At its global launch in central London, the latest Black Label phone from LG broke its cover. The Chocolate BL40 is a 5-megapixel fashion phone with an ultra-wide 800x345-pixel LCD touch-screen display. And despite the number of unusual (and unneeded) models here to glam-up its christening, we're feeling cautiously impressed.
You'll remember that this was the phone we all thought looked too long and enormous to believe comfortable, but it's actually quite compact--like an iPod Nano, only thicker and a bit heavier. Its 4.1-inch-thick capacitive touch screen is responsive too, with rich colors and a tight pixel density that produces crisp menus and images. It feels solid and well-built, too.
Its menu system works--sadly--like the LG Arena's, but the enormously wide screen allows the phone to present its contents more intuitively. For example, when browsing the text messaging menu, the people you've been chatting with appear in a list down the left half of the screen. But when you tap one of their names, their messages to you appear in a window on the right-hand half of the screen--it's like using a computer with two monitors. You'll see a photo illustrating this in the gallery above.
In terms of specifications, the BL40's 5-megapixel camera is only backed up with a simple LED flash. To be brutally honest, for a phone set to be used in clubs and bars, a Xenon flash would've been an epic win in terms of design. But it's got a proper 3.5mm headphone socket for listening to MP3s; a 7.2Mbps HSPDA data connection for downloading them; support for MPEG-4, DivX, and Xvid video formats; Wi-Fi; stereo Bluetooth; and A-GPS--all excellent strings to have on your phone's bow.
Now, we only spent half an hour with the phone in our hands, and that's by no means long enough to use as a basis for recommendation. But at this early stage the BL40 is looking like the smartest, and the most attractive, of LG's Black Label phones and we're seriously looking forward to getting one in-house for a full review.
It'll launch on Orange in the next two or three weeks, but no word yet on when or if it will make its way to the U.S.
(Source: Crave UK)
No matter how clean-cut-looking and convincing the "I am a Mac" guy appears, those switching to a Mac could use some assistance, and Parallels wants to extend its helping hand.
The maker of the popular virtualized software environment that lets you run Windows within a Mac OS announced Tuesday its "complete solution" designed to simplify the process of moving from a PC to Mac.
(Credit:
Parallels)
The product combines the company's Parallels Desktop 4.0 and a set of tools and interactive tutorials designed to help "switchers" understand how to operate Mac OS X, transfer all PC data and applications, and run Windows applications on their new Mac computers.
This is interesting, as Parallels, as well as VMware, another maker of virtualized Windows environment for Macs, need both platforms to do their business.
Nonetheless, this seems like a useful solution for many people as, according to Apple, the switch from PC to Mac is on the rise. While the overall PC industry saw declines of 3 percent for the quarter ending in June, Apple sales were up 4 percent year over year and half of the Macs sold were to customers who had never owned a Mac before.
The Parallels Desktop 4.0 Switch to Mac Edition is available immediately at Apple stores and online and cost $100.
Personally, I prefer Boot Camp, which comes free with the Mac OS X Leopard and later and allows for running Windows natively on a Mac (and therefore suffers no performance degradation). Boot Camp can also essentially completely turn a Mac into a PC.
Unfortunately, Boot Camp doesn't allow for running Windows and Mac at the same time. Also, it doesn't come with tutorials so you would have to figure Windows out by yourself.
Now that the LG BL40 Chocolate is official, LG has released this promotional video of the LG BL40 that shows you how to really use the long phone to surf the Web, check your e-mail, and watch your favorite movies or TV shows. We've also confirmed a few more specs on the LG BL40--not only will it have the 4-inch scratchproof display, it also boasts Wi-Fi, an Active Flash UI, a dual-screen UI (so you can have two different content types on the same screen), 7.2 mbps HSDPA, A-GPS with maps and turn-by-turn direction, a 5-megapixel camera with flash, e-mail, multitouch capability, and lots more. The video above also shows that the LG BL40 has "one-touch copy and paste," which seems to be heavily influenced by the iPhone. We're also excited to see that the LG BL40 has been approved by the FCC recently--does that mean it's coming stateside any time soon? We can only hope for now.
(via Gizmodo)
LG BL40
(Credit: LG)We've already told you that LG is releasing a new Chocolate phone in Europe under the BL40 moniker, and on Thursday LG decided to make it official.
Indeed, the LG BL40 is skinny and long, much like a universal remote, and it has a stunning 4-inch display with the 21:9 wide-screen ratio we'd heard rumors about. The high-definition "Real VGA" LCD supports a 800x345 pixel resolution and boasts a cinema-like experience in your hand. LG also says that it has a dual-screen UI that can display two different types of content at the same time. The screen is made out of a curved, tempered glass.
Of course, this is strictly a Europe/Asia product (LG has yet to release a GSM Chocolate to a U.S. carrier), but perhaps we can get a slightly different version of it here courtesy of Verizon. We'll see. In the meantime, you can drool over these official pictures of the LG BL40. It'll be out by the third quarter of this year. More photos after the break.
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We've seen quite a few rumors of a new touch-screen version of the LG Chocolate floating around the Internet, and most of them have to do with the Black Label version of the phone, the LG BL40, that's slated to come out for Europe and Asia only. We've even seen spy shots of the BL40, and it looks quite long, especially with its supposed 21:9 aspect ratio and 4-inch display. Apparently it'll rock 335MB of internal memory plus a microSD card slot, but we really know little about it.
Now Phone Arena has come out with a new set of juicy rumors that another touch-screen Chocolate phone will make its way to our shores via Verizon.
Tentatively dubbed the LG Chocolate Touch VX8575, the phone might be our answer to the BL40, though I doubt it'll have the same features or look exactly the same. Still, that's some exciting news, even if it's firmly in rumor territory at the moment.
The LC-52LE700UN is one of Sharp's new LED-backlit Aquos TVs.
(Credit: Sharp)Sharp's first line of LED-based LCD displays is called the LC-LE700UN series, and it's available in four screen sizes. Here's a quick look:
Models (availability, suggested retail price)
- LC-32LE700UN (July, $1,100)
- LC-40LE700UN (July, $1,700)
- LC-46LE700UN (July, $2,200)
- LC-52LE700UN (July, $2,800)
Key features of the Sharp LC-LE700 series
- 1080p native resolution
- LED backlight
- 120Hz refresh rate and dejudder processing
- EnergyStar compliant
- Four HDMI inputs
The company intends for the new Aquos LED series to be a wallet-friendly way to get LED-backlight technology. It looks like Sharp could live up to its low-price intention, as the LE700 series should be competitively priced against other LED-backlit models, like the Samsung UNB6000, the Toshiba SV670U, and the LG LH90 series.
The LE700 series features a "full array of LEDs" behind the screen, but doesn't have local dimming, a technology that allows different areas of the screen to brighten and dim separately. Past TVs we've reviewed with local dimming exhibited superb black levels, but we haven't tested any LED-equipped sets without local dimming aside from Samsung's edge-lit models, which didn't perform as well as the local dimming displays. Also, while Sharp is touting the LE700's native 120Hz refresh rate, a number of its LED competitors are already pushing 240Hz sets. Other than its energy-saving capabilities, it's not entirely clear how this kind of LED backlight offers much of an improvement over standard LCDs, so we'll have to look into it when we get our hands on the LE700 series.
Amazon's marketing to a more youthful audience, but the older set are the early adopters.
(Credit: Amazon)Back in March, I did a post titled, "What's the average age of Kindle owners?" I cited a thread in Amazon.com's forums discussing Kindle owners' ages.
Well, I have a little follow-up on the whole issue. Apparently, someone went ahead and tabulated 700 of the responses in that Amazon thread (that represents about 75 percent of all the posts) and broke out the numbers. Here they are:
- 0 - 19: 5%
- 20 - 29: 10%
- 30 - 39: 15%
- 40 - 49: 19.5%
- 50 - 59: 23%
- 60 - 69: 19.5%
- 70 - 79: 6%
- 80+: 2%
Like I said in my previous post, if you look at the Amazon thread, a lot of senior folks bought the Kindle--and now the Kindle 2--partially because the digital reader is easier to handle than regular books for arthritis sufferers. It also helps that you can increase the font size, if you have trouble viewing small print in books.
Amazon is in a bit of battle with publishers who tend to think that e-book sales are cannibalizing their print books sales. However, as the blog Marginal Revolution points out, comments from seniors saying they're able to read more now that they own Kindles helps "Amazon's pseudo-statistical case that e-book purchases are incremental/additive, rather than cannibalistic of their print sales."
I agree. Any Kindle owners, young, old, or young at heart, feel the same way?
Update: Kindle Culture has an even more complete breakdown of the posts on that Amazon thread.
(Source: Publishers Lunch Deluxe via Marginal Revolution)
If there's one green thing I could never be fed up with, it's be this bad boy.
(Credit: Marx Toys)We start off this week with some advice from Dong that, to me, seems about five years too late. It is: don't open e-mail attachments from people you don't know. Again, not new news in the slightest. I guess it was a slow news week for us.
Luckily, I'm here to bail us out with something that's actually useful, a description of how to play the most awesome bar drinking game ever! Seriously, use this and you'll immediately be the life of the party. You won't even need to bring that lampshade with you anymore.
We then talk about things we're fed up with. Thing's like all this "green stuff," Susan Boyle, and expensive Monster cables.
Also, we discuss a new HDMI cable, being nervous about this summer's movies, Shaheen Jafargholi, and our doctor.
To subscribe to this podcast, visit us at our main page and click the podcast link on the right. Don't forget to leave us voice mail at 1-800-947-6399 or e-mail us at insidecnetlabs@cnet.com.
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Updated at 3:50 p.m. PST: correcting for Intel GN40 graphics support and adding pricing information for target market.
Acer launched a PC Tuesday that attempts to bring PC-class performance to Atom-processor-based PCs.
The Acer AspireRevo, about the size of a hardcover book, combines Nvidia graphics with the Intel Atom processor.
(Credit: Acer)The Acer AspireRevo is the first Atom-based PC from a major PC supplier to use Nvidia's Ion chipset that packs GeForce 9400M graphics, the same graphics used in the Apple 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Air.
By design, Atom is a more power frugal and, concomitantly, slower processor than Intel's mainstream Core 2 chip architecture.
The AspireRevo's marquee external feature is the diminutive size: the desktop is comparable in size to a laptop (though slightly thicker, about the size of a typical hardcover book). Internally, the device will test Nvidia's thesis that devices, such as Netbooks, that pair the Atom processor with Nvidia graphics offer much better performance than Intel-only (i.e., Atom-with-Intel-chipset) platforms.
This won't be quite the slam dunk that it was before, however. Intel recently started shipping the Atom N280 and the accompanying GN40 chipset, which for the first time on an Intel Netbook platform delivers 1080p HD playback.
"The AspireRevo...is perfectly suited for the living room, because Nvidia Ion provides a brilliant graphics experience with digital photos, watching video, and playing family-friendly games," said Gianpiero Morbello, corporate vice president of marketing for Acer, in a statement.
Nvidia listed the following capabilities for the Ion-based AspireRevo:
- Ability to run Windows Vista Home Premium
- 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio
- Popular games including Spore, Call of Duty 4, and Sim City 4 *
- DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
- Accelerated video enhancement and transcoding using Nvidia CUDA technology
(* Correction: originally listed as "Sim City 5" )
Pricing information was not immediately available. Generally speaking, Ion-based desktops are expected to be priced under $300.
The top two SLR makers have released relatively minor firmware revisions for three cameras, Nikon's higher-end full-frame D3 and D700 and Canon's prosumer-grade EOS 40D.
The fixes generally address rare and unusual problems. One notable fix for the D3 and D700 is for a problem which, as Nikon describes it, "in extremely rare cases, resulted in noticeable black dots in images captured with Long exp. NR (long exposure noise reduction) in the shooting menu set to On." Canon fixed a black-dot issue of its own with the EOS 5D Mark II earlier this month, but Nikon's issue sounds rarer.
Forthwith, the release notes:
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