Crave

Yesterday, CNET TV's Molly Wood gave you a first look of the Samsung SCH-i760 smart phone, and as you'll see from the video, Samsung didn't give too many details about the device. I met with the company today to see if I could weasel any info out of them, but they remained pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing. They did say it will run the Windows Mobile operating system, but they didn't say which version, which leads me to believe that it may run the next-gen OS, Crossbow. Some quick specs listed on a press release … Read more

On Sunday at CES, a couple of CNET staffers and I attended a demonstration of Pioneer's newest plasma technology, and judging from the brief demo, the company has made some significant advancements. Pioneer had lined up five 50-something-inch displays, four plasmas, and an LCD; one of the plasmas utilized the new technology, which is designed to increase black level and reject ambient light reflections. After watching a variety of high-def feeds, I was convinced that the new plasma evinced some of the deepest blacks I'd seen yet in a flat-panel technology. I don't want to say more … Read more

Hey, hippies! I know you probably carry your laptop around in an organic-cotton sack and would never think of switching over to a briefcase (that evil, chilly symbol of greedy corporate America and all its Hummer-driving Enron-clone zombies). But maybe this will change your mind. Treehugger recently featured the Eclipse Solar Gear Hybrid Notebook Case, which will charge your computer with solar energy thanks to an inverter and battery pack inside. In addition, it can charge your GPS navigator, MP3 player, satellite radio system, or BlackBerry. But you don't have a BlackBerry, of course. Those are instruments of Big … Read more

Some of you may recall my whining when I originally found out that the U.S. version of the Samsung T9 was not to include Bluetooth. Well, it turns out my complaints did not fall on deaf ears (excellent--an excuse for more whining!). OK, so maybe Samsung wasn't responding directly to me when it decided to launch the T9B in the States, but we are getting the Bluetooth player sometime in the first half of this year, and that's good enough for me.

The T9B is pretty much identical to the Samsung T9, except that the B version … Read more

Klipsch has long been known for its excellent speakers, and now the company is branching out in a big way. Its new KlipschCast family of products promises to deliver a whole-house audio system that's wireless, expandable, iPod-friendly and easy to set up. One hopes they pull this off while retaining the top-notch audio quality we've come to expect from the Klipsch name.

The system is anchored by the CS-700, a 2.1-channel home-theater-in-a-box system, and the company's first HTIB. The CS-700 utilizes Dolby Virtual Speaker technology to deliver a surroundlike effect from its two speakers, which feature … Read more

Every year at CES it seems like more and more manufacturers release less and less information about their coolest products. Sure, I realize that the pricing, availability, and specs given are usually "preliminary" anyway, but any information is better than none. Take Samsung's higher-end flat-panel LCD lineup for 2007. Its three models, the 52-inch LN-T5265F, the 46-inch LN-T4665F, and the 40-inch LN-T4065F, all offer HDMI 1.3, 1080p (1,920x1,080) native resolution, a more-unbelievable-than-usual 12,000:1 contrast ratio, and "chrome accents and glossy black finish to accentuate any home theater." Also glossed over … Read more

Most CES announcements about new HDTVs pertain to products that cost more than anybody's grandpa would consider paying for a television, but traditional cathode ray tubes can provide high-def to even stingy old codgers. Samsung, along with Toshiba and no-names such as Insignia, markets a few wide-screen HDTVs that don't cost a fortune, and at CES 2007 it continues the tradition of models including the Samsung TX-S3082WH with an updated trio. The 30-inch TX-T3093WH and TX-T3092 (both April, $699 list) are identical but for speaker configuration; the first has side-mounted speakers, while the second saves width by placing … Read more

You might remember how last year AMD followed Intel's Viiv platform with its own Live Project. Both monikers were essentially lists of compatible hardware and software designed to bolster multimedia computing experience (the way Centrino did for wireless networking).

After a year of not much action on the Live front, AMD has just announced the laptop version of the spec, called (you guessed it) the AMD Live Notebook PC. The company calls it, "an easy-to-use mobile media center designed to help consumers simplify and enjoy their digital lifestyle."

What makes a laptop eligible for the AMD Live … Read more

There are a ton of iPod accessories on the market, but RCA didn't let that stop it from rolling out two new iPod speaker systems at CES. RCA announced, under the Acoustic Research brand, the blackVault 2.1 speaker system, which brings some analog warmth to your digital music by way of a vacuum tube amplifier. The all-black design--along with the exposed tube--is eye-catching, although it definitely will look best with a black iPod. Atop the subwoofer is the dock for the iPod, which--like most of the units we've seen--is capable of charging your iPod. There's also … Read more