Its Electronica

Posted Feb 14th 2008 11:25AM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Displays, HDTV

LG wasn’t offering much in the way of a release date when it announced its super-slim (as in 1.7-inch) LGX LCD TV last month, but it looks like it could be coming sooner rather than later, with the set now making its all-important debut at the FCC, which is usually a hint of things to come. As you can see, the set is still as red as ever, if a little less polished than it looked in LG’s press photos. Unfortunately, the FCC doesn’t have any other surprises to provide, although the curious can get a peek at the set’s innards and some other less than flattering photos by hitting up the read link.

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Bang and Olufsen makes some terrific products.  Sure, they tend to be on the pricey side, but they are aware that there is a healthy niche for quality products and they are all over it.  When I saw the price tag of the BeoVision 8 , I have to admit that I was a little surprised.  Sure, it is more than you would pay for a 32-inch model from any of the major Japanese manufacturers or Samsung, but the price is not out of this world expensive.  Then there is an integrated center channel speaker that makes sounds appear to come from whatever is on the screen and that is really cool.

The resolution is 1366 x 768 with a contrast ratio of 1200:1.  It displays 16.7 million color and has a luminescence of 500 cd/m2.  It looks sweet and it is nice to see a bigger BeoVision8 hit the market.  It is only 32-inches (four inches more than it’s predecessor) which is not a lot in today’s day and age, but you are getting quality.

The price, $3,950, won’t break the bank, but I won’t be getting one.  There is a 40-inch Sony Bravia with my name on it at Yodabashi and it will cost me about a third of the B&O.

Source: Electronic House

Did you get to your office this morning only to find all your co-workers cradling roses and chocolates and boxes from Tiffany while all you held near your heart was rage and loneliness? Did you spend the last week making a 7-hour audio/video retrospective of your relationship only to find out today that you are no longer your valentine’s valentine?

On this day which celebrates romantic love, we want to honor the real people, the ones filled with resentment and gut-wrenching jealousy- our people. Just leave a comment with a tale of Valentine’s Day woe, and we will pick the best (the most painful) and send you a beautiful new Palm pink Centro, worth $400.

The Palm Centro is a perfect tool for those in search of love (or a better love). It’s filled with communication features: IM, threaded SMS messaging, 3G browsing speeds, and a 1.3 MP camera with video recording.

You have to be on our email list, so please subscribe before entering the contest. Good luck and happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted Feb 14th 2008 8:14AM by Sean Cooper
Filed under: cellphones, Features, Handhelds

The Nokia N96 is here and while it certainly doesn’t blow the doors off the current N95 in all its many varieties, it does refresh the form, add beauty, and the TV ain’t all that bad to boot. What definitely stands out on the N96 is build quality, the material choices here are not as cheap as they were on its older siblings, it actually looks and feels like a high end device. We also were able to get some TV time in courtesy of some neighbor or another, we’ve enjoyed SlingPlayer Mobile on our devices for a while now, but there is just no comparing them, the DVB-H looks first rate. Peep the huge gallery over at Engadget Mobile.

Posted Feb 14th 2008 9:02AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

As is usually the case when you slap the latest and greatest silicon in a laptop, it’s going to best whatever came before. What’s surprising here is how thoroughly the Dell XPS M1730 with a Core 2 Extreme X9000 processor and dual GeForce 8800M GTX cards in SLI trounces the last generation of tech. The folks at ExtremeTech pitted the laptop against a hapless m9750 from Alienware, sporting the last generation of tech, and it handily bested it in every competition. CPU tests were heavily in the M1730’s favor, and GPU tests even more so. The only holdup is that new X9000 processor, and according to Dell a release is “imminent” — and if you’re shelling out $4480 for a laptop, it might as well be what ExtremeTech calls “the fastest notebook yet.”

Archos looks set to be the first over the finish line with its new line of portable media players that will feature 3G connectivity, allowing it to virtually connect to the Internet no matter where you are - as long as there is an appropriate signal from a cell tower. The Opera web browser will provide all your browsing experience needs. This new range of players is tipped to be released before the end of 2008, with the 606 WiFi and 706 WiFi being among them.

Toshiba ain’t throwing in the towel just yet although the odds are stacked heavily against it. I’m not sure whether to commend it for taking a strong (last) stand or to have sympathy. Nevertheless, the technological giant from Japan has just released new firmware for its hd dvd players including the A3, D3, A30, and A35 that has been upgraded to 2.0. In addition, both the A30 and A35 have gained 1080p/24 video capabilities amidst other fixes. Viva la HD DVD?

What kitchen implement is wedge shaped and has a sharp edge, perfectly suited to cutting a pizza without disturbing the topping, and then serving the slice?

That’s right. A chef’s knife. Sure, you could waste $10 on this pair of pizza scissors, which will do the same thing. But that’s all they will do. I don’t know which is worse. The fact that manufacturers continue to market uni-tasking tat, or that gullible consumers continue to stuff their kitchen drawers with it. What next? An egg cracker?

Product page [Freshfinds via Book of Joe]

IJailbreak has been updated and will now jailbreak (allow read and write access) and unlock any iPhone, including the 16GB one you can buy today. Previous solutions required downgrading the iPhone software to 1.1.1, then stepping back up through 1.1.2 to get to the latest version. A few days a go, a Mac and Windows command line utility, called ZiPhone, was released, but that meant futzing around in the terminal.

The Mac only iJailbreak uses ZiPhone behind the scenes, but does everything for you, with step-by-step instructions. It should work on any Mac running Tiger or Leopard, although ipod Touch support has not yet been implemented.

Product page [Google Code via iphone Atlas]

Posted Feb 13th 2008 7:37PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

No, it won’t get you “true” HDMI, but older 360 owners looking to get rid of those clunky component cables might want to take note: that MadCatz HDMI Conversion Kit is now official. The $90 adapter comes with cables and supports HDMI 1.3, 1080p, Dolby Digital and DTS — but there’s no telling what the VGA-to-HDMI signal conversion will do to your image quality, so you’re probably better off doing the eBay shuffle and getting a new 360 with HDMI built-in.