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Pantel debuts the latest in waterproof TVs!

Pantel is preparing updated versions of its waterproof Mirror TV line: LCD TV sets that are mirrors when not in use and can go in wet environments such as outdoors, a shower or a sauna.

The new offerings will come in four screen sizes ranging from 17 to 32 inches and are expected to begin shipping to retailers by the end of the year.

Now what will they think of next!

More at TWICE.

Tags: pantel, waterproof tv

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

Oh, we get it. The SPH-󅠨-inspired, Pomera Digital Memo DM10 is built for quick data entry on the go. As such it features a full-size folding keyboard, 2-second startup, 20-hour battery life, microSD expansion, and 4-inch VGA display in a device the size of a 1.18-inch thick paperback. But we’re not going to hand over $269 of our hard-earned cash when we can take home an 8.9-inch netbook for $30 more. You, however, are free to do as you please when the DM10 lands in Japan on November 10th. Just prepare yourself for haughty looks of contempt from behind our pipes and moleskins — hmph.

[Via Impress]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals, Wireless

Yesterday was a pretty big day for Sprint (along with a number of laptop manufacturers), as America’s had its first major glimpse at widespread WiMAX. A few other tidbits lingering from the mayhem were the obligatory speed tests — which were decidedly average — and what’s believed to be a prototype Aspire One with inbuilt WiMAX capabilities. Said netbook was residing within an Intel-branded van, and while it wasn’t made clear if Acer had any plans of bringing such a beast to the commercial realm, the folks at Laptop found the WiMAX surfing to be respectable, but not mind-blowing, as the New York Times homepage took around 15 seconds to load completely. Mr. Dave Zatz was able to pull down around 4,600kbps (and 1,519kbps up) in an impromptu speed test, while Kevin over at jkOnTheRun only managed 3,435kbps down / 1,555kbps up. As always, YMMV.

Read - Hands-on with WiMAX-enabled Aspire One
Read - XOHM Speed Test I
Read - XOHM Speed Test II

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

While the rest of the world was in some kind of mass coma over the past year, China decided to have a hand at building the highly controversial Emdrive (electromagnetic drive) — an engine that uses microwaves to transform electrical energy into thrust, all in a comparably light-weight, efficient package. The end result could mean 41 day journeys to Mars, not to mention terrestrial vehicle propulsion and satellite applications. Perpetual motion malarkey you say? British scientist and originator of the concept, Roger Shawyer of Satellite Propulsion Research Ltd. (SPR), assures you it’s nothing of the kind, and Chinese Professor Yang Juan concurs. Research headed by Juan at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi’an commenced in June 2007, and a thruster now being built based on Shawyer’s theories is scheduled for completion by the end of this year. Meanwhile in the US: cue the sound of crickets.

[Via Wired]

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Original post by Stephanie Patterson

Filed under: Wireless

For better or worse, targeted advertising isn’t going anywhere. Seemingly, it’s not getting any more discrete, either. NEC’s Digital Signage Solution combines a camera, a large display and a FeliCa contactless IC card reader / writer in order to dole out advertisements that cater to certain demographics. The system includes the innate ability to determine “gender, generation and other attributes” of a person in order to serve up advertisements that will cause him / her to spend some dough. From there, the individual can scan their phone in order to access related content on their mobile internet browser. That’s all and fine and dandy we suppose, but how on Earth do you convince busy citizens to stop by and have a look at an otherwise uninteresting flat-panel?

[Image courtesy of NEC]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Everybody knows that Apple is kicking butt, and now research force NPD has reported huge growth in Apple’s share of the so-called &#𝖉Cpremium&#𝖉D; computer market &#� machines that cost more than $1,000.

Less than 18% in January 2006, by September 2007 it had grown to more than 57%, and in the first quarter of 2008 it hit a record 66%.

To some extent, this is growth by default as HP, Dell and Lenovo ship beaucoup quantities of PCs at price points between $500 and $750, whereas the only Macintosh that sells for less than $1,000 is the $599 Mini.

Read more about it here from Fortune.

Tags: Apple, Dell, Fortune, HP, Lenovo, Macintosh, NPD

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We′ll make this brief. Orange spokesperson Therese Wenger told the SDA news agency that it has secured rights to release the iPhone (3G version, presumably) in Switzerland and more than 10 other countries — take that Swisscom! Other countries include Austria, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, and Romania. And France of course where it’s already on sale. See, that was quick and leaves room for a dozen or so other iPhone related announcements today.

[Thanks, Pascal M.]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones

derStandard, the same publication that announced that the iPhone would be sailing into Austria via T-Mobile is now reporting that the same carrier will be testing the 3G iPhone in the aforesaid country. During a press conference in Vienna, T-Mo Austria reportedly affirmed that a UMTS version of Apple’s handset would “soon be available,” and that Austria would be the “testing ground” for the new mobile — not to mention “among the first countries in the world with the UMTS iPhone.” Furthermore, bigwigs stated that “more flexible” offers would be made available, but details beyond that were scant.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

If you’ve covered your entire house in gold and diamonds and are left with little else to pimp out, you can always move on to the kitchen. The Nespresso Crystal Edition coffee machine is covered with 3100 Swarovski crystals and will only run you about £1,995 (or about $4,000). But does it make coffee? Does it ever - it comes with a removable grill for macciato lattes, sports an illuminated collecting pan for your used coffee capsules, and does it all with the single press of a pretty, shiny, blingy button.

[Via Red Ferret]

 

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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger

Filed under: Peripherals

Microsoft is at it again with its boring-as-can-be product names and its terrifically designed computer mice and keyboards. First off is the new Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 (pictured), which Microsoft calls the “little black dress” of peripherals — something we find to be at least a little disturbing. The keyboard and mouse combo include “smoked translucent border″ design elements, conveniently-assignable My Favorites Keys, and some rather sleek / thin looks. The keyboard — which we saw pass the FCC in February — is of the Comfort Curve-ilk, the Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 has a horizontal charging station, and both use 2.4GHz wireless tech. The worst news is the price, at $130 when it hits in April. If you don’t need all the fancy, Microsoft also has the new Digital Media Keyboard 3000 (pictured after the break) with some fun media-centric keys for the much more palatable $30 pricepoint. It’ll be out in June.

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Original post by Paul Miller

According to a Samsung statement, the company has axed the BD-UP5500, the combination HD DVD/Blu-ray player announced at CES. Why? Because HD DVD is dead, of course. Now it’s just up to Samsung to kill off its only other remaining combo player, as well as LG to decide whether or not to support both formats. (Review of the GGW-H10N PC drive here.)

Of course, now that Netflix has pulled out of the HD DVD rental market, and Wal-mart and Amazon have stopped Blu-ray sales, the only thing a hybrid player is good for is to play the few lonely HD DVD discs a consumer might have in his collection.

Original post by Mark Hachman

It didn′t come as much of a surprise when Paramount announced last week, with gritted teeth, that it would be signing on with Blu-ray. After all, Toshiba itself had already announced that it would no longer be supporting the format. What Paramount didn′t tell us, however, was when and how it would make the transition between the two next-gen formats.

That news came out this morning, and it turns out that matters won’t be especially pretty for the movie studio. Paramount will release two more titles on its preferred format, HD DVD. Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild will both drop next week, giving users two final reasons to pick up one of those super-cheap Xbox 360 drives.

After that, customers won’t be seeing hi-def discs from the studio until summer, when Paramount will begin to roll out its first Blu-ray titles. In the meantime, anyone looking to pick up new Paramount titles will have to settle for standard definition discs.

Dreamworks, meanwhile, is stuck in something of an impasse, having signed an exclusive deal with Toshiba.

“We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said on Tuesday. “As you know, we have been well compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We’re poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so.”

With Toshiba having backed out, you’d think this whole thing would have already been, you know, seen through. In the meantime, you’re going to have to wait a while to see Bee Movie in all its hi-def glory.

Original post by Brian Heater

It didn’t come as much of a surprise when Paramount announced last week, with gritted teeth, that it would be signing on with Blu-ray. After all, Toshiba itself had already announced that it would no longer be supporting the format. What Paramount didn’t tell us, however, was when and how it would make the transition between the two next-gen formats.

That news came out this morning, and it turns out that matters won′t be especially pretty for the movie studio. Paramount will release two more titles on its preferred format, HD DVD. Things We Lost in the Fire and Into the Wild will both drop next week, giving users two final reasons to pick up one of those super-cheap Xbox 360 drives.

After that, customers won’t be seeing hi-def discs from the studio until summer, when Paramount will begin to roll out its first Blu-ray titles. In the meantime, anyone looking to pick up new Paramount titles will have to settle for standard definition discs.

Dreamworks, meanwhile, is stuck in something of an impasse, having signed an exclusive deal with Toshiba.

“We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said on Tuesday. “As you know, we have been well compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We’re poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so.”

With Toshiba having backed out, you’d think this whole thing would have already been, you know, seen through. In the meantime, you’re going to have to wait a while to see Bee Movie in all its hi-def glory.

Original post by Brian Heater

A neutral player
in the HD battle past.
Pleasing imagery.

—Robert Heron

For the full-length, free-verse Samsung BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player review check out PCMag.com.

Plus: Check out our Best Blu-ray Gear.

Original post by Blogging Molly

The hi-def disc war is over, and the Blu-Ray disc is destined to become our next standard format, which can only mean one thing: it’s time to begin the parade of nichey Blu-Ray tie-ins. After all, now that you know that you won’t be throwing your money away on a soon-to-be-obsolete format, now is the perfect time to dump a cool five digits on a new player, right?

The press release sent out this morning by Swiss audio manufacturer, Goldmund, claims that their new player is, “the first Blu-ray player from a high-end AV manufacturer.” It also bandies about the word “coveted,” but heck, for $16,900, someone somewhere better be coveting the thing.

So, what does one get for just under $17k? According to Goldmund, the new Eidos BD features:

The “AC-Curator” power supply circuit which dramatically improves picture and sound stability and dynamics, and the “Mechanical Grounding” construction which removes from the player mechanism spurious vibrations blurring the video signal and increasing jitter. In addition, the new Eidos 20 BD uses the Goldmund “Magnetic Damper,” a device lowering the reading errors, a feature that previously was exclusive to Goldmund’s highest end devices.

If that sounds like a good enough reason to part with someone’s yearly paycheck, Goldmund is current taking orders on their site.

Original post by Brian Heater