There are lots of men and women out there who really like cars and for many of these folks the exotic car is one of the vehicles that get them the most excited. Marques like Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche get the hearts of enthusiasts around the globe fluttering.

The reality of having a fascination with vehicles that can cost up to a million dollars each is that the vast majority of fans of exotic cars will never sit in one let alone drive one. Gresso has a sleek line of flash drives that are a far cry from owning an exotic car, but are made from similar materials.

The Grand Monaco collection is made from titanium that is coated with ceramic and the drive has carbon fiber inserts as well. There are two models the double Security and the Classic. The double security drive has two USB drives with 32GB of storage each for $500. The traditional drive is offered in 32GB ($300), 16GB ($200), and 8GB ($150).

If you’re looking for a 13.3-inch ultraportable with some style, reasonable performance and a sub-$1,000 price tag then, according to NetbookLive, you should immediately be wiring your money to ASUS.  They’ve been reviewing the ASUS UL30A, and reckon it’s actually the best ultraportable on offer in its price-bracket.

Earning particular praise are the specifications – which start with Intel’s Core 2 Duo SU9600 from the company’s CULV range, and then bolt on 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard-drive and GMA 4500 graphics – and the connectivity; ASUS stuff not only WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth inside this particular notebook, but the UL30A also gets an integrated 3G modem.  The battery – rated for up to 9hrs – managed a healthy 6, and build quality is high.

In the minuses column are a chiclet keyboard that shows more flex than you’d want, an insanely glossy display and a mere 0.3-megapixel webcam.  Not bad at all, and while we’ll save our own enthusiasm until we have a chance to go hands-on with the ASUS UL30A ourselves, this certainly seems to be a vote for the compact ultraportable.

It’s only been a day since we reported that Nokia was planning on keeping carrier branding as far away from the N900 and Maemo-enabled devices as possible, but it looks like all of that just changed. In a big way. And now, it seems that Nokia is taking a stand in the other direction, leaving us to wonder what the deal really is. Was our excitement misplaced? Or is Nokia just trying to calm the waters, before any real announcements regarding the upcoming N900’s release on carriers is released?

Nokia has come forward to clear the air, either way. They went ahead and put the clamp down, saying that the reports which “erroneously suggested that Nokia will not support operator customizations for Maemo devices are simply incorrect.” The full report is lengthy, but it basically boils down to the fact that Nokia is apparently very open to letting carriers customize Maemo devices, which obviously includes the imminent release of the N900.

Carrier customizations aren’t anything new, at least if you’re not on an iPhone, Android device, or the Palm Pre (or the upcoming Pixi). While social network integration seems to be one of the biggest common denominators in upcoming phones, carrier customizations seem to also be going by the wayside, at least by some of the bigger names in the business. Is this a good or bad thing? That really depends on what you like. If you’ve got AT&T and don’t mind all of their U-verse applications on your featurephone, then you’ve got no issues. But if one of the reasons you love your iPhone so much is because there’s no AT&T software on there, then you’ll probably be a little upset by this news.

Dell have outed their latest XPS performance desktops, the 8000-series and 9000-series, based on Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 processors, together with pushing their latest CULV notebooks, the Inspiron 14z and 15z, out of the door.  The 8000 and 9000 desktops have optional Blu-ray drives, standard DVD burners, and start from $799.

There’s also up to 16GB of RAM on offer, space for dual hard-drives and a choice of video cards from both ATI and NVIDIA.  Ports include eight USB 2.0 and an eSATA, together with a multiformat card reader, plus there’s a tray up top where you can leave your PMP while its recharging.  The XPS 9000 starts from $1,999.

As for the CULV notebooks, the 14z and 15z are 14-inches and 15.6-inches respectively, and use Intel’s Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz processor paired with up to 8GB of RAM and GMA X4500HD graphics.  The displays both run at 1,366 x 768 and there’s up to 500GB of storage; meanwhile connectivity includes WiFi a/g/n and Bluetooth, plus a multiformat card reader, 1.3-megapixel webcam and 6-cell battery.  Prices start from $599.

Fresh details and this rather fetching official render of the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9700 (aka the BlackBerry Onyx) have emerged, courtesy of CIO.  Prematurely distributed by T-Mobile USA, they confirm that the Bold 9700 will pack both 3G and WiFi, together with support for UMA VoIP.

“The BlackBerry ‘Onyx’ sports a premium experience and design with a high-gloss black finish and leather grain detail on the back. Boasting features such as high-speed 3G Web browsing, Wi-Fi calling, visual voicemail and support for corporate and personal e-mail options, the ‘Onyx’ will satisfy all your on-the-go needs. Also the phone comes preloaded with mobile applications from BlackBerry App World, including Amazon MP3 store for quick and easy music downloads and TeleNav GPS Navigator for turn-by-turn directions.” T-Mobile USA

The Amazon MP3 store app being preloaded suggests that RIM and the online retailer have done a similar deal to Palm and the Pre, making on-device downloads of music far more straightforward.  It’s unclear whether this app is different to the one currently available to download separately for BlackBerry devices.

CIO snapped through a T-Mobile embargo to release the image and details, the official break date of which was early November.  The carrier suggest they’ll have the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on the market before the end of the year, so it looks like there’s a roughly 1.5 month window in which it’ll hit shelves.  No idea of pricing, but this is a top-end smartphone so figure in the $200 region with a new contract.