News Archive for 09/05/12
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Griffin Technology has released two new products for powering iPhones and iPods, the PowerBlock Reserve and the PowerJolt Reserve. The two products are available as a bundle as well. Each device uses the same power unit, the Griffin Reserve Battery Pack, which can be swapped between the two products. Any USB-rechargeable product is supported, including the iPhone and numerous iPods.
Deals at DealNN today include HDTVs, printers, Blu-ray players, wireless routers and more. Most noteworthy today is a deal on the Hitachi 42-inch 1080p LCD HDTV from Vanns.com. This HDTV is priced at $1099.88, a price cut of $2400 off the original price of $3499 and includes a FREE OmniMount low profile fixed wall mount, Panamax home theater power management system and a Hitachi audio/video tuning center. Features include simulated surround sound with bass boost, on-screen display, wide viewing angles and a resolution of 1920 x 1080p.
Sony has recently announced it has developed a high-definition camera module that is rated at 8.3 megapixels and can record 720p video at 30 frames per second. And at 0.37 by 0.28 inches (9.5mm by 7.1mm), it is the world's smallest with such capabilities. The MCB1172 module is meant for security and industry applications, and has been developed by Sony Europe's Image Sensing Solutions Division.
Sony has recently announced a pair of new PlayStation 3 bundles that include the gaming console and a video game. Due to ship on May 15 for the equivalent price of $544 is the 80GB system along with two Dual Shock 3 controllers and the Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty game. A couple of weeks later, on May 29th, a bundle with the new Infamous game and a single Dual Shock 3 gamepad will ship, though its price hasn’t been announced.
A leaked price sheet from AT&T for the Southwestern region revealed the BlackBerry 8900 smartphone will cost $200 on a new two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate at the carrier. The replacement for the 8300-series of phones sports a higher-resolution 480x360 display as well as a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS sensor and Wi-Fi functionality. AT&T Navigator map and navigation service will be supported and users will be able to listen to satellite radio via XM Radio Mobile. A Yellow Pages app will allow them to search for phone numbers.
Researchers NPD Group today said that 88% of the money consumers spend on home entertainment goes towards purchasing and renting movies on DVD and Blu-ray discs. Of the $25 each US consumer spends on average in a given month, 63 percent was found to be spent on DVD purchases, 7 percent on Blu-ray discs, and 18% went towards renting DVD and Blu-ray movies. The remaining 12 percent was split between video on-demand (VOD) services (9 percent) and digital downloads and online streaming (3 percent).
JVC Japan has recently announced it will soon begin shipping its D-ILA 3 (Direct-Drive Image Light Amplifier) 8K and 4K video front-projector that is capable of throwing up 8192x4320 resolution images, or more than 35 megapixels. Other specifications of the D-ILA 3 include 10,000 lumens of brightness and a 5,500:1 contrast ratio from its 3,000W bulb. A special fiber optic interface was developed for the projector, though it also sports an HDMI interface. It weighs a massive 370lbs.
Rumors of a Xbox full-body motion controller gained fuel on Tuesday with a story corroborating the claims. The Wall Street Journal mirrors the earlier leaks and says the peripheral will hinge on a 3D camera system that recognizes not just basic movement but also depth, giving it more control than a device like Sony's EyeToy. It reportedly may show at the E3 gaming event, which starts June 2nd, but probably wouldn't ship until 2010 even if so.
Leadtek on Monday announced it will demonstrate the first external video encoder equipped with a Toshiba-made SpursEngine media processor, the WinFast HPVC1100, at the 12th Embedded Systems Technology exhibition in Japan on May 15th. The device will let notebook or desktop users to play back or encode high-definition video thanks to a variation of the Cell Broadband Engine used in Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console, though it has half the processing cores here, at four.
Microsoft today tried to dampen expectations fueled by rumors of a phone-related Zune product through a response by Zune team member Brian Seitz. The staffer says that the Twitter account floating the rumors isn't officially run by Microsoft and says not to necessarily trust its information. The account creator also says the account exists to draw attention to a perceived lack of priorities at Apple, which he sees as cracking down unnecessarily on iPhone jailbreaking but not on piracy.
Dell today lived up to promises and put its new-look Inspiron desktops on sale today in the US. Now called the Inspiron 537 and 537s, the finished systems are distinguished by their option of several colors and range in speed from Celeron through Core 2 Quad processors for Intel systems and Semprons through Phenom X4 processors for AMD. They can all have up to 8GB of RAM as well as dedicated ATI Radeon HD video, though storage varies slightly with a slimline tower limited to a 750GB drive while the larger mini-tower holds up to 1TB.
The French National Assembly today approved a modified version of the three-strikes law meant to combat online piracy. Following an earlier rejection of an initial version, the government body voted 296-233 in favor of the bill, which would send two warnings to users caught allegedly trading illegally copied media and require that Internet providers disconnect users after a third offense.
MTV Games, Harmonix and EA have recently announced yet another special edition controller for the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle game title for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii gaming consoles. In addition to the previously seen Rickenbacker 325 and Gretsch Duo-Jet guitars, there will also be a replica Höfner bass guitar controller on offer. Formerly used by Sir Paul McCartney, the bass controller will be a replica of the classic guitar meant for right-handed players, unlike Paul McCartney's preference for the left.
Specifications have surfaced today that may represent Microsoft's expectations for its "Pink" Zune phone platform. Known as Windows Mobile 7 Chassis 1, the design obtained by Microsoft observer Mary Jo Foley appears to set a baseline level of hardware that would outperform iPhones. A system would use either an NVIDIA Tegra, Qualcomm 8000-series, or Texas Instruments 3430 processor at its heart, at least 256MB of memory, and an 800x480 or larger screen.
UK-based GEAR4 has recently added to its comprehensive lineup of iPod accessories with its CRG-60 alarm clock and iPod dock. There are two alarms, with each giving users the option of waking up to music from the docked iPod, any FM radio station or a buzzer. The alarm clocks have snooze, sleep and nap functions, while the large LCD screen can be dimmed at night.
Apple will publish the SlingPlayer iPhone app within the next 24 hours, but without any form of 3G support, developer Sling Media is said to have confirmed. The software is designed as extension of the company's Slingbox hardware, which broadcasts TV from a person's home to a remote Internet destination. Using SlingPlayer, people should be able to view streams, change channels and control DVR units.
A change in Best Buy's ship date for the Palm Pre's Touchstone charger has provided additional support for the actual phone's increasingly corroborated June 7th release date. Once listed only as having a $70 price, the power add-on is now said by Engadget to have been given a June 7th in-stock date and is therefore likely to ship at the same time as the phone itself. The price remains the same.
Vodafone today hoped to seize on the success of the iPhone's App Store by announcing its own central portal for third-party apps. The service will echo Apple's approach and provide 70 percent of revenue to developers but will have unique software advantages, the cellular provider says. Vodafone's store will be device-independent and will also be tailored specifically to the network, allowing for GPS-aware apps and other features through a special API (app programming interface).
Epson has added to its WorkForce line of business inkjet printers with a new model aimed at small businesses. The WorkForce 310 incorporates fax, copy and scanning functions, as well as built-in Ethernet connectivity. The unit is said to print up to twice as fast as competing models, at 16ppm in black and 5.6ppm in color, judging by the new ISO/IEC 24734 standard. The standard is aimed at providing a consistent benchmark for comparing the speed of models from different manufacturers.
Dell on Tuesday ended speculation and unveiled the Inspiron Mini 10v, a budget version of the regular model launched earlier in the year. The new version switches to the lower-priced 1.6GHz Atom N270 instead of the slower but more battery-friendly 1.33GHz Z520 and drops to a 120GB hard drive from the regular 160GB. As a result, the netbook also uses GMA 950 integrated video in place of the GMA 500 specific to the Z-series Atom chips.
Logitech on Tuesday announced it is now shipping its Harmony Adapter for PlayStation 3, letting users control their PS3s with their universal Logitech Harmony remotes. It connects to the PS3 via a Bluetooth connection, leaving the USB ports free for other peripherals, and includes an AC adapter for power. Logitech or other IR remotes normally can't control the PS3 as the game console relies on Bluetooth alone for communications with Sony remotes.
ViewSonic late yesterday said it plans to enter the smartphone market. Normally known for its displays and its recent entry into netbooks, the company justifies the move both as a reflection of convergence in electronics as well as its desire to move into small-screened devices below its usual photo frames. No features have been revealed in advance other than the use of 3G networking.
Sanyo has recently announced the upcoming release of the industry's first 802.11n Wi-Fi-enabled projector, the LP-WXU700. The advance makes it the fastest wireless data projector on the market and has enough bandwidth to play videos, not just slideshows, over the network connection. When used with Windows Vista PCs, it can stream MPEG-1/2/4 and WMV videos wirelessly; other platforms can use the Wi-Fi to remotely administer the system. The LP-WXU700 has a 1280x800 resolution, a 500:1 contrast ratio and a brightness of 3,800 lumens.
Samsung today said it has started shipping a 32GB version of its all-in-one moviNAND flash memory. The technology uses a very small, dense 30 nanometer (nm) manufacturing process to stack eight 4GB memory chips together along with a built-in controller chip and an MMC interface to connect it to the rest of a device. Samsung claims the process stores twice as much data as a similar package built using 40nm assembly.
A leak of Intel's notebook processor plans for the second half of 2009 show the company moving aggressively into its new platforms during the summer. Those within notebook builders tell DigiTimes that the Nehalem-based notebook processor line, Calpella, is still on track for summer and is slated for mid- to high-range notebooks costing about $1,200 or more. Whether or not this will involve only quad-core processors, as recently rumored, isn't known.
Logitech on Tuesday unveiled a standard, black version of its Wireless Guitar Controller (link active soon) for the PlayStation 2 and 3. The gaming peripheral is an improvement on the special-run red controller with better construction and is meant to provide a more authentic feel to games like the Guitar Hero series. Its body, fingerboard and neck are made of wood, with frets made of real metal; it also has silenced buttons to avoid detracting from the music and gets a touch-sensitive slider at the base of the neck.
Microsoft early today drew a competitive line by using its Office 2010 Twitter account to post word of a major competitor to the iPhone in June. First hinting that next month is an "important month for Zune lovers," the account user -- who is posting from either an iPhone or a Mac -- next explains that it's a product launch and implies that the product in question is a direct competitor for a smartphone rather than a strict media player.
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