LG LU6200 spotted in the wild, with 720p HD display taking center stage

If LG's tease routine didn't whet your appetite for the LU6200, these freshly leaked pics might do the trick. Obtained by Korean site Money Today, these in-the-wild images appear to corroborate many of the specs we've already heard about, including that 4.5-inch AH-IPS display at 720p resolution, eight megapixel camera and 1.3 megapixel front-facing shooter. This device is also rumored to feature a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage and will reportedly ship with Android 2.3.5, though it'll be ready to update to the forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich, as well. The LU6200 is expected to hit the Korean market sometime next month, where it'll run on LG Telecom's U+ LTE network

Sharp to discontinue original Galapagos e-readers, 7-inch species survives

We're raising our glasses to the original Galapagos e-reader this morning, because Sharp has decided to discontinue it. Today, the manufacture announced that it will stop taking orders for its 5.5- and 10.8-inch Android tablets on September 30th, just nine months after they first launched. A company spokeswoman, however, confirmed that Sharp isn't leaving the market altogether, as it plans to continue churning out the 7-inch A01SH that launched last month. The Japan-based firm is confident that "the market for electronic books will continue to expand," but decided to terminate its older slates because they've already "fulfilled the purposes that they were designed for." Sharp declined to disclose sales figures for the doomed devices, though local media outlets are reporting that they may have been squeezed out of the Japanese market by the iPad -- a decidedly Darwinian explanation.

'Phantom sensation' haptic tech recreates the feeling of getting virtually stabbed

When it comes to gaming, the more realistic the better, right? Sure, it's all fun until we start talking about being virtually sliced with a battle axe or pelted with a rocket launcher -- exactly the idea behind a new technology dubbed "phantom sensation." Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications know that to virtually recreate the feeling of touch, they need to apply vibrations to two points of skin. Taking the idea one step further, they applied the stimuli to either side of the body to mimic what it might feel like if the object actually passed through. Using a tweaked Wii, as an item in the game travels through the player's hand, the top sensor vibrates intensely at first, then subsides to zero. At this point, the bottom probe kicks in, going from zero to strong until the object is cleared -- leaving the player feeling slightly violated and virtually gored.

AT&T Foundry innovation center opens its doors in Palo Alto to help devs do what they do

We've heard of keeping up with the Joneses, but this is getting ridiculous. First it was Verizon, then Vodafone, and now Ma Bell -- with an assist from Ericsson -- has built an innovation center in Silicon Valley. This new center completes the triumvirate of AT&T Foundry facilities (the other two are in Texas and Israel), and is a part of the company's strategy to accelerate the process of developing and delivering new products to its customers. Right now, there are over 100 projects in development in Palo Alto, and AT&T is looking to add more. Those who are chosen gain access to AT&T's networks and expertise to ensure that new projects play nice with all of the company's gear, and it's already produced a few things that were on display at the center's grand opening. Want a sneak peek at what's in AT&T's innovation pipeline?

Piictu survives Google's Photovine, launches out of public beta

There's been a fair amount of news on the Photovine front recently -- none of it particularly flattering for Google, or its now shuttered Slide branch. But users of the mobile app-based photo service can now continue sharing their pics using Piictu -- a slightly different, yet remarkably similar service that launched well before its Google counterpart. What initially began as a fun side project for co-founder Jon Slimak, Piictu has apparently gained quite a following, prompting its creators to add some polish to the service and push it out of beta. We're not quite sure what to expect for its future, but Google's involvement with its Piictu competitor appears to have helped the original service gain some traction, despite its indy status. Jump past the break for the announcement from Piictu, or hit up our source link to download the iOS app.

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon roadmap, 2.5GHz CPUs coming early next year

We've been hearing about Qualcomm's next generation of 2.5GHz processors for a few months now, but the company's quad-core future has now become a little bit clearer. Speaking at the Innovation Qualcomm event in Istanbul yesterday, Senior Vice President of Product Management Cristiano Amon confirmed that the chipmaker's S4 line of silicon will be shipped to manufacturers by the end of this year and should appear in consumer products by the beginning of 2012. Available in single-, dual- or quad-core models, the new, 28nm additions to the Snapdragon family will also support Adreno graphics, 3D and 1080p HD, in addition to 3G and LTE connectivity. If all goes according to schedule, then, we could see a slate of S4-equipped handsets at next year's Mobile World Congress in February, though we'll try to contain our excitement until we get a more specific launch date

Livio Radio outs Bluetooth Internet Radio Kit for iPod, iPhone, but you can just call it 'The Kit'

Livio Radio's Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit may not be the most mellifluous product name we've ever heard, but it's certainly an apt one. Known as "The Kit" for short, this plug-and-play device allows drivers to stream music from their iPhone or iPod Touch, directly through their car's FM radio. The system also boasts hands-free Bluetooth calling capabilities and a set buttons that let you control Livio's Car Internet Radio application, providing access to over 45,000 radio stations with no monthly fees. Interested parties can grab their own Kit at the source link below, for $120.

Archos G9 tablets doing the pre-sale thing September 20th

We got our paws on the two upcoming Archos Android 3.2 tablets the other week at IFA -- and now it seems that you'll be able to follow suit in the near future, with pre-sale beginning September 20th. The Archos eight-inch G9 starts at $299 for the 1GHz 8GB version, going all the way up to $369 for a 1.5GHz processor and a whopping 250GB of storage. The 10-incher has a 1.5GHz processor and 16GB of storage for $399 or you can plunk down $469 for the 250GB version. The 1GHz 80 G9 starts pre-sale on September 20th through Archos and goes on sale at select retailers on the 30th. Its 1.5GHz counterpart will be hitting in October

Powermat and Duracell forming joint venture to 'globalize wireless charging'

Duracell has been in the wireless charging business for quite a while now with its myGrid devices, but it's about to make a fairly drastic change of course. Its parent company, Proctor & Gamble, announced today with Powermat that the two companies intend to form a new joint venture in an effort to "advance and globalize wireless charging." That new venture will be called Duracell Powermat, and it's expected to begin operation early next year. As a result of the new arrangement, P&G also intends to make an equity investment in Powermat, although there's no word yet on how the deal will affect everyone's favorite pun-based superhero, Power Matt

Intel reveals 'Claremont' Near Threshold Voltage Processor, other conceptual awesomeness at IDF

Thought Intel was done busting out new slabs of The Future at IDF? Wrong. Justin Rattner, the firm's chief technology officer, just took the stage here in San Francisco in order to showcase a trifecta of new concepts, all of which were borne out of research in Intel Labs. The first, and perhaps most notable, is the Near Threshold Voltage Processor (code-named "Claremont"), which relies on novel, ultra-low voltage circuits that dramatically reduce energy consumption -- like EnerJ, but not. How so? Well, by "operating close to threshold, or turn-on voltage, of the transistors," it's able to scream when needed or scale back dramatically (below ten milliwatts) when the workload is light. If you're curious as to just how low that is, we're told that it's low enough to keep running while powered only by a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. Sadly, the research chip isn't destined to become a product itself, but Intel's hoping that the knowledge gained could lead to "integration of scalable near-threshold voltage circuits across a wide range of future products, reducing power consumption by five-fold or more and extending always-on capability to a wider range of computing devices."

As for demos? A smattering of multicore / multiprocessor sessions aided Intel in upping its bragging rights, and we were informed that coding for multicore setups is "easier than the press makes out to be." The outfit also took the opportunity to release a Parallel JS engine to the open source crowd, adding data-parallel capabilities to JavaScript to purportedly "speed up browser-based services such as computer vision, cryptography, and 3D games by up to eight-fold." Furthermore, a newly revealed Hybrid Memory Cube -- complete with seven times better energy efficiency than today's DDR3 memory -- was also unwrapped.

MSDN previews Windows 8 touch on Windows 7 hardware

The latest blog from Windows president Steven Sinofsky, ably assisted by Grant George and Jeff Piira, talks about Redmond's testing of Windows 8 touch on current hardware and how touch has changed the way it develops software. Using kit like the Thinkpad X201, HP Elitebook 2740 and ASUS EP121, Microsoft is realizing that the "feel" of touch to the user is more important than simple hardware performance. It's also testing manufacturers' bezel designs, graphics setups and screen cover glass in an attempt to make Windows 8 "feel right" across the wide variety of systems it will run on -- a challenge in every sense of the word. Anyone interested in playing a quick game of "spot the device" should see the pic from inside the Windows testing lab

Koomey's law heckles Moore's in the post-PC world

Around the same time most years, (2007, 2009, 2010), someone heralds the death of Moore's law. This time it's Stanford University's Dr. Jonathan Koomey, who has found that energy efficiency roughly doubles every two years. With the rise of mobile devices, we care less if our phones and tablets can outpace a desktop and more about if a full charge will last the duration of our commute -- reducing the importance of Moore's law. Historically, efficiency has been a secondary concern as manufacturers built ever faster CPUs, but Koomey believes there is enormous room for improvement. In 1985, Dr. Richard Feynman calculated an efficiency upper limit of Factor 100 Billion -- since then we've only managed to achieve Factor 40,000. Let's just hope Quantum Computing goes mainstream before next autumn so we can get on with more important things.