Samsung has unveiled an ultra-thin ‘flapping’ OLED screen at FPD International 2008, demonstrating the flexibility of the display by letting it bend and flutter in the wind. At a paper-thin .05mm, the 4-inch screen is still able to create an image of 480×272 pixels, with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 100% reproduction of the NTSC colour gamut, which is in line with most new flat panel screens on the market. If this all sounds familiar, it’s because Sony made a lot of the same claims a few weeks ago — but they didn’t have the balls to let their screen go all flippy-floppy in public.
Sony’s basically just confirmed we’re unlikely that we’ll see a price drop of the PS3 for the holiday season. Speaking at the Gamer 3.0 conference in London, Sony’s UK managing director noted that the PS3 is essentially sitting at just the right price point, that there’s a market out there for it and the console’s price won’t “be an issue at all.” Sure, he’s talking about the pricing in the UK, where sales are “absolutely on target” but it’s a pretty reliable indicator that the price this side of the Atlantic isn’t going to get a festive lowering either, no matter how tricky the economy gets. [PS3Fanboy]
Sure, that Thanko cooling fan keyboard was a great addition to your desktop for the summer, but temperatures have gotten chillier now and we’re all wondering how to keep our wrists warm. Why, with Thanko’s upgraded heating AND cooling keyboard, of course! The wintertime edition has three different warming spots that’ll make your hands all toasty. And if things get too hot, switch it back to fan mode to cool your fingers off. This miraculous weather-weathering peripheral is available on the Thanko website for roughly $US50. [Thanko via Akihabara News]
newVideoPlayer("/waterchunk.flv", 506, 423,""); We’ve long known about certain companies in China “borrowing inspiration” from more well known gadget makers, but it looks like architects aren’t safe from copycat syndrome either. Check out this spa building in Chongqing, the capital of Sichuan (where the earthquakes happened), which looks a little like it may have been designed by someone with just a little bit of Beijing Olympics mania. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? [Shanghaiist]
Wow. We’re used to Kogan totally undercutting the price of the big dogs when it comes to TVs, but they’ve just released a 1080p camcorder for just $399.
Looking at the specs, you get 1080p recoording, an 8GB SDHC card to record onto (upgradeable to 64GB), video editing software, 5x optical zoom, face detection technology, optical image stabilisation and the ability to take still photos (at 5 megapixels using the CMOS sensor). There’s a 3-inch LCD screen, composite and USB cabling and weighs just under 300 grams without the battery.
There’s a lot more to video cameras than just resolution and megapixels though, and where our concerns lie are in the quality of the lens and the onboard UI – we’ve seen some pretty horrendous user interfaces in the past with Kogan. But as is the case with all gadgets, we’ll reserve judgement until we see it for ourselves.
Still, $400 is a magical price point for any kind of video camera. If you’re after a cheap camera to record your upcoming Christmas celebrations (or anything else), you’re not going to get much – if any – cheaper than this.
[Kogan]
In case you’ve got a niece or nephew that’s hankering for an Elmo Live, but you personally can’t stand the strangely frightening little muppet, why not get them animatronic wild animals from Japan that are, in my opinion, much cuter. Made by Bandai Namco, these cuddly robots react to petting and hugging, blink and open their mouths independently, and fall asleep, emitting a gentle snore, if you ignore them for five minutes. Comes in Lion, Panda, Polar Bear and Snow Leopard flavors for roughly $US85 each. Impress]
If you’re a tablet-lover like me, you’ve probably bemoaned the lack of Apple tablets at some point in time. Though Axiotron’s Modbook looked pretty great, the nearly $US2500 it costs put it way out of my price range. But the Gods of Technology must’ve heard my prayers, because Axiotron’s now offering a sweet deal to convert one of your existing Macbooks into a tablet. Starting at $US1300, the company will take most Core 2 Duos and work their magic, transforming your old lappie into one of the best tablets available today. Now all I need to do is convince someone to give me their last Macbook for free, and I’m set!
If you’re planning on a long distance ski trip or a mountain climb this winter, check out Ardica’s new power and heat platform for outerwear. Not only will Ardica-enabled jackets charge your gadgets (up to 11 full charges on your mobile phone and 20 on your iPod), it’ll also keep you nice and warm for either nine hours on low heat or three hours on high. If you’ll be in the cold for even longer than that, just bring along a second battery.
This November, the Xbox 360 will turn three. So far, it’s been a profitable and successful system for Microsoft, capturing the attention of developers, snatching exclusives away from the PlayStation 3 and gaining lots of street cred from hardcore gamers.
But in spite of this success, Microsoft has chosen to make an aggressive, totally unprecedented step. They’re completely overhauling the Xbox 360 firmware with a free update called the New Xbox Experience (NXE) that hits consoles on November 19th. Functionally, it’s hiding at least one killer app. Visually, it’s a bigger jump than Windows XP to Windows Vista. Given that NXE is a mandatory update for anyone on Xbox Live, it’s a good thing we really, really liked it.
HP’s Mini 1000 is a 10.2-inch netbook that comes in at under 1.2kg and packs a 1.6 Ghz Atom processor, 16 GB SSD and up to 2 GB RAM under its highly portable shell. For now, it also comes complete with Windows XP, Bluetooth, VGA webcam, a removable USB drive molded into the fit and finish, and a keyboard thats 92% the size of regular laptop offerings. But come January, what will really set the Mini apart from its competition is custom HP “Mobile Internet Experience” OS that’s built on top of Ubuntu Linux. galleryPost('hpmini1000', 3, '');
