News and Reviews on the Hottest Gadgets

Sharp Introduces Solar Powered LCD TV

2008-07-04T03:43:00.000-07:00

Sharp, the electronic giant known for high-tech innovations has once again introduced first of its kind Solar LCD TV.

The innovative 26-inch LCD prototype from Sharp uses just 1/4th the power (or 1/3rd measured annually) of a conventional CRT with the same screen size. And can be powered by a Sharp, triple-junction thin-film solar cell module whose surface area is roughly equivalent to that of the LCD screen.

Sharp is planning to market the two items as a pair in a bid to "contribute to the environment."

Nokia Launches Nokia 6220 Classic in India

2008-07-03T04:28:00.000-07:00

Nokia has launched Nokia 6220, one of the high-end handsets introduced at Mobile World Congress back in February, in India.

Though the phone looks simple but it’s high-end features will simply blow your mind. It features a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss autofocus lens, Xenon integrated flash and autofocus light, AGPS, TV-out, and HSDPA.

It also lets you view maps, pictures, and video with clarity on the 2.2" TFT QVGA display, or on the big screen via TV-out. Find your way quickly and easily with A-GPS navigation and Nokia Maps.

Nokia 6220 classic has been locally priced at 19,959 Rupees (about $460).

SolarDAB - World’s First Solar Powered Radio

2008-07-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

Roberts has announced its solarDAB radio, which it claims is the world's first solar-powered DAB radio. You must now be thinking “World’s first solar powered radio?” that should've been done long ago, but it is not so.

The radio contains a top-mounted solar panel along with a level indicator on the display screen that shows the strength of the solar level being absorbed. The solar panel either powers the radio directly, if the sun is strong enough, or recharges the internal battery. Once the battery is fully charged, it can run the radio for up to 27 hours, and if that’s not enough, the radio can also be used and charged via the mains.

The solarDAB is priced at £79.99 ($158).

Nokia Supernova Series

2008-06-27T04:25:00.000-07:00

Though they've already been on sale in some parts of the world, Nokia's just now getting around to making its foursome of Supernovas official. The new line reps mid-range fashion (think L'Amour, but not over the top) and comes in your choice of two candybars, a flip, or a slider as the 7210, 7310, 7510, or 7610, respectively. The 7210 features a tri-band GSM radio plus EDGE, a 2 megapixel camera, and an FM radio; look for it to launch in the third quarter for €120 (about $189).

The 7310 apes the 7210's look but adds support for changeable Xpress-On faceplates, TV-out, and support for GSM 850, and while all that extra kit adds €35 (about $55) to the price over the lesser model, it's available now. The 7510 goes for the flip form factor but carries over most of the 7310's spec sheet, waiting it out until the fourth quarter for a €180 (about $283) launch in scary colors like "Fatal Red". Finally, the 7610 (no, not that one) moves up to a beefier 3.2 megapixel camera and hits next quarter for €225 (about $354).

T-Mobile Announces Motorola ROKR E8

2008-06-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile has finally taken the wraps off its very own version of Motorola's ROKR E8, a glossy black candybar offering a 2 megapixel camera, 2GB of internal storage (plus a microSD slot that'll swallow up to 8GB more), stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio, and that so-called "morphing" keypad that selectively renders keys invisible depending on the mode you're using.

It's missing 3G, but that's one feature T-Mobile customers are all too well acquainted to missing out on -- and considering that the just-announced flagship ZN5 doesn't even do any WCDMA, it shouldn't come as any surprise. Subscribers and would-be subscribers will be able to nab the E8 come July 7 for $199.99 on contract.

JVC NX-PN7 Dual iPod Dock Now Available

2008-06-24T02:27:00.000-07:00

After showing off its NX-PN7 dual iPod dock way back in the beginning of this year, it looks like JVC has finally pushed the thing out on the floor. It doesn't seem like much has changed in the ensuing months, however, with the dock still boasting the same ability to not only charge two iPods (or iPhones) at the same time, but playback each one through the unit's speakers or have each one go off at two separate times with the tune of your choice.

Otherwise, you can rest assured that you'll be getting the usual FM tuner, as well as a standard analog audio input for your non-Apple audio devices and a video output for some larger screen viewing of your iPod's contents. Despite doubling down on the music players, the unit is just 13 inches wide. In addition to being able to toggle between "iPod A" and "iPod B," the NX-PN7 features a clock, an auxiliary line-in, and a horizontal light beneath each iPod dock that can be set to any one of nine colors.

If that sounds like a gadget you have been waiting for, then you can get one for $150

Motorola’s MotoZine ZN5 is Official

2008-06-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

Motorola has finally announced their long awaited MotoZine ZN5. The main feature of the first model, is a 5-megapixel camera courtesy of a partnership with Kodak. The 5.0 megapixel camera features autofocus, a xenon flash, image stitching, and on-device integration with Kodak Gallery. Otherwise, you get WiFi (score), Motorola's so-called "ModeShift" technology for morphing the keypad, and Quadband GSM radio with EDGE.

Motorola MotoZine ZN5 specifications:

• 2.5G GSM/GPRS.
• Montavista Linux 2.6.1 operating system.
• Freescale SCM-A11 processor;.
• 320×240 Display.
• 5 megapixel camera.
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.
• MP4 playback.
• Morphing keypad.

Samsung’s Instinct now Available for $130 on Sprint

2008-06-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

Available now and right on schedule for $129.99 (with 2 year contract and $100 mail-in rebate), not the original $200 bounced around initially. With Sprint trying hard to position the Instinct as an iPhone killer, we guess they really didn't have a choice but to undercut it in price.

With the given specifications, I am sure that Samsung Instinct will surely give a tough competition to Apple iPhone.

Nextar Launches Sleek and Stylish T30 PMP

2008-06-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

Nextar, the consumer electronics division of the MAC family of companies has just launched its sleek and stylish new T30 PMP.

The features include a 3.5-inch QVGA display, along with 4GB of memory, an SD card slot for expansion, a built-in FM radio, and support for all the basic audio formats, although you'll have to convert videos to AVIs using the included software. If that sounds cool to you, you can grab one of these up now from a whole host of retailers, including Wal-Mart, for a $100.

But I really missed a touchscreen display in this PMP, more so because touchscreen has kind of become a standard feature on all the new PMPs.

Sony Ericsson's C905 Cyber-Shot, Specs and Images

2008-06-17T04:36:00.000-07:00

The wait is over, Sony Ericsson's C905 Cyber-shot is now official. The upcoming Sony Ericsson C905 phone will be the leader in Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot series. Hold onto your breaths because what I am gonna reveal can stop your breath for a few seconds.

The cutting edge Sony Ericsson C905 will feature an 8.1-megapixel camera with "auto focus, face detection, image stabilization, and a new feature called Smart Contrast, BestPic, red-eye reduction, xenon flash as well as photoflash for both photos and videos.

The other exciting features include quad-band GSM (9-hours talk / 380 hours standby), an auto rotating 2.4 inch scratch resistant QVGA display, location tagging with GPS, an accelerometer, TV-out, Wi-Fi, DLNA support, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, 2GB of included memory, and USB 2.0 transfers. I am sure each one of you must be dying to get your hands on this amazing gadget.

No words on the price and availability as yet.

Nokia E66 S60 Slider Goes Official

2008-06-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

Nokia's bringing some new, unsurprising, E series hotness to the States in the form of the new E66 slider. Featuring GSM, EDGE, WCDMA and HSDPA bands galore, the phone is slated for a Q3 release this year. Features include a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, along with a front-facing cam for video calls, WiFi, A-GPS, 3.6mbps web browsing and a 2.4-inch QVGA screen. What really sets it apart from its E series counterparts is the 13.6mm thickness. The battery life is amazing too, with 14 days of standby, and 7.5 hours of talk on GSM, or 3.5 hours of talk on 3G. There's only 110MB of internal memory, but you can supplement that with an 8GB microSD card. The phone comes in "grey steel" or "white steel" (what, no blue steel?), and Nokia is planning to keep this under $500.

Sprint to Offer Samsung Instinct at $199.99 on Contract

2008-06-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

If some internal sources at Sprint are to be believed then the Samsung Instinct will run $199.99 on contract after rebates. The earlier speculation that the best Sprint and best Samsung phone ever, Samsung Instinct was going to be $299 after rebate. Looks as if Sprint was just waiting for Apple’s announcement before settling on a price. The best part is that current customers can supposedly buy the phone without renewing their two-year contract, which is pretty great for someone who is planning to change carriers soon. Sprint will also be asking users to sign up for an "Everything" plan when taking delivery of their Instinct, a move that smacks of AT&T's marriage of the iPhone to specific plans.

Samsung i900 Omnia, Finally Announced

2008-06-09T04:45:00.000-07:00

The highly rumored Samsung i900 has finally been announced by Samsung. Named Samsung i900 Omnia, the Windows Mobile 6.1 powered phone features a 3.2-inch WideQVGA display (240 x 400 pixels), 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, built in accelerometer, WiFi module, Bluetooth, USB Port, FM Tuner and an optical mouse much like the one found in the Samsung i780. Talking about the camera, the Samsung i900 Omnia offers a 5 megapixel auto focus camera with face and smile detection. Geotagging is also one of the camera features since the i900 also packs a built-in GPS receiver.

Looking at the body of the Samsung i900 Omnia, it looks rather identical to the Apple iPhone. In addition to similar looks the i900 also shares the same massive internal memory. Samsung i900 Omnia will be available in both an 8GB and 16GB i900 versions with the microSD still present for further expanding.

The Samsung i900 comes up with the quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus HSDPA 7.2Mbps. The built-in accelerometer lets the UI automatically rotate to follow the handset's current orientation.

And when you are out to compete with Apple’s iPhone, touch interface becomes very important, keeping this fact in mind Samsung has used their TouchWiz user interface for use on Windows Mobile.

The Samsung i900 Omnia will be available from June 2008.

Aiptek PocketCinema V10 Pocket-Size Projector

2008-06-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Aiptek, a brand which is famous for cheap and small is introducing a pocket-sized projector called the PocketCinema V10 over in Taipei. Aiptek's PocketCinema V10, is a pocket size media player projector equipped with 3M's revolutionary miniature projection technology, which can project a 50-inch image. And if there is no source around you, you can still use the projector by using the 1GB internal memory or 3-in-1 card reader. The V10 supports JPEG, ASF, AVI and MPEG-4 formats and features a stereo speaker and built-in battery.

No announcement regarding the price and availability has been made yet.

Newman COOL MAN MP3 Player - Just Pin It Up

2008-06-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

Samsung’s S2 Pebble has finally found a competitor in Newman’s COOL MAN mp3 player. Newman has recently launched a new mp3 player called the COOL MAN. And the unique feature that separates it from the rest is that you can clip it on using a safety pin placed in the back of the COOL MAN. It features an OLED display, MP3/WMA support, built-in mic and for the first time a safety pin.

No word on the price as yet, but it certainly looks COOOOOOL.

MSI Launches The Wind - The First 10" Notebook to Feature INTEL Atom CPU

2008-06-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the news many of us have been waiting for, Micro-Star International (MSI) has officially announced the launch of it’s 10-inch, 1,204 x 600 LED-backlit MSI Wind. MSI Computer, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions has launched the much anticipated Wind Notebook. The Wind (Wi-Fi Network Device) is the first 10-inch notebook to feature the new Intel Atom 1.6Ghz processor.

Still, when you consider that your $399 buys you a Linux-based system riding atop Intel's 1.6GHz Atom processor, an 80GB 2.5-inch disk, 5.5-hour rated battery, 1.3-megapixel webcam, Bluetooth and 802.11b/g WiFi, it makes the $625 price of the Eee PC 1000(H) pretty tough to justify. $499 XP model and gave it their "editor's choice" award calling the Wind "the best all-around mini-notebook to date."

Weighing in at just 2.6 lbs, the MSI Wind is lightweight and ultra mobile, and features an ergonomically designed keyboard that is only 20% smaller than of a full sized keyboard, with keys spaced a comfortable 0.68 inches apart.

The Windows version of the Wind is priced at $499 MSRP, and will be available for purchase starting June 16th, 2008 at www.msimobile.com. The Linux based models of the Wind will be available at the same site later this summer for $399 MSRP.

Iomega Launches 1TB Super eGo External Hard Drive

2008-05-30T03:43:00.000-07:00

After recently launching a portable media player, Iomega, the leaders in storage solutions comes out with a 1TB external hard drive called Super eGo which to me looks like a liquor flask.

The Super eGo uses 3.5-inch desktop hard drives. The external HDD has USB 2.0 connectivity and is powered by an Energy Star qualified adapter. Iomega’s Super eGo external hard drive comes with a one-year warranty and is available in midnight blue, jet black and ruby red for US$269.95.

Willcom 03 smartphone - 1seg-equipped Smartphone

2008-05-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

Willcom just announced its new Willcom 03 smartphone, which packs a bundle of features into an eye-catching package. This smartphone features a 3-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display, which complements the built-in 1seg mobile TV tuner quite nicely. Other prominent features of this phone include built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, 256MB of flash memory, a microSD card slot for expansion, a 2 megapixel camera, and Windows Mobile 6.1 for an OS, to name a few.

Priced at 63,120(JPY) the Willcom 03 smartphone is expected to be available in June.

Samsung 256GB SSD - World's Fastest and Largest Capacity 2.5-inch, MLC-Based Drive

2008-05-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

Samsung's just announced their first 256GB SSD that all of us have been waiting for. According to Samsung this is a full 256GB solid-state drive and is said to be the world's fastest and largest capacity 2.5-inch, MLC-based SSD with SATA II Interface. This drive has speeds of 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write.

Though not available currently, the amazing drive will be available from September. According to official sources the customers will also be able to buy the 1.8inch version.

Samsung's new 256GB SSD is also the thinnest drive with the largest capacity to be offered with a SATA II interface. With a sequential read speed of 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speed of 160MB/s, Samsung's MLC-based 2.5-inch 256GB SSD is about 2.4 times faster than a typical HDD. Samsung 256GB SSD is only 9.5millimeters (mm) thick, and measures 100.3x69.85 mm.

FujiFilm's Z200FD with Love Timer

2008-05-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

FujiFilm has just released another of "Z" for Zoom, FinePix shooter. The 20-mm thin Z200fd follows-up the "surprisingly good" Z100fd with a 10 megapixel, 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor; 5x, image stabilized, optical zoom lens; 2.7-inch LCD; SD/SDHC and xD card support; and ISO support up to 1600.

However the interesting and the most amazing feature is the "love timer" with setting for near (1 heart), close-up (2 hearts), and sloppy-tongue-wrestling (3 hearts) depending upon the level of icky-sticky sweetness you'd like to capture.

Set for release in Japan on June 7th for ¥40,000 (about $388 by the time it shows up in the US to document your breakup).

Kodak Launches Olympics-Branded M2008 Digital Camera

2008-05-21T05:01:00.000-07:00

In order to cash up on the Olympics fever Kodak has come up with the M2008, which appears to simply be a rebranded version of the company's M1033 compact camera. M2008 features the same 10-megapixel resolution, 3x optical zoom, 3-inch LCD, and 720p video recording features as its non-Olympic counterpart. There is no word on the release of the Kodak Olympics-branded M2008 digicam, Stateside but our Chinese counterparts can apparently pick one up now for about $270.

IOGEAR Introduces USB-Sharing Net ShareStaion

2008-05-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

IOGEAR has introduced a latest device that lets you share resources over network, called Net ShareStation. Like other similar devices, this one plugs straight into your router and accommodates up to four USB devices of your choice. There's also a built-in USB 2.0 hub extension so you can push in four devices to use. IOGEAR's USB Net ShareStation lets you share just about every USB device. You can share external hard drives, flash drives, card readers, USB webcams, USB Speakers and USB printers over network.

Priced at $80, the USB Net ShareStation is surely a useful device if you have to share resources over network.

Cowon's A3 PMP Now Offers 80GB Storage

2008-05-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

The Cowon A3 PMP is not the best looking PMP in the world but it sure has a lot of fans, who I’m sure will be delighted that the A3 can now compete with other HDD PMPs in the market in terms of storage capacity. If you too are one of them and have been holding yourself back because of A3’s storage capacity then this is great news for you. Cowon’s A3 PMP now offers 80GB of storage capacity.

Cowon have already earned a big name when it comes to quality and build. The specifications and performance is more or less similar to previous A3 models.

The new 80GB Cowon A3 PMP costs €448 or about $698. Seems a bit overpriced but looking at the reputation of the A3 in its size segment (4-inch screen), and all the images, music, and movies you'll be able to load up on it, this certainly seems a good deal.

First Pictures of Palm Treo 800w for CDMA Networks

2008-05-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

So we have finally got some pictures of Palm's upcoming Treo 800w for CDMA networks, known internally as the Zeppelin. While unconfirmed, the Palm Treo 800w is expected to run on Windows Mobile 6.1, 400 MHz processor with 128MB of RAM and 256 MB flash memory.

It is speculated to have GPS, a 320 x 320 touchscreen and a typical Treo look and feel.

Olympus Announces the E520 DSLR

2008-05-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

After having launched the dynamic duo E410 and E510, Olympus is all set to launch its E520 DSLR in the end of this month. The 10 megapixel D-SLR features sensor-shifting image stabilization, the 2.7-inch LCD and AF Live View.

Specifications:
• TruePic III image processing
• Supersonic Wave Filter dust protection
• Face Detection
• Shadow Adjustment
• Wireless flash control accessory

Olympus E520 is said to be priced at $600.