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If you haven't already bookmarked our liveblog (you should get right on that), Apple's revealed that it will resume broadcasting its events --starting today. Appearing alongside a new events channel on Apple TV, we get a brief mention of today's conference in San Jose. But until it kicks off at 10AM PT, you can kill some time by watching Apple's back-catalog of events, which are ready to view on the new channel.

The US Patent and Trademark Office may have just thrown a wrench into Apple's recent courtroom triumph over Samsung by invalidating one of the patents at the heart of the victory: rubber-banding. We noted at the time that Apple hit a "home run" with that particular IP, as jurors declared that all 21 disputed Samsung devices infringed it, no doubt resulting in a large part of the $1 billion (and counting) owed by the Korean maker. "Claim 19" of patent 7469381, which covers that feature, was invalidated by the USPTO on two counts, both of which were cases of prior art that allegedly existed before Cupertino claimed them. Either one could be enough reason to throw out that part of the patent, according to FOSS Patents, provided that the USPTO's ruling stands up. Either way, Samsung has already brought the new information to Judge Koh's attention -- which might bring about some new action very soon.

Sony recently teased its high-end CineAlta brand and 'TheNewF,' implying a high-end PMW-F3-like camcorder could be coming at an October 30th event. It's now taken some of the suspense out of the announcement on Facebook, saying the upcoming camera will have 4k resolution, broadcast-level 50Mbps data rate, 4:2:2 color space and high frame-rates. That means it'll likely be a professional product on par with the last F-model, but we'll have to wait and see if it'll retain features like the PL lens mount and $16k price tag. We'll be there on the 30th for the full scoop, so stay tuned.

There's no shortage of cloud storage sites and apps, but it looks like Sony might be trying to get a little more involved in ethereal storage. According to this European trademark filing spotted by Juggly, Sony Mobile has staked a claim to MyXperia, outlining that the service (or mobile app) involves itself in the "upload, storage, retrieval, download, transmission and delivery of digital content and media." In short, the kind of stuff you already do with your cloud service of choice. While Sony has no shortage of cloud-based services, MyXperia.com currently sends you to a bare-bones login page, underneath the Sony Mobile umbrella -- it looks like we'll have to wait for some account credentials before we get to take a look.

Microsoft has thrown an additional two Xbox 360 models into its subsidized subscription deal. Accompanying the original 4GB console at $99, a 250GB option will also be priced at $99, accompanied by two years of Xbox LIVE Gold at $15 per month. Throw in a Kinect, and this rises to $149, initially. The company hasn't revealed whether the new models will be accompanied by additional retailers alongside Best Buy and Gamestop, but there is a holding page that promises to offer a "full list of participating retailers" soon.

If you're one of the more daring (or foolhardy) photographers out there, you've tried camera tossing: hurling your camera into the air in the hopes that a timed shot will catch either a unique perspective or an artistic spin. Nikon might not want to stop those shooters from throwing caution to the wind, but its recently published Japanese patent would at least keep those throws to a minimum. Cameras based on the patent could use a built-in accelerometer not just for timing the shot, but to brace for a fall by covering the lens and retracting its barrel on the way down. In theory, the photographer gets a perfect aerial portrait without all the guesswork and a minimum of damage. Call us skeptical that we'll ever see the patent reach a shipping product, though -- even if it was limited to rugged cameras, a mode built almost exclusively around voiding the warranty probably wouldn't sit well with Nikon's accountants.

[Image credit: Zoli B, Flickr]

Smartphones have made juggling multiple single-purpose gadgets a thing of the past for many, but the blind and visually impaired often use a raft of devices built with eyes-free use in mind. Qualcomm and Project Ray, however, are aiming to consolidate phone calls, text messaging with voice read-out, navigation, object recognition, audio book reading and more for the visually impaired in a system built on an off-the-shelf Android phone. To navigate the smartphone, users leverage a handful of simple finger movements that can be started at any point on the handset's touch screen. Voice prompts and vibration provide feedback to users, and the UI adapts to usage patterns and preferences. Currently, Ray devices have access to Israel's Central Library for the Blind and are being tested by 100 folks in the country. For the full lowdown, head past the break for the press release.

British chip designer ARM has just revealed its accounts for Q3 2012 and they show a familiar pattern: namely, a double-digit rise in both revenue (up 20 percent to £144.6 million, or around $230 million) and pre-tax earnings (up 22 percent to £68.1 million). According to Reuters, the company is attributing its latest bout of success to making "further inroads" into growing markets like smart TVs and microcontrollers. Of course, all of this is stands in stark contrast to the traditional x86 PC world, where giants like Intel and AMD have been struggling with weak demand.

Confirming all those rumors we've been hearing, Nokia has officially taken the wraps off its latest budget smartphone, the Lumia 510 -- slotting it somewhere between the Asha range and the Lumia 610. With the notable exception of the 4-inch (480 x 800) screen, which is a tad larger than its slightly more accomplished Windows Phone sibling, the other specs are very much in line with its low-cost stance: there's a single 5-megapixel shooter at the back (no front-facer), a lowly 800MHz Qualcomm processor, 256MB RAM and 4GB of non-expandable storage. We'll be bringing you further details as the story unfolds. In terms of the OS, it'll ship with WP Mango but we're told it will be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8 at some point in the future.

In Microsoft's ongoing battle to alter your association between "Xbox" and "Video Games," SmartGlass is its latest volley. Employing your favorite mobile device -- Windows Phone 7.5/8, Android, and iOS devices are all supported -- SmartGlass enables you to control your Dashboard experience, explore the web, input text, and much more. But what Microsoft's really banking on is its "second screen" functionality, essentially enabling another layer of interactivity with video, music, games, and the Xbox 360's other, less ballyhooed service: sports.

It's this final layer that I found most enticing during a recent hands-on meeting with Microsoft. Could sports be the "killer app" that MS needs to get SmartGlass out of its tiny niche and into the hands of the masses? I think so.

Xbox SmartGlass (NBA Game Time)

If you get the impression that AMD is diverting its energy away from traditional CPUs and towards APUs and fresher PC form factors such as all-in-ones, then you're certainly right -- but you're also slightly ahead of the game. The company promises there's a still a good few years of life left in its CPU-only chips and the AM3+ socket, and it's putting today's announcement forward as evidence. As of now, last year's eight-core FX-8150 has been superseded on retailers' shelves by the FX-8350, which notches the stock clock speed up to 4GHz, or 4.2GHz on turbo (alas with no obvious sign of that resonant mesh we once heard about). The full stack (codenamed 'Vishera') includes eight-, six- and four-core options, all based on the new Piledriver architecture which -- when combined with these higher clock speeds -- promises an overall performance uplift of around 15 percent versus the old Bulldozer cores. To be fair though, those Bulldozers weren't so snappy to begin with, and besides, the most significant performance claims with this upgrade relate to multi-threaded applications and a few gaming titles like Skyrim and Civ 5. Judging from the slide deck below, gains in other areas of performance may be lower -- perhaps in the region of seven percent -- so as usual we're going to roundup a bunch of reviews later today before we jump to any conclusions.

If it turns out that stock performance alone isn't enough to sell these chips, then potential buyers still ought to check out FX's pricing relative to Intel -- not least because, as is typical, AMD sells overclockable chips at no extra charge. The top-end FX-8350 will hit the market at $195, which is not only cheaper than some earlier leaks suggested, but also $40 cheaper than an unlocked Core i5-3570K that has a lower clock speed and a smaller L3 cache -- although the relative performance of these two chips remains to be independently tested. Meanwhile, the entry-level quad-core FX-4300 will virtually match the price of a locked i3-2120 at $122, but can be readily overclocked to 5GHz with water-cooling. AMD is also making a few claims based on the cost of multiple components in a rig: for example, that you can spend $372 on an FX-8350 and Radeon HD 7850 combo that delivers a 25 to 70 percent gaming advantage over a similarly priced Core i5 3570K with a GeForce GTX 650 Ti. Again, stay tuned for our roundup and we'll figure out just how compelling this really is.

AMD FX 'Vishera' slide deck

SmartGlass functionality may already sort of exist on Xbox 360 per the console's latest Dashboard update, but Microsoft's making it a full-on reality on October 26. As it stands, the Xbox 360 allows for SmartGlass support, but without an update to Microsoft's 360 companion app, there's no way to use it -- when Microsoft's Surface RT and other Windows 8 tablets launch on the 26, that functionality will come built in to the "Games" section of the new OS. That of course begs the question: "When will I be able to use SmartGlass with my iOS/Android/Windows Phone 7.5 devices? And how?"

The date isn't certain, but functionality will arrive on other platforms "soon" after the October 26 launch of Surface, Microsoft reps tell us. When it does, it'll come in the form of an update to your existing, "My Xbox Live" mobile app (which also renames the app to, "Xbox SmartGlass") or Games tab (per WP7.5), and it'll be more or less identical with the Windows Phone version. The only missing functionality, we're told, are two somewhat basic bulletpoints. "We have deeper integration in the Windows Phone," Microsoft tells us. "That's something we don't have on iOS or Android, it's just within our application. Same on Windows -- the integration in Windows is 'last playing' or 'now playing,' being able to present that information." The other, more interesting item, is the lacking ability to "send" whatever website you're using up to the Xbox 360's Internet Explorer browser. Regardless of which mobile device you're on, SmartGlass can "send" websites from the 360 to said device -- it won't work the other way around, however, if you're using a non-Windows 8 device. Not what we'd call a huge deal, exactly, but a bummer no less. Regardless, you'll soon have the opportunity to put SmartGlass through its paces from the comfort of home when support devices launch on October 26. For a full list of applications available at launch and partners beyond that plus a quick walkthrough video, head past the break.

Xbox SmartGlass (launch)

Samsung's ARM-running Chromebook is barely out of the starting gate, and it's already being tweaked to run without as much of an online dependency. By a Google employee, no less. Not content to rely solely on Chrome OS, Olof Johansson has loaded Ubuntu on the Chromebook by partitioning an SD card, mixing OS components and booting from USB. The technique unsurprisingly requires being more than a little comfortable with a Linux command line as well as playing fast and loose with the warranty. It also won't be cheap or quick -- commenters note that you'll ideally have a partitioning-friendly SD card, and running a desktop OS from a slower kind of flash storage creates an inherent bottleneck. Anyone who likes the Chromebook's $249 price, but isn't as enraptured with the cloud as most of the team in Mountain View, might still want to try Johansson's step-by-step process for themselves.

While we're just a heartbeat away from Samsung's American launch event for the Galaxy Note II, that hasn't stopped the leaks and rumors from flowing around the release. What appears to be an internal T-Mobile page leaked to TmoNews has the 5.5-inch giant costing $300 on the carrier's Value plan -- on par with Sprint's up-front price, if you're not including the long-term device payments. Classic plan adopters would supposedly pay $420 before dutifully mailing in for a $50 rebate, and it would take a hefty $700 for an outright purchase. Nothing's definite until T-Mobile gives the green light, and we haven't seen the prices that every other carrier will offer, but the price if real could establish a common narrative where Samsung's biggest phone this year includes an equally large price tag.

While the US wireless industry seems far away from finding a universal mobile payment system, T-Mobile's new BFF MetroPCS appears to have made its choice. Taking to its official Facebook page, the carrier announced on Monday that the Samsung Galaxy S III is its first handset to support Google Wallet. In choosing Google's mobile payment platform, MetroPCS joins two of its biggest competitors, Sprint and US Cellular. It should be noted that T-Mobile is deeply committed to Google's wireless payment competitor Isis, which recently became ready for public consumption. Once the two carriers exchange nuptials next year, it's possible that we could be looking at the wireless industry's first mobile payment Brady Bunch. However, looking back at T-Mobile's previous attempts at mobile matrimony, we won't be holding our breath waiting for this union to become official.

Things are buzzing late Monday afternoon at Carnegie Mellon's Planetary Robotics Lab Highbay. Outside, in front of the garage door-like entrance, a trio of men fills up a kiddie pool with a garden hose. Just to their left, an Enterprise rent-a-truck backs up and a handful of students raise two metal ramps up to its rear in order to drive a flashy rover up inside. I ask our guide, Jason Calaiaro, what the vehicle's final destination is. "NASA," he answers, simply. "We have a great relationship with NASA, and they help us test things."

Calaiaro is the CIO of Astrobotic Technology, an offshoot of the school that was founded a few years back, thanks to Google's Lunar X Prize announcement. And while none of the handful of vehicles the former student showcases were made specifically with the government space agency in mind, given the company's history of contractual work, we could well see them receive the NASA stamp of approval in the future. Asked to take us through the project, Calaiaro tells us, quite confidently, that the trio of vehicles behind us are set to "land on the moon in 2015," an ambitious goal set to occur exactly three weeks from last Friday.

Tour of Astrobotic Technology's lunar rover lab at Carnegie Mellon

If you're one of the many people who pre-ordered Microsoft's Surface with Windows RT, you could be getting your tablet just in time for its official October 26th ship date -- and perhaps even before then. According to a few reader tips and a confirmation email sent to WP Central, those tablets are indeed in the shipping stages and could arrive as early as next week depending on your selected delivery method. While there have been reports of delays in UK and Canada, those were apparently incorrect, and we have no reason to believe the US shipments won't be on time. That said, if you haven't pre-ordered and you want one soon, you better get a move on -- Microsoft's store currently shows that Surface RT with touch cover bundles are shipping in one to two weeks while standalone units are set to ship in three weeks. Or maybe you can cross your fingers and hope you're one of five million to find one gift-wrapped under the tree.

The folks over at Business Insider spotted a change on the Google Wallet website today indicating that a new version of the payment system -- separate from the recently released web version -- is "coming soon." Folks itching to get in on the fresh NFC payment action can ask for an invite right now, but alas, details about the forthcoming update are scarce. We do know that upon submitting a request for the new Wallet, users are asked if they use an Android, iOS, or "other" mobile device. So, might we be in for more widespread Wallet adoption with this next iteration? Only one way to find out, so head on down to the source, sign up, and see for yourself.

We've seen the speeds, we know the handsets and now we know how much it'll cost you to be among the first to try 4G in the UK. EE has outlined its contract and handset pricing from October 30th, with all of the bundles including unlimited calls and texts. Yep, the new carrier is breaking it down by data, with its entry-level 500MB bundle starting at £36 for 24 months. You'll have to make an initial payment for most handsets, although the Ascend P1 will be free from the 1GB bundle upwards. Data allowances go up to 8GB for £56 per month, although users can add even more, with an extra 50MB costing £3, or up to 4GB for £20.

Now, if you're looking to get Apple's latest on 4G, it'll set you back at least £20 on the highest data plan. Already got your LTE-ready iPhone 5? Then you'll have to wait until 9th November, when the network will start offering SIM-only 12-month plans priced from £21. The 4G network will also offer its phones on 12 month contracts for an additional £10 on top of the prices shown above. EE will let users who bought comparable non-4G versions in the last six months (like the One X or Galaxy S III) to exchange their devices for a one-off payment of £100. Alongside the all these pricing details, the Orange/ T-Mobile team-up also spilled the beans on some service features for its new customers -- and we've got it all covered after the break, including a quick hands-on with its Film store service.

As Sprint continues to play an epic game of LTE catch up, the Now Network has officially flipped the 'on' switch for its 4G customers in the Chicago suburbs of: Addison, Bolingbrook, Des Plaines, Downers Grove, Kankakee, Rockford, Joliet, Naperville, Palatine and Plainfield. Further expanding its not-so-mainstream LTE footprint are Gary, Indiana; Wichita Falls, Texas; New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts; and Hutchinson and McPherson, Kansas, too. While these aren't exactly the big markets that many were hoping for, it's good to see that America's third largest carrier is expanding its next-gen coverage for the less populous parts of the country. As for you big city folks patiently waiting for Hesse and company to call your number, rest assured that you haven't been forgotten. We're just hoping that Softbank's latest investment doesn't encounter any additional delays during its LTE rollout, because delays are for the birds.