Ritz Camera is set to become the latest retail tech chain to feel the pinch of the recession in a big way. After having recently declared bankruptcy, the company has announced that it will close 300 stores–nearly half of those currently in operation. Four-hundred locations will remain open.
Ritz will be liquidating some $50 million worth of inventory with sale beginning April 4th.
It seems like every Apple rumors these days surrounds some OEM. Most recently was all that talk of a tablet that we have yet to see any definitive evidence of. The latest rumor coming out of yet another Asian parts manufacturer is that Apple is set to roll out 3.2-megapixel camera on the next version of the iPhone, due out later this year.
The report, which originates from “market sources” in Asia has it that OmniVision has been hired to produce the camera. The manufacturer is also said to be supplying 5-MP cameras for an as of yet unnamed device, also due out later this year.
Apple, shockingly, is remaining quiet on the subject.
In case some of you missed this Thursday, Ritz Camera–and by association Wolf and Kits Camera among others–is shutting down more than 300 stores around the U.S. as part of a court-supervised bankruptcy reorganization. This of course means stock liquidation sales, which will begin Saturday, April 4.
As …
While storage is by default a fairly boring topic, we’re always happy to see someone try and spice it up — and Promise sure is trying. The new Promise SmartStor NS4600 and DS4300 offer up four drive RAID 5 striped storage, with the NS4600 pulling full NAS and media server duties, while the DS4300 plays things like a Drobo competitor, with One Touch Configuration to set up new drives and a direct plug into your computer. The NS4600 is where things get really interesting, with the ability to serve up iPhone-friendly video as part of its iTunes Digital Media Server support, SmartNAVI for accessing and viewing media through a web browser, Remote Access Media Center for pulling up media anywhere, and Apple Time Machine Support. The NAS can host USB 2.0 and eSATA drives, and hooks into your network with a gigabit Ethernet plug. The NAS sans-drives goes for “sub $500,” while the DS4300 clocks in around $400 — both should be widely available around mid May. Full feature breakdown is after the break.
Filed under: Storage, Networking
Promise’s new SmartStor do-it-all NS4600 and easy-setup DS4300 make RAID 5 look easy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
[Via SlashGear]
Continue reading BakerTweet, the Arduino-based pastry early warning system
Filed under: Household
BakerTweet, the Arduino-based pastry early warning system originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
You'll have to deal with a pair of rebates to get this 1TB drive for $80. But so what?
(Credit: Fantom Drives)
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new low! OnSale.com has the Fantom GreenDrive 1 terabyte external hard drive for $79.99. UPS Ground shipping will …
Originally posted at The Cheapskate
Cameras don’t get much simpler than this. The Demekin Pocket Fisheye Camera has virtually no controls. Barely larger than the 110 film cartyridges it uses, the camera has a fixed shutter speed of 1/100 sec, a fixed aperture of ƒ3.5 and a fixed focal length of 8.9mm.
Because of that short and wide lens, there is no real need to focus — the depth of field will take care of that. Therefore, the only controls you have are the shutter release and the film winding wheel (remember those?). There isn’t even a viewfinder — instead you have to frame things with the flip-up frame on top. although as this is a fisheye you really only need to point it in the general direction to be sure of capturing your subject.
It looks like a lot of fun, and a great antidote to the constant fiddling you can do with the modern digicam. The only problem is the price. This is really nothing more than a dime-store design, and certainly contains no more parts than a $5 disposable 35mm camera. The $65 that the Co-Op Store wants for it, then, is quite ridiculous. Nevertheless, I’m actually quite tempted.
Product page [Co-Op Store via Retro Thing]
Silicon Valley Watcher: Online advertising is becoming less and less effective. Eric Clemons has some ideas on why this is happening, and there are many startups trying to fix the problem.
And it is a very significant problem because it affects the business model for nearly all types of online publishers. If online advertising continues to fall in its effectiveness then there will less and less revenue support for content creators, such as newspapers and magazines.
WidgetBucks, based in Seattle is one of those companies that are working on making Internet advertising more effective. It offers clients an advertising “container” or widget, that provides better contextual delivery of adverts, and a much richer user experience, which results in more effective advertising.
This part of its business has already been extraordinarily effective, helping publishers gain higher revenues than through advertising networks such as Google AdSense, etc.
“What we do is we optimize the ad networks so that they deliver ads that are more relevant to the site, and that can make a big difference for advertisers and the publishers,” says Matt Hulett, CEO.
The company is also working on making the content of its advertising “containers” more interesting and it is experimenting with combining ads with online games and other types of media that engages Internet users. “Engagement” is the term du jour these days as advertisers seek new formats that will work better than current ones.
WidgetBucks: Fixing Online Advertising – A $9bn Opportunity [Silicon Valley Watcher]
Apparently News Corp. chairman and multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch likes the Kindle. He likes it so much that while he’s not trying to buy the company, he is instead trying to buy any competition that could undermine it and perhaps ultimately send it into financial ruin. Okay, so he’s probably not trying to take down Amazon, but he does want in on the e-reader action, looking to invest in someone, anyone, who might be the next e-book contender. It makes perfect sense, what with print newspapers failing left and right and magazines not faring any better, but just which company might be the lucky recipient of Murdoch’s favor and finances? We’re guessing he has no shortage of willing recipients.
Filed under: Handhelds
Rupert Murdoch wants in on the e-book action originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
The idea of a telescope fused directly into your eye may sound like a dream come true for impromptu stargazers, but the intent here is not for ocular astronomy. Rather it’s to help those suffering from age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. This condition results in the deterioration of eyesight (much like the deterioration of cashflow in the other AMD), creating a large blind spot in the center of the field of vision. VisionCare’s 4mm implantable telescope is intended to re-focus an image onto an undamaged part of the retina of one eye using either 2.2 or 3X magnification, giving patients the ability see directly ahead while leaving the other as it was to provide peripheral vision. It’s a rather more simple solution than others we’ve seen, which is perhaps why it’s already completed a Phase II/III clinical trial, and the FDA is recommending it be approved for use. We are too, if only so that we’ll have more opportunities to use that Six Million Dollar Man soundboard we keep bookmarked — that bionic jump never gets old.
[Via Medgadget]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables
VisionCare’s implantable telescope will make you bionic, hopefully won’t cost six million dollars originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
