Gadgets Base

Posted Feb 27th 2008 12:51PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV
There’s displays made for digital signage, and then there’s Samsung’s SyncMaster 820DXn. Put simply, there’s no commercial screen we’d rather have sitting in our living room, and while we doubt many would go for it, the specs here are pretty impressive. Outside of the expansive 82-inch 1,920 x 1,080 resolution S-PVA panel, you’ll find 178-degree viewing angles, a 5,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, “ultra-high” brightness levels, eight-millisecond response time and the firm’s own DNIe PRO image enhancement technology. It also includes built-in fans for extended usage along with an integrated PC consisting of an 1.8GHz Athlon64 X2 3400+ CPU, 4GB of flash storage, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, an ATI graphics set and Windows XP to boot. Granted, this thing was designed with luring customers in mind, and given the lofty $76,999 price tag, we don’t expect it to do much else.

Posted Feb 27th 2008 2:33PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: cellphones, Peripherals, Wearables
Finally someone has combined the two things we love most — Bluetooth headsets and microSD storage — into one, sweet package. Enter the Bluetrek Bizz, a marriage of seemingly disparate products that actually kind of makes sense. On the headset side, you get up to seven hours of talk time, ten days on standby, and a customizable color panel. When you crack it open, you’ve got direct USB 2.0 connectivity, as well as a slot for a microSD card up to 8GB. You can charge the headset directly from any USB port, thus making your efforts to keep it at the ready a little bit easier. The headset weighs around 10 grams, and is slated in sell for around £40 (or roughly $80). Check out the totally jazzed-up video after the break to see what it’s all about.

[Via Mobility Site]

Perhaps the European Commission feels that Microsoft’s song of interoperability is all talk. That’s why it did not hesitate to fine the software giant with a hefty 899 million Euros or $1.35 billion for failure to comply with its antitrust decision.

Apparently, Microsoft had abused its dominant 95% market share in the EU market by using high prices to block software competition. There are also allegations that it tied its Windows Media Player and web browser Internet Explorer to Windows. In 2004, Microsoft had failed to comply with EU’s order to open up its key software to competitors. To date, this is the first and the biggest penalty for such violation.

Of course, Microsoft downplayed the issue because these violations happened in the past. Now, it’s a renewed company with nothing on its mind but interoperability and openness. But the fight is not yet over. This year there are now interoperability issues about its Microsoft Office software such as Word.

Hey, Microsoft, it’s time to face the music and clean up your act if you want to regain the lost trust of the might European Commission.

Read [Reuters]

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What you see is what you get. Apparently, these Toshiba 815T PB phones have come in contact with the Allspark Cube from the Transformers movie and now have bodies of their own. Now all they need are guns and missiles like that one crazy Nokia phone.

Apparently, this is all part of promo for a new show called Ketai Sousakan 7. To be honest, I don’t know how anyone could make a show about transforming cell phones, but how can you not, really? Especially ones with faces like those. I wonder what the plot will be about. Maybe it’s about cell phones that want to be human. Very silly, really.

By the way, these Toshiba 815T PB phones are fully functional as they are 3G network enabled, and come with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

All right, those are the facts. Now here comes the part where I make fun of this concept. This time, it is just too easy. Do we need phones that can transform, even if their limbs did work? If so, they had better have more of an Autobot rather than Decepticon streak.

So far, there is no set availability date but sometime in April. There is also no set price, and it is predicted that this will only be in Japan.

Source

I’m still a renter, so I don’t have the luxury of picking out what smoke detectors I get to rely on. I really wish I did, because I hate the ones installed throughout my place. Apparently they’re all connected and if one goes off, they all go off. The only way to get them to stop is to remove the batteries and disconnect each and every one from the wall. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is when you’ve got an ear-splitting wail going off throughout the entire house? I get why they’re all connected, but there has got to be a better way. I’d much rather just get a few of these OneLink detectors.

The OneLink Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detector with Voice Alert is smarter than  your average detector. When you have more than one, they sync up wirelessly and in the event of a fire or Carbon Monoxide leak they will tell you exactly where the action is happening, rather than just blaring a generic wail. There are up to 12 programmable locations.

You’re going to need to shell out a good bit of money depending on the size of your house. Each unit will set you back $99. While that’s steep, can you really put a price on the safety of your family?

Source: RedFerret

Posted Feb 27th 2008 11:25AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Features, Gaming
Dare we say it, the tide is turning. With some hot numbers projected for 2008, the PS3 is seeing a lot of wins lately, most notably that little format-war scuffle you may have heard about. Now that we’ve (finally) got wind of a release date for the DualShock 3, and an SKU that includes MGS4 sweetening the deal, the still-pricey PS3 is looking mighty alluring. So, what’s your story, what’s it going to take?

What’s it going to take to make you buy a PS3?

I already own one, so I guess I’m ahead of the curve. Suckers.The Blu-ray win settled it, just trying to clear space on a few credit cards.I’m going to need a couple more rounds of price cuts. $299, anyone?Release some of those blockbusters they’ve been promising (MGS4, LBP, GT5P) and I’m sold.Just holding out for the DualShock 3 SKU, should’ve been there from day one!I think the box will need to slim down a bit before I can squeeze it into my home theater.I’ve chosen another side in this war, and I’m sticking to it. Probably.You couldn’t pay me to own a PS3. But seriously, how much are we talking here?Vote

Fresh off the format war win, Sony has announced two new Blu-ray players. The BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 players both offer compatibility with formats to include BD-R/RE, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW and JPEG on DVD or CD recordable media. In addition to the wide variety of format support the players will also feature BonusView (Profile v1.1), BD-Live (Profile v2.0) and offer 1080p24/60 output via HDMI. Both players also have an Ethernet port and can handle up to 7.1 channels decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DD+ along with 7.1 channels bitstream audio output including DTS-MA.

Above the BDP-S350, the BDP-S550 will include 1GB of persistent storage along with up to 7.1 channel decoding for DTS-HD MA and up to 7.1 channel analog output.

The BDP-S350 will be available this Summer and retail for $400, the BDP-S550 will be available in the Fall and retail for $500.

Via [SlashGear]

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Posted Feb 27th 2008 11:49AM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Desktops, LaptopsIt looks like that little lawsuit over “Vista Capable” stickers on PCs could now be about to get quite a bit bigger, as a federal judge has now bestowed class-action status on the suit, which accuses Microsoft of misleading marketing. More specifically, as the AP reports, the suit alleges that the “Vista Capable” stickers slapped on PCs during the 2006 holiday season created an “artificial demand” for the computers, and “inflated prices for computers that couldn’t be upgraded to the full-featured version of Vista.” As we’ve seen, those stickers even took in at least one higher-up at Microsoft itself, who has made his thoughts on the program quite well known. While things are still obviously in the early stages, the law firm that filed the suit is now looking for others that feel they’ve been burned by the stickers, and ComputerWorld has the details on you can get involved at the link below.

[Via ComputerWorld]

Celrun TV may not match Apple’s library and service, but this media streamer device looks awesome and has some impressive features under the bonnet. The 320GB hard drive should be enough to hold a vast collection of movies and programs. It has Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, built-in Digital tuner as well as HDMI, component and optical audio for the connoisseurs of audiovisual entertainment.

It is compatible with almost every video file under the sun, such as AVI, MPEG1/2/4, DivX, ASF, XviD, OFF, FLAC, WAV, H.264, WMV just to name a few. Currently, there hasn’t been a release date or price confirmed yet, but I hope it makes it here soon.

Via: [Engadget]

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Posted Feb 27th 2008 9:28AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Handhelds
It’s likely that the Kindle’s popularity is going to spawn a whole slew of e-books vying for the eyes of readers. A concept from a student named Nedzad Mujcinovic at Monash University could very well stoke the fires of competition if his Livre ever makes it to store shelves. The system uses an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple, gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be turned by sliding your finger from corner to corner, though double- and triple-finger gestures will advance the book by ten and 50 pages, respectively. Most notable for real book fans is the inclusion of a leather stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and feel of the device’s analog counterpart. Amazon’s designers would be wise to, uh… take a page from Nedzad’s book for the Kindle 2.

[Thanks, Nick B.]