Samsung’s new 52-inch LCD, the LN-52F91BD, has got an LED backlight to give you a brighter picture, along with USB port, 3 HDMI 1.3 port and Infolink function for your stock and news updates from MSN. Sadly it’s only available in Korea, and even more sadly, if you want one, you’re going to have to pay over $6,800 for it. [Akihabara News]
NPD Group has released a report that show Palm, T-Mobile and Motorola as the biggest losers to the AT&T/Apple iPhone axis. According to NPD, their 13,000-consumers study show that early iPhone buyers were “10 times more likely to previously own a Treo and three times more likely to previously own T-Mobile’s Sidekick.” Motorola Q was also affected, but Blackberry was left untouched by the powers of the JesusPhone, apparently because of the latter’s lack of corporate email. What about you, dear readers? Did you dropped a Treo, Sidekick or Q for an iPhone? Your answers in the comments. [ZDNet]
Twentieth Century Fox is expected to announce today that the DVD of Live Free or Die Hard will include a special version for computers and select media players so consumers can enjoy Bruce every which way they choose. It’s out November 20. [i4u]
Hey, I just discovered this the hard way: The Nike+iPod peripheral that tracks your distance doesn’t let you play music on the new Nanos. Very annoying on top of the other issues we’ve had with this generational jump. First it was the coverflow interface lagging (which has thankfully been fixed) to problems with video out (which Apple is still sort of working out), to various screen issues. It seems like the new, more complicated iPods didn’t seem to get enough quality assurance. And we don’t understand why Apple could have nailed the new hardware but neglected so much on the software side of things. I hope this gets fixed soon. [Apple]
I have to buy a radar detector before snow season starts and the Tahoe PD start crawling all over my ass. For a long time, I’d wanted a Valentine One. I knew it was supposedly to be the best a few years ago, but was shocked to see that was still the case today when Alex Roy mentioned he’d used a Val One in his blistering coast to coast record breaking drive. Why is there no march of progress here?
In the case of this Oppo PMP, the moniker “Super” certainly applies. The Super Five can handle just about any format you can throw at it including: RM, RMVB, FLV, DAT, MPG, MPEG, AVI, 3GP in video and OGG, MP3, WMA and WAV and dual-APE, FLAC Lossless audio. Plus, photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF and PNG pose no problem for this little feature packed device. Speaking of small, all of that functionality is crammed into a credit card sized 2GB flash memory player that features a 3-inch colour screen with QVGA resolution. Naturally, something this cool isn’t going to be found anywhere outside of China, but if you can make the trip it will only run you $US120. Sounds like a steal, but fear not because Oppo has a reputation for delivering quality video at an affordable price. [Oppo via i4u]
Jacqui from Ars got news on the US iTunes Music Store’s DRM-Free iTunes Plus tracks: according to her sources “Apple plans to expand iTunes Plus to include certain indie music labels starting tomorrow.” [Apparently, she says now that it's going to be on Wednesday] The big news, however, is that she says that Apple will drop the price of all the songs to US99 cents, competing directly with the Amazon MP3 store. That’s all the catalog, including EMI’s tracks, not just the indies. [Ars Technica]
Instead of paying hundreds to thousands on a custom adaptor to fit a 35mm lens onto a camcorder, you can now build your own for relatively little cash. Although the end result looks weird and has a horribly messed up weight distribution, your videos that come out of it will look great—as demonstrated in the 35mm test video footage above. Why would you want to do this? To narrow your depth of field for dramatic effect. If you think your grandpa blowing out his birthday candles was cool before, imagine it when barely anything is in focus! [JetSetModels via Boing Boing Gadgets]
Lightning. It just goes about it’s business – mocking us. We have always known there is potential there for an alternative energy source, but harnessing that power has proven difficult. However, an inventor names Steve LeRoy may be on the brink of changing all that with a device that generates lightning then harvests the resulting energy. The prototype can generate bolts almost metre-long in length, but that is only enough electricity to illuminate a 60-watt light bulb for 20 minutes. However, LeRoy notes that a full-scale version has the potential to power 30,000 homes for a day with just one lightning bolt. Impressive. With that kind of juice you could easily get a Delorean up to 141kph. [Buisnessweek via Sci Fi Tech]
Alex Roy was just recognised as the record holder for driving from NY to Santa Monica pier in 31 hours and 4 minutes, besting the time set by “David Diem and Doug Turner clocked in a Ferrari 308 during the 1983 US Express run” of 32 hours and seven minutes. That’s 143 kph for over 31 hours. What’s made me especially proud is that Alex wrote about automotive laser jammers and radio scanners for Gizmodo under a previous regime. The seven time world rally champ avoided cops and find his way with a dash full of gadgets, including multiple scanners, jammers, detectors, and other mods on his BMW M5. Equipment is documented in the video above, but one thing not emphasised is that the guy had a plane spotting police activity en route.
