Filed under: Household
As much as we prefer a good old-fashioned bird-killin’ three blade wind turbine, apparently they cause a bit too much vibration and disturbance for regular home use. That’s where the Energy Ball comes in, with its spherical shape that captures wind less obtrusively and yet more efficiently. At least that’s what we’re told, we’re a bit short on details. We do know that it’s in the prototype stages and was designed by Swedish company Home Energy, who claims their smallest Energy Ball can provide about 15% of the necessary energy to power the average Swedish home.
[Via Inhabitat]
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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/iPod_nano_4G_leaked_really_real_spy_shot’; Look, you know the drill here. This may be the painstaking result of some CAD-school-dropout’s nights home alone, or the latest in cheapo knock-offs from the Far East. You may be looking at a Photoshop spackled together from newspaper clippings, puppy dog tears, and Steve Jobs’ fever-dreams. Or, this could be a really crappy, actual photo of the iPod nano 4G in its packaging. It sure looks enough like what we’ve been seeing lately to be any / all of the above. Regardless, we’ll know the truth real, real soon.
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If you’ll recall, Integra surprised at last year’s CEDIA by trotting out its DHS-8.8 HD DVD player; this year, the company has quietly (silently, in fact) released its plainly styled DBS-6.9 Blu-ray deck. While the design may not suit your fancy, it’s far from being the ugliest BD player at the Expo, and reportedly, the Profile 1.1 unit will retail for a buck under $600 whenever it decides to ship. We can already tell you’re uninterested based on the price alone, but feel free to peruse the gallery at Engadget HD if you’re hungry for pics.
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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Before a single AT&T-subscribing soul dreams of jumping ship for Sprint just to pick up the Touch Pro in a few weeks, hold up: we can pretty much confirm that it’s coming to your neck of the woods, too. We’ve already seen some totally legit-looking shots of HTC’s hottest QWERTY WinMo piece in AT&T trim, but now we have some more damning evidence in the form of a Google cached page detailing the so-called Fuze on the carrier’s own site. As expected, we’ve got tri-band HSDPA, GPS, WiFi, and BlackBerry Connect waiting for us when AT&T finally decides to pull the plug on the Tilt and make this thing happen. Follow the break for AT&T’s poetic Fuze verbiage — and take your time, since there’s no indication that we’ll have this in stores in the next few days.
[Thanks, Fred]
Continue reading AT&T page confirms HTC Touch Pro as “Fuze”
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Filed under: Gaming, Laptops
Let’s see, we’ve got tons of black, a semi-gothic dragon thing, a “Z” in the brand name and a mythological creature in the product name. Yup, Zepto’s new Hydra A17 is exactly what gamers need. Sure, the P9500 Core 2 Duo processor, 1920 x 1200 17-inch screen and NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX with 1GB of VRAM don’t hurt. There’s even a subwoofer and 4GB of RAM, yours for a mere £2,029 (about $3,585 US). Luckily, you can strip this one down to £1,420 (about $2,510 US) but you’ll have to sign over your gamer cred at the door — we might not even let you thread safety pins through your eyebrows.
[Via PC Launches]
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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
In a surprise turn for no-name PMPs, the Ainol V3000 actually didn’t seem so shabby when we first spotted it in July. Of particular note was the device’s 4.3-inch 800 x 480 screen, and it always helps when the device behind that screen isn’t ugly. Well, the folks at b4tech managed to nab one and did a little video review (embedded after the break). It looks even more delicious in motion, and while the menus look a tad weak and not very English, we think we could overlook a lot if the price is right.
Continue reading Ainol V3000 high-res PMP handled on video
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Filed under: Laptops
Judging by the amount of mods already available for Acer’s contribution to the netbook world, we’d say there’s a fair amount of things folks would like changed on the Aspire One. Of course, that’s not to say the machine isn’t worthy of praise as-is, but there’s nothing wrong with a little dreaming. Would you have preferred a 6-cell battery right out of the box? Is that touchpad a touch too small for your chubby fingertips? Would you rather it run a little less like Zune Guy and more like Usain Bolt? With the sudden surge in competition in this sector, there’s really no excuse for a poor showing — let Acer know exactly what you really wanted from the tiniest Aspire.
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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
The fun has just begun in the Mile High City for Runco, which has followed up its outlandish flat-panel announcement with a replacement to the fabled VX-2 projector. The 3-chip VideoXtreme VX-8 is squarely aimed at those with fat wallets and the word “videophile” stitched into their Ralph Lauren scarfs, evidenced by the superfluous (but very appreciated) video processing capabilities via DHD with Vivix and three SuperOnyx DMDs. Additionally, you’ll find the outfit’s ConstantContrast tech, which delivers frame-by-frame contrast correction, while the CorrectColor brings “complete color calibration for D65 perfection.” For more technobabble on the January-bound unit, hit up the read link — but before you waste your time, let us remind you that this will cost $19,995.
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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
It looks like Dell is taking a rather drastic step to attempt to cut some of the costs that have been dragging it down in recent years, with The Wall Street Journal now reporting that the company plans to sell “most — and possibly all — of its factories” within the next 18 months — if it can find some buyers, that is. As the paper notes, the factories were originally built to serve a PC market driven by corporate customers ordering large volumes of desktop PCs, but they’ve fast become a drag on the company as growth has shifted towards laptops sold at retail stores. While nothing is anywhere near official yet, the Journal pegs big contract manufacturers angling for a bigger piece of Dell’s business as the most likely buyers, although there’s a number of obstacles that could block such a sale, particularly when it comes to Dell’s factories in the US. Dell is also said to be considering simply closing down some of the factories, and instead rely on those aforementioned contract manufacturers to build its PCs. Hit up the link below for the full saga and backstory.
[Via Blogrunner, image courtesy J.P.R Sdn Bhd]
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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
For the most part, Runco stays pretty quiet in the consumer realm… until CEDIA rolls around. Once again, the high-end AV company is firing on all cylinders in Denver, announcing seven new 1080p LCD / plasma displays including its largest LCD to date, the 70-inch Crystal Series CX-70DHD (pictured). Along with the new panels, the outfit is unveiling its exclusive OPAL (Optical Path Alignment) technology on select models which “delivers extreme glare reduction and enhanced contrast for high ambient light environments.” The aforesaid 70-incher (shipping mid-October for $34,995) actually comes bundled with an external DHD video controller / processor, which incorporates Runco’s Vivix II tech to “enhance all digital and NTSC content to near high-definition quality.” We’ll admit, that sounds an awful lot like something Toshiba’s got going on just a few booths over, but make of it what you will. For details on the other half dozen sets, hop on past the break.
Continue reading Runco lets it all hang out, intros seven new 1080p LCDs / plasmas at CEDIA
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