Its Electronica

Panasonic isn’t giving up on plasma screens just yet. With many shifting away from plasma TVs and embracing LCD, Panasonic is going small and will bring plasma screens to the cellphone. Wait. You’re thinking that a plasma display might burn a hole in your pocket? Nope. They will be both cool and cheap.

Mark Balsama spoke to the press on Tuesday and revealed a secret plot that rival’s Apple’s iphone obfuscation:

For nearly a decade, Panasonic’s engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact plasma display.

According to Balsama, not only will the screens “rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness”, they will also be cheaper. Now that the secret is out, Panasonic is moving fast. The mini plasma displays will start showing up in phones the fall.

Press release [PR Newswire]

The iphone’s fake GPS is a useful feature, and stops you from looking too much like a map-studying tourist when in foreign lands, but the new iPhone 2.0 update will bring the service one step closer to real GPS. It still uses cell tower and WiFi triangulation, but will be able to update in real time as you walk (or drive) around.

Your position is represented on screen by a pulsing blue ball which moves as you do. That’s a lot easier to use than the current method of stopping and hitting the “Locate Me” button every few steps.

iPhone OS 2.0 includes live location tracking [iPhone Atlas]

Do people still buy standard definition video cameras? Panasonic seems to think so. The company has announced that its pocket-sized SDR-S7 will be arriving in Japan later this month. Weighing only 182grams with its battery and SD card, the camera can record 16:9 or 4:3 video at VGA (640 x 480) resolution in MPEG-2 format. The camcorder can shoot in three video modes: XP (10 Mbps), SP (5 Mbps), and LP (2.5 Mbps). Video recordings are stored via SD cards, with up to 16GB support—allowing up to 13 hours of recorded video in LP mode.  The featherweight SDR-S7 is equipped with a 2.7-inch widescreen display, 10x optical zoom, stereo microphone, 0.6 seconds Quick Start, and USB 2.0 for fast file transferring. Panasonic is touting the camcorder’s 3.8 seconds boot up time and battery life of 70 minutes. Unfortunately, no HD capability is included, which is a bummer. However, if you’re in the market for something entry-level, ultra portable, and compact the SDR-S7 should fit the bill. It even comes conveniently bundled with Panasonic’s MotionSD STUDIO 1.3 video editing software.

The Panasonic SDR-S7 measures 1.61 x 2.32 x 4.01-inches and will come in black or silver. The release date is April 25th in Japan for 44,800 Yen ($440). A US release is expected to follow in May.

Via [Electronista]

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We’ve praised the ring flash often in the past. The strobe surrounds the lens giving your subject flat, even illumination with none of the ugly dark shadows that characterize the crappy party photos we take with our compact digicams. Usually, though, a ringflash is an expensive and somewhat bulky piece of kit, and is designed for use with larger cameras.

Marumi’s little ring-light uses LEDs instead of a flash tube, which has a couple of advantages. You can preview the light’s effect on the image, and batteries will last a lot longer. Digital photography means that the color of light doesn’t matter nearly as much as it did with film, but mixed lighting can still cause problems. The LEDs on the Marumi are daylight balanced.

The ring is fixed to the tripod bush found on most cameras and swings in font of the lens on a flexible arm. It looks a little awkward, but at $80 it’s cheaper than the alternatives.

Product page [Enjoy Your Camera]

Previously on Gadget Lab:

Lomo Ring Flash: Cheap and Fun

How To: DIY Ring Flash Made From a Styrofoam Cup

Had enough of the usual gang here on Gadget Lab? Think you can do better than the multitalented (but inescapably British) Rob Beschizza? Now’s your chance to show us what you’ve got.

We’re looking for an enthusiastic, eager, tech-savvy blogger to join the Gadget Lab team and help cover the most interesting and compelling daily tech news for Wired’s most popular blog. We’re not just shoveling press releases onto the web here, unlike some blogs we could mention. That’s why we want someone who can bring an intelligent, informed and entertaining perspective to our gadget coverage.

In return, you’ll get unparalleled exposure on Wired.com, plus the chance to test out, play with and write about all kinds of new gadgets long before your friends do. Oh yeah, and we pay money too.

If this sounds like your dream job, send me an email with your resume, links to 3 recent blog posts you’ve done, and a sample Gadget Lab post on a tech news item from the day you send it. Resume not up to date? Fine, just tell me what jobs you’ve worked lately. And please keep your sample post to 150 words, tops.

Photo: foundphotoslj / Flickr

This new Chinese PMP called the AOC X600, comes with a pretty unique feature which allows it to play RMVB files on the player itself, or you can use TV-Out option to play them on your big screen TV.

Aside from playing RMVB, it’s pretty much your average PMP, but it is actually pretty cheap considering what it comes with. Beginning with its screen, it sports a nice 3-inch display with a 400 x 240 resolution, and 16:10 aspect ratio. Additionally, it can also play FLV, AVI, MOV, ASF, MP4, WMV, 3GP, MGP, MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC lossless, and TXT files. No matter what audio or video format you have on your computer, you are almost guaranteed to be able to play it on the AOC X600. I think this PMP player looks really cool the way the whole device is basically the screen, kind of like the ipod Touch.

Unfortunately, no word on exact availability, but expect it to be only for sale in the Chinese market selling for 599 yuan (around $85).

Via [PMP Today]

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This new bracelet by INFO Live acts like a smartphone without the phone and like a PC without all of the bulkiness. In fact, it’s basically just a screen that comes with a lot of apps and you can do a whole lot on it. The screen itself is on the bracelet and measures out at 2.16 x 0.78 x 7.08-inches and its all touch controlled. Now, what you can do on this bracelet is pretty much endless, you can do anything from normal internet, data transferring to other wireless-enabled devices, storing data, reading and receiving news, e-mails, instant messaging, sharing documents, watching videos, listening to music and to writing papers on it. There aren’t a whole lot of details on this bracelet, so I’m kind of confused how exactly all of these functions work, but if nothing else it looks really cool.  As you would expect there was not any mention on pricing or availability. Keep reading for a few more images that demonstrate some of the features…

Via [GearFuse]

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Griffin iClear Transparent Hard Case for iPod Nano

Protect your iPod nano from the daily abuse of active lifestyles with Griffin’s iClear case. This sturdy polycarbonate case is completely transparent so that it can protect your iPod from dust and scratches without marring its cool looks. The simple clam-shell design is easy to install. Press on the front, swing up the back and snap the clasp. You’ll get a snug fit that stays secure through even the most rigorous activities. The iClear also has openings for your iPod’s control wheel, audio jack, on switch, USB port and LED. Full access to controls and ports ensures that you’ll never have to take your nano out of the iClear’s protective grip. A tough ipod nano case that you’ll hardly even notice is there: the Griffin iClear.

Technorati Tags: gadgets

eMusic, together with the Music Intelligence Institute, presents this Music Intelligence Quiz developed by experts in the music field. It consists of 30 multiple-choice questions covering many genres and eras of music. The maximum number of points is 180, and there are 5 levels of music intelligence: Top 40 Radio Listener, Air Guitarist, Birthday Party DJ, Mix-Tape Master, and Musical Magician.

What’s great about this test is that, unlike other assessments out there, you are not obligated to provide a name or email address or register in order to see your results, although after you view your results eMusic invites you to check out some music suggestions based on your music intelligence level, but that’s fine. You can provide some demographic info (year of birth, gender, location) which is no big deal, but that would be cool if you could see some sort of results breakdown by these factors, or if you could get a badge to post on your social networking profile. Perhaps in the next version. Anyway I feel that this test is fair and accurate, as my music IQ turns out to be 126 which makes me a Mix-Tape Master. Try it yourself, but no cheating and no taking it over and over again to try to improve your score!

Read [Seen This]

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Yes, it’s true. Internet telephony company Jajah is participating in the iPhone Developer Program. That means in addition to its existing web-only client, there will also be a native VoIP app for the iPhone this summer.

You can expect the new client to be available via the App Store, which is launching sometime in June.

If you recall, after a lot of speculation about what would and wouldn’t be allow to run on the iphone, Steve Jobs said VoIP would be permissible at the SDK roadmap event last March, but that mobile carrier networks were off limits.

The exact wording from the SDK agreement is as follows: "If an Application require or will have access to the carrier network, then additionally such Application: …May not have Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) functionality."

Pretty clear cut. Jajah is apparently adhering to this stipulation, which is almost certainly tied to the contracts Apple has with AT&T and other individual carriers in Europe. The compay says the new native app will either be free or a low-cost service, depending on the call destination or source. At the very least, it’s going a be a great option for jet-setters who want to avoid those ridiculous roaming charges.