customers. Rather than the $199 price, point the Garminfone is now available for $129.99. The handset is Android powered and offers voice guided and on-screen directions.

Sony has a new website that will let you customize your new Vaio notebook with all kinds of colors. You can customize the keyboard, outer shell and even the mouse and laptop sleeve in variety of different colors.

The custom colors are only available for the Vaio E series notebooks, but maybe Sony will offer the service to other models in their Vaio range in the near future. So if you get a new Vaio, color that bad boy up.

Check out this iPhone 4 dock, my Steampunk loving friends. The iRetrofone Steampunk Copper iPhone 4 dock features a hand sculpted base by Artist Scott Freeland, cast from copper and polished by hand. It’s also signed by the artist.

If you want one these iRetrofone Steampunk Copper iPhone 4 Docks, it won’t be cheap. They are available for $450 from Freeland Studios. For that price at least it will match your other Steampunk gear. Too fake looking for my taste, but I’m not a big Steampunk enthusiast.

Clocking in or out of an office usually requires a company card that you flash at the entry and exit points of the building. Fujitsu is working on offering a new solution for hospitals that can be used during the check-in process. This solution will connect electronic card holders using electronic paper to a patient navigation system, where it will guide patients to examination rooms or diagnostic testing rooms etc.

Just insert an IC-equipped registration card, and the electronic card holder will automatically link into the medical facility’s electronic patient navigation system and electronic medical record system to ensure the registration process is complete. It will also show outpatients where to go using visual displays and vibration.

Pandigital has a new Personal Photo Scanner/Converter, which will scan a photo wherever you are and can convert it to a different resolution. Documents up to 8.5″ x 11″ in size can be fed through it and you can send them straight onto a SD memory card or Memory Stick at 600dpi resolution.

It would be pretty handy to archive a bunch of old photos and documents. The device will cost you $149.99. No word on whether it comes with a built-in battery or not, or will only be powered using USB.