Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Yeah, we know pixel count doesn’t equal picture quality — but like it or not, it looks like 8 megapixels are poised to become the new 5 megapixels in the upper echelon of the cameraphone world this year. Samsung’s never a company to shy away from a challenge like that, and sure enough, details are emerging on a so-called i8510 smartphone that features S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, FM radio, GPS, WiFi, and a whopping 16GB of internal storage — not to mention a microSD slot that can take you up to 24GB. Oh, and there’s the little matter of that camera, which features an dual LED flash and 120fps video capture at QVGA resolution. Add in DivX and DLNA certification, and we’re kind of at a loss to figure out what’s missing here. Boundless, unchecked hype, maybe? No word on a release date here just yet.
[Via mobil.cz]
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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Looks like Movie Gallery finally got something for the assortment of PBS bandwidth and spare parts remaining from the now-defunct MovieBeam service. The new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed HD and SD movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S. Since $100 million burned up by Disney and others wasn’t enough to make things work, he plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and “other overseas markets”. Variety notes The Valuable Group already delivers movies digitally to India and South Asian theaters via satellite so maybe they know something we don’t about this business model, and with plans to roll out service in three markets with “new, cutting edge features” by year end we’ll get to find out soon.
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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Hey you — you looking for a quarter of the iPod touch experience for a little less than a quarter of the price? Yeah? Well, how does dropping $73 on the depressingly derivative Teclast M26 grab you? Seriously, this thing looked like it had a glimmer of potential when it was first announced, so it’s kind of sad to see it getting priced like the throwaway crap it turned out to be — we should definitely know better by now.
[Via PMP Today]
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Filed under: Digital Cameras
We’re not certain why Kodak is trickling out these middle-of-the-road digicams instead of announcing them all at once, but here we are. Joining the M1093 IS are the new M1073 IS (pictured) and M1063, while the C813 get a new friend in the C913. As you’d expect, almost nothing about these is all that spectacular: the $179 M1063 and M1073 IS are both 10 megapixel units with ISO1000 sensitivity and face detection, while the $120 C913 is a 9.2 megapixel unit with a 2.4-inch display and digital image stabilization. Expect to see these all in October, and check out the C913 after the break.
Read - M1073 IS
Read - M1063
Read - C913
Continue reading Kodak intros the C913, M1073 IS and M1063 cheapcams
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Filed under: Transportation
Move over, Elon Musk — the Tesla owners club is about to get bigger. The upstart electric-car company announced the delivery of the first nine production Roadsters to customers in California earlier this week, with several more to follow at the rate of four per week, and the plan is to start building 100 a month by December, when that new transmission is ready. That’s pretty ambitious, but Tesla’s brought in some big guns to help make it happen — the company just hired Mike Donoughe as EVP of Vehicle Engineering and Manufacturing. Donoughe is fresh off a 24-year stint at Chrysler, where he was most recently in charge of revamping all of the company’s mid-size sedans. Word on the street is that Donoughe could have written his own ticket at any major carmaker, so it’s interesting that he landed at Telsa, where he’ll be working on the Model S as well as the Roadster. Oh, and there’s a new Tesla store in Menlo Park, in case you were looking to blow a quick $100K in Silicon Valley — aren’t we all?
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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
So many of you are probably still in your jammies, reveling in the afterglow of yesterday’s purchase, repeatedly opening Maps on your glossy new iPhone 3G and watching in exaggerated wonderment as your location is determined with frightening speed and accuracy. Others might be standing in a line snaking hundreds of bodies long into your friendly local Apple Store, reading this post from the comfort of your Motorola RAZR V3 and realizing that these are some of the last moments you’ll be using a physical keypad. Still others are bemused by the fuss — but whatever your stance on the phone, it’s pretty hard to ignore the buzz that’s floating around in the aftermath of day zero. Here are some of the goings-on we’re tracking:
- The masses of humanity continue to collect. Massive stock shortages don’t seem to be an issue (yet), but patience is not a virtue we hold dear to our hearts, so we really can’t blame these people.
- Some buyers are reporting a yellow tint to their screens — probably not enough to notice without another unit side-by-side for comparison, but real nonetheless. Of course, the first iPhone suffered from the occasional crappy backlight, bum touchscreen, or negative black, so we wouldn’t be surprised if a few lame displays made it out of the factory floor for this model as well; we’re following up with Apple on this and we should have more for you later today.
- We took the iPhone 3G on a decent drive around New York, and found its tracking to be impeccable. In a situation where we might have veered off the path following Google Maps directions, the blue blip kept us right on track. Despite what you’ve read (we’re looking at you, Mr. Pogue), we see no technical reason that the aGPS can’t provide turn-by-turn directions, provided there’s software to take advantage of it.
- There are some complaints floating around about 3G reception, but it’s been just fine on our review units around the world so far. How’s it treating you out in [your location here]?
- iphone-dev has a video up of BootNeuter going about its business on a first-gen iPhone that’s been upgraded to firmware 2.0, and the process is looking as slick and painless as ever. Unlockers who haven’t shelled out for the 3G, commence your salivating.
- MobileMe seems like it’s up for the moment, but don’t breathe too hard lest you bring the whole thing down again.
Update: We just spoke with Bob Borchers, senior director of product marketing for the iPhone, and he had some very interesting info regarding the “yellow screen” phenomenon we’ve been hearing about. According to Bob (and Apple), the screen’s color temperature has been purposely altered on the new iPhone to produce warmer, more natural tones, sharper images, and deeper blacks. The company says that 1st gen iPhone screens appeared colder and less defined, and they made some adjustments for the new models. In our opinion, what he says is right on — the screens do look better on the iPhone 3G versus the older variety. What do you guys think?
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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Well, that was quick. We mentioned Ion’s fancy drum kit yesterday, which will be released around when Rock Band 2 ships, but works with both Rock Band games, and now we’ve got a price and a press shot of the Drum Rocker. The $300 set has high-durability pads, which are supposed to play quiet and will register the velocity of your hits, but the real win is the re-configurability of the whole set — much like a for-realises electronic drum kit. We’re also really digging the metal-reinforced kick pedal, which seems a major improvement over the junky, difficult pedal packaged with the original game. Only $300? We’ll take two.
[Via Joystiq]
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Filed under: Cellphones
If you hadn’t heard, hundreds of people were turned away from Apple Stores last night, iPhone 3G-less. However, being gluttons for punishment — and having nothing to do over the weekend — they’ve returned in droves to Apple Stores, with reports of lines longer than 200 people stretching out from The Cube, Apple Store Chicago (pictured) and even a store in Durham, NC. Apple offered up vouchers last night, at least at some stores, to anyone still waiting in line, so those folks can show up whenever and jump the line for a phone — about 30 of them are lined up at The Cube currently. If you don’t mind you can let us know in tips what the current status on the line / stock is at your local Apple or AT&T store is, and we’ll try to keep track of this mayhem through the weekend. Good luck out there!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this stuff in]
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Filed under: Cellphones
No, really, will it? We’re on pins and needles here. Sure, the original blended up fine, but with all the G’s in this thing, perhaps not even the mighty Blendtec can reduce it to rubble. Video is after the break. Oh, and for extra bonus points, check out the fake Belgian edition, also after the break. Yeah, we said Belgian.
Continue reading Will It Blend? iPhone 3G edition
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Filed under: Laptops
Sony Style is running a rather large teaser on its main page, featuring a quite distinctive power button and the blurb “Performance / Style / Mobility. Redefined.” Hrm. We wonder what it could be?
[Thanks, Mathias S.]
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