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Review: Samsung Memoir is a top-notch camera phone
We're usually jealous of our friends across the pond for getting high-megapixel camera phones; the highest we've had so far has been the 5-megapixel Motorola Zine ZN5 from T-Mobile. But that has all changed with the Samsung Memoir, also available from T-Mobile, which has a whopping 8-megapixel camera with plenty of features you wouldn't even find in most standalone point-and-shoot cameras. They include antishake, smile and blink detection, 12 preset settings for certain lighting conditions like portrait and landscape photography, and geotagging. Perhaps the most intriguing feature is that you can upload directly to online sharing sites … Read more
Circuit City liquidation: A cautionary tale
Years ago I worked at a Circuit City-like big-box retailer in Washington state called Future Shop. I was there through the bitter end when they shuttered the U.S. stores, and I worked through the liquidation. Toward the end there wasn't much left. Employees would hide things they wanted so they could get the larger discounts later in the sale, but for the most part we treated the customers well.
Apparently not so at some Circuit Citys, like one near Boston. According to a local news channel, Gina Reis thought she was getting a good deal on a large-screen … Read more
Roundup: Three Blu-ray players for less than $300
During the 2008 holiday season, we found plenty of affordable Blu-ray players to recommend under $300. Fast-forward a couple months, and we're surprised to find that many of those players are either discontinued (Panasonic DMP-BD35) or are no longer discounted.
You can still get a few Blu-ray players for a bargain, but you'll have to give up some features to get under the $300 mark. None of these players have multichannel analog-audio outputs and they also lack onboard decoding for DTS-HD Master Audio. That being said, most people won't have any complaints with the Blu-ray image quality … Read more
Extra on Samsung Delve: 'Mission Impossible' trilogy
If you're a fan of Tom Cruise and you're sad you didn't snag a glimpse of him at the Oscars Sunday, Samsung Mobile has a consolation for you.
The company has teamed with Paramount Digital Entertainment to offer a 2GB microSD card preloaded with all three installations of the action flick "Mission Impossible" for Alltel Wireless customers who buy the Samsung Delve.
While bundling content with multimedia product is not new, this is the first time Samsung Mobile and Paramount are offering it for free.
The promotion is available from February 20 through April 16 … Read more
U.S. Supreme Court hands Rambus a win
The U.S. Supreme Court handed chip designer Rambus a victory Monday, when it refused to hear an appeal by the Federal Trade Commission that alleged the chip designer violated antitrust laws under the Sherman Act.
For Rambus, it ends a seven-year battle with the Federal Trade Commission over its Sherman Act litigation, which alleged in 2002 that the chipmaker intentionally withheld its patent plans from a standards body, which later gave the green light to some of its technology that is now found in the vast majority of PCs and servers around the world.
"It's a good … Read more
Samsung ultra-wide-angle 12-megapixel cameras for control freaks
Samsung announced two 12-megapixel cameras this Monday morning--the TL320 and HZ15W. I've come to expect innovation from Samsung when it comes to its digital cameras (though sadly, I don't expect great photo quality), and these look promising.
The TL320:
12.2 megapixels 24mm wide-angle lens with 5x optical zoom 3.0-inch hVGA AMOLED (460K dots) with a contrast ratio of 10,000:1 Dual image stabilization 720P HD video With HDMI connectivity via optional dock Dual analog gauges for memory and battery (like last year's TL9) Aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual modes Advanced Picture Mode for adjusting the color temperature from 2,800-10,000K or manual control of color space shift May 2009 at an MSRP of $379.99The HZ15W:
12.0 megapixels 24mm wide-angle lens with 10x optical zoom 3.0-inch LCD (230K dots) Dual image stabilization 720P HD video With HDMI connectivity Manual mode (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure controls) March 2009 at an MSRP of $329.99Full announcement with more details on the various features after the break.… Read more
Video: Cute animals using Samsung phones
You've got to hand it to Samsung's marketing people. When it comes to selling stuff on the Internet, cute animals seem to work, and that's exactly what the company's loaded its latest viral vid with. It's several little fluffies taking part in day-to-day activities using the large screens of Samsung phones as support. They use them as a PC monitor, a movie screen, and even to play back an image of a romantic fireplace, though the inference of the one kitten making the sexy moves on the other kind of creeps me out. I'm … Read more
Samsung BD-P1500 catches second wind
We reviewed the Samsung BD-P1500 when it first hit the market in May 2008, and while we mostly found it to be a solid Blu-ray player, we couldn't give it our full recommendation because it lacked Profile 2.0 and had some disc compatibility issues.
Since then, the BD-P1500 has received several firmware updates and its price has plummeted online, so we decided to take another look at the player. Those firmware updates have made it Profile 2.0-compatible and its disc compatibility problems seem to be fixed, as it played all the discs we tossed at it. It'… Read more
