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Archive for June 7th, 2008
This whole “it’s web video, on your TV!” space is getting crowded fast, but we’d say there’s certainly room from this new “PoD” device from Verismo Networks. Not content to merely concentrate on one form of content, the PoD can handle content from YouTube, BitTorrent, vTap, Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, you name it. It’s a pretty simple box, with an Ethernet plug, a couple of USB ports for flash storage, some sort of wireless (we’re guessing WiFi), and outputs for S-Video or HDMI, up to HD resolutions. It’ll sell later this summer for $99, with a bit of a marketing push from YouTube, so this probably won’t be the last you hear of PoD.
While JAYS’ q-JAYS claimed to be the “smallest earphones on the market” just days ago, we doubt Klipsch would be willing to agree. Turns out, the firm’s IMAGE earbuds are also proclaiming that they are the “world’s smallest and lightest in-ear earphones,” and while we haven’t seen the ruler busted out just yet, we fear it may be needed to settle this obvious conflict. Regardless, these ‘buds utilize patent-pending Contour Ear Gels, KG926 balanced micro-armatures, aluminum bodies that are finished in anodized copper, and come with 50-inch long vinyl cables. Ready for a November release, the IMAGE earphones will ring up at $349 and will arrive with a carrying case and pouch, a 1/4-inch / airline adapter, five sets of ear gels, and a cleaning tool to boot. Click on for a literal hands-on shot.
Klipsch made tiny waves with their original Image headphones, saying they were the world’s smallest. We took their word for it and moved along. Now Klipsch has given up on the size game with its new X5 headphones, boasting that the 2mm-bigger X5 headphones are “light but heavy in sound.” Anyway, the Image X5 use a full-range armature driver, tuned bass-reflex system, and sport a long-enough 50-inch cable. The housing is electroplated aluminum and Klipsch says the black “tail” reduces cable stress and dampens cable noise. The X5 is iPhone compatible and comes in at a more wallet-friendly (but still slightly alarming) $249 later this month. For that price you’ll get the headphones, carrying pouch, airplane adapter, five multi-sized ear gels, and an ear gel cleaning tool.
There are literally thousands of wacky gadget variations floating around Computex, but one that’s caught the eye of our Chinese counterparts is this snazzy DarFon keyboard. As you can tell by the picture above, the keys sport some luminous qualities, and the board is constructed from lacquered metal, said to give it a “burnish.” Apparently the company was also showing off a mouse which would giggle when you touch it and gets upset if someone you “don’t like” emails you (don’t ask us how it knows). Creepy? Yes. Are we ready to pre-order? Definitely. More pics after the break.
Read - DarFon 1
Read - DarFon 2
It’s not always a question of why — sometimes why not will suffice. The rolling bot above relies upon the Mindstorms NXT light sensor’s ability to read the contrasting colors on the iPhone display. After some simple programming and DIY tomfoolery you can drive the robot from the comforts of your WiFi-enabled web browser. Overkill? Oh hells yeah, but at least now your iPhone will serve a purpose after Monday. See how the kids at Battlebricks did it in the video after the break.
We’ve been hearing about ATI’s external graphics schemes for years, but apparently XGP is finally ready to go. The platform houses an external graphics card — ATI-branded, of course — which connects to your laptop via a proprietary 4.0Gbps PCIe 2.0 connector. The new tech is being initially launched with AMD’s new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800, which can work in a multi-GPU CrossFireX configuration with your laptop’s internal graphics card. The first out of the gate with the tech is Fujitsu’s AMILO Sa 3650, which packages a Mobility Radeon HD 3870 cardbut there’s still no word pricing or exactly when or where this all is shipping. XGP also supports some extra USB 2.0 ports, Blu-ray decoding, and outputs over HDMI with integrated audio and DVI, powering up to four displays.
AMD’s on a roll at Computex, and it’s keeping the stream alive with two more decently important announcements. First off, the company is making the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 official, which is said to “triple top-of-the-line graphics performance in comparison to the previous generation ATI Mobility Radeon GPUs.” The unit also enables laptop makers to include CrossFireX technology for the first time, so yeah, there’s that. Moving on, we’ve got the low down on its PowerXpress technology, which enables users to “double or triple the performance of the integrated graphics processor when plugged into a wall socket or extend their battery life by over an hour while on the go.” In actuality, it’s a variant of ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology for lappies, giving folks the option to switch between a Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series GPU and an integrated AMD M780G without the need for a reboot. If your eyebrows just perked up, you can snag said tech on select Fujitsu-Siemens machines right now. All the gory details are linked below — enjoy!
Read - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 gets official
Read - ATI PowerXpress shipping on select Fujitsu-Siemens laptops
The more cells you can pack onto a NAND chip, the cheaper the storage, so we’re excited about Hynix’s recent announcement of triple-level-cell NAND flash. You might have noticed that MLC-based SSDs are cheaper than SLC units, and TLC keeps the trend alive — Hynix says the cost of TLC production is some 30 percent lower than current chips. On top of that, the 32GB chips themselves are 30 percent smaller than current NAND chips, meaning device manufacturers will be able to cram more storage into our PMPs and phones. We’ll have to wait a little while though: production is going to ramp up in October, and Hynix hasn’t committed to using the new chips in SSDs quite yet.
Aside from the obvious PR blitz, we can’t really figure out what AMD is doing here. You see, its AMD LIVE! Home Cinema platform was actually introduced way back in January of 2007, yet it seems pretty confident that this stuff is brand new at Computex. Whatever the case, we can now assume that a new aspect has been added in to “enable solution providers to address the growing home entertainment arena through a consistent, highly-capable design.” The package also supports Phenom X4 9000 / X3 8000 CPUs and ATI Radeon HD graphics, and it’s obviously designed to be used on HTPCs, mini-towers and otherwise vanilla desktops. If you’re interested in wading through the mess that is the press release about this “new” technology, be our guest via the read link below.
Mio’s got quite the interesting duo set up at Computex: the Windows Mobile 6.1-packin’ G50 and the two-faced LEAP K1. As for the former, you may know it better as the Lovebird, but it seems a more corporately accepted monicker was chosen at the last minute for the quad-band GSM handset. As for the latter, this mysterious creature actually has two faces to fondle — one of which packs a traditional numeric keypad, while the other features an expansive panel perfect for serving up routes. Check the links below for more details on both.
Read - Mio G50
Read - Mio LEAP K1
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