Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Emblaze Mobile's iPhone competitor detailed, hitting Russia next month

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407258874/

We don't hear too much from Emblaze Mobile around these parts, just the occasional boastful proclamation about revolutionizing mobile communication. So, color us surprised when we got wind of an entirely new and impressive sounding handset due to ship in just a month. The Edelweiss (named after a flower representing purity) is a 3G, touch-screen handset with internal GPS and either 8 or 16GB of storage. That may sound familiar, but what this has over the competition is a massive resolution of 854 x 480, more than twice that of the iPhone and greater even than the previous high-res handset king, HTC's Touch HD. Right now Herr Edelweiss is due only to release in Russia, but if it lives up to it promise we'd certainly expect to see it elsewhere. Oh, and that other project to revolutionize mobile communication? They're still working on that too, dubbing the Linux-based device "Monolith" and promising release sometime in the first half of next year.

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LG introduces "attractively-priced" KP500, doesn't say how attractive

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407258872/

Filed under: Cellphones

Got touchscreen envy but don't have the pair of Benjamins required to get yourself into a celly without a keypad? LG has a solution: the KP500, a nearly button-less and stylus-bearing handset that sounds rather like another recent cheap smartphone. LG's not giving many details about this one beyond its 3-inch display, a 3 megapixel camera, motion sensor, and availability in black, brown, silver, or gold (though based on the pic above we'd stay away from that last one). There's a short video of the TouchFLO-like UI to whet your appetite just below, but that's all we have to share until this phone hits Europe in a month, with a worldwide release to come afterward.

[Via Unwired View]

Continue reading LG introduces "attractively-priced" KP500, doesn't say how attractive

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AMD's 45nm Shanghai enters production, next stops are Deneb, Istanbul

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407334971/

Filed under: Desktops

AMD's 45nm Shanghai enters production, next stops are Deneb, Istanbul

Let's not beat around the bush: AMD's oft-delayed Barcelona quad-core processor was a flop. It arrived late and buggy, an undesirable reception that helped to drive the company's $1.2 billion Q2 loss this year. AMD can't afford another flub like that and is hoping that processor's successor, Shanghai, finds more success in the server market. It's a 45nm quad-core chip with three times the cache (6MB) and HyperTransport 3, apparently equating to a 20 percent boost in speed and even thriftier power consumption. AMD is saying the chip is already under production and will be available for sale before the year is out, actually beating expectations for once. That should be shortly followed by the release of 45nm Deneb processors for desktops, then six-core Istanbul chips sometime late 2009. Meanwhile, Intel's six-core, 45nm server chips are now shipping.

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AMD debuts dirt cheap ATI Radeon HD 4550, HD 4350 graphics cards

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407510677/

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

NVIDIA managed to generate quite a bit of interest with its $59 GeForce 9400 GT graphics card, and it looks like rival AMD is now taking things one step further with not one but two cards that are even cheaper. Those include the $55 ATI Radeon HD 4550 and the $39 ATI Radeon HD 4350, which pack 512MB and 256MB of memory, respectively, along with some other surprisingly not too shabby specs. Namely, each card packs DirectX 10.1 support, an HDMI port with support for 7.1 channel audio, upscaling "beyond 1080p," and even support for ATI's CrossFireX technology in case you want to pair two of them up. As usual, you can expect the cards to be available from a whole host of different manufacturers, at least some of which should have cards available by October, if not sooner.

[Via bit-tech.net]

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LG's 8-megapixel Renoir handset gets previewed, handled

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407599582/

Filed under: Cellphones

We were already warned that the megapixel race was headed to the mobile realm, and as if you needed any more proof, here we are looking down the lens of LG's 8-megapixel Renoir. Clearly aimed at Samsung's recently unveiled Pixon, this touchscreen-based handset found itself in the loving arms of CNET's UK branch. During the limited time editors spent with it, they found the interface to be eerily similar to that found on the Viewty and the camera to be a real winner. As expected, the not-a-3.5mm headphone jack was none too pleasing to critics, but we did overhear the T-Mobile G1 voicing its support of the port. Anywho, tap the read link for the full preview / hands-on shots.

[Thanks, T.I.]

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Hitachi demonstrates 15mm 37-inch LCD TV at CEATEC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407654878/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Hitachi drug its oh-so-sexy 1.5-inch plasma to Japan after showing it off in Denver earlier this month, but what we didn't see at CEDIA was this: a 15-millimeter thin 37-inch LCD TV. The "reference" set packed a 1,920 x 1,080 panel and a fittingly designed stand, though it won't see mass production until "2009 or later." Ugh, even 1-inch just seems so bloated now.

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Western Digital's 4TB ShareSpace NAS gets introduced and reviewed

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407705336/

Filed under: Storage

It's no Drobo, but Western Digital is dabbling in the NAS space with its minty fresh ShareSpace 4TB Network Storage System. Aimed primarily at small business users and "multimedia" junkies, the 4-bay NAS comes with gigabit Ethernet, support for multiple RAID configurations, and even the ability to act as an iTunes music server. Not too many surprises beyond that -- well, aside from the $999.99 price tag; if that's too rich for your blood, the 2TB version can be had right now for three Benjamins less. As for real-world performance? We're told it's a "great NAS for the money and one of the better picks in its category." We're serious, check it out below.

[Via HotHardware]
Read - ShareSpace release
Read - ShareSpace review

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Sony said to be hanging onto Cell processor for PlayStation 4

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407684927/

Filed under: Gaming

As should be clear by now, any talk of a successor to a still relatively new game console should be taken with a hefty grain of salt but, if word from Japan's Impress is to be believed, it looks like we could possibly be getting a clearer indication of what might be under the PlayStation 4's non-existent hood. Apparently, unlike the massive shift from the PS2 to PS3, the eventually PS4 will be a decidedly smaller leap, with it relying on a slightly speedier (and, likely, 45nm) Cell processor but not a completely new architecture. That would let Sony keep the cost down considerably while also easing development for the console since, by then, developers should finally have a handle on the PS3's hardware. To further cut costs, Sony is also said to be considering a switch from the speedy Rambus XDR memory to more traditional DDR3 memory, which could apparently be tied directly to the processor to cut down on latency. Or the PS4 could be powered by a pink slime that feeds on negative energy, you never know.

[Via Electronista]

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Netflix API open to all: let the developing begin

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407738179/

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Good news, developers of the world -- the Netflix API will be open to all starting tomorrow. As of October 1st, absolutely anyone can self-signup by visiting the read link, and while details are a tad sketchy at the moment, it sounds like this could hold some serious promise. The API itself allows access to data for 100,000 movie and TV episode titles, is completely free and (most importantly) allows commercial use. In other words, it's kosher if a bright developer out there somewhere feels like "creating an iPhone app to sell for $0.99 (Netflix's words, not ours)." On the technical side, the API includes a REST API, Javascript API and ATOM feeds, and it also uses OAuth standard security "to allow the subscriber to control which applications can access the service on his or her behalf." It's time to get creative, folks.

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Microvision's PicoP-based pocket projector revamped for CEATEC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/407787849/

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

Now that pico projectors are actually headed to end users, we're seeing a number of companies hop in the fast lane to production. Take Microvision for instance -- these guys were taking their sweet time by introducing the PicoP beamer back at CES, and now we're looking at a freshly revamped version that has already begun shipping to OEMs for "evaluation and end-user testing." Reportedly, the device shown at CEATEC featured a "thinner, smaller and brighter PicoP engine and several image quality enhancements" over the unit displayed at CES, and it officially boasted a WVGA resolution that could be blown up to 100-inches in size. Unfortunately, we're still waiting to hear how long it'll be before this one slips into consumers' hands, but we've a feeling it'll be sooner rather than later.

[Via AboutProjectors]

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