Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
That “Speed of (the) Light” mouse Razer hyped? It’s just the Salmosa, their new lower-end 1800 DPI, 1KHz polling gamer mouse with sensitivity adjustment and a slightly more reasonable $40 price tag. It’ll be out in Q3, but something tells us by then you’ll have found some other completely obvious way of spending two Jacksons.
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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Pioneer_to_STOP_producing_plasma_HDTV_s’;Pioneer is officially “reviewing the plasma business”, according to a release today — much like Toshiba’s “review” of the HD DVD business in February when it had decided to quit in January — while a Reuters source confirmed The Nikkei’s earlier report that Pioneer is getting out of the plasma panel manufacturing game altogether. While Pioneer would keep building plasmas based on panels sourced from Panasonic, according to the report, this would mark the exit of the the 5th ranked plasma manufacturer, and host to some of the best PDP displays and technologies around. We can’t expect any official word until the company’s press conference on the March 7, but rumors have swirled recently that it is considering a switch to LCD. We’ll find out on Friday (our money is on SED rising again), but for now we’ll just look longingly at our lovely Kuros.
Read - Pioneer reviewing plasma business
Read - Pioneer to cease output of plasma panels, source says
Read - Pioneer press release [via Impress; warning: PDF link, Japanese]
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
It’s funny, no matter how many times we see some poor, hapless reporter getting wave after wave of pain washed over them like a cool summer storm, it really never gets old. We’d argue that this 60 Minutes clip of correspondent David Martin taking on the Air Force’s Active Denial System (aka the pain gun) is possibly the best we’ve seen yet, and not just because this guy actually has some cred to lose (unlike that time Amanda Congdon took a taser). Oh, and a parting note to enemy combatants: bring your mattress into combat. You’ll have a comfy spot to nap on before the pain gun shows up and you use it as a shield. Video after the break.
Continue reading Video: reporter vs. the Air Force pain gun. Guess who wins.
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Filed under: Peripherals
At first glance, this I-T Click Click mini-mouse from Suvil looked to be the solution to all the world’s ills. Not so much. In fact, this thing is awkward enough to hold and cheaply enough built that it’d probably be hard pressed to solve world hunger. The premise is simple enough: you rotate the mouse slightly for ergonomics, left click with the “fingernail” button and use the button at your thumb for right click. It all falls apart with use, however, with the scroll wheel gumming things up, and the fact that the “right click” is in use by your leftmost digit not helping anything. Left-handed users don’t stand a chance. The I-T Click Click is currently available in Germany and Spain for about €12, and Suvil is looking for a global distributer.
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Filed under: Peripherals
At first glance, this I-T Click Click mini-mouse from Suvil looked to be the solution to all the world’s ills. Not so much. In fact, this thing is awkward enough to hold and cheaply enough built that it’d probably be hard pressed to solve world hunger. The premise is simple enough: you rotate the mouse slightly for ergonomics, left click with the “fingernail” button and use the button at your thumb for right click. It all falls apart with use, however, with the scroll wheel gumming things up, and the fact that the “right click” is in use by your leftmost digit not helping anything. Left-handed users don’t stand a chance. The I-T Click Click is currently available in Germany and Spain for about €12, and Suvil is looking for a global distributer.
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Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops
So you’re the type who actually needs to scrub behind the ears? Good, this UMPC is for you. The Toughbook CF-U1 is a “fully ruggedised” UMPC which runs XP or Vista on Intel’s Menlow platform. So rugged in fact, that only a case of glass and gravel can withhold it from Intel’s new Atom branding. We can’t tell you much without an official announcement or any PR types around to drone on (and on) about its Mil-Spec or Ingress ratings. Regardless, it’ll still look great strapped to the dash of your Hummer as you pull into the strip mall for a milkshake. And that’s all that really matters right, Mr. Milquetoast?
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Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops
So you’re the type who actually needs to scrub behind the ears? Good, this UMPC is for you. The Toughbook CF-U1 is a “fully ruggedised” UMPC which runs XP or Vista on Intel’s Menlow platform. So rugged in fact, that only a case of glass and gravel can withhold it from Intel’s new Atom branding. We can’t tell you much without an official announcement or any PR types around to drone on (and on) about its Mil-Spec or Ingress ratings. Regardless, it’ll still look great strapped to the dash of your Hummer as you pull into the strip mall for a milkshake. And that’s all that really matters right, Mr. Milquetoast?
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Filed under: Displays
Nothing too spectacular here, but Greenhouse has introduced an all new 22-inch LCD monitor over in Japan. Aside from the perfectly average WSXGA+ (1,680 x 1,050) resolution, 300 cd/m2 brightness, 1,000: contrast ratio and two-millisecond response time, the GH-JEF223SH-LB actually does away with DVI in favor of HDMI. Granted, there’s still a VGA port in case you’re in a pinch, but we would’ve preferred all three considering the somewhat steep ¥45,799 ($438) price tag.
[Via AkihabaraNews]
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Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs
We were originally supposed to see a “limited rollout” of Surface in 2007, which obviously didn’t happen — but despite the delays, Microsoft is apparently now feeling confident enough in the tech to let B- and C-list celebrities grope at it during the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship Drawing Party at Harrah’s Casino. Unlike the standard demos we saw at CES which involved relentlessly upbeat hipster presenters doing things like making custom snowboard designs, the motley crew at Harrah’s was apparently only allowed to crudely write their names on photographs of themselves. You can almost see the joy in Jason Alexander’s face, can’t you? Sadly, it looks like Don Cheadle wasn’t able to erase whatever’s printed on his jacket (seriously, uh, cool jacket, Cheadle) and poor Shannon Elizabeth didn’t seem to be able make anything happen at all. Maybe Microsoft should have fired up that Hungry Hungry Hippos clone and let these fools battle out instead. All the photos at the read link for the crazed VH-1 fans in the house.
Continue reading Microsoft and Harrah’s confuse B-list celebs with Surface
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Filed under: Home Entertainment
We’ve always believed that the perceived quality boost that comes from using high-end cables is really just a trick of the mind (read: justifying the ridiculous cost of premium cables to yourself) — if you’ve dropped enough cash, you can probably hear anything you want. Still, our belief is one thing — cold hard proof is another, and it looks like a group of 12 self-professed “audiophiles” recently couldn’t tell the difference between Monster 1000 speaker cables and plain old coat hangers. Yeah, coat hangers. The group was A-Bing different cables, and unbeknownst to them, the engineer running the test swapped out a set of cables for coat hangers with soldered-on speaker connections. Not a single one was then able to tell the difference between the Monster Cable and the hangers, and all agreed that the hangers sounded excellent. No wonder Monster has to rig HD displays. Still, we bet people still fall for the hype — oh hey, if you’re looking for the ultimate in sound, we’ve got half a meter of oxygen-free, triple-wrapped double-insulated Sonically Shielded AmpliSized Egyptian Llama cable here that we’ll part ways with for just a couple grand.
[Via BoingBoing]
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