Panasonic HDC-SD5

Panasonic has announced a new HD camera. They claim that it's one of the lightest and smallest of the lot - its dimensions and weight could justify this: Dimensions 2.6 x 2.6 x 5.3-inch, and weight 0.75 pounds. The camera records video with 1,920 x 1,080 pixels at 30 fps, and it records on SD or SDHC cards.





The HDC-SD5 has revamped image stabilization system and Leica Dicomar lenses. No word on the price or release of this camcorder yet.

Transformers PS2 Contoller

What more to feed your craze of Transformers. Real Gear a line of T-former toys are set to launch next month. The company in their portfolio has watches, digital cameras, and Bluetooth headsets. Alright then its just going to be a matter of time when this autobot takes over your PS2 gaming controller.

Samsung SGH-G800

The latest rumoured gadget from Samsung, the SGH-G800 seems ready to kill most of the competition. It has a compact camera with 5-megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom and Xenon flash, which is better than LED-based ones.

The G800 will also feature one microSD slot, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 pixel screen as well.

Logitech Wave Keyboard

After the launch of the Air Mouse, now it's time for the Wave Keyboard from Logitech. The Wave is one of the best wireless ergonomic keyboards the company has ever had in their entire range. It is designed in such a way that it holds your wrist comfortably in place.

Its keys are soft and cup your fingers; and to make things even more comfortable, the keys follow a certain wave-pattern to provide extreme comfort.

This keyboard is also available in a Cordless Desktop Wave system. The set adds a cordless laser mouse that will feature Windows Vista Flip 3D button. The Wave keyboard is priced at $49.99 (Rs. 2,000) and the Cordless Desktop Wave is priced at $89.99 (Rs. 3,600)

Acer Aspire L310 E63W

All desktops that we've received so far have been full ATX sized cabinets. The Acer Aspire series consists of full, as well as small size cabinet desktops. We have the latter form with us today. This Aspire sports a petite body compared to the regular that one sees, and can be placed any where because of its style. But as they say, what matters is the beauty within. When it comes to computers, we first need to look for something that can fulfill our needs of work or study and entertainment, games etc. Read on to find out how this style-body performed.

Bundle

Acer Small factor Cabinet

Desk-stand

Keyboard USB

Mouse Optical USB

Mouse Pad

Manual

Software CD

The system has Media Center preloaded but the very fact that you get a wired keyboard and mouse the system looses the whole media center concept.

For testing we received the System with the Acer AL2216W LCD otherwise there is no display bundled with the system and has to be purchased separately.

Specification

Processor: Core2 Duo E6300 (1.86 GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz FSB)

Operating System: Genuine Microsoft" Windows" XP Media Center Edition

Chipset: Intel 946GZ

Memory: 512 MB DDR 2 533 MHz

Graphics: Intel GMA 3000

Audio: Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel audio support

Storage

Hard Disk Drive: 160 GB SATA @ 7200 RPM

Optical Disk Drive: 8X DVD-RW CD-RW Super Multi Drive (Slot Loading DVD Writer)

I/O Devices

Acer Multimedia Keyboard

Acer Optical Scroll Mouse

Communication

LAN Connectivity: Integrated 10/100/1000 MBPS Ethernet Controller

Wireless LAN (802.11 b/g)

I/O Ports

Front Ports

2 x USB 2.0 Ports

IEEE 1394 port (4-pin)

Card Reader 5-in-1 (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, XD)

Headphone and microphone jacks

Rear Ports

4 x USB 2.0 Ports

IEEE 1394 port

Audio jacks (7.1 Channel & MIC)

DVI port

VGA port

Kensington lock slot

Dimensions

Chassis: Silver Steel Color - 25 cm (H) x 20 cm (L) x 6 cm (W) 3-litre housing

Bundled Software

Norton AntiVirus

Adobe" Reader"

CyberLink" PowerDVD"

NTI CD-Maker Gold

Acer Empowering Technology: eRecovery Management, ePerformance Management, eDataSecurity Management, eMode Management; One Button Recovery (OBR).

Design

The Acer Aspire L310 E63W is a neat and elegant looking hardware. After easily installing the desk-stand in under a minute, the cabinet can be placed standing or sleeping on the table; there are rubber-feet placed on one side of the CPU, and also under the desk-stand to prevent it from scratches.

The cabinet has a silver and chrome finish with off-shades of grey which makes for a nice a combination. The ventilation for the small components is taken care of completely by the steel meshes in the front and on the right side (when you're facing the front of the CPU) closest to the processor housing. The front of the cabinet comprises of the slot loading DVD Writer. Thankfully, there is an eject button provided, so you don't have to face troubles as seen with Macs.

The ports on this side are orderly tucked behind a flap. On the same side, the chrome lines hold LEDs that denote Network Activity (LAN/WLAN), Disk Activity, and Power on.

Performance

The overall performance of the Acer Aspire L310 E63W wasn't too satisfying. Even though it has a Core 2 Duo processor, there is no way that will alone boost the performance of the computer. It is an over all combination that matters. In this product's case, just a measly 512 MB of RAM, that too shared with the on-board graphics, making the Aspire L310 E63W quite sluggish. We opened about 6 windows along with tabs, toggling back and forth between them left the computer frozen at times. The system comes bundled with Windows XP Media Centre Edition. While using this OS, scrolling and listing of songs and video took time. I had to wait for names and album art to show up.

Coming to games, the on-board graphics from the Intel 946GZ chipset is not even worth mentioning. It's best to stick to games like Quake 3 and Counter Strike which don't demand much of graphics. Don't expect 100 fps in CS either. If you add another 512 MB of RAM, the system would have been better to a great extent in most of the other applications, if not gaming.

Conclusion

The Acer Aspire L310 E63W (less the monitor) sells for Rs. 41,499 plus taxes with a 1 year onsite warranty. Here, the price basically shoots because of Core 2 Duo. There are AMD versions of the same available, which are reasonably priced. The same configuration, with an AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ processor, and an nForce 6150 chipset motherboard can be fetched for 30K. There is also a full blown version available with a TV Tuner, Vista Home Basic, and a wireless keyboard and mouse that will cost 36K, which is still lesser than this Intel option. But even all of these come with just 512 MB of RAM, there is only one option from the series that is Linux loaded, and has 1 GB of RAM priced at 30K. So as you can see, only the AMD options seem to make sense here. As for this Intel version, I wouldn't want to opt for it even if it were bundled with another half a gig of RAM. The price of RAM is at an all time low and Acer should seriously consider bundling 1 GB to complement the other quality hardware they use. That would boost the performance significantly and in turn, its value.

Sony Ericsson K700i Spy Phone

Spycatcher has a wide range of spy phones, and their latest addition is the Sony Ericsson K700i spy phone.
Spycatcher is retailing the special spy version of the K700i for £140 in the UK. Using this device you’ll be able to dial the hidden number (which only you would know), and the phone will automatically use its microphone to pick up whatever is going on around the phone.

Nokia is about to Announce a Black 8GB N95

Rumor has it that Nokia is due to announce an 8 GB version of N95.Well, it’s not really a rumor as it’s on Nokia’s own site, however it’s not yet announced. The upped memory would make it more competitive against Apple's smartphone, as the top iPhone model boasts an 8GB capacity, as will Sony Ericsson's top of the range Walkman phone, the W960. The rumours, which began when an xml file suggesting an 8GB model was spied on the Nokia website, are also suggesting that this version would be touted as a special music edition and would come in black.

The Personal Carbon Calculator on Your Mobile

A personal carbon calculator is one of the winning projects of the BSI Sustainability Design Awards 2007.
Andreas Zachariah, a student graduating with an MA in Industrial Design Engineering and the first accepted to study at the Royal College of Art (RCA) with an MBA, is one of this year’s winners of BSI’s Sustainability Design Awards 2007 for his “Carbon Hero™” personal carbon calculator.
Carbon Hero calculates the exact carbon footprint of the user’s transport habits by identifying different forms of transport taken as a user travels through ‘space’, by virtue of their relative location, velocity and the pattern of their activity. All of this comes in a unit the size of a key ring.
Once gathered, the data is downloaded to software on a PC or mobile phone which displays the amount of carbon used and the amount of credits needed to be purchased in order to offset the amount used.
Andreas comments “In an age where consumers are making purchasing decisions based on their environmental impact there’s no reason why they shouldn’t make the same choice about transport, be it public or private, on a daily basis. Online methods for calculating personal carbon footprints fall down on the fact that they rely on the use to estimate usage. Carbon Hero™ uses sophisticated sensors to pinpoint usage thus giving a much more accurate assessment of the user’s impact on the environment”.
With the availability of detailed information provided by Carbon Hero, the user can choose to change their transport habits to reduce their impact on the environment, or offset usage through carefully selected projects.

Mobile TV for Nokia Eseries devices

ROK TV today announced that it is offering live and on-demand mobile TV streamed over existing 2.5G and 3G and networks as a subscription service aimed specifically at the users of Nokia Eseries devices.

OK Entertainment Group, a leading mobile technology and applications development company and a specialist in the provision of mobile TV, has been appointed by Nokia to provide the service which is available via the Downloads! Service on selected Nokia Eseries devices.
ROK TV is available in the UK now and will subsequently deploy into mainland Europe from August onwards
Commenting on the plans, David King, business development manager, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia said "Nokia Eseries customers tend to be professional people who seek instant information and entertainment, on-demand, so it is a logical and practicle step to offer our customers a business-orientated mobile TV service."
"We're absolutely delighted to be working with Nokia on this exciting deployment of mobile TV" said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman of ROK. "As we know there is a huge and as-yet untapped market for live and instantly-available business and financial news amongst mobile TV customers."
ROK TV is available via the Downloads! Service on such devices as Nokia E61i and Nokia E65, initially, which the owner simply needs to activate to begin watching the services. Two channel packages will be offered - a 5 channel 'Strictly Business' package, to be charged in the UK at £5.00 a month, with a heavy emphasis on business news and information channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe and regional news channels, and a 10 channel 'ROK All' TV package, to be charged at £10.00 a month containing all the live business news channels as well as additional sports news, music videos and comedy channels. As a trial, both TV packages will be free to view for the first 2 weeks.
"We are only targetting this service directly to those Nokia Eseries customers who have a data package in their mobile tariff to ensure subscribers do not pay additional data charges to their network operators." added Kendrick.
ROK TV requires 10mb of GPRS data per hour of streaming and, with mobile TV viewing patterns being for a few minutes at a time, once or twice a day, the typical monthly viewing duration is between two to three hours.
"We know what the consumers want from mobile TV and we will provide it for them," added Kendrick."We are finalising the last of the content agreements now, to include news channels in all the major European languages.”

Sony Ericsson W999i

The pictures of this alleged model from Sony Ericsson are making rounds around the web. The picture below shows a very similar looking handset to be launched.

The model seems to be the W999i and will hopefully follow the steps of W950i with a smart OS. The phone has a QWERTY keypad, a lift off from Sony Ericsson's M600. Rumors suggest the handset will be of around 12.5 mm thickness and will house a 2 MP auto focus camera. The phone screen will be 2.4-inch and support a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. All this buzz will just have to wait for an official announcement from Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson PSP Phone

Rumors are doing the rounds that Sony Ericsson is vying to get a gaming phone in a head-to-head competition against the N-Gage from Nokia. Rumor has it that it maybe a PSP phone we are looking at; how cool is that? Sony Ericsson has enjoyed success with its Walkman and Cybershot series of handsets.

The success of these sub-brands have been so high that Sony can now go ahead and make a big difference in the mobile gaming sector as well; especially with the PlayStation brand backing it up. So all there is to it is hope that Sony Ericsson will race ahead to the top with such mobiles.

Sony Ericsson P1i & T650i Micro Sites Launched

Sony Ericsson has just launched two mini sites dedicated to the mentioned two devices, giving users an ability to explore them in a Flashy environment.

You can rotate each of these or quickly go through their features. The nice mini sites use Sony Ericsson’s vibrant colors and are really pleasant for eyes. It’s not like having one in your hand, but it’s the next best thing. Here are the links to P1i and T650i mini sites.

LG's New Touch Screen 5 Mega Pixel YouTube phone

LG's new KU990 will be the next version of the Prada-like keypad less phone is reported to have a 5 and will also carry a flash.
The touchscreen KU990 will have an HSDPA connectivity to help view and upload videos on YouTube, participate in video chats or just surf the web. The 3-inch screen, and MP3player and microSD card slot of the original Prada will be supplemented by an FM radio. The phone will come with an array of pre-loaded applications, including the Muvee video editing application.
So far there is no word on pricing or release date for KU990. Though according to media leaks, the phone will be with Vodafone as a network and will sees its European release later in the year.

LG Launches a New LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’

Following the phenomenal success of the first LG Shine handset within the Black Label Series, LG Unveils a striking addition to the LG Shine, the LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’.

Boasting the same amazing features as the original LG Shine handset, the full metal bodied jacket has received a makeover, turning it a dark and sophisticated metallic grey.
The brand-new LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’ offers mobile users a stylish phone with a high technical specification. Taking influence from futuristic trends, the LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’ presents a handset with a mature and refined finish. Edgier than black and more chic than silver, LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’ combines the best of both looks and will allow both men and women to shine. Those who loved LG Shine the first time around will be clamouring to get their hands on this new addition to the range, confirming LG as style leaders.
A fully metal bodied super-slim handset, the LG Shine launched in the UK market in February 2007. The sleek design defies its high-tech functionality which includes a 2 mega-pixel camera by Schneider Kreuznach. Access to LG Shine’s menu system is by an easy-to-use multi-function scroll wheel and on board software includes a comprehensive music player (with MP3 WAV and AAC++), GPRS and EDGE network compatibility and Bluetooth.
Jae Bae, Executive Vice President of Overseas Sales & Marketing Division for LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company said, “The 2nd Black Label Series has been a phenomenal success with sales of the LG Shine reaching over 2.5 million worldwide. We are confident LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’ will continue to build on this success, taking LG Shine to wider audiences and those who favour new trends, ensuring it remains this year’s iconic handset.”
Jae Bae also comments, “The addition of the LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’ to the series will appeal to customers who demand the highest standards in style and technology. This handset takes the LG Shine to the next level, offering an elegant and stylish alternative to its predecessor.”
LG Shine ‘Titanium Black’ will be launched in the UK, France, Netherlands and Austria. It will be available in major mobile dealerships from the end of July. The LG Shine, now available in over 40 countries, has boosted LG’s presence in the ever competitive mobile market, helping establish it as a leading global mobile manufacturer.

Apple MacBook Pro

As part of a multiple launch Apple has unveiled its new MacBook Pro notebook computer featuring the new Intel Core Duo processor, which delivers up to four times the performance of Apple's current PowerBook G4. Touted as the first Mac notebook based on an Intel processor, the MacBook Pro sports a one-inch thin aluminium enclosure and weighs only 5.6 pounds. It includes a built-in iSight video camera, Front Row software, Apple's new patent-pending MagSafe magnetic power connector, and the Apple Remote.

Apple says that its MacBook Pro is up to four times faster than the current PowerBook G4. The in-built iSight video camera uses Apple's iChat AV to offer video conferencing on-the-fly. According to Apple, the Front Row media experience and the Apple Remote together promise to transform the Pro into a veritable portable theatre. Front Row enables consumers to enjoy a wide variety of content such as songs from their iTunes music library, photo slideshows from iPhoto, videos including TV shows, Podcasts, iMovies, etc, wherever they might go. Apple s patent-pending MagSafe magnetic power connector magnetically couples the power cord to the MacBook Pro, thus allowing for an easy way to charge the notebook's battery. MacBook Pro features iLife'06 which is Apple's Gen-Next suite of digital lifestyle applications; comprising major new versions of iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand as also iWeb which is an all-new application allowing easy creation and publishing of amazing Web sites. The Pro incorporates features including a much brighter 15-inch display; a 667 MHz front-side bus; and 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable up to 2GB. The Pro also has ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 PCI Express graphics - either with 128MB or with 256MB of dedicated GDDR3 graphics memory; built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate); integrated AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g WiFi wireless networking; scrolling TrackPad; and Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor designed to protect the hard drive in case of a fall. MacBook boasts of the Mac OS X version 10.4.4 "Tiger" including Safari, Mail, iCal, iChat AV, Front Row and Photo Booth. Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Computer, said, "MacBook Pro delivers dual-processor desktop performance in a thin, sleek notebook. The new MacBook Pro, with its Intel Core Duo dual-core processor, delivers the performance of not just one, but two G5 processors in the world s most stunning one-inch thin design." MacBook Pro will be available in two models: the 1.67GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro and the 1.83 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro; both through Apple Authorised Resellers. While the 1.67 GHz, 15-inch model will retail for a maximum price of Rs 1,17,000; the 1.83 GHz Pro will ship at a price of Rs 1,43,500.

Kingston 266X 8GB Compact Flash

There have been numerous prior releases of fast flash memory cards. This time, Kingston claims that their compact flash cards to be 266 times faster than the standard ones. These cards are available in 2 GB, 4GB and 8 GB capacities. They sport twice the write speeds of their previous Ultimate lineup of compact flash cards.




These cards will be bundled with MediaRECOVER software and will have a lifetime warranty. The prices for these cards in order of their capacity are $83 (Rs. 3,320), $144 (Rs. 5,760) and $280 (Rs. 11,200). It seems to be an expensive deal for faster write speeds.

Kodak EasyShare V1003

The lifestyle-series of digital cameras, dubbed the V-series, from Kodak received a shot in the arm when they launched their 10 MP camera: the Kodak EasyShare V1003.

The Kodak V1003 features rounded edges on all sides and a smooth and glossy paint job. It's available in 9 different shades, internationally. Here in India, we are graced by just the black and white versions. The one we got was all white, shiny and slippery; or maybe it was just our fingers? It sports a 1/1.8-inch CCD that has a total resolution of 10.38 MP (3738 x 2776) and an effective 10.16 MP (3676 x 2764) resolution. It features a 36-108 mm (35 mm equiv.) lens that has a 3x optical and 4x digital zoom, with a shutter speed of 8-1/2000 sec.

It uses a 2.5-inch, 154,000 pixel resolution LCD screen at the back as the viewfinder (the V1003 is not fitted with an optical viewfinder). The V1003 is equipped with a digital stabilization function in the form of an anti-blur warning system. On-board storage is 32 MB with an option to use SD/MMC cards for expansion.

- KODAK Easyshare V1003 Zoom Digital Camera

- KODAK Li-Ion Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KLIC-7003

- Carry strap

- USB cable

- 5V AC adapter with power cord for in-camera battery charging

- Getting Started Guide

- Custom camera insert for Printer Dock

Leopard. Conquer Time & Spaces.

Mac OS X version 10.5 “Leopard” is the name of the upcoming sixth major release of the Mac OS X operating system for Apple's Mac line of personal computers. It was shown to developers for the first time at the 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It is currently available to Apple Developer Connection subscribers for private beta testing. A feature-complete beta version was distributed to developers at the 2007 WWDC. The final release is slated for October 2007.

Leopard contains over 300 changes and enhancements, according to Apple. Some notable features include support for writing 64-bit graphical user interface applications, an automated backup utility called Time Machine, support for Spotlight searches across multiple machines, and large revisions to most core operating system components.
Mac OS X v10.5 has been the subject of a delay. When first discussed in June 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had stated that Apple intends to release Leopard at the end of 2006 or early 2007. A year later, this was amended to "Spring 2007", however on April 12, 2007, Apple issued a statement that its release would be delayed until October 2007 because of the development of the iPhone.

System requirements

The pre-release documentation states the following system requirements:
A G4 (800 MHz or faster)-, G5- or Intel-based Mac

A DVD drive

At least 512 MB RAM

7 GB of hard disk space – 12 GB if Xcode is also installed

The latest Firmware

FireWire Ports

New features

Apple has published a list of the new features and capabilities planned for Mac OS X v10.5:

End-user features

All of the following features, although posted on the Apple website, are said by Apple to be subject to change.

New Desktop: comprised of a redesigned 3-D dock with a new grouping feature called Stacks.

Time Machine, an automated backup utility which allows the user to restore files that have been deleted or replaced by another version of a file.

Front Row and Photo Booth are currently only available with the purchase of a new Mac, but will be included with Leopard. Front Row has been reworked to closely resemble the interface used by the Apple TV.

Spaces, an implementation of "virtual desktops" (individually called "spaces"). It allows multiple desktops per user, with certain applications and windows in each desktop. Users can organize certain Spaces for certain applications (i.e., one for work-related tasks and one for entertainment) and switch between them. Exposé will work inside Spaces, allowing the user to see at a glance all desktops on one screen.)





Spotlight incorporates additional search capabilities such as Boolean operators, as well as the ability to search other computers (with permissions).

Redesigned Finder with features similar to those seen in iTunes 7.

Quick Look, a framework allowing documents to be viewed without opening them in an external application.

Enhancements in Universal Access: significant improvements to applications including VoiceOver, along with increased support for Braille, closed captioning and a new high‐quality text-to-speech voice.

Enhancements to Mail including the additions of RSS feeds, Stationery, Notes, and to-dos. To-dos use a system-wide service that is available to all applications.

Dashboard enhancements, including Webclip, a feature that allows users to turn a part of any web page into a live Dashboard widget, and Dashcode to help developers code widgets.

iChat enhancements, including multiple logins, animated icons, and tabbed chats, similar to features present in Pidgin, Adium and the iChat plugin Chax; iChat Theater, allowing users to incorporate images from iPhoto, presentations from Keynote, videos from QuickTime, and other Quick Look features into video chats; and Backdrops, which are similar to chroma keys, but use a real-time difference matte technique which does not require a green or blue screen. iChat will also implement desktop sharing, a feature previously available with Apple Remote Desktop.

Parental controls now include the ability to place restrictions on use of the Internet and to set parental controls from anywhere using remote setup.

iCal calendar sharing and group scheduling as well as syncing event invitations from Mail.

Boot Camp will be included. It is a software assistant which has been available as a beta release download for Mac OS X v10.4 from Apple’s website since April 5, 2006. It assists in the installation of Windows XP or Windows Vista to a separate partition (or separate internal drive) on Intel-based Macs.

New Menu Bar, which is now transparent and it is no longer rounded, which was a design feature since Mac System 1.0.

Safari 3.0.x will be included.

Version history

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A241), released August 7, 2006.

Leopard Preview Update version 1.0 (build 9A241e), released August 31, 2006

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A283), released October 12, 2006

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A303), released November 9, 2006

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A321), released December 12, 2006

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A343), released January 18, 2007

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A377a), released March 1, 2007

Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A410), released April 12, 2007

Mac OS X v10.5 WWDC-beta (build 9A466), released June 11, 2007.

This was the first feature-complete version of Leopard which was released to developers attending WWDC 2007 and was later made available to Select and Premier members of the Apple Developer Connection. Mac OS X v10.5 Developer Preview (build 9A477), released July 2007.