We’ve barely unpacked our bags from GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and we’re on the road again to Las Vegas for CTIA Wireless, the U.S. tradeshow and conference held every spring where the biggest and most influential players in the U.S. mobile market …
Originally posted at CTIA show
Bargain hunters, start your bargain-hunting engines — Olympus’ new Four Thirds E-450 DSLR differs so little from the E-420 it replaces that even their mother can’t tell them apart. This means an inevitable price drop to clear out older inventory, where you can snap up the previous model safe in the knowledge that you are missing almost no new features. How’s that for spin?
The one big change is the upgrade to Olympus latest processing chip, the TruePic 3+. Next is the ability to shoot eight RAW files in a burst instead of six. Third is a better screen (it’s brighter). Finally, and more a step backwards than forwards, is the addition of Olympus’ lame new Art Filters. These offer gimmicky in-camera processing to achieve effects such as “pop art", “soft focus" and “pinhole". Sadly, the last cannot be combined to make a filter named “soft hole", which would certainly be useless but also hilarious.
The relevant details carried over from the E-420 are thus: 10 Megapixels, a 2.7" screen, ISO 100 to 1600, sensor-shaking dust reduction and a wireless commander mode for the built-in flash, similar to Nikon’s high-end DSLRs (well, except the real high-end D3 and D3x, but you know what we mean).
The camera will cost $700 when bundled with both the ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 and ED 40-150mm f4.0/5.6 Zuiko lenses. Available May.
Press release [DP Review]
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Filed under: GPS
WorldTracker Enduro offers GPS tracking in even the harshest conditions originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The mysterious Wacom Intuos 4, the graphics tablet which shipped before even turning up on Wacom’s site, is finally, officially, official. What’s more, Wacom worked closely with the folks at Adobe to make sure the new tablet plays nice with Photoshop. Actually, really really nice with Photoshop.
The Intuos 4 has a bunch of hardware changes. The first thing you’ll notice is the swapping out of the old control strip for a new wheel called the TouchRing. According to Adobe’s John Nack, this was changed on Adobe’s say-so. He quotes Wacom’s Joel Bryant:
One direction that was totally changed based upon Adobe feedback was using the Touch Ring vs. the existing Touch Strip design (customer research had them with even preference). From the Adobe perspective, the Touch Ring fit much better with the CS4 Rotate Canvas feature especially. So we actually made that change directly based on Adobe feedback.
The other big change is the surface, which is widely reported to feel much more like using a pen and paper (I actually hacked my old Graphire 2 tablet to do this by taping a sheet of paper over the top. It worked great, although the nibs wore down very fast).
The pen is new, too, and will only work with the Intuos 4. It has the familiar two buttons on the barrel and now senses 2048 levels of pressure, all of which can be used by Photoshop. Finally, the new “ExpressKeys" have OLED displays to let you know what they are programmed to do.
On the software side, Wacom has added pie menus to the lineup. Press a button on the stylus and a circular menu, like a pie-chart, pops up at the cursor. This is a very fast and efficient way to select tools as it is both right by the mouse pointer and takes advantage of positional muscle memory. Nice.
The tablet now has an official price, too. The small tablet will cost you $230, medium $350, large $470 and XL $790.
Product page [Wacom] New Wacom Intuos4 rocks! [John Nack]
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The SCP-2700 comes in pink (left) and blue.
(Credit: Sanyo)
If there is a theme at CTIA 2009, it is the messaging phones. Samsung and LG have released handsets with full alphabetic keyboards for faster texting, and now Sanyo is getting in on the thumb wars as well.
On Tuesday, …
Originally posted at CTIA show
Olympus just announced it’s “new” E-450 four thirds shooter. Really though, it could have just as easily been announced as the E-420 plus, a tweak to the “world’s smallest DSLR” announced last year. Both cams share the same 5.1 x 3.6 x 2.1-inch and 13.4 ounce dimensions, 10 megapixel Live MOS sensor with live view, 3.5fps continuous shooting, 2.7-inch LCD, ISO 1,600 max sensitivity, and four thirds lens mount. So what’s new? Well, the E-450 has a newer TruePic III+ image processor, a longer 30-minute exposure, improved flash control, and now several “art filter” modes like “pop” and “soft focus” — pointless if you’re doing any kind of post processing on a computer. Then again, it’s only $699 when bundled with the ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 and ED 40-150mm f4.0/5.6 Zuiko zoom lenses. To prove just how entry-level this shooter is, it’ll be available exclusively on QVC (yes, that QVC) on May 9th.
Continue reading Olympus E-450 four thirds shooter is a tweaked E-420, still small
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Olympus E-450 four thirds shooter is a tweaked E-420, still small originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Shuttle‘s back with another mini HTPC, the H7 4500H, only this time you can swap out that DVB-T tuner with a DVB-S for satellite TV. The cost of going for the latter means you have to settle onboard graphics only, but either way you’re still getting DVR capabilities and Windows Media Center. Max configuration for the Vista-based machine includes 2.83GHz Intel Core 2 Quad, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285, 1TB SATA HDD, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and a Blu-ray writer. It’s also got HDMI, SPDIF, eSATA, FireWire and six USB ports. Starting price is around €775 ($1,020), but if you’re planning to get the whole kit and kaboodle, the price jumps to about €1858 ($2,450).
[Via I4U]
Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs
Shuttle’s Mini H7 4500H media PC joins Blu-ray, DVB-S tuner in matrimony originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sorry, that’s not actually Dark Helmet, it’s a researcher demonstrating the latest Brain Machine Interface (BMI) cooked up for robotics. While it’s not looking too portable, it’s a far nimbler setup than the original MRI Scanner first concocted by Honda to control robots in near real-time back in 2006. This time, Honda Research Institute in coordination with Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) and Shimadzu Corporation have achieved robotic thought control using a sensor cap to measure electrical potential on the scalp and cerebral blood flow. While we’ve seen much of this BMI tech applied to video games in the past, Honda claims its technology achieves the world’s highest accuracy at 90% without special training. Impressive, even though it’s clearly R&D work for now. Check the video after the break.
[Via Akihabara News]
Continue reading Honda’s ASIMO could be thought controlled in Spaceballs 2
Filed under: Robots
Honda’s ASIMO could be thought controlled in Spaceballs 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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No money for a secondary display? No use for that worn-down PSP? There’s hope for the future, friend. Hacker avi has discovered that Sony’s handheld makes for a wonderful status monitor, providing a clean look at your PC’s CPU usage, memory allocation and system temperature levels. All you’ll need is a bit of training in Python, Lua for the PSP and a sister willing to stop watching UMD movies long enough for you to give this a go.
Sony PSP hacked for use as PC status monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We don’t doubt that Acer‘s cooking up a few laptops based on Intel’s forthcoming consumer ultra low voltage (CULV) platform, but we do have serious reservations about ’em coming out next month. Last we heard, the platform was still on track for a summer release, and at least in our hemisphere, April ain’t summer. For what it’s worth, Taiwan Economic News is reporting that Acer is looking to launch 11.6-, 13-, 14- and 15-inch machines with CULV processors within, and if rumors prove true, at least some of ’em will make their debut next month. Don’t bet the farm, but you’re probably safe to pencil it in.
[Via NotebookReview]
Filed under: Laptops
Acer reportedly launching laptops based on Intel’s CULV platform originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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