(Credit:
Casio)
Casio's going full force after consumers shopping for digital cameras in the $100-$200 price range. First, the company announces the Exilim EX-Z450 and EX-Z90, $199.99 and $149.99, respectively. And then Monday, it announces the $179.99 EX-Z280 and $119.99 EX-Z33.
The Z280 (pictured right) is a 12-megapixel ultracompact with an f2.6-5.9 26-104mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with a 4x zoom, sensor-shift image stabilization, 2.7-inch LCD, and Casio's newest image processing engine featuring a dual-processor design for lower power consumption and better photo results. It also gives you 720p HD-quality video capture and the latest iteration of Casio's green-screen Dynamic Photo function. A very compelling package for what will probably street at around $170.
With a more entry-level feature set, the Z33 is a 10-megapixel model with a 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD. It does the basics I expect to find on a camera at this price--VGA movie mode, face detection, lots of scene modes--but its also very thin at 0.7 of an inch and weighs roughly 4 ounces with SD card and battery. Plus, it has built-in compatibility with Eye-Fi's SD cards for wireless transfer of photos.
The EX-Z280, available this September 2009, will be offered in a silver body color (though Casio has photos of gold and pink versions so maybe those colors, too). The EX-Z33 will also be available in September in black, light pink, vivid pink, silver, and blue.
The Sony ALT-SA31iR system can stream iPod music into multiple rooms.
(Credit: Son)Sony has taken the wraps off of a new line of streaming audio products, dubbed "Altus." The four debut products will be available through Best Buy starting in September (and sonystyle.com in the meantime), and the retailer also had a hand in their development. All of the products use Sony's proprietary S-Air wireless technology to communicate with one another, which means that other S-Air-compatible products--including many of Sony's recent home theater and home audio systems--can stream audio to the Altus products.
The initial Altus line is as follows:
... Read more
(Credit:
Warner Bros.)
This is our first point five of the new year and boy do we get tangential. I go off for about 5 minutes about the "Watchmen" movie. While Dong just sits there in stunned silence. Unable to utter a breath. Just how I like it.
You know I haven't played World of Warcraft seriously in about a month or so and Dong has canceled his account. I don't know. The end game is just boring for me right now. Maybe when 3.1 comes out that will change. Until then, I've discovered these thing called "books" and "reading." You guys should try it.
Dong is up on his super-high soapbox, talking about marriage and proposing and how Americans don't know how to do it. Typical Dong stuff, but he makes a few good points, for once.
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Dell will offer an Nvidia dual graphics chip upgrade for 17-inch XPS M1730 gaming notebook owners--but stepping up won't be a cakewalk for MediaDirect users.
Dell XPS M1730 notebook with Nvdia 8800M GTX
(Credit: Dell)The upgrade from the Nvidia dual 8700M GT to dual 8800M GTX graphics is in the works and will likely be released later this month, according to Dell.
Some users were upset when Dell upgraded the graphics in newer models of the M1730 to the 8800M GTX. The XPS 1730 with the 8800M GTX earned a score of almost 13,500 in 3Dmark06--which is about a 49 percent performance gain over two 8700M GT cards in the same notebook.
"In other words, games like Crysis, BioShock, Far Cry 2 and Age of Conan will scream," Dell said.
There will be two options. One will be done with an "installation package" and the other will be a "do-it-yourself kit."
"Considering the number of screws holding this beast together, most people will probably want the installation," Dell said.
There is one gotcha though. "MediaDirect 3.3 is not compatible with the driver for the (new) Nvida card," Dell said. MediaDirect is a Dell technology that enables a user to watch DVD movies, slideshows, or listen to music without having to boot the complete XP operating system. MediaDirect is installed in a special partition on the hard disk drive. When the computer is off, pressing the MediaDirect button will boot the MediaDirect partition instead of XP.
Dell said that the MediaDirect "incompatibility means that the MediaDirect software needs to be upgraded. Unfortunately, the upgrade will require a reformat and reinstallation. Beyond that, it will also require you to repartition the hard disk to make room for the new version of MediaDirect, which is a bit larger. Data loss has been a major concern for the engineers working on a solution. At this point, it would appear that there's really no way around wiping the drive to make the upgrade work with every feature."
(Credit:
Crave UK)
There are loads of affordable earphones in the world, and many of them sound rubbish. But there's still a market for budget earphones because--and lets be absolutely honest here--most people don't realize the bundled ones that come with their MP3 player are about as capable of reproducing decent audio as my cat is at performing the Heimlich maneuver.
In fact some are so bowel-emptyingly bad, it's easy for some people to hear what they think is their favorite song, only to find out that through a half-decent pair of cans it sounds wholly different, and not in a good way. This makes us think of French novelist Marcel Proust, who, as a result of the abysmal sound quality of the 19th century Theatrophone, once thought the noise of a crowd shuffling in their seats during an interval was actually the performance of a much-loved opera he had paid to hear.
So pardon us for not falling immediately head-over-heels in love with Panasonic's new water-resistant RP-HS33 sports earphones. Yes, with their clips-over-the-ear form factor they're ideal for joggers. And yes, they're bright green, just in case you forget that they're only for joggers and fitness freaks. But they look ruddy awful.
It seems that at some point in the past, certain manufacturers bought up thousands of tons of radioactive plastic on the cheap, and only gym-goers are fool enough to buy the gear companies make out of the damn stuff. Why is it that no killer electronics product of the last 10 years has been available only in green? Oh, what? The OLPC laptop? Of course. But--what a surprise--that's only being sent to kids in developing countries who don't mind laptops that share a hue with a swamp-dwelling ogre who lives with a talking donkey.
No, we don't like bright green electronics. And while these new Panasonic 'phones are reasonably comfortable, they sound just like any bundled earphone--tinny, lacking bass, offensive to musicians and an insult to eardrums everywhere.
But if you don't want to spend much money, and if you insist on running by the Thames looking like you've spend a month camping in Chernobyl, you'll love the RP-HS33s. Just remember that The Beatles never used down-tuned, distorted Ibanez guitars. So if you hear them during Love Me Do, don't say we didn't warn you.
(Source: Crave UK)
Click the image to read the full review.
When we got the JVC KD-NX5000 in for review earlier this year, we were so impressed with the single-DIN navigation/multimedia device that we slapped a CNET Editors' Choice on it. Now JVC Mobile is following the release of this year's "hero" product with a couple of other in-dash devices that make use of the same design. With its bright, 3.5-inch color LCD display, the KD-AVX33 boasts many of the same multimedia capabilities as its navigation-enabled cousin. While it doesn't have a built-in hard drive a la the KD-NX5000, the KD-AVX33 comes with a range of media playback options including an as-standard USB port, support for Bluetooth audio streaming as well as the ability to play compressed audio codecs such as MP3, WMA, and WAV. Read our full review here.
(Credit:
Red Ferret)
It's apparently not enough for Swarovski to ruin good taste. According to Red Ferret, it wants to play a part in trashing vinyl records as well.
Swarovski has taken its crystal-making juggernaut to this self-running record player, aptly named the "Vinyl Killer," complete with its own needle, speaker and amplifier. But even though its VW bus design would seem perfect for playing your old LPs, we wouldn't recommend using it on your Stones collection. (Get it? Stones?)
Besides, if you're willing to shell out $487 for this thing, you might want to keep it on display somewhere. Or, in our opinion, hidden away in the closet.
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