Hasta La Gadget!

Point and shoots live on, so do dedicated camcorders, and Panasonic has just outed a bunch. We headed on over to its booth at CES to give them all a once over, and there’s quite a few to get through so let’s take a deep breath. First up for the camcorders is the HC-V210 with 72x zoom, power OIS and full HD, all in a small, discreet form — ideal for light casual use. The HC-V720 however has a 28mm high sensitivity lens with 50x zoom plus real time broadcasting over WiFi in full HD. The body is bigger than the V210, with stylish metal accents, and a solid weighty feel. The HC-V520 also makes an appearance with its 50x optical zoom full HD and 5-axis OIS. If you want some 3MOS action with manual ring, EVF and level gauge action then the HC-X920 is the one for you. A much larger device with more subtle, stylish black finish with red accents housing that flagship 20.4-megapixel optics.

First up in the point and shoot category is the Lumix DMC-ZS30 with a 20x optical zoom, 24mm ultra-wide angle lens plus WiFi and NFC, a medium-sized cam with a soft touch hand grip. Further up the range, the DMC-LZ30 is a bigger beast, about the size of some small DSLRs, and brings 35x optical zoom, manual exposure control as well as some onboard creative / retouching tools. The DMC-XS1, however, sits right at the other end of the spectrum, being just 14mm at its slimmest part. Despite its size you still get 16 megapixels, HD video, 5x optical zoom and a creative panorama feature. Mostly though, it just looks pretty, and feels solid. Probably not as solid as the rugged all -action DMC-TS5 (that which you see up above). Inside that orange casing you’ll find the mechanics to get 1080p video at 60fps plus WiFi and NFC. All of that is waterproof to a pretty decent 43ft, too, so it should stay safe under the most extreme conditions.

Sean Cooper contributed to this report

Filed under: Cameras

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While Mushkin tipped its hand early regarding details of its “world’s first” 480GB mSATA SSD, it did keep one thing back for CES. It’s launching what it promises is a SandForce-packing, “next generation” USB 3.0 drive that will have read and write speeds of over 300 MB per second. The company is keeping the specifics about its performance, its pricing, availability and even its casing a secret for now, but we’ve gotten in touch and will update this when we learn more.

Continue reading Mushkin launches ‘next generation’ USB 3.0 drive, promises 300MBs read/write speeds

Filed under: Storage

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While staring at all those HDTVs, we bumped into Samsung’s latest addition to its audio family. Alongside a Bluetooth-connected sound bar with a built-in vacuum tube, the electronics company introduced its DA F60 Bluetooth speaker set. Alas, as is the case with a lot of Samsung goods on show here at CES, there’s no mention of pricing, release dates or even regions, but it packs a decent amount of functionality. Along the left edge, there’s an NFC plate that connects to compatible smartphones, allowing you to transfer audio from either the music player or other third-party apps to the speaker. On the right side, there’s a volume dial and buttons to enable Bluetooth signal, a power button and what appears to be a bass-boost option.

Under its own steam, the portable speaker has enough for 8 hours of “standard use”, and at the pack there’s a port for AC power as well as an extra USB port to charge your phone (or anything else that can be topped up through USB). Another nice touch is that the speaker will wake up from standby when you tap your NFC smartphone to it. If needed, you can even pipe your Samsung TV’s audio through its SoundShare feature. Unfortunately the madness of the show floor meant we can’t vouch for the audio quality just yet, but you can take a closer look in our hands-on video, coming soon.

Continue reading Samsung debuts NFC-Bluetooth DA F60 speaker set, even charges your phone (hands-on)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Samsung

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise after Steve Ballmer crashed the Qualcomm CES keynote yesterday, but at a follow-up briefing earlier today, the latter’s CEO Paul Jacobs reiterated his support for Windows Phone. The exec said “it’s too early to call the game” on Microsoft’s mobile OS, and emphasized that he “never counted Microsoft out” as it has a lot of resources plus benefits, especially with the tie-in with its enterprise software and Xbox. “It is growing, they are gaining traction. When you use the devices they work well. That’s pretty key,” said Jacobs. Well, we’re certainly fans of the Snapdragon-powered HTC 8X and Lumia 920, so we shall see.

Filed under: Misc

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Ever since IK Multimedia released its mobile music peripherals, Android users have been left to look on their iOS-toting brethren with jealousy. No longer. Today at CES 2013, the company has announced that its iRig MIC, iRig MIC Cast, iRig PRE, iRig MIX and iKlip STUDIO devices will now work with phones and tablets powered by little green bots. The catch? If you don’t have a Samsung Galaxy device, you’re out of luck. It’s unfortunate that not all Android users can partake in IK Multimedia’s offerings, but judging by Sammy’s sales numbers these days, there’s plenty of you out there who can.

Continue reading IK Multimedia’s iRig and iKlip STUDIO mobile peripherals learn to play nice with Android, stay friends with iOS

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile

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