We knew it was coming, so this is just some concrete confirmation. The RIM rep told me it'll be out on the 18th only online and in "select stores," which look restricted to LA and Phoenix, for some reason. One more shot:

Details are thin, but the camera will be produced in ultra-low numbers at an undisclosed cost. I guess I'll just get busy with the White Out on my $20 Holga to make myself feel better. [Luxist]

No pricing info yet, but a boring old black K2000 will set you back around $800, so expect this "extremely limited" version to carry a bit of an overage. Its two lenses—the kit 18-55mm and an additional 50-200mm zoom will also get the white and black treatment. But this is hot-looking—why aren't there more colors for entry-level DSLRs other than black and hideous silver-painted plastic? [Press Release via CNET]

[Tele Online via Engadget Spain]

OSRAM Achieves Quantum Leap in Brightness and Efficiency of White LEDs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. —(Business Wire)— Jul. 21, 2008 By improving all the technologies involved in the manufacture of LEDs, OSRAM development engineers have achieved new records for the brightness and efficiency of white LEDs in the laboratory. Under standard conditions with an operating current of 350 mA, brightness peaked at a value of 155 lm, and efficiency at 136 lm/W. In generating these results, researchers used white prototype LEDs with 1 mm-square chips. The light produced had a color temperature of 5000K, with color coordinates at 0.349/0.393 (cx/cy).

The key to OSRAM's success was the efficient interplay among all the advances made in materials and technologies. A perfectly matched system of optimized chip technology, a highly advanced and extremely efficient light converter, and a special high-performance package all combined to produce the world record performance results.

Potential applications for this high-performance LED technology include general illumination, the automotive sector, and any application that calls for large, high-power LEDs. These semiconductor light sources are also suitable for high operating currents. At 1.4 A, they can produce up to 500 lm of white light. This means that in the future the LEDs can also be used for projection applications as blue and green chip versions.

Dr. Rudiger Muller, CEO at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, commented: "It was the successful convergence of OSRAM know-how in different fields that led to these new records in efficiency and brightness. Starting with the light converter, we will be gradually moving these new developments into production." OSRAM has already applied for patents for the technologies that lie behind these world record performance levels

Since Osram says plans are now to move this tech from the lab into production, we can certainly expect to see LEDs in even more places in the future. [Osram]

In an otherwise surprise-free keynote today, one without booms or "one more thing"s, one bit of news stood out: White made a quiet return to the iPod family in the premium 16GB iPhone 3G. Sure, it never fully left Apple—remaining the default color for earbuds, plugs, power bricks, AirPort products and the cheapest MacBooks—but we were finally getting used to a world without white iPods. Does this mean after nine short months put out to the pastures, white is already retro-cool again?

This time around, white won't be for everybody. Once the staple color of the iPod revolution, white will be a statement for those bold enough to sport a phone that bright. It's incredible; when Jobs dropped a little black on the masses, we thought that was radical, but eventually accepted it as the norm. When most Apple products went brushed-aluminum, we were again stunned, but now we think nothing of it. Today white, the color that we accepted from the beginning, is back, this time on an iPhone, and it looks like the most far-out Apple product yet.

Will the return of white in the iPhone set a pattern for the iPod touch, classic, and others? Will white be the new, well, white, taking back the reins as the most popular color? Will the color make its way back to Apple's high-style MacBook Air? Can Jobs, Jonathan Ive and the Cupertino crew keep us on our toes forever by recycling the same three finishes? Most importantly, are you a person that's bold enough to rock this flamboyant new phone? I, for one, am not. [Apple]

The white iPod might have started it all off, but sure enough, it has been moved out of the spotlight.

Obviously there were the colorful mini's, but they never had a white option to begin with. The first true blow came with the shuffle going silver, exclusively.

But nobody thought much of this since it was just a shuffle, the lowest rung of the iPod totem poll. However, when the nano quickly followed suit and moved to a white-less lineup, a warning shot had definitely been fired.

Some buzz was generated by the obvious move to a color-only selection, but it didn't matter because we always will have our premium big daddy iPod sporting the purest color of all.

But then earlier today Steve struck the final nail into whitey's coffin, the iPod touch came sporting a svelte black look and the iPod classic went with black & silver color options. Nowhere was a white iPod to be found.

With one little event, Apple had dropped the color scheme that had started it all. Goodbye white iPod, you spun an entire electronics style movement, you will not soon be forgotten...as long as we have these stupid white earbuds to remind us.

Not much has changed—the phone still has a 1.3-megapixel camera, BlackBerry push email, all sorts of IM support, HTML browser, the SureType not-quite-a-qwerty keyboard, MP3, 240x260 display, and Quad-Band GSM/EDGE. Which means there's no real reason to upgrade to the white Pearl if you already have the black one. But if you're in the market for a small smartphone—or if your office is forcing BlackBerry fever on you—check out the condensed review to see if it's the right fit. Plus, Valentine Day's is coming up, and what better present would your girlfriend like than to wear one of these on a chain around her neck? – Jason Chen

Product Page [T-Mobile]

Our tour begins with the very robust location-aware Google maps implementation:

The screen's QVGA (320 by 240 pixel) res shows tons of details on Google maps, including satellite view (but no hybrid view, unlike the java version I have downloaded onto my Sony Ericsson.) Coolest thing ever is that the Drift can map your current location with a single click. It feels as if the receiver in the phone is very quick. So quick that away from a window, and within seconds, it mapped my location within 200 feet. Which is too fast to be believed, so I think its using triangulation of cell towers. Either way, you can use the current location to set your starting point for turn by turn directions (of course, without voice nav, and with such a small screen, you'd better have someone sitting shotgun directing your drive). The phone also works with Google Maps Traffic, which shows congestion on major roads with a few minutes delay. Green lines mean the cars are flowing freely, while yellow and red mean delays.
Then there's the buddy finder.

Basically, you can use the phone to find friends on you buddy list, with a few conditions. They have to have a Drift phone, too. They have to be on your buddy list. They need to have pinged the server with their most recent location. Still, very cool.

Helio shipped Gizmodo's phones with each other on buddy lists. I can ping buddies to ask them to update location, and I can see their location on mapquest, too. (Yep, it doesn't use Gmaps for buddy finding.) Nextel has something like this so employers can spy on their lazy workers...BTW, Jason, get back to work, damn it.

Those familiar with google's Dodgeball service will recognize the concept. This is like that, but Dodgeball's feature list (crush lists, ex girlfriend stealth, photos, friends of friends, yelp-like search engine) is extensive, and although you have to check in to the system using SMS, well, lets face it, everyone has SMS, and I think its rare to find two Drift users who aren't already bosom buddies. BTW, two gorgeous people I know found each other on Dodgeball, so its maybe worth a shot if you haven't tried it before.

Anyhow, back to the Drift. Very cool, super-futuristic GPS and buddy finding features. Mapping yes, useful, but you can already download Gmaps to phones now. Buddy finding, very cool, even if of limited use. The phone itself is basically a high speed 3G mall, with most of the functionality limited to buying stuff for a few bucks (vids, music, etc) and the browser still doesn't quite feel like it can provide a fraction of the power of the mobile opera browser. The hardware is solid, but until more phones have buddy finding in an open standard, it seems like a fantastic idea that'll work best if you muscle all your Saturday night buddies into getting one, too. Or getting Dodgeball.

Helio Drift [Gizmodo]

We'll be testing out the Buddy Beacon GPS and buddy-stalking functions a bit later. But first, let's just get an eyeful of this frosty phone in the photo gallery... –Noah Robischon

UPDATE: We've spent time with the location-aware buddy finding and mapping services. Here's a tour of how it works, and our first impressions.

Helio Drift [Gizmodo]

According to ads plastered all over New York, the white Chocolate is available in stores now. Now if only the cellphone wasn't a piece of garbage... – Nicholas Deleon

LG White Chocolate Product Page [Verizon Wireless via Slashphone.com]

Product Page [via mobildia]