Archive for September, 2007

Toshiba updates VARDIA line of HDD / DVD recorders

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage It's been nearly a year to the day since Toshiba unleashed a slew of VARDIA updates -- the RD-A600 notwithstanding -- but recently the firm got official with four new combo recorders. Starting things off is the October-bound RD-W301 (¥90,000; $785), which is the only ...

Panasonic launches four new Toughbooks

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Laptops Panasonic is getting funky-fresh on everyone today with word of a new lineup of Toughbooks making their way out to store shelves. The company is launching four different models of the hard-as-nails laptops (W7, T7, R7, Y7), all of which are based on Intel's Santa Rosa chipset. The ...

Gateway One gets official

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Desktops With yesterday's leak, Gateway's press conference was a bit short on surprise this morning, but the Gateway One is indeed official, and it really doesn't look half bad. The one mystery left was the screen, which turns out to be a 1400 x 900 19-incher, which feels a ...

Optimal Group snaps up WowWee for $65 million

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Robots It looks like WowWee's growing robot army will soon have a new boss to answer to, as Montreal-based Optimal Group announced today that it's agreed to purchase the robot "toy" maker for $65 million. According to The Canadian Press, Optimal says WowWee's management will remain as it is, ...

Samsung’s GPS-equipped i780 “Treo-killer” revealed

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds Samsung seems to be working a little in reverse with its upcoming SGH-i780 Windows Mobile 6 handset, showing it first at GITEX, then providing shots to media a couple weeks later -- all without an official press release or announcement. Fortunately, we have pretty much all the ...

SlingPlayer Mobile coming to BlackBerry

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video As if we weren't already overwhelmed with Sling news lately -- what with the EchoStar acquisition, Slingbox SOLO launch, and SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian moving out of beta -- we've just gotten word that the company is working with RIM to develop a BlackBerry-compatible version of ...

Canon PowerShot SD870 gets reviewed

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Digital Cameras Canon's PowerShot SD870 (also known as the IXUS 860 IS in some parts of the world) isn't exactly the sort of camera that offers a lot of surprises, but the folks at PhotographyBLOG decided to check it out nonetheless, and they apparently found quite a bit to ...

Runco’s 103-inch XP-103DHD plasma gets price, ship date

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Displays, HDTVNary a month after Hitachi unveiled a 103-inch plasma of its own to take on Panasonic's beast, Runco is getting even more official about its own iteration that first surfaced at CEDIA. The CinemaWall XP-103DHD features a native 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, a 5,000:1 contrast ratio, provides ...

Niveus shares official details on Media Center Extender - EDGE

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Networking Technically, Niveus was the first of the major partners to spill the proverbial beans on its Extender for Windows Media Center, and while it was sitting around for all to see at CEDIA, details were admittedly slim. Now, however, the firm has come clean and doled ...

Live from the Palm press conference at DigitalLife

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Cellphones, Features Well folks -- we're here at the Palm / Sprint press event at DigitalLife, so get ready to have your heads go popping off your neck in a matter of moments. We're going to be liveblogging the whole nasty affair -- so keep your browser tuned in ...

Vertu does it again, crafts second Ferrari phone for $25K

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Filed under: Cellphones See, here's the thing about Vertu phones: anyone who's wealthy enough to afford one probably wants (and can afford) more than one, probably doesn't care about newfangled goodies like 3G or a large, high resolution display, and probably keeps a Ferrari or two in the garage. On that ...

Fujitsu’s LifeBook T2010 tablet PC gets reviewed

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs Thankfully, it didn't take too awfully long after Fujitsu's LifeBook T2010 got official before the folks over at PCMag were able to wrap their palms around the tablet and toss out their two pennies. Upon first opening this bad boy up, reviewers were stunned by the ...

Creative intros the MuVo T100 music player

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

Filed under: Portable Audio Feeling like you don't have enough choices when it comes to small, thin, flash-based music players? Hoping that Creative will turn something around that has a strangely familiar shape and size? Well, you're in luck, because the Singaporean company has just launched the MuVo T100, a tall ...

UPEK’s Eikon helps Mac users get fingerprinted

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

Filed under: Peripherals Tired of watching all of your PC friends with their fancy, new-fangled fingerprint readers, showing off how protected their computers are and how safe their data is? We feel your pain, Mac dudes and dudettes, and so does UPEK. Enter the company's Eikon "digital privacy manager," or, as ...

Sprint and Motorola take a slow boat down Chicago’s Xohm fast lane

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

Filed under: Wireless The dream of true untethered broadband connectivity is nearly upon us dear US-American readers. Last night, Sprint and Motorola teamed up to do a live demonstration of Sprint's Xohm-branded, mobile WiMax service on the Chicago River. Fortunately Ars Technica was there to take all the 4G action in ...