Tech News and Reviews
Archive for November, 2009
Pioneer suing Garmin over three navigation patents
0912 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
Pioneer’s GPS products don’t make huge waves in the Stateside navigation market, but it’s actually got some fairly broad patents on route guidance and mapping, and apparently Garmin’s infringing them. That’s at least the story Pioneer’s telling to the US International Trade Commission, where it’s filed a complaint against Garmin and asked for a ban on sales of GPS products that infringe the patents. Obviously that would shake things up in a big way, but we clearly don’t have the whole story here — Pioneer and Garmin have apparently been negotiating for some time, and the two companies are currently fighting it out in the German court system as well. We’ll see how this one shakes out — stay tuned.
Sezmi’s low cost cable / satellite premium TV alternative launches in L.A.
0912 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
Ready for yet another way to watch TV? Sezmi has just gone on the air in Los Angeles, offering its unique blend of premium OTA and internet delivered video to a few limited trial users. $5 a month brings whatever local networks you can pull in, basic IPTV (YouTube, OnNetworks, podcasts) and internet VOD (CinemaNow) access, while throwing an Andrew Jackson on top of that adds “more than 100 cable TV networks,” delivered via antenna.
Stantum’s unlimited multitouch meets Mini 10 in a fight to the death
0
The last time we saw Stantum, it was blowin’ minds with its PMatrix technology — and here we are, a mere ten months later, and the company’s back with its proof-of-concept Slate PC. Based on the Dell Mini 10 platform, this bad boy features a 10.1-inch “unlimited” touchscreen and new, compact case. In order to save space, the company did away with not only the keyboard and trackpad, but the webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth, and one of the USB ports (bringing the total down to two) as well — which just might limit the appeal for resellers. You never know.
T-Mobile cautiously resumes Sidekick sales at lower prices
0912 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
After a protracted “let’s be absolutely certain we’re in the clear” period, T-Mobile has gone ahead and lifted its self-imposed moratorium on Sidekick sales following that little meltdown you may have heard about. Oh, and there’s a bonus, too: they’re a little cheaper this time around. The Sidekick 2008 has dropped to $49.99 on contract while the top-of-the-line LX 2009 has shed $25 down to $149.99 on contract, so if you were looking for an excuse to live dangerously with your precious address book, this might be as good of a reason as any. Then again, what are the odds of lightning striking twice?
Lenovo ThinkPad W701 hints at Core i7 Extreme in FCC reveal
0
Lenovo can’t be feeling too much warmth toward the FCC right now. After Intel and Wistron combined to remove any mystery from its next IdeaPad, here comes the latter with yet another filing revealing yet more tasty morsels of knowledge. Wistron‘s latest submission is for a “Notebook Computer with Wacom Digitizer,” which immediately points us toward the high-end ThinkPad W series,with the W700 being the only Lenovo laptop to sport such an appendage so far. Reassuringly, the new model name appears to be W701 and we’ve spotted a 2GHz Intel CPU, 320GB Fujitsu HDD, and a Samsung-made 17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display in amongst the test specs. If your appetite hasn’t been titillated already, the only contemporary mobile CPU from Intel that we know to run at a default speed of 2GHz is the quad-core Core i7-920XM, which comes with 8MB of L3 cache, 3.2GHz single-core max speed, 55W TDP, and a truly stratospheric price. We might have a Holiday Gift Guide candidate for 2010 already.
ASUS’s UL30Vt announced, somehow finds room for discrete graphics
0
ASUS impressed the world with its lightweight, inexpensive 13.3-inch UL30 over the summer, and just last week impressed us with its switchable-graphics packing bigger cousin, the UL80Vt. Now the 30 is getting the discrete treatment, enabling users to choose from molasses rendering and “all-day computing” battery life or slightly more robust graphics and slightly (about an hour) shorter longevity. The system also packs DDR3 memory, a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor (able to be overclocked), and that “stylishly robust” aluminum lid. No word on release or price, but the earlier Vt models didn’t come with a massive leap in MSRP, so we’d expect this one not to fall too far from UL30′s $749 street price.
Ainol’s V9000HDX ‘Megatron’ PMP looks lovely, does 1080p, freezes its enemies in blocks of ice
0
Ainol’s V6000 series had great specs, but sadly rocked a GPS-worthy aesthetic. The V8000 players went for something a little more stylish, but also a lot more vanilla. Now we’re up to the V9000 series and we finally have a look that’s sophisticated and distinctive — and a little creepy with that “please help I’m frozen over here” wallpaper.
Evoluce ONE gives you 47 inches of multitouch surface to play
0912 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
We’re kind of late to this party, but better late than never, right? At the end of last month, German company Evoluce announced its 47-inch multitouch display, touting Full HD (or 1920 x 1080) resolution and “Integrated-Through-Screen-Optics,” which allow it to recognize an unlimited number of simultaneous inputs. The ONE also features haptic feedback and is compatible with Windows 7′s multitouch features right out of the box, with support for some “other OS” also planned. If you’re thinking this looks like a legit competitor to Microsoft’s Surface, well, you’d be right. We’ve got the full PR for you after the break, as well as hands-on video of the (relatively) new device.
Sony applies next-gen snowflake tech to boost VAIO W’s appeal
0
When Sony’s VAIO W netbook was released, we said the company would “have to do better than put a pretty face on a vanilla set of innards to get our next five Benjamins.” So what has the company done to raise the appeal of its little netbook? Boosted the processor? Added a big SSD? Lowered the price? Nah, it went ahead and painted some snowflakes on the lid. Pretty though they may be they still hide the same 10.1-inch, 1366 x 768 LCD, 1.6GHz Atom, and 1GB of RAM. There are some improvements: storage is upped a bit, a 250GB HDD instead of 160, and it now includes Windows 7 Starter instead of XP. And there are snowflakes. Still $499. Get yours before they melt!
Addonics Mini NAS: when RAID is too much to ask for
0912 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
If you’re in the market for a single bay network drive, your options have certainly been piling up lately — and now the kids at Addonics are premiering their aptly named Mini NAS. Billed as “the world’s smallest,” this guy is roughly the same size (and roughly as attractive) as a small hub, and it sports 10/100Mbps Ethernet, a 2.5-inch drive bay, a USB port for printer sharing, and support for SMB, Samba, and iTunes music sharing, FTP access (up to 8 simultaneous users), and a BitTorrent client. Yours now for $69. PR after the break.