Monday, September 15, 2008
Phones
HTC Touch HD Gets Beautifully Confirmed in Official Shots, Specs
11:50PM John Mahoney | After the spyshots got us drooling, official images of the gorgeous HTC Touch HD have popped up on HTC’s site, along with complete specs. Aside from the sweet WVGA 480×800 screen, GPS, Wi-Fi, TouchFLO UI and dual cameras are also confirmed for the WinMo Pro 6.1 beaut. Unfortunately, the 3G goodness is only for Euro/Asia bands. Hit the jump for full specs and shot gallery. More »
Phones
Verizon To Drop Official Blackberry Storm Details Today?
11:45PM John Mahoney | So indicates this internal VZW email sent that BGR has gotten a hold of. Word is verizonwireless.com/storm will launch some time today (right now it’s a 404), with official word of the first touchscreen Blackberry from RIM, which should be getting a November 1 release. That gibes with what we’ve been hearing, so hopefully the wait will soon be over for the official ThunderStorm. [BGR] More »
Games
New Wii Backup Loader Opens Gateway to All-Out Piracy
11:30PM Mark Wilson | It’s the Holy Grail of Wii piracy—load DVD game backups without any sort of hardware modification. And it’s just been demonstrated in a very legit-looking video. More »
Gadgets
Gemalto Converges Two Things You Shouldn’t: Adds DVD Track to SIM Card
11:15PM Kit Eaton | Now the credit-card sized plastic thing that mobile phone SIM units are shipped in can carry the mobile’s associated data files, thanks to Gemalto’s DVD-SIM “Smart Video Card.” In the name of convergence (and possibly environmental friendliness) the company is making the cards for the Italian operator Wind, where the DVD segment has drivers for PCs to allow wireless internet access. The data segment will fit up to 50MB, and it’s clearly better than having a blank bit of plastic (which you normally bin anyway) and an additional CD. But I can see two problems: snapping off the SIM portion of the device is bound to leave you with little plasticky bits that unbalance the DVD part when you put it in a drive, and it’s only going to work on tray-loading drives. Convergence gone mad. [Intomobile] More »
Vehicles
US Military Wants Airplanes to Run On Coal
11:00PM Jesus Diaz | The U.S. Defence Advanced Researh Projects Agency–aka DARPA aka The Guys Who Run Area 51 and Have a Pact with the Aliens to Abduct the Entire Human Race in 2012–has turned its eyes to coal for aeroplane fuel. There’s only one problem: coal-to-liquid fuel technologies are too expensive and produce too much pollution. Until now. More »
Games
Rock Band 2 Instruments Vs Rock Band 1 Instruments, In Decibels
10:42PM Mark Wilson | In Jason’s review of Rock Band 2’s peripherals, he called the updated instruments not a necessity but “a bonus for people who were patient enough to wait for Rock Band 2.” In other words, the new instruments were all around nicer to play than the old instruments. But what about the pesky sound output? My wife drummed so loudly in Rock Band 1, I’d have to put on headphones to play (she just rocks too hard for my old lady ears). Joystiq has done a quasi-scientific decibel analysis of the new drums and guitar, and they’ve found a moderate improvement there, too. More »
Cameras
Leica M8.2 Digital Rangefinder Camera Now Official
10:25PM Kit Eaton | Leica have stumped up with a new digital version of the classic M8 rangefinder, after their original M8 upgrade program, and dubbed it the M8.2. The company obviously subscribes to the “don’t mess with a classic” design philosophy, so there’s not much to see in the way of changes here but they are there. galleryPost('leicam82', 3, ''); More »
Cameras
Carl Zeiss Making Canon Compatible Lenses
10:16PM Mark Wilson | Canon dSLR users have long been able to use Carl Zeiss lenses, but the privilege required an adapter—a solution that’s problematic in more ways than one. But Carl Zeiss has just announced two lenses, the Planar T 1.4/50 ZE and 1.4/85 ZE, both of which are stock-friendly with Canon’s EF mount. Running US$660 and US$1,770 respectively, these manual focus lenses are 100% physically and electronically compatible with EOS cameras, transferring all usable data (like exposure) to the camera body. Both models will be available in the coming months with additional models on the way. [DPReview] More »
Cameras
Sony Alpha900 DSLR Now on Pre-Order, Due 30th October
9:01PM Kit Eaton | Sony’s much anticipated mahoosive 25-megapixel Alpha900 DSLR has just popped up on Sony’s SonyStyle sales website on pre-order. It’s US$3,000 with a delivery date on or about the 30th of October, but that looks to be just for the camera body alone: lenses are extra. [SonyStyle] More »
Phones
