Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Samsung Ego GT-S9402 luxury phone shames the word "luxury"

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/03/samsung-ego-gt-s9402-luxury-phone-shames-the-word-luxury/

We've got a bone (or three) to pick with this one, so we'll just get right down to the beating. For starters, anyone who can't recognize the striking similarity between this handset and Vertu's Ferrari Ascent Ti is obviously wearing Samsung-tinted glasses. Aside from the complete lack of originality, the Ego GT-S9402 also lacks a 3G radio -- an omission that's simply inexcusable given the estimated €1,200 ($1,513) price tag. Oh sure, there's a measly 1GB of inbuilt storage, tri-band GSM connectivity, a 5-megapixel camera (with LED flash), an FM radio module, Bluetooth 2.0, dual SIM slots and a microSDHC expansion slot, but for over a G, we expect something more than mid-range specifications in a "liquidmetal" alloy chassis. Color us emphatically unimpressed.

[Via UnwiredView]

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung Ego GT-S9402 luxury phone shames the word "luxury" originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Renesas aims to bring 1080p playback to your next cellphone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/renesas-aims-to-bring-1080p-playback-to-your-next-cellphone/

Believe it or not, this is far from the first we've heard of bringing high-def video to cellphones, and it's not even the first application to dabble in mobile 1080p. Still, we'll take all the innovation we can get in this space, and when the real Touch HD ever arrives, we'll be ready and waiting with Full HD capabilities. Announced at ISSCC 2009 in San Francisco, Renesas Technology is showing off an application processor that enables handsets to process 1,920 x 1,080 resolution video at 30 frames-per-second; the processor's core has a maximum operating frequency of 500MHz and supports MPEG-4 AVC / H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video formats. There's no telling when the 6.4- x 6.5-millimeter chip will be available en masse, but we need the HTCs of the world to get us a 1080p phone and a retina implant or two to read 0.2-size fonts before it even matters.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, HDTV

Renesas aims to bring 1080p playback to your next cellphone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Full screen Flash-enabling v2.53 PS3 firmware available now

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/full-screen-flash-enabling-v2-53-ps3-firmware-available-now/

We're still not over Sony's trickeration -- which led us to believe the version 2.53 firmware update was hitting prior to the US Thanksgiving holiday -- but we're not ones to turn down a free update under any circumstances. As of now (as in, right now), Sony's PlayStation 3 can support full screen embedded Flash videos courtesy of the latest firmware, so there's really no excuse for you not firing up the System Update and sucking it down. Get to it!

[Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Gaming

Full screen Flash-enabling v2.53 PS3 firmware available now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N97 vs iPhone... Fight!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nokia-n97-vs-iphone-fight/

Now this is a fight worth waiting for.

[Photo courtesy of Robert Scoble]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 vs iPhone... Fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N97 video hands-on!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nokia-n97-video-hands-on/

Once again Drita from Engadget Spanish has swooped in a caught some fantastic video of Nokia's new N97 in action. There's no point in beating around the bush -- just check out the device doing its thing after the break!

Continue reading Nokia N97 video hands-on!

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 video hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone [update: video!]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nokia-unveils-flagship-n97-phone/

Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and "DVD quality" video capture at 30fps, too. The specs are certainly impressive, let's see if the S60 5th Edition OS can support it. The N97 will launch with a retail price set at around €550 ($693) excluding subsidies and taxes, phone to ship in H1 2009.

Update: Hah, Nokia just boasted on stage at Nokia World that the N97 was the scoop "Engadget didn't get." O RLY??? Sure looks like the device codenamed Eitri that we broke to the world last month.

Update 2: Video demonstration after the break.

Update 3: Thanks for the widget love, Nokia (pic after the break, and thanks Eric).

Gallery: Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone

Read -- Press Release
Read -- A bit more detail
Read -- Even more detail

Continue reading Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone [update: video!]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone [update: video!] originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's 24-inch LED Cinema Display gets unboxed, is sure glossy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/apples-24-inch-led-cinema-display-gets-unboxed-is-sure-glossy/

A fortnight after going on sale, Apple's shiny new 24-inch LED Cinema Display has been acquired, unboxed and photographed for your drooling pleasure. Not much to say here outside of what's told in terrific detail by the pixels above, but just like the new MacBook family, there's lots of gloss to go around. Check the read link for a few more looks.

Filed under: Displays

Apple's 24-inch LED Cinema Display gets unboxed, is sure glossy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N97 hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nokia-n97-hands-on/

If you're like us, you haven't seen nearly enough of the N97 yet... right? Well fear not, faithful reader, as our intrepid comrade from Engadget Spanish, Drita, has nabbed a tasty hands-on with the phone in question. As you can tell from the pics, it's not quite as thin as its nearest competitors, but fairly sleek and stylish all the same (metal bezel and all), and that QWERTY keyboard looks practically edible. We're salivating at the thought of getting one to thoroughly put through its paces, but until then, let's all just sit back and soak in the handsome gallery below.

Update: Make sure you check out Drita's video hands-on as well!

Gallery: Nokia N97 hands-on

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia N97 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pioneer shows off 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, affirms compatibility with current players

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/pioneer-shows-off-16-layer-400gb-blu-ray-disc-affirms-compatibi/

When Pioneer first introduced its unicorn-like 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, we weren't sure if the thing would make it beyond the drawing board, let alone be compatible with existing BD decks. Over at the IT Month Fair in Taipei, Pioneer showed up to showcase the capacious disc, and better still, a DigiTimes report asserts that these are indeed compatible with Blu-ray readers already on the market. Currently, the 400GB disc is slated to hit mass production sometime between now and 2010, while rewritable versions won't hit until 2010 to 2012. Not like it really matters though -- a 1TB disc is on track for 2013, and you know you'll be waiting for the latest and greatest.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage

Pioneer shows off 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray Disc, affirms compatibility with current players originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nikon's geotagging GP-1 dongle now available

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nikons-geotagging-gp-1-dongle-now-available/

Nikon's geotagging GP-1 dongle now available

When we asked how you'd change Nikon's 720p-recording D90 DSLR, many of you globe-trotting photogs let out wistful sighs, gazed at the brightest star, and wished with all your might for automatic geotagging of photos. Like some trickster genie, Nikon is granting your wishes, but we're not sure the GP-1 GPS add-on is exactly what you had in mind. It slots into the hot-shoe on most cameras (clipping onto the strap for a few) and uses an unwieldy looking cable to connect to the body of your D200, D3, D700, D90, D300, or D3X. We can't say that we're particularly fond of the device's means of indicating status, either: red blinky light = no satellites; green blinky = three satellites; green solid = four satellites or more. C'mon Nikon, for $240 you couldn't integrate that cable into a hand strap and put more than two LEDs up in there?

[Via Gadget Lab]

Continue reading Nikon's geotagging GP-1 dongle now available

Filed under: Digital Cameras, GPS

Nikon's geotagging GP-1 dongle now available originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of! feeds.

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AMD Phenom II CPU roadmap foreshadows potent Spring

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/amd-phenom-ii-cpu-roadmap-foreshadows-potent-spring/

Not that AMD's being overly secretive about its forthcoming Phenom II processor, but it hasn't exactly been forthcoming with model names / estimated ship dates, either. And that folks, is why we look to leaks. A recent writeup over on Chinese site HKEPC details the impending chip family by listing over a dozen new CPUs (including two Phenom II X3s and seven Phenom II X4s) that are destined to be announced between CES and June 2009. Not surprisingly, some of the model names aren't -- shall we way, completely original -- with the 3GHz Phenom II X4 940 and 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 920 sharing eerily similar naming schemes with Intel's fresh Core i7. Of course, we're not sticklers for silly things like that -- we just want to see a few slabs of silicon get out the door on time. Is that really too much to ask, AMD?

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Desktops

AMD Phenom II CPU roadmap foreshadows potent Spring originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Emotiv's Epoc mind-controlled device delayed till next year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/emotivs-epoc-mind-controlled-device-delayed-till-next-year/

Not so long ago, in the cold, frosty month of February, we heard about mysterious headgear (an update of Project Epoc) that, if worn, could be used to do stuff like play insanely simple video games (emphasis on insanely). We also heard that this USB unicorn of the gaming universe would be ready by "Christmas" -- whatever that is. Well, according to Big Download, who spoke with a PR rep from Emotiv, the device has been delayed until "sometime" in 2009. The reason for the delay? The company wants to "make sure" the device works "as planned." Glad to hear it -- since we weren't interested in it as a fashion statement alone.

Filed under: Gaming

Emotiv's Epoc mind-controlled device delayed till next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FlingPC 3D controller for gamers that don't know any better

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/flingpc-3d-controller-for-gamers-that-dont-know-any-better/

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for yet another "revolutionary" motion sensitive game controller. Of course, 3DiJoy's FlingPC is no TrueMotion 3D or Wiimote -- at best, it seems to be the next wireless mouse. Consisting of an accelerometer-equipped Bluetooth remote and a USB dongle, and bundled with ten custom 3D games, this looks like the sort of off-brand toy that hapless parents inflict upon their long-suffering children. Interested? We bet you are. Shipping in December, packages start at $99 for both Windows and Linux versions. Of course, you can't play Mario Kart with the thing -- but don't worry, they do have a generic bowling game for you.

FlingPC 3D controller for gamers that don't know any better originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia's Z-Wave Home Control Center hands-on and video

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nokias-z-wave-home-control-center-hands-on-and-video/

Since hearing about Nokia's foray into the world of home automation, our curiosity has been seriously piqued. Thankfully, our girl-on-the-scene Drita has captured video of the new software / hardware combo in action on the Nokia World show floor. It looks like a fully decked out system is going to run you a hefty fee (given all the components required), but can you put a price on the extreme laziness it will enable? We didn't think so. Check out the thrilling video out after the break!

Gallery: Nokia's Z-Wave Home Control Center hands-on and video

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Continue reading Nokia's Z-Wave Home Control Center hands-on and video

Filed under: Cellphones, Household

Nokia's Z-Wave Home Control Center hands-on and video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Onkyo's HDC-1L straddles the fence between nettop and HTPC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/onkyos-hdc-1l-straddles-the-fence-between-nettop-and-htpc/

Now this -- this is an interesting character. Part nettop, part HTPC, the Sotec-branded HDC-1L series is a unique mixture of components that are traditionally found in either a diminutive desktop or a media center PC (but rarely both). First and foremost, this little bugger relies on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 CPU, and it only packs 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP, Ethernet, audio in / out, VGA, slot-loading DVD drive, a few USB ports and a remote input. Sadly, there's no integrated TV tuner to speak of, but with a starting price of just ¥59,800 ($640), we suppose you could add one and still come in well under the cost of most pre-fab HTPCs. The box should be available in Japan as early as tomorrow, and it'll purportedly be sold with a number of upgrades and extras for those fond of the bundled approach.

[Via Impress]

Gallery: Onkyo's HDC-1L straddles the fence between nettop and HTPC

Filed unde! r: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Onkyo's HDC-1L straddles the fence between nettop and HTPC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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