Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian smartphone users have been able to watch streaming video on their handhelds from a SlingBox for some time, but the BlackBerry has so far been denied. No more -- Sling Media will announce a BlackBerry version of its SlingPlayer Mobile application next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

There's no word on which BlackBerry models will be supported yet, but the application will be demonstrated using the Wi-Fi-enabled Pearl 8120 . SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will be available later this year for £19.99 and a 30-day demo will be available.

[Sling Media]

Intel has pulled out of the OLPC project, just months after joining the board in order to contribute technical expertise and funding. The two teamed up last July after an ongoing spat in which OLPC founder, Nicholas Negroponte, accused Intel of trying to thwart the project's aim by launching its own low-cost Classmate PC.

Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy cited a "philosophical impasse" as the reason for the split as "OLPC had asked Intel to end our support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC, and to focus on the OLPC platform exclusively. At the end of the day, we decided we couldn't accommodate that request."

The OLPC is powered by an AMD, rather than an Intel, processor, but Mulloy said that this had nothing to do with its decision to leave the project.

Around 170,000 OLPC XO laptops were ordered through last year's "Give 1 Get 1" deal in which customers paid $400 for two laptops, one of which was then donated to a developing country.

[Associated Press]

Hitachi has announced that it will be releasing a 500Gb 2.5in hard drive for laptops later this year. The Travelstar 5K500, which will also be available as a 400Gb model, is just 12.5mm thick and spins at 5,400rpm. The three-platter design has similar power requirements to the previous two-platter 250Gb drive, the 5K250 - 1.9w for read/write access and 0.7w while idle.

In addition to its low power consumption, Hitachi's 'Rotational Vibration Safeguard' technology makes the Travelstar well-suited to laptop use - it acts as an early warning system for impact shocks and stabilises the drive heads to prevent damage any data loss.  The Travelstar 5K500 will be available in February.

Asus will be the first manufacturer to offer the 5K500 drive in a laptop and it will fit a pair of them in its new M70 to offer 1Tb (1,073,741,824Mb, or 1024Gb) of storage capacity. The Asus M70 will be formally launched at the CES Show in Las Vegas next week.

[Hitachi]

The US Department of Transportation's new regulations governing batteries in airline luggage came into effect on January 1, so if you're thinking of flying into the US with a bagful of gadgets, you'll need to think about what batteries you pack.

In short, the new regulations prohibit the carriage of loose lithium batteries in checked luggage and batteries in carry-on luggage are only allowed if they're either installed in a device or carried inside a plastic bag.

The OLPC Give 1 Get 1 programme came to an end at midnight on December 31, so anyone in the US who didn't get their order in for an XO laptop before the new year now has no way to buy one through official channels.

Unfortunately, no one in the UK has ever been able to buy one through official channels since the deal was US-only, but that could well change this year.

Asus is planning to unveil the next generation Eee PC at the CES Show in Las Vegas next week, according to The Register. The launch will take place at a Wi-Max event co-sponsored by Intel and US mobile telecoms company Sprint, which suggest that Asus' next little laptop will be Wi-Max equipped.

A Nigerian keyboard manufacturer has obtained an injunction against the OLPC Foundation, preventing the charity from selling its XO laptop in Nigeria.Lancor, which is headed by a convicted fraudster, has begun proceedings against the charity in a Nigerian court and is demanding $20 million in damages.

Lancor wrote to OLPC in August claiming that its patents regarding keyboard designs had been violated by the XO and subsequently demanded $20 million to keep it out of the courts.

OLPC declined and requested further details, which according to an article in Groklaw, were never provided. Instead Lancor filed its suit with a Nigerian court, without notifying OLPC which was not given the chance to present evidence or defend itself against the injunction.

One of the more unusual aspects of the case is Lancor's claim that OLPC's actions had cost it $20 million in lost profits. However, as OLPC noted in its response, the XO had not been released when Lancor made its initial claim and could not have made $20 million.

The charity says it intends to fight the charges.

Nokia released the OS2008 operating system upgrade for its N800 Internet Tablet on Tuesday, which brings the device in line with the new keyboard-equipped N810. The download takes OS2008 for both the N800 and N810 out of beta and into the final production version, but the Nokia servers appear to be getting hammered at the moment though, and downloading the 135Mb file is still proving somewhat of a challenge for many owners (though mirror sites are starting to spring up).

If you're not happy with the simplified Xandros Linux distribution supplied with the Asus Eee PC (and don't want to put up with the drawbacks that Windows XP entails), how about a bespoke version of Ubuntu?

One enterprising user has assembled an Eee PC-specific version of Ubuntu, based on the Xubuntu 7.10 Live CD. 'eeeXubuntu' comes with full hardware support and has been modified to suit the low resolution screen of the Eee PC (which is where Windows XP falls down).

If you've ever wondered what goes on inside Intel's processor manufacturing facilities, there's a fascinating clip on the chip giant's YouTube channel that gives some insight. It shows the early development process of the new 45nm Penryn processor and it, er, probably explains a few other things, too…

[Channel Intel]