YouTube has announced that it will offer video rentals through its site. They will be offering the rentals in sync with the Sundance Film Festival and they plan to rent movies from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance festivals as well as “other U.S. partners.”

The festival films will be available through January 31st, while other movies and videos should be available soon after. The expansion into rentals is part of a strategy to get away from ad-only revenue and is said to give content providers much more control over how video content is shown. Providers signed up to the YouTube system will have the option of setting the price, rental period and where it can be found.

LG’s first Android powered smartphone is now available in the UK. The LG GW620 packs in a 3 inch touchscreen, a five megapixel camera and a slide out QWERTY keyboard, with WiFi and Bluetooth.

Folks in the UK can get the LG GW620 through T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. T-Mobile is offering the handset for free with a £20 a month two year contract with unlimited data access. Virgin Mobile is offering the LG GW620 free with a £22 a month contract, which lasts for eighteen months, with unlimited data and texts.

So remember all of the Project Pink/Zune Phone rumors from way back? Well, they have started again thanks to a statement by Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert:

“Our recent industry checks indicate Microsoft will be debuting its own phone sometime in the next two months…We expect the new phone to debut soon, at either the Feb 15-18 Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Spain, or possibly at CTIA in Las Vegas one month later.”

We told you about these pink and blue wiimotes back in December. Nintendo is finally ready to release them while cashing in on the latest holiday.

There’s one for boys and one for girls. Throw in some chocolate and you have a nice nerd gift. These wiimotes will cost you $54.99, which is on par with the regular MotionPlus bundle. You can pre-order now and they ship on Feb. 14th.

The ITG xpPhone is an unusual handset that runs Windows XP. We’ve been following this one for awhile and now we have word on its official pricing. The handset will retail from $439 to $659, depending on which operator you go with.

Yes, those are absurd prices, but then we are guessing that this isn’t aimed at those of us who like our gadgets to be cutting edge. Having said that, there’s some real interest in this thing. Go figure. Those prices are after conversion from Chinese, so if it hits the states, pricing may be different.

Here’s some good news for Nintendo and Sony. After the video game console market shrunk by a fifth in October, NPD now has a new report that shows that December was the video game industry’s “biggest sales month ever.”

Console sales jumped 4% compared to last December, with the Nintendo Wii in the lead(It is the cheapest console out there, so not really a surprise) with 3.81 million units moved (up from 2.15 million were moved the previous year).

I mentioned the Zaggbox media player back in late October 2009. At the time we didn’t have many details on the machine other than it was going to debut at CES 2010 and would be about $1000. Zagg has gone official now with the device and is giving up the goods.

The ZAGGbox is packed with connectivity for connecting to local TVs. It is also designed to stream media to smartphones via UPnP, video Podcasting or a built-in web server. The device will launch along with an iPhone app as well for streaming content.

We first heard about the Fender edition of the myTouch 3G smartphone back in October 2009. When the device first tipped up all we really had was a pic and a few specs about the phone. T-Mobile has now gone official with the launch date and price for the handset.

The phone will hit on January 20. It will come with music apps pre-installed along with several tracks from Eric Clapton. The free Clapton songs will include “Layla,” “My Father’s Eyes,” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Heart,” and “Wonderful Tonight.”

We often find ourselves wondering just what Nintendo is thinking with things like a lack of Wii colors, a lack of HD on the Wii itself, a lack of good games… What’s the deal Nintendo? Now Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo of America fame now claims that his customers do not want a feature that has become a standard.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 can stream full HD movies from Netflix at no extra cost and Reggie has stated his belief that “there really is no loss for the Wii consumer” because “the vast majority” of Netflix streaming content isn’t HD anyway. Reggie has also claimed that the 26 million Wii console owners out there have voted with their wallets and will be quite happy to continue with standard def. Say what?

The rumors surrounding Apple’s new iPhone just won’t stop. The latest rumor suggests that Apple might have something in the works regarding the iPhone’s casing. It might be a touch-sensitive case, similar to the case that the Apple Magic Mouse has.

If true, this could change the device big time. It won’t be so great for those third-party iPhone protector casings, which would block the touch function.

So, you probably laid out $3.2 million for that sweet iPhone 3GS Supreme and you’ve been flashing it around town wondering when it would be kidnapped and ransomed back to you. Well, my foolish rich friend, you no longer own the most expensive iPhone ever.

That’s because the folks over at Stuart Hughes now have the iPhone 3GS Supreme Rose, which costs just a tad more. Your lunch money will get you an iPhone 3GS with a 7.5 carat single cut diamond centering the design, a platinum bezel, 18 carat rose gold, some diamonds and four 2.5 carat pink baguette diamonds.

Netflix have now officially announced an agreement with Nintendo of America to stream it’s video content to the Nintendo Wii game console. We had heard it was coming way back in October and now Netflix has rounded out its coverage with the big three game consoles including Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PS3.

The new deal allows Wii console owners who are also Netflix subscribers and have a broadband internet connection to select movies from a catalog of choices and stream them to their television instantly. The service will be offered at no additional cost to subscribers to the DVD by mail service with Netflix with at least an $8.99/month plan.

We first told you about these speakers back in September, but since everyone else is all gaga over them we thought we would remind you. JVC’s nano colored SP-A130 speakers are compatible with the nanos in size as well as color.

Just slide the cover out and you’ve got yourself a portable speaker with a 3.5mm input to connect it to your nano or other compatible portable media player. It’s powered by AA batteries and will be available this March for $29.95.

Tired of having your food fly everywhere after you make a sudden turn? Worry no more. You are a large human mammal who needs to eat at all times, even when behind the wheel of a two ton killing machine. Thankfully some comapnies understand this and even encourage your gluttony with new products.

The Swivel Car Tray parks in your cupholder and allows you to shovel food from it’s built in tray to your hungry Jabba mouth while you roam the commuter wastelands looking for your next caloric adventure.

Brace yourself for the latest iPhone 4G rumor. This will surprise no one, but according to sources in Korea, the next iPhone will likely be named the “iPhone 4G”. Sources even claim that KT has signed a deal with Apple to release the iPhone 4G in June, when the phone is launched worldwide.

The rumor claims that the iPhone 4G will feature 2 cameras for video calling, better battery life, and maybe mobile TV service (That could just be for Korea). What Do you think? Anything to these rumors?