We've seen other laptop stands with built in fans, but this one promises to only cool your computer's hot spots.

The Minifit XL looks like any other laptop stand until you add the USB powered fan by slotting in to the perforations. Then it delivers a cooling blow to those places your laptop gets hottest. Makers say the stand takes laptops up to 15 inches and can also double up as a book stand, though I have never found books to get that hot. [Redferret]

Announced last year, this technology sounded more than a little bit pie-in-the-sky. A flexible OLED passport? With video capabilities? And it's powered wirelessly? And yet here it is, captured on full sight, on video.

And I'll be damned if it doesn't work perfectly. Alongside a static photo, this e-passport displays a rotating photographic avatar when placed near a power source. OLED-Info thinks the card is pulling power from an RFID reader, but given that the display is full-fledged 320x240, 260k color OLED panel that's playing video, I tend to think there's a more powerful type of inductive charging going on here. [OLED-Info—Thanks, Ron!]

From September, all new Sony Pictures Blu-ray discs will support MovieIQ, a service which grabs IMDB-esque data from the Internet to show during playback. How BD-Live hadn't already been used to do something like this, I have no idea.

MovieIQ pulls everything from cast lists and crew info to soundtrack data and production trivia from the Sony-owned Gracenote video database—a name that might sound familiar, since it's also one of the biggest CD databases in the world, and the one the iTunes uses to identify and name your discs. You can peruse the data manually, or wait for a (disable-able) icon in the corner, which shows up when info about a particualr scene in available.

There no way to tell how rich the database will be—meaning, how well it will compare to IMDB—but the concept is solid, if a little late. Honestly, when Sony announced in 2006 that BD-Live would bring interactive, online content to Blu-ray players, this, I think, is was most people expected. [SonyInsider via Techradar]

San Francisco, CA (June 18, 2009) - Sony Pictures Home Entertainment today announced the launch of movieIQ, a new Blu-ray Disc feature powered by Gracenote® that offers viewers access to a real-time movie database. With a movieIQ-enabled Blu-ray Disc and an internet-connected Blu-ray™ player, movie fans can immediately access continuously-updated information on cast and crew and explore relevant trivia such as production facts, music and soundtrack information all tied to scenes within the movie. SPHE will feature movieIQ on upcoming Blu-ray Disc titles starting in September and will offer it on all major catalog titles and new releases including Angels & Demons, Easy Rider, Punch Drunk Love, The Quick and the Dead, Silverado and sex, lies, and videotape.

"It has always been our goal at Sony Pictures to offer fans the ability to truly connect with their favorite movies using BD-Live," said Lexine Wong, Senior Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. "We know many people interrupt their movie-watching experience to look up the filmography of an actor or to find out more about a song playing in the background. Now through movieIQ, movie lovers can dive into constantly-updated information about the movie they are watching without leaving their sofa, further enhancing the experience of watching movies in this always-connected age."

movieIQ takes advantage of Gracenote's Video Explore solution, which brings powerful search and navigation capabilities to connected consumer electronic devices. Video Explore allows users to search the online Gracenote video database, linking together related cast, crew, movies, TV episodes, franchises, seasons, DVDs, and Blu-rays. Gracenote's global Video database contains rich video information for North America, Europe, and Japan, including factual metadata, synopses, credits, and detailed descriptive elements.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Sony Pictures to deliver movieIQ, a feature that takes full advantage of the Blu-ray format's internet connectivity and truly demonstrates that Blu-ray is the future of home entertainment," said Ross Blanchard, VP of Business Development at Gracenote. "Now, movie lovers will have access to an incredible new service where they can explore and discover all the rich details on their favorite actors, directors and movies."

The movieIQ feature is the latest addition to SPHE's BD-Live portfolio, which also includes social networking through cinechat, multiplayer games, and a customizable music video editor, as well as soundtrack playlists, e-movie cash, downloadable featurettes, and more, available on over 100 Sony Pictures Blu-ray titles worldwide since the technology launched in spring of 2008.

About Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. SPE is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com.

About Gracenote
Gracenote, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, is a global leader in embedded technology, enriched content, and data services for digital entertainment solutions within the Internet, consumer electronics, mobile, and automotive markets. Formerly known as CDDB®, Gracenote delivers a substantially improved consumer experience in digital media devices and applications, plus media monitoring and other data services to the recording industry, making it an integral part of the digital media economy. Gracenote powers leading services including Apple iTunes, Yahoo! Music Jukebox, Winamp; home and automotive products from Alpine, Panasonic, Philips and Sony; and mobile music applications from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea), Musiwave (Europe), and others. Gracenote is headquartered in Emeryville, California. www.gracenote.com/corporate/.

Sony has just trotted out the Vaio NW, their new line of Blu-ray equipped, mid-market notebooks, and at 1.2-inches, they are quite slim too.

The NW features a 15.5-inch widescreen display (albeit 1366x768), along with a HDMI output connector for plugging it into a TV, so you can enjoy the full 1080p goodness of your Blu-ray discs. There is also a "display off" button, which does exactly what you would expect, ideal if you have got this plugged into a big screen in a darkened room.

Specs include an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM, up to 400GB hard drive and an optional dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card to improve your movie watching. Slot-wise there are three USB ports, ExpressCard, SD and Memory Stick PRO.

Available this summer the Vaio NW can also come without the Blu-ray drive for a saving of $80... but given this is all about HD and movie watching I really don't know why. [Sony]

Remember that iPhone app which let you control your Canon DSLR (while it was connected via USB to a laptop) and even display a Live View feed? Well a new version will also add support for those with a penchant for Nikon cameras. The update, which is due out mid-July, is also said to feature a new, more intuitive UI . [onOne via NikonRumors]

Intel researchers are working on wireless power that doesn't use a conductive pad. Instead, it uses magnets and a tuned directional transfer coil to send music from an iPod a couple of feet to a speaker. It works!

This setup is deceptively simple. There's an electro-magnetized ring of wire sending 1-watt signal at 7.6-something MHz. From there, a carefully placed and wound coil of wire (yellow) sends the magnetic signal in a direction where another smaller coil (green) specifically tuned to receive the power and send it to a tiny speaker. It reminds me of the way a generator or motor work, somehow. The range was about 3 feet and the music was quiet by audible and worked when I moved the speaker in different directions. Impressive!

The chances of this making its way into mobile gadgets that charge with no cables or pads, ever? We're far off. The range and power are dependent on the size of the coils and the exact way they are wound, so they resonate the magnetic signals just right. Maybe a micro array of these, optimized several generations from now, will do the trick.

Or maybe the Dharma institute already has the answers.

of The speaker is attached to a

A delusional Minnesota court has ordered Jammie Thomas, wanton criminal Kazaa user, to pay a total of $1.92 million for sharing 24 songs. As my own little protest, I'm going to illegally download Metallica's entire discography. And I hate Metallica.

The decision has taken a ton of twists and turns—even after the jury had decided what Thomas had done was in fact illegal filesharing, the punishment wasn't at all clear. Originally she was to be fined for over 1,700 songs, which was then whittled down to 24 "representative" songs, and the per song fine has shot up from the initial $750 (the legal minimum) to the current $80,000.

Apparently Thomas "gasped" when the number was read out loud. We don't blame her, although our reaction was more fist-shaking and muttering about old white men in suits than sheer surprise.

The ordeal isn't over, of course—Thomas will appeal the decision and it'll probably be heard by a few more judicial levels before any final say is had. Jammie, we're pulling for you. Stand tall. Or sit down, it's easier to steal music that way. [Ars Technica]

The Pentagon's current crop of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are insanely powerful—the "Hellfire" is so named for a reason—but also fairly imprecise, often killing innocent, nearby civilians. The DoD's new UAVs hope to cut down on such casualties.

In a recent briefing, the Department of Defense laid out its new plans: Smaller and far more precise UAVs with badass names like "Suburb Warrior" and "Sniper" that will hunt in groups, rather than just blowing suspected hideouts to pieces with Hellfire missiles. The Suburb Warrior, for example, is designed to fire volleys of mini-missiles in tight formation, which makes a nice change from previous missiles that often demolished entire city blocks.

Unfortunately, these new UAVs should see production in about five years, by which time who knows what kind of battles we'll need to fight—or who'll be leading the Pentagon. But it's a step in the right direction, that's for sure. [Esquire]

Those deconstructionists over at Rapid Repair have taken their tiny screwdrivers or whatever to the iPhone 3GS and disassembled the poor baby. And so soon after its birth!

Rapid Repair went out to France to snag the iPhone 3GS at its first site of release, the Orange Boutique in France. The teardown is pretty basic so far, just an instructional really. But as is Rapid Repair's style, we're sure they'll have more info (like component prices) soon. In the meantime, if you're dying to see all the dirty little bits inside Apple's newest iPhone, head over and check it out. [Rapid Repair]

Yamaha's MusicCAST2 Network Music System is a Wi-Fi-based tunes center that allows you to wirelessly transmit and listen to music in up to 32 rooms throughout your home. Do you even have 32 rooms in your home?

Touted as the ultimate multiroom wireless system for music lover's, the MusicCAST2 supports iTunes AAC files as well as MP3s, WMA, FLAC, and WAV, and can playback music from iPods, Bluetooth devices and other Yamaha accessories—via a built-in dock port—and USB thumb drives. It can also pull audio from a variety of sources, including Rhapsody, Internet radio, both PC and Macs, and NAS devices.

First introduced to the market six or seven years ago when the release of a wireless music platform was highly anticipated, the original MusicCAST was a server and satellite system that promised an awful lot at a time when networking technology wasn't very good, so the release of a successor—the MusicCAST2—comes as a surprise to us.