Hasta La Gadget!

Panasonic and superzoom cameras go together like… well, like any two things that are undoubtedly meant to be together. The company has a history of outdoing itself time and time again when it comes to enlarged point-and-shoots with atypically long zooms, and the all-new DMC-FX100 is most certainly not bucking the trend. Announced just a few weeks back, this here Lumix carries a 24x optical zoom, 11fps burst mode, 1080p movie recording and a 14 megapixel sensor. The gurus over at PhotographyBLOG have been testing its every feature for the past few days, and they drew some rather positive conclusions. Confessing that the FZ38 was a hard act to follow, they still felt that the FZ100 managed to top even that, with the only real (expected) knock being the noise that made itself too evident once you pushed beyond the ISO 400 mark. They also felt that the $499.95 asking price was a bit on the high side, but now that Panny’s building somewhat of a reputation in this space, we guess it’s entitled to try and take advantage. Hit the source link for the fully skinny, but don’t even bother if you’re hoping for someone to talk you out of pulling the trigger.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100 reviewed: the best megazoom shooter your dough can buy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From the outside of its white box, labeled “Phone no. 4,” it’s clear to see that the Air Phone 4 is trying awfully hard to be an iPhone 4. But then we already knew that. How does it compare to the real thing in the real world? Not well, according to intrepid reviewer Stuart Ashen. The external metal surface (which you might be familiar with) is here actually plastic, so you don’t have to worry about dropped calls if you fondle it the wrong way, but the phone is said to have awful signal regardless — despite showing full bars even when missing a SIM. Ashen concludes the thing is an “astonishing bit of copycat work” held back by “the worst touchscreen ever.” (Yeah, it’s resistive.) Oh, and that Facetime app we spotted before? It “doesn’t seem to work properly,” about the kindest thing that can be said about this junker. If you’d like to see the full (and thoroughly entertaining) review, it’s embedded for you right after the break.

Continue reading iPhone 4 KIRF reviewed, can its ‘WVGA screen village’ compare? (video)

iPhone 4 KIRF reviewed, can its ‘WVGA screen village’ compare? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this year, Seagate promised to flip the 2.5-inch HDD industry upside-down, but it wouldn’t do so by using an SSD in sheep’s clothing. Rather, it’d be doling out a new breed of hard drive, one that actually has a pinch of pure, unadulterated NAND inside for picking up the pace in certain scenarios. The idea of a hybrid hard drive isn’t totally new, but the Momentus XT is one of the first hybrid HDDs to actually make it out of the lab and into the hands of consumers. The most intriguing aspect of the drive is the price — at around $130, it’s just under half as pricey as Seagate’s conventional 500GB Momentus 7200.4. That uptick in price isn’t nothing, but it’s still far less than what you’d pay for a 2.5-inch SSD with half the capacity. We’ve already shown you the benchmarks, so we figured we’d slap this bad boy in our main rig for a few weeks to see if we actually noticed any real-world performance increases to justify the cost. Head on past the break for our two pennies.

Continue reading Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drive review

Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drive review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The last time we saw the Devon Works Tread 1 wristwatch it existed only in digital form, rendered and swirling about with respect neither mass nor volume. Now it has come to reside in the physical plane, and aBlogtoRead has managed to get one of its belt-driven manifestations to test out. Naturally it’s a little less pristine looking than the computer-generated version and, pictured next to a fleshy hand, we can now see just how big the thing is — its crown actually large enough to wear on your head. For $15k you at least know you’re getting your money’s worth when it comes to raw materials, but whether you agree that this is a “novel timepiece that will make a satisfying addition to any collector’s treasure trove” depends on your sense of taste, depth of pockets, and desire to make your forearms look meek and feeble.

Continue reading Devon Works Tread 1 belt-driven, bulletproof wristwatch tested, proven to actually tell time (video)

Devon Works Tread 1 belt-driven, bulletproof wristwatch tested, proven to actually tell time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It still won’t be widely available until 2012, but Nissan’s Leaf is already leaking out to a few select media outlets. Our comrades over at Autoblog managed to get behind the wheel of the all-electric whip down in San Jose, and while they didn’t find anything that changed the admittedly developing game, what they did find was a solid, refined EV that’s “ready for primetime.” They were quick to praise the design, which doesn’t scream “oddball” like some of the earlier electric automobiles. As for the ride? That was deemed “suitably smooth,” while the interior was found to be “a few degrees better than what you’d find in an economy car of similar size.” In fact, the overriding tone of the review was one of unsurprised satisfaction, with critics noting that the “gadgetry is impressive, but no more so than some of the hybrid options available from Nissan’s competitors,” and in the end, the Leaf doesn’t aim to “change the driving experience, just change the method of motivation.” Hit the source link for the full skinny.

Nissan Leaf gets early review: you might just forget its an eccentric electric car originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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