I think there were a lot of us out there that knew the end was near for Lala when Apple announced that it had purchased the company. Sure, some of the tech behind Lala might live on inside iTunes or other Apple offerings, but the Lala service would undoubtedly die.

Apple has now announced that it will be killing Lala on May 31. Current users of the service can continue to use Lala until that day and no new users are being accepted.

It always strange to me when a company shows off a product, puts it at the forefront of keynote speeches, and talks a thing to death only to kill it off. Hop has had a busy week with the purchase of Palm and now we hear the Slate is dead.

You recall the Slate, Ballmer held it on stage back at CES and we have seen the device turn up on video as well. HP has officially killed off the project according to TechCrunch. This may not be bad news though.

First announced back in January, the DataTraveler 5000 USB Flash Drive from Kingston is finally available for purchase to those in Europe. You might remember, this particular drive is FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified with Level 3 pending, and features a built-in 256-bit AES hardware encryption for extra security.

It also uses XTS cipher mode and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) algorithms to meet Suite B standards approved by the U.S. government. The DataTraveler 5000 is available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities for 82 Euro (about $108), 103 Euro (about 136), 129 Euro (about $170) and 298 Euro (about $394), respectively.

The Wefound F630 e-book reader is a lightweight at just 200 grams if you are looking for a different ereader. Aside from the snappy name, it sports a 6-inch screen E-ink display with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels.

The Wefound F630 also has a built-in China Mobile 3G wireless module, offering unlimited free EDGE and 3G connection via a China Mobile SIM card for the first 3 years after purchase. Some other features include book downloading, stock price information, picture browsing (in black and white) and basic MP3 player functions.

You might remember that the 3.21 firmware update for Sony’s PlayStation 3 disables the OtherOS functionality from the console. That means that you can’t install Linux on it anymore. Hackers have been busy doing their thing and righting this wrong, trying to get the feature back on the console, but Anthony Venture on the other hand has filed a class action lawsuit against the company.

The lawsuit covers all PS3 consoles purchased from November 17th 2006 to March 27th 2010. The lawsuit calls for compensatory damages, restitution, injunctive relief and legal fees to be paid by Sony, and they are talking a $5 million figure.

I wish I were rich; I would buy any car/gadget/cool item that tickled my fancy. I would need a second house just for all the gadgets I would end up with and a massive garage full of cars and other toys. What I don’t think I would spend money on is an electric bike.

A company called M55 has a sweet electric bike that anyone into that sort of thing might be interested in. The bike is called the EVO-001 and is handmade with a single piece of aluminum for a frame. The electric motor is placed for stability.

Palm has been on the ropes as the popularity of its Pre and Pixi WebOS smartphones has proven to be poor. The company is selling significantly less of the devices that it and analysts predicted.

Palm has stated that it is willing to entertain purchase offers and the first to step up was HTC. HTC is a rival smartphone maker and after the company eyed Palm’s books, it opted to walk away. Another suitor has stepped into the ring now.

The folks who make the Fretlight guitar learning system wanted us to check it out and see for ourselves how easy it is to learn guitar with their system. The basic idea is that the frets of the guitar light up. That, along with an interactive learning system which includes videos and tutorials are supposed to make it easy.

Since my son has been learning how to play guitar by more or less teaching himself, I figured he was the perfect candidate. So they sent us the whole kit and my son checked it out. How good is it at teaching you to play the guitar? His review follows:

Seagate has just announced the latest FreeAgent Go USB 2.0 drive, a small external HDD with a 2.5-inch 500GB disc, with about 20GB that’s already claimed. That’s because Seagate has partnered with Paramount Pictures in order to pre-load these drives with Star Trek, which can be unlocked after you register the drive.

There are also 20 other titles pre-loaded, which can be unlocked through the online purchase of a license key, with pricing ranging from $9.99 to $14.99 per film. And if you aren’t impressed, you can always just delete them.

Even if you don’t run an alternative operating system on your PS3 you could potentially be getting some money under consumer protection laws. Apparently, Iapetus at the NeoGAF forums took the issue up with Amazon (who sold him the PS3), quoting a European consumer protection law that states all products bought must be “fit for the purpose which the consumer requires them and which was made known to the seller at the time of purchase,” netting him £84 ($130) in the process.

He didn’t have to return his PS3, nor be within warranty. Might be worth talking about with your retailer, if you still have the receipt. This particular law will only apply to you if you live in Europe. We aren’t sure if there are any similar laws in the US.

I love my DVR, but the worst thing about it is that it only has a 20GB HDD and I can’t do anything with the programs I record other than watch them on the TV. Dish Network has announced a new DVR that frees your content and hold lots more of it.

The new DVR is called the VIP 922 and the thing has Slingbox tech built-in. Slingbox tech inside the DVR is a first and should let you shoot that content to your PC for viewing and possibly to other devices as well.

The folks at Computer Choppers just love dipping consoles in gold, like this 24-karat Xbox 360. With a plain jane Xbox you just have to worry about the Red Ring Of Death. With this $5,000 purchase, you have that to worry about and plus you might die at your wife’s hand.

The Xbox and its controller have both received the beautiful golden sheen. You don’t have to be filthy rich, but it helps. In which case, it goes well with all of your other blinged out stuff.

Apple launched it’s new iPad tablet on Saturday, meeting long lines of individuals anxiously waiting, some for many hours, to purchase the new mobile device. The release of the iPad is the most anticipated product Apple has released since the iPhone launch in 2007, with almost as much hype surrounding it.

The iPads going on sale Saturday are the WiFi-only versions and are priced from $499 to $699 depending on the storage capacity desired, which ranges from 16GB to 64GB. Apple will release a 3G version of the iPad later in the month with prices ranging from $629 to $829, again depending on storage capacity.

The iPad devices are a small tablet-like device with a 9.7-inch touch screen (on screen keyboard) and they run an operating system very similar to the iPhone or iPod touch. They have the ability to download and play music and videos from Apple’s iTunes library, read books e-books with Apple’s new iBook application and use thousands of applications from the Apple App Store for the iPad.

Many of us were wondering if the Kindle app would show up on the iPad and here it is. You can still purchase ebooks despite the fact that it competes with Apple’s iBooks app and store. Pretty nice of them I guess.

It is all official now. The app lets users select from over 450,000 books from the Kindle Store on iPad and features Amazon Whispersync technology that saves and synchronizes things like your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across your Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, …

Small form factor computers are very cool. They take up less space than the average computer and look cool to boot. The downside is that the small dimensions often mean you can’t get high-end components into the device.

Shuttle has a new SFF computer that debuted in Europe a while back that has now made its way to the US. The machine is the J1 4100G and for a limited time you can get a free CPU upgrade, free video game, and a free gaming mouse.