A new technology to prevent lithium-ion batteries from catching fire or exploding in laptops and mobile phones may be on the market as soon as the first quarter of 2010, its inventor said on Wednesday.

The invention, called Stoba, was developed at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan’s national research organization.

When lithium-ion batteries develop internal shorts they can quickly heat up to as much as 500 degrees centigrade (932 degrees Fahrenheit) and catch fire or explode.

Stoba sits between the positive and negative sides of the battery and when the battery hits 130 degrees centigrade (266 degrees Fahrenheit), Stoba transforms from a porous material to a film and shuts down the reaction.

The new Verizon Droid, like many a high-profile smartphone just coming onto the market, has been hailed by some as a potential–you know what’s coming–iPhone killer.

But does Verizon Wireless want to deliver a knockout to the iPhone? There’s long been speculation that the carrier would sooner or later be offering the Apple smartphone, which since its launch has been solely in the hands of AT&T in the United States. (In some other countries, Apple has deals with multiple carriers.)

The latest posting to suggest an imminent rapprochement between Verizon and the iPhone comes from the AppleInsider blog, which on Friday said that it’s gotten wind of Apple having contracted to build a Verizon iPhone that would debut in the third quarter of 2010.

More broadly, according to AppleInsider, the new “hybrid iPhone” will work on both the GSM/UMTS and the CDMA systems, meaning that Apple will be able “to sell a single global handset to all carriers, and specifically to Verizon Wireless in the US.” In the U.S., carriers AT&T and T-Mobile are in the GSM/UMTS camp, while Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel are in the CDMA camp.

Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd on Monday jumped into the fast-growing electronic reader market, unveiling a platform that the company says will allow for a new generation of zippier, lower-cost devices.

Marvell said it has teamed up with E Ink, a developer of e-paper display technology, to create an integrated application processor. E-readers based on the technology are expected to hit the market in the first quarter of 2010.

The first devices include the already announced enTourage Edge, a combination e-reader and netbook; the Alex reader from Spring Design, and an offering from Plastic Logic.

Google Inc is adding Garmin Ltd and TomTom to its growing list of rivals as the Internet search giant weaves technology for driving directions into new versions of its smartphone software.

Google said its new Google Maps Navigation product will provide real-time, turn-by-turn directions directly within cell phones that are based on the new version of its Android software.

The navigation product, which features speech recognition and a visual display that incorporates Google’s online archive of street photographs, marks the latest step by Google to challenge Apple Inc’s iPhone and Microsoft Corp’s Windows Mobile software with its Android smartphone software.

It also represents a direct competitive threat to companies like Garmin and TomTom which sell specialized hardware navigation devices. TomTom also makes a software navigation app for the iPhone that sells for $99.99 in the U.S.

With so many firms jumping on the 3D TV bandwagon, Sony has obviously felt compelled to push the envelope further still. So it has developed a 360° 3D display.

Confused by the term? You shouldn’t be, because the prototype display is essentially a tube-shaped unit able to show a 3D image to anyone looking at it from – presumably - a face-on angle.

Sony’s 360° 3D display could be used for videocalls

It isn’t yet clear if all viewers all see the side of the 3D image, irrespective of their viewing angle, or if you see a different side of the image depending on how you’re facing it.

The display also works without glasses, Sony claimed. In its current form, the 13cm wide by 27cm high unit can display images in 24-bit colour.

The new electronic reader from Barnes & Noble Inc, expected to launch on Tuesday, features color, a touchscreen display and the same price tag as Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The device, which the newspaper said was called “Nook,” will compete with the Kindle and Sony Corp’s Sony Reader among other electronic readers that allow users to read digital content on a tablet-sized device.

The Journal said the details came from a print advertisement slated for the New York Times’ October 25 edition.

Barnes & Noble and the New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A host of competitors are trying to grab market share from Amazon, which is believed to dominate the fast-growing yet still small industry.

The past month has been characterized by a flurry of activity as booksellers, manufacturers, publishers and wireless operators all hope to gain a toehold in advance of the key holiday selling season.

In July, Barnes & Noble, the largest brick-and-mortar bookseller in the United States, debuted what it called the world’s largest online digital bookstore with over 700,000 titles, readable on devices like Apple Inc’s iPhone.

Analysts say that Barnes & Noble’s advantage could be in its physical stores where users will be able to test out the device, as well as its strong relationship with publishers — an advantage that Amazon also enjoys.

With a $259 price tag, the same as the Kindle’s recently lowered price, Barnes & Noble could potentially lure users away from the Kindle, which some critics say is short on design and functionality.

A color touchscreen display would be considered a plus by some users, who have grown accustomed to higher functionality on devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.

A new Wi-Fi specification will let wireless devices discover and connect to one another without a router.

The spec, called Wi-Fi Direct, was announced Wednesday by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that promotes the technology. By making it much easier for devices to connect directly to each other using Wi-Fi, the new spec could pose a challenge to wireless technologies such Bluetooth.

The way Wi-Fi Direct works is that it allows Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as phones, cameras, printers, computers, keyboards, and headphones to connect to other Wi-Fi devices individually or to multiple devices at once. The spec will support standard Wi-Fi data rates, and devices will be able to connect to one another within about 100 meters of each other. This would allow just about any device that has Wi-Fi built into it to use wireless broadband instead of Bluetooth. It could even eliminate the need for Wi-Fi routers in some places.

The new spec will turn gadgets into mini Wi-Fi access points, which means that it could reduce the need for home Wi-Fi routers. It could also hurt Bluetooth, which is widely used to provide similar peer-to-peer connections between devices. For example, Bluetooth technology connects headsets to music players and cell phones. And it’s used to provide other high-speed wireless connections over short distances between other devices. The new Wi-Fi Direct specification would offer the same function.

Ad hoc wireless connections are already supported via the current Wi-Fi standard. But the Wi-Fi Direct specification would make it easier for devices to discover each other and connect. The Wi-Fi Alliance plans to publish the new peer-to-peer Wi-Fi specification soon and says it will begin certifying devices for Wi-Fi Direct in 2010.

Samsung announced on Wednesday that on-demand video services from Blockbuster and Amazon are coming to some of its home entertainment products.

Blockbuster OnDemand, which allows people to rent or purchase video content on a one-off basis, is now available on some of Samsung’s high-definition TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems.

According to Samsung, the service will be offered on its Series 650 and above LCD and plasma HDTVs, as well as its Series 7000 and above LED HDTVs. Blockbuster OnDemand will be available to owners of the Samsung BD-P1600, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600 Blu-ray players, as well as the company’s HT-BD1250, HT-BD3252, HT-BD7200, and HT-BD8200 Blu-ray home theater systems. The company said that the service is available now through a firmware upgrade.

As part of the rollout, Blockbuster OnDemand content can be streamed across multiple Blockbuster-enabled devices in the home. According to the company, users who order a particular movie can start watching it on one Samsung product in their home and continue watching it on another supported Samsung device.

TiVo Inc., the maker of digital video recorders that can pause and rewind live programming, unveiled a free application Wednesday for the BlackBerry that lets subscribers set up recording of TV shows from the phones. Subscribers also can search for details about their favorite shows.

Live streaming of shows is not available.

The application works with TiVo DVR Series2 or the Series3 standalone DVR, not with a cable box that has a TiVo interface. The BlackBerry phone must have browsing capabilities and operating system version 4.2.0 or later.

TiVo unveiled its app for the iPhone last November.

iPods in Europe are about to get a lot more quiet. Regulators have released a new set of standards governing how loud portable music players can go, and that means the default max volume is going take a big dip from where it currently sits.

The European Commission’s new policy will require iPods and other MP3 players to have a default maximum volume of 80 decibels. That’s considered a “very loud” level by most sound rankings; anything above that mark can be potentially dangerous. Presently, most MP3 players go as loud as 115 to 125 decibels.

For some fun comparisons, we turn to the U.S. National Institute On Deafness And Other Communications Disorders (apparently, every shorter agency name was already taken). According to the, er, USNIODAOCD:

• 80 decibels is equivalent to the level of noise you’d hear on a busy city street;

• 90 decibels is lawnmower-like loudness;

• 110 is as ear-shattering as a loud rock concert;

• 120 to 130 matches the level of an airliner taking off — or, in less technical terms, “GET USED TO PEOPLE ALWAYS HAVING TO SHOUT AT YOU!”

Using smart phones as navigation tools is all the rage these days, what with a slew of applications available for the iPhone and Android platforms that utilize those devices’ built-in GPS systems in determining users’ real-time location.

One such service is from Waze, which in August released its iPhone app after being available on Android for several months. Waze’s service is meant to help drivers figure out where they are and how best to get where they’re going, all with the help of a large community of other motorists.

Among the information that Waze provides are traffic flow, road reports, and warnings about where drivers might run into speed traps.

At DemoFall 09 in San Diego on Tuesday, Waze plans to unveil its latest steps forward, which include rolling out its service on every major smart phone platform (except BlackBerry) and offering, for the first time, voice prompts for directions.

That could be good news for users of, say, Symbian-based smart phones, in cities where AT&T service is spotty. And that’s important because even in a city like San Francisco, using Waze on an iPhone–with AT&T as the only service provider–meant being subject to areas where there was a significant delay in information showing up on the screen.

Further, because the service will now be available on other platforms, it means that the overall amount of data available to drivers–via the crowdsourced nature of the system–will be broader. And, because users until now have had to occasionally look at their small screens to see where they need to go, the voice prompts may well mean an easier–and safer–way to get to a destination.

Waze’s application begins as a standard turn-by-turn directions tool and also offers a slew of other features, many of which give drivers something fun to look out for as they make their way to wherever they’re going.

“At the end of the day,” said Di-Ann Eisnor, Waze’s community geographer, Waze is “about a community of drivers helping to build this map.”

As any a video game aficionado knows, it’s easy to pop a game into your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and spend hours working your way from one level to the next. Without the hefty console, though, you’re out of luck if you want to keep blasting those aliens while away from home.

A startup called Spawn Labs thinks it has a solution to this problem. Starting Monday, the Austin, Texas-based company began selling a box that is much like a Slingbox - a device that lets you watch your home TV remotely - for video gaming.

Spawn Labs’ HD-720 costs $200, or about the same price as Microsoft’s cheapest Xbox console. Unlike playing a video game on a Web site, when the box is connected to one of several different gaming systems you can remotely access any video game disc already inside, along with any games stored on the console’s hard drive.

You can connect the HD-720 to up to two video game systems, including an Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation 3, and to a TV set to play games at home. If you install Spawn Labs’ free software on a computer, you can then log in to the company’s Web site and play games remotely in real time, using a video game controller plugged into one of the computer’s USB ports or a keyboard.