Zeal Optics will unveil its new iON Goggle this week. The GPS goggle technology player’s latest offering embeds a high-definition camera that will let you capture videos and photos on the move or while standing. We understand this will be among the first lifestyle products from the company aimed at incorporating technology to “redefine how people experience the outdoors and share their memories”.

The product comes equipped with a 1080p True HD video camera enabling users to capture real-time video and sound. Its 8-megapixel snapper operates without your having to remove your gloves by simply pressing buttons given on the side of the goggles. The camera can automatically adjust for light levels and comes with infinity focus. It uses an built-in viewfinder and on-camera controls. Users can download videos and images from their goggles to their PC and Mac via a mini-USB connection.

Now, a little about its rimless frame. It offers wide fields of view and can withstand extreme temperatures. It’s been fitted with the company’s new Optimum lens. The polarized lens also provides protection from UVA and UVB rays. In addition, metal mirroring provides further protection from the sun.

Other notable features include:

* High-quality camera with a 170-degree wide angle lens
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
* Up to six-hour run time
* Software to adjust all settings in the camera
* Option to share content through social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (there is also a Zeal online community that users may become part of)

The goggles will be offered in two colors: Green (Moss Green) and Black (Matte Night Black).

Seagate, a player in hard disk drives and storage solutions, has acquired Samsung’s hard disk drive (HDD) business.

Under the terms of the transaction announced earlier this year, Seagate has gained select elements of Samsung’s HDD business, including assets, infrastructure and employees that enable Seagate to drive scale and innovation. These assets include Samsung’s M8 product line of high-capacity, 2.5-inch HDDs.

Samsung employees joining Seagate include a number of senior managers and design-engineering employees from Samsung’s South Korea facility, who will focus on development of small form-factor products for the mobile compute market. The companies have informed NY Park, senior vice president and general manager, will oversee Seagate’s product development activities in South Korea and serve as country manager of the design center there. He will report to Bob Whitmore, Seagate’s executive vice president and CTO.

The companies have also extended and improved their existing patent cross-license agreement while also expanding cooperation to co-develop enterprise storage solutions.

The transactions and agreements are expected to expand Seagate’s customer access in China, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Germany and the Russian Federation.

The combined value of these transactions and agreements is approximately US $1.4 bn, consisting of 45,239,490 Seagate Ordinary Shares and the remaining balance settled in cash. In addition, Samsung will designate a nominee to join Seagate’s Board of Directors.

Garmin International has released a new GTN 750 trainer app for the iPad 2. This trainer, downloadable from the iTunes Store, simulates the behaviour of the GTN 750 system interface and provides pilots with a safe, on-the-ground environment to learn the basic operation of the system.

The app offers a touch and drag interface allowing users to simulate and explore most functions of the GTN 750 including panning the map, entering waypoints into the flight plan, loading airways, graphically editing flight plans, radio tuning and more.

High resolution North and Central America terrain maps, worldwide NavData, simulated traffic targets and simulated XM weather data are expected to allow the pilot to experience the situational awareness offered by the GTN 750. The app is also configured with product options such as TAWS-B audible alerts, transponder control and remote audio processor control. It also features user-selectable demo settings that allow the user to simulate various flight scenarios by changing altitude, speed, location and more.

The app is available for $24.95 from the App Store on iPad 2 or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

Some serious designers at Samsung seem to have got down to work and worked really hard to integrate a tablet and a laptop into one convenient device. The Samsung Sliding PC 7 seems to be the result of such an effort.

It has a 10.1 inch 340 nit touchscreen with a 1366×768 resolution and is powered by Intel Z670 Oak trail 1.66 GHz processor. This tiny tablet gives you options of 32 Gb or 64 Gb SSD and has 2 GB of RAM. With Windows 7 as the operating platform overlaid by Samsung’s Touch Launcher which has applications optimized for the touchscreen, this device is sure to be a hit with a lot of users, particularly since it is priced at a low $ 699 and is scheduled for release this March.

Samsung has thoughtfully integrated a USB port, an HDMI port and a 4 in 1 card reader along with a 1.3 megapixel webcam and WiMAX. It is extremely fast, claimed to boot under 20 seconds. It is powered by a six cell lithium polymer pack that will last 9 hours on a single charge.

To round out its laptop line-up, it also announced the 9 Series Laptop that will really eat into MacBook Air markets given its specifications. This new 13.3 inch 9 series laptop is claimed to be the thinnest and lightest(2.89 pounds) 13 inch notebook yet available. It is just 0.68 inch thick, 0.11 less than the MacBook Air which weighs in at 2.9 pounds.

It is lightweight and sleek but inside, it is one mean powerful machine. It has the usual Ethernet, USB and HDMI ports along with a headphone jack. It has the powerful Intel Core i5 2537 M processor, an awesome 128 GB SSD for loads of space and 4 GB RAM. It has two 1.5 watt speakers and a sub-woofer for impressive sound. The display is a 400 nit LED backlit display and the keyboard too is backlit so you can work in dim light comfortably enough. This sleek black duralumin housed machine will be available for $ 1600 when released, which should be pretty soon.

Temenos, a provider of integrated core banking systems, and software solutions provider Microsoft have announced an alliance for delivering core banking solutions with TEMENOS T24 and Microsoft SQL Server to increase operational efficiencies of large-scale banks worldwide.

Earlier, the two companies worked with North Shore Credit Union (NSCU), a financial institution in Canada, to deliver a new core banking solution with a data management platform based on TEMENOS T24 and Microsoft SQL Server.

Microsoft believes the new agreement will see both parties collaborate more closely and commit technical, marketing and sales resources to bringing a flexible core banking solution to market, which optimises the use of the Microsoft platform with T24.

Vocaltec Communications, a provider of multimedia and voice-over-IP solutions for communication service providers, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Outsmart, a provider of telecommunications convergence solutions.

The Outsmart assets acquired by Vocaltec includes Outsmart’s technology and intellectual property, as well as its primary customer and partner contracts.

Vocaltec plans to engage certain Outsmart personnel in a bid to enable the development and support and an uninterrupted transition to all Outsmart customers and partners.

The company believes the combined portfolio will position Vocaltec as a provider of VoIP solution and applications to both fixed line and mobile service providers.

Qualcomm, a developer of wireless technologies, products and services, is sampling a new smartphone chipset family.

The MSM7x30 family lays emphasis on multimedia performance, supporting high-definition video recording and playback, improved graphics with dedicated 2D and 3D cores, and an overall chip design optimised for a responsive Web experience.

The company claims that its MSM7x30 family, which includes the MSM7230 solution for HSPA+ networks and MSM7630 solution with multi-mode HSPA+/EV-DO Rev. B and SV-DO support, is designed around “optimal data throughput and powerful multimedia functionality”.

The 7×30 has the same Scorpion CPU as previously commercialised in the Snapdragon QSD8x50 chipset. The 7×30 uses an 800 MHz to 1 GHz custom superscalar CPU based on the ARM v7 instruction set, delivering high-end processing at low power to support features that include:

- 720p high-definition video encode/decode at 30 frames per second
-Integrated 2D and 3D graphics GPUs with support for OpenGL ES 2.0, and OpenVG 1.1 industry standard APIs
- Dedicated low-power audio subsystem supporting 5.1 surround
- 12-megapixel camera support
- Integrated GPS for location-based services

The first devices based on the flagship MSM7x30 family of chipsets are expected to launch commercially before the end of 2010.

The new family of chipsets is supported by the PM8058 power management integrated circuit and the QTR8600 RF subsystem with integrated Bluetooth and FM radio. MSM7x30 chipsets will directly interface with Qualcomm’s WCN1312 WLAN solution for 802.11 b/g/n, the company informed.

Inrix, a provider of traffic services, has announced an agreement with Intrinsyc Software International, a provider of software solutions for mobile and embedded devices to provide real-time traffic flow and incident information for the company’s upcoming iPhone Destinator 9 GPS Navigation app.

Through crowdsourced real-time traffic network and its data fusion engine, Inrix helps Destinator 9 GPS Navigation iPhone customers choose the best route based on real-time traffic information available.

Inrix informed that it uniquely blends billions of real-time data points from more than 1.3 million GPS-enabled commercial and consumer devices with information from a variety of other public and private sources to help drivers stop wasting time and money stuck in traffic.

Falconstor Software, a player in disk-based data protection, and Avnet Technology Solutions (Avnet), an IT distributor, have entered into an agreement for the distribution of Falconstor software products by Avnet UK.

Avnet will be distributing the full range of Falconstor solutions, including Falconstor Continuous Data Protector (CDP), Falconstor Network Storage Server (NSS), Falconstor Virtual Tape Library (VTL) with deduplication and Falconstor File-interface Deduplication System (FDS).

The products, which are already being distributed by Avnet in the Benelux, will be taken to market immediately by Avnet in the UK with other European countries following suit as and when appropriate.

IBM has announced the signing of a seven-year contract with Qantas, an Australian airline, for the provision of project delivery functions as part of the airline’s improved business efficiency goals.

Under the agreement, IBM will bring a combination of project management delivery know-how to Qantas’ project portfolio to ensure timely delivery of business and IT change programs.

IBM said it will also provide analytics and research services aimed at helping Qantas improve the speed and quality of its business decisions.

Under the contract, Qantas will gain access to IBM’s research, analytics and business optimisation capabilities.