It’s the Fourth of July, so let’s start out by wishing a very happy Independence Day to all the Americans in the audience, both at home and abroad. It is during this weekend that you may head out to watch some Hollywood blockbusters, but what if you’re not into the whole 3D thing.

This product could be just the ticket. What you see here is a set of 2D glasses. Yes, two dimensions. This isn’t just a gimmick either, because it really does have a functional purpose. If you don’t like 3D but the local multiplex is only showing the movie you want to see in 3D, you can bring these along.

Compatible with current movies being shown with RealD 3D technology, the 2D glasses effectively filter out the image that is supposed to be destined to your left eye. Instead, both eyes get the image that was intended for your right eye. The result is no 3D effect; you get the regular old flat 2D image instead.

Go against the grain without sticking out from the crowd. Check out these un-3D-ifying 2D glasses at Thinkgeek for a very reasonable $8.99 each.

Not everyone needs a full-fledged smartphone, though there is certainly a lot of appeal to having constant access to your Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, as well as the countless apps that Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone can bring to the table. Even so, non-smartphones can represent huge savings for people who don’t need so much functionality.

One such example is the recently unveiled Sony Ericsson txt. It may have the same look as an E-Series smartphone from Nokia, but this is “only” a feature phone. You’ll see the modest 2.6-inch QVGA display, along with the full hardware QWERTY keyboard below it.

As its name and keyboard clearly imply, the Sony Ericsson txt is being geared largely toward people who send and receive a lot of text messages. The rest of the features aren’t groundbreaking, but they’re not terribly mediocre either. There’s FM radio, Wi-Fi, a 3.2MP camera, Bluetooth, and a memory card slot.

Sony Ericsson hasn’t indicated a price for this feature phone yet, but there’s a good chance that it’ll end up on the “free with contract” offers with various carriers. Look for the Sony Ericsson txt in the third quarter of this year.

There are many different tablets on the market these days and this surge has largely been brought on by the rise of the Apple iPad. This has paved the way for several Android tablets, but few can say they’re quite as rugged as the upcoming Panasonic Toughbook tablet.

Naturally a part of the Panasonic Toughbook line of tough electronics — the Toughbook notebook PCs are widely used by the military and law enforcement officials — the tablet runs on an unspecified version of Google Android. The 10.1-inch display appears to be matte, though it’s unclear whether it’s capacitive or resistive. Panasonic does note that it will use a stylus.

As can be expected from a Toughbook product, the tablet will likely adhere to military standards for ruggedness, withstanding all sorts of abuse via sand, temperature, and moisture. It will also come with optional 3G and 4G connectivity, which is very important for professionals when they are out in the field.

Not much else is being revealed at this point, but Panasonic has indicated that it is targeted a Christmas launch later this year.

Do you want to get into the Android craze but just can’t get yourself to spend $500 or more on one of the newer tablet devices? While you may still want to get a Xoom or Eee Pad, the Archos 28 Internet Tablet is a much more affordable option. It’s also much more portable.

That’s because it utilizes a smaller 2.8-inch color touchscreen, making for a more compact form factor. Notable features include the 4GB of storage capacity and wide range of file format support, allowing you to play everything from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis, H.264 to WMV/VC1 files. You connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.

You’ll also notice that the Archos 28 runs on Google Android. This application framework provides an email applicaiton, web browser, media player, customizable homescreen, live wallpapers and 3D games. You don’t have to worry about updating to the latest version of Android either, as the the device will detect and download those for you.

So, how much does it cost? The Archos 28 Internet Tablet is currently on sale for $84 through Amazon.ca, including free shipping. That’s one-fifth the price of many other Android tablets!

Asus has used the UX name before for its line of ultraportable notebooks, but a new generation of these smaller laptops was unveiled at Computex Taipei 2011 last week. The new Asus UX series takes a direct stab at the same market occupied by the MacBook Air, being remarkably thin and portable.

There are some key differences, of course, aside from the Windows operating system. Asus uses what it calls “spun” aluminum for this unibody design and it takes on a distinctly different look from its Apple competitor. You’ll also notice that it is powered by more powerful Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors, while still retaining relatively low power consumption. We’re also hearing that at least one of the SKUs will have super-speedy SATA 6Gb/s solid state drives in tow.

If you like thin, you’ll like how the Asus UX is just 17mm at its thickest point toward the back, tapering down to just 3mm in the front. It’s also a mere 1.1kg in weight, making it one of the lightest subcompacts on the market. Rounding out the specs are USB 3.0, micro-HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort.

At this point, Asus hasn’t announced anything in terms of pricing and availability. That said, it should be in the same price range (if not slightly lower) than equivalent MacBook Air models. Check out the video on MegaTechNews for a closer look at this hot little computer.

The idea of having a tablet device certainly isn’t new. They’ve been in use for years in a number of different industries, but tablets have certainly risen to the mainstream thanks largely to the popularity of the iPad. However, 2011 is seeing many fantastic Android tablets that could really give Apple a run for its money. One such example is the HTC Flyer.

Unlike many other newer Android tablets that are running on Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the HTC Flyer uses a special build of Android 2.4 (Gingerbread). Some time in the future, though, HTC is promising that the Flyer can be upgraded to the more tablet-centric Honeycomb version of Android.

As far as the main specifications go, you can expect to see a 7-inch display (1024 x 600) on the HTC Flyer. This makes it the same size as a BlackBerry PlayBook or Samsung Galaxy Tab. It is powered with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, along with 32GB of storage, wireless connectivity, 5MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, and a tablet optimized version of the HTC Sense user interface.

The WiFi-only version of the HTC Flyer Android tablet will reportedly sell for $499, though that price does not include the special $80 capacitive stylus accessory. A model with HSPA+ is also being offered.