Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Phones
The Wall Street Journal says to expect a …
11:42PM Mark Wilson | The Wall Street Journal says to expect a Google Phone announcement in two weeks. [wsj] More »
Cameras
Canon to Halt Sales of EOS-1D Mark III to UK and Recall?
11:40PM Charlie White | We told you about Canon’s willingness to fix the focus problems in its flagship EOS-1D Mark III camera, and now it appears the company is taking further steps to make sure the $4500 digital SLR is working properly. In a letter allegedly sent to UK dealers and dated October 25, not only does Canon acknowledge a quality issue with some of the EOS-1D Mark III units already sold, the company has decided to stop shipping the product and will collect all unsold units from dealer stock. Take a look at the letter: More »
Screens
Nastar’s 2.45-inch-think LCD HDTV is World’s Thinnest
11:30PM Adam Frucci | A few days ago Nastar unveiled its new Essoni HDTV, the world’s thinnest 1080p TV. Coming in at a mere 2.45-inches thick at both its 47-inch and 52-inch sizes, it’s certainly thin, and it’ll mount quite nicely to your all. That is if the rest of the specs are as impressive as its size, which is unknown at this time. But seeing the casing is made from “fine Italian wood,” the chances are good that this thing will set you back a serious amount and probably has just fine specs. Hit the jump for another picture. More »
Entertainment
Warner Bros. Considering Blu-ray Exclusivity
11:23PM Mark Wilson | Warner Bros., one of the two major studios supporting both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats may be ditching HD DVD to bet on Sony. Even in the wake of a sub-$199 HD DVD player, Warner Home Video VP Dan Silverberg had this to say about the company’s outlook on the format wars: One thing that may be changing is our strategy…When both formats launched and hardware prices were high, we made a decision to support both formats and let the consumer decide. OK, so what about now? More »
Phones
Samsung a737 Live Video Slider Available
11:10PM Mark Wilson | The Samsung SGH-a737 slider has been announced for availability on AT&T. The little lightweight only packs a 1.3MP camera, but its live video sharing through HSDPA support does a little to make up for the low res images. Of course, the phone also supports Bluetooth, streaming music through AT&T and partners, and storage up to 4GB through MicroSD. Wow, that’s the size of the discontinued iPhone! It’ll run you $50 with contract and rebate. And it’s well worth the price if you live in a rural area to which slider technology hasn’t yet permeated. But chances are, you don’t. [at&t] More »
Robots
Robot Car Crashes Into Manned Vehicle; Where’d You Learn to Drive?
10:55PM Charlie White | The $3.5 million DARPA Urban Challenge semifinals are underway, and in these qualifying rounds the robot cars are all vying for the right to participate in the actual race on November 3. On this qualifying course, you can see Axion Racing’s vehicle, “Spirit,” making a pretty dumb move, taking a left turn directly into one of the human-driven Ford Taurus chase cars. No, robot SUV, the idea is to avoid those stunt car is driven by the humans, not attack them. There were a couple of another small accidents with another vehicle yesterday, one from Georgia Tech, which was having a bit of trouble dealing with the protective guard rails set up in the parking lot course. On the other hand, a robot Chevy Tahoe built by Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Racing seems to be doing quite well in the proceedings thus far. [TG Daily, via Danger Room] UPDATE: Whoops, we almost forgot, Axion sent along a close-up pic of the Spirit robot vehicle, but look out, there are a couple of twins showing off their backsides as they demonstrate the vehicle, so it’s almost NSFW. We tried to airbrush/photoshop out the naughty parts for readers working in churches and preschools, to no avail. More »
Cameras
Lightning Round: Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card
10:36PM Mark Wilson | The gadget: The Eye-Fi. It’s an SD memory card that adds Wi-Fi to any camera. Plus the free Eye-Fi service supports automatic uploads to 20 different web photo sites (like Flickr) as well as a computer on your home network. The verdict: It works flawlessly. More »
Software
Apple Says Two Million Copies of Leopard Sold in First Weekend
10:32PM Wilson Rothman | Today Apple reported that starting Friday, October 26 through the weekend, it sold 2 million copies of Leopard, saying it beat Tiger as “the most successful OS release in Apple’s history.” Sales include software shipping with new Macs as well as boxed copies bought at brick-and-mortar and online. Steve Jobs’ unsurprising comment goes like this: “Early indications are that Leopard will be a huge hit with customers. Leopard’s innovative features are getting great reviews and making more people than ever think about switching to the Mac.” Press release… More »
Gadgets
GPSports WI-SPI Tracks Players’ Every Move
10:30PM Mark Wilson | Coaches looking to keep better tabs on their players on the field now have a better solution than just looking. The GPSports WI-SPI is a GPS system that can track precise player movement, speed and even heart rate. More »
Gadgets
