Hasta La Gadget!

Energizer is on hand here at the Mirage for Digital Experience, where it’s demonstrating tons of power solutions, ranging from solar to induction. It’s making some additions to its Energi To Go line that will surely appeal to most consumers. Our favorite offering was the new EnergiStick, which comes in both microUSB and mini USB varieties, and will keep your cellphone (or other micro/mini USB equipped electronic) charged for an additional 30 minutes. There’s also a new induction charging unit set to ship this summer for around $100. Finally, Energizer’s showing off its tree-hugging side with a new line of flashlights that employ a hybrid charging scheme — they use solar cells and have manual hand cranks.

Energizer showcases new power solutions at CES (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ll be familiar with the LG eXpo and its specs already — which include a slideout QWERTY keyboard and 1GHz Snapdragon under the hood — but we thought we’d go try the handset out for ourselves and tell you what we thought. Construction on this little machine was plenty sturdy to withstand the bumps associated with its unusual shape, while the keyboard slider mechanism had a reassuring feel to it. On the whole our impression was that you’ve got a middle of the road modern phone with a sales hook that depends on just how into projecting your images you are. Trust us, the sharp and large picture you may hope for from this device is possible only in very limited circumstances — even a moonlit night seems likely to mess with your enjoyment of the attached pico projector’s output. For the most part, you’ll have to be content with either watching 14-inch movies with the curtains drawn, or projecting ill-defined naughty pictures on the whiteboard while the teacher isn’t looking. Even if neither of those sounds like your kind of thing, feel welcome to peruse the hands-on gallery below.

LG eXpo projector hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic invited us to a sneak peak of 3D at its booth tonight and representatives from DirecTV were there showing off its new 1080p 3D HD demo feed. The quality was pretty good and quite enjoyable. There were no noticeable compression artifacts in the demo loop which included soccer, College Football, Avatar, Toy Story 3, and a few documentaries with awesome architecture and breathtaking views of mountains and ocean wildlife. We also had the chance to speak with the DirecTV technical staff which told us that the 1080p24 3D signal doesn’t take any more bandwidth than 2D content at the same resolution and frame rate. We were told the demo was indeed real and that we were actually watching the signal you’ll be able to watch in June — after your existing set-top gets a simple firmware update and assuming you have a 3D HDTV, that is. We have to say this is something we’re looking forward to and with every demo we become more convinced that 3D is actually going to take off.

Eyes-on with DirecTV 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell‘s laptop and desktop lineups may hog all of the attention, but the company’s range of LCDs have proven to be contenders over the years. Not one to shy away from the professionals in attendance, the company has today released its first-ever WQHD monitor: the 27-inch UltraSharp U2711. Boasting a native 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, this beast just may pack enough pixels to sway you back into the single-monitor camp. Dell’s also trumpeting the unit’s “billion-color depth and IPS technology,” and the 6-millisecond response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 350 nits of brightness and a 12-bit internal processing help to round things out. For the pros who make ends meet by editing photos or video, you’ll probably enjoy knowing that this one boasts a 110 percent color gamut, factory-tuned Adobe RGB and sRGB modes (alongside a color calibration report), custom color adjustments and a smattering of mounting options.

You’ll also find just about every port known to man: HDMI 1.3, DisplayPort, DVI-D (x2), VGA, composite, component, USB (x4) and an 8-in-1 multicard reader. ‘Course, the actual aesthetics are nothing to write home about, but again, this one’s being targeted at end users who care less about the bezel and more about true-to-life pixel performance. We had a chance to toy around with the new beast, and frankly, we were mesmerized. Without an in-house color calibrator, we can’t speak for those who need oodles of numbers and bar charts to tell if a monitor is performing correctly, but we can say that the panel was remarkably sharp, crisp and accurate — more so than our (much adored) 24-inch 2408WFP, that’s for sure. Be prepared to catch this one next month with an MSRP of $1,049.

Dell goes pro with 27-inch UltraSharp U2711 WQHD LCD monitor (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Acer rolls out new budget-focused Core i3 and Core i5 Aspire laptops

Acer rolls out new budget-focused Core i3 and Core i5 Aspire laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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