Give Your iPhone 5 a Pro-Quality Mic with the Zoom iQ5

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974718/give-your-iphone-a-pro+quality-mic-with-the-zoom-iq5

The iPhone 5's capable of capturing really impressive video with its 8MP camera but the accompanying sound quality isn't all that great. But with this new add-on mic from Zoom, your iPhone 5 videos will finally have the audio they deserve.

The iQ5 is a Mid-Side stereo mic compatible with iOS 6.0 and above, connecting through an 8-pin Lightning port. It's central recording element rotates so you can film in both landscape and portrait. It can also be adjusted to pull both 90 and 120 degree fields as well as straight RAW audio and captures at 16-bit 44.1 kHz.

It will retail for $100 when it hits shelves later this year. Maybe Blue Microphones will have an updated version of its MIkey out before then.

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Polaroid's New Android Tablets Might Give Nexus Some Stiff Competition

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5974767/polaroids-new-android-tablets-might-give-nexus-some-stiff-competition

Polaroid has announced a new pair of Android tablets at CES. Their most obvious selling point is super-low pricing—but will their performance be able to stand up to the competition?

There are two new tablets—predictably, a 7-incher (M7) and a 10-incher (M10)—and when we say price is a big draw here, we really mean it. The little 'un is set to retail for $130 and the large one just $230. Super cheap, then, so if specs can match the price Polaroid could really be on to something.

The M10 packs a 10.1-inch 1,280 x 800 resolution screen, quad-core Cortex A7 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or storage, 5-MP rear camera, 2-MP front-facer, and HDMI-out. Running Jelly Bean it does, sadly, have a light Polaroid skin laid over the top, but at least that looks fairly crisp and clean—reminiscent of Windows 8, in fact.

Meanwhile the M7 offers a 7-inch 1,280 x 800 display, 1.6GHz dual-core A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB or storage, and a 2-megapixel front camera that sits to the left of the display. Once again, it's running Jelly Bean with Polaroid's skin over the top.

None of this is setting the world on fire, of course, but for the price the specs seem really solid. Engadget explains that it found the smaller tablet "very responsive when swiping through home screens and jumping in and out of apps", so it will be interesting to see how they stack up during real-world use. They might not quite pack all of the punch of Google's Nexus range—but they could well give it a run for its money. [Polaroid via Engadget and Engadget]

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Western Digital shows off upcoming WD Black hybrid drives, we go eyes-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/western-digital-shows-off-upcoming-wd-black-hybrid-drives/

As devices get thinner and thinner, there's no place in the world for chunky hard drives, and to that end Western Digital has been talking about bringing ultra-thin 5mm hybrid drive technology to the market. We just got a look at the new drives, which will be branded WD Black -- two 2.5-inch models consisting of a 500GB, 5mm thick (or thin) unit with 24GB of NAND memory, along with a 1TB, 7mm drive that also has 24GB of NAND. A spokesperson said that NAND could eventually go up to 32GB. There's no performance figures or pricing available yet, but WD has already started shipping copies of the new models to OEMs, and expects that they'll land in the laps of consumers within the next 6 months. For a brief video tour of the new products, head after the break.

Gallery: Western Digital WD Black hybrid drive

Continue reading Western Digital shows off upcoming WD Black hybrid drives, we go eyes-on (video)

Filed under: Storage

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Gigabyte shows off an extra-tiny desktop PC with a Core i7, April release date

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/gigabyte-shows-off-an-extra-tiny-desktop-pc-with-core-i7-due-in/

There was a surprise waiting alongside Gigabyte's Windows 8 tablet duo at CES: an exceptionally small desktop. The as yet unnamed mini PC is a minor marvel of engineering that's much smaller than a Mac mini at an 0.3-liter volume (10 fluid ounces), but still manages to cram in a Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. We're also looking at up to 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for heavy duty tasks. Expansion is about the only sacrifice, as there's just two USB ports, Ethernet and a rather curious choice of two HDMI ports on the pre-production model we saw. Gigabyte didn't have the system ready to test, but it should ship worldwide in April, with a price to be set later.

Filed under: Desktops

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Source: Engadget Chinese (translated)

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LG Ultra HD Touch Display hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/09/lg-ultra-hd-touch-display-hands-on/

We bet you're yawning at the mention of 4K TVs by now, but here's a slight twist on that high-res concept. LG is showing off the so-called Ultra HD Touch display at its CES booth. It's pretty much what it sounds like: a 4K TV with five-point multitouch. LG isn't demoing this product as a TV -- though technically it could work as your standard set; instead it has the Ultra HD Touch running an interactive program created by the French company Intuiface. We could tap to select and enlarge information on different periods of art history, and we could rotate and perform pinch-to-zoom with individual elements on-screen. We could also dive into a drawing app, which included different pen options for doodling directly on the display.

Obviously, this sort of educational setup would be perfectly suited for a museum, though LG hasn't committed to any particular application of this display. Essentially, the idea is to demonstrate that touch technology on a giant 4K TV is quite possible -- and pretty neat, if you ask us -- rather than to debut a new high-brow product. But we have a feeling there will be more of such setups to come. For now, at least, you can check out our hands-on video past the break.

Continue reading LG Ultra HD Touch Display hands-on (video)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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