Gadgets Base

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 24th 2008 at 10:41AMIt may have once talked about toppling both Intel and AMD within a decade, but South Korea’s Hynix looks to have been knocked back on its heels a bit amid a general downturn in the DRAM market, and it’s now taken the rather drastic step of closing down its plan in Eugene, Oregon, eliminating some 1,100 jobs in the process. As EE Times points out, that move is at least partly due to the fact that 300mm plants are ramping up faster than expected, making 200mm plans like the one in Oregon far less cost effective to operate and, apparently, too expensive to upgrade. There’s also the little matter of some tariffs the United States had imposed on Hynix, which it was able to avoid thanks to its plant in Oregon, but which now appear to be set to expire. For its part, Hynix denies that has anything to do with the plant closing, and it adds that it is still looking at ways to “have a presence” in Eugene.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 24th 2008 at 1:22PM
We’ve already gotten word of most of the details of Samsung’s i8510 INNOV8 (get it?) smartphone, but things just got a whole lot more official for the device in Europe and, coincidentally, a number of sites recently got to spend some time with the phone in NYC (despite the lack of an official US release). Of course, there’s not a whole lot of surprises to be found, but it certainly seems like the phone will get the job done and then some, with its built in camera not only boasting an impressive 8 megapixels, but auto-focus, image stabilization, and a flash as well. The rest of the specs aren’t too shabby either. Head on past the break to check out one video of the device courtesy of MobileBurn, and be sure to hit up the Laptop Mag link below for a second, higher-quality look at it.

Read - Press Release
Read - MobileBurn, “Samsung’s i8510 Innov8 S60 smartphone”
Read - Laptop Mag, “Hands-on with the Samsung i8510″

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Filed under: cellphones

by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 24th 2008 at 2:03PMIntel’s got big plans for Moblin, that Linux-based “core stack” that’s being optimized for all sort of mobile devices, from MIDs to carputers, and a big part of those plans is letting the community play a part in its development — the company is just about to release the source for the first version of Moblin, with an alpha-level release of Moblin 2 to follow. Intel says its focus right now is decidedly on Atom, but that it’s looking forward to seeing the community drive Moblin in other directions. There’s no word on what Moblin 2 will offer, but it sounds like Intel is hoping that by getting Moblin out in the open, it’ll become a de facto standard. Not a bad idea, but we’ll see how it goes.

Read - Intel getting ready to release Moblin source
Read - Intel working on Moblin 2

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets, Handhelds, Laptops

by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 24th 2008 at 4:04PMOkay, so there’s clearly a tube that dispenses marshmallows to the ASUS marketing department whenever it comes up with another product to slap the Eee brand on, because this just getting silly. In addition to the countless Eee laptops, Eee Box desktop, Eee monitor, Eee televisions, and other Eee-branded crap, we’re hearing the company is working on a line of accessories, including an external hard drive, optical drive, and WWAN card. None of this is official quite yet, but knowing ASUS, it’ll be out in 30 different varieties by the end of the month.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless, Storage

I am always amazed with the new ways that we find to communicate. Ten years ago, most people didn’t use cell phones, and email capability was somewhat limited. Don’t even get me started on Instant Messaging or text messaging. Were they even around back then?

Now, there is new way to communicate with Speak-A-Message. This is a free audio recorder that can make or send voice messages through email. It is available for download, and shows up on the computer screen as a separate window.

The user has the option of putting a different “skin” on that window based on pre-programmed patterns or can even customize the skin with a digital photo. The user also has the option of adding sound effects to their message if they want.

In addition to providing vocal messages to email, it can also add audio comments to text documents or to add a user’s voice to comments and presentations.

If you want to try it out for yourself, feel free to try it out here for absolutely nothing. Sounds like a great product, but I have only one complaint. See that little mascot guy there that looks like an extremely happy emoticon? He also looks like a character who should really be copyrighted: Pac-man. I sense a lawsuit from Namco in the works.

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Chinavasion recently unveiled their new MP4 player that they claim is the world’s thinnest portable media player. It even beats Brando’s disappearing screen mp3 player, in fact this 4GB CVSJ-1304 beats the former record holding device by a whole millimeter!

To give you some perspective on how thin this 4.5mm thin device is, it would take 4 credit cards stacked on top of each other to be at equal thickness. It comes with a 1.8 inch touch screen, with a resolution of 160 x 128, supports media formats such as MP4, MP3, WMA, ASF, and WAV. Additionally, it comes with an FM tuner, a rechargeable battery and USB connectivity. It is already on sale for only $39.55, which is a great price for a 4GB MP4 player, especially one that is this thin.

Via [PMP Today]

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We have seen plenty of leaked images for the upcoming clamshell-styled blackberry Kickstart, so I guess seeing an early hands-on report surface should not be all that surprising.

The crew over at CrackBerry were able to get their hands on RIM’s first venture into the world of the clamshell, and while the BlackBerry Bold and Thunder may be stealing some of the recent spotlight, it seems the Kickstart is going to be a solid offering.

A few items to point out is that the display is big, and although not quite the same quality as what is found on the Bold it was noted as “looks good.” The Kickstart 8220, as indicated by the number pattern will feature Wi-Fi, it also has the “next gen” SureType keyboard which was described as “massive” and easy to use, which sounds like it will be a nicer typing experience as compared to the Pearl.

The Kickstart 8220 also features the Pearl-style trackball, which in this case is set down a little further, most likely in an effort to keep it from rubbing the internal display, but it was noted as being a little trickier to use.

Otherwise the Kickstart will feature a 240 x 320 internal LCD, 160 x 128 external display and 2-megapixel camera. It will also include an external microSD card slot as well as a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

“All in all, the KickStart’s hardware is good. I was a bit worried the introduction of a flip phone might cheapen the solid reputation of the BlackBerry brand, but based on what I’ve seen of the KickStart so far I think it’s safe to lay that fear at rest.”

So far it sounds very promising, lets just hope that it hits T-Mobile at that rumored price of $49.95.

Via [CrackBerry]

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Sony has just announced that they are opening up their Sony Reader to be compatible with other booksellers. An update, that is expected to be available today will allow Sony Reader owners to purchase books in the protected EPUB format from any retailer and not just the Sony e-book store.

The EPUB format is supported by publishers which include Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group, HarperMedia, Hachette Book Group, HarperMedia and Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

This will, at least from Sony’s perspective make the Reader a little more attractive as compared to some others currently on the market, namely the Kindle which has more than 140,000 books available. Sony’s online e-book store has just about 45,000 available.

Of course, I have to point out that while this does make the Reader a much more attractive purchase, it is still lacking the instant access to purchase a book directly from the device like the Kindle.

In addition, Sony also announced that the PRS-505 is now available for pre-order in the UK, of course it will not begin shipping until September, but its still nice to see them get the availability, especially its been available here in the US for quite a while now.

Read [Yahoo! News]

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There’s nothing that I love more than covering new concept gadgets, and this is one of the coolest that I have ever seen.

Introducing the ball-shaped PC from designer Apostol Tnokovski. This PC ball is a 6-inch orb, that is said to be the smallest PC ever made. This is assuming that it has been made. Some of these pictures that I’ve seen of it (including the one here) look a little CG to me, but these days, you can hardly tell.

The PC ball has legs that fold out, and remind me of the droidikas from Star Wars: The Phantom Menance. (Speaking of CG) As for the keyboard, it is one of those laser keyboards that I have seen before on other applications. As for the mouse, it is a pop-out job that affixes to ball.

The display is a projector that can put the screen on any flat surface. In fact, there is a holder that can clamp onto a piece of paper, in case a flat surface is not available.

I always like it when new concepts come out, but I always wonder how they will change things if they ever become reality. For example, how will this change laptop cases? Perhaps people will carry around cases that look like bowling-ball carriers.

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Whether you want to tell people that this table is supposed to represent blood or red paint, the awesome design is totally inspirational. The “Paint or Die But Love Me” Table designed by John Nouanesing seems to be melting. And if not melting, than not even solid in the first place, but rather a paint spill suspended in motion.

There’s a very good reason that people put sheets all over their furniture when they paint their homes. Paint has a tendency to drip from a surface when wet or heavily applied. Once you get some paint on your carpet or on your plush sofa, you can say goodbye to that particular space. Not to be melodramatic, but I just don’t know if I can fully trust some sort of paint removing chemical solution on my furniture. This table not only promotes the beauty of dripping paint, but embraces it as an art form.

The “Paint of Die But Love Me” Table is not something that will be easily produced for the mass market. In fact, so far it’s only in the conceptual art stage. The table’s design, with its ultra-thin paint droplet legs will be pretty hard to structure while offering also offering support, but just from scoping around a few blog comments you can see there are plenty of people willing to turn this sketch-up into a reality.

Who knows? Perhaps one day we’ll be able to buy our very own Paint Drop Tables, possibly available in assortment of colors rather than just the gruesome blood red. At least we hope this table gets picked up by a manufacturer of some kind. It’s just such a cool idea.

Design Page vic Core77

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