In what might be insignificant news on the face of it, YouTube has soft-launched a refined player design which is rolling out on the videos being displayed on the site.

It makes the elements on the control bar squarer, with a gradient effect added to the buttons, as well as a new longitudinal volume control bar, as opposed to the vertical one that has been in use up to now.
The video progress bar now overlays the base of the clip, as opposed to being integrated onto the control bar as in the old player.

Embedded videos looks as though they're sticking to the current version as of the time of writing, perhaps as a result of a slight size change which would change embeds across the web.

It may seem like a trivial update, but with the site now serving a billion videos per day, it will be felt by the vast majority of the web browsing public. It may also give the company more options with regards to the design of their HTML5 player.

[YouTube]

We ran a story last week saying that mobile phone manufacturer Palm was up for sale, and we pondered that heavyweights such as HTC or Lenovo might swoop in and grab the company in a fire-sale.

However, HP has come straight in from the left-field and snapped the struggling webOS and Pre producer up for $1bn (with around $200m in debt as well).

The mobile handset company announced its cloud-connection webOS operating system last year at CES but failed to capitalise on their software advantage by releasing handsets rocking the device in time, or releasing a game development SDK effectively to jump on the apps bandwagon.

Struggling sales in the face of stiff competition from their iPhone and Android rivals really kicked them in the ribs, and the promising new platform never took off in the way that they hoped. The sale to HP makes it seem more likely that some of the more inventive aspects will remain, as the company doesn't have a competing mobile division in which ideas will be lost.

So, HP buys Palm. We really don't think that was on many people's radars this time last week.

[BBC]

TomTom has just announced the new Go Live 1000 sat-nav which aims to bring real-time information into the hands of everyday motorists with a sleek piece of hardware and access to a range of their helpful traffic services.

The device packs a capacitive touchscreen which interacts with a WebKit-powered interface (WebKit being the engine behind the Chrome and Safari browsers), all on top of an ARM 500MHz processor.

Working with Vodafone, the company will be offering a years free access to all of their services to a new owner (with it costing just over £40pa thereafter), which includes things like their HD Traffic mobile alerts, IQ Routes feature for plotting the fastest route at that time of day as well as downloadable apps and software updates over the mobile network.

Pricing information hasn't been released yet, but it will be available to buy in the Summer.

Spotify, the music streaming service that has been taking Europe by storm for the past year, has just revealed the details of their next-generation client which is rolling out this week which brings social tools right into the music listening experience.

You'll now have a fully-editable personal profile on the site which will allow you to push playlists and favourite artists, as well as the option to publish your profile to your blog or Facebook page, allowing more interaction with it among friends. You can also send tracks to friends using the new "Inbox" feature, a potentially ground-breaking way of sharing up and coming tracks from new and old bands alike.

Then you have the new social news feed style information which lets you see songs and playlists that have been recommended by friends, making the whole experience more connected, potentially making it more rewarding.

Plus, you can now import any tracks that are on your computer which might be missing from their library, to get a more unified experience.

The update will be rolled out this week automatically, but there should be a link later in the day if you're impatient and want to get your hands on the new client as soon as possible.

Big image after the break.

There has been a flurry of press this week speculating that Foursquare, the social geo-location check-in service, is contemplating a potentially huge exit to one of the stalwart web companies out there who have been sniffing around for a while.

Bloomberg are reporting that the CEO of Foursquare Dennis Crowley is hoping to get all questions about their funding sorted out in the next few weeks so they can "get back to work".

As Jason Calacanis points out on This Week in Startups, there are potentially three avenues this could take. Extra venture capital investment to take the company to the next level with everyone still involved, a sale to one of the major web properties or an investment with the ability for the team to take money off of the table ($10m investment, $5m to the company, $5m to the employees to keep them secure).

Rumours have seen a deal with Yahoo! for $100m, with Microsoft and Facebook also looking at it.

[Bloomberg]

Google spiced up the sat-nav market late last year by announcing it was bringing turn-by-turn navigation to its wildly popular Maps application, essentially turning Android devices into sat-navs on their own.

The main sticking point for us was that it was US-only at the time, but a variety of reports coming out of publications in this fair land indicate that Google flicked the switch this morning, enabling it in the UK.

Engadget hit us with the news this morning, and it's been independently verified in other places. Apparently confirmed sightings are on the Nexus One and Desire Android 2.1 phones, as well as the Dell Mini 5 and Sony Ericsson X10 Android 1.6 devices.

This comes a little over a week after Google began selling its Nexus One car dock from its online store.

[Engadget]

We were assuming that Apple's WiFi + 3G toting iPad would be pushed back into May as it was due to hit a month after the WiFi only model, but Apple has just announced that it will actually be arriving a few weeks earlier than anticipated.

April 30th is when you can get your hands on one if you're in the United States of America. Did Apple bring forward the release date to help fend off disappointed consumers with shortages of the WiFi only version?

Still no news on the UK launch of either model, but if they are heading off stock problems in NA, then it might still be a while. If you're reading this from *that* side of the pond though, your pre-orders will be delivered and stores will have them after 5pm, sofill your boots come April 30th.

[Apple PR]