newVideoPlayer("/gilliamiriver_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); Apart from their Spinn 70s-retro analogue goodness, iRiver had two beautiful concept products in their IFA 2008 stand which had a design that looked further into the past, as far as the beginning of the 20th century. As you can see in the video, both their Clix speaker–inspired by the shape of cathode ray tubes–and their pipe music player–which you can blow to mute (insert joke here), and connect it to a speaker resembling a phonograph horn–look both intriguing and beautiful. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]
newVideoPlayer("/unrealmode_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); One more IFA, one more gallery of absolutely crazy PC mods by nutty Europeans. The best of the lot was, without a doubt, this menacing Unreal Rocket Launcher. But there are others, each of them more silly, pointless, and horrendous than the previous one.
newVideoPlayer("/spinn_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); I love the new analogue controller in the iRiver Spinn as much as I love its simple brushed aluminium design, the old radio-inspired user interface, and the whole packaging. While I’m still partial to direct touch interfaces–which the Spinn has as well, although it’s not multitouch–the Spinn rolling thingie feels great, giving it a heavenly 70s analogue feeling.
newVideoPlayer("/samsungomnia_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); I got to play for quite a long time with the Samsung Omnia, the iPhone-Killer wannabe with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, here at IFA 2008. The verdict: it’s not an iPhone killer, despite previous demos. In fact, it sucks. It has a poorly designed interface, lousy response time, buggy software, and it felt cheap and fat on my hand. I even thought that I was being even more thick than usual while trying it, but I got the Omnia expert lady to give it a marketdrone spin for me and her last sentence summarised it all: “Oh, naw it’z not verking at all. I think I haf too many tasks open. Sorry.”
newVideoPlayer("/qosmiowave_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); To be honest, I was going to headline this article “Toshiba Magic Waving Handy-Spanky-Fingery Gestures Are Perfect for Harry Potter and Online Porn Users,” but I decided against it at the last minute for obvious reasons, even when I had two powerful arguments in favour. You will understand them when you watch Helga–the Good Toshiba Witch of West Berlin–and myself in the video:
newVideoPlayer("/samsungultrathin_gizmodo.flv", 506, 423,""); Scratch one more notch for Apple design influence, because next year’s top-of-the-range Samsung Ultrathin All-In-One looks like an oversized iPhone 3G, down to the finish in black or white. The 52-inch TV–which is 1-inch at its thickest point–includes all the circuitry and ports in its ultra-slim body, with no breakout boxes or hunchbacks. The result is the slickest TV we have seen in the whole of IFA 2008, beating the Sony ZX1. And the best looking so far this year.
newVideoPlayer("/samsungx360_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); I got my dirty paws all over the 1.26kg Samsung X360 and I’ve got to say I’m impressed with everything except for the piano black finish. Its size and weight–very light and thin–is comparable to the MacBook Air, the 13.3-inch,1,200 x 800 pixel screen looks very good, and it comes with more ports and features than Apple’s notebook: direct HDMI out, three USB ports, Express Card slot, 7-in-1 flash card reader, external optical unit included, and fingerprint reader for security. Definitely, the Samsung X360 bests the MacBook Air in features hands down… although yes, you guessed it, there’s a big hairy but lurking around the corner.
newVideoPlayer("/samsungphotoop_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); For some strange and sick reason, Samsung is one of those manufacturers who doesn’t think that girl power is the future of gadgetry, and instead assumes that all digital camera buyers are sex-obsessed men, basement World of Warcraft players with a large hadron collider for all things leather and large female attributes, all of them eager to try their new Fall 2008 camera lineup on a blonde riding a bike. And they are right. Miss Samsung Biker Girl, we love you (but not more than we love Miss IFA).
Among its raft of new products at IFA, Samsung has updated its Syncmaster range of monitors (last heard about with the double-screened edition) with two new 22-inchers that have “enhanced motion picture acceleration” tech for reduced ghosting. The new tech reduces the motion-picture response time from 27ms to 9ms, which Samsung says is good for gaming (though with 2ms monitors about, it seems pretty sucky.) Both have 1680 x 1050 pixels and a 30,000:1 contrast ratio, with the main differences between the 2233HZ and the 2243HZ being in styling: the 2233 is curvier, whereas the 2243 is more “corporate suit” square. There’s no info on price or release date, but for monitor fanatics, the press release is below.
It’s pretty clear where Samsung is going with the X360 laptop when you notice it’s branded it as “lighter than air” and say it’s the “lightest notebook in its 13.3 inch class” since it weighs just 1.27 kg. Inside there’s a 45nm Core 2 Duo mobile processor, mated to a 1280 x 800 pixel LED-backlit screen, and the machine has no internal DVD drive: instead it comes with an external one. Sounds a little familiar, no? But the battery life is claimed to be 10 hours, by Samsung, and it’s got a full array of ports, including an RJ45 socket for wired LAN, a mic-in, three USB 2.0 sockets, a PCI express card slot and a HDMI socket. Somewhat strangely it’s also been “sprinkled” with nano silver ion powder to keep the keyboard bacteria-free. It’ll be available in September in some European countries, and Russia, China and Hong Kong, but there’s no info on the US release or pricing. Extensive press release below.
