Jul 29

Onkyo shows pride in its DV-BD507 Blu-ray player with lofty $449 price tag

Posted in: blu-ray, Today's Chili

Onkyo’s never been one to dabble in the Blu-ray bargain basement, but with BD decks selling for well under the $200 mark, we’re wondering what kind of secret sauce is boxed in with the DV-BD507. The outfit’s latest Profile 2.0 player doesn’t sound too special based on specs alone, as it supports HDMI 1.3a, 1080p output, BD-Live functionality and BonusView features just like every other respectable rival on the market already. Sure, we can’t say we don’t appreciate its innate ability to process AVCHD files stored on SD / SDHC cards or toasted DVDs, but even on a good day we can’t justify the $449 MSRP. Maybe it’s upgradable to 3D… or something. Fancy rear shot is waiting after the break.

Continue reading Onkyo shows pride in its DV-BD507 Blu-ray player with lofty $449 price tag

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Onkyo shows pride in its DV-BD507 Blu-ray player with lofty $449 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 29

T-Mobile Unveils HTC Touch Pro2 Smartphone

Posted in: HTC, Smart Devices, Today's Chili

HTC_Touch_Pro2.jpg

HTC and T-Mobile have finally unveiled the long-awaited Touch Pro2, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone with 3G and Wi-Fi radios. The Touch Pro2 will come in a mocha finish and sport a 3.6-inch WVGA (800-by-480) touch screen, which is 0.1 inches bigger than that other device from Cupertino. There’s a revised, slide-out QWERTY keyboard–although the old one was quite good, at least if you avoided the Verizon version–along with a 3.2-megapixel camera and video recorder.

HTC also upgraded its beautiful-if-skin-deep TouchFLO 3D interface. The handset hooks into Microsoft Voice Command for playing music, making phone calls, and looking up calendar and contact information. Finally, a new Straight Talk app lets you respond to e-mail from a call, set up a conference call from group e-mail, and “turn any location into a conference room.”

Here’s hoping HTC and Microsoft did a better job of integrating TouchFLO with Windows Mobile than they did last time. If the two companies can pull it off, then it doesn’t necessarily matter that Microsoft’s creaky mobile OS is underneath the proceedings. The Touch Pro2 will hit T-Mobile stores and T-Mobile’s online Web site on August 12th.

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Jul 29

Samsung’s 1TB Spinpoint F3 hard drive serves 500GB per platter

Posted in: hard drive, HardDrive, samsung, storage, Today's Chili

Oh sure, Seagate did it first, but since when have we been ones to kvetch about one-upmanship? Over in South Korea, Samsung has debuted an all new high-density hard drive family for use in “high-end computing environments,” or in more comestible terms, your next desktop / workstation. The Spinpoint F3 hums along at 7,200RPM, uses a 3Gbps SATA interface, packs 16/32MB of buffer memory and will be made available in sizes as large as 1TB by utilizing a pair of 500GB-per-platter disks. The boost in areal density provides up to 30 percent higher performance when compared to a three platter 1TB drive in the same 3.5-inch form factor, and the reduction in mechanical parts also makes it less likely to fail prematurely. Sammy isn’t being too forthright when it comes to MSRPs, but those looking to snag one regardless can find the 500GB model on shelves now and the 1TB edition later next month.

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Samsung’s 1TB Spinpoint F3 hard drive serves 500GB per platter originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 29

Lamps Made From Old Cassettes Exude Warm Retro Glow

Posted in: diy, household, Retro, Today's Chili

cassette_tapes_lamp_small_web

This commercial product, the Cassette is Not Dead lamp, is an invitation to start a great DIY project. The €25 ($35) lamp is made up of old audio cassettes which are joined together by nothing more than string. In fact, so easy is it to construct that you can even remove and replace cassettes so they can be listened to (assuming you actually have something to play them on):

[Y]ou can play with it changing the tapes even with yours and listening all of them too.

See? Also available is a floor-standing version, which is essentially the same thing, forming a shade on a standard standard lamp. This costs a record-collection replacing €220 ($312), and could also easily be re-made with a bit of help form Ikea. Still, as inspiration, the beautiful lamps are priceless.

Product page [OOOMy Design]

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Jul 29

Philips V808 smartphone to run Android-based OPhone OS on China Mobile

Posted in: Android, Google, philips, smartphone, Today's Chili

Well, at least some of the mystery is solved. If a machine translated source is to be believed — not to mention a healthy gathering of screengrabs — Philips’ elusive V808 smartphone will be a China Mobile exclusive. As with other Android-based phones on the operator, it’ll be the reworked OPhone OS handling the dirty work, which basically means a carrier-customized app market and a few other tweaks that seem to be frowned upon in the Chinese community. We’re also told that the phone will lack support for 3G, WiFi and multitouch, leaving us grieved, lugubrious and lachrymose. C’mon guys — why hamstring a good thing?

[Via Cloned In China]

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Philips V808 smartphone to run Android-based OPhone OS on China Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 29

Onion Spoof Gadgets Almost, Nearly, Bad Enough to Be Real

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Today's Chili

onionism

On the left, you see the E-Z Go Spine Extractor, it’s purpose: “Removal of undesirable fish spine and other living things has never been easier! For immediate taste-pleasure and easy disposal.”

The spine extractor, although authentic in both cheap design and Engrish product pitch, is a spoof. As is the rather handy looking box next to it, the Yu Wan Mei Device, which “has been completed and is now available for sale.” These parodies are what happens when the Onion gets into gadget marketing, and like anything the Onion does, they’re so close to the truth of our day-to-day gizmo-hunting life that a few tears of knowing pain slip between the mirthful drops from our laughing, watering eyes.

Click over to experience the dangerous joys of Metal Fun, fast-food snack bags filled with filings, shavings and other sharp shards. Or the Yu Wan Mei Loyalty Bracelet, the blurb for which is worth quoting in full:

Show your loyalty to Yu Wan Mei and its line of products in a high-fashion way! The bracelet looks so nice for men or women—even the GPS chip inside is designed with an eye for style. Do not remove the Loyalty Bracelet.

Hot New Consumer Products [The Onion]


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Jul 29

Monsterpod Camera-Mount Sticks to Almost Anything

Posted in: Today's Chili

monsterpod

One well crafted pitch from Photojojo and we’re hooked. Here’s the opening of the blurb which describes the Monsterpod: “If there were a tripod equivalent to the hoverboard, the Monsterpod would be it.”

Unbeatable. So what is it? The Monsterpod is a fat disc of viscoelastic polymer with a tripod mount up top. Screw on your camera, scooch the pod onto almost anything (bricks, glass, stone) and there it sticks for up to ten minutes, holding your camera steady for a quick low-light shot or self-portrait.

Viscoelastic Polymer is a material that acts like rubber honey — once deformed it creeps slowly back into shape. Think Stretch-Armstrong, only more useful. The Monsterpod costs $30, and you’ll need to spend another $10 on the zip-up carrying case. This makes it a little more expensive the the other favorite mini-camera holder, Joby’s Gorillapod, although the uses of each are different enough that you might want both. Maximum camera weight, 20oz.

Product page [Photojojo]

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Jul 29

Touch screens that consumers didn’t touch

Posted in: Today's Chili

When Windows 7 is unleashed this fall with more gesture-recognition built directly into the operating system, more PC makers are planning on taking advantage.

While touch-screen desktops are gaining popularity, there haven’t been many consumer-friendly touch-screen notebooks yet. But that will change soon. Last week Sony said it plans …

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Jul 29

Geek Gives 1-Up to Retro-Gaming Handheld

Posted in: Retro, Today's Chili, Toys

bfc7_gp2x_wiz_mame_console_emulatorOver at BoingBoing Gadgets, Rob “The Boss” Beschizza takes a Wiz on modern games. To be precise, he has reviewed the tiny, retro game-playing handheld console, the GP2X Wiz, and decrees it “The best portable yet for retrogamers.”

I’m a retro-gamer. I used to beat all comers at Street Fighter 2 (SNES) playing with my feet. I once lent that same SNES and a copy of Super Mario Kart to an apartment full of weed-smoking stoner friends so they could practice and “offer me more of a challenge” (result, a thrashing for me). So I’m well into the idea of putting these classics in my pocket, but for one thing…

The price. The GPX2, from Korean company GamePark, costs $180. This is steep, even on a million dollar per year blogger’s salary. On the other hand, the machine has a 320×240 2.8” AMOLED touch screen display, a gig of memory and an SD card slot. It also runs a flavor of Linux, meaning that once I have laid out my $180, I can keep my cash and use emulators and hypothetical collection of legal ROMS. In short, $180 puts every old game, ever, on a handheld. Is this starting to excite you yet?

Gp2X Wiz Runs Retrogaming Rings Around Mainstream Rivals [BBG]
Product page [ThinkGeek]


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Jul 29

Kodak debuts EasyShare Z950, M381 and M341 digicams

Posted in: camera, digital camera, DigitalCamera, point and shoot, PointAndShoot, Today's Chili

Had enough Kodak this fine morning? No? Good. Just hours after showcasing its newest 1080p pocket camcorder, the aforesaid firm is hitting us up with a few more new pieces to digest. First up is the EasyShare Z950, a modest megazoom-in-a-P&S-body that packs a 10x optical zoom, 12 megapixel sensor and a $279.99 price tag. Next, we’ve got the totally ho hum EasyShare M381, which also offers a dozen megapixels alongside a 3-inch rear LCD, 5x zoomer, easy upload to Facebook / YouTube, face detection, a variety of lovely hues and an MSRP of $179.99. The last cam is the M341, which steps down to a 3x optical zoom and a smaller 2.7-inch LCD for $149. Closing things out is the EasyShare D830 (£119.99; $196) and D1030 (£169.99; $279) digital photo frames, which check in at 8- and 10-inches respectively (in terms of display size) and tout interchangeable face plates, 512MB of internal memory, a Quick Touch border, memory card reader and a USB port. Everything here should ship in the US and UK by September, though those hungry for additional details are welcome to tap that read link.

[Via DigitalCameraInfo]

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Kodak debuts EasyShare Z950, M381 and M341 digicams originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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