Crave

Sure, they took their time, but now Samsung has officially announced their intention to join the HD camcorder revolution with the SC-HMX10, which records AVCHD video to either 4GB of built-in flash memory, or SD/MMC cards . As is typical of higher-end camcorders, the SC-HMX10 has a relatively short, 10x optical zoom lens, but it does sport a 2.7-inch 16:9 touch screen LCD screen.

Samsung hasn't yet shared very many details about this camcorder, but given the relatively small amount of built-in memory, and its somewhat anemic 1.5-megapixel CCD sensor, the outlook is seems less than … Read more

HP is one of the first vendors to announce a laptop specifically built to run Windows Vista. The HP Pavilion tx1000us is what we call a convertible tablet PC, a standard-looking laptop whose screen swivels 180 degrees and folds down over the keyboard. It has a 12.1-inch screen and falls into the thin-and-light category of laptops.

The tx1000us takes advantage of several of the new tablet features in Windows Vista, including Pen Flicks (quick shortcuts you activate with a swipe of the stylus) and enhanced support for touch-sensitive screens--the kind that work with any pointing device or even your … Read more

Sharp's one of the biggest players in flat-panel LCD HDTVs, and today it announced four new series of the popular Aquos LCDs for 2007. While the 108-inch LCD might have stolen the show at Sharp's press conference, these four Aquos product lines will be of greater interest to anyone actually looking to buy a TV this year.

The D92U series represents Sharp's top-of-the-line flat-panel LCD models, consisting of the 42-inch LC-42D92U, the 46-inch LC-46D92U, and the 52-inch LC-52D92U. All of these LCDs are 1080p sets, which means they have a native resolution of 1,920x1,080 capable … Read more

We're sure Sony's VAIO XL3 Digital Living Room System will not be the last living room PC we hear of at the show with a laundry list of new features, but it might be the most comprehensive from a major PC vendor. A Blu-ray DVD burner, CableCard support for digital cable reception, and Windows Vista Home Premium are the highlights. By incorporating all of these new features into a system right away, Sony shows that, if it has given up on the standard desktop PC, it remains serious about the living room computer.

An Intel Core 2 Duo … Read more

It's hard to say whether Sony intends its just-announced VAIO RM HD Video Editing system as a professional-level workstation or not. Its $3,500 price tag, its Blu-ray burner, and the fact that it comes with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 say, "yes," but its single dual-core processor, the lack of a FireWire 800 port, and the use of the word "videophile" in the product's press release say otherwise. Apple's Mac Pro crosses over between the professional and the consumer worlds well enough, so perhaps it's easiest to consider the VAIO RM … Read more

At $1,600, Sony's new Vaio TP1 Living Room PC, announced today, might be a little pricey for some of you, especially considering that it doesn't have an HD optical drive. Still, we suspect that its Roomba-like design might be charming enough to help it find a way into many living rooms. It does include an HDMI-out, so you can at least hook it up to your HDTV. It will be powered by Windows Vista Home Premium and an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop chip (which model is unspecified). Other specs include built-in Wi-Fi networking, a standard-definition, … Read more

At a press event last summer, a Sony product manager told me that some consumers still find hard-drive camcorders confusing and prefer DVD camcorders instead. Of course, that didn't stop Sony from introducing five new hard-drive camcorders at CES this year: the DCR-SR200, DCR-SR300, DCR-SR42, DCR-SR62, DCR-SR82. Wasting no time, Sony will start accepting preorders for these models on its Web site starting Monday and expects them to start shipping in March.

Topping the line is the DCR-SR300, with its 40GB hard drive, 3-megapixel ClearVid CMOS sensor, 2.7-inch Clear Photo 16:9 touchscreen LCD, and 10x optical Carl … Read more

If you've got $33,000 earmarked for a new television, then Sony's main CES announcement might pique your interest. If you don't, you'll have to wait until the company's February show to hear anything official about the company's 2007 products. Eschewing CES for significant product news is nothing new for the company, but the price point of its new flagship HDTV still represents a certain kind of bravado. At least Sony knows how to capture headlines from the mainstream press.

The $33,000 KDL-70XBR3 (did I mention it costs $33,000?) happens to be … Read more

The new DVD camcorders that Panasonic's rolling out for its Spring 2007 line all boast the same 32X zoom lens plus optical stabilizer, SD slots for still capture, and added support for dual-layer DVDs. The top-of-the-line VDR-D310 keeps up Panasonic's 3CCD tradition; the VDR-D210 and D230 have a single unspecified chip. The two lower-end models cost $450 and $500, respectively and are slated to ship in February; the VDR310 won't be out till March, and will cost $700.