Tech News and Reviews
Archive for February, 2010
Samsung’s first Full HD 3D TV now available in the US, all 55 inches of it
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Hope you’re ready to see the make believe world in a new dimension ’cause Samsung’s first Full HD 3D set is now shipping Stateside. Amazon shows a pair of 55-inch UN55C7000 TVs with 3D 240Hz motion technology in stock with a $3,299.99 price tag and free delivery. Yeah, that’s a day earlier than expected but we doubt anyone’s complaining. Remember, you’ll still have to drop another $150 or so on the shutter glasses if you ever plan to flip the switch from 2D to 3D mode; something you might want to do when actual 3D content starts to arrive.
Update: Looks like Sears is shipping now as well, including the 46-inch UN46C7000 little brother for $2,600.
Crucial’s 6Gbps RealSSD C300 goes on sale, costs as much as a decent laptop
0815 days
by Raymond.J
in Peripherals
You’ve gone for the 64GB of quad-channel DDR7 RAM, you’ve got your Core i26 processor, and you’re running a triple pack of those Radeon Ultra HD 9000 cards in CrossFire. But something’s missing from your speed demon machine — could a $799 SSD be the answer? Crucial would have you believe that, yes, splashing all your rent money on a 256GB storage drive is a totally worthwhile investment, and early reviews of the RealSSD C300 revealed it to be “holy mother of god” fast. So no qualms about its speed, but if your benchmark lust knows some budgetary bounds, you may want to consider the slightly more reasonable 128GB variant, which comes in at $499. Both are available right this minute direct from Crucial, so either go buy one or stop this torture and go distract yourself with something cheaper.
Pentax makes all-weather Optio W90 and superzoom X90 official
0815 days
by Raymond.J
in Digital Cameras
Pentax is going for broke with its take on the rugged camera, the W90, which is unlikely to ever be confused for a svelte and stylish point-and-shoot. What it loses in looks, it gains in usability, however, as the 12.1 megapixel shooter can withstand shocks from a height of four feet, go nearly 20 feet under water, and withstand temperatures as slow as -10 degrees Celsius. The dustproofing is just topping on that rugged cake, though it still offers things like 720p / 30fps video recording and 5x optical zoom that are now considered standard camera specs. There are also three forms of shake reduction: one is post-processing of affected images, the second is by automatically increasing the ISO in low light conditions, and the third is the use of “exclusive software” during movie mode. We can’t say any one of those will be as good as a well-implemented optical image stabilization, but at least they’re there and might offer some assistance. As to the X90, it joins a growing band of 26x and above optical superzoomers, while adding the W90′s 720p video mode and anti-shake plus its own sensor-shift stabilizer for good measure. Both shooters are expected in April, priced at $330 for the W90 and $400 for the X90, though we’ve noticed the former will show up a month earlier in the UK with a £270 ($417) price tag.
Samsung makes Skype for new LED lit HDTVs official
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Panasonic and LG won’t be the only ones with Skype-enabled HDTVs, though we peeped it in the specs earlier, Samsung has officially announced its new 7000 and 8000 series televisions will also include access. Accessible through the embedded Samsung Apps service, it appears it will work with the new HD video processing webcams just like the others, so users can log in to or create an account with the remote then make video or voice calls away from the PC. We heard at CES those cameras could run as high as $200, check out the CES 2010 demo from Panasonic to see if couch videoconferencing is worth the additional expense.
HP Mini 210 HD edition review
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Netbooks for all! We’re convinced that’s the motivational saying plastered to the wall in the HP lab where the company births Minis for everyone but your pet fish. But of all the company’s Pine Trail offerings, we’re most excited about the $425 Mini 210, which has a 10.1-inch HD screen and a Broadcom Crystal Accelerator chip that promises decent HD video playback, even with Flash. With an attractive new thin design, improved chiclet keyboard and that promise to handle high-def content, the Mini 210 has the potential to kick the others to the curb. Given the issues we had with the Broadcom-powered Dell Mini 10 and HP’s newer touchpads, though, we had to put on the glasses and take a closer look. Join us past the break for the full review, will you?
It’s the end of February, where’s your JooJoo?
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Call us optimistic, but we pictured February 25th rolling around with us laying on a couch and watching some Olympic ice dancing clips on the JooJoo’s 12-inch screen. Ah, but here we are about to cross off the last few days of the month and the only thing we’ve got in our hands are some tissues and hot cocoa. Promising to ship units to those who pre-ordered in December within 8-10 weeks, Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan told us just a month ago that it was on track to ship before the end of February. However, when we called them up to see what the deal was we were told they’d have a shipping update for us by the first week in March. Additionally, when asked if there were delays with production or shipping the first units to customers we got the never fun “no comment.” We’re going to go ahead and assume there’s been some sort of delay — perhaps JooJoo primary investor CSL has been too busy updating the BlueBerrry KIRF line with an optical pad to write out the check for the manufacturing costs. Okay, that’s unlikely, but we’d love to hear if any of those that pre-ordered have heard differently or anything at all.
Samsung’s new 3DTVs get an early eyes-on, through $150 shutter glasses
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Firsthand impressions outside the CES crucible are flowing in following the worldwide launch of Samsung’s new LCD 3DTVs. UK publications have gotten up close with production versions of the new HDTVs, TechRadar observed the Monsters vs. Aliens Blu-ray disc packed in with the new displays over there plus the 2D-to-3D conversion feature, reporting the latter worked better on sports footage of ice skaters but caused “disconcerting” effect on news broadcasts. A video preview from Which? (embedded after the break) gives a good look at the new remote and managed to clear up one of the early worries about new display by confirming the 3D effect continued to work even from a wide viewing angle. For those who have already pressed the buy button, taking advantage of that effect will of course require 3D glasses. While Samsung’s already promised multiple models a lone battery powered pair for adults has appeared for preorder on Vanns for $150, which despite the relatively reasonable cost of the displays could make group viewings very expensive for the early adopter. While that may not be out of the price range for some, we’ll keep an eye out for pricing info from the competition — and looking for cheaper 3rd party alternatives. Check out their impressions and decide for yourself how much a 3D World Cup experience is worth.
Pixel Qi has ‘several more’ partners since CES, is working on new form factors
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There’s nothing, nothing, we love more than talkative CEOs. And though this may not be a case of some brash smack-talking, we still appreciate Mary Lou Jepsen giving us a fresh update on the development of those delectable Pixel Qi displays. As you already know, CES provided us with our first opportunity to see one in person (in the shape of the Notion Ink Adam) and we were left highly impressed with the versatility and responsiveness of the hybrid display. Since then, Mary Lou and company have recruited a few more partners and, while production of the 10-inch units is ramping up as expected, new form factors are also being contemplated. She still won’t tell us any names, but we’re excited by the possibility of (relatively) pocketable Pixel Qi devices — how does a Dell Mini 5 with a 40-hour battery life sound?
SolidAlliance’s Crazy Earphones v2: because ear fungus sells
0815 days
by Raymond.J
in Peripherals
Japan’s SolidAlliance earned a warm place in our collective nerd bosom long ago for the sheer lunacy of the products it creates. Today it’s offering round two of its Crazy Earphone collection that includes some kind of mushroom (that is a mushroom, right?), the ol’ Katana blade or arrow through the head trick, and a parasitical, conjoined ear if you want everyone to think you’ve been subjected to a tragic cloning experiment. Spec-wise your ¥2,000 (about $22) will take home a pair of in-ear buds with 20 ~ 20,000Hz frequency range assisted by a 10-mm driver. Not that it matters: there’s no chance in hell that you’re buying these for performance reasons.
Viliv’s S10 Blade netvertible priced at $699 and up
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There’s hardly a shortage of tablet news these days, but Viliv is managing to cut through somewhat with its relatively robust S10 Blade.Introduced (and toyed with) at CES this year, the Atom-powered device is now up for pre-order at Dynamism (sort of, anyway), with the big reveal being the heretofore unannounced starting price: $699. We get the feeling that some of the more well-appointed units will end up costing far more than that, but at least you know you can get 10.3-inches of resistive multitouch action into your life for less than a carbon fiber Mustang hood. Or pretty much anything else that cost over seven Benjamins.