The biggest chunk of eye candy we’ve seen out of Microsoft’s MIX10 event so far today has been the unveiling of the significantly-retooled Windows Phone Marketplace that’ll debut in Windows Phone 7 Series — and needless to say, it’s a looker. It’s got support for credit card purchases, operator billing, and ad-supported content — a hot topic right now with Google’s and Apple’s mobile advertising acquisitions — and a try-before-you-buy scheme not unlike Android Market’s policy. and We’ve been offered some video of the new Marketplace in action, and it looks super polished and well-integrated with the typical WP7S way of getting around — you’re given a “panoramic view” where you can browse categories and titles, see featured items, and get details with ratings, reviews, screen shots, and pricing information. Purchased apps can be pinned to your Quick Launch screen, saving you a couple taps for your favorite and most frequently-used items. Watch the full video after the break — and keep an eye out for the trick “tilting” of menu items based on finger location toward the end of the clip, something we haven’t seen before

Vodafone has today announced that it will be the exclusive UK carrier of that aluminum-clad successor to the Hero : the HTC Legend . Advance registration pages for it and its family mate, the Desire, have gone live today and indicate an April launch date — something we’d already expected thanks to Amazon’s delivery estimates for unlocked handsets. The two HTC devices are flanked by Sony Ericsson’s long awaited X10 and the Nexus One , with the latter lacking a release date. It’s interesting that as things stand the Desire (HTC’s own-branded Nexus One) will beat its precursor to the UK market.

Call it an inexplicable fascination, or call it all-out geek lust over a screen with three digits in the “diagonal screen size” specification field — either way, we had little choice but to shuttle over to HDI ’s nondescript Los Gatos, California headquarters in order to check out what even Steve Wozniak has been quoted as saying is the best 3D solution out there. While stationed on the west coast this week for GDC , we grabbed a camera and bolted down the 280 in order to get a sneak peek at the aforesaid firm, a tight-knit startup that currently has prototype displays in production and plans for far more. We’ve heard plenty through the grapevine, but we set out to get our questions answered directly, and possibly even provide some insight that has yet to be made available to the public thus far. For those unaware, HDI’s flagship product is a planned 103-inch 3D HDTV that uses a proprietary technology in order to showcase content in the third dimension (or 2D, if you’d like). We sat down with Chris Stuart (Director of Technology) and Edmund Sandberg (Chief Technology Officer) in order to get an overview of the tech, set the story straight in regard to pricing and availability, and dig in a little deeper on its plans for distribution and expansion. We also plopped down in front of the company’s prototype 97-inch set and a 46-inch 3D LCD that has remained mostly a myth up until now, and we’ve certainly got plenty to share in terms of impressions.

PrimeSense was formed in 2005, and unless you’re a sickly obsessed silicon junkie, you’ve probably never heard of them. All that changes today. We sat down with the company at GDC to learn more about the chip that it produces, and we left with an imagination sore from being stretched so severely. Put simply, the company manufacturers a microchip that, when paired with off-the-shelf optics, can create a 3D grid that a computer can understand. The purpose here, as you can likely glean, is to enable PlayStation Eye -like interactions, or as the company suggests, a “more natural” way to interface with devices you use every day

There’s no denying that the Mini 5 is real , but up until now, we’ve had to provide all of our own promotional material . At long last, it seems as if the suits in Round Rock are finally getting around to crafting the first advertisements for the upcoming slate, and while we knew about the 5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capacitive touch front buttons, front-facing VGA camera (for video chatting) and the 30-pin docking connector, we weren’t aware of Dell’s plans to reveal a slew of vivacious color options. If this here flyer proves legitimate, we could eventually see the Mini 5 available in an array of premium finishes and hues (thanks, Design Studio !), and we’re hoping for a few different spec builds as well. So, are you opting for the pink, or are you crossing your fingers in hopes that Dell allows you to print that embarrassing shot of you and Mr. T on the rear of one?

ThinkFlood’s original RedEye was pretty swank, but unfortunately, it was both expensive and somewhat convoluted. It’s only been four months since that very device hit the scene, but it’s safe to say it’s already history. Today, the RedEye mini is setting a new bar in the world of iPhone / iPad / iPod touch remotes , with a single plug-in Infrared (IR) adapter enabling your Apple device to beam out a near-limitless array of IR commands. All that’s needed is the 3.5mm dongle (read: your dock connector remains open), the latest iPhone OS and the free RedEye app; once you’re setup, you can then control your TV, AV receiver, Blu-ray player and whatever else is lucky enough to be in your home theater rack and support IR dictation. Better still, the app allows users to customize the way they control their gear, with full multitouch and accelerometer support complementing the ability to add (soft) macro buttons. Oh, and did we mention that this wealth of functionality will only set you back $49

With working conditions and security policy down Apple’s supply chain under serious fire , an Apple insider reached out to us. Apple’s blasé attitude toward its manufacturers’ labor practices, he says, is old news. Our tipster, who wishes to stay anonymous, was a member of the Newton team when Steve Jobs made his return to Apple in 1996. In an effort to bring the Newton group into the fold, we had a meeting at which Steve laid out his vision for the future of Apple. “Apple will be the Nike of consumer electronics” was his mantra. The Nike of consumer electronics

So we were just casually strolling through Pla

I’d buy an iPad just to read comic books . Think I’m nuts? I probably am, but see how you feel after this first look at what Panelfly , maker of a popular comic book iPhone app, is building for the iPad. Instead of simply scaling up the existing iPhone app, the folks from Panelfly put their heads together with the Sugarcube dev team and brainstormed. With all the talk of the iPad and how it could restore comic books to their former glory , they realized that they needed to revamp the app and make a version specifically for the iPad. This way they could take full advantage of the device’s screen size and provide a new way of purchasing and interacting with the content

Our crack team over at Engadget Chinese has managed to snag the above roadmap slide for Lenovo’s mobile computer division. We’ve seen earlier versions of the same slide — when the Edge and T410 / T510 were freshly added — but the very latest iteration contains a quartet of new machines. Most intriguing will be the L400 and L500, which are set to replace the former “corporate mainstream” mainstay R series , which incites the more hopeful among us to believe that perhaps a new chassis design is on the cards. No less notable are the new X201 models, though we might surmise by the mild numerical change that they’ll just be upgraded to low-voltage Arrandale CPUs and left well enough alone.