What do you get if you take Sony's overpriced NW-HD2 Network Walkman, raise the price by $20, and add MP3 support?
The answer is the NW-HD3 Network Walkman that is being released this December.
Yep, that's it, move along now, no bigger hard drive, no color screen, no price cuts to make it more competitive.
Oh, and if you have the earlier NW-HD1 (released 5 months ago) or NW-HD2 (released 2 months ago) you can get a firmware upgrade, for $20.
Gateway have started selling their new M210 widescreen laptop.
The basic configuration of the M210 is 1.2" thick, weighs 5.3lb, costs $899.99, and features a 1.5GHz Celeron M processor, XP home, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, CDRW/DVD combo drive, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, integrated graphics, and a 14.1" widescreen WXGA (1366x768) LCD screen.
Seems like a good choice for a sub-$1000 laptop that is good for work and good for watching DVDs on long plane flights, but it's no good for playing games.
Network attached storage is an area of computing that is moving beyond being a solution just for large businesses and is becoming a lot more affordable for the average small business or home user.
What is network attached storage?, basically it is a box containing one or more hard drives that is connected to your wired network (like an external USB hard drive but connected directly to the network where all users can access it).
We were looking for a networked hard drive to use as an automated backup solution for our PCs and decided to test out the 120GB Buffalo Linkstation.
Did the Linkstation make the grade? keep reading to find out.
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Olympus Announces Prices For EVOLT E-300 Digital SLR Camera, Digital Specific Consumer Lenses, And Accessories
100% “Designed-for-Digital” SLR Comes with Lens for Under $1000 for World-Class Image Quality; Camera Packs Dust Protection and an 8-Megapixel Imaging Sensor into Innovative Compact, Low-Profile Body
Melville, NY, November 23, 2004 - Today Olympus officially announced that the 8.0-megapixel EVOLT E-300 Digital SLR, the first 100 percent “digital-from-the-ground-up” consumer SLR system with interchangeable digital specific lenses, will be sold with a lens for $999.99. Incorporating a newly designed compact body featuring the Dust Reduction system pioneered on the professional E-1 SLR body, the EVOLT delivers the versatility, durability and reliable performance of an SLR that isn’t just for the pros – now it’s for photographers of all skill levels at a price they can afford.
Camera, Zuiko Digital Specific Lenses, and Accessories Prices:
EVOLT E-300 Digital SLR:
$999.99 estimated street price including the 14-45mm lens ($1399 MSRP)
14-45mm f3.5 - f5.6 Lens: $249.95 estimated street when purchased separate from EVOLT ($299 MSRP)
40-150mm f3.5 - f4.5 Lens: $279.95 estimated street ($349 MSRP).
HLD-3 Battery Holder: $99.99 estimated street price ($119.95 MSRP).
Semi Hard Case CS3-SH (for EVOLT E-300 and 14.45mm or 14-54mm zooms): $49.95 estimated street price ($59.95 MSRP).
The EVOLT E-300 outfit includes a compact, 14 – 45mm f3.5 – f5.6 Zuiko Digital Specific Lens (equivalent to 28mm – 90mm in 35mm photography) that perfectly matches the imager so light strikes the sensor directly to ensure rich, accurate colors and edge-to-edge sharpness. Its 3.2x zoom covers the range most frequently used in ordinary photography and weighs just 10 ounces (285 grams) offering users an extremely dynamic, portable everyday-use zoom. Close-ups as near as 15 inches (38cm) are possible throughout the zoom range.
Another lens announced earlier this year, the 40 – 150mm f3.5 – f4.5 Zuiko Digital Specific Lens (equivalent to 80-300mm in 35mm photography), now also has a price. With 13 elements in 10 groups and a weight of just 15.75 oz/450g (approx), the Zuiko Digital 40-150mm Lens is meant to go anywhere. In addition, the lens employs an f3.5-4.5 brightness making it ideal for achieving effects like background blurring and perspective compression, suitable for everything from portraits to sports scenes. As with the 14-45mm lens, the 40-150mm is also reinforced by a multi-coating process as well as a reliable metal lens mount.
Both the 14-45mm and the 40-150mm are standard digital zoom lenses that complement each other and can be used in conjunction to cover a wide range of focal lengths and zoom ranges. In addition, both of these “designed for digital” lenses offer superb quality suitable for everyday use by advanced photographers as well as by newcomers to digital SLR products.
EVOLT Supersonic Wave Filter Leaves Other Digital SLR Cameras In the Dust
A common problem with interchangeable lens digital SLR cameras is dust settling on the image sensor. The EVOLT features an Olympus exclusive patented ultrasonic technology, the Supersonic Wave Filter™, to reduce the effects of micro dust settling on the image sensor and impacting the image quality. Located between the shutter and the CCD, the Supersonic Wave Filter uses high-speed ultrasonic vibration to cause most types of dust to fall away from the image sensor so it will not appear in photographs. The filter vibrates at 350,000 times per second and is activated every time the camera powers on, or manually via a menu selection, to instantly remove the dust from in front of the image sensor. The CCD assembly is isolated from the Supersonic Wave Filter by an airtight seal to protect it even more. This unique Olympus feature gives photographers the confidence to shoot photos and change lenses in the field, just as they’ve always done, without the worry of images being damaged or ruined by dust on the imager.
Optional Accessories Designed To Do More
HLD-3 Battery Holder
The EVOLT can accommodate the HLD-3 Battery Holder that holds one or two BLM-1 Li-Ion batteries. With two batteries, the EVOLT can capture almost double the number of images possible with only one battery. The HLD-3 has a shutter release button located at its base to enable vertical shooting, a remote socket for use with the RM-CB1 Cable Release, and a standard tripod socket.
FL-36 Flash
Compact, lightweight and designed specifically for digital photography, the FL-36 achieves higher guide numbers than comparable SLR film cameras even while maintaining wide-angle light distribution. The Guide Number is 117 feet (36 meters) at ISO 100. You'll notice the difference when using it in combination with a wide-angle lens on the EVOLT. Accurate, 1/8-step illumination control provides the precision required by digital cameras, while minimizing illumination reduction near the screen. The newly designed energy-saving circuit improves recharge rates and enables the flash to operate on just 2 AA batteries.
The FL 36 features the FP mode for syncro at shutter speeds up to 1/4000 sec. In both FP-TTL Auto and FP-Manual modes. Standard TTL-Auto, Auto and Manual flash modes are also available. It costs $199.99 estimated street price ($239.95 MSRP)
CS-3SH Semi-Hard Case
Protect the EVOLT and its lens in style with a dedicated semi-hard leather case.
Availability
The Olympus EVOLT E-300 Digital SLR will be available in December 2004. It includes: EVOLT E-300 Body, USB Cable, Video Cable, Li-Ion Battery Pack (BLM-1), Li-Ion Battery Charger (BCM-2), Shoulder Strap, OLYMPUS Master Editing Software, CD-ROM, Manuals, Warranty card, and System chart.
For more information, review units and high-resolution images of the Olympus EVOLT E-300 and accessories, contact Michael Bourne, Mullen Public Relations, 650-210-9857 or michael.bourne@mullen.com, or Chris Sluka, senior public relations manager, Olympus America Inc, Consumer Products Group, Two Corporate Center Dr., Melville, NY, P.O. Box 9058, 11747-9058, ph: (631) 844-5000 (800) 622-6372, Fax: (631) 844-5262 or the Olympus Web Site: www.olympusamerica.com/evolt
Olympus have announced pricing for the nice looking Evolt E-300 digital SLR camera:
"EVOLT E-300 Digital SLR:
$999.99 estimated street price including the 14-45mm lens ($1399 MSRP)
14-45mm f3.5 - f5.6 Lens: $249.95 estimated street when purchased separate from EVOLT ($299 MSRP)
40-150mm f3.5 - f4.5 Lens: $279.95 estimated street ($349 MSRP).
HLD-3 Battery Holder: $99.99 estimated street price ($119.95 MSRP).
Semi Hard Case CS3-SH (for EVOLT E-300 and 14.45mm or 14-54mm zooms): $49.95 estimated street price ($59.95 MSRP)."
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Cnet is reporting the biggest monthly drop in consumer electronic prices in 5 months.
Leading the way were 42 inch plasma screens which dropped almost 10% in price last month (to an average of $2500) and big drops were also seen in LCD prices (as we predicted months ago).
One thing I find silly though is that they track 128MB memory cards.... does anyone still buy 128MB memory cards when you can get a 1GB compactflash for under $50?
(if you do you can get a 128MB compachflash card from buy.com for a massive $3).
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Jeremy at Livedigitally went to the Electronic House Expo show in Long Beach CA to see what is new in the world of Home Automation.
Amongst other interesting home gadgets they took a look at the DigitalDeck whole house PVR solutions, Pelham Sloane all-in-one PC/LCDs, and the Philips Streamium networked audio/video system.
Have you ever needed to go surfing while listening to your iPod mini?, me neither, but if you did it's good to know there are gadgets around like the H2O Audio SV-iMini.
The H2O Audio SV-iMini is a completely waterproof (up to 10ft depth) casing for the iPod mini that comes with a matching waterproof headset and earplugs.
The H20 Audio SV-iMini will be available Debember 6th and will cost $149.95.
(via designtechnica)
If your homemade 1 terabyte storage server isn't big enough for you try getting 5 of these in a SATA RAID array, giving you 2 terabytes of storage. That is more than enough storage for every episode of Star Trek ever, in HDTV. (That's just a guess but if each episode is about 700MB then you could store almost 3000 episodes, and there can't be that much Trek, can there?)
Getting back on track.... Seagate has announced they are shipping their new 400GB 7200RPM hard drive in both SATA and regular ATA flavors.
The 400GB Barracude 7200.8 hard drive is the first to use 133GB disk platters, and 3 of those gives you the 400GB in this 3.5" drive.
Other features of the 400GB Barracude 7200.8 are an 8mb cache, 8ms seek time, and (on the SATA version) support for Native Command Queuing which is supposed to give performance similar to a 10000rpm drive.
Our third 1 terabyte network storage server this week is the Niveus A/V Storage Server.
This is the most expensive ($2999) but also the quietest and best looking terabyte storage server, and in a surreal moment it has already been awarded the Best of Innovations award for next year's CES show.
The Niveus A/V Storage Server has a 1Ghz VIA fanless processor, 256MB RAM, a fanless case, and an ethernet port (apparently no wireless though).
We are going to have something similar to this in our new house... but as the storage server will be in the basement in a rack next to the distributed wiring control panel it is difficult to justify paying so much when the Buffalo Terastation can be had for a third the price.
(via ehomeupgrade)
Check this out for a do it yourself alternative to the Buffalo 1 Terabyte Terastation we featured a few days ago.
Mashie took a small form factor (SFF) case, an old motherboard, a Serial-ATA RAID controller, 5 200gb hard drives, and a few other bits and pieces, and created a tiny 1 terabyte network storage device.
"It is time for a new little project again. This time I need a small footprint file server with a big internal space. Right now the files are distributed all over the the network forcing a couple of computers to constantly be on wasting power and causing noise."
(via digitalmediathoughts)
It isn't available until next week but Michael Reichmann got a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II to review.
The Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II is an $8,000 professional digital camera, the kind of camera professional photographers use, not the kind of camera an average guy takes on vacation.
"Canon's One Series cameras are that company's flagship. These are the most rugged, full-featured and fastest shooting cameras that Canon knows how to design and build. They are also a work-in-progress. Each new version builds on the one previous."
Find out what you get for your 8 grand (or 12 grand when you buy a couple of good lenses for it) by reading Michael's review.
Buffalo Technology has announced (in Japan) a 1000GB networked hard drive, the TeraStation, that appears to be designed and priced for the consumer market.
The TeraStation contains 4 250GB hard drives and can operate in 4 modes: with 4 seperate logical partitions of 250GB storage, with 1 partition of 1000GB, with a Raid-1 array offering 2 250gb partitions (each mirrored to a seperate drive in case of failure), or a Raid-5 array of 750GB.
Personally I prefer the Raid-5 array as it gives 750GB of storage along with no data loss if one of the 4 drives fail.
Some people will say who will ever need 1000GB of storage, but the same was said when 1GB was first available, or when 20MB hard drives came along.... with a high resultion camera I can easily take 1GB of photos in a day, or if you want to record TV and stream to other rooms in your house you need a lot of storage space.
The TeraStation also offers fast connectivity with USB2.0 and (more importantly) Gibabit Ethernet. The question is, can I justify buying one of these to be the central filestore in my hew home network.
The TeraStation will be available in Japan in December 2004 for 106,300 Yen (about $1,000).
(via Gizmodo)
Susan Crawford found some very interesting wording in a legal brief filed by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) as part of a lawsuit brought by a number of advocacy groups over the Broadcast Flag (a mandate that by mid-2005 all devices capable of receiving a digital signal have to obey a flag settable by the networks to prevent copying).
Now this is bad in itself as it limits our rights to record a program for viewing at a later date but it gets worse: in the brief the FCC claims that they have regulatory power over "all instrumentalities, facilities, and apparatus associated with the overall circuit of messages sent and received via all interstate radio and wire communication."
So, if a Gadget (PC, Tivo, home distributed wiring control panel, wireless router, networked hard drive) is capable of receiving and/or transmitting on any digital file the FCC thinks they can regulate it and force manufacturers to support the broadcast flag.
Now the FCC is on a morality crusade at the moment, starting with Janet Jackson at the Superbowl and leading to 20 ABC affiliates refusing to air "Saving Private Ryan" on Veterans day because they were afraid of FCC fines over the violence and the F word, I don't want an organization like that trying to regulate my pc, my home network, and my internet use.
Appleinsider is reporting that Apple is about to begin manufacturing a flash-based MP3 player that will be announced at the Macworld show in San Francisco next January.
This is a big area where Apple has been lacking, having 90+% market share of hard drive based MP3 players, but not having any flash based players which typically sell for $100 to $200 and have 128mb to 2gb memory.
The rumor is that Apple will offer players with between 256mb and 1gb of memory that will be priced under $200.
I think Dell really need to start pushing their Pocket DJ: it is a 5gb hard drive player that I have seen priced as low as $180. If I had a choice of a 1gb Apple for $200 or a 5gb Dell for $180 I know what I would buy as at the end of the day iPods are pretty but they are over-priced and under-featured.
(via appleinsider)
TrustedReviews has taken a look at the Elonex Lumina Media Center PC which, although named like a car, is a Microsoft XP Media Center 2005 PC inside a 32 inch LCD TV.
The stats of the pre-production Elonex Lumina are 3.0GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB RAM, 200GB hard drive, 128mb Radeon 9600 graphics, Win-TV PVR-500 dual tuner TV card, 10/100 ethernet, 802.11a/b/g wireless, DVD writer, memory card slot, and a 1344 x 768 pixel widescreen display.
Pretty impressive stats!
I would buy something like this for the family room of out new house except for one reason: a 32 inch screen is still too small for a medium or large family room; it works for an apartment but when you are 15 feet or more away from the screen you need something at least 45 inches across. Now, if Sharp were to put a similar setup inside their 45" Aquos screen for about $1,500 above the price of the screen on its own I would be very interested.
The Elonex Lumina will be available in the UK and will cost around $4,000.
Everyone thought the Sony U50/U70 line of handtop PCs had been dropped but now Sony has announced that there will be a new version: the U750P, and that it will be available in the US.
The Sony Vaio U750P will features a low-voltage Intel Pentium-M processor at 1.1GHz with 2MB cache, 512MB RAM, 20GB hard drive, a 5" SVGA (800x600) touch sensitive screen with 64MB video RAM, 802.11b/g WiFi, a USB 2.0 port, and a CompactFlash and MemoryStick slot.
The Sony Vaio U750P comes with a docking station with 4 USB ports, eithernet and firewire but there is no bluetooth support unless you get a bluetooth CF card.
The Sony Vaio U750P runs Microsoft Windows XP Professional and should be out in December for around $2000.
(via jkontherun)
ULTRA PERSONAL COMPUTING IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND
Sony VAIO U-Series Notebook Combines Power of Full-size PC with Portability of PDA
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 9, 2004 _ At a shade over 1 pound, Sony's new VAIO® U Ultra Portable PC, announced today, has the heart of a PC but the soul of an entertainer.
Doubling as a portable media player, this "pocketable" PC allows you to download entertainment content and enjoy it virtually anywhere you go. Integrated 802.11 b/g wireless LAN connects you to thousands of hotspots across the country and helps you stay in touch with the Internet, email and your favorite digital content download services.
Multiple input modes contribute to the PC's extreme versatility. Using the stylus and virtual keyboard on the unit's touch panel screen, you can compose email messages or navigate files even while standing up. Handwriting recognition software simplifies note-taking or annotating documents. Users can also quickly launch programs or execute common commands with thumb-controlled action buttons, or draft longer text files with the included foldout keyboard.
"The U-Series expands the usability of portable PCs beyond the realm of even the lightest traditional notebooks," said Mike Abary, general manager of VAIO PC marketing for Sony Electronics' IT Products Division. "It fits a full-fledged Windows® operating system, Intel® processor and all the entertainment capabilities that make it a Sony, into a `go-anywhere' package that's smaller than a paperback novel."
The unit's 5-inch display with XBRITE™ LCD technology brings movies and photos to life with crisp, high-contrast playback. Memory Stick® and Compact Flash media slots make it easy to import files or digital photos from a variety of digital still cameras. With intuitive thumb controls, users can change the display orientation on the fly, from landscape to portrait mode and back, for optimal viewing of virtually any content.
Whatever, Wherever
Included accessories make the PC even more effective in a variety of different environments. The inner-ear headphones and remote control make digital music and movies a joy whether you're on a plane or on the run. The mobile AC adapter, foldout keyboard and VGA/Ethernet adapter combine for an ideal road package. At home, the port replicator facilitates charging while connecting the PC to a variety of external devices such as a mouse, display, hard drive and/or optical drive.
An Intel® Ultra Low Voltage Pentium® M processor and Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional operating system ensure that the power and the platform for general computing tasks exist on the VAIO U notebook. And exclusive applications, such as SonicStage® software, allow users to take maximum control of their digital content, reinforcing Sony's commitment to entertainment.
The VAIO U Ultra Portable notebook will be available next month at SonyStyle stores and other select retailers, as well as online at www.sonystyle.com for about $2,000.
###
Editor's Note: Sony Electronics' Information Technology Products Division (ITPD) markets VAIO® notebook and desktop computers, as well as branded storage products. For additional information about Sony computer products, consumers can call (888) 315-SONY, or visit Sony's web site at: www.sony.com/vaio. For complete specifications and digital images, members of the news media are invited to visit Sony Electronics' news and information web site at www.sony.com/news.
Contact Info:
Valerie Motis
Sony Electronics Inc.
Christopher Downing
Ruder-Finn/Switzer
(415)348-2733
According to Gartner Dataquest research worldwide sales of Pocket PC devices exceeded shipments of Palm OS devices for the first time in Q3 (July-Sept) 2004.
2004 Palm OS sales are expected to be down 23% to 4.4 million compared 2003 while Pocket PC sales are expected to be up 15% to 5 million units.
When the results are broken out by company we get the top 5 as follows:
1) palmOne: 26.2%
2) HP: 24.2%
3) RIM: 19.8%
4) Dell: 6.5%
5) Symbol: 2.2%
(via brighthand)
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Sometimes size is everything. Google has just announced it has doubled the size of it's index of web pages from 4 billion to 8 billion.
What this means is that for queries that only returned a few results before you should see a lot more relevant results now.
Here is a search box, try it out and see if you get better results:
Dell Home has a bunch of coupons today:
Dell Axim X30 high Pocket PC: $379 with free shipping (use $35 off $350 code)
Dell Axim V50v VGA Pocket PC: $464 with free shipping (use $35 off $350 code)
Canon Powershot S500 5 megapixel digital camera: $324 with free shipping (use $35 off $350 code)
Canon Powershot S410 4 megapixel digital camera: $279 with free shipping (use $35 off $350 code)
Dell 2001fp 1600x1200 pixel 20 inch LCD monitor: $604 with free shipping (use $35 off $350 code)
Dell 2005fp 1680x1050 pixel widescreen 20 inch LCD monitor: $644 with free shipping (use $35 off $350 code)
$35 off $350 accessories purchase with code BPDHZ0CHM?ZBLZ (expires 11/11/04)
25% off $999 Inspiron laptops with code 2WL7WMLD3Q4G23 (expires 11/15/04)
25% off $1299 Dimension desktops with code M60LDQM2TH?N37 (expires 11/18/04)
30% off $1799 Dimension desktops with code 3TB6R405280WT1 (expires 11/18/04)
(above codes replace the 15% to 25% discounts shown for desktops and laptops)
CNET has an excellent guide showing which programs on broadcast and cable/satellite TV are broadcast in high definition, it even goes so far as to tell you which are in 720p format and which are in 1080i.
Channels listed include: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, UPN, WB, Bravo HD+, Comcast SportsNet, Discovery HD Theater, Encore HD, ESPN HD, HBO HDTV, HDNet, HDNet Movies, INHD/INHD2, The Movie Channel HD, MSG Network, NBA TV, Showtime HDTV, Starz HD, and TNT-HD.
TitanTV Listings (thanks KCT)
(via pocketmediathoughts)
The free Mozilla Firefox open-source web browser has at last been officially released, and 10 million downloads are expected over the coming days.
Features of Firefox listed as improvements on Internet Explorer include: tabbed browsing (multiple pages in one web browser window), good handling of popups and cookies, built-in google search, RSS integration, and loads of extensions that add functionality.
Almost 10% of visitors to ShinyPlastic.com already use Firefox and I expect that number to get higher.
Sharp has announced a new 23 inch High-Definition LCD TV that doesn't seen as fully featured as their Aquos line but is still high quality.
The Sharp IT-23M1U has a contrast ratio of 550:1 and a brightness of 500 nits, Sharp also claims a response time of "under 16ms".
The screen is a WXGA 1366 by 768 pixel widescreen format and it has built in 10 watt speakers.
Personally I am trying to decide between getting a monitor like this in the kitchen or going with a cheaper monitor like a 20" dell with DVI and S-Video connectors.
The Sharp IT-23M1U is available now and retails for $1499.
The guys over at Popular Science came up with a fairly easy way to increase bluetooth range from 50 feet to about 5000 feet, as long as you are confortable wielding a soldering iron.
"So I detached the stock antenna from a Linksys USBBT100 Class 1 USB Bluetooth adapter ($70; linksys.com) and replaced it with a larger HyperGain RE05U 2.4GHz antenna ($15; hyperlinktech.com). With that simple mod, I can make a Bluetooth connection up to a mile away—about 4,950 feet farther than most."
Sounds fun
(popular science via engadget)
In 5 years you could be taking a flying taxi to London's Heathrow Airport instead of the usual black cab, and it will even cost about the same.
London-based developers Avcen have come up with a concept for the Jetpod Flying Taxi: a small (5 passenger) plane that can take off and land in 400ft, is ultra-quiet, and will cruise at 350mph.
The trip from the center of London to the Airport would only take 2 or 3 minutes: I just hope they don't make you turn up for the Jetpod 2 hrs before departure.
(daily mirror via tech digest)
We had been planning on upgrading the power supply on our main PC for a while as our power supply was noisy and underpowered for the 3 hard drives, 2 optical drives, and power guzzling ATI graphics card in our system.
Replacing a power supply is one of the most complex do-it-yourself jobs on a PC, in my mind second only in complexity to replacing a motherboard. We therefore looked around for a solution that promised to be a high-quality replacement that wouldn't need to be upgraded again for years.
We thought the Ultra X-Connect 500w PSU looked to be a good fit for our needs and Ultra Products were kind enough to send one over for us to review.
An additional advantage to upgrading to the Ultra X-Connect is that is has a modular cable system where you just install the cables you need removing a lot of the clutter from your PC (hopefully improving airflow and reliability at the same time).
How did we fare at replacing our power supply?, and how has it performed?, keep reading to find out......