Here's the Jack Bauer of the new Olympus compacts: the Stylus 1030SW, drop-proof from 2 metres, waterproof to 10 metres and operates at temperatures as cold as -10 degrees Celsius. With 10.1 megapixels, a 3.6x optical zoom and a 2.7-inch LCD, and with built-in scene modes for underwater shooting as well as beach and snow modes, it looks like we need a vacation to try it out. Available in March for around $400.
AU: We get this snapper late February for the completely awesome price of $499.
This remote control design is inspired by a deck of playing cards, with two card-shaped halves that slide in different directions. By gripping it and sliding it up and down you can change your TV's volume, and a twisting gesture changes channels or tracks on your DVD. Designer Sungwoo Park has gone for clean white curves and minimalist control option, and I like its tactile slide design as an antidote for all the touchpad/screen action going on at the moment. [Yanko design]
Update: Akiko has shared with us her opinions about the Air, from the perspective of a PC user experienced and obsessed with thin laptops, "like everyone in Japan," according to her. Here you have the first MacBook Air unboxing: iPhone-styled tiny packaging, minimalist and all smooth black. What's even more important, you'll see it compared to a Windows laptop: a Sony VAIO (fight!). Akiko Wada, a Japanese blogger, got invited to a special event hosted by Apple Japan, and she very kindly let us use her photos in Gizmodo. Her thoughts, complete mega-gallery, video and the Air vs. VAIO side-by-side after the jump.
You may think the groovy chick in the top pic is trying to drown the new Fujitsu F705i mobile, but you would be negating the fact that the F705i is the world's slimmest waterproof 3G cellphone. Sitting pretty at 13.7mm thick, the Fujitsu handset can handle a 1-metre water submersion for 30 minutes. Check out the rest of the mega gallery after the jump.
Hitachi is releasing a new Blu-ray camera after getting spanked for their first generation. The DZ-BD9H still records to Blu-ray or a 60GB hard drive, but tries to fix the poor image performance with a new 5-megapixel CMOS sensor and image processing system, dubbed Picture Master. Full specs after the jump.
Well, you might not lose it, but you might learn some things. Virgin Broadband are expanding their broadband offerings into the "bush" and by "bush" we mean "Wollongong, Newcastle and Ballarat". Sure it's a stretch — we know — but it made for a much more exciting headline.
Both Virgin's Broadband at home and Mobile Broadband offerings are available in these regional capitals. For those unaware, both use Virgin's (and therefore Optus') 3G network to connect to the we. The home broadband solution also incorporates a home phone number, without line rental or excessive charges, and a wireless router.
It's an awesome deal if you can get it and you aren't a gigabyte hungry power user. The extra coverage is also great for mobile broadband users who travel to these mystic cities of alternative delights cities frequently.
We're not sure what to expect with TiVo when it launches in Australia. Sure, we love the idea of being to record all your favourite shows, have Season Pass do all the hard work for you and watch the latest episode of NeighboursHeroes whenever we feel like it in glorious Hi-Def. But the whole Channel 7 thing makes us concerned that we'll just be stuck in this never-ending loop of Kochy and that O'Keefe guy telling progressively worse jokes to an audience of drugged up middle-aged housewives.
That's why we've registered to become Beta testers for the service. Sure, we probably won't be selected, but that doesn't mean that you can't. All you need to do is answer a bunch of questions, sign an NDA and sell your soul agree to do weekly homework assignments.
But hurry! We've already filled out our second survey to try and win the TiVo lottery ticket, and we don't think this entertainment gravy train will be waiting for long.
UPDATE: Ok, so as some of the commenters have pointed out (thanks guys!), TiVo have actually stopped accepting applications for beta testers. There may be a second round though, so check back frequently for the latest updates...
Sure, it's nothing new for our US friends, but Toshiba's Australian arm has just announced that it will be slashing the price of HD DVD players down under as well.
It's surprising that they took this long to announce the price cuts, but hey, this is Australia. The only thing we get before the rest of the world is... well, erm... do we get anything before the rest of the world?
But in all seriousness, is there anybody out there that thinks this doesn't sound like Toshiba's trying to throw the women and children overboard from the sinking HD DVD ship? Just so long as they don't decide to up and leave Australia because of the format war's brutal toll on profits...
Hit the jump for a full press release with the new prices. It's almost tempting...
Camcorder Info has their hands on of the SDR-SW20 up, Panasonic's first attempt at a dive camcorder for those who like recording video in the ocean...as long as that ocean is less than 1.5 metres deep. (Like its direct competitor, the Sanyo Xacti E1, it is only waterproof to 1.5 metres.) They found visual quality to be unexceptional, since this camera uses the same image capture setup as Panasonic's low end DVD camcorder. But the easy to spot case and grippy finish earned it some points. If you're considering one of these, I suppose the correct thing to do is wait to see what the second revision brings. [CamcorderInfo]
This year's shaping up to be the year Australian TV fans finally gets treated like mature, responsible adults. For example, after years of negotiations, we now have our very own free-to-air EPG that works with pretty much and PVR to let you record the shows you want to watch at the click of a single button.
We'll also see TiVo launching in time for the Beijing Olympics, and Foxtel is finally entering the HD era with their new Hi-Def iQ box.
Unveiled on their HD blog at the end of last year, we now know that the new box will have a 320GB hard drive, support MPEG4 compression, have HDMI connections (praise Jesus) and is a bespoke model manufactured by Pace just for Foxtel.
Aside from that, we can expect four dedicated HD channels focussing on sport, movies and documentaries, plus access to Channel 10's Hi-Def offering through the iQ. But the best news is that it can't be far away — I received an invite to a media briefing on January 30th for the box's launch. As soon as I know more, so will you
The release candidate of zAlternator allows for the Zune to be synced with Windows Media Player 11, Winamp and Media Monkey, as well as itunes (Although that is untested at this point). [ZuneBoards]
It's a sad day for the Australian Consumer Electronics industry, with Hitachi deciding to close its doors on the consumer tech arm of its Australian business as part of a global restructure.
Apparently the move is a part of a global restructure, and not the result of the Australian market's performance financially. However there are mixed reports on whether there will be a swinging of the layoff hammer or simply repurposing the current staff across Hitachi's other areas of business in Australia.
Losing a big player like this can't be a good thing, and not just because it means we'll miss out on their shiny new TVs. Competition makes the consumer tech world go round. Plus, every time a consumer tech company closes its doors, a baby angel dies.
There's a media briefing happening tonight, so we'll keep you posted with all the official news tomorrow.
WonderHowTo rented a Red One video camera (the camera that shoots 4K resolution footage), took 30 kids up into the mountains and shot some snowball fight footage. The result, shown here at just slightly lower resolution than the Red can support, still shows off how much their own Perez Hilton lookalike got pelted with snowballs. Hit the jump for a higher quality version that will murder your browser.
The first signs of HD DVD ultimate demise may be coming from the UK on March 10. After the news on Universal and Paramount abandoning the exclusive HD DVD deal, it seems that Amazon UK is listing three Paramount Blu-ray titles with that definitive release date: Trading Places, Coming to America and Anchorman, which was never available in Blu-ray before. Amazon UK doesn't list the HD DVD versions, and these are all new Zone 2 releases, not US imports. Could this be an error on Amazon's part or just a sign of things to come? [Format War Central]
The Gadget: WiBrain's B1E UMPC, a slightly-wider (and much thicker) than PSP-sized UMPC with full QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen, trackpad, and on-board webcam.
The Bug Labs open source do-it-yourself hardware gadget store is now splayed open, ripe for a hot injection of your cash.
AU: They don't appear to ship to Australia just yet, but keep an eye out for that to change - something like this will definitely go global eventually.
The Phillips READIUS prototype that we showed you over a year ago, is finally materialising as an actual consumer product, but not just as an e-reader but a mobile phone. The READIUS has a slightly different design than the prototype, with a 5-inch flexible display that actually rolls up around the phone, allowing it to be stored when not in use. The phone is manufactured under Polymer Vision which is partly owned by Phillips. The Dutch company has yet to release complete specs for the phone, but the READIUS is advertised as having a large display and great battery life. With a mid-2008 release, we won't have to wait too long to test this e-reader, mobile phone mash-up. [Reuters]
While IR is still quite useful for certain things, transferring data between devices is something very few people still use it for. Japan's KDDI R&D labs, however, have managed to increase the transfer rate 250 times to 1Gbps with a semiconductor laser that blinks incredibly fast. Although 1Gbps is fast, it doesn't quite transfer a full CD of music in less than a second (which is 650MB). Point is, if they can manage to put this into cellphones, we'll finally be able to get our contacts over really really fast. [Digital World Tokyo]
Spendtastic dudes who splurged on the Eight Core Mac Pros revealed earlier this month have an extra surprise for them: 64-bit boot camp support. The Boot Camp install discs have 64-bit Vista drivers on board, meaning you can load up Microsoft's 2^6 bit OS with little to no problems on your silver cheese-grating behemoth. [Macrumors]
David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots (a book about how we're going to have sex with robots within 5 years and fall in love with them) explains his extensive research with the subject on the Colbert Report. Between being made fun of by Colbert, the good doctor (he's got a Ph.D!) tells everyone why we're all going to be porking or being porked by robots in the near future whether we like it or not, and what the implications of it are for mankind. We thought Futurama addressed this pretty well in the Lucy Liu episode ourselves. [Colbert Report]
In an effort to curb unhealthy eating habits, one Catholic school in Utah has implemented a biometric finger scanning system that is used to track what kids are eating during lunch. Parents are then given the information in hopes that they will use it to help children make better choices.
We think this is pretty obvious, but AppleInsider says they've received info that the MacBook Pros will also be getting the MacBook Air's multi-touch trackpad feature (which we got hands-on of here). The feature was supposed to be rolled out in another refresh for the MBP line around Macworld, but was delayed in order to get the Macbook Air out on time. There's no good reason why the Pros won't get a feature like this (or why Apple would make this exclusive to the Air), so we're going to go ahead and say don't buy a Macbook Pro until after the upcoming refresh. [Apple Insider]
NBC has a new found respect for Steve Jobs and Apple, and Jobs himself has spoken about mending the fence with NBC. But do a few kind words really substantiate rumors that NBC will bring their shows back to iTunes? While we don't think a future reunion is far fetched, there's nothing in either interview that supports this rumour for the time being. [iLounge]
Unwired View has just as much of an idea what the model number on this leaked Sony Ericsson is, but they did manage to fish some shots out of PConline.com.cn. The phone, which could be the K870, K830 or the K780, has a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash plus an on-board GPS, like the W760 already has. Chances are we'll see an unveiling in Barcelona at the 3GSM show next month. [pconline via UnwiredView]
The Standalone Cassette MP3 player would have been incredibly useful back in the early '00s, before we hooked up iPods and iPhones directly to our car (via cassette adapter), but it's still pretty neat now. The body looks and behaves like a standard cassette tape, but has a slot on the bottom for an SD slot filled with MP3s. The only downsides are that it only holds SD cards up to 2GB, needs to be recharged, but at least it can be controlled via your car's head unit. [Chinavision via inewidea via Random Good Stuff]
Amid all of the MacBook Air hullabaloo, you might have forgotten about the Apple announcement that Fox would begin providing "free" iTunes versions of programs via DVD. The first release was Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest, a Star Wars parody. Being the brave product testers that we are, we tried it out. It was, well, kinda weird.
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Here's the Jack Bauer of the new Olympus compacts: the Stylus 1030SW, drop-proof from 2 metres, waterproof to 10 metres and operates at temperatures as cold as -10 degrees Celsius. With 10.1 megapixels, a 3.6x optical zoom and a 2.7-inch LCD, and with built-in scene modes for underwater shooting as well as beach and snow modes, it looks like we need a vacation to try it out. Available in March for around $400. 
This remote control design is inspired by a deck of playing cards, with two card-shaped halves that slide in different directions. By gripping it and sliding it up and down you can change your TV's volume, and a twisting gesture changes channels or tracks on your DVD. Designer Sungwoo Park has gone for clean white curves and minimalist control option, and I like its tactile slide design as an antidote for all the touchpad/screen action 
The Skinny: Olympus just barfed out five new digital cameras. The fantastic five include the following fresh snappers:
Update: Akiko has shared with us her opinions about the Air, from the perspective of a PC user experienced and obsessed with thin laptops, "like everyone in Japan," according to her. Here you have the first MacBook Air unboxing: iPhone-styled tiny packaging, minimalist and all smooth black. What's even more important, you'll see it compared to a Windows laptop: a Sony VAIO (fight!). Akiko Wada, a Japanese blogger, got invited to a special event hosted by Apple Japan, and she very kindly let us use her photos in Gizmodo. Her thoughts, complete mega-gallery, video and the Air vs. VAIO side-by-side after the jump.
You may think the groovy chick in the top pic is trying to drown the new Fujitsu F705i mobile, but you would be negating the fact that the F705i is the world's slimmest waterproof 3G cellphone. Sitting pretty at 13.7mm thick, the Fujitsu handset can handle a 1-metre water submersion for 30 minutes. Check out the rest of the mega gallery after the jump.
Hitachi is releasing a new Blu-ray camera after 
Camcorder Info has their hands on of the SDR-SW20 up, Panasonic's first attempt at a dive camcorder for those who like recording video in the ocean...as long as that ocean is less than 1.5 metres deep. (Like its direct competitor, the 
The release candidate of zAlternator allows for the Zune to be synced with Windows Media Player 11, Winamp and Media Monkey, as well as itunes (Although that is untested at this point). [
The first signs of HD DVD ultimate demise may be coming from the UK on March 10. After the news on 
The Gadget: WiBrain's B1E UMPC, a slightly-wider (and much thicker) than PSP-sized UMPC with full QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen, trackpad, and on-board webcam.
The 
The 
While IR is still quite useful for certain things, transferring data between devices is something very few people still use it for. Japan's KDDI R&D labs, however, have managed to increase the transfer rate 250 times to 1Gbps with a semiconductor laser that blinks incredibly fast. Although 1Gbps is fast, it doesn't quite transfer a full CD of music in less than a second (which is 650MB). Point is, if they can manage to put this into cellphones, we'll finally be able to get our contacts over really really fast. [
Spendtastic dudes who splurged on the 
NBC has a 
Unwired View has just as much of an idea what the model number on this leaked Sony Ericsson is, but they did manage to fish some shots out of PConline.com.cn. The phone, which could be the K870, K830 or the K780, has a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash plus an on-board GPS, like the 
The Standalone Cassette MP3 player would have been incredibly useful back in the early '00s, before we hooked up iPods and iPhones directly to our car (via cassette adapter), but it's still pretty neat now. The body looks and behaves like a standard cassette tape, but has a slot on the bottom for an SD slot filled with MP3s. The only downsides are that it only holds SD cards up to 2GB, needs to be recharged, but at least it can be controlled via your car's head unit. [
Amid all of the MacBook Air hullabaloo, you might have forgotten about the Apple announcement that Fox would begin 
