Hasta La Gadget!

Just in case you were wondering where and when you might get a taste of the Optimus elixir, NVIDIA has handed us a detailed list of Computex debutants that will be taking the graphics switching technology with them to retail. A total of sixteen new Optimus machines are on show in Taipei, and although ASUS is still the biggest purveyor (with six SKUs, not counting previously announced products), Lenovo and Acer have also jumped on board, with the IdeaPad Y460 and a pair of Packard Bell EasyNotes, respectively. Notably, the FX700 above from MSI is marked as using an “unannounced” next-gen graphics chip, which we suspect might be the GTX 460M, a mobile GPU that NVIDIA is showing, but not talking about yet. Guess that’ll be slotting in just below the recently unveiled GTX 480M. We’ve got pictorial evidence of the 460M’s existence after the break, along with the full list of new Optimus-ized machines, which you can also scope out in the gallery below.

Continue reading NVIDIA shows 16 new Optimus laptops at Computex, teases GTX 460M GPU

NVIDIA shows 16 new Optimus laptops at Computex, teases GTX 460M GPU originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The LumoPro LP160 might be the ultimate Strobist flash. Cheap, powerful and able to talk to pretty much any camera, it offers a great alternative to the $500 top-end flashes from Nikon and Canon for those who want a big light without paying for all the fancy automatic functions.

Strobists, or enthusiasts of off-camera flash, use small strobes and they use them in manual mode. LumoPro is a brand of Strobist gear made by camera retailer Moishe Applebaum (of Midwest Photo Exchange in Columbus, Ohio) in consultaion with the granddaddy of Strobism, photographer David Hobby. The kit is meant to be cheap, simple and good, and the new LP160 looks like it fits right in.

The details: The LP160 has a guide number of 140 (feet, ISO 100) which matches the Nikon SB900 or the Canon 580 EX II. It has a metal foot for mounting on hot-shoes and lighting stands and can swivel (270º) and tilt (180º up and 7º down). Power output is adjustable down to 1/64, and is done via pushbutton instead of the mechanical switches on the LP120 it replaces. Zooming, too, is motorized and done by a button.

The real magic comes in with the four different triggering methods. There is the regular hot-shoe trigger, a PC-socket for old-school cable masochists, a 3.5mm jack socket for those who don’t hate themselves and finally, a rather neat slave trigger. Slaves trip a flash when they see another flash, so you can pop your light using the small built-in flash on a digicam. This one will even ignore the pre-flashes from digital compacts. Nice.

How much is this flashgun? $200 $160. That’s a jump from the v1.0 LP120, which cost $130, but you get a lot more. And if you have been waiting on a back ordered LP120? Good news. Your ordered will be replaced with the new unit, at no extra cost.

LP160 Quad-sync Manual Flash [LumoPro. Thanks, Moishe!]

LumoPro LP160: Quad Sync v.2.0 [Strobist]

See Also:

• Cheap, Manual Flashgun: Built by Strobists, for Strobists
• First Look: Strobist 'Open Source' Flashgun
• Strobist Designs Real Open Source Remote Trigger
• Universal Translator: Marry Any Flash to Any Camera

Don’t look for any crazy Android hardware here, but these three dumbphones are more notable than you might think: they mark the first time LG has hooked up with T-Mobile USA, believe it or not. The Sentio (pictured left) is the most interesting of the trio, featuring a 3-inch touchscreen, 3 megapixel cam with video capture, and support for visual voicemail. The dLite flip (middle) offers a nifty concealed LED array upfront — a feature you see occasionally on Japanese and domestic Korean handsets, but rarely on American models — along with a 2.8-inch display and a pair of color choices (“bubblegum” and “electric blue”). Both the Sentio and dLite also feature T-Mobile’s Social Buzz app for aggregating social network status updates, a helpful feature that’s quickly becoming the norm in this class of device. Finally, you’ve got the GS170 flip — a phone so basic that LG apparently didn’t deem it worthy of a proper name — offering a VGA cam, Bluetooth 2.1, and “large visible keys.” All three phones will be available this Summer for yet-to-be-disclosed prices. Follow the break for LG’s press release.

Continue reading LG kicks off T-Mobile relationship with Sentio, dLite, and GS170

LG kicks off T-Mobile relationship with Sentio, dLite, and GS170 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you get a Samsung Wave today, or perhaps early last week? You might not want to connect it to your computer, just in case. We’re hearing anecdotal reports that the 1GB microSD card shipped with certain German units includes a nasty surprise: it automatically installs the trojan Win32/Heur using the file “slmvsrv.exe.” While we’re not sure exactly what the virus does or if it’s widespread, there’s no point in finding out the hard way, right? Install a good antivirus program and then format that sucker, or better yet, simply drop in a larger microSDHC card. Don’t forget this thing plays DivX HD, people — you’re going to need more than a single gigabyte of storage.

Update: Samsung HQ got in touch with MobileBurn to confirm the existence of the virus in shipping S8500 Wave handsets, but said that the outbreak was confined to the German market’s initial production run and all other shipments are A-OK. Still, there’s no harm in disabling autorun before connecting one to your PC, eh?

Samsung Wave shipping with infected microSD card (confirmed, limited to first run) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally announced with a planned second half of 2010 launch, today Google has narrowed the launch of its Chrome OS to fall. This, according to Sundar Pichai, Google VP of product management speaking at Computex. By our calculation that is sometime between 22 September and 21 December in the northern hemisphere if you want to take the man literally… and you do, don’t you. Wonder if we’ll see a Chrome OS tablet launch at the same time?

Google: Chrome OS launching this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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