The Queen visited the head offices of Vodafone in Newbury last week on 14 November - perhaps to make sure that she got hold of her Blackberry Storm 
There is that joke that the Queen thinks that everywhere outside of Buckingham palace smells of paint, because everyone redecorates before she arrives.
Original post by Simon Perry
Filed under: Laptops
Hey guys / gals, check this out. Best Buy is practically admitting that it is just now starting to “gather insights from customers and work with manufacturers to design products that address [consumers’] needs.” In a rather odd release, the big box retailer is announcing two new laptops that′ll be exclusive to its store: the 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 and the 13.3-inch HP Pavilion d�nr. As for the former, expect a 1.2-inch thin frame, WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, 5.5-hours of battery life and an $1,199 price tag. The HP (shown after the break) will include a LED-backlit WXGA display, up to 4-hours of battery life, inbuilt webcam and precisely the same retail price. Eventually, Best Buy is hoping to expand the Blue Label series to other product lines, though there’s no word on where to find these elusive input cards that it’s supposedly using to pick and choose wares.
Continue reading Exclusive HP / Toshiba laptops first in Best Buy’s Blue Label lineup
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
We’ve seen some fairly fascinating things at CEATEC this year, but this one could be the biggest game-changer of ‘em all, if you’ll allow us just one buzzword. The LED-backlit 52-incher you see above comes attached to a not-at-all convenient solar floor panel which presumably provides at least some of the energy required to power this thing. We’ve no clue how close the design is to being viable for the commercial realm, but we’d say Sharp’s definitely headed in the right direction here.
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Pricing for Sharp’s sexiest, freshest and altogether loveliest HDTVs has arrived. As stated at CEATEC in Japan, the 65-inch LC-65X̿U-S will sell for a whopping ¥1.28 million ($12,225), while the 52-inch LC-52X̿U-S goes for ¥980,000 ($9,243). We’d expect those figures to be a touch lower whenever they come stateside, but rest assured, you’ll be breaking into the piggy bank if either of these is to be your next set.
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones
Japan is drenched in arcades with female-only purikura (photo booth for you gaijin) corners in which aflutter girls take pictures, bless them with sparkly decorations, and print them to book cover friendly stickers for all to see, for better or worse, to the horror of their moms, to the delight of their potential boyfriends. Let’s say Sharp was to take the purikura phenomenon and fuse it with to the teenage girl’s number one obsession: the cell phone (keitai for our Japanese readers). That’s exactly what it did with this concept phone and software, complete with a shared art space that can be collectively decorated over wireless networks. Scary? Perhaps. Cool enough to snap some video in awesome disbelief? Most definitely.
Gallery: Sharp tegakichat
Continue reading Sharp’s tegakichat concept phone brings the purikura booth to girls’ pockets
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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment
While we knew these new Sharp Aquos HDTVs were coming, we had no idea how thin and bright they were in person. Today at CEATEC 2008 Sharp officially announced its LC-65XS1U-S (65-inch) and LC-52XS1U-S (52-inch) AQUOS LCD HDTVs right at CEATEC Japan’s opening bell. The displays’ 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 1080P panel are nice and all, but we now know they measure in at a super gaunt 2.28-cm (0.9-inch) depth and are outfitted with a 2.1-channel, three-way five-speaker system that Sharp jointly developed with Pioneer. Meanwhile, Sharp boasts some serious energy savings with the new displays, promising a 26% reduction in power consumption. Expect them to hit stores in Japan October 15 in limited numbers for an undisclosed (read: ’spensive) price. Check the emaciated photos in the gallery if you’re so inclined.
Gallery: Sharp Aquos X̿
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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger
Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation
In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife. Now, in another Japanese world’s first (according to Nissan), you can use your mobile phone to open and start your car thanks to a new twist-up of Nissan Motors, NTT DoCoMo, and Sharp. The Sharp prototype cellphone pictured above integrates with Nissan’s Intelligent Key system already fitted in various Nissan vehicles. Look for the device to be demonstrated on September 30th with the opening of the CEATEC Japan show. Hiiiiya!
[Thanks, Stop Spamming]
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Original post by Thomas Ricker
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 df300ϋ, 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
Urmas Salu (a teenager!) won all of $40 for this re-enactment of The Simpsons opening sequence in LEGO. Watching it makes me ridiculously happy. via Boing Boing
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Original post by Patti Schiendelman
I was a comic book fan way before I was a mom. I’ve always liked exposing my kids at an early age to simple forms of complex ideas; I think it makes concepts familiar, letting kids get comfortable with sometimes difficult topics before they′re presented with the adult, “serious” versions - comics are the perfect medium for that! (Anyone remember the old Classics Illustrated comics?) Don’t worry that kids might be too young for these books - I’ve noticed my kids read them before they were really ready to understand everything they read, then came back to them when they were older and got more out of them. There are a number of comics about science and technology these are just some of our favorites. If anyone has others they especially like, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Though not really a comic, I have to start with David Macauley’s The New Way Things Work. His adorable (and smart!) little mammoths lead us through wonderfully illustrated explanations of simple machines to complex machines and on to the digital age. He also has a number of books on the inner workings of castles, big structures, and what’s underground - there are lots more.
We own most of Larry Gonick’s books they’re classics. He’s written guides to statistics, chemistry, genetics, the environment, physics, and more - our favorite is the Cartoon Guide to Physics. He′s also the author of a most excellent series on history.
We recently discovered the Max Axiom series for younger kids. The main character is a superhero type, and each book explores different concepts like electicity and sound. The comics are very accessible and easy to understand, and each one has a list of books for further reading. (the bio of Max Axiom says he lives in Seattle - I wonder if he goes to Dorkbot?)
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Original post by Patti Schiendelman
It’s true that Asian cellphones often get the newest features long before their North American counterparts, but the latest Japanese version of the iPhone 3G has something that hopefully won’t be deemed necessary any time in the near future.
In order to deter the unfortunate phenomenon of “upskirts” (which I shan’t go too deeply into on this here gadget blog, except to say that they’re pretty much exactly what they sound like), Apple has installed a loud shutter sound on the Japanese version of its popular phone, in order to help deter users from taking pictures unnoticed.
The shutter sound is triggered even when the phone is set to silent mode.
According to Cult of Mac, the feature is fairly common on the country’s various cellphone models, as the advent of camera phones has led to a rash of upskirts and their inverted counterpart, the “downblouse.” Many phones in the country make a similar shutter sound or say “cheese” when a photo is snapped.
Much to chagrin of many, the last version of the iPhone featured neither.
Original post by Brian Heater
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Yeah, we know pixel count doesn’t equal picture quality — but like it or not, it looks like 8 megapixels are poised to become the new 5 megapixels in the upper echelon of the cameraphone world this year. Samsung’s never a company to shy away from a challenge like that, and sure enough, details are emerging on a so-called smartphone that features S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, FM radio, GPS, WiFi, and a whopping 16GB of internal storage — not to mention a microSD slot that can take you up to 24GB. Oh, and there’s the little matter of that camera, which features an dual LED flash and 120fps video capture at QVGA resolution. Add in DivX and DLNA certification, and we’re kind of at a loss to figure out what’s missing here. Boundless, unchecked hype, maybe? No word on a release date here just yet.
[Via mobil.cz]
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Original post by Chris Ziegler
Filed under: Cellphones
Though they’ve already been well documented (heck, they’re already on sale in some parts of the world), Nokia’s just now getting around to making its foursome of Supernovas official. The new line reps mid-range fashion (think L’Amour, but not over the top) and comes in your choice of two candybars, a flip, or a slider as the 7210, 7310, 7510, or 7610, respectively. The 7210 features a tri-band GSM radio plus EDGE, a 2 megapixel camera, and an FM radio; look for it to launch in the third quarter for €120 (about $189). The 7310 apes the 7210′s look but adds support for changeable Xpress-On faceplates, TV-out, and support for GSM 850, and while all that extra kit adds €35 (about $55) to the price over the lesser model, it’s available now. The 7510 goes for the flip form factor but carries over most of the 7310′s spec sheet, waiting it out until the fourth quarter for a €180 (about $283) launch in scary colors like “Fatal Red″. Finally, the 7610 (no, not that one) moves up to a beefier 3.2 megapixel camera and hits next quarter for €225 (about $354).
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Original post by Chris Ziegler
Filed under: Cellphones
It looks like the folks at Samsung are keeping the fires burning with a batch of new handsets announced at the Singapore Telecommunications Exhibition. First on the block is the 3G, J800 Luxe slider, a mid-range phone with a 2.2-inch 176 x 200 display, two megapixel camera, FM tuner, A2DP support, and a slot for microSD cards. The electronics-maker is also offering the L700, a fairly unexciting candybar with a 2.1-inch screen, HSDPA, a choice of colors (pink, silver, and gold), and pretty much all the other features listed for the previous phone. The most interesting offering from this set is the Symbian-based L870 that we’ve seen previously, which the company claims is still on target for its August release. No word on pricing or release dates for the two new models, however.
[Thanks, Craig]
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Original post by Joshua Topolsky
Developages - Development and Technology Blog
