Mobile Devices

Posted Feb 19th 2008 3:06PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Wireless
We knew Hitachi’s Ultra Thin HDTV family would boast ultra-wideband technology, and while little was said about this aspect during CES, we’ve now learned that Tzero will be responsible for handling the aforementioned UWB duties. As expected, the UT HDTVs will “be able to receive high-definition video wirelessly from any HDMI equipped audio / video component,” as Tzero promises that users will see transmission speeds of up to 480Mbps. Interestingly, we’re told that the UWB-equipped sets are available in Japan right now, but only time will tell if those luscious wireless abilities will make the trip stateside in Q2.

You’d think it would be enough to push resolution to 5.5 terapixels, the equivalent of 5,500,000 megapixels, thousands of  times more than even the most extreme cameras out there can capture.

But oh, no. Chinese manufacturer Penchan also made its new camera bright blue. With cartoon duckies! Now all you need to do is find a petabyte memory card to use it.

BTW, there are such things as terapixel images, but it takes a lot of stitching.

Terapixel digital camera [Paradoxoff Planet]

Dell has once again added to the Ubuntu lineup. This time its the Inspiron 1525 notebook and it will come with Ubuntu 7.10 along with built-in DVD playback capability.

The Inspiron 1525 will be immediately available for those in the UK, France, Spain and Germany. Those in the US will have to wait till later in February for availability.

Read [Direct2Dell]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

The rumors have been floating around for a few months now and we have even seen a few in-the-wild, so this may not come as that much of a surprise but AT&T has officially announced the availability of the GSM Palm Centro. The AT&T branded Palm Centro will offer push-to-talk, an optional TeleNav GPS Navigator, MobiTV and use the EDGE network.

The Centro will be available immediately in glacier white, and follow up with an obsidian black model that will hit the stores in about a month. They will both retail for $99 after a mail-in-rebate along with a 2-year agreement.

Read [AT&T] Read [Palm]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Posted Feb 19th 2008 10:31AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video
Remember that elegant looking conglomerate we peeked in December of last year? Turns out, said device finally has an appropriate name and price, but sadly, it still isn’t apt to head stateside. Nevertheless, the TG Favicon reportedly features a 532MHz Freescale CPU, TPEG navigation, dual DMB / PIP functionality, 4GB of internal storage space, an SD expansion slot and a 7-inch WVGA display. So, just how much coinage will you be asked to fork over to snag this beauty next time you’re in Seoul? Around 422 US dollars, that’s all.

This could be the first time since the introduction of the next generation movie formats that its truly safe to buy a next-gen player. Toshiba has made their official announcement and “will no longer develop, manufacture and market hd dvd players and recorders.” Not much left to say, its finally over!

According to Toshiba this move comes from “recent major changes in the market.” They do plan to maintain full support and after-sales service for all current Toshiba HD DVD owners. Shipments of HD DVD players and recorders will be reduced effective immediately and are expected to end by the end of March 2008.

Keep reading for the Full Press Release…

Read [Toshiba]

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Whoever said that crime doesn’t pay may want to add the following story to a list of exceptions. Oleksandr Dorozhko is a Ukrainian who hacked into the servers of pharmaceutical market intelligence company IMS Health. He performed the hack just before the company was going to release its financial results.Armed with the results before anyone else, he used the information to purchase US$41,671 of sell orders on company stock. The result when the figures were released a few days later was Dorozhko earning $296,456, whereas most investors lost money. It also earned him the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a lawsuit.

The twist in this little tale is that Dorozhko may get to keep the money he made on the trades. The judge presiding over the case, Judge Naomi Buchward, said:

Dorozhko’s alleged ’stealing and trading’ or ‘hacking and trading’ does not amount to a violation of securities laws … Dorozhko did not breach any fiduciary or similar duty ‘in connection with’ the purchase or sale of a security.

The only way forward for the SEC is to proceed with a prosecution based purely on the hacking and not on the trade. This may also prove tricky, as it would have to occur in the Ukraine. The SEC is also trying to push the fact that information was gathered through deception, but deception of a computer (not a human), which currently isn’t covered under the law.

Read more at Vnunet.

Matthew’s Opinion

Dorozhko must be smiling right now, as he is a very lucky and potentially a very well-off hacker. Whatever the charges brought against him for hacking, having $296,456 waiting for you when you get out of prison is surely going to help the days pass in his cell. If he is clever, then a quick investment will see that money grow through interest as well.

This case must surely lead to the law being reviewed. Other hackers will be watching the outcome of this closely, as if Dorozhko can only be tried for hacking, then these kind of hacks are surely worth the risk. That is, of course, depending on what the penalty is for the hack.

Posted Feb 19th 2008 9:48AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: cellphones
We had a sneaking suspicion that the lineup of unlimited plans we got wind of earlier this week was just a bit too good to be true, and sure enough, it was. Now that Verizon’s Unlimited Plans have gone official right on cue, we’re left with three general plans that can each have additional lines tacked on for more dough. The $99 / month Basic Plan seems to include limitless calling only (read: messaging of all types and data still cost extra), while the Select Plan ($119.99 per month) throws in messaging but still demands $1.99 per MB of data. The Premium Plan is the one that’s really attractive, offering up unlimited everything (for all intents and purposes) for $139.99 per month or $269.99 for two lines. Needless to say, we’re a bit let down, but you can hit up the read link for more details on what’s offered.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Posted Feb 19th 2008 9:12AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Tablet PCs
We’ll hand it to ‘em — we’ve yet to see a RippleNote emerge from South Korea that we didn’t think was at least marginally good looking, and the Ripple Tablet T8100 most certainly keeps the streak alive. Boasting a 12.1-inch 1,280 x 800 resolution touch panel, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 120GB SATA hard drive, DVD writer and a 2.1GHz T8100 (surprised?) processor, this beauty can act as a traditional laptop or convert into a tablet should the mood strike you. As for ports, you’ll find a trio of USB 2.0 connectors, built-in Ethernet, VGA, 4-pin FireWire, ExpressCard and audio in / out. Mum’s the word on a price at the moment, but expect it to pop up ’round Seoul anytime.

[Via AVING]

It’s quite an obvious fact that desk space is of great importance. Hardly someone likes when there are odds and ends on the table. So for those people who try to keep their desk space clean and tidy designers create objects with small footprints. Such a device has been recently invented by Korean designers (Jin Hee Kim, Hyung Il Kim & Woo Seok Park).

Their new gadget represents quite an original hanging printer that can help you a lot in saving your space. The significant part of its components is underneath the desk. So the only parts that are located on the desk are paper feed and print head. Giving concept has an embedded LCD to indicate status. Moreover gadget has 2 USB ports giving an opportunity to connect different devices to it. Another advantage of this printer consists in the fact that it has modern aesthetic design being a great solution for today’s cluttered desktops. As regards the functionality and price of this gadget no information is available.

In sum it should be mentioned that hanging printer can be considered as a very unusual and useful design. Moreover taking into consideration its distinctive feature I think that after some time it will probably be widely adopted. But now the only thing we can do is to look forward to its appearance on the market.