The updated PSP 3000 didn’t seem all that jaw-dropping, save for talk of its dramatically improved screen: But now pics of the screen in action have surfaced, and boy oh boy, it’s dramatically improved alright. Check out that contrast in the pic, comparing it to the PSP Lite: Game playing in brightly-lit situations looks like it won’t be a problem with the new machine. In other pics you can see the redesign has other minor changes, like a slightly more curved profile at the edges near the control pads… whether this makes for more comfortable handling will have to wait for a hands-on review. [Famitsu via Kotaku]
This upcoming mini-PC from Celrun is something a bit like the old iLamp-style iMac, a bit notebooky, a bit low-cost desktop Eee PC… but actually not like any of them too much: It seems to be it’s own low-power, neat design desktop genre. It’s got an 18.4-inch widescreen LCD, has built-in stereo speakers and microphone and has an Intel Atom purring away inside. Mainly the Lluon A1 is intended to be a multimedia PC since it’s got an IPTV function which requires it to be dual boot—Linux for the IPTV, and Windows for standard PC functions. It’s intriguing, and though there’s no info on pricing, we know it’ll be hitting the shops mid-September in Korea, Europe and North America. [Aving]
It looks like data on the upcoming Canon EOS 50D DSLR has been leaked onto the web, by Canon itself. Details appeared briefly on Canon’s China site, although the link now is disabled, and gave an insight into what specs the beast will have. They’re pretty decent: it’s a 15.1-megapixel camera (with standard 1.6x CMOS sensor factor) with a 9-segment AF/AE sensor array, 95% view viewfinder and shoots at ISO 100 to 3200, with an “expansion” to 6400 and 12800. There’s also face recognition auto focus, 6.3 frames-per-second high-speed shooting, and 14-bit image processing by the Digic 4 processor. Interestingly it’ll have an HDMI output too. Obviously we’ll have to wait for a proper release to know more—including data on prices and release dates. [Canon.cn via NeutralDay.com Thanks, Patrick!]
My inbox this morning was flooded with tips that Dell was offering their entry-level Inspiron 1525 for just $399 online thanks to a $300 cashback offer. By the time I went to check it out for myself, the offer was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared into the ether faster than a summer storm.
I contacted Dell for clarification on the issue and they promised to get back to me, but while I was (and still am) waiting, tipster Adam (who purchased the deal when he could) has since informed us that no, Dell will not be honouring the deals.
Anyone who purchased the bargain notebook has apparently had their money refunded, with Adam being told that Dell takes a loss of $70 per $699 unit, so they would be losing $370per unit if they honoured the deal.
Until we hear back from Dell directly, there’s no word on whether they’ll offer these disappointed customers any form of compensation in the form of free upgrades or similar like Lenovo did for their online customers recently. But you shouldn’t hold your breath…
UPDATE: I’ve just spoken with the guys from Dell, and if you happened to purchase using EFT, you could be in luck…
Invisible Shield isn’t anything new – it’s been available in the US for years. What is new is that these military-grade clear casings for your gadgets are now available down under.
Prices start at $19.95, and there’s literally thousands of designs for different gadgets, with everything from phones and PDAs to laptops included.
The local website doesn’t seem to be up and running yet, but when it is you should be able to order directly from them online.
Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software (think Doom and Quake), accuses PC hardware manufacturers of implicitly supporting piracy of all kinds because they see it as a “hidden benefit” when you buy a PC. This came up in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, and was part of a larger point aimed at answer the question of why PC manufacturers aren’t doing more to stop piracy with hardware measures. When asked if these companies are secretly happy about piracy, Todd says:
The iPhone’s button-free input scheme isn’t so great for fast-action shooters or action-adventure or any type of game with the phrase “action” in it, but it is great for RPGs and point-and-clicks. What better point-and-click to port over to the iPhone than Myst, which is one of the ones that came out during the height of P&C games’ popularity, and is also sorta the most famous. Its developer Cyan lets slip in its forums that only three of their developers are working on it, and the project funded by outside resources. This will definitely kill a few hours in line at the soup kitchen. [Myst Online via Wired via Kotaku]
The US$500 Xross Fade DJ system is Sony’s hard-to-pronounce dual iPod dock kit for mixing songs. It may have some rad-looking bass reflex speakers and dual subwoofers, but it’s unfortunately gimped as far as DJ features go—you can cue and crossfade between songs, a technology straight outta 2005 and something you could do on a PC with moderate iTunes skills. There are also some presumably lame-arse drum beats you can lay on top of your tracks to spice them up, but not much more. Seriously Sony, what gives? DJing is just no fun without some “wikki wikki”. Press release down below. [Sony]
Sony’s S-Airplay Wireless iPod Dock is basically a cheaper, less functional version of the Sonos home audio system. You plug your iPod into the central base station, plug in up to 10 wireless speakers into power outlets through the house and just like that, you have multi-room audio.
This is quite possibly one of the meanest looking computers you will ever lay your eyes on. The Aspire Predator from Acer is their top of the line gaming machine, meant to aid you in your quest to destroy anything and everything that stands in your way, from Alien hordes to Danny Glover.
The front panel mechanically rotates up to expose the glorious innards, from hot-swappable HDDs to USB ports. Behind the connections (in the belly of the beast, perhaps?) you’re inundated with the highest possible tech available, from the 4TB of hard disk space to the 8GB of RAM. The entire thing is powered by an Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processor with 1333MHz FSB, while a two-way enabled NVIDIA SLI takes care of the graphics.
There’s also liquid cooling and dual Gigabit LAN technology to completely eradicate lag from your fragfests.
Needless to say, all this tech will cost a pretty penny, and that pretty panny adds up to be $4,500. But if you’re serious about your PC gaming, how can you really afford to not own one of these machines?
