The Green500 might not be quite as well known as the Top500, but it's no less of an honor to be counted among the world's most energy efficient supercomputers. NVIDIA is tooting its own horn for making it on to the list for the second year in a row as part of the "greenest" petaflop machine. The Tsubame 2.0 at the Tokyo Institute of Technology's Global Scientific Information Center is powered by Intel's Xeon CPUs, but NVIDIA's Tesla general purpose GPUs do a vast majority of the number crunching, allowing it to deliver 1.19 petaflops of performance while consuming only 1.2 megawatts. That's roughly 958 megaflops per watt, a huge increase over the most efficient CPU-only super computer, the Cielo Cray, which gets only 278 megaflops per watt. The Tsubame 2.0 isn't the greenest machine on the planet though, that honor belongs to IBM's BlueGene which takes the top five spots on the Green500. Still, number ten ain't bad... right? Check out the PR after the break.

Pre-order, pre-schmorder. Americans more anxious to blow $750 on the planet's first Ice Cream Sandwich handset than anything on Black Friday can do so right now, as Samsung's Galaxy Nexus is shipping from the warehouses at Expansys. We've received independent confirmation that orders placed today are shipping out, with the aforesaid tally nabbing you an unlocked 16GB GSM (HSPA+) build that plays nice with T-Mobile and AT&T's 3G bands. What it won't nab you, however, is a pack of nabs. Can't win 'em all, right?

[Thanks, Dan]

'Tis the season for reflecting upon our many gifts in life and giving thanks for them. If you're Personal Audio, however, once you've thanked your lucky stars that you own a patent on musical playlists, you then file an infringement suit against Amazon. That's right folks, Personal Audio is up to its old tricks again in the Eastern District of Texas, but instead of alleging iPods are infringing its IP, the Kindle Fire is squarely in the company's sites. The patents in question are number 6,199,076 that generally claims an audio player, and number 7,509,178 which claims the aforementioned downloadable playlists. Who knows if Amazon will settle out like Apple did, but as the web retail giant will move a ton tablets (among other things) this holiday season, it should have no shortage of cash do so.

Looking for something fun to do with the family over the holiday weekend? Why not huddle up in front of the old laptop with some Pirates of the Caribbean? Or perhaps Alice in Wonderland and Pixar's Cars are more your speed? The Google-owned video streaming site announced today that movies from Walt Disney Studios have begun creeping their way into its rental selection. The selection of films is the first of hundreds from Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks.

Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment.

Ultrabooks have been getting a lot of love from PC makers these days, and Lenovo's no exception. But laptops aren't the only machines getting slim and trim, and the Chinese firm has outed its svelte IdeaCentre Q180 home theater PC to fulfill your entertainment needs. Stuffed inside a 22mm-thin frame that makes other skinny HTPCs look downright portly, is a 2.13GHz Intel Atom dual-core CPU plus Radeon HD 6450A graphics and up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM to keep video playback buttery smooth. You can also get up to a 750GB HDD or a 128GB SSD to store all of your myriad media, and a Blu-ray drive's available for those digging disc-based content. Hooking up displays and peripherals are easy with USB 3.0, VGA and HDMI out, and wireless connectivity via Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. The Q180 starts at $349 for the base model, with prices escalating accordingly if you start adding options like a hand-held keyboard. Full PR's after the break.

A towel and an even keel go a long way when you're galavanting around the globe, but whether we're going to grandma's or New Guinea, many of us won't leave home without access to email. Iridium created its AxcessPoint Mail & Web software for such connection-dependent people, but the service was unavailable to those using iOS... until today. The company has finally brought AxcessPoint to Cupertino's mobile platform, and iPhone users can download the free app now. Of course, before you start checking messages in the middle of the Sahara, you'll need to spring for one of Iridium's pricey sat phones and its WiFi hotspot, then pay a $1 per minute charge once you've connected your iDevice. And, with speeds on the network checking in around 12kbps for web browsing and 40kbps for email, you'll pay dearly for the privilege of opening the Vogon poetry attachment your buddy sent to entertain you while you sail solo across the Atlantic.

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season.

Santa may be able to toss a few thousand laptops in his bright red sack with nary a scratch to be seen -- but you sure can't. You'll want to keep those goods sparkly and new for as long as possible, and that's what today's gift selections are all about - getting your tech from A to B in the safest, most stylish way possible. There's plenty of choice for transporting your goodies, ranging from the bland to the bizarre, from rucksacks to courier bags, silicone to silk -- there is literally something for everyone. Finding a one-size-fits-all solution is going to be nigh-on impossible, but we're hopeful that what we've got here will be just the ticket to re-wrap what you just unboxed.

Barnes & Noble is celebrating Black Friday with a white border. The bookstore chain is offering up a limited edition of its excellent Nook Simple Touch reader this Friday, November 25th. Slight aesthetic differences aside, the real news here is the price -- the company is knocking $20 off the already low-cost device, making it the same as Amazon's ad-supported, touchscreen-free fourth gen Kindle. The $79 deal will only last one day, so get 'em while the e-ink is hot. Press info after the jump.

N-key rollover (NKRO) is the gaming equivalent of musical polyphony, except it's less about creating beautiful harmonies and more about meleeing that camper in the corner while taking evasive maneuvers, reloading your AK, barking orders at your unit, checking the map, calling in a chopper and emailing the office -- all at precisely the same time. If that sounds beautiful to you, then you might consider picking up QPAD's new MK-85 mechanical gaming keyboard, which delivers full NKRO, USB and audio hub functionality and individual blood-red LED backlights over a single USB cable. It also has non-tactile, non-audible Cherry MX Red switches and, of course, plenty of programmable keys. The MK-85 will be available from December priced at €149 ($200). Alternatively, you can opt for a stripped-down MK-50 for €80 ($106), which plays the same core melody but without some of the trills.

We've been doling out or holiday gift giving advice in installments, but instead of making you wait, we're speeding things up a bit, and offering the full 14 categories just in time for Black Friday. Before you go into a turkey-induced coma, download our very latest special edition, the Distro 2011 Gift Guide, to find out what we've got on our wish list, and what you should have under your tree. From TVS to tablets, from smartphones to Lego sets, we've compiled a list of our favorite gadgets, gizmos and gear for every price range. Consider this your manual for fighting turkey-induced giving indecision. Now, go forth and spend! (Just don't go crazy.)

Two of the hard drive industry's biggest players will soon be just one company. European Union regulators have given a conditional thumbs-up to Western Digital's plans to snatch up Hitachi's storage division for $4.3 billion. The companies are the second and third largest hard disk manufacturers in the world (respectively) behind Seagate, which purchased Samsung's HDD division back in April. Out of concern for the quickly consolidating market, regulators only approved the Western Digital deal after assurances that the company would sell off some its production assets, including a manufacturing plant, and transfer some intellectual property to the new unit being put on the auction block. As soon as WD finds a buyer it'll be free and clear to take over Hitachi's HDD division. So, anyone interested in a hard drive manufacturing plant?