Developages - Development and Technology Blog

If you’ve got shopping on the brain, then these deals could assuage your money woes. Check out Gearlog’s deals for Thursday:

1. ThinkGeek is one of my favorite Web sites, mainly because they have the geekiest toys ever. They also have great deals, like this one. If you spend $30 or more at ThinkGeek between now and Thanksgiving, you can enter the coupon code ZOMBIETURKEY and you’ll get $10 shaved off your purchase. Remember, this is only good until November 26.

2. eCOST is having a great sale on HDTVs. The Samsung 𔤐HD 24-inch 1080p LCD HDTV is only $355. It has 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for sharp images. The TV costs $499 at Best Buy, so check out eCOST for a cheap deal.

3.Dell is having a Pre-Black Friday Sale. Thanks to Dealnews.com, there’s a handful of deals you can get your hands on before next Friday. The Dell SE178WFP 17-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor (left) is on sale from $159 to $99. The screen has a 600:1 contrast ratio, producing sharp images and text. Beat the Black Friday rush, and order now!

Original post by Jennifer Bergen

Filed under: Laptops

Penryn-based Monteniva just hit the streets a few months ago, but hardware geeks are fickle fellows, so Intel said today that Clarksfield, its Nehalem-based mobile CPU, will go into production in the second half of next year; sadly, there was no word on when the chips will actually be available to consumers in the Calpella platform, which (rumor has it) will have built-in WiMAX. Clarksfield will include an onboard memory controller and a bunch of other new techs like its desktop brethren, so the promise of performance gains comparable to what we’ve seen in the desktop benchmarks is there — we’ll just have to wait at least a year to enjoy them, so get comfy.

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Original post by Samuel Axon

Filed under: Handhelds

Like your smartphones with a little heft to them? Check out Motorola’s new V򥄀, an oversized Windows Mobile 6.1 device for those with inventory (and employees) to track. The 4.85 pound behemoth is intended for dashboards, not Dockers, and features a wealth of connectivity to ensure your workers are never offline, like HSDPA, 802.11a/b/g, and Bluetooth too. It also offers SAE J1708 and J1939 ports for communicating directly with the systems of whatever vehicle you mount it in, and a SiRFstarIII GSC3ef/LP GPS chipset for pinpointing exactly where your last shipment of widgets was delivered. The front sports a 6.5-inch VGA touchscreen and a backlit 65-key keyboard, while inside hides 128MB of RAM plus 256MB of flash for storage and a 624 MHz XScale PXA270 processor, a faster version of the same chip we’ve seen before in other shop-minded portables. Price isn’t set, but this could be the must-have gadget for your fleet in ‘09.

[Via NaviGadget]

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Original post by Tim Stevens

Filed under: Cellphones

Perhaps a nod to Samsung’s corny candybars and Nokia’s wild Earth-friendly hardware, Sony Ericsson has unveiled its GreenHeart concept, a never-destined-for-production handset that incorporates a bunch of green technologies that it’d like to bring to market over the coming years. Most of the GreenHeart’s ideas are totally logical and could be executed today — online user manuals, bioplastic and recycled plastic materials, and a charger that draws just 3.5mW in trickle mode, just to name a few — but the company is shopping around the whole lot of it to customers and “selected partners” to determine which eco-concepts should be implemented for production and in what order. Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson isn’t seeing fit to show any pictures of the GreenHeart right now, which we take to mean it looks like a tree.

[Via Unwired View]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Handhelds

We simply can’t get enough of cheap, nasty, and niche Windows CE devices — which is why the iOpen-081A is like music to our ears. Awesome music. This garish pile of plastic does just about everything you’d want a portable device to do, unless you need to do a lot of data entry (or any, since it doesn’t have a keyboard of any sort). Still, the iOpen features a 480 x 272 touchscreen display, an ARM926 CPU, 2GB of flash storage, 64MB of SDRAM, 802.11b/g, GPS, SD and MMC card support, as well as a USB port for hooking up something like a keyboard or flash drive. As a media player, it seems to support all of the familiar formats (MP3, MP4, WMA, AVI), and we wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few emulators hanging around on this bad boy. Hey, if you’ve got 2300 yuan (about $336) to spare and absolutely no concerns about what your devices look like, you could do worse.

[Via Pocketables]

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Well, what can we say? Here we have a TiVo HD with a subtle “XL” logo there on the bottom left, a more capacious hard drive and a Series 3 remote. That being the case, at least the one parked at CEDIA was outstandingly shiny — seriously, check it out over at Engadget HD.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Aw, snap. Not even 24 hours after we learned that a new DirecTV HD TiVo was on the way, in flies word from Denver that a new standalone TiVo is hitting even sooner — like, today. The TiVo HD XL will become the flagship unit in TiVo’s line by offering up 150 hours of high-def recording space, THX certification, a Series3 premium backlit remote and a bundled HDMI cable. As with the TiVo HD, this one boasts dual tuners for recording two HD programs simultaneously and a pretty similar design, but unlike the TiVo HD, this one will set you back a full $599.99. Those unaffected by the price tag can order one today from TiVo’s website, and we′re told to expect the box at various other retailers “as early as next week.” Full press release after the break.

Continue reading TiVo HD XL DVR: 150 hours of HD recording, $599.99, available now

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

While we new LG had a pair of DVR-packin’ plasmas lined up, nothing was officially official until now. The 42- and 50-inch P򯁤 plasmas were designed to hold up to 86-hours of programming (SD, we assume) on its 160GB of internal hard drive space, and the 8-day EPG should give you a pretty decent view of what’s coming on in the near future. Additionally, you’ll find a 30,000:1 contrast ratio, Energy Star compliance, a DVB-T tuner (plus an analog tuner), three HDMI 1.3 ports, 100Hz refresh rate and integrated speakers which are said to be “invisible.” Look for these to pop up soon (at least in Europe) for $1,799 and up.

[Via Gizmag]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Panasonic’s finally shipping the larger editions of its latest plasmas, from the updated and suddenly more famous 103-inch model to the 65- and 58-inch PZ800 series that have been leaking into U.S. stores recently. Japan also gets the top of the line PZR900 series that takes the YouTube access available in the latest PZ850 series and throws in a 1 TB DVR to go along with the 30,000:1 contrast ratio and acTVila HD video on-demand support, packed into 42-, 50-, and 58-inch panels. Of course, for those with 5.1 million yen ($48,314 U.S.) laying around and a large amount of wall space, the king sized TH-103PZ800 is nearly entry-level priced compared to its $70,000 predecessor, so why not treat yourself? You deserve it.

Read - TH-103PZ800
Read - TH-65PZ800, TH-58PZ800
Read - TH-50PZR900, TH-46PZR900, TH-42PZR900

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Original post by Richard Lawler

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Time flies when you’re having fun, but not when you’re waiting anxiously for a new piece of kit — particularly one that has been delayed numerous times. For Europeans waiting on pins and needles for the release of the PlayTV DVR for PlayStation 3, your time has arrived. Before rushing out to get one, however, might we interest you a short unboxing and a brief overview? No pressure whatsoever, though.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming

Er, you know that September 10th, €99 (about &pound78) PlayTV launch announced by David Reeves? Well, turns out that the Sony Europe president jumped the gun or the product’s been dragged through a trough of delay. Whatever the case, Sony Europe told Eurogamer that the PS3 TV tuner / DVR add-on will launch on the 19th of September now and cost a bit less at just 70 Quid. It’s also said to be HD ready should local DVB-T broadcasters decide to throw that switch.

[Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks Jimb]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Home Entertainment

The process took over a year, but it looks like common sense prevailed in Cablevision’s appeal of its network-DVR copyright infringement case. You might remember that Cablevision had planned to roll out “remote-storage” DVRs a couple years ago that would play programs off Cablevision servers instead of storing shows locally, but shelved the plan when the networks sued over the concept, claiming that separating content storage from playback would essentially constitute rebroadcast and infringe on their copyrights. The networks won the first round, but it seems like the technical distinction between local and remote storage wasn’t enough to convince the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that Cablevision was “broadcasting″ anything — the court just lifted the injunction barring Cablevision from supplying remote DVRs to its customers. We’re still big fans of managing our own content locally, but this is definitely a win for the consumer, as it’ll mean cheaper equipment costs and hopefully a larger selection of media available on demand — too bad we’re also betting that the networks will try and appeal this one to the Supreme Court.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Break out the tissues — the rumors were true. Or, at least it sure looks that way. As of right now, the only two TiVo units available on the outfit’s webstore are the TiVo HD and the Series2, and even if you do a bit of digging and find the still-active Series3 page, you’ll notice a glaring Out of Stock notification. Of course, you can still find leftover inventory hanging around at various resellers, but all signs are pointing to this being the final hurrah for the S3. Any touching moments you’d like to share in comments as we all bid the device a fond farewell?

[Thanks, Tim]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Back in May, TiVo’s VP of product marketing got all of our hopes up that the next announcement involving it and Amazon would include HD Unbox content. As you can very clearly see, this is most certainly not the case. Instead, we have the immense pleasure of informing internet-connected Series2, Series3 and TiVo HD owners that they can now buy wares from Amazon without leaving their couch. If browsing through Amazon’s extraordinarily huge store with just a remote sounds appealing to you, you’re in luck (and mildly insane). Also of note, the new Product Purchase feature will enable advertisers to “market products sold through Amazon on any broadcast or cable network, any TV show, or via any of TiVo’s extensive interactive advertising features.” In other words, next time you see Dwight using that iconic shredder, you can buy that bad boy right then and there. Take that, Staples.

[Via Zatz Not Funny]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

Fat kids want cake, skinny kids abstain, right? Whatever philosophy you subscribe to, chances are you’ll only see the world’s fittest stopping by a Trek Stop. This curious vending machine is currently parked in Madison, Wisconsin and enables cyclists to nab spare parts (an extra tube, patch kit, water bottle, etc.) or healthy snacks while rolling by. As for installation? Prepare to get greasy.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

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Original post by Darren Murph