Mobile Devices

Sony are releasing a whole bunch of new HDTVs for 2008 to the U.S market as well as the European. The new Sony V4500 series is headed for the European market, and consists of three LCD HDTV sizes, 26-inch, 32-inch, and 37-inch.

Prices are yet unknown on the Sony Bravia V4500 models but we would believe them to be well priced in the sweet spot of the market. The previous V3000 models were very popular, and the new V4500 should have many great features and a lower price point than the new W4000 series.

All three model sizes feature a WXGA (1360 x 768 pixel) LCD screen with a high 178 degree viewing angle. The 26-inch Sony KDL26V4500 and 32-inch KDL32V4500 feature a 33,000 contrast ratio, while the largest 37-inch KDL37V4500 is not stated. These high contrast ratio along with the new and improved Bravia Engine 2 will provide impressive colours and clarity.

Other features of the Sony V4500 is 24p for true 24fps playback rates, built in HD tuner (DVB-T / DVB-C), Bravia Sync and a special “Picture Frame Mode” for displaying pre-set, or your own photos (via a USB port) turning your HDTV into a large photo viewer, while the set is not in use (if desired).

Connections include three HDMI 1.3 inputs, 2x Scart, and a PC VGA input.

Expect to see the V4500’s around September this year.

Sony V4500 Series
KDL37V4500 | 37-Inch
KDL32V4500 | 32-Inch
KDL26V4500 | 26-Inch

Yesterday the WiFi memory card people, Eye-Fi, announced a new SD card which we at Gadget Lab think will change the way photos are shared.

The Eye-Fi Explore brings a slot-in geotagging solution to anyone with an SD card slot in their camera, so every photo you take will be stamped with the location you were in. In addition, you can finally use a digicam without a computer. The Eye-Fi will log on to free hotspots and send your snaps out into the cloud, to end up at your photo site of choice.

We had a chat with Eye-Fi CEO Jef Holove to see how the card works and what it might mean for the future of photography.

Gadget Lab: The Eye-Fi Explore is a huge step for geotagging. It costs the same as a standalone box and needs no extra work from the user. Do you think this is the kick in the pants geotagging needs to really take off?

Jef Holove: Geotagging is already generating excitement, especially on sites like Flickr, SmugMug and Picasa. It really makes organizing, searching and sharing pictures better. But, as compelling as it is, it hasn’t yet taken off like you’d expect because, today, it requires either time-consuming, manual entry or expensive, cumbersome gear.

The digerati may be geotagging, but that’s too much hassle for the every-day photographer. Our approach is to make geotagging automatic. And, yes, we do think making it that easy will kick the trend into high gear.

GL: You’ve obviously done some deals with Skyhook and Wayport. Is this going to slow down the rollout of the Eye-Fi range to the rest of the world? And if I was to buy an Eye-Fi Explore in the US and ship it back to Europe, would the geotagging feature work here?

JH: Without unveiling here our plans for the rest of the world, I will say that there is much more to consider than meets the eye in expanding the Eye-Fi experience. Many photo sites and service providers are present and popular in multiple countries, including Skyhook and Wayport. Our existing partners will help us, not slow us. But, we have to recognize that each culture may have its own dynamics around sharing memories and its own constellation of photo and social communities to do so.

There are a lot of things to get right in this ecosystem beyond language and infrastructure. As to your second question, the Eye-Fi Explore not only works in the US, but also works abroad. Through our partnership with Skyhook, the top 50 metropolitan areas in Europe are covered, including 70 percent of the population in Germany, France and the UK. The rest of Western Europe will be covered in mid-summer 2008.

GL: Can you see Eye-Fi being bundled with cameras in the future? It seems like a smart and easy way for camera makers to add faux-GPS to their products.

JH: We do think our approach is a convenient and simple way to get cameras connected to the Web and all that it offers. Ours is an open system that let’s you choose the photo site you like and it simplifies what would otherwise be a complicated experience. Our answer to geotagging is just another example of that. Plus, using Wi-Fi means it works indoors, is power efficient, and doesn’t take long to locate your position. And, there’s no extra bits and pieces to cart around.

GL: What kind of drain does the triangulation put on the host camera’s battery? Is it actually better to let the chip log the points and let a computer take care of the heavy lifting when you get home?

JH: The new capabilities simply make more use of the Wi-Fi capabilities that were already inherent in the original Eye-Fi Card. There is no additional battery-life impact because, in fact, the processing of the location data is done on the network, as part of what we call the Eye-Fi service. The card sees the nearby access points while you are shooting and stores the information. When we upload the photos, our service compares that information to Skyhook’s map of networks and adds the resulting location tag.

GL: The original WiFi card was good, but with geolocation and hotspot support you’ve made a must-have product. What’s next? Do you think that cameras will start to build this stuff in or is a third party solution the best way to go?

JH: Today, the Eye-Fi Card is the only way to get your camera connected in a way that makes saving and sharing images really effortless. You can use it with the SD camera you already have or you can add it to the next camera you really want without being limited in camera choice.

The camera makers obviously bring incredible camera and lens innovation to the capturing of memories. We bring our expertise in the web and software, network and wireless technology, and a rich partner ecosystem to the post-shutter-click experience. We think of our “product” as a service as much as a device. So, we believe our approach will continue to be the richest, most meaningful. Long term, there are lots of interesting ways to help you manage, save and share your digital memories. But, automatic uploads, geotagging and hotspot access is a great place to start.

by Donald Melanson, posted May 12th 2008 at 4:27PM Sprint affiliate iPCS has butted heads with its parent company in the past, and it looks like it’s causing a bit of a ruckus once again, this time over Sprint’s deal with Clearwire to form a new WiMAX-focused company. As the AP reports, iPCS (which has 640,600 subscribers in seven states) thinks that new service would compete with it in the markets it operates in, and therefore violate the exclusivity agreement Sprint signed in 1999. To put a halt to that possibility, iPCS has filed suit in the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois to block the deal, adding that it “intends to fully and aggressively protect and defend its exclusivity rights.” Not surprisingly, Sprint saw this one coming, and it asked a Delaware Chancery Court to rule last week that the Clearwire deal didn’t violate its arrangement with iPCS, although there doesn’t appear to be any further word on that front just yet.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Filed under: Wireless

by Donald Melanson, posted May 12th 2008 at 12:48PM It’s not often we see laptop manufacturers boast of a one-hour battery life, but in the case of Eurocom’s new D901C PHANTOM-X “mobile server,” that spec is certainly hard-earned enough to warrant notice. The battery drain begins with a 2.8GHz Quad Core XEON X3360 processor, which gets paired with 1.5 terabytes of storage in the form of three SATA-300 hard drives (complete with various RAID options), 8GB of DDR2-800 memory, a Blu-ray burner, and a comparatively modest 17-inch display, to name but a few specs. All that, not surprisingly, takes just as big a toll on your back as it does on battery life, with the PHANTOM-X weighing in at a lugabble 12-pounds. No word on a price just yet, but Eurocom’s non-Xeon-based server laptops already easily push past the $3,000 mark, so you can probably take a pretty good stab at assessing the damage to your budget.

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Filed under: Laptops

by Darren Murph, posted May 12th 2008 at 1:20PM
Granted, we haven’t heard anything thus far about which carrier would be offering up the recently-made-official blackberry Bold, but we can’t say we’re too shocked to hear that it will indeed be AT&T. In a report highlighting the recent boost in RIM’s stock price, it’s noted that AT&T will be “the exclusive carrier for the Bold in the US,” though we have all ideas the other major US carriers will be following suit shortly, probably with redubbed handsets. We know, you’re hungry for a price to mull over, but sadly, it’s not meal time just yet.

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Filed under: cellphones

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 12th 2008 at 12:19PM
We love exit signs in Japan. They frame just about every door and hallway: guy with briefcase freaking out and bolting out an open door. This is clearly not the first USB hub in an unusual form factor, but Donya has fed our love for the panicky icon. Complete with ports on the little guy’s feet and briefcase, he’s available for about $10 or ¥999.

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Filed under: Peripherals

Creative of Singapore has rolled out the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1, the world’s first USB 2.0 audio solution in the world which offers a speedy upgrade option for either the PC or notebook. Definitely beats all those on-board audio found in most machines these days, so make sure you have a decent pair of speakers or headphones to go along with it. X-Fi technology boasts full cinematic surround sound, while hardcore gamers will definitely be able to enjoy Creative’s own EAX ADVANCED HD effects for a higher degree of realism. As for me, while sound is important in a game, I prefer the most basic sounds in favor of a higher frame rate. In Quake 3, I used to play in r_picmip 5 as it certainly helps with the aim and dodging pesky plasma balls. It will retail for approximately $70 when released later this month.

Usually, when a laptop is stolen its gone for good. But, the thieves who took Kait Duplaga’s MacBook will be counting themselves unlucky after being caught by way of a photo Kait took of them after they had stolen her laptop.

The thieves broke in to an apartment shared by 3 young individuals. They managed to grab all of the typical gadgets you would expect to find in a young professionals abode including flat-screen TVs, DVD players, iPods, videogames and 2 laptops. One of those laptops was Kait’s MacBook, however, and she works in an Apple store therefore having an intimate knowledge of the software contained on it.

After the laptop had been stolen a friend of Kait sent her a text message about getting her laptop back. Kait contacted the friend who told her she had appeared online so it was assumed she had the laptop back. Kait then got access to another Mac computer, fired up the “Back to My Mac” service and gained access to her laptop remotely. She then activated the web cam on her machine, waited for someone to come into view and then took a photo.

The ploy to get a photograph nearly didn’t work, as when you send the command to take a photo with the webcam the MacBook displays a countdown on the screen. The person sitting at the MacBook saw the countdown, figured out what was happening and covered their face with their hand. Luckily, they did so too late and Kait got her evidence.

The man in the picture was Ian Frias aged 20. Kait also managed to get a picture of the other thief one Edmon Shahikian aged 23. Luckily one of the other individuals sharing the apartment with Kait knew the 2 men as friends of friends who had attended a party some weeks ago. With this new information police were able to make an arreast and return all of the stolen goods, which the men still had.

Mr Frias and Mr Shahikian are to face charges for burglary and possession of stolen property.

Read more at The New York Times

Matthew’s Opinion

I’d say there was a lot of luck involved in managing to get a photo of the thief. In a lot of cases the laptops are sold on very quickly meaning the picture would have been of another victim who bought the machine. Still, well done to Kait for quick thinking and managing to get all her kit back.

I’d be interested to hear how people try and protect their gadgets around the home. The easiest way is to mark them with an invisible pen that makes the devices traceable if stolen. A more extreme measure is to buy the locking systems that allow you to anchor your gadgets in place through a series of clips and wires. These are typically seen used in offices, but there is no reason why you can’t migrate them to the home.

Another alternative is a network camera. This offers you free viewing and recording facilities around your home and even the ability to login and view the camera output online in a browser. Anyone caught in your house will be recorded and hopefully that would offer enough evidence to identify them.

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 12th 2008 at 11:53AM
It’s a pretty obvious concept, really: take a semi-transparent dome and project an image on it. Then, stand in the middle and surround yourself with 180-degrees of gaming action. John Nilsson went and patented the concept and is now developing the jDome with an estimated cost of around $125-200. We have some serious reservations about this system, though. That $125-200 pre-order price tag doesn’t come with a projector and you’ll have to tweak your games’ field of view setting to work with the round shape of the dome. What’s more, the product assumes you’re going to spend your game time standing in front of a dome. Criticisms aside, you can buy a prototype for a bit more — $6,000 to be exact. Video of the jDome in action after the break.

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Filed under: Displays, Gaming

by Donald Melanson, posted May 12th 2008 at 11:25AMIt’s far from the first SATA-compatible SSD drive, but TDK seems to think its new GBDisk RS1 series drives will be just the ticket for some very particular users (though not likely you or us). Apparently designed specifically for industrial use, the drive uses single level cell NAND flash memory (as opposed to multi-level cell) and a GBDriver RS1 SATA controller, which TDK says will together help it maintain data reliability while standing up to frequent, high-speed data writing. You will have to make do with some fairly small storage capacities even by SSD standards, however, with the drives topping out at 16GB, all of which come in 2.5-inch drive enclosures. No word on prices just yet, but you can look for them to start rolling out this June.

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Filed under: Storage