Digital Cowboy announces Xstreamer Pro NAS / media streamer
Digital Cowboy announces Xstreamer Pro NAS / media streamer
Your media streamer options aren't exactly limited these days, but if you're looking for one that will also double as a NAS (and prefer to get your gear from Japan), you might want to consider Digital Cowboy's latest addition to its Movie Cowboy line: the Xtreamer Pro.
This one packs the same dual 3.5-inch hard drives as the company's previous DC-MCNAS1 model (not included), but adds an HDMI port to directly connect to your TV, and what appears to be a whole new interface to let you access the wide variety of media the device supports.
No word on any plans for a release over here, but you can look for this one to be available in Japan next month for ¥22,000, or about $260.
LG to mass produce flexible e-paper
LG debuts newspaper sized virtually paper thin flexible e-paper display
LG has decided to mass-produce a 19-inch flexible e-paper monochrome display, with a 9.7-inch e-paper colour display. The former is just about big enough to rival a real broadsheet newspaper, is just 0.3mm thick and weighs about 130g, which is light enough to hold for a while, especially for its size.
It will apparently use minimum power, requiring it only when changing display. Apart informing the SEC of its decision to put these flexible displays into production, LG has not revealed their availability or pricing yet.
The bendable 19-inch display is the largest the industry has ever produced and could eventually replace newspapers and magazines made of dead trees and ink..
Virtual Reality Tackles Tough Questions
Men are learning to empathize with women through virtual reality..
Virtual reality is allowing scientists to ask difficult questions about human behaviour that were previously not possible or were thought too unethical.
A Spanish team has designed a trial that allows men to step inside the body of a woman subjected to violence.
Meanwhile, scientists in London are simulating a controversial experiment from the 1960s in which people were persuaded to inflict pain on others.
The original experiments were condemned as immoral and too traumatic.
At Barcelona University, male volunteers have experienced life as a virtual young girl and then separately, witnessed violence towards her.
On returning to live the girl's virtual life, the men empathized with her more than usual, feeling scared and insecure themselves.
"I want to know whether you can use virtual reality, not just to transform the place you are in, but also to transform your very self," said Mel Slater, lead researcher at the Catalan Institute of Research and Advanced Studies.
"If you see yourself in a virtual body, which moves as you do, how will this affect your behaviour?"
Garmin rolls out touchscreen-based Edge 800 cycling GPS
Garmin rolls out touchscreen-based GPS
Multifunction GPS watches are one thing, but those that put cycling first are likely more interested in something like Garmin's line of Edge GPS devices, to which you can now add the touchscreen-based Edge 800.
That packs a 2.6-inch color display, some all new mapping options including Garmin's BaseCamp route planning and BirdsEye satellite imagery, so-called "HotFix" GPS technology to quickly acquire and maintain a signal, and support for a wide range of heart rate monitors, cadence sensors and other ANT+ devices, to name a few features.
What's more, while the device won't be available until this October (for $449 or $649 depending on the bundle), it's already received a few early reviews that paint a pretty positive picture -- DC Rainmaker has even go so far as to say that the device "rocks," and that "it's everything that most cyclists have been asking for."
WD intros HomePlug-compatible powerline networking package
WD intros HomePlug-compatible powerline networking package
Western Digital's bread and butter is (and will likely remain) storage, but as we all know, all the storage in the world is useless if you can't access it. It only makes sense, then, that the company would get behind the HomePlug bandwagon for networking all your connected devices over your home's existing electrical power lines. The WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit includes two HomePlug AV adapters with four Ethernet ports each, boasting data transfer speeds up to 200 megabits per second. And it's HomePlug compatible, meaning your previous investments in the technology won't go to waste. Available now for $140.
Panasonic proves its Toughbook U1 is Rammer-resistant
Panasonic proves its Toughbook U1 is Rammer-resistant
It must be getting pretty difficult at this point for Panasonic to come up with new ways to show just how tough its Toughbook line of devices are, but it looks like the company's still got a few surprises in it, as evidenced by a new video that pits its Toughbook CF-U1 handheld against a Rammer.
As you can probably guess, the Toughbook pictured above manages to pass the test easily, but there's also another surprise in store at the end -- head on past the break to see for yourself. Of course, Panasonic didn't let an opportunity for a bit of cross-promotion slip by -- it also shot the video on a Panasonic GH1.
Sony Ericsson Announces 6 Brand New Phones For India
Sony Ericsson announces 6 brand new 'entertainment-packed' phones for India
Sony Ericsson just unveiled six new phones in the Indian market, phones it describes as entertainment-packed...They are: Xperia X8 (previously known as Shakira), the affordable GreenHeart Cedar, the QWERTY messenger Aspen, and three Walkman phones – Yendo, Spiro, and Zylo. Unfortunately, no pricing details have been revealed yet. Happy with the successful launch of the Fab 5 (Xperia X10, Vivaz, Xperia X10 Mini, Vivaz Pro, and Xperia X10 Mini Pro) earlier this year, Sony Ericsson is looking to introduce a host of innovative new features with these devices into the Indian market, across various price segments.
Claiming to provide “an unmatchable user experience”, the phones each have their own qualities. Let’s take a look at them:
Another member of the Android 1.6 Xperia family, the X8 is a smaller, lower-powered Xperia X10, and is described as a “great entertainment smartphone that extends the appeal of the Xperia collection to new market segments.” While one of the X10’s signature applications, Mediascape, is missing from its portfolio, it features Timescape, and, due to its smaller screen, inherits the four-corner shortcut interface from the X10 Mini.
business and social communication”, the GreenHeart Cedar apparently provides easy browsing, emailing, and social networking with its 3G HSPA connectivity, all at an “affordable price”, and with green features such as recycled plastics, a low power consumption charger, an e-manual, waterborne paint and compact packaging. Another of its USPs is Widget Manager 2.0, which supposedly gives users social networking features on the standby screen.
The only dedicated business mobile of the lot, the Aspen is also the only Windows Mobile (6.5.3 Professional) phone. Branded as an “affordable GreenHeart phone”, the Aspen offers green features similar to the Cedar. Citing its “rich user interface and powerful productivity tools” as its business capabilities, Sony Ericsson insists the phone also offers entertainment value, with its Media Browser and PlayNow features, as well as quick access to social networking.
Sony Ericsson’s first full-touch Walkman phone, the Yendo is described as combining “music, social networking and communication in one colourful phone". The Yendo also features the Xperia X8 and X10 Mini’s four-corner shortcut touch-UI, to allow for one handed operation. The phone also features ease of social networking (including Facebook 2.6), instant/text messaging, and email use, and has been designed in the same human curvature style of the Xperia and Vivaz devices. It will also appeal to the trendy youth, with numerous body colour choices and mix-and-match combinations.
Distinctly Walkman phones, the Zylo (left) and Spiro (right) are similar in interface and design, and supposedly “marry music with social networking”, allowing users to access everything from Twitter to Facebook at the “touch of a button”, without interrupting their music listening experience. The two phones also feature the TrackID function, which allows users to find the name and artist of any track they’re listening to, “wherever they are”.
Sony Ericsson’s Anurag Kontu, Marketing Head – India, commented on the introduction of the new phones into the Indian market: “Greater access to applications and customizable user experience on handheld devices has shaped the mobile success story in India today. As the communication entertainment brand, Sony Ericsson phones have always enjoyed a phenomenal response from consumers in the region. With the launch of the new portfolio, we continue to offer an amalgamation of communication and entertainment by fusing together best quality touchscreen experience, premium imaging and music features, and great connectivity options across price segments.”
SanDisk Introduces World’s Smallest 64GB Solid State Drive
SanDisk Introduces World’s Smallest 64GB Solid State Drive-First in New Embedded SSD Category
SanDisk has publically announced a first-of-its-kind solid state drive that offers higher capacities and performance (160MB/sec sequential read and 100MB/sec sequential write speeds) than current solutions, all in a much smaller amount of space, as small as a postage stamp.
Called the iSSD drive, it is the first solid state drive to use a SATA interface in a small ball grid array package, and can be soldered onto any motherboard, and, is ideal for mobile platforms, such as netbooks, tablets, and phones. Power consumption figures are not known yet though.
A spokesman from SanDisk commented on the release of the new generation solid state drives: "The new category of embedded SSDs should enable OEMs to produce tablets and notebooks with an unprecedented combination of thin, lightweight form factors and fast performance.”
As of now, the new iSSD drives have been sent for sampling to OEMs, who are considering its applications. The weighing less than one gram and featuring no moving parts, the iSSD drive measures just 16x20x1.85mm, and is available in many capacities, ranging from 4GB to 64GB as of now.
If it reveals a power-sipping nature, the first generation of iSSD drives will definitely be incorporated into numerous mobile devices soon, and, we can hopefully expect higher capacity drives to come soon, for notebooks and desktops.
India Sets Deadline For Potential BlackBerry Stoppage | Threatens To Suspend BlackBerry
India has given BlackBerry phone maker RIM a deadline of 31 August to give the government access to all of its services or face being shut down..
In what appears to be tough stance being taken by the world’s largest democracy, India has set an end-of-the month deadline for BlackBerry to let security agencies access its email and instant messaging or face a ban on the two widely used smartphone services.
Data from the BlackBerry is sent to servers in Canada where high-grade encryption technology makes the content of messages inaccessible to outsiders.
'If a technical solution is not provided by August 31, 2010, the government will review the position and take steps to block' the emails and messenger services from the network, a home ministry statement said on Thursday.
India's Ministry of Home Affairs told the country's mobile operators they would have to close down the two encrypted services if Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian makers of BlackBerry, did not comply with its demands.
RIM takes pride in the level of privacy it offers to BlackBerry users, but a growing number of nations are worried terrorists will exploit this privacy to plot attacks.
The terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 were planned and executed using electronic devices, including cell phones and GPSs. Six Americans were among the 166 people killed in Mumbai.
"What you're seeing is a trend towards countries, not just India, asserting more sovereign control over communications," said Scott Cleland, president of Precursor LLC.
Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 – Go-like smartphone
Sony Ericsson to introduce Android 3.0 gaming platform and PSP Go-like smartphone
There's no question that gaming on the Android platform has heretofore been relatively underwhelming, but that looks like it's all about to change. It seems that Sony Ericsson -- a company that has yet to even introduce an Android 2.0 device -- is at work on a project to redefine gaming on Google's mobile platform. We now know (via a trusted source) that the company is actively and heavily developing a brand new gaming platform, ecosystem, and device (possibly alongside Google) which are already in the late stages of planning. And we've got the goods on it.
Here's what we can tell you about the hardware: if you're a gaming fan, this is exactly the kind of phone you've been waiting for. The device is described as cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go -- in other words, it's a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a "long touch pad" for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we're told might not be final, and it'll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color. Apparently it's currently branded as a Xperia device, but it looks like it will carry PlayStation branding as well. Those who've seen the phone say it looks "pretty damn sexy." The mockup above probably doesn't do the actual hardware justice, but it should give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with.
On the software side, it looks like the device will be running Gingerbread (Android 3.0) with a phone-specific skin, and there will be a new area of the Android Market specifically for the games. That content will be initially accessible only by the halo device, but from the sounds of things, these titles might be made available to other Android phones if their specs and button layouts meet requirements. Games will be graphically in the range of PSX or PSP games, meaning true 3D gaming is headed to Android. Titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap, and future plans for titles which incorporate augmented reality features.
In terms of release, it's possible that the phone and ecosystem could be introduced as early as October of this year, but we have yet to confirm.
Right now we're working on getting even more detail about the phone and partnership, but we can tell you now that this is not a random rumor -- we have reason to believe that what we've heard and seen is real and coming to market. It makes perfect sense in a way -- Google gets a much-needed push into the gaming and entertainment space for Android, while Sony (via its partnership with Ericsson) finally delivers the PlayStation phone users have been wanting. We see it as a major win for both companies and the consumer... and we always need another distraction. Stay tuned to this space for updates as we get them, and in the meantime, start socking away the pennies.