I got so caught up in the joys of my first week last week that I forgot to announce that the WiBrain B1E has been released in Australia through Tegatech.
Even bigger news is that barely a week after it was released, it’s been given a price drop. It is now the first UMPC to retail for under $1000 in Australia. While this is big news for UMPC fans, we’re quite concerned that the price drop isn’t thanks to a drop in component prices or a stronger Aussie dollar, but more to do with the fact that it hasn’t gotten the best reviews.
On the upside, the higher specced B1H (with 1GB RAM and a 60GB hard drive) also got a price drop to $1199. So if you’re in the market for a cheap UMPC, there’s none cheaper than this one.
Nikon obviously couldn’t let PMA pass without its own fresh volley into the cutthroat consumer-level DSLR market: Enter the D60. It’s a D40X refresh, not a whole new cam built from scratch—it still has the same 10.2-megapixel image processor and body, but Nikon has added some spicy new potatoes to the meat to keep it competitive with Canon’s latest EOS Rebel, like a schnazzy stop-motion moviemaker.
Point and shoot cameras tend to blur together, so instead of listing them all separately, like their own God’s gift to amateur photographers, here are the four S (for “style”) series CoolPix cameras Nikon is introducing tonight, and their raisons d’être, plus a gallery of them striking various poses a bit lower down.
For every super sexy, super slim, multicoloured point-and-shoot, there’s a meat-and-potatoes model aimed at classrooms and people on tighter budgets. Nikon’s US$130 CoolPix L18 comes in blue or red and has some nice enhancements like in-camera redeye removal. The retro-styled CoolPix P60 costs US$100 more, because it has a 5X optical zoom lens and an impressive 200,000-dot electronic viewfinder. With some manual controls, it’s aimed at people who want to fiddle more, but don’t want to break the bank. Both cameras run on AA batteries and have 8-megapixel sensors. [Nikon]
If you’ve got an already jailbroken 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhone, you can now upgrade directly via Installer.app—no connecting to Mac or PC required. The only caveat is that the process takes 45 minutes as it downloads the entire upgrade via Wi-Fi, so hook your phone up to an AC adapter before you start. Again, find it in installer.app on your jailbroken 1.1.2 iPhone. [Crunchgear ]
If you’re one of those unfortunate people who can’t open a bottle of wine without snapping the cork in half, this could be for you. The Oster Inspire is a cordless, rechargeable bottle opener from Oster that does all the hard work, plus the easy work, for you so you can just drink the wine without having to think about it.
Of course, I don’t think it will work all that well with the new style twist-top bottles that seem to have taken over the bottle shops of Australia, but if you have a problem with those you should probably see someone.
It’s available now online for the completely reasonable price of US$20.
[Oster via Apartment Therapy]
Technology is supposed to make life better, right? So in a world where most computers have a built in microphone, built-in speakers, Bluetooth and god knows how many other ways to communicate over VoIP, why would anybody want a keyboard with a phone built in?
Not only that, but the phone is tiny. Look at it – it makes me think of small children and oompa loompas.
We’ve seen Skype-enabled mice before, and we had similar reservations. On the positive side, it is Skype certified, so expect no problems when you use it to call the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz (who, obviously, will have one of their own). It also features a full 109 key board for typing. Or it will, when it launches in Japan in October. [Dvice via Apartment Therapy]
If you prefer MSI boards over brands like Asus (although I certainly do not fall into that category), you will be happy to know that MSI is planning on throwing its hat into the increasingly crowded ultra-low cost laptop ring. MSI is hard at work on the new device and they are betting on Intel’s upcoming Diamondville microprocessor to give it an edge over devices like Asustek’s Eee PC. According to an MSI executive, the product should be out sometime in July or August—just a few months after Diamondville is slated to be unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. [PC World]
The first leak of Samsung’s supposed flagship Windows Mobile phone was leaked a few weeks ago in black and white, but this time we’ve got a picture in colour of what the touchscreen device is going to look like.
Scientists in Australia are developing a radio-controlled contraceptive implant that would control the flow of a man’s sperm at the flick of a switch. The valve would be “push-fit” inside the vas deferens (duct that carries sperm from the testicles to the penis) and could be opened or closed remotely depending on the baby making needs of the user. This is making me a bit nauseous, but I will forge ahead…
