Tech News and Reviews
Archive for January, 2010
Aliph Jawbone Icon ‘The Ace’ Bluetooth headset review
0850 days
by Raymond.J
in Peripherals
While Aliph was announcing its luxurious Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headsets earlier today, we’ve been playing with one of its six designs — The Ace — at our cozy London pad. Being the smallest and lightest Jawbone ever, the Icon’s obviously challenging the likes of Jabra Stone with attempts to outperform in noise elimination, battery life, ergonomics and ease of operation. On paper, the Icon already wins on battery life and price, although the Stone has a charging dock good for six extra hours. What really matters, though, is the usability — something the Stone had little of in a noisy environment. Read on to find out if Aliph has done it right.
ITG xpPhone gets a price, more pretty pictures
0850 days
by Raymond.J
in Cellphones
If you’re China-based and you think there might be an xpPhone in your future, we’ve got some news for you: according to an email from ITG, the device will cost from 3,000 – 4,500 Chinese RMB (or about $400 – $650), depending on options. Funny how the world works — put Windows XP on a laptop and it’s yawn city, then you go and put the same OS on a handset and the thing is a bona fide curiosity. We also have a few new shots of the thing, and now we’re we won’t be stingy with ‘em. Take a look below to get your Ya-Ya’s out.
Acer Aspire 3811TZ and 3811TZG get Greenpeace stamp of approval
0
So Acer’s new Aspire 3811TZ and Aspire 3811TZG may not be puke-green like Sony’s VAIO W Eco, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t some of the greenest — as in eco-friendly — laptops out there. Part of the company’s thin-and-light Timeline series, the two 13.3-inch laptops have been named by Greenpeace as being completely free of those bad-for-the-environment materials, including PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and BFR (brominated flame retardants). Powered by Intel ULV Core 2 Duo CPUs, they are more power-efficient than most and last longer on a charge. There doesn’t seem to be an official statement from Acer on availability and price on these models, but we assume like the rest of the Timeline bunch there will be models both north and south of a grand.
DIY Lady Gaga ‘Pop Music’ shades: so magical, you’d be so fantastical
0851 days
by Raymond.J
in Peripherals
Next time you’re out at Lady Gaga tribute concert, leave the crowd speechless with your very own “Pop Music Will Never Be Low Brow” glasses. All it takes to give off that “Creative Director of Polaroid” vibe is just the touch of your hand, two keychain digital picture frames, and some garage glamorous sunglasses you don’t mind seeing seeing destroyed. Love the shades, baby? You won’t be able to see straight anymore — the frames aren’t transparent, so keep that in mind when choreographing. DIY instructions via the source link, video example after the break. Spandex one-piece recommended, but we’d advise against Heartbeats earphones.
Samsung unleashes slew of new HZ, TL, and SL-series cameras
0851 days
by Raymond.J
in Digital Cameras
Because camera companies can only unveil point-and-shoot in groups four or more, Samsung‘s just announced a quintet of scene stealers. Let’s go down the list, shall we? The 12.2 megapixel TL105 and 14.2 megapixel TL110 ultra-slims sport a 0.65-inch frame, 2.7-inch LCD, 720p 30fps H.264 video recording, some image effects, and a 4x / 5x optical zoom, respectively. Those will be available next month, with no price tag mentioned in the presser. The 12.2 megapixel SL630 claims all the other features but with a 28mm wide-angle lens, and only 640 x 480 AVI video recording — that one’s coming in March. Also coming in March are the 12-megapixel HZ30W and HZ35W, successors to the HZ10W / HZ15W and both with a wide-angle 24mm Schneider lens and 15x optical zoom. The pair does 720p 30fps H.264 video recording, but only the HZ35W can claim a 3-inch AMOLED screen and GPS geo-tagging. All the pics below and press releases after the break. World, you have our promise that if we ever own a camera company, we’ll be sure to release less than three models in any given month.
Motorola Shadow is Nexus Two with sliding QWERTY keyboard?
0851 days
by Raymond.J
in Cellphones
Fan-made render? Very possible, but we’re intrigued by the notion. The gang at Mobile01 have laid out two more photos of what is being called the Motorola Shadow (not to be confused with the T-Mobile Shadow), which in a nutshell looks like Droid / Milestone with a white keyboard and wrist strap. Even more interesting is the assertion that this could be Google’s next flagship device, here lovingly dubbed the Nexus Two. Now while there is no way to corroborate at this point, we could totally buy this as feasible. After all, what better way to complement the Nexus One slate than with one with physical QWERTY? And who better than the company whose Android 2.0 device increased the platform’s mindshare at supersonic speeds, with a CEO willing to signify support even at the launch event for a competitor’s product? Color us curious — wrist strap-laden render after the break
Cowon W2 spec’d, priced, and dated for Korean consumers
0
That lovable little Windows 7-powered Cowon W2 MID has gotten two steps closer to reality this week with a price tag and release date. In order, 599,000 to 739,000KRW (equivalent to $533 and $658 in US, respectively) and Monday, January 25th. Unfortunately, those only apply to Korea only, but if you are thinking of importing, how about we take a look at the full specs list: 4.8-inc WSVGA screen, 1.3GHz Intel Atom Z520, 1GB RAM, 60GB or 80GB HDD, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g WiFi, two USB one miniUSB ports, and a battery promising 10 hours idle / 7 hours video playback. Yeah, we’re not sure about that netbook-caliber processor either, but surely that MID form factor makes up for something… right?
Meizu’s M8 UI promo video is surprisingly professional, catchy
0851 days
by Raymond.J
in Cellphones
Oh, Meizu, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways. The KIRF-rooted company has released a promo touting the UI for its M8 phone. If any of it seems familiar, just remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Honestly, we’re a bit surprised just how professional the video feels, and the tune’s pretty memorable to boot. Get it caught in your head all day, footage is after the break.
FiOS Mobile app comes to Android
0851 days
by Raymond.J
in Peripherals
Every decent DVR today supports remote scheduling via the web — well except Windows 7 Media Center — and Verizon’s FiOS TV DVR is no different. But of course web apps don’t compare to real apps like this new one for Android users. The new FiOS Mobile app features a guide for remote scheduling as well as VOD browsing so you can mark what you want to watch later, as well as parental controls and a free space indicator — something TiVo doesn’t even offer on the DVR itself. Of course there’s no way to actually watch content from your DVR, and we’re not surprised. Now before you get too jealous of Android users with Verizon’s FiOS TV DVR, we’d like to remind you that the FiOS DVR has a measly 160GB hard drive and no external disk support, and as you can see from the screen shot, FiOS users don’t have any free space left for new recordings anyway.
Nintendo DS2 to be announced this year, released not too long after?
0
Nintendo has already been talking up what a Nintendo DS successor might look like, so it wouldn’t come as too much of a shock if we saw the device in the near term. That’s what EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich believes, anyway. He has a research note out saying that Nintendo will be releasing a new handheld in the next 15 months, and make the announcement within the next eight months. The reasons are numerous, including the need to bone up on online distribution, rampant piracy, and just the regular march of technology that Nintendo is never unaware of — just ask the routinely trounced handheld competition. Unfortunately, there’s nothing “solid” in this report as far as we can tell, so we’ll have to wait for some “unnamed sources” or our cousin’s friend’s dad’s barber to weigh in and tell us how it really is.