Cool Tech Gadgets: Nov 19, 2007

Monday, November 19, 2007

Samsung SE-S204S DVD burner cuts out the hard drive

Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

While it won't let you burn DVDs without a PC altogether, Samsung's new SE-S204S DVD burner will at least cut your hard drive out of the equation, with it simply using your PC as a go-between between your still or video camera and your DVD media of choice. That, Samsung says, should "dramatically" cut down on the time it takes to create a DVD, with the usual pre-mastering, multiplexing and hard-disk buffering no longer needed. That speed is further aided by the drive's 20x DVD+R and DVD-R writing, with it's dual-layer writing lagging only slighlty behind at 16x and 12x for DVD+R and DVD-R, respectively. If that's just the time-saving measure you've been looking for, you should be able to pick one of these up now for $160.

[Via Electronista, image courtesy of CDRLabs]

Nokia's N810 internet tablet hits store shelves

Filed under: Handhelds

Folks, we're going to level with you: Nokia's N810 internet table -- the magnetizing, multi-faceted gadget so many of you cats have been waiting for -- is officially on store shelves. According to the Finnish company's reps, the WiFi equipped handheld is now available for your general consumption at such luminous retailers as Best Buy Mobile, CompUSA, Micro Center, and Nokia flagship stoes in New York and Chicago. If you'll recall, the Linux-based, touchscreen portable runs atop a 400GHz CPU, has 2GB of RAM (upgradable to 10GB), a built-in GPS receiver, a Mozilla-based browser, and a slide-out, full QWERTY keyboard. The silver dream machine is available right now for the suggested retail price of $479.

[Via PhysOrg]

NVIDIA rolls out GeForce 8800M GTX / GTS notebook GPUs

Filed under: Gaming

It looks like Alienware's decision to announce its latest laptops today was hardly an arbitrary one, as it just so happens that NVIDIA has also chosen the date to get official with its new GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS laptop GPUs, which the Alienware systems are based on. Described as the "World's Fastest Notebook GPU," the 96 stream processors in the GTX model, as opposed to 64 in the GTS. Otherwise, you can expect full DirectX 10 support from each, along with NVIDIA's PureVideo HD engine for your HD decoding needs, up to 512MB of dedicated memory, and NVIDIA's trademark "PowerMizer technology," which promises to "intelligently" balance battery life and performance. According to NVIDIA, in addition to Alienware, you can also expect Eurocom, Gateway, and Sager to offer laptops equipped with the GPUs in North America before too long, with a handful of other companies also set to trot out systems in other parts of the world.

[Via Laptoping]

BenQ intros the Joybook R43 laptop

Filed under: Laptops

We know what you're thinking: "Hey, hasn't BenQ gotten a name change?" Well guess what, cowboy? Not for laptops. In fact, the multi-named, electronics-making creature-thing has just introduced a new model into its Joybook laptop lineup, the R43. The system sports a 14.1-inch "UltraVivid" WXGA display, an Intel 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, an SiS Mirage 3+ GPU, and all with WiFi and Bluetooth you could possibly need. Of course -- more importantly than specs -- the laptop features a stylized, abstract case design guaranteed to make the ladies want you and the men want to be you... or, vice versa. The R43 will be available in China in December, with a rollout in other countries "in the coming months."

Four days until our Black Friday giveaways

Filed under: Announcements

What kind of self respecting consumer electronics nerd would hang out all night in the freezing-ass cold just to try their hand at maybe picking up a reduced-price gadget of some kind or another? Don't bother, just hang out here at Engadget, we'll be covering the best online deals for Black Friday, and we'll also be giving away a couple grand in gadgets ourselves. Seriously, it's gonna be fun, way better than whatever you've got planned.

P.S. -Mr. Ginn, if you're out there, we formally apologize for using your iconography to promote mass consumerism. Big fans.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Dragon lets loose cheapo DuoShock 3 PS3 controller

Filed under: Gaming

Dragon's new DuoShock 3 may not be anything more than a pale imitation of Sony's own PS3 controller, but at least it's a dirt cheap pale imitation, with it setting you back just $17. For that price you will get 2.4GHz wireless capabilities, but it seems that you'll have to make do without the SIXAXIS' motion sensing capabilities, which could pose quite a problem depending on the games you plan to play with it. On the upside, you'll also be able to use the controller with your PC, as well as your PS2 with the included adapter. The controller does also boast a vibration function, although it seems pretty safe to assume that it'll only work with the PS2. If that's not too much of a deterrent, you can pick one up right now.

[Via PS3 Evolution]

Dell Latitude XT tablet specs leak out

Filed under: Tablet PCs

We already knew quite a bit about the Latitude XT multitouch tablet, but it looks like a complete spec sheet just leaked out and now we've got the hard details we crave. The 12.1-inch tablet will rock a 1.2GHz U7600 ultra-low-voltage Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 graphics with 256MB of memory, 1GB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth and a range of WWAN options, and sport both SD and ExpressCard slots. An integrated media bay can accept either an optional secondary 80GB hard drive or a dual-layer burner, and Dell will preload various versions of Vista and XP Tablet Edition on the unit. Of course, there's still no word on when we might see these, but hopefully it'll be soon.

[Thanks, Jay]

Hands-on with Alienware's Area-51 m15x and m17x laptops

Filed under: Features, Laptops

These two were no secret, but Alienware hosted a press event this morning to finally confirm its Area-51 m15x and m17x laptops. While Alienware design is still a bit of a love it or hate it affair, it's clear that some thought has gone into these two, and there's finally an option to get replace the standard Alienware ribbing on the lid for smooth one. The m17x is obviously the primary powerhouse here, configurable with dual NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics cards, a Blu-ray burner, Core 2 Extreme processor, dual hard drives and a 1080p 17-inch LCD. Special Alienware touches include LEDs galore -- the keyboard, sides and lid all can be lit up in your choice of color, selected by software. Alienware is also tossing in a hot-swappable drive bay for swapping in a third hard drive or extra optical drive. The m15x is of course is doing its darnedest to pack this kind of gaming power into a 15-inch form factor, but the surprising thing is that it nearly does. The laptop runs a single 8800M GTX card, includes a hot swap bay to boost storage or add an extra battery, and includes all those lighting doohickies of its big brother. We're pretty impressed with the size and form factors, and while we can't quite get into Alienware's design taste, it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Gallery: Hands-on with Alienware's Area-51 m15x and m17x laptops

Haier's Ibiza Rhapsody PMP gets reviewed

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

It's been nearly a full year since we first heard about the Ibiza Rhapsody, Haier's Linux-based, WiFi-enabled PMP, and it looks like all that bake time paid off -- Crave got their hands on the $330 30GB model and found it to be well-implemented and quite versatile. The 2.5-inch PMP supports MPEG4, WMV, M4V, AVI, and H.264, and offers wireless access to Rhapsody's streaming Channels anywhere there's WiFi -- and allows users to save songs to the players' drive with one click. A2DP support, a wireless podcast directory, and support for AOL Wireless video complete the package and make for much more effective and interesting uses of integrated WiFi and Bluetooth than in some other media devices we've seen. Too bad that squarish touchpad controller still brings the ugly with a vengeance. No word on when Haier will be shipping these out in bulk, but interested parties can hit up Amazon for pre-orders.

[Thanks, KC Kim]

Hands-on with Verizon's LG Voyager on Engadget Mobile

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

'Bout time we follow up the unboxing with a little hands-on action, eh? We think we've found enough to like about LG's VX10000 Voyager for Verizon to make enV owners... well, green with envy. Head on over to Engadget Mobile for our quick impressions!

Live from the Amazon Kindle launch event

Filed under: Features, Handhelds

Anyone reading yesterday knows today's the day the Amazon Kindle finally launches, and we're live from their big (little) launch event in New York. There are maybe a hundred fifty seats (and people are still filing in), so we'll be getting started here in just a few.

Just the usual pre-event mingling. Surprising this place hasn't filled up any faster. All the event handlers have very austere looks on their faces, as though they're cramming for a really difficult exam, or launching an e-book reader.

We got the first picture of the Kindle! There she is. That angle up towards the left is really severe, this thing is far from flat. Announcer: "We're getting started in just a few minutes..." More after the break.

Continue reading Live from the Amazon Kindle launch event

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Samsung, AT&T announce A747 "SLM" flip

Filed under: Cellphones

So the Samsung A747 for AT&T is finally here, 'cept it's not the A747. Instead, the slim clamshell has been appropriately christened the "SLM." Think of the SLM as a juiced version of the also very thin A717, carrying over the 2 megapixel cam and attractive brushed metal exterior while adding a much larger 96 x 96 external display and support for Napster Mobile -- a first for AT&T. Get the SLM beginning November 23 for $150 after a $50 rebate on a two-year contract.

Amazon Kindle first hands-on

Filed under: Features, Handhelds

So we just snagged our Kindle, and we're unabashedly stoked to get using it. Unfortunately the device came out of box with too little juice to get on the EV-DO network, but the e-ink display looks great (as we'd expect). The selector bar on the right is really interesting; it appears to be a white, opaque thin LCD panel that polarizes and turns clear letting reflective dots peer through -- the end result is a small selection bar that looks unlike anything we've seen on a portable reader device.

The keyboard is clicky and tactile, but with keys shallow enough that they won't get too in the way when you're reading. We're a little worried that the absolutely massive page forward / back buttons might get inadvertently triggered here and there, though.

Gallery: Amazon Kindle first hands-on

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Many details about the Kindle

Filed under: Features, Handhelds

Ok, we've got tons more kindle info! Here are most of the missing pieces on Amazon's Kindle.

It doesn't use a generic RSS aggregator -- it's Amazon-selected blogs only (and they "want every blog they can get"). Blogs that are aggregated by the Kindle get a revenue share with Amazon, since it costs money to get those publications.
The side scroller is, as we expected, a polarized PNLCD (pneumatic LCD). It looks amazing.
It's SD only, not SDHC.
It uses the Kindle file format (which is a variant of structured HTML), but also accepts Word and PDF files (but only via email since they need to be converted by Amazon), Mobi, HTML, plaintext, and image files like JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Sorry, no RTF.
Oh yes, it supports Audible! Oh, and a little, unused file format called MP3.
It has a user-replaceable, 1530mAh battery
You can bind five or six devices to a single account, and share books you've purchased to those accounts. There's no simultaneous reading lock, so if you and your significant other are on the same Amazon account you can both read the same book at the same time on your Kindles.
Amazon is also releasing the Digital Text Platform, which allows users to upload their own content to the Kindle store for sale and download.
The $9.99 price point is the sweet spot, but there are books for sale from the Gutenberg project for under $1 (if you don't want to download them for free yourself), and upwards of that quoted $10 price point as well.
Amazon wouldn't say who makes the device, just that "it's an OEM in China."

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Pentax Optio Z10 gets reviewed

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Pentax's Optio Z10 digital camera has been out for a little while now, but it just recently landed into the hand of the folks at Photography Blog, who've now given the cam their usual review treatment. From the looks of it, however, this one appears to be a decidedly mixed bag, with the camera winning some points for its 7x optical zoom (despite its pocketable size), but leaving them rather unimpressed overall. Most significantly, they say the image quality is "severely hampered by noise," a problem that apparently crops up even at ISO 200, and becomes a "pixellated mess" by ISO 3200. The so-called "digital shake reduction" also appears to be about as useful as a digital zoom, and the face recognition feature doesn't seem to have fared much better either. On the upside, the camera's focusing is reportedly "fast and accurate," even in low-light conditions, and there is that 7x zoom. Unless that's your top priority, however, it seems like you can probably do better elsewhere.

Alienware gets official with Area-51 m15x, m17x laptops

Filed under: Laptops

While they don't exactly come as much of a surprise after a couple of leaks and that little website slip-up, Alienware has finally gotten official with is new Area-51 m15x and m17x laptops, which each pack more power than you'll likely need in your choice of two eye-catching designs. The m15x, as you can no doubt surmise, is a 15.4-inch model, which gives you enough room for dual hard drives, along with your choice of Core 2 Duo Extreme processors, NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics, 667MHz DDR2 memory, and plenty of other high-end specs to match. The m17x appears to be identical in most respects, but its 17-inch display also affords just enough room for a third hard drive which, as we had heard earlier, can include SSD if you so choose. Still no word on a release date, but Alienware will gladly inform you of that little detail if you're willing to hand over your email address.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Philips' remote control pill may cure your allergies

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Philips has applied for a patent of a remote controlled pill which can be signaled to dose your innards via an external, electronic trigger. Freaky, we know. These aren't just time-controlled coatings now, but automated medicament delivery systems whose course can be monitored inside the body via MRI or ultrasound before precision ejection. Better yet perhaps for allergy sufferers, the device could be designed to communicate with external sensors which would release drugs if say the atmospheric pollen count reached a certain level. Tip for the colon: never confuse the remote-controlled pill with Philips' remote control tablet. You can thanks us later.

[via NewScientistTech]

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