Hasta La Gadget!

We just grabbed a first look at Sony’s new VAIO P. At first glance, the screen is bright and ultrasharp — certainly stretching the limits of our eyesight. We’d say the keys are a little bit light and shallow for our taste, but good as far as most “netbooks” go, and the “nipple,” like all like pointers, will take getting used to and careful calibration, though it’s definitely sensitive. It’s certainly not hefty, but we’d say there’s the standard amount of Sony build quality, and while high for a netbook, $900 doesn’t “feel” too far off. We love lightweight, but this netbook almost feels like it lacks innards, the real deal seems almost like it’s a mock-up device. Videos of all all its best sides after the break.

Continue reading Sony VAIO P hands-on

Filed under: Laptops

Sony VAIO P hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just snuck a quick look at the new Linksys home media gear, the Wireless Home Audio system and Media Hub NAS, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. For all of Cisco’s talk of platform and back-end and consumer love, the end product is actually pretty humdrum. We can’t speak to the actual setup and content integration — which will naturally be Cisco’s strong suit — but the actual hardware doesn’t seem to scream consumer love. The interface on the Touchscreen Remote is pretty slow and a far cry from the polish of the Sonos system — the unit’s natural competitor — especially compared to the iPod touch control App, and everything looks and feels bulky and gray. We do have to hand it to Cisco for working in the iPod dock, a CD player, iTunes server and Rhapsody all into one cohesive centrally-controlled system, but we’ll see how much traction this gathers in the market… Cisco’s talking like a uniter, but right now this just looks like more fragmentation.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

Linksys Wireless Home Audio and Media Hub NAS hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After the presser, we had the chance to go hands-on with Casio’s high-bursting EX-FS10 and EX-FC100 compacts here at CES. The EX-FS10 (pictured above) was particularly impressive considering its small size and 30fps burst mode capability (and 1000fps movie mode for slow motion playback) that puts DSLRs to shame. However, any advantage is bound to end there as that integrated lens and tiny sensor are outclassed by even the lowest end DSLR. We weren’t able to sample the shooting modes, but damn if these didn’t feel good in hand. More in the gallery below including the new EX-Z400, EX-Z270, and EX-S12 compacts with EXILIM Engine 4.0 processing and dynamic photo function we saw during the press event.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Hands-on with Casio’s EX-FS10 and EX-FC100 compacts: 30fps burst, 1000fps video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While most of the hype surrounding Voodoo right now pertains to the Firebird gaming tower, LAPTOP has discovered yet another undercover rig from the company’s arsenal worth swooning over. Before you go getting too excited, we must caution you that the Firefly is merely a prototype at the moment, but we all know concepts are made with the intent to commercialize. With the fine print behind us, it’s worth reading up on what this Voodoo DNA’d machine offered up; for starters, you’ll notice a 17-inch panel and a hefty 13-pound frame. There’s also a multitouch trackpad, keyboard with customizable backlighting, a secondary 4.3-inch 800 x 480 display sitting beneath the main screen, a 2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU, 4GB of RAM, two ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs and a 250GB HDD. No benchmarks were allowed, but Far Cry 2 ran “silky smooth” even with details maxed. For the rest of the nitty-gritty, we’ll direct you to the read link, and before you get all irate that this isn’t available for purchase, just be thankful this post isn’t about yet another teaser from Mr. Sood.

Filed under: Laptops

Voodoo Firefly gaming laptop prototype gets hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iriver’s T5 was launched and forgotten in one fell swoop, but with a starting price of under $40 for the 2GB edition, it’s at least worth a look, right? Critics over at Pocketables were able to secure one of the USB stick-styled devices for review, and they even bothered to host up a plethora of unboxing / hands-on shots for those keenly interested. Size wise, the unit is just marginally smaller than your average USB WWAN modem, and while the minuscule OLED display wasn’t much to look at, it sure trumped those screen-less rivals. Under pressure, the stick delivered “surprisingly good sound quality,” and while the device overall didn’t bring anything fantastically fresh to the table, the inbuilt USB jack, integrated display and excellent audio capabilities made it a pretty good option for the gym. ‘Course, there are formidable alternatives out there (Sansa Clip, anyone?), so we’d recommend giving the linked review a closer look before breaking out the plastic.

Filed under: Portable Audio

iriver’s $40 T5 USB stick-style audio player unboxed and reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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