Here's some good news for the businessman looking for some quality portable hardware that's easy on the budget - Fujitsu-Siemens has just unveiled its ESPRIMO Mobile line of laptops. We give you the skinny on what's to expect with the sturdy-looking portable that's got everyone talking.

Well, what's under the hood? A hefty Core 2 Duo system to keep things fast and reliable, Intel's GMA X3100 integrated graphics card for much-needed graphical muscle, as well as the usual connectivity essentials- UMTS, Bluetooth, WLAN. Not shabby at all, and the packaging's pretty neat, too, coming in with three wide-screen flavors (12.1-inch, 14.5-inch, and 15.4-inch).

And for those of us who hate searching for electric sockets to plug our cumbersome wires into, the ESPRIMO line laptops can take a second battery, jacking up the group's happy time to a whopping 10 hours. Plenty enough juice to last you a whole day's worth of work.

No word yet on a definite release date or pricing, however, but we'll keep you updated on all things ESPRIMO, so keep it locked right here.

Today's a sad day for employees of BenQ Mobile. Forbes has revealed that the bankrupt German handset business of Taiwan's BenQ Corporation will be split up and sold after a failed bid to turn the struggling company around. This was announced by the company's insolvency administrator on Sunday.

"There is no longer a realistic chance of it being sold as a whole," spokesman Martin Prager said, confirming a report in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The Munich-based company filed for insolvency protection in September, a year after the Taiwanese firm took over the struggling unit from Siemens AG.

Prager declined to comment on the fact that splitting up the firm means that almost all of the 3,000 jobs at the firm would be lost for good. Around 550 former BenQ Mobile workers have already signed up with other companies, some of them with Siemens. Forbes reports that thanks to a transitional arrangement largely financed by Siemens, the remaining employees will keep on receiving most of their previous wages for up to a year.

Rise of Antares 2, an all-new turn-based space strategy game from HeroCraft, is back and its a very bitchy mood. The game is designed for all gamers with political ambitions bigger than Hillary Clinton's. As head of an interstellar corporation, gamers must take the reigns, set a successful plan and fight elections in order to rule the freaking galaxy. Oh and there's one more thing on the agenda: kick Star League Bureaucrats asses back to where they belong! Which is anywhere but your turf.

Rise of Antares 2 is packed with features to help fight for intergalactic dominance including:

• Full stepwise space strategy
• A diverse array of technologies
• Masses of different ships and buildings
• Easy-to-follow training system and a captivating campaign
• Game graphics to advanced interstellar standards

Rise of Antares 2 is supported by various handsets from Alcatel, BenQ-Siemens, LG, Motorola, Nokia Panasonic, Samsung and more.

In UFO Predator, a lost alien ends up on planet Earth and settles among us. But the ungrateful guest creates nothing but carnage and turns giant creatures and advanced weapons into worthless rescue teams! In most games, players assume the role of the alien buster. In UFO Predator, gamers become the evil alien and battles the good guys for a change.

Your objective as the nasty visitor from space is is to launch a campaign to capture Earth. By flying over the humans you get to snack on them and increase your power. Other weapons of mass destruction at your command include manipulating items such as trucks dropping it over your opponents.

The game also features:

• Real-time destruction with stunning explosive effects
• Intelligent enemies respond strategically to attacks
• High-level physics on manipulating background items

UFO Predator is now playable on selected models of Symbian, Nokia, N-Gage, Siemens, SX1, Sendo, Panasonic, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Sharp mobiles.

More screenshots after the jump!

Apple, Acer, Motorola, and Lenovo are among the worst polluters, according to Greenpeace, while Nokia and Dell just barely passed. Greenpeace ranked major electronics companies according to what they were doing to remove the harmful chemicals in their gadgets, phones, and computers. Also, Greenpeace ranked the companies according to their policies about taking responsibility for their products when these are thrown away by their customers (for example, companies should recycle old components as much as possible and they should process and dispose of the chemical waste properly). Like all other piles of garbage, the amount of toxic waste caused by electronics ("e-waste") is growing, and it often gets dumped in poor developing countries.

Greenpeace's rankings (points are out of 10; 10 is the highest possible score):

7: Nokia - Needs to improve recycling program.
7: Dell - Some models still have the worst chemicals, but has a good program of taking back their toxic trash.
5.7: Hewlett Packard
5.3: Sony Ericsson
5: Samsung
4.7: Sony
4.3: LGE
3.3: Panasonic
3: Toshiba
3: Fujitsu-Siemens
2.7: Apple
2.3: Acer
1.7: Motorola
1.3: Lenovo

Greenpeace will update the rankings four times a year. And as for Apple scoring so low, the Greenpeace article had this to say: "It is disappointing to see Apple ranking so low in the overall guide. They are meant to be world leaders in design and marketing, they should also be world leaders in environmental innovation."

Move over, Lassie! Hollywood is soon to meet its newest canine superstar, Ben the Dog.

Ben stars in 60-second movies from the "Dog & Bone" series, the first episode of which will be pre-installed on the new BenQ-Siemens M81.

"Dog & Bone" is the world's first movie series for mobile phones. Tailored to a viewer's requirements on a small screen, the movies are in 3GP format. The storyline is kept cute and simply entertaining, with Ben the Dog setting out on adventures across London, carrying his master, Mr. Q's, mobile phone. Dialogue is kept to a minimum, and swift camera movements and panorama shots are avoided.

The "Dog & Bone" series format will be exclusively produced for mobile phones. Its first five episodes are directed and authored by Andreas Hafele, one of the up-and-coming directors nominated for the 2004 MicroMovie Awards.

The BenQ-Siemens M81 is set to come out this month. Click here to view the "Dog & Bone" movies.

The phone you see above, ladies and gentlemen, is the S68 Ceramic edition. Available only in Germany, this limited edition S68 BenQ-Siemens phone has tech specs exactly like the regular models, but it has a body made up of different materials. The front's made of steel while the rear part is made of ceramic formed at a temperature of 1350 degrees celsius. The ceramic used for this phone is the same as that used in automobile brakes. BenQ-Siemens believes that the ceramic can be pretty resistant to scratching. The display is also specially coated for prevention of scratches.

We think the S68 looks sweet. It's stylish, and the color scheme ain't bad either. The scratch-resistant back cover is also a big selling factor. Plus, it's got the words "limited edition" on the front. Them's magic words, man, and will undoubtedly cause a lot of people to go out and buy this phone.

This baby will hit stores in Germany this month at a suggested retail price of 499 Euros ($635).

Glamor may be hard to define but it's easy to spot. Take the BenQ-Siemens SL91. Everything about this shiny, piano black beauty screams for movie-star attention. But underneath the red carpet glamor are some pretty good features. It has an innovative Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) technology where the surface reacts to slight pressure to reveal navigation keys. With its FSR, the BenQ-Siemens SL91 can even be used with gloves. How's that for class?

Its 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus delivers excellent photos and videos. For video telephony via UMTS, the BenQ-Siemens SL91 sports a second VGA camera at the front of the phone. Adding substance to this uber-stylish mobile are the MP3 player, stereo RDS FM radio, fast USB connectivity and interchangeable Micro-SD cards. The BenQ-Siemens SL91 is the next best thing to dating a supermodel.

InfoSpace has just announced the release of Trickshoot Pool, a 2D pool game that lets you execute a number of exciting trickshots as well as challenge your friends in multi-player competitions. The game will be available for downloading to mobiles with JAVA from selected operators across Europe this month. Features include:

- 25 eight-ball and nine-ball trickshot competitions over 5 levels
- A variety of game modes, including practice and competition rooms, to master those extra tricky top and side spin shots
- Increasingly tough AI opponents, the right challenge for both newbies and experts
- A two-player mode, to show off your pool skills and ball control
- An unlockable Freetable mode where players can create and save their own trickshot tables

InfoSpace is well-known for its experience with mobile pool games, having already developed Steve Davis Snooker and Pub Pool. Select mobile operator networks will carry Trickshot Pool soon, which is playable on handsets from all major manufactures including Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Siemens and Samsung.

Fujitsu Siemens unveiled its latest Pocket Look PDA series with N100 and N110. The two new models feature integrated GPS receivers, route-planning code, a music player app and full information management functionality (think glorified organizer). The units weigh in at 110g -- a record, the company claims.

The two models under the N100 series are both based on a 300MHz Samsung CPU running Windows Mobile 5.0 and 64MB of RAM, and they sport a 2.8 in, 65,536-colour 240 x 320 display. Both models also have GPS reception courtesy of a SiRFstar III unit.

On the storage side, the N100 ships with a 1GB Mini SD card, while the N110 has 2GB of on-board Flash storage. N100 and N110 ship with Navigon MobileNavigator 6 software, as well as pre-installed maps for each given sales region.

Regarding measurements, each unit comes in at 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.6cm and includes a 1100mAh battery. It ships with a car holder and in-car power adaptor. You also get a pair of exchangeable faceplates - white and Fujitsu Siemens grey. Hmmm...is the Fujitsu Siemens grey different from your standard run-of-the-mill color grey? Maybe it has some kind of super-advanced color mechanism thingy that normal grey doesn't. Just wondering.

Anyway, Fujitsu Siemens said that the N100 series goes on sale in Europe in August. Prices start at €299 (£206), inc. VAT