Maxell has introduced the SSB-1 soundbar speaker, which has 30 watts of power and a built-in subwoofer. This one requires no mounting or installation and is designed to support a TV or monitor up to 55 pounds. Just park your set on it and you are good to go. Finally, a soundbar speaker that will be out of your way!

Features include a high-gloss-black finish, two 3.5mm aux jacks, a remote control, a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm cable and a 3.5mm-to-RCA cable. It has a $129 price tag.

Folks in the Uk waiting on HP’s latest webOS smartphone the HP Pre 3, can now get the device. It is now available to pre-orderin the UK, and it will go on sale at the beginning of July for £360 SIM free including taxes.

The HP Pre 3 has a 3.58 inch touchscreen display and a slide out QWERTY keyboard, as well as a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor. There will be two models available, one with 16GB of built in storage and one with 32GB of built in storage. It also packs in 801.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

US buyers who are making purchases on the Internet may soon need to pay state tax if a democratic senator has anything to say about it. The legislation will be made public after April 18, which is this year’s tax deadline. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois is heading up the “Main Street Fairness Act”, arguing that sites like Amazon have an unfair advantage over physical and local businesses, since buyers don’t always pay taxes.

If you buy online a lot, you already know that American buyers who make purchases at out-of-state vendors don’t always have to pay sales tax. We have no idea if this would pass or not, but one key expected supporter, Representative William Delahunt, a Democrat, said he will not run for reelection in 2010. And a Republican-controlled House will likely object to the bill. What do you think of this act?

When the HTC Thunderbolt was announced, one of the most interesting aspects was its ability to support Skype video calls. But as release drew closer, Verizon said that Skype wouldn’t be ready in time for launch. Now, the phone is officially announced to arrive tomorrow and Skype is unavailable on the Android phone. Not only that, but it looks like it might never be released at all.

All the web pages on HTC’s and Verizon’s sites have removed all mention of the Skype feature as if it never existed. Poof. Just gone. Scrubbed clean. Droid-Life investigated and now it is starting to look like a conspiracy. There was no explanation of why it was removed. We thought about calling Muldar and Scully for comment, but the cigarette smoking man shrouded in darkness just laughed at us and told us to drop it. And that guy is creepy.

If a gadget is new, the folks at iFixit will tear it down. It’s as certain as death and taxes. Now it’s time for the iPad 2′s turn. Apple’s latest iOS device was laid out and surgery commenced. The tear down helped them discover that the tablet carries a slightly larger battery than the previous model.

They also learned that the hard to remove front display panel was tricky, but aside from that, the device was pretty easy to take apart. If you need to know how to take yours apart, you can head over to iFixit to find out how. Just make sure you can actually do it first, so you don’t kill the device.

Apple’s MacBook Air is still enjoying being the slimmest notebook around, since the Dell Adamo has been axed. Soon it will have some competition though since Acer, Asus and Lenovo are all planning to launch new ultra-thin notebooks in the second quarter of 2011 and they will feature components that are more competitive than Apple’s MacBook Air.

That means that they can sell them at a lower price. Acer will release its new Timeline notebooks, Asus will has its U-series slim models and Lenovo is offering new ultra-thin models of its IdeaPad. The prices on these notebooks should be below $1,000.

Last month we heard that the HTC 7 Pro would be available in the UK in February, and right on schedule, UK retailer Clove has just started selling the HTC 7 Pro, since it is listed as ‘in stock’ on their website. The HTC 7 Pro is a Windows Phone 7 smartphone that features a 3.6 inch WVGA display, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, and the 3.6 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels.

Some other features include a 1GHz processor, a five megapixel camera, and 16GB of built in storage. It also has Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR and 802.11 b/g/ WiFi.

We’ve seen desk phones powered by Android, but this is probably the first we’ve seen that is powered by Microsoft’s Windows 7. Speakal is showing the device off at CES and it is dubbed the BTS8. The operating system allows users to manage and record phone calls, answer emails and even video chat thanks to the integrated webcam and Skype.

It also features a web browser, it can receive faxes, SMS text messaging, media player, contact management, calendar and VGA output. The company’s CEO says you can save up to 90% of the power regularly used by a desktop computer.

Poor Blockbuster will try anything to keep up with Netflix. With movie studios keeping new release DVDs and Blu-ray discs out of instant rentals for 28 days after release, Blockbuster has come up with a way to hopefully bolster DVD/BD sales.

Some studios have relaxed those terms a bit as the DVDs for Warner Bros’ Inception and 20th Century Fox’s Knight and Day are being offered by NCR’s Blockbuster Express kiosks, rented for a $2.99/night rate. Will it pay off?

Transcend has announced the 8GB aXeRam DDR3-2000 memory kit which contains two identically matched 4GB memory modules. These have super low voltage of just 1.6 Volts, making them ideal for hardcore gamers, overclockers and professional users alike.

The 8GB aXeRam DDR3-2000 memory kit has a clock frequency of 2000MHz and timings of 9-11-9-24. The kit retails for around $230.

Apple is well known for being way too ban-happy, and the recent banning of an Android Magazine App from the App Store shows that they are still at it. This comes after Apple has stated that its application policies have relaxed a little more of late. Not enough apparently.

Unfortunately for publisher Mediaprovider their recent Android magazine App has been banned from the Apple App Store. Below is the conversation Dixon of Mediaprovider had with Richard of the Apple App Store team, after the app was rejected.

Nokia World 2010 gave the company a chance to debut the Nokia C3 Touch and Type. This model merges both a traditional keyboard and a touchscreen display, bringing the best of both worlds to the device. Single-handed operation is what its about.

Some features include Wi-Fi, quad band support, 3G/HSPA support, Nokia Messaging 3.0, and a 5-megapixel camera with flash. The stainless steel case makes for a classy looking exterior. You can choose from Silver, Warm grey and Khaki Gold colors.

Spock always thought he was so smart, but he could be pretty simple-minded sometimes. Just look at the way he hunches over his monitor. He never sat, or adjusted his monitor.

Uhura was wise and sat relaxed at her monitor, casually avoiding the Captains flirting. This comparison is used by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to encourage their members to take ergonomics seriously. This poster was pasted in the bathroom of the facility.

Life is hard for dedicated e-readers these days, what with the iPad and other devices giving you so much more. And so Foxit is throwing in the towel. The company just announced that it’s killing its eSlick e-reader. Instead the company will focus on licensing its ebook software to other companies.

It didn’t help matters that the eSlick hasn’t received an update since it arrived in December 2008. It has been stuck at $199 as well, while other e-readers have been more competitive. RIP eSlick.

We will never know without Microsoft fessing up if this rumor is true or not, but it has more than a tinge of believability. Raul Sood from HP-owned Voodoo has stated that sources have told him that the reason Microsoft killed off its cross-platform gaming service that was in testing was because console gamers were smeared by PC gamers.

According to Sood, console gamers lost every single match during testing of the cross-platform service when paired against a PC gamer. This is an interesting claim and explains why after Microsoft talked up the service and went to testing it never came to market.