Yet another eeepc clone: the second one of today is the One A210 Mini Notebook.
This little copycat features a 7-inch 800 × 480 pixel display, VIA C7 1.0 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 4GB Flash Drive, 2 USB ports, 100 mbit LAN, 3-in-one card reader, 0.3 megapixel web cam, and windows XP home.
The One A320 measures 24.3cm x 17.1cm x 2.8cm, weighs 950g, and costs 279 euros (around $430).
Sony just launched a new WiFi enabled photo frame over in Japan.
The VFG-CP1 features a 7" 800x480 screen, card reader, 512MB of memory, and a USB port.
It doesn't just show photos though, it can play music, display the time, show RSS feeds, and get you the latest weather forecast.
The VFG-CP1 will be available on Japan on May 17th and will cost around $258.
(via engadget)
Toshiba has just announced the Portege M800 laptop in Europe.
The Portege M800 has a 2GHz core 2 duo processor, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 13.3" screen, FM tuner, 1.3 megapixel webcam, and wireless 802.11a/b/g/n.
There is no pricing yet, and it should be available in Europe in Q3.
(via techdigest)
Clarion has announced two new GPS navigation systems in Europe that feature a three-dimensional display of major buildings and points of interest.
Their other features include a 4.3" display, text-to-speech, TMC tuner, lane assistant, bluetooth, and multimedia player, all powered by a 400MHz processor.
The Map680 comes with 1GB of memory and 4 regional variations, while the Map780 has 2GB of memory and maps for 43 European countries.
(via navigadget)
Pioneer has announced their 2008 US lineup of Kuro Plasma TVs.
The focus is on deeper black levels, 5x deeper than last years models plus they have software that monitors room conditions and automatically makes adjustments.
There aren't many hard details in the press release, butthey are 3.7" thick, they will start arriving in June, are all 1080p, and will start with a 50" for $4000 and a 60" for $5500.
Press release:
As if "urban youth" weren't annoying enough, they can now buy hoodies with built-in speakers.
At least the speakers are unpowered so the noise shouldn't be too deafening. Then again they will probably be less annoying that the people having loud one-sided bluetooth phonecalls.
Thankfully these are just a prototype for now.
(via makezine)
Asus has warned users to beware of third party batteries that may have damaged at least one eee pc and noted that such damage would not be covered under warranty.
Apparently there are batteries available in China for $71 to $86 that had capacities up to twice that of the standard eee pc battery.
The battery maker denies the claims of overheating and states that it is propaganda put out by their rivals designed to hurt their sales.
(via digitimes)
Gizmag has taken a new look at the Rinspeed sQuba amphibious zero emission concept car that turned up at last year's Geneva Motor Show.
The sQuba is designed to go 75mph on land and about 2mph in the water, it is powered by a single 54 kW motor plus a four additional engines for underwater:2 x 800W units drive the twin stern propellers and up front, 2 x 3.6kW Seabob jet drives for steering.
The open top combined with going underwater is a bit strange though: do you wear a wetsuit all day in case you need to go underwater or do you just get your clothes wet and keep some spare clothes in the truck?
(more at gizmag)
The register has reviewed the $300 Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS20 digital camera.
Here's what they thought:
"Overall, we liked the DMC-FS20 very much. It lacks some of the glitz of other models in a similar price range and it doesn't offer a great deal when it comes to manual control. But then again, this is exactly what many digital camera owners are looking for. The next time you're in the market for a digital camera, may we respectively suggest that, in addition to considering the usual suspects, you check out this Panasonic offering as well."
(more at theregister)
Hitachi has joined Fujitsu in promising a 320GB 7200rpm 2.5 inch laptop hard drive.
The Travelstar 7K320 is said to have all the benefits of a 7200rpm drive (speed) without most of the problems.
it's battery performance is 22% than previous drives sucking up 1.8 watts when reading/writing (the same as a 5400rpm drive) but it's idling power consumption is higher: 0.8 watts compared to 0.55 watts for a 5400rpm drive.
No price yet but Hitachi claims they will have the drives for sale later this month which means they could be out sooner than the Fujitsu drives which aren't expected to appear until June.
(via crave)
Sprint has released a video comparing their Sprint Instinct GPS to using Google Maps on the iPhone. This video also shows off the nice slim look of the Instinct compared to the iPhone.
Irons are a necessity: don't iron your clothes and your boss thinks you are a lazy hippie, iron your clothes and you look smart and presentable and get a promotion.
A downside to irons has always been that they take ages to cool off so you leave them sitting there while you watch the kids and pets to make sure they don't go play with the cord.
Now you can just put the iron away and forget about it in the Sunbeam hot iron storage case: it's made of fancy heat resistant plastics, has adjustable silicon pads to hold the iron, and has a locking lid to keeps the kids/pets out.
Great idea and only $20 at Sunbeam
(via ohgizmo)
Asus has announced a little USB TV tuner/receiver that they claim is plug and play (or should that be plug and watch) on any xp or vista pc.
The My Cinema U3100 mini automatically launches TV viewing software and doesn't need any external power source, getting all it's juice through the PCs powered USB2 slot.
The press release makes it sound like the second coming, but I think we will wait for a few reviews to get a better idea of it's capabilities.
(via fareastgizmos)
Pioneer's second blu-ray announcement of the day is the Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD.
It's basic features are the same as the Pioneer BDP-51FD we covered earlier: blu-ray profile 1.1, 1080p/24 output, onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD master audio, 7.1 analog output, and wolfson digital audio converters.
The Elite adds gold plated connectors, aluminum front panel, touch sensitive buttons, and $200 for a total price tag of $800.
We are still not impressed.
Joystiq reader Mat Brady sent in some interesting concept art he put together.
He calls it the iwish because "I wish Sony would get their act together and improve the PSP. So many people are doing such amazing and innovative things these days, and yet the only innovative thing to happen to the PSP since 2005 was that it got a little slimmer."
Mat then goes on to discuss convergence and the prerequisites for a converged device.
Personally I don't think we will have a true converged device until we have projected head-up displays (that don't look like dork glasses) along with virtual input devices - otherwise there is no way to fit a keyboard, a good sized high res touchscreen, and a game controller in a device small enough to carry in a pocket.
Pioneer has announced their least expensive blu-ray player to date.
The $600 Pioneer BDP-51FD will be out this summer features blu-ray profile 1.1, 1080p/24 output, onboard Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD master audio, 7.1 analog output, and wolfson digital audio converters.
Overall those specs aren't very impressive and the lack of blu-ray 2.0 support is a real deal-killer for us.
Verizon promised us the Blackberry Curve in May and they delivered: it is now up on their site.
The curve is available for $169.99 with a two year contract (after $50 mail-in rebate) and features Dual-band 800/1900 Mhz 1x EV-DO networks, 96 MB Flash Memory/32 MB RAM, 2.5" 320x240 LCD screen, 2 megapixel camera, bluetooth and MicroSD slot. It's dimensions are 4.2" x 2.4" x 0.6" and it weighs 4oz.
(more at verizon)
HTC has uploaded 9 videos from their London press launch of the HTC Touch Diamond to YouTube.
The first one is above and the rest are after the jump.
(via pocketpcthoughts)
NokNok.tv has put out a video of the Nokia 6600 Fold phone and it looks pretty good.
The phone features twin OLED screens, Quad band GSM, WCDMA 850/2100, and 2 megapixel camera.
If you are looking for a stylish phone that doesn't claim to be a smartphone and need a PhD to operate then you should take a look at the 6600 fold.
(via bgr)
We told you about the buffalo linkstation mini 1TB NAS solution last month, and now Trusted Reviews has got their hands on one to review.
Here's what they thought:
"The LinkStation Mini may not be as fast as larger boxes sporting 3.5in hard disks (it took around one minute 30 seconds to write a 1GB file), and it may not offer quite as much RAID flexibility either. However, it does offer something that no other NAS appliance does - 1TB in a truly tiny chassis. It's also reasonably priced, considering the amount of storage on offer, and that Buffalo has used 7,200rpm SATA notebook drives.
Anyone who has been put off the idea of a NAS box for home, will welcome the diminutive dimensions of the LinkStation Mini, while the silent running means that you could house it in any room of your house without it annoying visually or audibly. If I could have got the web access working, the LinkStation Mini could have walked away with 10/10 and an Editor's Choice, but as it stands it still warrants a whole hearted Recommended."
(more at trustedreviews)
Trusted Reviews has reviewed the Sharp Aquos LC32X20E 1080p LCD TV.
Here's what they thought:
"Despite not completely delivering on its full HD promise, Sharp's LC-32X20E is a good TV that becomes very good with really immaculate HD sources and most HD video games.
What's more, while we can't ignore the fact that there are 32in TVs out there that clearly outperform it - Philips' 32PFL9632D and Panasonic's TX-32LZD85 immediately spring to mind - those superior TVs tend to cost a good hundred pounds or so more.
In other words, if you're a resolution obsessive on a limited budget, especially if you're also a big console gamer, the LC-32X20E definitely warrants a look."
32" with 1080p seems pointless to us unless you plan on using it as a PC monitor. At regular TV viewing distances you won't be able to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p on a 32" screen.
(more at trustedreviews)
YAEC: Yet another eeepc clone.
This time it's the Yinlap Micro PC YDP-G77 that is unremarkably similat to the 7" Eee PC 701.
It's specs are 7" LCD screen, LINUX operating system, 400MHz processor, 500MB flash memory.
With those mediocre specs expect it to be slow and cheap.
(via eeepcblog)
New from Savit Micro in Korea is this twin USB/eSATA hard disk drive enclosure.
It support 2 3.5" SATA hard drives, as well as RAID0/RAID1/NORMAL/JBOD/JBOD33/JBOD50, and it has a Silicon Image Sil5744 SteelVine RAID processor which supports hot-plugging.
(via akihibaranews)
Sony has announced two new network attached storage (NAS) solutions.
Both have an all-in-one memory card reader and am internal 1 or 1.5TB drive amd support a wide variety of file formats: MP3, WAV, ATTRAC, ATTRAC Advanced Lossless, AAC, WMA files and AVCHD, MPEG2, and HDV (MEPG2-TS) video files.
The 1.5TB version will sell for around $1500.
There's a video after the jump.
(via akihibaranews)
In most countries it is legal to unlock a phone that is locked to a particular network provider, but the network providers don't want you doing it as they subsidize the cost of the phones.
Software unlocking solutions exist for many phones but that messes with the phones firmware and breaks the warranty.
Another option is this universal SIM unlock card: you just insert it in parallel with your SIM card and it unlocks the phone so you can use it on a different network.
The unlock card costs $23 and works with a wide range of phones including the iPhone.
(list of supported phones, via techchee)
The Japanese Space Agency and NHK (Japanese TV) send a high definition camera to the moon.
Today they released a ton of photos as well as some 720P video.
Here's our weird Japanese gadget of the day.
We have one of those little USB things that heats your cup of coffee but what about when you have something you want chilled (like ice tea maybe)?
The Green House GH-USB-CUP2 (catchy name huh?) does both at the flip of a switch.
Careful though it gets hot: heating drinks to 104 degrees (or cooling them to 59).
What does it cost? 2,780 Yen (about $26.50)
(via akihibaranews)
Trusted Reviews has reviewed the $350 12 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix F100fd.
Here's what they thought:
"This camera probably won't many win plaudits for style, it looks quite bland, with little wow factor, but it produces the goods. It's well made, easy to operate and has a feature set that appeals to the photographic savvy. However it would be nice to have some more manual control such as aperture and shutter, and a histogram would also be nice. It's a little too high end for the average snap shooter and just a little to basic in operation for the enthusiast, despite having features that the enthusiast would love, especially the dynamic range function."
(more at trustedreviews)
Imaging Resource has reviewed the $150 8 megapixel 4x optical zoom Canon Powershot A580.
Here's what they thought:
"No entry-level bargain camera is going to score highly on our comprehensive tests, but the Canon PowerShot A580 proved to be pretty scrappy. Thanks to its DIGIC III processor, its performance was nothing to sneeze at. And the same imaging engine gave it some very helpful tools like motion detection and face detection that Canon has harnessed in unique and interesting ways.
The main disappointment was in how the A580 handled highlights under a variety of situations. There was noticeable blooming at the edges of any white object. Corner softness was a bit high at wide angle, too. But, as I said, you've got to expect some issues.
Other cameras at less than $150, however, have worse problems, which is enough to make the A580 a Dave's Picks in the Budget category."
(more at imagingresource)
Buy-n-Shoot has reviewed the 10 megapixel Olympus 1030SW camera.
Here's what they thought:
"The 1030SW camera would be an excellent choice for anyone wanting a camera that they can take anywhere. You would not be concerned about the sand at the beach on a family outing or about dropping the camera in a river on a trek through Nepal. The 1030SW has features for all levels of experience and great image quality."
(more at buynshoot)
NEC has unveiled a tough laptop designed to compete with Panasonic's toughbooks being strong (able to withstand 300kg per square foot pressure) and secure (fingerprint sensor and TPM security chip).
The NEC Versa S9100 comes with a 1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, DVD multi-writer optical drive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, a 12.1" screen, and 801.11a/b/g/n wireless.
Price is 4099 Singapore dollars (about $2,700), it weighs just over 3lb, and battery life is supposed to be around 6hrs. It should be available later this month.
(via cnetasia)
Panasonic has announced the pricing of the first BD-Live Blu-Ray 2.0 player (i.e. the first standalone player that finally catches up with what HD-DVD players were capable of all along).
The Panasonic DMP-BD50 is priced at $700 and has BD-Live (requires an ethernet connection), decodes DTS and Dolby Digital internally, has 1080p/24 playback, and a SD card slot.
(more at gizmodo)
You remember the ebay auction for a pre-release blackberry 9000 that we told you about last week?
Well it turns out that the winner of the auction was none other than the owner of crackberry.com, and he has received and started reviewing it.
Part 1 of his review just covers the unboxing and initial impressions along with a comparison to the Blackberry Pearl and Curve.
A full review will follow and we will let you know once that is posted.
(more at crackberry)
French researchers have invented a new artificial mouth that mimics the the first steps of digestion - chewing, saliva release, and food breakdown.
The goal is to create a mouth that could become part of a robotic taste tester designed to increase our understanding of flavor and improve food quality.
They tested the mouth by setting it at different speeds and feeding it pieces of apple, they then compared the pieces to ones chewed by a real person. Doesn't sound like much fun to me.
I wonder what conclusions the mouth will reach? "English food is too bland" and "the French use too much Garlic" perhaps.
(via newscientist)
