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Aside from “Would you pay $130 for a wired keyboard with an iPod dock built-in?”, the other question we have for the Razer Pro|Type Keyboard is “Why does it only come in white?”

Razer’s probably assuming that future owners will probably hook this baby up to their iMac. But where does that leave the Mac Pro owners, not to mention those who use non-white iPods and computers—like a PC?

Full details here.

Tags: iPod docks, keyboards, Razer Pro|Type Keyboard

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Original post by Rico

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays

Don’t look now, but HP just got official with two new digital photo frames that could barely be any further apart in terms of size. On the small side, we’ve got the 3.5-inch df300a1, which rocks a 320 x 240 resolution display (with a 400:1 contrast ratio) and has room for up to 45 pictures on the internal memory. If that’s not enough, users can load up additional images by way of an SD / SDHC / MMC slot, and while the AC / USB power options are dandy, the 2-hour battery life on the rechargeable cell within is super-fine. Sitting tight on the other extreme is the 10.4-inch df1000, with 512MB of inbuilt storage (and its own USB port), a 800 x 600 resolution panel, two interchangeable frame mats, dual stereo speakers and support for video playback. You’ll be looking at $59 for the little guy, $219 for the big one.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays

Look Sony, we were there in person to confirm that your digiframe building skills are world-class. Did you really need to phone up your lagging half (give or take a few dozen percent) for its help here? Whatever the case, the Q4-bound Sony Ericsson IDP-100 frame isn’t too different from its fiercest rivals we’ve got a 7-inch WVGA screen, built-in Bluetooth, a M2 Memory Stick slot (with support for SD, microSD and MS Duo), USB port, enough internal storage for 500 snaps, an active touch control on the frame itself and a world clock for good measure. Somehow, Sony SE spins the omission of a remote as a good thing, but if it was smart, it would enable cellphone control and have a real winner on its hands. Just sayin’, is all.

[Via Gearlog]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Feel that heat, Touch Pro? That’s right — the Great QWERTY Smartphone War of 2008 is officially gearing up for kickoff now that Sony Ericsson has announced a firm date for the first handful of lucky countries to be scoop up the mighty XPERIA X1. Sweden, Germany, and the UK will be the inaugural launch sites come September 30, with no fewer than 32 more on tap in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America for the fourth quarter of the year. North America, China, Australia, and Russia are also listed as committed launch regions, though dates for those will be announced “in the coming months″ — scary verbiage considering that they weren′t even willing to slap the Q4 label there. 2009′s a long way off yet, and if there’s a Touch Pro in front of us… well, let’s just say that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you catch our drift.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones

On Friday, ASUS announced its latest entry into the highly competitive and exciting world of tweaked Windows Mobile phones, with the introduction of the P552w. The full-touchscreen device boasts a speedy 624MHz CPU, a 240 x 320 QVGA display, HSDPA / UMTS radios, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP), 256MB of flash memory, 128MB of DDR, plus support for microSD / SDHC cards. What’s really of note, however, is the inclusion of a skinned UI utilizing a technology called “Gester,” which is controlled via slides of the finger, pinching, and flicks (think HTC’s TouchFlo). The company is tacking on a few pieces of proprietary software as well, such as “EziPhoto” and “EziMusic,” and claims that the device has “seamless Google integration.” Clearly ASUS has backed away from that 3D interface we saw at Mobile World Congress this year, though we suspect the new UI — dubbed “Glide” — bears more than a passing resemblance to it. No word yet on release dates or prices, but you’ll know when we do.

[Via Electronista]

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Just like efforts to close the analog hole, our old friend the broadcast flag (don’t remember what that is and how it was defeated? Take a quick trip back to 2005 with us) has reared it’s ugly head again. Displaying the kind of tenacity rarely seen outside of horror movie villains and potential presidential candidates, some Vista Media Center users have apparently gotten the above popup while trying to record broadcast TV from NBC. Since the FCC regulation giving the broadcast flag it’s power to remotely disable your recording ability was overturned, not only should it not be enabled, there′s no reason the system should respond if it were. The EFF’s working with the makers of the HDHomeRun to find out why this happened at all (although it’s not the first time); whether it’s an honest mistake somewhere or if Microsoft slipped a bit of extra DRM into its latest OS.

[Via EFF]

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Original post by Richard Lawler

Filed under: Gaming

Oh great lorf of the mighty rumble, the DualShock 3 has finally been spotted on US retailer soil. The one above caught the attention of Stephen at a Maryland Circuit City. Now best get on the horn with your local big box, no telling how long supplies will last.

[Thanks, Stephen B.]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Laptops

We know you Toshiba lovers out there have been twiddling your thumbs for weeks on end just waiting, praying, hoping that the beastly X205-SLI would get updated with a Penryn chip. Thankfully for all four of you, the wait is over. Announced today, Tosh is cranking out the 17-inch X205-SLi2 and X205-SLi4, which both house a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo 󏃤 processor, integrated HD DVD-ROM / DVD burner, built-in Harman Kardon speakers (with subwoofer) and twin 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPUs. As for the former, you’ll find 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a pair of 160GB 5400 RPM drives, a 1,440 x 900 resolution panel, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 802.11a/g/n WiFi, webcam / microphone and a fingerprint reader to boot. The SLi4 ups the ante by tossing in an extra gig of memory, 7200 RPM HDDs, an external USB HDTV tuner, 1,680 x 1,050 panel and a bundled remote. Grab yours now for $1,999.99 or $2,499.99, respectively.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: HDTV

Curious to know what about $3 million bought Toshiba on Super Bowl Sunday? If so, the recycled commercial is after the break. So, what do you do when the game’s over, Toshiba?

[Thanks, Peter]

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Continue reading Toshiba’s Super Bowl 2008 ad: the final act of desperation?

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Carbon nanotubes have a ton of promise, and we’ve seen a lot of prospective applications for the tech, but researchers at Stanford, working with Toshiba, have managed to demonstrate the first use of nanotubes in chips that run at commercially-viable speeds. The chip features 256 ring oscillators and packs over 11,000 transistors in just one hundredth of a square inch. When wired with the nanotubes and powered up, the chip ran at speeds between 800MHz and 1.06GHz — not desktop speeds, to be sure, but still promising. The team says that while the experiment bodes well for the future, we shouldn’t expect any direct applications yet — but you know we’re dreaming of tiny implantable supercomputers anyway.

 

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Displays

While we love the low power consumption and ultra-high contrast achieved by OLEDs, there’s one thing we hate: OLED’s short lifespan. Toshiba and Panasonic are looking to change the game by announcing a new technology today that doubles the life of OLED displays. We’re talking a bump from the stated 30,000-hour lifespan of Sony’s XEL-1 TV to somewhere beyond that of your typical 50,000-hour LCD panel. Tosh and Panny’s trick is to use a new metal membrane inside a prototype 20.8-inch panel to move light more efficiently. Let’s see if this new development brings forth Toshiba’s timeline for an OLED TV any. Please Toshiba, with sugar?

[Via techradar]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Although Japan Today doesn′t realize that Blu-ray discs aren′t DVDs, they do have some interesting stats that shed some light on why Warner might have chose to go BD exclusive. The report is from a study of 2,300 Japaneese electronic retailers, and shows that 90-percent of HD movie player sales — not counting the Ṕ — were owned by Blu-ray. The other interesting thing to note is that although Americans couldn’t care less about recording to shiny round discs, the Japanese continue to love it, and HD disc recorder sales were up to 20-percent in November and December from 6.1-percent in October. Leading the way in recorder sales was Sony, followed by Panasonic and Sharp.

 

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Original post by Ben Drawbaugh

Filed under: Laptops

Forget the MacBook Air: those folks seeking the absolute lightest notebooks on the planet know that Windows machines are still the only way to go, and Toshiba has proven that once again with an official 3G upgrade to the already impressive Portege R500. According to Akihabara News (which seems to be a little confused concerning the model number here), two new 12.1-inch, HSDPA-equipped configurations will be available this month: the ultra-lightweight (and ultra-pricey) R500-11J, highlighted by a 64GB SSD drive and impressive 1.72-pound package, and the cheaper, optical drive-packing R500-11I, which features the same 1.20GHz U7600 CPU and 2GB of RAM, but introduces a less appealing 120GB HDD. Pricing should be around €2,500 ($3,658) for the high-end 11J and €2,050 ($3,000 even) for the heavier 11I.

 

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Original post by Evan Blass

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

“Hang on” is right.

[Thanks, Rye C.]

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Original post by Paul Miller

Earlier in the week, we looked at bargain basement dSLRs under £400, today we move up a notch and give you our view on the best budget dSLRs for under £500.
Budget dSLRs (under £500)
Nikon D40X
(around £395/$670)
This well-built 10 megapixel snapper offers fabulous image quality, instant-on response, a nippy auto focus system, auto ISO, three […]

Original post by Mike Slocombe