Unboxing and hands-on with Sprint's AIRAVE femtocell

Sprint's AIRAVE signal booster isn't officially on sale nationwide just yet (August 17th, for those curious), but for those anxious to pull the trigger (or merely mulling the decision), we've got a few hands-on shots to whet your appetite. So, where are they? Why, over at Engadget Mobile, that's where! Keep an eye out for a review to pop shortly.

NVIDIA releases new Quadro Plex D CUDA desktop rigs

NVIDIA's really pushing the GPU-as-CPU angle at SIGGRAPH this year -- we've already seen the PhysX and CUDA-powered GeForce Power Pack for consumers, and the company is also updating the Quadro Plex series of visual co-processors for workstation customers. The new Quadro Plex 2200 D2, designed for large datasets and models, crunches data through two Quadro FX 5800 GPUs (totalling 480 CUDA cores) and 8GB of RAM, while the Quadro Plex 2100 D2 is optimized for large multidisplay rigs with four Quadro FX 4700 GPUs and support for up to eight monitors. Sounds fun -- and we're guessing the people who can justify the $10,500 starting price for these rigs think so too.

Japanese researchers craft "e-skin" to let robots feel

The folks at the University of Tokyo have been trying to create more touchy, feely robots for what seems like ages, and they now look to have made some real progress with their so-called "e-skin," which promises to give robots a more human-like sense of touch. To do that, the researchers created a bendable rubber sheet filled with carbon nanotubes, which lets the "skin" conduct electricity even when it's stretched. When combined with sensors, that would let robots feel heat or pressure, which the researchers say is essential "as robots enter our everyday life." They also, not surprisingly, see a whole host of other applications for the technology, including on steering wheels that could judge whether people are fit to drive and in stretchable displays that could start out as a tiny sheet and be stretched to a larger size when you want to watch TV.

Dell announces new Latitude E series

Dell's dropping a ton of new laptops on us today, and first up are the new Latitudes. Just like we'd heard, the E series is replacing the Ds, with seven new models total. As you no doubt remember from our Week o' Dell Scoops, the E6500, E6400, E5500, and E5400 are the traditional models with 15.4 and 14.1-inch displays, while the E4400 and E4200 are ultraportables and the previously-leaked E6400 ATG is a ruggedized edition. The 12-inch E4200 is the lightest corporate laptop Dell's ever made, at just 2.2 pounds, while the 13.3-inch E4200 comes in a 3.4 pounds. Both feature Latitude ON, which allows you to access data without fully booting the machine -- sounds a lot like SplashTop to us. Dell's claiming that the batteries on the larger machines can last for up to 19 hours, which sounds great, but we'll believe it when we see it. The new models also have an available backlit keyboard, and can be outfitted with dual pointing devices, fingerprint readers, and WWAN options including WiMAX.

Dell lets slip new, sexy Precision M6400, M4400 and M2400 mobile workstations

Dell seems to at last put those eye-sore days behind it with its new round of Precision laptops, the M6400, M4400 and the M2400, featuring all-new designs and colored lids, and following up on the 17-inch M6300, 15.4-inch M4300 and the 14-inch M2300, respectively. In the M6400 17-inch flagship "concept" Dell is offering up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB RAID storage, 100% Adobe RGB color gamut in an LED-backlit display, and high-end NVIDIA Quadro graphics. The M4400 starts at $1,569 and has space for up to 8GB of RAM, while the M2400 weighs a mere 4.77 pounds and starts at $1,449. The launch window for these is Fall 2008, hopefully Dell will share a few more tech specs before it expects us to take the plunge.

Kingston kicks its SDHC game up to 32GB

It was a bit late to the party with its 16GB SDHC card, and Kingston looks to be playing catch-up again when it comes to 32GB cards, with it only now releasing its first such high capacity wonder. It's also not making any attempts to contend with the fastest cards around, as this particular one is only a Class 4 card that promises to maintain a speed of 4MB/sec, which is a good deal off the pace of Panasonic's 20MB/s Class 6 SDHC card. Of course, at "just" $308, you can also get two of these for the price of one of Panasonic's speedy cards, which should tide you over until the inevitable 64GB SDHC cards start showing up.

Dell Precision and Latitude E series hands-on

Tons of pics of Dell's new Precision and Latitude E series machines? You got 'em, including shots of the crazy-small E4200, which really takes us back to the days of the hot little Samsung-built X1. Hit the gallery below, marvel at some of the machines your IT department may be rolling out in the next 6-18 months.