Buffalo has announced a new line of MiniStation portable hard drives in Japan. The MiniStation 3.0 series is sleek, with a glossy black or white coating, and uses SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connectivity.

They come in 500GB and 1TB storage capacities and are backed by a one-year warranty. They also come bundled with software for data backup, encryption and power saving. The 500GB and 1TB Buffalo MiniStation 3.0 retail for $141 and $206. Not bad at all.

Tablets are for fun right? Well, sometimes they are for education and fancy book-learnin. Err, non book learning I mean. Brainchild has a new Android tablet for students called the Kineo. It’s kid friendly, so it can be dropped, kicked, drooled on, thrown across the room etc.

The Kineo features a touchscreen display good for up to 500,000 impressions and has a 12-hour battery life. It also sports Wi-Fi, a 800 x 480 screen resolution, a 800MHz dual core CPU, 2GB of internal memory and Google Android 2.1. You can pre-order the Kineo from Brainchild for $299. It will ship in March 2011.

Volkswagen of America will run two ads during the Super Bowl XLV on February 6, one for the 2012 New Beetle and one for the 2012 Passat. Forget the first ad, it’s the ad for the 2012 Passat that caught our attention.

It shows a young boy in a Darth Vader costume trying desperately to actually use Darth Vader’s force powers around the house, to no avail. It is only when he stands in front of the new Passat and commands it to start that it works. The kid’s father has started up the car with a remote starter in the key-fob. It’s a cute and geeky ad. We love it.

There are plenty of tablet cases available for the iPad but how many are lined with solar panels? The Spark Tablet Case by Voltaic can generate up to 8 watts of power to provide about an hour of iPad runtime for every hour in the sunlight. Not bad. It also comes with a solar chargeable battery that contains almost enough juice to give the iPad a single full charge. The battery can be charged using the solar panels on the case, or via a USB port or wall charger.

Other features include a high-power 2A USB port, a regular 650mA USB port to speed up the iPad recharging process, water resistant solar panels, and the case itself is also waterproof. It’s also large enough to fit other accessories with your iPad and the charger can charge other mobile devices.

Yesterday we reported that a Flickr user had lost 4,000 photographs due to an accident that caused his account to be deleted. Luckily for him, he brought attention to his case throughout the internet. Bad press is something that Flickr doesn’t want, so today they corrected the situation.

The user had his account reinstated and his 4,000 photographs were restored. He was also rewarded with 25 years of Flickr Pro membership. The official statement from Flickr below:

A luxury joystick without any bling or diamonds is pretty refreshing, however, who wants an arcade stick made of Ostrich leather? The Hoon Entertainment System from Neo Legend and Hoon comes with a joystick and 10 buttons. It will play nice with the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The hardware is made by Sanwa and some poor ostrich. Classy? Not really. Kind of weird. There’s no info on availability and pricing, but we know it won’t come cheap. Want one?

Yo G. Check this. T-Mobile and LG have unveiled their first Android tablet called the G-Slate. The device is powered by Android 3.0 and features a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, an 8.9″ display, 32GB of internal storage, a stereoscopic camera that can do 1080p 3D capture, a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a front-facing camera for your video call needs.

It supports 720p HD playback on the tablet itself and HDMI output for 1080p content on 3D and HD displays. The G-Slate’s 3D capabilities will also let users experience 3D HD content on the tablet itself if you wear 3D glasses.

ASUS’ Eee Slate EP121 was unveiled at CES this year and now it is happily on it’s way to stores and to customers who have already ordered the device. The EP121 is a 12.1″ tablet that runs Windows 7 with a dual-core Intel i5 processor, 2 to 4GB of RAM, and 32 or 64GB of storage.

It also sports WiFi, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel front facing camera, HDMI output, stylus support and a flash card reader. It even comes with a Bluetooth keyboard and a carrying case to seal the deal. Amazon has it in stock right now.

These look more like hovering robot eyes than planets, but Elipson’s Planet L Speakers have some nice specs. They use coaxial 2-way design with a 25mm soft dome tweeter and a 165mm paper-cone mid/woofer. Plus they have a great modern and space age look.

They feature a frequency response of 48Hz to 20,000Hz with 90dB sensitivity and 6-ohm impedance. Each weighs a hefty 15.4 pounds so mount them securely so they don’t fall on your head. They will cost you about $965 for a pair.

Crosswalk signs on metal posts are fine, but here’s something that makes much more sense. This flexible LED crosswalk light that can be fastened around a tree, killing two birds with one stone. And it encourages trees in cities, which is always good.

It’s called the “Wearable Signal,” and comes from Korean designers, Gisung Han, Hwanju Jeon, and Jaemin Lee. They see it as an eco-friendly way to manage street traffic. They can be wrapped around any cylindrical pole, but trees are obviously best.

Verizon has hinted that the HTC Thunderbolt might arrive early. It reminded users that the iPhone is coming soon and also said that the Android-based 4G phone might come “sooner than expected.” No exact date was given.

Previous leaks from Verizon’s retail system have the Android flagship’s launch on February 14 and that could be the date Verizon is teasing, but it also might be moved up.

Rupert Murdoch has officially unveiled The Daily in the US. The iPad only publication is available right now in the US from iTunes. It will cost $0.99 per week or you can purchase an annual subscription for $39.99. So what do you get for that price? The Daily will feature 360 degree photos, and high definition videos for one thing.

You can also share articles from The Daily via Facebook and Twitter, and the application integrates Twitter feeds as well. The Daily will even be updated in real time with breaking news.

“The best online photo management and sharing application in the world.” may not be able to make that claim any longer. It has deleted more than 4,000 pictures from a very prolific user. Flickr then sent photo blogger Mirco Wilhelm a so-called apology.

Understandably it irritated Mirco even further as he took to his blog with a post titled “You have to f**king kidding, Yahoo!” So, how did this happen? Well, Mirco realized that another blogger was using his photos and wanted Flickr to help, so he reported the problem. Then Flickr “accidentally deleted” Mirco’s account and when he contacted Flickr about this they responded like this:

We first saw the Keepon robot way back in 2007 when it cost a stunning $30,000, which meant that only rich folks could enjoy the little bot. Well, this little silly guy is now available for home use for just $40. That means we can all afford one.

It’s called the My Keepon now and is even more of a “toy”, dumbed down just a bit compared to its predecessor so that it can be affordable. Are you going to buy one? Or is this too silly for you?

Most of us have moved on to High Definition standards in our devices and our lives, but not everyone. And so Toshiba is not forgetting those of you who are still rocking your VHS tape collections, with the D-BW500. This media playback device will handle both the old and the new in one device.

Feel free to watch your Blu-ray movies right alongside hard drives as well as VHS tapes. Other hardware specifications include an SD/SDHC memory card slot as well as AVCHD/JPEG playback compatibility. Analog fans will say VH-Yes.