Sony chooses Opera to power its BRAVIA and Blu-ray internet experiences

Opera Software has been chosen by electronics giant Sony to deliver its powerful browsing technology for its new Sony BRAVIA televisions and Blu-ray Disc players as the company looks beyond mobile and the desktop to power consumer electronic devices within the home.

The partnership will see Opera deliver a more interactive browsing experience, utilising the company’s own Opera Devices Software Developer Kit (SDK) which is cross-platform, supports all major browsing standards, whilst running on Internet-connected TV’s and Blu-ray players.

Expect Opera to facilitate a market for Internet TV web applications and widgets, whilst delivering flawless web browsing that supports technologies like HTML5, HbbTV and OIPF.

The announcement signals a new challenge for Opera Software, the company has already enjoyed success on mobile devices, using its patented compression technology to reduce the size of requested pages before delivering them to the handset. The company announced in April 2010 that its software was being used by 100 million users worldwide , half of them mobile, and when it launched its iPhone application, the app surpassed one million downloads in one day .

Sony, on the other hand, is creating devices with integration in mind. We recently showed you a new BRAVIA television that incorporated a PlayStation 2 console into its base, the partnership with Opera Software shows where the company is heading as to deliver high-quality content via the Internet.

IDAPT i1eco — The smartest charger you’ll ever own

While the IDAPT 4-place charger might be the last one that you’ll ever have to buy, it might not be the last one that you want to buy. If you’re an eco-tech/green-tech fan, you’re going to love the other offering that I spotted today from IDAPT.

The i1eco is a true green tech charger that allows you to use the IDAPT modular charging system, plus a second USB charing port. It’s an even more modular design than the i4, in that it allows you to plug it into your wall, but then remove it from the wall plug to use it in your car’s power port, too.

It’s also considerably smarter than most chargers. Instead of continuing to feed power to a fully-charged device, the i1eco will completely shut itself down, so not even a sip of power is maintained. If your device de-charges after a long period of time sitting still, the i1eco will turn itself back on, refresh your device and then turn itself off again.

It’s made from 100-percent recycled material, so you should feel pretty good about buying it. The price? A pretty standard $25 that you’d see from any other higher-end charging solution.

New iOS Beta includes Camera, FaceTime and PhotoBooth icons for iPad

If it wasn’t already 99% certain that Apple’s next-generation iPad (or the iPad 2 as we’ve been calling it) was going to include a camera, new shots from the iOS 4.3 Beta include mentions of three new features for the next iPad – a camera, FaceTime and PhotoBooth.

We have already brought you artwork from the iOS 4.3 beta that included the shutter roll for the soon-to-be-announced iPad 2. Today’s shot, albeit small, has been altered slightly to show the camera, FaceTime and PhotoBooth icons, features that not only confirm Apple’s photographic intentions but also demonstrate that iPad users will also be able to do more with the camera functionality within iOS.

So, there you have it. The next-generation iPad will be the latest in Apple’s line of portable devices to include FaceTime functionality but it will also provide users with a way to manipulate photos, adding effects and transitions, much like on a Mac.