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Tech News and Reviews
Nokia 5230 Nuron excites the T-Mobile nervous system
Mar 4th
The US will wake up to a fine howdy do from Nokia’s 5230 Nuron now that it’s officially announced for T-Mobile. The device first introduced by Nokia back in August will be available to middle America “in the coming weeks” on T-Mobile’s 3G network. And unlike yesterday’s wee C5, Nuron features a reasonable 3.2-inch, 640 x 360 (nHD) touchscreen for your Ovi Store apps and free Ovi Maps with turn-by-turn navigation to dance upon. Hell, it even has an onscreen keyboard if you want to do something productive like tap out a few emails, enter a URL to surf the web, or update your social networking status(es). While no price or specific date was announced, we’ve seen rumors of a 17 March launch for $70 on contract, or $180 without. Just remember that Nuron runs S60 5th; and with the improved Symbian ^3 touchscreen UI just around the corner (and no clear upgrade path) you’d better really want this device to make the jump whenever it does launch.
Update: Nokia’s own Joe Gallo has confirmed that the Nuron will sell for $69.99 on a 2-year contract at T-Mob.
Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on
Mar 4th
Why hello there, Archos. My, what nice Android you have there. Tucked away in a little booth at CeBIT, the PMP maker was showcasing its latest 7-inch Home Tablet. Unfortunately, it was pretty barebones as far as content goes, but the vanilla Android 1.6 was running smooth, and if company precedence indicates anything, the video playback is still fairly solid. The selling point here, really, is a decent screen and that $200 or so price tag. No dice on espying Archos 8, though; we’ve passed by the company’s booth twice now, and both times it had yet to be sent to the show floor. Instead, on hand were the A14VG and AV15VS, but there isn’t a lot to say about music players with the same feature set you’d find in PMPs sold at grocery stores — there’s definitely a market, but it’s targeted at your wallet more than your desire for cutting edge goods. Video of Archos 7 after the break.
ASUS introduces O!Play HD2, first networked media player with USB 3.0
Mar 4th
Chances are you’re not a part of the SuperSpeed revolution yet, and that’s okay. It’s early days yet, but ASUS is doing its part to make that transition to USB 3.0 a little more appealing with its O!Play HD2. A follow-up to the earlier O!Play models, the HD2 offers what looks to be plenty of connectivity options (we’re seeing USB, memory cards, and eSATA) and promises a “wealth of cloud infotainment.” ASUS isn’t sharing any more details than that right now, but we’re going to try to track this guy down on the CeBIT show floor and, when we find, it you can be sure we won’t spare the hard questions.
Coby $85 smartbook feels like a hundred bucks (hands-on)
Mar 4th
Funny how our tune on smartbooks totally changes when one’s got an $85 price tag. We happened upon Coby’s booth at CeBIT this morning and of all the fairly cheap feeling laptops the company had on display it was its 7-inch NBPC722 smartbook that cozied right up to us. Okay, so it isn’t as thin or attractive as the $499 Lenovo’s Skylight, but again let us remind you that it costs about as much as a couple of new printer ink cartridges. Inside the little guy packs a 624MHz Marvell PXA303 processor, 2GB of flash storage and runs Windows CE which all should be good enough for some light Web browsing and e-mail writing. There was actually a YouTube shortcut on the desktop, but the NBPC722 wasn’t connected to try it out. Apparently this inexpensive laptop should be making its way stateside this spring, but until the flowers start blooming you’ve got the video below.
Acer Aspire 1820PT convertible hands-on, priced for 599 euros
Mar 4th
Craftily unhidden at the tail end of its press conference, Acer’s long-awaited Aspire 1820PT convertible laptop has finally passed into our hands for ever the briefest of moments. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Strong hinge, accelerometer for tablet mode, capacitive multitouch, and the ability to use stylus for input (protected in a slot just below and to the right of the screen when not in use). Beyond that, seems like the typical underpowered laptop you know and love — well, maybe not love, but you get the idea. Under the hood there’s an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB RAM, and 320GB HDD, all priced at 599 euro, which we’d venture a guess to mean it’ll be about $599 when it comes to the US (actual release date MIA). Gallery below, and brief video demonstration after the break.
WD’s first SiliconEdge Blue SSD launches, gets reviewed
Mar 4th
Remember when Western Digital picked up SiliconSystems for a song during the height of last decade’s Great Recession? Here we are a year later looking at the first fruit of that relationship, as WD has just introduced its first consumer-oriented solid state drive in the SiliconEdge Blue and its enterprise-ready SiliconDrive N1x. Both 2.5-inch families feature a native SATA 3.0Gbps interface along with read speeds as high as 240 – 250MB/sec and write rates peaking at around 140 – 150MB/sec, and the former has already hit the test bench on a number of occasions. For those considering the upgrade, you should probably dive into those links below — most everyone came away feeling that the SiliconEdge Blue was a wee bit underwhelming for the price, with Hot Hardware noting that the “Micron C300 and Intel X25-M were measurably faster overall,” and the lofty MSRP just left ‘em looking for more. Here’s hoping for a price drop and / or a SiliconEdge Black, eh?
Motorola HS1001 cordless Android phone hands-on
Mar 4th
Well this is a bit different — it looks as if the big M is looking to put a little Android (v1.6, if you must know) in the home with this DECT 6.0 phone. Though the device is made by Binatone, the Hong Kong-based company will be selling a $150 Motorola branded version of its cordless phone in the US come this summer. While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an Android desk phone, this particular one packs WiFi so you can use the 2.8-inch touch display on its back to not only dial up mom, but also surf the web or check email. We did ask if you could make Skype calls on WiFi, but the app won’t be preloaded and the phone won’t have Marketplace support. That’s not to say it doesn’t have some intriguing tricks up its sleeve, though — we were duly impressed with the speaker-equipped charging station, which enables it to blast out your favorite jams from the 70s while docked. It’s no Droid or Devour, but it may not be a bad home calling option if you just can’t cut ties with your landline. We’ve got some more pictures in the gallery below as well as some shots of Binatone’s future Android tablet, so go on, indulge.
Maingear mX-L 15 multimedia laptop available now
Mar 4th
It looks like Maingear’s mXl-15, the long-awaited little brother to the eXl-15 gaming laptop has finally entered the building. This 15.6-inch laptop packs an Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, ATI Radeon Mobility 4570 512MB graphics, an LED backlit display (your choice of 1355 x 768 or 1600 x 900), up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, eSATA connection, and your choice of HDD or SSD storage, and a multitouch touchpad. Truth be told, the base price of $1,000 is rather fetching — although “base price” has a way of fading into the distance as you start adding options. Ready to take the leap? Hit that source link to get started.
Latest round of LG, Panasonic and Samsung Blu-ray players begin retail invasion
Mar 4th
We’ve already seen Sony’s newest Blu-ray players turn up at retail, and it looks like they’ve now been joined by LG, Panasonic and Samsung’s latest offerings. Those include the BD590, BD570 and BD550 from LG, the DMP-BD85 and DMP-BD65 from Panasonic, and a lone BD-C6500 from Samsung, although that’s just the first of more to come from the company. No surprises with the prices or specs, but you can check out a slew of in-the-wild shots at the link below, or head down to your local Best Buy (or other retailer) to see if you’re able to spot any of them first-hand yourself.
Optoma adds HW536 and EX762 DLP projectors to the 3D party
Mar 4th
If 3D monitors aren’t doing it for you, here are a couple of larger display options — our lucky pals over at Engadget Chinese witnessed the birth of Optoma’s two new 3D projectors in Taiwan yesterday. Pictured on the left is the HW536 cinema DLP projector (NT$36,900 or about US$1,150), which has HDMI input and projects a 1,280 x 800 image at 2,800 lumens with a 3,000:1 contrast ratio. Next up is the EX762 business DLP projector (NT$79,900 or US$2,490) that also sports HDMI input and a network jack, while delivering a 1,024 x 768 resolution at 4,000 lumens and a 3,000:1 contrast ratio. Just to add a tad more burden to your overdraft, each pair of ZD101 shutter glasses — not bundled with either projectors — will cost you a further NT$4,000 (US$125), in return offering a wireless range of up to eight meters courtesy of Texas Instruments’ non-directional DLP Link technology (so no need to position any external emitters). A couple of close-up photos after the break.