Hasta La Gadget!

Not all of the consoles present at E3 this year were made by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft–only roughly 99.9-percent of them. There was another console manufacturer on the show–Conny, a Chinese company was showing off a handheld called the M2, which, if the press material is to be believed stands for “multi-games, multimedia.”

The device has a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen, which can be used with a finger or the included stylus. There are two cameras on the rear of the device–one for stills and one for video. The handheld can also play video and music. There’s also a built in accelerometer. Players can affect games by shaking the device or turning.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the M2 is that users can plug the console into a TV and use the device as a gesture-based controller for the action on screen.

The device ships with 100 games. More are available for download. The M2 has yet to come to the States, but Conny says it’s working on it.

If you thought the golden anniversary of Olympus’ Pen camera was something, get a load of this. From now until August 23rd, an elaborate exhibition entitled ‘The Invention of Photography and the Earliest Photographs’ will showcase some of digital imaging’s earliest tools, including the planet’s oldest camera. The wooden sliding box shown above will undoubtedly be the centerpiece of the Macau-based expo, though it will be surrounded by 250 photography antiques and 180 old photos, which were collections lent by the Nicephore Niepce Museum and 12 other museums, cultural institutions and private collectors around the world. Anyone planning on making the trip over? Make sure you take a few snapshots with your 90s-era point-and-shoot, cool?

Filed under: Digital Cameras

World’s first camera goes on public display in Macau originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 May 2009 04:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, in real life, we all know that Batman’s car is called the Batmobile, NOT the Batman Mobile, and to be perfectly honest, we don’t know why it ever seemed like a good idea to name a phone after an auto anyway, but then again: it does look rather… awesome. No, it doesn’t look like the most comfortable phone, but as the Dark Knight himself would surely tell you, life is full of pain. This GSM bad mother’s boasting a whole host of whack features, including an FM radio, and a “pixel high definition camera,” plus “basic functions,” but we all know this one’s purely about style — which it’s got to spare. This bad boy seems to be currently available in China, and while we doubt we’ll ever see it on shores of the U.S., we can tell you this: we’d be willing to pay at least twenty-five dollars to add this to our NOKLA collection. There are a few more stunners after the break.

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCVII: NOKLA Batman Mobile phone gets all its signals crossed

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCVII: NOKLA Batman Mobile phone gets all its signals crossed originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 May 2009 04:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When the New York Times sent one of its ace reporters to Shenzhen to check out the KIRF scene, they came to a startling conclusion: these things are really quite popular. And why not? Your iPhone might be a terrific device, but is it really $400 better than the Hi-Phone, or the iorgane? Well, it’s probably $400 better than the iorgane — we’ll give you that one. The article sites a general lack of concern from the Chinese government, new technology such as Mediatek’s turnkey circuit board solution, and a significant drop in the price of parts as reasons that knock-off phones are so prominent in that part of the world. There is also a bit of cultural pride at work, too: “shanzhai” technology, as it’s known, is seen as a way to thumb your nose at the big players in the industry and throw some work to your local bandit. That said, we do have to cry foul at the way the paper lumps our beloved Meizu M8 in with the usual assortment of knock-offs: the thing sports nary an Apple (or “organe”) on its handsome exterior. Check out the price breakdown on a typical $40 KIRF after the break.

[Thanks, Ben]

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIII: New York Times undercover edition

Filed under: Cellphones

Keepin’ it real fake, part CCIII: New York Times undercover edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been some talk recently about those forthcoming sub-$100 Chinese Blu-Ray players that are expected flood the US market around the holiday season. All the while, however, the country has been developing a blue laser disc technology of its own.

The technology is called China Blue High-Definition or CBHD. The players will cost roughly half the price of their Blu-Ray counterparts in the country–about 2,000 yuan ($293 US). While the laser technology of the discs is similar to that of Sony’s Blu-Ray, the discs themselves are closer to standard DVDs, made up of two 0.6 mm discs, rather than the 1.1 mm disc and 0.1 mm protective layer employed in Blu-Ray.

More than 100 movies will be available on the format in China by year’s end.