Gadgets Base

Posted Mar 21st 2008 6:20AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV
On June 12th, 2008 there’ll be no place to hide from the release of the gunmetal MGS4 PS3. Well no place except every single country other than japan where the ¥51,800 (about $520) limited edition console will exclusively launch. That wad of Yen nabs the limited edition 40GB console with a Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots software bundle and like-colored DualShock 3 controller. How you like that, Ol’ Snake?

[Via Impress]

In what seems to be the hot handset of the moment, the XPERIA 1 from Sony Ericsson has had some more details revealed courtesy of a recently released white paper, which came courtesy of the Sony Ericsson website.

The XPERIA X1 has not had any shortage of available information leaked up till now, but these are the official details. Its hard to even begin, the official white paper is a 40-page PDF document that is just full of goodies. Some of the highlights include:

• Information on the pre-loaded panels for the XPERIA interface, which will include a Sony Ericsson Panel, Media Experience Panel, Slideshow Panel, Microsoft Today Panel, 3D Fish Panel and some user customizable panels.
• Media Sharing using ActiveSync or Wi-Fi.
• Video recording options include MPEG-4: 30fps @ VGA, H.263: 30fps @ VGA except the U.S. model is only at 24fps and H.264: 15fps @ VGA but it is not supported on U.S model.
• Sadly Opera will not be pre-installed, opting for IE instead.
• Location services will include a pre-installed Google Maps.
• Email to include automatically configured POP3, Exchange Direct Push and wizards to set up Gmail, Yahoo, Live Hotmail.
• Pre-insalled Java ME.
• Sadly, as pointed out by inxperia, support for 1700MHz is missing.

While this is just a very brief summary of the details, if you are at all interested in this phone then check out the read link below for a link to the White Paper. It seems we have just about all the details that we can handle on the XPERIA X1, now we just need to get some in the wild and see some actual user reviews.

Read [Sony Ericsson Official White Paper] Via [inxperia]

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I have to wait for Firefox 3, as much as I want to upgrade now, what with the promise of better memory management and performance increases, because I depend too much on the over 2 dozen extensions that I have. But Mozilla got smart with the upcoming next release of Firefox - they’ve launched a competition (Extend Firefox 3) to recruit developers to create brand new extensions that take advantage of new features in FF 3, as well as to simply upgrade existing extensions so that they continue to work.

Prizes include travel to a Mozilla Developer Day, development gear (including a macbook air), and Firefox swag. Come on Firefox community - keep me loving my browser!

Filed in archive Accessories by jim on March 21, 2008

<!– <rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.digital-shot.com/50226711/its_in_the_bag_your_digital_camera_that_is.php” trackback:ping=”http://www.creative-weblogging.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.pl/117538″ dc:title=”It's In The Bag, Your Digital Camera That Is” dc:identifier=”http://www.digital-shot.com/50226711/its_in_the_bag_your_digital_camera_that_is.php” dc:subject=”Accessories” dc:description=”" dc:creator=”jim” dc:date=”2008-03-21T00:00:06-08:00″ /> –>

I've been trying to find the perfect camera bag, or "gadget bag", as we used to call them, for years.

So far I've accumulated a collection of bags that rivals the number of cameras I have, and none are perfect, yet each in its own way, is.

That's because I'm a pack rat, and I tend to bring more stuff along than is needed. So I end up with half a car trunk full of bags with all the cameras and associated photo equipment I think I might need.

The, when I get to where I'm going I usually end up picking a few items from each bag and one bag suitable to carry my selections.

I hope you're not like me and can't make your mind up about what camera bag to use and spend more time taking pictures rather than preparing to take them.

Regardless of your needs pick a well made bag that is sturdy and adequately padded.

Here's a good article about digital camera bag quality and choices by Digital Photography members.

Take a camera with you whenever possible, and look around, you'll find a picture somewhere.

Source:www.farm1.static.flickr.com

Posted Mar 21st 2008 5:47AM by Thomas Ricker var Oh sure, she looks friendly enough. But don’t let her matronly, argyle looks fool you. Retired Columbia University Professor, Gertrude Neumark Rothschild, is looking to extract some cold, hard cash from a who’s who of Consumer Electronics giants. Otherwise, they can forget about importing their goods into the US. Rothchild’s complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on February 20th claims that some 30 companies are violating a patent she owns for light-emitting and laser diodes. Today, the ITC has agreed to investigate the matter. It’s worth noting that Rothchild has already successfully tested the legislative waters with lawsuits against Philips and others — the Philips matter was settled out of court earlier this month. In other words, her case has legs. Still, we have very little confidence in the ITC’s grasp of the matter when they name “hd dvd players (e.g., Blu-ray disc players)” as products to be probed. Full list of companies named in the complaint after the break.

[Via Reuters and mrontemp]

• Avago Technologies of Singapore;
• Bacol Optoelectonic Co. Ltd. of Taiwan;
• Dominant Semiconductors Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia;
• Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., of Taiwan;
• Exceed Perseverance Electronic Ind. Co., Ltd., of China;
• Guangzhou Hongli Opto-Electronic Co., Ltd., of China;
• Harvatek Internaional Inc. of Taiwan;
• Hitachi, Ltd., of Japan;
• Kingbright Electronic Co., Ltd., of Taiwan;
• LG Electronics of Korea;
• Lite-On Technology Corp. of Taiwan;
• Lucky Light Electronics Co., Ltd., of China;
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., of Japan;
• Motorola, Inc., of Schaumburg, IL;
• Nokia of Finland;
• Opto Tech Corporation of Taiwan;
• Pioneer Corporation of Japan;
• Rohm Co., Ltd., of Japan;
• Samsung Group of Korea;
• Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., of Japan;
• Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., of Korea;
• Sharp Corporation of Japan;
• Shenzhen Unilight Electronic Co., Ltd., of China;
• Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., of Japan;
• Sony Corporation of Japan;
• Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB of Sweden;
• Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., of Japan;
• Toshiba Corporation of Japan;
• Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., of Malvern, PA; and
• Yellow Stone Corporation of Taiwan.

Posted Mar 21st 2008 5:19AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: cellphones, TransportationAbout this time last year, the cab drivers of New York City were taking a stand against GPS installations. This year, they’ve taken to the streets of downtown Manhattan in order to rally for the right to use cellphones while on duty. For those unaware, NYC cabbies are currently disallowed from using hands-free apparatuses while on the clock, and those in the profession are arguing that having one would enable them to feel safer and more connected to the outside world. Unfortunately, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission doesn’t seem ready to budge, as it reportedly replied to the lobbying by stating that “cellphone abuse has resulted in many instances of drivers leaving their passengers feeling improperly served and downright unsafe.” What’s a cab driver got to do to get his / her Snake on, huh?

[Via textually]

Posted Mar 21st 2008 3:08AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: cellphones, Transportation
Like it or not, a new era has dawned. More than a year later than anticipated, Emirates says that the world’s first authorized cellphone call was made by a passenger during an Airbus A340 flight between Dubai and Casablanca. Once the aircraft reached cruising altitude, passengers were permitted to make and receive both calls and text messages. Emirates plans to fit additional aircraft with the interference-blocking AeroMobile system later this year while adding blackberry and “other data services.” To keep the annoyance factor to a minimum, the flight crew requests passengers to silence their ringers and will shut off the in-flight service when appropriate. For example, during long-haul, red-eye flights or breaking celebrity scandals on TMZ… we hope.

[Thanks, Jonathan F and Andrew B.]

Posted Mar 21st 2008 4:10AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
It’s only beta at the moment, but the open source community just kicked Ubuntu 8.04 out into the wilds. As you’d expect, the update brings an increment to Ubuntu’s quaint, alphabetical naming convention. In other words, the new Hardy Heron will supplant the current Gutsy Gibbon as we make our way towards an October release of Intrepid Ibex. Got it? Good, now do yourselves a favor and check out Ubuntu’s latest. Then decide for yourself if Hardy Heron’s April 24th go-date means something special for you.

Posted Mar 21st 2008 2:16AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Laptops
Sony has quite the history of crippling excellent, beautiful hardware with horrible, useless software. The company’s UX UMPC bluescreened on us the first time we turned it on, and crashed the first time we tried to shut it down thanks to all the bloatware on it, while a Laptop Mag review says their Vaio TZ ran “as if it were broken” before they managed to wipe it clean. Lucky for us, it appears Sony is finally seeing the error of its ways, but instead of removing the crapware altogether, Sony has the nerve to offer a $50 “Fresh Start” option, which “scrubs” the machine clean before shipping it your way. At the moment you can only configure the TZ2000 crapware-free, but hopefully Sony will be rolling out the choice to the rest of its laptops soon. Or here’s an idea, Sony: stop trying to milk profits and start giving consumers laptops that actually work out of the box.

[Thanks, Camron T]

Posted Mar 20th 2008 11:20PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Laptops
Let’s not get hung up on trying to figure out a use for this thing, and just admire it for what it is: awesome. Jim built this “Spectrum ZX Laptop” out of an old ZX Spectrum 48k and a Toshiba Libretto 110, using the Libretto for innards and the screen, while the Spectrum serves as a case and keyboard. The “laptop” gets a couple hours of batter life, and naturally Jim is running Linux on here — he plans to emulate some old ZX Spectrum games with it, but mostly it’s just art. A shot of the two machines in their original states is after the break.

[Via Hack a Day]