Companies are starting to get more into environmental packaging. The latest is Dell. Dell gets just a little greener by adding bamboo in its product packaging portfolio. And they are the first in the PC industry to do it.

It applies to all Dell Inspiron Mini 10 and Mini 10v netbooks shipped from today onward. Bamboo is used as product cushions cradling the Mini within an outer box that is made from 25% post-consumer materials. Starting early next year, Dell hopes to expand their use of bamboo packaging to a wider range of it’s products.

Most people have dismissed the once rumored phone as being the Google Android operating system, but word on the street is that Google has an actual piece of hardware is in the works. Apparently Google has an actual phone in the works.

And apparently the Google Phone will be even more exciting than the Motorola Droid, which is really saying something. Google won’t manufacture the handset, but will rely on a major mobile company while Google is in full control of design and specifications.

Google has updated it’s Google Earth iPhone app. The updates come about a year after the original Google Earth iPhone App was released. Google Earth 2.0 will play nice with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the new version has a bunch of new features, like the ability to view maps that you create on your PC on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

That one should prove most convenient. Another feature is the updated icon selection, which makes it easier to use. When you touch an icon on the app it will glow, and if you touch more than one icon at once it will take you to a list of icons so you can select the right one.

Dell’s thinnest laptop ever still isn’t shipping out to consumers, but at least the Windows 7 machine is now configurable over on Dell’s website. The base price is $1,799 and includes a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 CPU, a 128GB solid state drive, 13.4-inch WLED panel, 2 megapixel camera, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, GS45 integrated graphics, WiFi and a USB Ethernet adapter.

Sadly most of the components are not upgradable, but there are a few upgrades available if you have the money. You’re looking at a December 22nd estimated ship date.

Subsidized netbooks really aren’t that great a deal when you stand back and look at the price. You don’t save that much money typically, but if you need mobile broadband, anyway they may be a decent deal. AT&T is building up its subsidized line with the Samsung Go netbook.

Starting on November 22, customers can get the Go for $199 after a new 2-year agreement for a data plan and mail-in rebates for $199. The data plans will cost either $35 monthly for 200MB or $60 monthly for 5GB of data. That’s not much for the money honestly.

If there is one common truth about external storage solutions it is that you always use more capacity than you think you will. This is especially true of you are the type who produces and consumes lots of digital media. Hitachi has announced several new external storage devices boasting 2TB of space.

The external solutions include the SimpleDrive USB 2.0 storage solution selling for $249.99. It works with both Mac and Windows computers. Hitachi also crammed 2TB of storage inside its SimpleTech line of solutions. The SimpleTech Pro Drive has USB, FireWire 400/800, and eSATA connectivity to go along with its 2TB HDD for $299.99.

Nokia has announced the Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, a mobile handset that focuses on mobile broadcast TV (DVB-H), social networking, music and gaming all in one compact 3G slider. This handset is all about offering users a convenient way to access TV while on the run. It features a 2.4-inch QVGA color display and a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can use a set of superior headphones if you like.

Some other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and One-click access to live broadcasts. The Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition will pick up all the available channels and set reminders for your favorite shows and even create personal channel lists with Nokia’s Electronic Program Guide (EPG). The battery life allows users to watch three football games or six episodes of a soap opera for example before recharging.

About a week ago, the first specifications for the HD 5970 video card from AMD tipped up. The full specs weren’t leaked but we did get a few general specifications of the card. We found out that it will have dual GPUs and will have 2GB of RAM.

Today the price of the video card leaked online when it was published early by ZipZoomFly. The card will reportedly sell for $599.99. That is no surprise I figured the card would be at least $500.

The Jaguar supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was recently upgraded with new AMD processors that gave it enough performance to move up the top 5 supercomputers list. The Jaguar is a Cray XT5 supercomputer and is now the fastest machine in the world.

Jaguar previously used quad-core AMD processors and was upgraded to 6-core processors. The new upgrade gives the supercomputer a theoretical peak performance of 2.3 petaflops/s. The performance on the Linpack benchmark was 1.75 petaflops/second.

A sibling to the Galaxy, the i5700 has been rumored for a while. Now it has been made official by Samsung and dubbed the Galaxy Spica. Samsung’s latest Android-powered handset is just 13.2mm thick and features a 3.5mm jack, an 800MHz core, and built-in DivX support.

According to Samsung, it’s already out in Europe and will be coming to the Middle East and Asia shortly.

Samsung has introduced the Samsung Corby Bluetooth headset, which is designed as the perfect accessory for the recent Corby series of mobile phones.

The WE490 has changeable cases to match the handsets and it’s also packing noise reduction, echo cancellation and automatic volume control. The battery will also deliver up to 6-hours of talk-time.

When YouTube unveiled the ability to upload and stream 720p video last year, it started off a bit slow, which is to be expected, with only 1% of the uploaded videos taking advantage of it. But now that number is approaching 10%, so YouTube has announced that it will increase the maximum resolution of videos to 1080p.

Awesome news yes? The company is vowing to let users stream video that looks as good or better than the source quality. According to YouTube Director of Product Management Hunter Walk, the company is re-encoding all the 1080p videos that have been uploaded over the past year, and they’re about halfway through already.

Well if you don’t have a home theater Netflix streaming option yet, but own an internet-connected Sony BRAVIA TV, Netflix just went live. Just as they promised back in July. You’ll be watching your favorite flicks in no time now.

All you have to do is apply the latest software update and you’re ready to go. What will it be? A drama? Action movie? Comedy? Comedy is PS3 owners having to use a “DVD” to get Netflix working on their console. Feel free to laugh at them.

Google’s Chrome first announced in July, will be available within a week. Google had previously said to expect an early version of the OS in the fall.

Driver support will probably be a weak point, but apparently Google has a legion of engineers working on building hardware drivers. Word is that Google is mostly relying on hardware manufacturers to create those drivers. In any event functioning drivers is important to Chrome OS’s success. Soon we will find out how well it works.

Android smartphones are very hot right now and T-Mobile is trying to land as many of the devices as it can. We have already talked about the Behold II from Samsung before. The device sports Android and uses the TouchWiz user interface.

T-Mobile has announced that the Behold II will be coming to the network on November 18. The features of the device are already known, but in case you missed them, I will go over them again. The device has a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen and a 5-megapixel camera with zoon and flash. The camera can record video as well.