Hasta La Gadget!

It ain’t Photokina, and it ain’t PMA, but darn if the cameras aren’t rolling out left and right here at the 2011 edition of CES. This evening, it’s Panasonic’s turn, and we’ve got four new Lumix point-and-shoots to discuss in more detail below:

• For starters, we’ve got a pair of newcomers to the Lumix FH series, the FH5 and FH2. Both of these are sporting sleek, svelte exteriors, with the DMC-FH5 nabbing a 16 megapixel sensor and the DMC-FH2 stepping down to 14 megapixels. Both of ’em feature a newly-developed retractable 28mm wide-angle lens, a 4x optical zoom and a 720p movie mode. You’ll also find a newly-incorporated Venue Engine VI, which hastens startup and overall reaction times. Mega optical image stabilization, face detection and an intelligent scene selector are all included, as is the Lumix Image Uploader to get your shots up onto the web, STAT. Pricing on this duo is expected at a later date, though we are told that the FH5 will ship in silver, violet, black and gold, while the FH2 dons black, red, pink and blue outfits.
• Looking for something with a bit more pizazz? The ultrathin FP series is growing by two today as well, with the 16.1 megapixel DMC-FP7 and 14.1 megapixel DMC-FP5 offering up a sexy exterior, 4x optical zoom and a 720p movie mode. The FP7 goes with a mirror-like finish, while the FP5 sticks with matte. The FP7 (shown above) also has a nicer-than-average rear, with a 3.5-inch LCD; the FP5 steps it down ever-so-slightly to a 3.0-incher. Both models include Smart Touch Screens that enable shooters to tweak lots of settings within hitting a single physical button, and the FP7 goes one step further by offering one-touch re-touching. The duo also incorporates Panny’s Venus Engine VI, mega optical image stabilization, face detection, an intelligent scene selector and a dedicated iA button. Pricing remains a mystery for these as well, but you can decide between red, blue and black on the FP7 or black, pink, silver and blue on the FP5.

Continue reading Panasonic debuts Lumix FP5, FP7, FH5 and FH2 ultraslim compact cameras

Panasonic debuts Lumix FP5, FP7, FH5 and FH2 ultraslim compact cameras originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LAS VEGAS – Hyundai Blue Link, a telematics service announced today, matches and raises the competition with three telematics packages with an embedded cellular data modems, like GM OnStar. The cheapest level with crash notification and roadside assistance, is expected to be about $100 a year.. If so, that halves the cost of the competition. Higher levels include remote start and stolen vehicle location, and turn by turn navigation even on cars without embedded navigation.

To say that Samsung had an unforgettable day here at CES would be understating things dramatically. The company has introduced dozens upon dozens of new products, and now it’s dishing out a few more before letting everyone else grapple for a share of the limelight. On deck? A handful of new camcorders. The SMX-F50 ($199) / F53 ($249) / F54 ($299) is the latest in the outfit’s family of SD camcorders, offering a 65x intelligent zoom, 720x x 480 (60i) recording capabilities and your choice of black, silver, red and blue hues.

The HMX-H300 ($399) is being hailed as the “ultimate HD family camcorder,” offering a three-inch touchpanel, 30x optical zoom, a battery that lasts up to three hours, optical image stabilization and the ability to capture clips at 1920 x 1080 (60i) / 1280 x 720 (60p). Lastly, the HMX-P300 ($199) and HMX-P100($149) both record to microSD / microSDHC, with the primary difference being the sensor — the P300 gets an eight megapixel CMOS sensor and a 3x optical zoom, while the P100 goes with a five megapixel CMOS sensor and a 1x zoom. More details on the whole lot await you after the break.

Continue reading Samsung intros HMX-H300, SMX-F50, HMX-P300 and HMX-P100 camcorders

Samsung intros HMX-H300, SMX-F50, HMX-P300 and HMX-P100 camcorders originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corsair is sending out another raiding party into gaming audio waters today with the introduction of its very first set of speakers, the SP2500. Priced at $249 and boasting 232 watts of floor-shaking power, this jumbo 2.1 package is an unabashed play for PC gamers’ hearts. We’ve spent some quality time with the SP2500s hooked up to our own desktop and can tell you that the company’s boasts about these speakers’ full volume range being usable is no lie. They’re basically designed to be loud … really, really loud. Check out the gallery to see just how massive they are and hop, skip, jump, or leap past the break for our fuller impressions. Spoiler: we’ll be discussing loudness a lot.

Additionally, lest your wallet’s not padded enough or your aural needs not quite so extreme, today sees the debut of Corsair’s more modest SP2200 2.1 set for $99 alongside the introduction of an HS1A gaming headset, the latter being an almost carbon copy of the well received HS1 from last year, save for the replacement of the USB connector with a more conventional analog one.

Continue reading Corsair SP2500 review

Corsair SP2500 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A hard drive that backs up your hard drive isn’t exactly a groundbreaking concept, but a mirror drive that goes pop? Now, that’s something special. PopDrive, weighing in at just over a pound and measuring a touch larger than a wireless mouse, uses two stacked laptop hard drives, encased in an aluminum shell, to guarantee that your backed up data stays that way. So where does the pop come in? Well, if one of these little hard drives crashes, you just pop in a new one like you would a CD. It does RAID-0, RAID-1, JBOD, and connects via eSata. We still haven’t seen a price on it, but the company’s website suggests that it won’t take too much to get this thing poppin’. PopDrive will announce pricing and availability at CES later this week.

Filed under: Storage

PopDrive backs up your backup, gets your hard drive poppin’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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