Hasta La Gadget!

It’s pretty obvious what it takes to play in the current generation of PMPs: enough juice to process HD videos, and an HDMI port to get it off the player and onto the big screen. Unfortunately, the new i-Station T9 from Digital Cube sort of stops there. It has great codec support, and even WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity (to be enjoyed by what OS is unclear), but unlike its big brother S3’s WVGA display, the mere 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 screen on the T9 will have us looking for an HDMI port a bit early. No word on price or availability.

Digital Cube works WiFi, HD playback into i-Station T9, forgets the HD screen originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For those of you hoping that Viliv’s aesthetic excellence will somehow make magic out of the 4.8-inch flip MID form factor, you might want to look away right about now. We too were hoping that Viliv could somehow sprinkle fairy dust on the errors of something like the UMID mBook BZ, but sadly the N5 is no such MID. It’s good looking, to be sure, and might even be better constructed than UMID’s entry, but it has the same squint-inducing 1024 x 600 display and aggravating optical mouse pad holding it back. In reality, both of these little computers are more akin to “observing” what it’s like to have a full computer running on an impossible form factor, instead of anything appropriate for actually using that computer.

Perhaps the CE-based Viliv HD5 PMP will find a truer calling. We saw the slate unit pumping out some HD video at a steady clip, and its hardware is certainly refined — if only just a little chubby. Unfortunately, none of the buttons were working, so we couldn’t hop out of the video and see what the rest of the player has to offer. At least it’s not Windows XP under there, daring us to use it. Videos of both devices are after the break.

Continue reading Viliv N5 MID hands-on, HD5 PMP makes a cameo

Viliv N5 MID hands-on, HD5 PMP makes a cameo originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazingly enough, the PMP news here at CES has been essentially nil. We’ve got e-readers, whiffs of tablets and more 3D than two eyes can comprehend, but we’re in desperate need of some fresh portable media players. Thanks to iriver, we won’t be going home completely empty handed, with the K1 “Smart HD” being ushered out onto the public scene in Las Vegas. Specs include a 3.5-inch display, a 480 x 320 resolution, support for a slew of file formats, WiFi, some sort of web browser and a DMB TV tuner. It’s slated to be released in South Korea for an undisclosed amount later this month, but alas, there’s no immediate word on when this will hit the States.

iriver’s 3.5-inch K1 PMP gets outed at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You wouldn’t generally think of a smaller outfit such as ViewSonic having a major presence here at CES, but sure enough, the company has hit the ground blazing in Las Vegas. Kicking things off is the new ViewLED TV lineup, which consists of four LED-backlit sets ranging from 19- ($299) to 42-inches ($1,199) in size. Moving from HDTVs to PC panels, we’ve got ten new Eco-View monitors spanning the entire gamut of sizes and features. The company is also letting loose its VFP858 connected Bluetooth smart frame, which packs an 8-inch panel, an integrated microphone, stereo speakers and support for handsfree dialing… all from a digiframe. For media junkies on the run, the new line of MovieBooks (including the 5-inch VPD550T and 3-inch VPD313T) both sport touch-sensitive displays and sub-$150 price tags. Finally, we’ve got no fewer than nine new laptop and desktop models, including the 13.3-inch VNB131 ViewBook Pro, 18.5-inch VPC190 all-in-one and the VOT125 nettop. Obviously we’ve got far too many pricing, availability and hardware details to cover in this space, but all the information you could ever want on the new kit is hosted up after the break.

Continue reading ViewSonic blitzes CES: HDTVs, nettops, PMPs, laptops and more

ViewSonic blitzes CES: HDTVs, nettops, PMPs, laptops and more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Samsung announces two PMPs, one for fitness gurus, one made of glass

Samsung announces two PMPs, one for fitness gurus, one made of glass originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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