Monday, February 4, 2008
Phones
LG KF510 Mobile Phone Is as Thin as the Ninjas Holding It
10:32PM Gizmodo US Edition | LG’s new KF510 slider mobile is a skinny 11mm deep, with a touchpad control, slide-out conventional keys, and an animation-loaded user interface. The “Touch Lighting Phone” also packs a 3-megapixel autofocus camera, and is metal-framed, with graduated metal paintwork. Available in March, around US$330, not much else is known about the phone yet. [GSM Arena] More »
Hardware
Intel Tukwila Is World’s First 2 Billion Transistor Chip, Can Fight Godzilla Blindfolded
10:31PM Jesus Diaz | Tukwila is Intel’s new server-oriented Itanium-family processor, the first in the world to pack two billion transistors. Most of these are used for cache memory, needed to keep its four 2GHz 65-nanometer cores fed at all times with data, instructions and probably giant radioactive lizard meat. I don’t know about what kind of power is hidden into thy fearful symmetry, Tukwila, but I have to admit you look so makey-outy for being a CPU. [BBC] More »
Entertainment
Gradient Helsinki 1.5 Loudspeakers Could Sound Great, Come With Lots of Buzzwords
10:11PM Jesus Diaz | According to the manufacturers, these handcrafted Gradient Helsinki 1.5 250-watt loudspeakers are “born from our twisted way of thinking differently.” They sure look twisty, especially when they shoot at us all kind of buzzwords like Dipole Bass, Cardioid Midrange, Wave-guided tweeters and all sorts of technological buzzing fizzbang. That said, I would probably buy them if I had a) a house with those views, b) a gazillion dollars, c) actual ears instead of a pair made of cork or d) all of the above. [Born Rich] More »
Gadgets
Hulk Money Bank Smashes Savings Procrastination
8:38PM Jesus Diaz | HULK LIKES TO SAVE MONEY! MONEY IS GREEN! HULK IS GREEN! HULK LIKES GREEN! YOU KNOW KERMIT? GREAT FRIEND OF HULK! PUNY BANNER DOESN’T SAVE MONEY! HE SPENDS IT ALL ON NEW PANTS! LIKE JASON CHEN! HULK DOESN’T LIKE PUNY BANNER! HMMMM, HULK LIKES JASON CHEN THOUGH! EXCEPT WHEN HE WEARS BATMAN PYJAMAS! BUT HULK WILL GIVE HIM THIS HULK MONEY BANK ANYWAY! (Editor’s Note: it is going to be released at Toy Fair 2008, as merchandising for the next Edward Norton’s Hulk movie which, sadly, won’t include Lou Ferrigno. — JD) WHO IS TALKING? WHO IS LOU FERRIGNO? WHO IS THE EDITOR? HULK HATES EDITOR! HE SPENDS ALL MONEY IN DRINKS AND GOING OUT! HULK SMASHES EDITOR! [Superhero Flix] More »
Entertainment
JVC’s SP-A440 Simulates Surround Sound, Looks Weird
7:24PM Gizmodo US Edition | JVC’s SP-A440 sound system puts two 1.3-inch drivers into each of it’s cube speakers, but on different faces. The manufacturer says that this configuration gives broader sound coverage and a “surround sound”-like experience while in Theatre Mode. In Music mode, it will use the extra driver to give your tunes just a bit more power. Their small stands also allow you to twist each 2.5-inch cubic speaker into several positions for better sound control. In Japan soon for US$45. [AV Watch] More »
Entertainment
4:45PM Nick Broughall | Despite everyone thinking that Toshiba should just throw in the towel, they just keep on truckin’. It’s like they’ve watched too many WWE wrestling matches, and believe that just because it’s the main event and they’re the crowd favourite, they’ll come back and steal victory at the last minute.
Except that they won’t. Not with Universal announcing its undying love for the format with a paltry 20 movies over 2008. Sure, the release said a minimum of 20 movies, so there could be more thrown in there with classics like Atonement, The Kingdom, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, American Gangster, and Charlie Wilson’s War.
Is it just me, or do all of those films sound like the tedious drone of boredom in list form? What Universal really needs to do is release something big, like Lord of the Rings to save the format. Oh wait, that’s right. New Line went Blu-ray with Warner. Sorry HD DVD, you’re screwed. More »
Is 20 Films From Universal Enough To Save HD DVD? Ahh, No…
4:45PM Nick Broughall | Despite everyone thinking that Toshiba should just throw in the towel, they just keep on truckin’. It’s like they’ve watched too many WWE wrestling matches, and believe that just because it’s the main event and they’re the crowd favourite, they’ll come back and steal victory at the last minute.
Except that they won’t. Not with Universal announcing its undying love for the format with a paltry 20 movies over 2008. Sure, the release said a minimum of 20 movies, so there could be more thrown in there with classics like Atonement, The Kingdom, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, American Gangster, and Charlie Wilson’s War.
Is it just me, or do all of those films sound like the tedious drone of boredom in list form? What Universal really needs to do is release something big, like Lord of the Rings to save the format. Oh wait, that’s right. New Line went Blu-ray with Warner. Sorry HD DVD, you’re screwed. More »
Phones
1:56PM Nick Broughall | If you’re after a fully functioning smartphone on NextG, HTC have just launched the Touch Dual on the national carrier. With its slide out keypad, massive touchscreen and TouchFLO built-in, its available for $929 or on Telstra’s $80 post paid plan. Stay tuned for a full review in the coming weeks… More »
Telstra Launches HTC Touch Dual on NextG
1:56PM Nick Broughall | If you’re after a fully functioning smartphone on NextG, HTC have just launched the Touch Dual on the national carrier. With its slide out keypad, massive touchscreen and TouchFLO built-in, its available for $929 or on Telstra’s $80 post paid plan. Stay tuned for a full review in the coming weeks… More »
Entertainment
11:34AM Nick Broughall | You may think that weve gone a little Foxtel crazy over the past few days, and you’d probably be right, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten the regional peeps who use Austar instead. Okay, we did forget, until we were kindly pointed in the direction of Austar’s MyStar service by reader David. Then we remembered all about you regional folk.
Available now to all good most Austar subscribers, MyStar is a 160GB PVR box like the original iQ. Except with one huge boon – it has a free-to-air tuner built in which lets you record, watch and even browse the EPG for channel 7. In fact it has two FTA tuners and two satellite tuners, letting you do the whole record two things while watching something else thing.
You get support for Dolby Digital surround sound, closed captioning and component connections on the back, although sadly no HDMI. But it is only an SD box, so quit your complaining.
It costs $49.95 to install (and it needs to be professionally installed), with an ongoing monthly subscription fee of $14.95. And in case you can’t tell from the above picture, its one chunky looking box. But true beauty is on the inside, right? Right?
[Austar MyStar - Thanks David!]
More »
MyStar Lets Austar Subscribers Join In On The PVR Fun
11:34AM Nick Broughall | You may think that weve gone a little Foxtel crazy over the past few days, and you’d probably be right, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve forgotten the regional peeps who use Austar instead. Okay, we did forget, until we were kindly pointed in the direction of Austar’s MyStar service by reader David. Then we remembered all about you regional folk.
Available now to all good most Austar subscribers, MyStar is a 160GB PVR box like the original iQ. Except with one huge boon – it has a free-to-air tuner built in which lets you record, watch and even browse the EPG for channel 7. In fact it has two FTA tuners and two satellite tuners, letting you do the whole record two things while watching something else thing.
You get support for Dolby Digital surround sound, closed captioning and component connections on the back, although sadly no HDMI. But it is only an SD box, so quit your complaining.
It costs $49.95 to install (and it needs to be professionally installed), with an ongoing monthly subscription fee of $14.95. And in case you can’t tell from the above picture, its one chunky looking box. But true beauty is on the inside, right? Right?
[Austar MyStar - Thanks David!]
More »
Gadgets
Ancient Gadgets Roundup
11:00AM Haroon Malik | This week’s retromodo installation kicks old-skool ass, and it is not because we have found a follow up the Death Ray Machine, or found the father of the first cupholder, oh no. It is mainly because we have left the hard work up to the guys at Wired, and they really have out done themselves. They were not settling for just one seriously retro gadget—they found them all. More »
Entertainment
10:33AM Nick Broughall | We know that gadgets are better when they’re smaller. And obviously the miniaturisation trend is making its way through to high-end audio manufacturers as well, with Arcam releasing this mini version of their Solo CD player.
Retailing for the bargain price of $1598 (without speakers) the Arcam Solo Mini packs in a CD player (which plays back MP3 discs as well), AM/FM or FM/DAB tuners, integrated iPod control through their optional extra rLead/rDock peripheral, six additional RCA inputs, a front USB port and a remote control. It also boasts 2 x 25 Watts per Channel linear amplifiers inside, making it plenty loud for pissing off neighbours.
Being Arcam, it probably has really impressive sound quality, but for a device that spends so much time playing back compressed music (from its list of features above), it does seem a tad expensive. Of course, the full size version costs $2498, so I guess we really shouldn’t complain. Or maybe we should complain twice as much… whichever suits you best.
[Arcam] More »
Arcam Flies Mini CD Player Solo
10:33AM Nick Broughall | We know that gadgets are better when they’re smaller. And obviously the miniaturisation trend is making its way through to high-end audio manufacturers as well, with Arcam releasing this mini version of their Solo CD player.
Retailing for the bargain price of $1598 (without speakers) the Arcam Solo Mini packs in a CD player (which plays back MP3 discs as well), AM/FM or FM/DAB tuners, integrated iPod control through their optional extra rLead/rDock peripheral, six additional RCA inputs, a front USB port and a remote control. It also boasts 2 x 25 Watts per Channel linear amplifiers inside, making it plenty loud for pissing off neighbours.
Being Arcam, it probably has really impressive sound quality, but for a device that spends so much time playing back compressed music (from its list of features above), it does seem a tad expensive. Of course, the full size version costs $2498, so I guess we really shouldn’t complain. Or maybe we should complain twice as much… whichever suits you best.
[Arcam] More » 
