Sony announced that it will launch its line of 3D sets on June 10. The televisions will go live in Japan first and then in other markets. Sony’s first 3D TV will be a 46-inch model that retails for 350,000 yen or $3,875. That price sounds pretty steep at first, but Sony’s set will come with two pairs of active shutter glasses. $4,000 is still more than we’d throw on the 3D fire, but we’re sure some people will be wasting paying it. Sony announced plans for seven other models in the LX900, HX900 and HX800 lines, which will hit the Japanese market in June or July. These televisions will range from 40 to 60 inches ($2,450 to $6,500).

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The latest tech news by way of job posting relates to Amazon’s continual improvement upon the Kindle. The retailer appears ready to greatly improve upon the rudimentary Web browsing experience offered on the Kindle and recently posted a job listing within its Lab126 e-reading division for a browser software engineer. The hire is tasked with helping to “provide an innovative Embedded Web Browser.”

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Today, Cisco introduced the world to its next-generation Internet router for Internet service providers. The announcement was originally billed as one that would “forever change the Internet”. We’re pretty sure it landed far short of that intrigue, but it’s a big announcement just the same.

Cisco’s new CRS-3 router builds upon its CRS-1 platform, but offers enhanced performance, including the ability to handle 12 times the traffic of older models and three times the speed. The upgraded router can handle 322 TB of traffic per second.

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Is there any escaping Google these days? It’s dominating computers more and more. It’s on your phone. It’s in your car. And now it might also be on your television. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is testing out a television search feature that allows Internet-connected set-top boxes stacked with Google software to automatically search for television shows on satellite TV as well as from video sites like YouTube. The searches can be run via keyboard. The test began last year and includes a small number of Google employees and their families.

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Lately, there’s been a lot of attention on Apple’s purge of porn, Wi-Fi and other apps that it deems useless, offensive or otherwise in violation of its policies. It seems unconscionable that Apple would allow developers to sell their apps and then suddenly, without any particular warning, pull the plug and eliminate their apps entirely. The IPhone Developer Program License Agreement shows exactly why Apple has the power to do so: because developers signed it over.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation published the document along with an incisive legal analysis thereof. The organization had to resort to a Freedom of Information Act filing in order to skirt around Apple’s no-comment clause (NASA had to sign the agreement for its iPhone app). Yes, that’s right, in order to get a look at a simple business agreement, tactics used to peek into the bowels of government were employed.  

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If you dig fast-moving videos of glossy tablets flipping through multimedia, then today is your day. Earlier, we saw Apple’s iPad commercial and HP has a similar video of its Slate in action. While we still don’t know too much about what’s under the multi-touch display, at least we get to see more of the device originally shown off by Steve Ballmer.

All we can really tell you about the Slate is about the same thing we could tell you about any Windows tablet, even if we didn’t have a name or model number. The device offers video, e-reading and Web browsing. It runs Windows 7.

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Verizon has been busy preparing its 4G network, expected to launch later this year. It has been testing the network in Boston and Seattle since last August, and today the telecomm provider offered some numbers based upon its tests. The LTE network doesn’t quite make it close to the 100 Mbps speeds that 4G is supposed to offer, with peaks coming in around 40 to 50 Mbps for dowloads and 20 to 25 Mbps for uploads. What can you really expect on an average day? Verizon quotes the average speeds on a populated network at 5 to 12 Mbps for downloads and 2 to 5 Mbps for uploads.

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Last week, Samsung introduced the first 3D televisions to market (despite the fact that there’s no 3D content yet available), and there’ll soon be some competition. On Wednesday, Panasonic will follow in Samsung’s footsteps and introduce its own 50-inch 3D model in the U.S. The new television will retail for $2,500 and will be available at Best Buy. Panasonic and Best Buy will be jointly marketing the new 3D offering, with Best Buy reserving a special part of its showroom floor for customers to view and try the 3D sets.

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Got a deep, burning craving for liquor that can barely wait until 5 p.m. each day? Remind yourself of your dire problem with a Happy Hour Watch. This hunk of bulk includes both digital and analog faces. The latter only designates a number for 5 p.m., so that you can always see at a glance how long it is until that magical moment when the Scotch starts flowing.

A little more useful and less disturbing, the watch also includes a built-in bottle opener on the strap buckle–perfect for tailgating, vacations or other occasions where the beer you thought was a twist-off actually requires an opener. Of course, you could just save the $50 for a watch that actually looks good and just get a bottle opener on your keychain (likely as a free giveaway). But then how would you convey to the world your unnatural love of fermented organics?

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