This is not just a tablet I’m about to show you here. It’s more than that, it’s a mini notebook tablet. Personally I am getting tired of all these Eee-like UMPCs and MIDs popping up day after day. Some are at least trying to offer something different while some of them are not going to make it in this tough world.
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I don’t know if this is something you really need, a magnifying glass for your camera’s LCD screen, no matter if you are a professional or amateur photographer. With all the mobile devices and ultra mobile laptops, I’d simply connect my camera to my fast notebook and check out the pictures there. With lots of zoom and other features.
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Here’s a potentially mighty player from Creative, the Zen X-Fi. It’s no ordinary device either. It has WiFi, instant messaging client and built in media streaming. We have a built in speaker, and FM tuner and voice recorder. There’s an SD slot and premium quality headphones are included. The battery will give you 36 hours of audio playing and just 5 hours of video playing. My only questions at this point would be, where’s the phone chip? Where’s the GPS chip? If the X-Fi has so much stuff on already, it might be the predecessor of a Creative smartphone.
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iLuv officially launched today their i1255 which is a 5.1 channel desktop iPod/DVD player. The i1255 will retail starting from $149.99 and it will be available from Circuit City, J&R Music, Fry’s, Micro Center and iLuv of course.
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The web is filled with this photo right here. As you can see for yourself it shows an XBox box with a $299 price tag. Is it for real or for fun? We’ve seen so many photoshoped images so far that nothing seems that surprising anymore.
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Remember the E-Series? We were talking about them earlier this month and we were waiting for official confirmation. Well we don’t have to wait no more! Check out Dell’s official site and you will spot the Dell E-series Latitude laptops. You can’t customize them yet like you would usually start doing with any other Dell PC since there’s only a “Coming Soon” announcement displayed.
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Cizmo from Germany is going to challenge us with a new laptop release. That’s nothing special. We’ve seen lots of gaming machines from Acer, Dell, HP, Alienware and more. But the Cizmo CX1730M will be special. It will be one of the first laptops to pack an Intel Centrino 2 Montevina processor. The Extreme X9100 processor will be the first Penryn class processor for laptops to surpass 3.0GHz.
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I don’t need a phone that’s indestructible. I don’t drop mine in pools, I don’t hit it against walls when my ISP provider is playing with my feelings. I tend to take care of it as it takes care of me and my needs. However the next handset I am going to introduce to you, the Tetra TPad, is the smartphone which will take it all. Not only is it really resistant to shocks and multiple hits but it’s also waterproof and dustproof. And it has a smart mind inside. Sure it’s not comparable to the iPhone in looks but hey, you can’t have it all.
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I’ve been making a little fun of small laptops all day. Sure they are small, they are affordable, they are really mobile, they are pretty fast, but they are small. Here’s something that made me reconsider their power. An MSI Wind has been hacked and tricked into believing it’s a Mac when in fact it isn’t.
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Are you waiting for the Eee PC 901, 1000 or 1000H? Why would you when this beautiful world is populated with so many interesting and complete laptops? Why would you want to terrorize your fingers and your eyes on those mini laptops? Oops, I started this announcement all wrong.
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I know 3K might not sound familiar at all to you because 3K is just a small Florida based builder. However you might be interested in their new UMPC, the Razor 400 which is available for just $299.
I have two questions. Why Razor? Couldn’t you come up with any other name? There are so many Razor things out there. Why another UMPC? Aren’t there enough already? Do we need more startup companies trying to pitch their mini laptop idea? Apparently I have more than two questions…
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DXG isn’t one of the first camcorder manufacturers I wake up thinking about. Actually I don’t think about any of them, but you get my point. However, if you are the kind of person that takes home video seriously you should check this one out. Their new DXG-567V, boy do I hate these names, retails for $179 and it’s said to upload videos straight to YouTube and other similar sites.
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Microsoft recently unveiled its new series of LifeCam webcams. The Whack received the LifeCam VX-5000for review. The VX-5000 offers convenience and is portable enough not to interfere with your work. The striking thing about the VX-5000 is the bendable base, making it easy to place it on a desktop monitor or fix it to a laptop. The camera is available three different colors: blue, green and red (we received the blue one for review).

Setting up the camera was a breeze. The installation of the bundled software went smoothly and the webcam was up and running within 10 minutes of opening the package. However, it took considerably more time to open the package itself.

When logged in to the Windows Live messenger, clicking the button on top of the camera starts a Windows Live Call: it loads your contact list, and you have to select one to start a conversation with. There’s a unidirectional, noise-canceling mic on the Lifecam VX-5000. As can be expected, the webcam is optimized for Windows Live but works pretty well with others like Yahoo! IM and Skype. In low-light conditions, the video was less than desirable quality, but once you switched on the lights, the quality was pretty good.

For some reason, the default resolution for still photos was set to 640×480 (VGA), but you can easily change this to 1.3 megapixels. Even at that resolution, it falls short of some cell phone camera images, but then again this is not your everyday high-end webcam. The software bundled with the camera allows you to add all sorts of goofy stuff to your video conversation (you know what I’m talking about — stupid fish!).

The Photo Swap feature lets you share photos with whoever you are conversing with. There’s also support for one-touch blogging - a feature I did not try because I don’t have a Windows Live Spaces account. The microphone built into the LifeCam VX-5000 works pretty decently. However, I could not find any place where this can be over-ridden with another microphone.

The Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 is easily a nice-to-have accessory, being in the mid-range of both price and features. Priced at US $49.99, it is actually available for around $37 on Amazon and other online retailers.

I always wondered when we’re going to get to the next level. When are we going to see technology similar in concept to what others imagined in those Sci-Fi movies?
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As I was saying earlier, people would do anything to make a bad thing look good. I smell a rat here! When I say people I mean Dell. When I say bad thing I mean Windows Vista. Good must mean Apple-like and when I say rat, well I mean Microsoft.

Sure the Dock idea is nice but it’s so Apple. It looks really good and Dell promises it will be fully customizable. But will that make Vista run smoother? I don’t think so! I think I will have to get one more gigabyte of RAM just to make that Dock run.

Better get myself a fresh Windows XP copy as I know what the first thing will be when I get one of these Dells. Or maybe I might just install a Mac OS X on it.

A Studio Inspiron will certainly be one of my next laptops to play with. For whatever reason, I have always followed Dell and their progress in the notebook world. Sure for the same price I could always get a similar HP and half a Mac, but Dell is one of my favorites.
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Imation has a great new Atom Flash memory drive for us. And one of its most important features, as the picture shows clearly, is the size. And I am not talking about storage space. Sure you can choose an Atom Flash from 1 to 8GB storage space for a price running from $18 to $100.
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I haven’t checked out any of the new HP laptops did I? And HP did release about 16 new models about two weeks ago. Crazy idea to hit the market right after the WWDC, but they did it. Today we’re going to check out HP’s new Pavilion dv5z. And we’re going to start by mentioning how annoying these letters and numbers names are.
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Covering more and more smartphone news can be tiring at times. You have to keep up with all the news, keep up with technological improvements, manage leaks and rumors and more. Remember how simple the dial phone was? Wasn’t it fun? No screen, no battery, no camera, no smart tricks. Just a phone line and a dial to call your family and friends. It’s good to remember where you left from to see where you’re going to.
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How much time do you spend talking via Skype to your friends and family? How’s that for a nice free long distance VoIP call? If you are tired of the regular headphones and microphone you can always choose one of Skype’s phones. This time they are offering a Skype Phone that also happens to be a mouse. Or is it a Skype Mouse that also works as a phone?

This mouse connects via USB to your PC and does its mousey job. When someone is calling you through Skype, the mouse transforms into a phone. It has integrated microphone and speakers so you can immediately answer. And if you want to make the call, there’s a tiny LCD and a keypad which will let you dial the number.

Ok Skype but what if I want to browse through stuff while I talk on the mouse? Should I enable the touchpad I just disabled? What if I am working on a PC? Get two mice? What if my phone call lasts for a couple of hours? Won’t I get tired? Should I switch back to regular headphones for longer phone calls?
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