Hasta La Gadget!

Another Spring, another opportunity for iriver Japan and Speedo to sell a few MP3 players designed for underwater use. Yes friends, the Aquabeat you’ve grown to know, love and disassociate with overly tight swim trunks has a successor, the Speedo LZR Racer. Design wise, you won’t notice a lot of differentiation from the first, but this waterproof-to-three-meters device has twice the internal memory (2GB) and a built-in rechargeable battery good for around eight hours of continuous playback. It’s said to be shipping now in Japan for ¥12,800 ($128), though we hear it won’t be coming to America without first nailing down a Michael Phelps endorsement. Not that said task will be too tough or anything.

[Via Impress]

Filed under: Portable Audio

iriver, Speedo suit up for new Aquabeat underwater MP3 player originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know the drill: the Atom is the king of all netbooks, with a domain stretching as far as the eye can see. But, upstarts like the Via Nano and AMD’s Athlon Neo are encroaching on Intel’s domain, and Crave took the time to pit examples of the three against each other in a series of benchmarks to see which should rule the land. Rather sadly for us, each of the three tests had a different winner, with the Atom N280 excelling in multi-tasking, the Nano U2250 best for iTunes encoding, and the Neo MV-40 quickest under a Jalbum-based benchmark. So you know what that means: everyone gets a prize, nobody has to go home crying, and you should just go ahead and buy whichever netbook you like best already.

Update: It’s actually unclear which proc won which test, as the table at the source shows one thing, but the text swaps the Neo and Nano around. But, again, there’s not much between these three.

Filed under: Laptops

When netbook processors compete, everyone wins originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gigapan now sells a bigger version of its panorama-shooting robot, which means that you can now load up larger compact cameras and even a small DSLR and take gazillion-pixel images. Like its older brother, the Epic 100 holds you camera and moves it in small, precise increments, snapping a new picture each time and then, back at the computer, stitches them together into one giant, super-detailed image.

The new Epic 100 doesn’t stop there, though. The new version has a larger distance between the camera and the base, meaning a steeper angle can be gotten for even bigger pictures; the LCD panel now has a backlight for easier night-shooting and the unit gains a delay timer so you can leave the setup to start shooting later.

The smallest change, though, could also be the best. The Epic 100 can now shoot up to nine images before shifting to the next position. Aside from filling up your memory card much quicker, this means you can now shoot HDR (Hight Dynamic Range) panoramas. For people who like tweaking and dickering with their photographs, this is a nerdgasmic nugget of news. The Epic 100 is $450 against $380 for the standard Epic. An even bigger DSLR version is in the works.

Product page [Gigapan]

See Also:

• GigaPan Releases Camera Rig for Automated Panorama Photos
• Camera Add-On Brings You Billion Pixel Images

Logitech’s high-end Ultimate Ears division just announced these new Ultimate Ears 700 in-ear headphones. Weighing in at 11.6-grams, the dual-armature layout separates the 10Hz to 16.5kHz frequency response into two high-fidelity channels per ear while offering passive noise-isolation of up to 26dB. While the press release touts iPod compatibility in the boisterous headline there doesn’t seem to be anything about these — like Apple’s proprietary in-line remote control (and chip) for the new iPod shuffle — that’s unique to the iPod… other than the price. Available in the US and Europe for $230 sometime this month.

Filed under: Portable Audio

Ultimate Ears 700 noise-isolating earphones for your iPod, not Apple’s originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a year ago, this category didn’t exist. But after several Atom-powered all-in-one PCs debuted at CES in January, it’s officially the hottest grouping of
desktops on the market.

A category long dominated by Apple’s $1,200 iMac is suddenly rife with nice-looking imitators that pack less power than traditional Windows desktops, but are also gentler on the wallet. They’re a subcategory of desktop PCs called Nettops, and, like Netbooks, they’re generally defined as a computing platform powered by the Atom processor that runs either Windows XP or a version of Linux. Combined with the all-in-one form factor and a smaller screen than most desktops (between 15 inches and 19 inches), they’re essentially the Netbooks of the desktop category.

“A year ago I would have said Netbooks are not going to cannibalize the notebook market. Then the economy went kablooey,” said John Jacobs, director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch. Since then, many people who needed a notebook have chosen to spend $400 on a Netbook instead of the typical $800 on a full-size notebook.

“I think we’ll see something like that for Nettops,” he said. “Either for retirees or younger folks who don’t need the portability of a notebook, and just need something to get on the Internet and do basic computing. Nettops, and all-in-ones will be very attractive devices, and we expect to see a lot of retailers who have stayed out of it will jump into it.”

The all-in-one category as a whole is expected to grow to more than 6 million units in 2009, and to over 7 million in 2010, according to DisplaySearch. That’s almost an 80 percent spike in shipments, which was unexpected at the end of 2008.

Reinvigorating a tired category

In fact, the rise of all-in-one Nettops looks to be the most interesting thing to happen to desktop PCs in years. And, just as the economy helped bolster Netbooks’ appeal, so too will it make Nettops more attractive to buyers, industry watchers believe.

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