Verizon has certainly courted Alltel before, but this time, the two could finally be rounding third base. According to a breaking report at CNBC, Verizon is “in deep in talks to acquire Alltel,” which of course is America’s fifth largest wireless carrier. It’s no secret that Alltel has been riding fairly high of late, and unless your memory is totally shot, you’ll likely recall that it was just recently “taken private by TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in a $27.5 billion deal.” Not surprisingly, officials at both outfits refused to comment on the rumblings, but if this does indeed go down, analysts are expecting Verizon to pay around 8x Alltel’s current EBITDA, whereas TPG / Goldman Sachs paid 9.2x. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Update: The talks have been confirmed by Vodafone which owns a 45% stake in VZW.

We’ve already seen a number of attempts to more seamlessly integrate solar cells into everyday environments, but none have quite gone as far as this latest prototype from the folks at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Mitsubishi, and Tokki Corp. As you can see above, they’ve come up with a solution that shouldn’t look too out of place nestled in with some actual foliage, with a special protective film encapsulating each of the solar models to ensure they stand up to the outdoors. The institute (no stranger to unique concepts) apparently isn’t stopping there, however, saying that it also has plans to expand its use of organic thin-film solar cells into other areas where design is important, including walls, windows, clothing, and livingware, to name but a few.

During our time on JetBlue’s BetaBlue aircraft, we came away mildly impressed with what was available. Thankfully, the airline isn’t resting on its laurels, and has today announced expanded services for those lucky enough to secure a seat on the connected Airbus A320. By utilizing LiveTV’s Kiteline platform, patrons can now check their Gmail, AOL Mail, Hotmail and Windows Live Mail from the comfort of their seat, and just in case you get bored with that, a “customized in-flight version of Amazon.com” will also be accessible. Yeah, we’re talking really minor updates here, but at least the whole gamut of what’s available is still totally free. Gratis and airlines just don’t go together these days, so it’s certainly a welcome change.

[Via Jaunted]

Apple just announced that iTunes UK will finally make films available to British punters. Studios include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK. At kickoff, about 700 films will be available to purchase or rent. Films cost £6.99 for purchased library titles and £10.99 for new releases. Rentals start at £2.49 for library titles and £3.49 for new releases — “HD” titles for £4.49 without with an Apple TV prerequisite, apparently.

Update: Nope, after digging around the store it’s clear that an Apple TV is still required for HD rentals. Picture proof after the break.

Update 2: The Canadian iTunes store is sporting films now as well. Come on Apple, Canada’s not worthy of a press release? What’s that aboot?

Update 3: Canadian press release now oot — 1,200 films (not 700 in UK) now available for rent or purchase.

[Thanks, Nate and Zayn K.]

We don’t see as many waterproof TVs as we do waterproof cameras and other gadgets, but Panasonic’s just tossed a few more options into the fray, which is says are ideal for use in the kitchen or bathtub. Available in pink, white or black, its new SV-ME75 and SV-ME70 models each boast 5-inch, 480 x 272 displays and 1Seg mobile TV tuners, and are apparently identical in every respect except for some added video recording features on the SV-ME75 (which comes in the form of an SD card slot). Look for each of ‘em to hit Japan on June 20th, with the SV-ME70 setting you back ¥38,000 (or about $362) and the SV-ME75 running ¥45,000 (or $429).

[Via New Launches]

Putting cameras in billboards to measure how many people look at them isn’t a new idea, but it’s starting to get a little more creepily-high-tech, with several advertisers now using facial-recognition software to record things like age and gender. A company called Quividi has supplied camera-equipped ads to McDonald’s in Singapore and Ikea in Europe, and it’s now bringing the tech to the States, where it’s been deployed in New York in ads for A&E’s The Andromeda Strain mini-series and in Philadelphia in train station ads for the Philadelphia Soul. Another company called TruMedia Technologies has supplied similar tech to about 30 locations in the US, including malls in Chesterfield, Missouri, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Monroeville, Pennsylvania. None of the systems currently record or store video, but no one’s ruling that out as a possibility — and even worse, there’s talk of gathering racial data in an effort to even further target ads. Great, now we have yet another reason to break out the Nixon mask every time we leave the house.

[Via Techdirt]

When everything looks like a netbook, anything out of the ordinary sticks out like a festering wound at Computex. One such sore thumb came from the Thermalright display, which saw a number of new cooling devices basking in the glory and just waiting for photographers. While most items at the booth were generally uninteresting, this particular image shows off one TR-360 — something we can only assume is a replacement heatsink for the Xbox 360. All we’ve got right now is the picture above along with one other in the read link, but here’s to hoping Thermalright gets around to sharing more information soon.

[Via Xbox-Scene, thanks Xant]

That 80GB Zune above looks mighty familiar, now doesn’t it? At least it does if you checked out our totally wild guess mockup that we created upon hearing of this gem. The limited edition Joy Division-themed Zune has finally been pictured (officially) and priced, with just 500 of ‘em to be offered up through the Zune Originals website. Of course, we have no idea how quickly these will (or won’t) go, but if you’re looking to grab one, we’d have that trigger finger ready to roll on June 17th.

As if we needed any more evidence that the 16:9 laptop bandwagon is already roaring right along, DigiTimes is now reporting that LG and AU Optronics are each readying some 17.3-inch panels boasting the increasingly common aspect ratio. If the usual unnamed “industry sources” are to be believed, those panels will supposedly be finding their way into laptops from Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, and Asustek, among others, although it’s not clear when those will actually be showing up. Somewhat interestingly, those same sources also say that Samsung has no plans to produce 17.3-inch panels of its own, although at the rate these various slight changes in sizes keep cropping up, we wouldn’t be surprised if that situation changed sooner rather than later.

[Via TG Daily]

It looks like AT&T is getting a bit more generous these days, with the company now following up its supposed plans to offer free WiFi to LaptopConnect and smartphone users with a promised 20% boost in 3G data speeds. That translates to “typical” downlink speeds of between 700 Kbps and 1.7 Mbps (up from 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps), and uplink speeds of between 500 Kbps and 1.2 Mbps (formerly 500 to 800 Kbps). To get those slightly improved speeds, however, you’ll have to use one of the company’s aforementioned LaptopConnect cards, and no doubt situate yourself in some prime signal real estate. What’s more, AT&T says those speeds are only a taste of things to come, with it promising that peak data speeds will eventually reach 20 Mbps as it switches over to HSPA+ between 2009 and 2010.

[Via Gear Diary]