Engadget’s gear of CES 2011

Another year, another CES — and another mountain of new gear put to the test of rapidfire media production for 20+ hours a day. CES 2011 was Engadget’s biggest and best ever, and while we didn’t use that many new tools from CES 2010, we did try some interesting new things — and a lot of updated old reliables. Head past the break for our full rundown!

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Engadget’s gear of CES 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Ludacris ‘Not Blowing Smoke’ With New Headphones

The new Soul line of headphones by Ludacris joins the swelling ranks of celebrity-designed electronics.

Dre, Diddy, Gaga and 50 Cent all made appearances at CES either this year or in 2010 to show off their gadgets. Now Ludacris is a gadget mogul, too.

In this Wired video, Ludacris explains what he was aiming for with these headphones: Clear, balanced sound that doesn’t emphasize the bass at the expense of midrange and high tones.

Coming later this Spring from Ludacris and manufacturer Signeo USA, the Soul line will include three headphone models: the SL300 (noise-canceling, fully isolated over-ear headphones), the SL150 (on-ear) and SL100 (compact on-ear). In addition, the line includes the SL99 and SL49 ear buds.

For more information, see the Soul by Ludacris website.


JVC’s 4K camcorder inches closer to reality, getting smaller all the time

This most definitely isn’t the first 4K camcorder to leak out of JVC’s stable, but it sure feels like the company is getting further from fantasy and closer to reality. At CES last week, the outfit’s latest prototype was as small as we’ve ever seen, with that object shown here being capable of logging clips at 3840 x 2160 pixels. It’s just barely bigger than the 1080p models already on store shelves, and it’s equipped with new internal processors that are over twice as fast as the silicon used in the firm’s current lineup. Sadly, we’re no closer to learning a release date or price, but the results shown down in the source link have us all kinds of hopeful for something within the next dozen months. Right, JVC?

JVC’s 4K camcorder inches closer to reality, getting smaller all the time originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Sound Egg Isolates Your Annoying Tunes

          

The egg-shaped chair was one of the coolest innovations to come out of the late 60s and early 70s — right up there with the Camaro, hot pants and the first five Black Sabbath albums.

Now that same “room within a room” stoner vibe has been updated for the Blu-ray set. The Sound Egg is a retro-cool egg chair fitted with a full surround sound system — complete with a subwoofer behind the seat — and coated on the inside with sound-isolating foam. Climb in, crank it up, and you’ve got your own personal capsule for watching movies, playing games or just plain spacing-out.

These chairs start at around $1,500, and you’ll pay extra for custom colors and for the optional mechanical arm mount for an LCD screen.

We first got a peek at these things about a year ago, but we had a chance to actually try one out at CES in Las Vegas. The sound inside is fantastic: clear, immediate and loud. Best of all, the foam does a great job of isolating the noise. When you’re inside, the outside world is effectively silenced. And since the sound system is considerably quieter on the outside than it is inside, it’s well-suited for any Dave Matthews fans or Call of Duty devotees you’re forced to share a living space with.

See also:


Mysterious 7-inch Viewsonic Android tablet breaks cover, reveals little

Let’s see, if there’s a ViewPad 10 and a ViewPad 4, logic would dictate that a ViewPad 7 couldn’t be far out, right? Unfortunately for those convinced, Viewsonic actually has a 7-inch ViewPad on the market already, and the device you’re peering at above most certainly isn’t it. This gem was spotted by CarryPad at Zinio’s CES booth, complete with Android 2.2, the outfit’s own content software and… well, who knows what else. Chippy noted that booth attendees weren’t exactly hip with him toying around with the device, though he did remark that performance seemed snappier than usual when compared to the other 7-inchers out there. So, will Viewsonic come clean with its LTE-enabled, 7-inch miracle-of-a-tablet? Highly doubtful, but who said dreaming was a crime?

Mysterious 7-inch Viewsonic Android tablet breaks cover, reveals little originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceNetbook News, CarryPad  | Email this | Comments

Bridgestone shows off QR-LPD display, the future looks dim

We didn’t manage to check out Vivitek’s booth and its bevy of low power QR-LPD-screened devices at this year’s CES, but it doesn’t look like we missed much. The e-book fanatics over at The Digital Reader dropped by, and found Bridgestone’s QR-LPD screen technology extremely disappointing. Apparently the screens are just as dim and washed out as they were when we first glimpsed them, over two years ago. In addition, the screen refresh time is painfully slow. Unless these screens turn out to be vastly better in production and incredibly cheap, we think Mirasol and Pixel Qi don’t have anything to worry about in the next-gen screen space. There’s a video of QR-LPD after the break if you’re still interested.

Continue reading Bridgestone shows off QR-LPD display, the future looks dim

Bridgestone shows off QR-LPD display, the future looks dim originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujifilm’s X100 hybrid viewfinder demoed on video, gets us all sorts of excited

Imagine a retro-styled, Micro Four Thirds-sized compact camera with an optical viewfinder. Now, imagine that same camera having a switch that throws all sorts of useful data into your line of sight. That camera is Fujifilm’s Finepix X100, and that viewfinder is real. Back at Photokina, the mockup we ran into didn’t have a functioning viewfinder, but with just two months until the $1,000 beaut is released into the wilds of America, it’s not too shocking that our brethren over at Engadget Spanish managed to come across a (mostly) functional one at CES last week. Eager to show the world exactly what a hybrid viewfinder looks like when being flipped on and off, they shoved a camera up against the OVF and toggled the new mechanism — it’s downright luscious, and it’s waiting for you in the video just past the break.

Continue reading Fujifilm’s X100 hybrid viewfinder demoed on video, gets us all sorts of excited

Fujifilm’s X100 hybrid viewfinder demoed on video, gets us all sorts of excited originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung WiFi-enabled RF4289 fridge cools, eats and tweets; we go hands-on

Other brands may view networked fridges as the key to going green, but it seems Samsung is more interested in letting users access Pandora or tweet while grabbing a snack. At least that’s the impression we got from its staff while playing with the RF3289 fridge at CES, which the brand touts is the first of its kind to feature integrated WiFi. To be fair the unit provides a few pragmatic features too like the ability to view Google calendars, check the weather, download recipes from Epicurious, or leave digital notes — though we’d have been more impressed by functions such as remote temperature adjustment or food spoilage alerts. We also found that the stainless steel exterior made reading the 8-inch LCD touchscreen screen difficult from more than a few feet away. Otherwise, further details on the software and definite pricing are nonexistent at this point, but we do know the appliance will be available to cutting-edge Canadians sometime in May. For more details check out shots of the UI in the gallery below, and hit up Samsung’s vague press release after the break.

Continue reading Samsung WiFi-enabled RF4289 fridge cools, eats and tweets; we go hands-on

Samsung WiFi-enabled RF4289 fridge cools, eats and tweets; we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Active-i sunglasses slyly capture video, plays it back on integrated display

Interactive Group — the same folks who ruined our lives last year with Cyber Clean — are back. Seriously back. The company’s latest gimmick gizmo is the Active-i sunglasses, hailed as the planet’s smallest standalone video and audio recording / playback device. Put simply, you’ll get a set of somewhat unsightly sunglasses (with “polarized lenses for optimum UV-protection,” no less) with a built-in video camera right along the bridge of the nose. It’s placed there for maximum stealth, and it’s capable of capturing up to two hours of low-res video; after the deed is done, users can actually view it back on the monocular viewer, or if you need to break it down Jack Bauer-style, you can offload clips onto your PC or Mac via USB. There’s also a TV output, a microSD expansion slot and a bundled carrying case, but your guess is as good as ours when it comes to pricing. Something tells us your local spy store may be more “clued in.”

Continue reading Active-i sunglasses slyly capture video, plays it back on integrated display

Active-i sunglasses slyly capture video, plays it back on integrated display originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AC Ryan unveils Realtek-based Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 media streamers

AC Ryan already took a few precious moments to introduce its FLUXX media player, but given that one new streamer in a month isn’t nearly “enough,” the outfit’s dishing out two more this week. The Playon! HD2 and Playon! HD Mini2 are both based around Realtek’s 1185 media processor, tout gigabit Ethernet and will soon have access to the WePlayon! content portal. For all intents and purposes, both of these boxes are identical save for a couple of major differences: the HD2 ships with space for a 3.5-inch HDD (whereas the Mini2 goes drive-less), and there’s also support for 802.11n WiFi on the big daddy if you spring for an optional adapter. Oh, and the HD2 has a larger chassis — go figure, right? You’ll also get a USB 3.0 port on the HD2 if you’d like to connect up any other media, and you’ll be able to find either in stores starting next month. As for prices? The empty units will sell for $169 (HD2) / $109 (Mini2), while the former can be ordered up with a 500GB ($205), 1TB ($229), 1.5TB ($259) or 2TB ($289) hard drive within.

Continue reading AC Ryan unveils Realtek-based Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 media streamers

AC Ryan unveils Realtek-based Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 media streamers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hot Hardware  |  sourceAC Ryan (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments