Tech News and Reviews
Peripherals
New Arrival Red Apple Peel 520 – Turn iPod Touch Into iPhone
1537 days
Apple peel is actually a Communication Module, comes with SIM card slot and battery built in. Made from soft material, the antenna locate at iPod Touch earphone jack. Powered by an Infineon baseband chip, this adapter not only offers voice calling and text messaging (GPRS not possible yet), but it also doubles up as an 800mAh battery and provides 4.5 hours of call time or 120 hours of standby juice.
Product page: http://www.ownta.com/apple-peel-520-turn-ipod-touch-into-iphone-red.html
All Red Apple Peel 520 will come with a free additional Battery, for details, please check our product images.
Apple Peel 520 – Turn iPod Touch Into iPhone Features:
- Made from soft material, the antenna locate at iPod Touch earphone jack
- Dimension: 121×65×12.5mm
- Baseband: Infineon
- Battery: 800mAh
- Standby time:120 hours
- Talk time: 4.5 hours
For more Apple products, please check here: http://www.ownta.com/apples/
Razer’s Tron gaming mouse now available for $100
0542 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
You’ve seen it announced and teased on video, and you can now finally light up your own desk with Razer’s new Tron gaming mouse. It’s available right now for $100, which will buy you more what appears to be more than just a novelty mouse –you’ll get a 5600dpi 3.5g laser sensor, seven “Hyperesponse” buttons, an ambidextrous design and, yes, some Tron-inspired light and sound effects. Still no indication on a release for the accompanying Tron keyboard, unfortunately, nor is there any word on that matching mousepad, which will apparently be sold separately.
Microvision’s PicoP-based SHOWWX+ projector: twice as bright, zero percent larger
0542 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
Still holding out on nabbing a pico projector? We know, we know — you’ll leap when there’s 1080p. But if you’re kosher with baby steps, Microvision’s newest entrant might just fit the bill. The SHOWWX+ is a revamped version of the ouftit’s original PicoP-based SHOWWX, and it seems that a full year in the engineering lab has enabled the company to pop out a device that’s 50 percent brighter, yet the exact same size. The internal battery can keep the 15 laser lumens shining for two solid hours, and there’s also a 5,000:1 native contrast ratio. iDevice users will be elated to know that this guy is a Made for iPod, iPhone and iPad product, enabling it to output Netflix content without any DRM issues (or so we’re told). The native resolution still checks in at 848 x 480, and if all that sounds just peachy, you can get one headed your way today for $449. Head on past the break for Netflix and Rage HD demos.
New Potato reveals TuneLink Auto Bluetooth-to-FM transmitter for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
0542 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
We’ve never been on the volunteer cheerleading squad for FM transmitters; in our experience, they’re downright useless in cities or other areas that actually have a large amount of radio stations nearby. But we’ll hand it to New Potato Technologies — this may be the slickest implementation yet. The newly announced TuneLink Auto looks like a typical cigarette adapter charger at first glance, but within, there’s technology that accepts audio over Bluetooth and then sends it out over FM. This prevents users from having to connect a dongle of any kind to their iPad, iPod touch or iPhone, but the built-in USB port is actually capable of charging all three should you choose. There’s even a 3.5mm output jack for channeling the tunes to a 3.5mm input on your head unit, and the (necessary) accompanying iDevice app should hit the App Store soon for absolutely nothing. The hardware itself is available now from New Potato for $99.99, and it’ll hit “select retail locations” in a fortnight or so for the same amount.
Acer launches Alive digital content platform and app store, plans to pre-load it onto future machines
0542 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
Acer’s Global press event today focused primarily around its Clear.fi content sharing system and a slew of new hardware introductions, but there’s one tidbit of software news that seems too significant to ignore. Here shortly, Acer will begin pre-loading its newfangled Alive digital content platform onto its machines. Hard to say if that includes tablets and smartphones (update: Acer has confirmed that it’ll eventually hit “netbooks, laptops, smartphones and tablets), but the screens we’re seeing today lead us to believe this is a desktop-only affair for now. Acer’s playing this up as being “more than an app store,” but there’s no question that an app store lies at the heart. A cornucopia of partners (Intel, Zinio, Adobe, etc.) will be providing content, and newly pushed material can be easily viewed via Twitter or Acer’s own Channel concept. Five main sections will be present: Listen, Watch, Read, Play and Application. Both free and paid content will be supported, with users in the UK and Italy getting first access next month. Mum’s the word on how long it’ll take to spread elsewhere (a more thorough rollout will “begin” in Q1 2011), and there’s no mention at all about an SDK for developers. Something tells us this will end up as more of a collection of apps from various app stores than anything else, but at least we’ll know for sure in just a couple weeks.
Altec Lansing Muzx Ultra MZX606 earbuds review
0544 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
We’ve always had a soft spot for Altec Lansing’s wide array of speaker docks — these guys have been embedded in that space for an awfully long time, and the quality has always seemed up to snuff in our eyes. Er, ears. For whatever reason, it looks as if Altec is trying to replicate that success in the earbud market — a market that’s been growing increasingly crowded over the past couple of years as the portable media player and smartphone sectors have exploded. These days, a set of third-party headphones are nearly a requirement to fully enjoy whatever media player you’ve ended up with, and thus, hordes of companies have flocked to cater to the demand. The Ultra MZX606 earbuds ($99.95) popped onto the scene just two months ago, and now we’ve had a solid weekend to push the latest Underoath, Happy Body Slow Brain, Kanye West and Otis Redding jams through here. Hop on past the break for our impressions.
Hulu Plus drops price to $7.99 a month, adds Roku support for official launch
0548 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
There you have it, good people of the internet, the rumored Hulu Plus price drop has indeed been enacted, though it’s a little smaller than some might have hoped. The formerly $9.99 subscription service has now dipped to $7.99 per month — enough to get you to jump on board? Maybe the one week free trial will help get you there, but don’t fret if you’re already subscribed — Hulu’s got you covered with a refund for the difference from the preview price to the current one, which will be applied in your next billing cycle. Isn’t that nice? Also good to know is that the list of devices you can enjoy your Plus experience on has been expanded by one, adding Roku’s hardware as previously planned. You’ll find the full press release after the break.
iXtreamer bridges the extreme gap between your iPad and TV
0548 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
Looking for more than just a regular standalone iPad dock? Then you might want to consider Xtreamer’s new iXtreamer system, which is an iPad dock that also doubles as a media streamer. Of course, it will also work with iPhones and iPods, and the “dock” is quite capable all by itself as well — it’ll accommodate a 3.5-inch hard drive and up to two USB hard drives, and it’ll support just about any audio or video content you can throw at it, including content stored on your computer or networked hard drive. Interestingly, Xtreamer also notes that it would like to let you use iOS apps on your TV as well, but it says that’s up to Apple to allow — in other words, don’t bet on it. Head on past the break for a video overview, and look for the device to set you back €175, or roughly $235.
Altec Lansing’s Octiv Stage iPad speaker dock is delightfully understated
0549 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
Better late than never, right? That’s the mantra that Altec Lansing is following with the introduction of the Octiv Stage. It’s certainly not the first iPad-specific sound system on the market, but it’s definitely one of the least invasive. Color us crazy, but we’re thinking this subtle guy could actually sneak away in a rear corner of your home without drawing unnecessary amounts of attention to it, and we get the feeling that’s exactly what Altec’s after. Designed to operate in both portrait and landscape modes (courtesy of a rotating connection arm), this here dock can also tilt back and forward to give you lots of viewing angles. It’s out today for a somewhat understandable $149.95, and just in case your long lost cousin busts out a Zune, the 3.5mm auxiliary jack will ensure that no one’s made to feel ashamed. No promises on that last one, though.
NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro
0549 days
by Arlene.L
in Peripherals
For most Mac users, upgradeable anything is starting to sound like a distant memory, but Mac Pro users bought that big ol’ box for a reason: expandability. Now NVIDIA is here to make it worth their while, releasing the mid-range Quadro 4000 graphics card with that latest / greatest Fermi architecture. With 256 CUDA cores and 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the card should slice through just about anything a pro app (Photoshop, Maya, Snood) can send it, and probably wouldn’t mind popping out a FPS session now and then just to stretch the legs. Of course, when we say “mid-range” we aren’t talking cheap: NVIDIA’s MSRP is $1,199, a good bit more than the card’s $700-ish PC-compatible counterpart. It should be available this month.