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TrustedReviews: So the iPhone 3G is out and endless rumours of a new model can be put to bed for now, which means I’m not at all surprised to see the iPod speculation has begun in full force.

Talk of both a new iPod Touch and iPod Nano are gathering momentum with the former showing up in the latest firmware 2.1 beta courtesy of a code reference to “iPod2,1″. Obviously the touch is the only model which can share the iPhone firmware so the conclusion seems pretty solid.

What could we reasonably expect? GPS would be most likely along with possibly a 64GB version and reduced RRPs to counter the iPhone 3G’s new subsidised pricing.

Next iLounge claims to have info from that most infamous of sources ‘the reliable insider’ who claims the new nano will have a larger screen with an iPhone/iPod touch matching widescreen aspect ratio. The decision will mean the nano looks slimmer and more stretched this time around and closer to its original form.

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PocketGamer: Nokia’s N-Gage client will be installed on more than 50 million phones by the end of this year, according to Ideaworks3D chief technology officer Tim Closs.

He made the claim in a presentation at the Develop Mobile conference, and said it was based on Nokia’s own estimates.

That’s actual clients on handsets too – the 50 million figure covers the number of people who’ve already downloaded the client, plus the number of handsets expected to ship with it preloaded.

Meanwhile, Closs also said that there will be 30 N-Gage games available by the end of this year, and that by December, the N-Gage Software Development Kit (SDK) will support hardware acceleration.

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News.com: Almost three weeks after it launched, Apple is finally able to tell MobileMe customers that everything is working as it should.

The latest update to its MobileMe status blog posted by the mysterious David G. says that all is well with MobileMe, Apple’s replacement for .Mac that offers subscribers e-mail and access to Web-based contacts and calendars. “We have completed restoring Mail service, including historical messages, to all of the 1% of affected members.”

Almost right from the launch hour, MobileMe was rife with problems. The site was down on its first day, and some subscribers have had trouble accessing their e-mail and syncing their contacts ever since.

Apple offered a free 30 days of service as a mea culpa for the launch issues, but a balky e-mail server continued to cause problems well into July, completely erasing some e-mail messages.

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Idealo: This news is quickly told. On the official playstation.blog the director of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel, yesterday announced that a ‘PS3 firmware update (v2.42) is now available for download”.

It follows the much troubled update version 2.40 that left players with problems in game play among others on Call of Duty 4.

Nevertheless, the firmware update 2.42 for Playstation 3 is a minor one that improves the playback quality of the PS3 and ‘Playstation format software’.

Version 2.42 doesn’t come with the anticipated Life with PlayStation feature.

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CrunchGear: According to reports in Japanese newspapers today, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) has set internal directives to start offering OLED TVs by 2011.

The company intends to use its R&D center in Kyoto as a base for a manufacturing plant solely for OLED panels. By next spring, the first prototype OLED TVs with a screen size of around 20 inches are expected to be produced there.

Mass production of OLED TVs with a screen size of 40 inches and more is scheduled for 2011 in a factory in near Kobe in central Japan.

Panasonic seems to be serious. They said 200 engineers will be assigned exclusively for the development of  the next-generation displays.

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PC World: Nintendo reported strong growth in its sales and profit during the April to June quarter thanks to the popularity of its Wii console and DS handheld gaming device.

The company said net profit jumped 34 percent compared to the same period last year as sales rose 24 percent.

Nintendo sold 5.2 million Wii consoles worldwide during the quarter, a jump of 50 percent on the same period a year earlier. In Japan, however, sales dropped by almost half. Sales of Wii software rose in all regions. Overall, 40.4 million Wii games were sold during the period.

Key titles during the quarter included “Mario Kart Wii,” which sold 6.4 million copies, and “Wii Fit,” which sold 3.4 million.

Sales of the Nintendo DS were down slightly from the same quarter last year due to a big drop in Japan. Overall, 6.9 million of the handhelds were sold in the quarter, against 7 million in the same period last year.

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SlipperyBrick: The iRiver Spinn is a pretty sexy PMP. And so it has garnered a fair amount of interest since shown at CES 2008 earlier in the year. Never fear, soon you’ll be holding one in your hands.

It’s now available for pre-orders.

The 4GB model retails for about 164 Euros while the 8GB model will cost you about 190 Euros.

It sports a 3.3″ AMOLED display, Supports MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, ASF audio formats, Supports MPEG4, WM9, WMA video formats, Built-in radio and more.

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Electronista: The launch of the iPhone 3G has affected Verizon’s sales since launch but only in a small way, the company said when discussing its latest quarterly results. In response to a question during the US phone provider’s conference call for its spring figures, the company argues that the Apple device had a “minimally short-term impact” on Verizon since the July 11th launch and that the handset’s influence was “disproportionately less” than could be expected for the respective market shares of AT&T and Verizon.

AT&T has said that its agreement to subsidize the price of the iPhone 3G will have an effect on its near-term income but is counting on long-term revenue from contracts to make up the difference.

Verizon also asserts that the original iPhone onwards have had a stimulating effect on its own sales. Over 30 percent of phones sold are now smartphones, the firm says.

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MarketWatch: TomTom announced a new structure to its portable navigation (PND) division. Corinne Vigreux has been appointed managing director, Ken McAlpine will join as senior vice president product design and Alex Batchelor will join as executive vice president marketing.

“These appointments reflect the high level of expertise and industry experience we are seeking and we look forward to benefiting from their insights and knowledge,” said Harold Goddijn, TomTom CEO. “By ensuring we have the right level of management within TomTom we will continue to meet our goal to deliver the very best in-car consumer navigation experience for our customers.”

Corinne Vigreux is a co-founder of TomTom and has played a leading role in growing the company from a small organisation into a global player in the consumer electronics market.

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InformationWeek: With its second quarter financial results scheduled to be reported today, Motorola on Monday announced a restructuring of various units in its latest effort to find a formula for success. Motorola said it will split its Home & Networks Mobility group into three separate businesses.

The company, whose flagship handset unit has been losing market share at a rapid rate, has been rearranging its businesses to attract potential buyers.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has a substantial investment in Motorola, has been agitating for the communications company to sell some operations, because he and many investors believe the company will be worth more broken up than intact.

The company has been willing to consider offers for its handset operation, but to date there have been no takers for the unit, which has been overshadowed by Nokia and Samsung.

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Techradar.com: You may have already heard of OLED technology as the ‘future of TV screens’. It’s already starting to gain success in mobile phones, and over in Japan, it’s been released as a TV.

OK, maybe a tiny TV at 11 inches, the Sony XEL-1, but the good news is the UK looks set to get its hands on it next year.

“I’d be very surprised if this hasn’t arrived in the UK by 2009,” said Sony’s Christian Brown. “We at Sony think this is the future.”

The XEL-1 comes with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, with an ultra thin form. If the UK gets a similar model to Japan, it will also come with two HDMI ports, a memory stick port for high resolution photos, and networking capabilities thanks to Ethernet.

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Crave: The spring quarter was not a good one for Sony.

The consumer electronics giant on Tuesday reported that for the three months ended June 30, its net income was 35 billion yen (212 million euro), or just more than half of the 66.5 billion recorded in the same period a year earlier.

There was at least one bright spot amid the gloom. Sony said its game unit recorded positive operating income, compared with a loss in the year-ago period. That shift was largely the result of higher sales of PlayStation 3 software, lower costs for PS3 hardware, and strong sales of PlayStation Portable hardware.

Even as profitability and unit sales improved for Sony’s Bravia LCD televisions, Sony’s Electronics segment profits took a hit from sales of mainstay consumer products, including Cyber-shot cameras, Handycam video cameras, and Vaio PCs.

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