Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
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Not to be left out, Gigabyte is building an e-reader of their own. Called the EB10, the new reader will be running Android on a 667Mhz Samsung processor. What makes this one different? Well, Gigabyte plans on not limiting users to just reading using their product, they are also permitting access to the Android store. I don’t know how well that will work frankly, given the refresh rate involved with this type of display, but it’s certainly an interesting idea. Of course, we don’t know when it will be out or how much it’ll cost, but we’ll let you know when more information is available. [via E-reader-info.com ]
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
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Ghost hunters, rejoice. Not only does this $150 LED flashlight record 640
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
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Well lookie at that, GameStop is selling a 250GB Xbox 360 drive separately from a console. Microsoft has said in the past that they don’t plan on selling the larger drives without a bundle, so I doubt these are a new or official product, but rather GameStop coming up with something on their own. The listing for the drive popped up on GameStop’s website for $129.99 , but the product isn’t available until 3/23. There’s also not a whole lot of details about rather it’s new, used, or whatever. So either someone accidentally leaked some info a bit early, or GameStop finally figured out what to do with all those hard drives they’ve been taking in trade in on the Elite consoles. My guess is the latter, but only time will tell. It does fit their business model, selling the used drives separate from the console sounds very much like something that they would do. [via Destructoid ]
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 1st, 2010
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InFocus is under new management and ready to thrive again. The company is now more lean and ready to strike at the flat screen market. But not with a home AV flat screen or even a dedicated signage panel, but rather with a boardroom flat screen set that blends the low price of a consumer-grade TV with many of the features found in a commercial model. This is big for InFocus . The company has changed hands a lot over the last few years. The glory days are long gone, dead with its budget AV projector line. The company seems to knows its roots, though, and what made it successful. This new line of flat panels is ready to carry the InFocus banner forward and is just the first crop. The second generation is already in development. The opportunity that InFocus saw in the professional space was that many times companies where turned off by the high cost of signage flat panels and couldn’t justify their high price even though the screens are practically indestructible. So instead, a Best Buy-special set was installed in a meeting room. But this model wasn’t designed to run a PowerPoint presentation 12 hours a day or even work with the random computers used by the presenters. Plus these consumer sets likely didn’t have RS232 ports for room control system integration. But times are tough, and scarifies have to be made to keep the bean-counters and stock holders happy. Enter InFocus’ Thin Display Series. This series aims to bring to market features such as advanced burn-in technology and commercial grade power supply and build, along with a host of the appropriate connectors, at a price just north of the consumer market. The sets also ship with a three-year warranty that includes direct replacement from a local InFocus dealer should the monitor fail. Most features from both consumer and commercial panels made the cut. The new models are technical monitors as the sets do not feature a TV tuner, however, they do have rear-firing speakers, along every connector included HDMI, VGA, and RS232. The actually LCD panel is supplied by AUO, and while it isn’t the bulletproof Samsung DID panel found in nearly commercial model, meeting room monitors probably aren’t running 24/7 like those found in airports and hospitals. The models do share commercial-grade construction, though, with heavy-duty metal housings. The 42-, 55-, and 64-inch sets are just now available from local InFocus dealers for $1,399, $2,599, and $7,499, respectively. InFocus expects to stick with this product line for sometime. This isn’t just a testing the water experiment. In fact, the second generation is already in the works, which includes LED- backlit displays. The projector company may have lost its way a few years back by flooding the market with low-priced home theater models, but those days are long gone. These new models are really meant for InFocus’s primary market anyway. A lot of companies and schools are moving past projector installs as the price of flat panels keep dropping and InFocus just wants a piece of the market that it help create. The company expects responsible and confident growth, and according to Ben Joy, Product Line Director at InFocus , shipping 8k to 10k of the new flat panels a “beautiful thing.”
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, February 26th, 2010
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The Venn diagram that drills down to the target buyer of this $800 chair must be a weird mix of people with lots of money, a tiny apartment, and sore legs. In cube form, the product “serves as an ideal footrest or stores unobtrusively in a closet.” If I had an $800 chair in my house, I wouldn’t keep it in the closet. I’d try to steer every conversation towards the chair. “Yeah, we were thinking of buying a gigantic TV but decided on the Foldaway Massage Chair instead. I won’t tell you how much we paid for it, but let’s just say we were thinking of buying a gigantic TV. For $800. We bought the chair instead.” According to the product description: This chair provides an invigorating leg and foot massage and folds to the size of a small ottoman. The air cells along the sides of the footwells inflate and deflate to deliver a kneading and compression massage that relieves sore, tight muscles in the calves and ankles. Finger-like nodes provide a deep-penetrating acupressure massage on the toes, arches, and soles of the feet. Air cells in the seat expand and contract to soothe pressure points in the lower back and buttocks and provide gentle stretching of the hips and waist. I’d be interested to see how comfortable this thing would be to sit in for long periods of time. The Foldaway Massage Chair [Hammacher Schlemmer]
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
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Oh my, does this look nice. If you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch and you’ve been wishing/hoping/praying for some sort of tactile controller to come along so you can use your favorite emulators as the gaming gods intended, the wait may soon be over. The iControlPad ( previous coverage here ) has gone into mass production. According to the product’s website : “The iControlPad will come in two different versions, one with an internal battery which doubles the iPhone battery life (idea for long gaming sessions) and a budget version which has no battery. They both have the same controls.” Looks like we’ve got a D-pad, two analog controllers, A/B/X/Y buttons, and Select/Start buttons. The form factor has changed a bit from the svelte earlier version , but the final product’s extra girth allows for the extended battery and analog sticks. Here’s a demo video: Looking good. I’d absolutely buy this provided it doesn’t cost a skillion dollars. Unfortunately, there’s no firm word on an actual availability date or pricing yet. iControlPad [iControlPad.com via SlashGear ]