Eurogamer has reported today that the upcoming Nintendo 3DS has an estimated component cost of just £62.

The device will sell in Europe for over £200 including VAT.

It is important to note that while the components cost £62, that does not include R&D or shipping costs.

Nintendo admitted during its last financial earnings report that the handheld will sell at a profit right out of the gate just like its Wii did. Sony and Microsoft sold their home consoles for under cost for many years, making money solely off accessories and software.

The 3DS has launched in Japan and will hit the States next week at $250. The European launch is coming soon after.

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Kingston has announced it is shipping new Class 10 microSDHC cards.

The world leader in memory products announced it will be shipping 4GB and 8GB capacity Class 10 microSDHC cards, joining the 16GB Class 10 microSDHC card currently on the market. Additionally, the company revealed it will add a 32GB capacity card to the line-up in the second quarter.

Class 10 cards tout a fast transfer rate of 10MB/s. In addition to the Class 10 cards, Kingston currently ships the microSDHC card in a Class 4 specification as both a standalone and part of the Mobility in capacities up to 32GB.

"Kingston's Class 10 microSDHC cards are compatible with many of the latest mobile phones including Android smartphones and BlackBerry devices, hi-def cameras and the increasingly popular tablet PCs," said Mike Kuppinger, Flash card business manager, Kingston.

"The Class 10 speed provides faster data transfer rates and the various capacities help satisfy storage needs for users with both light and heavy memory needs."

The Kingston Class 10 microSDHC cards are available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities costing $22, $37 and $138 respectively (add $1 for inclusion of SD Adapter to each.)

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The Linux Foundation has announced the formation of the MeeGo Smart TV Working Group.

MeeGo is an open source project targeting several segments of the market including netbooks, smartphones, tablets, TVs and more. The new Working Group is designed to drive the evolution of MeeGo within the television ecosystem and provide an open framework for industry creativity and innovation.

The Working Group features some heavyweight participants already, including Amino Communications, Intel Corporation, JetHead Development, Locatel, MIPS Technologies, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Sigma Designs, Telecom Italia, Videon Central, and Ysten.

"The Smart TV segment is growing fast, and with it comes both opportunity and complexity," said Ibrahim Haddad, Director of Technical Alliances at The Linux Foundation. "MeeGo is built from the ground up to address next-generation computing in multiple market segments like Smart TV and is intended to help advance Linux in this burgeoning market in the year ahead."

Working Group members will define software components and a compliance program as well as focus on building an innovative and thriving ecosystem of developers and content providers with leading capabilities and tools.

The first MeeGo Smart TV Working Group meeting will be held in April 2011.

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The latest release in the Google Chrome beta channel adds support for HTML speech input API.

Developers will be able to test out speech-to-text features on their web applications through the Chrome browser thanks to the added support, which stems from work Google has been doing with the HTML Speech Incubator Group.

Web apps will be able to transcibe voice heard through a computer's microphone to text. The user would click on an icon on the application and speak into the mic. The data is then sent to speech servers for transcription and the text is then typed out automatically for the user.

For those who would like to test this out, and are running the latest Chrome beta, check out an example here.

The latest beta also offered devs a sneak peak at GPU-accelerated 3D CSS, allowing for slick 3D effects on webpages using CSS.

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Toshiba has unveiled a new 14-inch USB-powered mobile LCD Monitor designed for use on-the-go with notebook computers.

The Toshiba 14-inch USB-powered Mobile LCD Monitor is intended to provide a multi-screen solution where it otherwise wouldn't be easily possible. The ultra-portable monitor is designed to fit in most laptop bags, getting its power via a USB cable. Video is also fed via USB, eliminating the need for a video lead or an AC adapter (though an AC adapter is optionally available.)

Providing a maximum resolution of 1366x768, the monitor weighs just 2.8 lbs and can be neatly folded up. It is DisplayLink-certified and compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista and XP. It is limited to 256,000 colors, but considering how it is powered and its intended use, it is adequate. It's specs list a contrast ratio of 400:1 and response rate of 16ms.

The screen is easily controlled with simple buttons to set brightness and other settings. It comes with a USB Y cable, cover, CD-ROM and documentation (an optional AC adapter is sold separately).



The Toshiba 14-inch USB-powered Mobile LCD Monitor is available immediately from Toshiba Direct, priced at $199.99.

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The European Union revealed a "serious" cyber attack against EU bodies on Wednesday, the eve of a summit held in Brussels.

"We're often hit by cyber attacks but this is a big one," a BBC source stated. The commission assessed the scale of the threat at the time and shut down accross to e-mail and to the institutions' intranet to prevent the disclosed of unauthorized information. Staff were also asked to change their passwords and other information as a precaution.

"The Commission and External Advisory Service are subject to a serious cyber attack," Antony Gravili, the spokesman for the inter-institutional relations and administration commissioner, told BBC News. "We are already taking urgent measures to tackle this. An inquiry's been launched. This isn't unusual as the commission is frequently targeted."

France's Finance Ministry was targeted in December. Attackers attempted to steal information about the G20 summit which was held in Paris in February.

French Budget Minister Francois Baroin confirmed the attack at the time and said an investigation had been launched into the source.

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UK Chancellor George Osborne's budget will lead to some tax relief for the games industry in the region, according to TIGA.

The trade group represents the games industry in the United Kingdom, and has been lobbying for tax breaks for UK gaming firms to help it compete on the world stage. The group said that the plans in the budget to enhance R&D tax credits is a "decisive victory" that will be worth around £7 million to the industry.

Osborne did not go nearly far enough to protect the UK games industry however, according to TIGA. The group has been lobbying for more aggressive tax measures to help the ailing UK games industry, as international competitors are offering all kinds of incentives to bring the business to within their borders.

"The R&D tax credits will deliver 60% to 70% more value to games studios than the current tax credit regime," TIGA chief executive, Dr Richard Wilson, said. He was unhappy that the new coalition government was unable to go further however.

"Failure to deliver TIGA's Games Tax Relief is a dismal decision that displays a complete lack of imagination and one which will leave the UK video games industry swimming against the tide internationally," Wilson declared. "Our key competitors have tax breaks for games production. The UK does not."

One country trying to attract investment from gaming firms is Canada, and it has paid off with the Canadian games industry growing 33 percent between 2008 and 2010. The UK industry witnessed a 9 percent decline in the same period.

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United States senators have cried foul over applications for smart phones that they say enable people to drive drunk with less chance of getting caught.

Senators Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Harry Reid of Nevada, Charles Schumer of New York and Tom Udail of New Mexico, all Democrats, signed a letter sent to Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, RiM's James Balsille and Scott Forstall, Apple executive in charge of software for iPhone.

"Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern," the letter from the senators states. They have asked the firms to remove the apps from stores, saying they present a real threat to public safety.

The apps apparently allow users to alert each other to the locations of police stops. The letter does not name the apps specifically, but claim they have as many as 10 million users and offer databases of police checkpoints updated in real-time.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, around 10,000 people are killed each year in accidents that involve drunk drivers.

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The Chinese government has denied accusations made by web giant Google Inc. that it is disrupting its e-mail service in the region.

Google said on Monday that users in China were experiencing some problems with their GMail service, and that it was a result of government blocks and not a problem with the e-mail service itself. It went further to say that the blockage was "carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu denied the charge from Google on Tuesday. "This is an unacceptable accusation," she said during a regular news conference.

According to affected users, the disrupting experienced with GMail in China comes amidst calls for protests against the government like those seen in the middle east recently.

Google scaled back its presence in China last year after it blamed China-based organizations for attempting to hack e-mail accounts of known Chinese human rights activists. Beijing still denies any involvement in the spat that caused tension between China and the United States.

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Prompting Federal Judge Kimba Wood to call the request "absurd," the record labels are demanding $75 trillion from the now deceased file-sharing giant LimeWire over copyright infringement.

At its peak, the P2P client had 50 million active users trading hundreds of millions of files.

Late last year, LimeWire was officially shut down, following a federal ruling that found the company liable for copyright infringement. Within a month, the RIAA won its case and demanded $1 billion from the dead site.

Law.com says "the record companies demanded damages ranging from $400 billion to $75 trillion, and argued Section 504(c)(1) of the Copyright Act that provided for damages for each instance of infringement where two or more parties were liable."

Judge Wood did call the filing ridiculous, noting that the award would be many times more than the music industry has made, combined, since the invention of the phonograph in 1877.

Wood concluded that all damages should instead be limited to one per work. The number will still be massive, however.

The damages trial begins in early May.

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