New Gadgetz

Altec Lansing inAir 5000 Wireless Speaker

Marty — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:13:35 +0000

Altec Lansing has come up with a new wireless speaker that allows users to stream music from their laptops/iPhone/iPod and stream music wirelessly using AirPlay.

Altec Lansing offers a free inAir Guide app that you can install so the inAir 5000 wireless speaker setup becomes a breeze.

The inAir 5000 wireless speaker comes in an elegant design and features dual 3-inch mid-range drivers made out of Kevlar that allows this speaker to deliver sound with minimal distortion.

If you buy the Altec Lansing inAir 5000, you will not only get wireless streaming for your personal music collection but also AUX-in to help you connect other audio sources through the 3.5mm jack.

The Altec Lansing inAir 5000 wireless speaker will be available in late February for $499.95.

Tranquil PC/AVA Skinny Ripper Media Server

Marty — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:33:48 +0000

Tranquil launches a new media server by the name of the Skinny Ripper. This one is a new media server that has been designed for audio ripping and storage and is able to stream music to your DLNA-enabled devices, gaming consoles, HDTVs as well as smartphones and tablets.

If you buy the Tranquil PC/AVA Skinny Ripper you’ll be able to access services such as iTunes, Roku, Samba or SONIS in order to download and store all your favorite music on one device that’s able to share your collection with other devices you own wirelessly.

The Tranquil PC/AVA Skinny Ripper media server comes with a 1TB HDD pre-installed where you can store all your media. You can insert a CD and let the Skinny Ripper do its job. It will save your music in lossless FLAC format in order to preserve quality as well as MP3 in order to stream the music to your devices.

Connectivity features include a Ethernet port so you can connect this one to the Internet and two USB ports that allow you to back-up your media on an external hard drive.

The Tranquil PC/AVA Skinny Ripper runs on Linux Fedora and comes with the Subsonic music streaming software pre-loaded.

If you live in UK you can get this one for £665.83

Panasonic ELUGA Smartphone in Europe

Marty — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:49:27 +0000

Panasonic has announced the lauch of its latest ELUGA rugged smartphone in Europe.

The new Panasonic ELUGA smartphone is a waterproof/dustproof smartphone coming in a slim design that will certainly draw some attention from costumers once it hits the market. The ELUGA smartphone comes in a slim profile with curved edges and features IP57 certification, meaning that it’s able to remain intact when submersed into water up to 1.5 meters deep.

The Panasonic ELUGA smartphone is powered by a dual-core TI 1Ghz processor aided by 1GB of RAM and will run on Android Gingerbread. Panasonic has promised an Ice Cream Sandwich update soon after launch.

The Panasonic ELUGA boasts a 4.3-inch 960×540 OLED touchscreen offering 66% display area ratio, the largest ratio on the smartphone market. You’ll basically hold a huge screen in your hand that’s also able to take pictures and record 1080p Full HD video with its 8 megapixel camera and store it on this phone’s 8GB internal memory avaiable. Other specifications include GPS/AGPS, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, DLNA and NFC.

The Panasonic ELUGA supports GSM/EDGE and HSPA+ mobile networks and features an Eco mode that will turn of functions and apps once your phone reaches a low battery level. Reportedly, the 1150mAh battery coming with the ELUGA will offer up to 300 hours of standby and 240 minutes of talk time.

Panasonic will launch their new ELUGA smartphone in April in Europe, while the pricing remains unknown for now.

Acer Aspire S5 Ultrabook

Marty — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:44:56 +0000

The MacBook Pro has inspired manufacturers to begin making notebooks as thin as possible, meanwhile packing all the performance a high-end machine should come with.

Acer was inspired as well and the company’s first try was the Aspire S3, a budget ultrabook that could rise up to the challenge. Although coming for a lower price in comparison to its competition, the S3 looked rather cheap because it came in a plastic case. That was a reason for many to look elsewhere for an ultrabook, so Acer came up with something better this time.

The Aspire S5 is the new ultrabook from Acer that’s meant to put right where the S3 did wrong and this time, the S5 comes with all the great features a high-end machine should have, however we won’t be able to call this one affordable anymore.

In term of design, the Acer Aspire S5 doesn’t look at all like the MacBook Pro. The gray, aluminum look is present most of the time in the ultrabook niche, so Acer Aspire’s look might be a bit of a refreshing change for some consumers.

The S5 comes in a magnesium alloy case and measures an astonishing 15mm in thickness. This makes Acer’s Aspire S5 the thinnest ultrabook to ever hit the market and will offer consumers a serious enough reason to go ahead and buy it.

In terms of performance, Acer hasn’t made any compromises and the S5 comes with all the great features a top-notch ultrabook should come with.

The Acer Aspire S5 will offer high processing power thanks to the i5 and i7 Ivy Bridge processors on-board, the 4GB of RAM and a choice between a 128GB and 256GB SSD. The solid state drives will offer enough speed and are mostly used for lightning fast access to your files.

Connectivity-wise, the Aspire S5 comes with pretty much everything any other ultrabook on the market comes with. You will be able to find a HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a Thunderbolt port and two USB 3.0 ports that will enable blazing fast transfer speed.

The Acer Aspire S5 features a 13.3-inch display with a 1366×768 HD resolution which will actually be quite enough for the every day user.

All in all, the Aspire S5 is a refreshing change in comparison to other ultrabooks on the market that come in a gray aluminum case reminding a bit too much of the MacBook Pro. If you’re looking for something a bit different that also packs all the power and performance of a top-notch ultrabook, the S5 might be just the machine for you.

Acer will launch the Aspire S5 in the Spring (April-May 2012) while the pricing remains unknown for now.

Acer S271HL 27-inch LED Monitor

Marty — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:37:09 +0000

Acer has come forward with a new monitor today, aimed to business and personal use alike.

The S271HL is a 27-inch monitor featuring LED backlight and an ultra-slim profile that will help you place this monitor anywhere you want. There’s a glossy rounded stand that looks very elegant and will help you save some space on your desk.

Features coming with this new Acer monitor include a 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 2ms response time and power saving capabilities that will break your electric bill in half. Acer claims that this monitor consumes 68% less power in comparison to other monitors out there and will be a perfect companion to your high-end system due to its extremely fast response time.

Connectivity options coming with the Acer S271HL include a HDMI input, VGA and DVI inputs.

Acer has announced that their S271HL monitor will become available in April on the UK market for a price of £229.

HP Z1 27-inch All-in-One Workstation

Marty — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:54:08 +0000

HP brings forward the world’s first all-in-one workstation featuring a 27-inch IPS display.

HP’s Z1 workstation is aimed to graphics or design professionals who want a complete and optimized solution for their business. The Z1 has been built to deliver graphics performance and comes in a compact all-in-one design that still allows users to upgrade graphics, memory or processing power if they want to.

This one comes with full power and you can use it for the most daunting tasks such as video editing. The HP Z1 comes with a choice between the Intel’s Core or Xeon E3 processors and a choice of graphics cards, from the entry-level Q500M, the Q1000M/Q3000M or the high-end Q4000M graphics card. You get up to 32GB of DDR3 memory with your Z1 workstation in order to ensure the fastest completion time for almost any task. The HP Z1 has also been equipped with a 3.5-inch 7200RPM HDD or 2.5-inch SATA 10K HDD.

The HP Z1 all-in-one workstation comes with a 27-inch LED IPS display and 2560×1440 resolution and you can also add a second display. Other features coming with the Z1 all-in-one workstation include a 2 Megapixel webcam, SRS Premium Sound, USB 3.0, Bluetooth and WiFi.

HP’s Z1 workstation will become available in April for $1899.

Andru USB Smartphone Charger

Marty — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:28:22 +0000

Here’s a nice little gadget for all Android fans out there. This one is a USB charger you can use to charge your Android phone coming in the form of an Android mascot.

Salom America is responsible for this geeky product that you can use instead of the charger coming with your Android phone. The Andru USB charger comes in the shape of the Android mascot and features flexible antennas and movable arms as well as a 1.2m micro USB data cable that you can use to connect your devices.

The Andru USB phone charger is compatible with Android smartphones, Blackberry phones and Windows Phone.

LG Optimus Vu 4G LTE Smartphone

Marty — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:21:29 +0000

LG has surprised everyone with an early release of the Optimus Vu. This new 4G LTE smartphone was supposed to be introduced at the MWC next week.

The LG Optimus Vu seems to be a serious competitor for the Galaxy Note as it packs a large IPS screen, measuring 5-inches and features a 4:3 aspect ratio.

The specs of the Optimus Vu are pretty impressive, as this one is powered by a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor and packs 32GB of internal storage. LG has announced that this one will come with Android Gingerbread, however the Ice Cream Sandwich update is on its way.

LG’s Optimus Vu becomes one of the slimmest large screen smartphones on the market and will probably appear on Verizon’s 4G LTE network pretty soon.

Other specs include a 8-megapixel camera with LED flash as well as a 1.3-megapixel vor chatting. The Optimus Vu also comes with DLNA Media Sharing and a HDMI port in case you want to connect this one to your HDTV in order to playback your media.

LG plans to show off the LG Optimus Vu at the MWC and officialy launch it in Korea on SK Telecom. No pricing information has been revealed at this time.

Eden TAB 7-inch Tablet

Marty — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:39:01 +0000

If you’re living in Japan and are currently on the market for an affordable tablet, you could take a look at this new device coming from Eden.

The Eden TAB runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, is powered by a 1.2Ghz S5PC210 dual-core processor and features a 7-inch WXGA IPS touchscreen display with a 1280×800 pixel resolution, 16GB of storage space and 1GB of RAM on-board.

Other features of this affordable tablet coming soon in Japan include WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and HD playback.

The Eden TAB 7-inch tablet will soon become available on the Japanese market on white, black and pink for 29,800 Yen (~$374).

Pentax Optio WG-2 and Optio WG-2 GPS Rugged Digital Cameras

Marty — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:46:24 +0000

If you’re an adventurer and currently looking for a rugged camera that also looks incredibly cool, Pentax has just the thing for you.

Pentax brings forward two new models, namely the Optio WG-2 and Optio WG-2 GPS rugged cameras. Both of these new models from Pentax are waterproof, shockproof and are able sustain temperatures down to minus 10 degrees.

The Pentax Optio WG-2 and Optio WG-2 GPS are 16 megapixels cameras coming with backlit CMOS image sensor and featuring 5x optical zoom, 28mm wide angle lens and a 3-inch LCD screen for preview.

Additional features include a detachable macro focus ring for perfect smooth focus and Digital Microscope mode using 6 macro LEDs. There are also a few modes included to enable you to take quality pictures including Pixel Track, Smile Capture, Face Detection, Movie Shake Reduction and Extended Dynamic Range.

The Pentax Optio WG-2 and Optio WG-2 GPS come with Full HD 1080p video 30fps and both support HDMI playback. You can store the captured video using SD/SDXC/SDHC cards.

Both of this new rugged cameras from Pentax will become available in March for $349.95 and $399.95, respectively.