Gadgets Base

Posted Jan 29th 2008 8:01AM by Thomas RickerDetails continue to trickle out about Panasonic’s PMA 2008 lineup of digital cameras. Panasonic’s UK site has announced one of their new FS-series shooters, the DMC-FS3. No picture, unfortunately — that’s its DMC-FS2 little sis to the right. Nothing spectacular to report on this point and shoot: 8.1 megapixel CCD, 3x Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT optical zoom lens, 2.5-inch LCD, and 21 scene modes. At least it features some proper optical image stabilization to keep things steady. Perhaps the most interesting thing here is the “pukweb04-dyn-news-onthemove-toyota” nonsense in the camera’s URL. Come on Panny, get it together, PMA opens in just two more days.

[Via I4U]

Qtrax, a startup site touted as the world’s first legal and free P2P music file-sharing service with more than 25 million songs in its catalog, has taken a nosedive from revolutionary to a total wreck.

After excessively spending £500,000 or close to $1 million to promote this ad-supported music download service, the company forgot to seal one crucial deal – the support of the record industry. The four major record labels EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal all informed Times Online that there no firmed up agreements with Qtrax. Universal and Warner both confirmed its ongoing negotiations with the startup site.

As expected, Qtrax CEO Alan Klepfisz downplayed the issue, claiming they are already in talks with these record labels but disclosed that the “ink hadn’t dried” on some deals.

We are not idiots. We wouldn’t have launched the service in front of the whole music industry unless we had secured its backing. We feel we have been unfairly crucified because a competitor tried to damage us. Everyone is very upset.

I say, give the man a chance to salvage his reputation! The concept of a legal P2P is too innovative to let go easily. It is just unfortunate that his mouth is faster than his acts. Klepfisz should have been wise enough to shut up and lay low until he secured the much needed backing from this industry.

Read [Times Online]

Techware Labs test drove a SanDisk Sansa Clip MP3 Player recently with high praise and mention that if you are looking for a cheap and small MP3 player, check out the review of the SanDisk Sansa Clip. TechWare Labs compared the Clip against the ever so popular iPod on several levels and put the results in a nice and neat table for you.

Is the SanDisk Sansa Clip worth your money? Read the review.

SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones are there to give best treat for your ears and wondrous food for your thought. These sound isolating earphones are phenomenal for your best ever listening experience. Evolved from earphone technology, road-tested by pro musicians and perfected by Shure engineers, these earphones studded with MP3 players are anytime favorite for music lovers.

Key features

SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones come equipped with the music features that enable users not only to listen better but also to get adhered to this product. To mention striking features of SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones:

• Balanced MicroSpeaker
• Sound Isolating Sleeves
• Modular Cable

This product is further recognized for its 113 dB SPL/ mW, 27 kHz impedance, 22Hz – 17.5 kHz frequency. SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones is available in the market with two colors like black and white.

It is ready in the stock for customer’s satisfaction with MSRP $ 119.99.

Via: Shure

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Posted Jan 29th 2008 12:57AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Nikon’s new mid-to-low-enders land tonight, say hi to the Coolpix S550, S520, and S210. Casual photographers take note, only the S520 features optical stabilization, you’ll want to try and aim for that instead of messing with any of that electronic stabilization stuff.

• S550 - 10 megapixels, 5x zoom, electronic stabilization, 2.5-inch LCD, out February for $229
• S520 - 8 megapixels, 3x zoom, optical stabilization, up to ISO 2000, 2.5-inch LCD, out March for $229
• S210 - 8 megapixels, electronic stabilization, up to ISO 2000, 2.5-inch LCD, our March for $179

Read (S550)
Read (S520)
Read (S210)

Acer is releasing its Ferrari 1100 Series notebook with specifications that make the notebook live up to the Ferrari name. The 1100 features an AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, ATI Radeon X1250 graphics card, 12-inch display, 250GD hard drive and built-in fingerprint security. The laptop weighs about four and a half pounds and the casing is made from carbon fiber. Most importantly, you’ll be able to flash that Ferrari logo all around Starbucks while you pretend to work. The Acer Ferrari 1100 is available now and can be had for around $1800.

Via [ubergizmo]

Posted Jan 29th 2008 2:10AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Oh sure, we’ve seen homegrown Wii Zappers before, but nothing screams janky like an iteration crafted from spare plastic acrylate sheets, or better yet, your recently finished box of Corn Flakes. That’s right kids, you can save yourself quite a few buckaroos by simply swallowing your pride, heading down to the read link and printing out a template to create your very own Wii Zapper accessory. ‘Course, the sky’s really the limit with this one, but may we be the first to ask that you not use colorful sheets of cardboard if at all possible? Thanks.

[Via MAKE]

Posted Jan 29th 2008 1:15AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Last up for Nikon this morning is their L18 compact point and shoot camera. Pretty decent, but standard specs here: 8 megapixel sensor, 3x Zoom-NIKKOR lens, 3.0-inch LCD, anti-shake AE (adjusts shutter speeds and ISO), face detection, and automatic red-eye correction. It also boasts a “TV quality” movie mode which we’re assuming means VGA. Available this March for $140 in ruby red or navy blue.

Gallery: Nikon’s Coolpix L18 for 8 megapixel point and shooting

Posted Jan 28th 2008 8:21PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Laptops
The last we heard from Japan’s Mouse Computers, it was offering up a cheap’n'easy path to Merom — and true to form, it’s followed that up with a low-cost ticket to Penryn town, the J131. The 1280×800 13.3-inch unit is pretty basic, as things go — 12GB drive, 2GB of RAM, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam — but unlike some other machines on the market, its price is just as stripped-down as its featureset: just ¥119,700 ($1,125). Of course, there’s no word on whether we’ll ever see this hit our fair shores, but those of you headed to Japan soon should be able to pick this up straight away.

[Via MobileWhack]

Microsoft is set to stop issuing new licenses for Windows XP as of June 30, 2008. To stop that from happening InfoWorld has began a campaign to ”save Windows XP.” Their hope is to convince Microsoft to continue selling XP licenses indefinitely, so far they have reached about 70,000 signatures after just 2 weeks. Of course, even as InfoWorld admits, even with “a million signatures” they may not be able to save XP. If Vista is not right for you, head on over to help save XP before its reaches it end of life, either that or hope for a quick release of Windows 7.

Via [CrunchGear] Via [Yahoo News!]