I hope you weren't looking to get your hands on the Treo 680 anytime soon since it's looks like a manufacturing gaffe has delayed shipment for a little while. Apparently, some Einstein forgot to connect the internal microphone, or, as one patriotic blogger put it, it'd be like "if Ford sent out 10,000 Explorers without connecting the brakes." Some 144,000 Treo 680s were sent out that need to be returned to the factory for fixin'.
Considering they've tried shipping it already, I would imagine that we should be seeing it en masse sooner rather than later. Though I must say, not everyone is universally praising the smartphone. – Nicholas Deleon
Breaking: Palm Treo 680 Delayed Due To Manufacturer Screw Up [CrunchGear]
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from jalopnik.com — Transportation design student Axel Dichamp dubbed this dadaesque scooter prototype "Ploof," which could be an onomatopoeic approximation of the sound made when its image smacks against the optic nerve. Dichamp's idea was to create a Yamaha two-wheeler for adult consumers concerned with comfort. continue reading »
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Bodog recently tossed up the odds for the 2007 MacWorld Expo in January and the release of the iPhone and Leopard operating system. Here is what you can place your hard earned money on:
• Will Apple officially release the long awaited iPhone by April 30th, 2007?
• Will Apple announce the impending release of the long awaited iPhone at the Macworld Expo in January, 2007?
• Will Apple announce the impending release of Leopard at the Macworld Expo in January, 2007?
The max bet you can place on any of the three is $50 each. Answering yes to the first or third odd pays 91 cents per dollar wagered and answering no pays 77 cents to each dollar wagered. Betting on yes to the second question regarding iPhone announcement at MacWorld is paying 29 cents for every dollar wagered and betting on no is paying $2.25 for every dollar wagered.
WWGD? (What would Gizmodo do?) Jump to find out.
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97832
Apparently all that griping I did yesterday about the Zune not supporting Smart Playlists was a bit unfounded. At first I thought the Auto Playlists were only for syncing—since I couldn't find it, plus that's what Microsoft's been telling me—but then found (by clicking around some more) that you can create them for playlist management as well.
Not to bore you with the specifics, but you have to right click on the Playlists menu, then choose create "Auto Playlist". Why this wasn't a top menu option—the regular "Create Playlist is"—is unknown to me. That would have saved me a whole lot of trouble, not to mention egg on my face. Mmmm eggs. – Jason Chen
Zune vs. iPod: The Final Word On Who Should Get Your Money [Gizmodo]
iTunes vs. Zune Software: What's Right For Your Music? [Gizmodo]
Thanks to Woody for pointing this out!
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97831
from kotaku.com — And so the PS3 HDMI-related problems start. At least for one dude. CheapyD at CheapAssGamer reports that he's been having issues using the PLAYSTATION 3's and an HDMI-capable TV. Here's the part that concerns me: Cheapy and I have the same plasma, Panasonic's Viera. continue reading »
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97830
By Brendan I. Koerner
My wife is a lingerie designer (seriously), and thus makes semi-frequent trips to China's Guangdong Province to oversee sample production. Upon her last return, she made a bold pronouncement: the Middle Kingdom's days as the world's chief producer of affordable ladies' undergarments are numbered. Lingerie companies are already finding it cheaper to deal with factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and other nations with a dearth of modern skyscrapers.
Her learned observation got me thinking: will China's reign atop the low-end electronics heap soon end as well? After all, the natural cycle in gadget production has been for a country to start out as a purveyor of discount knock-offs, then gradually reinvent itself as a premium supplier. We're all probably too young to remember this, but "Made in Tokyo" was a sign of inferior quality circa 1950. And weren't LG and Samsung considered cheaper alternatives to Japanese goods just a generation (or less) ago?
You can already see what might be the first stirrings of China's maturation—the transformation of Lenovo into an IBM-buying global brand, for example, or the efforts of Japanese companies like Matsushita Electric to move high-end manufacturing operations to Shanghai. I'm not saying that the flood of cheap MP3 players from Shenzhen is gonna stop in the next twelve months, but maybe it's time to start asking: when it comes to low-end gadgets, what's the next China? Oddsmaking after the jump. PLUS: The Van Morrison riddle resolved, and Low End Theory goes on hiatus—in the jungle.
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Move over Vertu, looks like you got some company on the horizon. Though little is known about Gresso (other than the fact that they operate from Russia) they've just come out with a new luxury phone they claim is "well equipped technically." The phone itself is made of gold and African Blackwood (which is reported to be very resistant to decay) and has a sapphire anti-glare crystal glass framing its screen. Gresso claims no two of its phones are alike, but hasn't released any price or availability info. As a matter of fact, you can only contact them via a shady Hotmail account. We sent them a note saying we were interested in the phone and will post any updates as they arrive. – Louis Ramirez
Gresso Luxury Phone [via Sybarites]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97828
It won't make you a top chef, but if you're constantly under nuking that bag of popcorn, Samsung's new microwave can help. The Smart Oven is capable of reading the barcode on prepackaged foods and automatically calculates how long to nuke your meal. No word on whether its library of barcodes can be updated or not, so you might want to think twice before committing yourself to a life of popcorn and frozen fish sticks. – Louis Ramirez
Samsung Smart Oven [via Absolute Gadget]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97827
This device is the winner of a CES Innovation Award, which might be bullshit. The WidgetStation takes the desktop out of desktop widgets. It is essentially an LCD display with touch-sensitive buttons, USB connectivity, memory and Ethernet connectivity. It will actively display the widget of your choosing. And with the enormous amount of widgets now available, the WidgetStation provides endless possibilities. No word on pricing or availability, but we will have more info live from the CES show floor in January. – Travis Hudson
WidgetStation [Techeblog]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97826
Here you go, you little creepy pervert. The Pro Viewer BinoCam is a 3-in-1 set of binoculars capable of proving a zoomed view that can also take pictures and record AVI video clips. The binoculars themselves have an 8x zoom. The pictures and video are stored on SD memory cards and can be viewed via the attached 1.5-inch LCD. The product description says that the binoculars record images video at 2.1 megapixels and 5.0 megapixels. $200. Ordinarily we wouldn't bat an eye at these things, but that's a lot of pixels for a off beat gadget like this one. – Travis Hudson
Product Page [Via Coolest-Gadgets]
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Sling Media's got good news today for people who've wanted to sling their TV content onto their cellphone. They've announced the SlingPlayer Mobile for 3G cellphones, a result of a partnership with the A-Team 3 Group to make it possible for people to have access to their home SlingBox on their cellphone. The Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson W950i, as provided by 3, will come with all the necessary software pre-installed. The whole system should be up and running in the UK by December 1. There's another pic of SlingMobile in action after the jump.
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Another day, another gadget that amplifies headphones, but this time with a silly name. Meet the Boostaroo Revolution High Definition Headphone Splitter & Amplifier. Claimed to boost volume levels by up to 400 percent, the Boostaroo Revolution will have no problem making all your hot beats loud enough for everyone on the subway to hear. Or, if you just want to share your music with that special someone, just plug in another set of headphones and hand 'em over. I tell you, nothing wins over a girl's heart quite like a little Nas.
Well, the Boostaroo Revolution looks nice (only $50, too), but do people actually need their headphones' volume to be boosted that high? Aren't you afraid that you'll damage your hearing? – Nicholas Deleon
Product Page [Boostaroo via The Red Ferret Journal]
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iSuppli took apart the PS3, sourced all the components and found it to have some serious engineering mojo.
With the PlayStation 3, you are getting the performance of a supercomputer at the price of an entry-level PC
The premium model costs $840.35 to make (Which sells at a loss for $600.)
The Xbox 360 on the other hand, costs $323 to make, these days. So, what we're trying to get at here is that the PS3 is a good deal. A lot of bang for the buck. A Bargain. A wonderful surprise, for us, and for Sony. Good job, guys!
But I suppose we could have figured it out for ourselves if we'd considered how much the PS3 costs per pound. Fat ass.
Did you know the WiFi module is only $15 bucks? Hit the jump to see the price per component for everything else.
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97822
Clearly the PS3 launch is more organized in NYC than in SF: Of course that makes sense: this is where the big party is at. They've got an official line, with a signpost. And fanboys have been lining up for awhile now on Madison Ave. Since 8pm Monday night, actually, says number one spot holder Angel Paredes. As of midnight, he has 350 people behind him. Things are quiet now, but a few hours ago a scuffle broke out over line cutsies, and Sony's muscle had to step in. 24 hours to go before the PS3s go on sale. –Brian Lam
Reporting and Photography by Lisa Freedman
PS3 [Gizmodo]
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Nikon officially unveiled the D40 today, a new budget DSLR worth your attention. First off, they've stopped upping the megapixel count, and have left it alone with a 6MP CCD, which is fine, because I don't shoot above that anyhow for the web or personal images. Then it has a 3200 ISO rating making for terrific low light performance. Canon's competing Rebel XTi only goes up to 1600, for example, so the Nikon gets an extra stop. It'll shoot at 2.5 per second, and there's in camera retouching of red eye, shadow and highlight enhancement, and others. It uses SD cards, which is nice, because I've got a whole lot of em lying around. And the body itself is small, yet packs a 2.5-inch LCD.
You do lose the ability to run autofocus on lenses without built in motors, though. So you're limited to AF with Nikon's AF-S and AF-I lenses, which may limit your upgrade path. The price? Astoundingly low at $599 with a 3x lens. (The fairly ok, "18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens". Who the hell names these things?)
A pretty sweet camera, but clearly in a different price range than the Canon Rebel XTi. We'll see how it does when the full reviews start rolling in.
Jump for more shots from all angles, plus a great screen grab of the menus.
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It's 11PM, 25 hours til the PS3 goes on sale in SF, and there's already a line of 300 people at Sony's Metreon mall. At the front of the line, I find five friends and their tent: Chris, Preston, John, Edgar, and Gieson. They'd been there since 8am, which means they'll have been in their line for... a total of 40 hours when they get their PS3s.
The funny thing is, when I asked the guys which console they were more excited about, PS3 or Wii, all five said, with great enthusiasm, "Wii!" And they plan on camping out this weekend for that launch, too. –Brian Lam
PS3 [Gizmodo]
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When I saw this first I lustily thought: “Wow she’d stop me snoring alright,” and then I realised that it was the wrist band. The £35 price tag should have given it away.
Tens of millions of people – including my in-laws – snore like hogs and frankly, it keeps me awake. I know it’s not their fault but that doesn’t stop me, and many other victims at 4am, wanting to take a pillow and smother the noisy bastards. There is a less violent approach though with the Snore Stopper, a wrist band with a sensitive micro-sound detector.
This detects your first hog-like snarfles and sends a mild electric signal (a shock, in other words) without actually waking you. The end result is that your body learns to avoid the mini-shocks by not snoring. I’ll take two please.
What are the chances of my in-laws being offended by such useful, yet potentially insulting, Christmas gifts?- Martin Lynch
news technology gadgets health sleep shopping
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97818
Owners of a Sky HD box will be grinning like cream-soaked cats right now as Sky has announced some decent telly for New Year’s Day. Even better, it’s all in high-definition.
Starting at 6am on News Year’s Day, Sky will show all six Star Wars movies in glorious high-definition. You can choose from two schedules – one that follows how the movies were released in the cinema, and the other which will show them chronologically.
Seeing as many fans will want to skip The Phantom Pants, you can catch some extra zzzs until 8.30am.
However, since many of you will be nursing the grand-daddy of all New Year’s Eve hangovers, there’s the much more user-friendly cinema schedule showing that starts at 1.40pm and runs through to the wee hours of the morning.-Martin Lynch
news movies TV HDTV home
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PS3 thunder-stealing is well underway as Microsoft and Bungie throw up some Halo 3 surprises to distract the console hordes. That’s on top of Zune finally hitting the stores Stateside. Coincidence?
Anyway, Xbox 360 gamers are going to get their grubby little mitts all over Halo 3 before it launches in a giant beta test of the multiplayer side of the console’s most successful game franchise. So far, 14.5m copies of Halo and Halo 2 have shipped while 800m hours of online fragging has been clocked up.
New multiplayer maps for Halo 2 will also be available for download next month but, get this, only for Xbox 360 owners.
Owners of the original Xbox, which Halo 2 was created for, have been told to go suck an egg. Harsh.-Martin Lynch
news games technology xbox microsoft
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It's a sad day, but nothing unusual. Merely one day after the Zune was launched someone has already gotten their dirty, grubby hands on it and dismantled it. Can't you just appreciate the Zune for what it is on the outside, why do you always have to judge a book by its content? Hit the link so see more photos and the process by which you too, can be a jackhole and strip apart the beloved Zune. – Travis Hudson
Zune Dissected [Minivan]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/97815
Read more
DVRs
Slingbox and Sony's Location Free TV have a Placeshifting competitor on their hands. And let's face it, Location Free TV isn't really competition to Slingbox, so really the question is, will Pinnacle have the balls to bring it to Sling?
This media streamer isn't HD, like the Slingbox Pro. It is wireless, and sends MPEG-2 over the home network, and MPEG-4 over the internet. For now, it seems as if it only works with PCs, while the Slingbox works with Macs, Windows Mobile devices like the Moto Q, and soon, Nokia devices running Symbian.
Let's see: Pinnacle has tons of experience in processing video, but very little in the networking game. Both are important when it comes to building a solid placeshifting gadget. But given the sometimes shoddy consumer equipment that I've seen out of Pinnacle, I doubt this will be a worry free setup.
So, the odds are in Sling's favor, but we shall see when the reviews roll through. Jump for another picture.
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For what feels like centuries, the iPod was considered the must-have music device. An elegant design and simple interface made even the sluttiest of fratboys fall in love.
But then came along Microsoft's Zune. Instead of a dainty, scratch-prone piece of MP3 china, the Zune is chunky and coated in spank-me-harder rubber. And the Zune was there for us with a shoulder to cry on during those nights we vented how the iPod lacked WiFi, FM, and a general understanding of "a woman's needs". Even if it only goes up to 30GB.
We appreciate that the Zune let's us hook up and share moments on trains or bathroom stalls, but we still crave the monogamy of iTunes DRM support. Hit the jump for our Frankenreview: A review culled from the bits and pieces of Pogue's NYTimes article, Mossberg's work at the WSJ, and opinions from our friends at Business Week and CNet. There's a lot to say, so we've sectioned off the writeup into categories on Design, Screen, UI, Software, and Sharing. And we've got all of our beautiful gallery shots after the jump. What are you waiting for? Jump on through!
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When we're making a comparison between the iPod and the Zune, it's also important to note that the software makes a big difference in your music experience. You'll have to use the software suite extensively for both playing back music at your computer and organizing songs onto your portable device. This is why both iTunes and Zune Software play such a large part in determining which music player you should purchase.
So which one is better? That depends largely on your personal usage habits, but suffice it to say iTunes has a challenger on its hands. Find out why after the jump.
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We were giddy to hear Ambilight was getting the 1080p treatment, and we're likewise happy to hear that here are some bigger sets from Philips packing the same 1920 by 1080 pixel count. The new 47-inch LCD and 63-inch plasma both rock Philips Pixel Plus generation 3 tech, upgraded to 3HD spec. I have no idea what that means, but I know that Pixel Plus "makes shit look good." It smoothes out the picture, removing noise and artifacts. Sounds like it would make things blurry, but no, I like it.
The model names are really stupid, though: 47PF9441D and 63PF9631D. I've seen sexier serial numbers. Like that time when that MP3 player had all those 0s and 8s. Curvy...Anyhow, both sets have HDMI intputs, and the plasma does photo and mp3 playback from USB.
$3k for the LCD, and $6k for the plasma.
Looks good, but if I were to buy a Philips TV, I'd make sure it had ambilight like the 1080p we talked about before. –Brian Lam
CES 2007: Philips LCD TV Finally hits 1080p HD [Gizmodo]
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Yes, every iPod dock accomplishes the same task (charge the iPod, output audio/video signals to other equipment, etc.) but at least the MXP-1000 from Maxell looks different. I imagine that, given its long, pipe-like shape, it'd make a great bludgeon, too. You can even hang it on a wall like a plasma/LCD TV. It's called progress, people.
Does the MXP-1000 ($85, in Japan starting on November 25) do anything else wild and totally in your face? Not really. It's pretty much a book-by-its-cover thing here: it looks cool, so it must be. We're fairly vain creatures here, so it works. – Nicholas Deleon
Press Release (in Japanese) [Maxell via New Launches]
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
