Hasta La Gadget!

We know you don’t really need any more evidence that Apple is gearing up to unveil at least two new iPod revisions at its forthcoming ‘rock and roll’ event, but are you seriously going to hit the ignore button on these? If you’ll recall, last year’s visit to Hama’s IFA booth gave us early access to cases of Apple’s then-upcoming round of iPod nanos, and this year the company seems to be disclosing all of Cupertino’s secrets once more. On hand were cases for Apple’s fifth-generation iPod nano and the third-generation iPod touch, both of which seem to make room for a built-in camera. Of course, these lovely peripherals could be nothing more than a complete waste of company resources, but we’d encourage you to browse the gallery below before jumping to that conclusion.

Filed under: Handhelds, Peripherals

Hama cases foreshadow 5G iPod nano, 3G iPod touch at IFA: hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Curious about how well the new Archos 3 Vision portable media player stacks up to its bulkier, more voluminous predecessors? Perhaps the video review after the break courtesy of Archos Fans forum user roylovelock will satiate your curiosity — it will, at least, make you a bit queasy thanks to the handheld camerawork. Placed next to an Archos 5 the thing looks positively lilliputian, but its 3-inch touchscreen seems more than adequate and, while 8GB of storage may not be much, microSDHC expansion offsets that. The review praises the device’s functionality, including integrated FM receiving and broadcasting as well as its seemingly solid hardware design and upwards of five hours of video battery life. Not so highly regarded is the non-responsive UI, with a curious on-screen thumbwheel that looks highly unintuitive — at least when used by this particular thumb. The video below is informative but a bit painful to watch, so feel free to skip straight to roylovelock’s written impressions on the other end of that read link, which are rather more easy to take in on a Monday morning.

[Via Archos Fans]

Continue reading Archos 3 Vision PMP given one-handed shakeycam review

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos 3 Vision PMP given one-handed shakeycam review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the 2 Vision’s price and spec recently emerging, all that was missing were some “real life” shots of the player without studio lighting and professional makeup. Archos Lounge has gone and filled that gap, with the added bonus of some 3 Vision and Clipper sightings. Disappointingly, whereas the touch-sensitive horizontal slider originally looked to have been bracketed by buttons sitting flush with the case, in reality those are of the bumpy, cheap looking variety. We can take no umbrage with the thin casing though, as it looks just as skinny as we were led to believe. Hit up the read link to explore the player for yourself, or slide past the break to see it side by side with the 3 Vision.

[Via CrunchGear]

Continue reading Archos 2 Vision, 3 Vision and Clipper spotted in French wilderness

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos 2 Vision, 3 Vision and Clipper spotted in French wilderness originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You should already be familiar with (or able to guess) the YP-R1’s specs and pricing, so we’ll just head straight to the good stuff. Our colleagues at MovePlayer handled a pink sample of the device and liked its 720 x 480 uncompressed video playback, slim casing, DJ utility (your use of which will be inversely proportional to your age), and the host of extra features like FM radio, voice recording and photo organizer. Their one major gripe related to scrolling around in landscape mode, but all in all they found it a very competent, sophisticated-looking entry into the PMP market.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Samsung YP-R1 get first unboxing, approving review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We certainly can’t knock the 4GB Atree J100 when it comes to its well stocked arsenal of goodies: it has a three-inch touchscreen, an e-dictionary, DMB digital TV tuner, video playback, and microSD expansion — and it plays music too. Audio formats are also plentiful, with MP3, WMA and OGG for the commoners, and FLAC and APE for the lossless fanatics. Too bad it’s held back by the chunky casing, which looks big enough to have fit a five-inch screen if the designers were so inclined. With slicker-looking competition from the likes of Cowon and Samsung, the otherwise entirely useful J100 might struggle to stand out, but if you’re willing to look beyond its superficial shortcomings, it’s available now for 198,000 KRW ($158).

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Atree J100 gets lost in the forest of Korean PMPs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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