Cool toys and Gadgets

It’s been a shorter working week what with Thanksgiving on Thursday, and much of the gadget news has been around what offers, bargains and discounts were on offer at cash-strapped retailers. SlashGear has done its bit to ease your present picking pickle, with the 2008 Holiday Gift Guide. We’ve also had reviews of Sony’s VAIO LV and VAIO RT all-in-one PCs; will you be lucky enough to find one of these monster media machines under your tree next month?

Elsewhere, rumors have been ramping up about Microsoft’s possible entrance to the consumer cellphone market. According to the latest sources, an NVIDIA Tegra-based device blending Zune media capabilities and Sidekick messaging expertize is already in the offing. Codenamed ‘Pink’, there’s even talk of it making an appearance at CES 2009.

Something else finally hitting the stands at the start of next year is the Garmin nuvifone, the sat-nav company’s GPS-heavy touchscreen cellphone. Captivating when we first saw it, many months ago, has delay after delay robbed the nuvifone of its charm? Until then, we’ll sate ourselves with the Samsung Omnia SCH-i910, fresh to Verizon and reviewed by our good selves here.

Dell has done its bit to push higher-capacity solid-state storage into buyers’ reach, with the arrival of a $100 32GB SSD option on the Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. Meanwhile, Verizon pushed out a BlackBerry Storm OS update that, it’s hoped, will begin to change the tide of opinion claiming the touchscreen handset needed a few more trips through quality control before it was fit for public consumption. If you’ve got a Storm yourself, let us know how you get on with the new firmware.

In other reviews, Sleek Audio’s SA6 in-ear headphones only got better with the cord-snipping W-1 Kleer wireless system, while we found that Apple has tweaked the MacBook Air into what could be the finest ultraportable notebook on the market. We also revealed that SlashGear will be one of your fifty chances to win in the HP Magic giveaway: over $6,000 of top tech toys that would put an end to your desperate Christmas shopping.

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From the MAKE Flickr photo pool

While visiting family over Thanksgiving I witnessed this device in use - "Mark's Magic Box" displays song lyrics and note changes to simplify band rehearsals. The setup uses a laptop + LCD for storage and display - controlled via foot-pedal which was built from a mouse and housed in a handmade metal enclosure. A teleprompter for music - very cool!

Section: Audio, Accessories, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video, Imaging, Accessories, Peripherals, Storage

If you’ve got a phone that uses micro SD cards or a camera that uses SD cards, SanDisk is having a big Cyber Monday Sale starting today.  There are some good deals here including some USB flash drives in case you’re a fan of sneakernet.  You can pick up a SanDisk 16GB flash drive for under $44 (which is down from $79.99).

SanDisk also makes some MP3 players and they are discounted as well.  Sale ends Monday, December 1st.  Check out the full details after the break.

SanDisk Cyber Monday Discounts

Sansa MP3 Players

  * 35% off Sansa Clip MP3 Player (4GB) / New price: $51.99 (from $79.99)
  * 23% off Sansa Fuze MP3 Player (8GB) / New price: $91.99 (from $119.99
  * 20% off SanDisk Sansa View Video MP3 Player (32GB) / New price: $199.99 (from $249.99)

USB Flash Drives

  * 45% off SanDisk Cruzer Micro® (16GB) / New price: $43.99 (from $79.99)

Flash Memory Cards

Cameras

  * 48.9% off SanDisk Standard SDHC™ Card (8GB) / New price: $22.99 (from $44.99)
  * 58% off SanDisk Ultra II SDHC (8GB) / New price: $20.99 from $49.99
  * 50% off SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo™ (4GB) / New price: $19.99 (from $39.99)

Mobile

  * 34% off Mobile Micro SD (8GB) / New price: $32.99 from $49.99
  * 57% off SanDisk microSDHC (8GB) with SD Adapter / New price: $29.99 from $69.99

Read [SanDisk CyberMonday]

Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Computers, Desktops, Software / Applications, Gaming, Accessories, Console, Games, Miscellaneous, Originals, Features

Many people generally associate Black Friday as a time to buy big electronics such as HDTVs, GPSs, gaming consoles, computers, etc.  But, it is also a time to buy interesting little gadgets to make your children, or even yourself, happy.  I decided to take a look at a lesser-known store, KB Toys, and see what they were offering this Black Friday.  I didn’t go straight for their big stuff, but rather their smaller gadgets, and here’s what I found pretty interesting. 

Spider-Man accessories

He’s got a great comic book, a great movie, and has some pretty cool accessories.  KB Toys has a bunch of Spider-Man stuff and a few gadgets that caught my eye was a MP3 player and a Plug-n-Play gaming system. 

The MP3 player is something I wouldn’t recommend getting if you want store a lot of media and videos, but if you want to give it you child who really likes Spider-Man, I’m sure they would enjoy this very much.  In terms of specs, it comes with 512mb of storage, and can be expanded by 1GB (at the most) via SD card, and requires 1 AAA battery.  This sold for $49.99, but now sells for $29.99.
 

The next Spider-Man accessory is a game that you just have to plug into your TV and it works.  Instead of a normal game controller, it comes with an actual Spider-Man jet ski, so you can ride your way through the 7 games it comes with.  I remember seeing stuff like this at arcades, and they were always fun to use.  I would recommend this for your child.  Unfortunately, it requires A LOT of batteries - 8 AA.  Also, don’t sit on it just to try it out as it only holds up to 90 pounds.  This used to sell for $59.99, but now sells for $39.99. 

Games

That above Spider-Man game could also fit in this category, but I felt it was more appropriate to keep it there.  In addition, we have an Air Puck Hockey game and Civilization III for the PC. 

The Air Hockey game is similar to what you often see at arcades - it comes with one puck, two sticks, two goals, and, of course, the puck glides on air.  It also requires 4 AA batteries.  This would make a great gift for children, teens, and even adults if you like air hockey.  It used to sell for $29.99, but now sells for $11.99. 

Next, is the Civilization III PC game, which is similar to Age of Empires by Microsoft.  Features include:

  * Improved combat options for enhanced war-making capabilities
  * More interactions, alliances and realistic A1 responses that put you in the middle of negotiations and diplomatic actions
  * Advanced trade system manages resources, trade routes and spread of technology
  * New elements of Culture, Nationality and the Arts help focus empire building efforts
  * Active world generator creates more realistic maps, detailed barbarians and minor nations
  * Game Editor Suite lets you create customized civilizations, maps and rules
  * New easier-to-use interface for streamlined management and better control

The game is meant for all ages and used to sell for $12.99, but is now $9.99. 

The King - Elvis Presley

Dubbed Alive Elvis, is great for anyone who loves The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.  It features Elvis in a leather jacket and his iconic hair style.  Basically, you can opt to have him play his songs, sing along with him with the included microphone, have him dance to your own songs, and you can even let him tell you a little about his life.  Unfortunately, it requires a lot of batteries - three AAA and eight D batteries.  It used to sell for $299.99, but now sells for $79.99. 

Thank you very much for reading this.  I hope you enjoyed some of the gadgets I found to be interesting during the 2008 Black Friday. 

Read [KB Toys]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Energy Sistem releases the 4040 Touch portable media player that comes with some high-end features including a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a built-in microphone, an FM tuner, and supports for most of audio and video file formats. The Energy Sistem 4040 Touch PMP is priced at only €120. The company also releases the 5020 and 5021 models, which drop the touchscreen and cut the storage down to 4GB. These PMPs are priced at around €85. [EnergySystem via iPod and MP3 Players]

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When first announced back in September, the Sony VAIO LV-series was described as a High-Definition PC/TV.  That blurring of distinctions between computer and entertainment gives a good idea of how the company envisages their all-in-one slotting into your lifestyle; a relatively rare HMDI input, allowing external sources to use the LV as a 1080p-capable display, helps single the system out even further.  Are TV tuners, Blu-ray and Dolby Digital surround sound enough to let the VAIO LV replace your current HDTV?

The specs set the LV off to a good start, with up to a 3.16GHz Intel Core Duo E8500 processor, 4GB of RAM and 1TB of 7,200rpm SATA storage available.  Graphics are courtesy of up to an NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS video card with 256MB of memory, and all but the base model has a Blu-ray drive, with the top-end LV supporting both Blu-ray playback and burning.  Crowing glory, however, is the 24-inch widescreen XBRITE-HiColor display, running at 1920 x 1200 full 1080p High-Definition.

Connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth with A2DP, five USB 2.0 ports, S-Video, iLink Firewire, HMDI input, S/PDIF and headphone outputs, A/V and line/microphone

inputs.  There are also dual NTSC/ATSC TV tuners, with two RF aerial inputs.  Sony includes not only a low-profile wireless keyboard and mouse, but also a remote control.  On the LV itself there are a small number of controls: separate PC and Display on/off buttons, HDMI source selection, volume, wireless on/off, keyboard/mouse connect and webcam angle adjust control.  The webcam is mounted above the display and 1.3-megapixel resolution; it supports software face tracking and has an integrated microphone.

OS is one flavor or another of Windows Vista - Home Premium on the lower-end models, Ultimate on the higher-end - all with Media Center support.  That means pausing and recording live TV, including over-the-air HD channels, and scheduled recordings, all through a lounge-friendly GUI that also gives access to music and online content.  As well as that, Sony add their usual array of VAIO apps - here including the “Click to Disc Editor”, “Movie Story”, “MusicBox”, “Media plus streaming” and more - together with trials of Microsoft Office 2007 and OneCare.  Happily the bloatware for which the company had become known for has been dramatically reduced.

BENCHMARKS

While the LV would make a perfectly pleasing desktop PC - with 24-inches of high-resolution screen ample for just about any application you could think of - it’s true home is in front of your sofa.  The integrated dual 5.5W stereo speakers do a passable job, but for best results we’d recommend hooking up a full surround system.  Do that, and the LV comes into its own: the XBRITE display is a typical Sony triumph, with deep blacks, minimal motion smear and crisp, bright colors.  Vista comes in for plenty of (often justified) criticism, but its Media Center functionality is straightforward and intuitive to use.  The Sony remote manages to be both comprehensive but not overwhelming, and the keyboard (which feels a little plasticy) has an integrated trackpad for surfing the web from your lap.

Plug another video source, such as a PS3; into the LV’s HDMI input and instead of a Vista PC you’re now looking at a high-definition display.  Copyright reasons mean Sony won’t allow you to use both the PC and the HDMI input at the same time, so you have to switch between them, but all the aspects that made the VAIO such a good PC monitor make it an equally good standalone screen.  We can’t help but be disappointed by the inability to have, say, a PS3 window onscreen at the same time as a Word document, though.

Sony has obviously used some of their HDTV knowledge with the LV’s physical design.  Unlike many all-in-one PCs, the power supply is integrated; go for wireless networking, stick with the integrated speakers and the cordless peripherals and you’ve got a one-cable system.  A standard VESA mounting plate means suspending the LV on the wall or, even, on a poseable arm is straightforward, and with the slot-load optical drive hidden on the right-hand side you could easily mistake it for a standard TV.  Overall, we’re fans both of the LV-series design and its  construction: plastics and other materials used in the main unit are of high quality.

So could you - should you - replace your HDTV with the VAIO LV?  A lot of it will come down to room size: 24-inches is big for a monitor, but small for an HDTV.  The same display that looks impressive on your desk or, even better, mounted on the wall in your study, looks overwhelmed on a TV stand in all but the smallest of rooms.  Yes, you can connect to a bigger screen, but that then leaves you with two high-definition options in close proximity, which seems a bit like overkill.

On the other hand, keeping the LV-series PC as a bedroom set - where the size might be more typical - is a tremendous waste of a very capable computer.  No, the VAIO LV makes most sense in a den or games room, serving duty both as your everyday PC and, when the workday is done, the display for some impromptu gaming.

As for the price, there’s another argument.  While the range starts at $1,699.99, that gets you a mere 320GB of storage and a DVD burner; the former will quickly fill if you use the Media Center functionality, while the latter doesn’t do justice to the LV’s screen.  Instead, you’re looking at $1,899.99 for the 500GB model with Blu-ray player or, if you’re serious about high-def media editing, $2,799.99 for the 1TB version with Blu-ray burner.  That’s a whole lot of money, and it would buy you a decent standalone PC and an HDTV certainly larger than 24-inches.

That said, we’ve still a soft spot for the Sony VAIO LV-series.  It’s undoubtedly well designed, well constructed and well specified, and if space is an issue but 1080p a must then it’s well worth considering.  Mainstream users will likely find they get more for their money - including more interconnecting cables - if they spread it out to separate components, but those who pick the LV are unlikely to be disappointed.

Related: Sony Vaio RT Review - Top Tier All-in-One Multimedia PC

Unboxing Sony VAIO LV

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Section: Peripherals, Storage, Features, Contests

It’s Black Friday, you slept through your alarm, and are now scouring the web for the leftover deals (ie. non HD LCD TVs).  Well why not sit back, relax, and enter to win some free drives from Seagate?  Whether you give them away to your mother-in-law as a present or keep them for your movie collection, nothing beats free.

Winners will get their choice of either a FreeAgent Desk 1TB or FreeAgent Desk for Mac 1TB as well as a 500GB FreeAgent Go or 500GB FreeAgent Go for Mac portable drive.  The FreeAgent Go for Mac has FireWire 800 and USB ports comes in a silver and white design.  It matches the look and feel of a MacBook.  The FreeAgentGo (non Mac) is much slimmer and comes in Red, Forest Green, Sky Blue, Tuxedo Black and Silver.

For a chance to win all you need to do to is answer following questions in the comment form at the bottom of this article:

What do you have on your computer that you could not live without, if you lost it?

Only one entry per person.  Entry valid by answering the required question as well as leaving your email address in the comment form.  We’ll pick a random winner from all the entries received by 11:59PT on Friday December 6. Click here for the full list of Dabbledoo contest rules.

You can also enter to win one of the ten hard drive bundles at these sites once they post their rules:

1. CrunchGear
2. Bleeping Computer
3. GottaBeMobile
4. GeeksToGo
5. PlanetAMD64
6. Notebooks
7. Paulstamatiou
8. Macenstein
9. Digital Home Thoughts

Full Story » | Written by Adam Berger for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

When the MacBook Air first launched, nobody could deny it was physically impressive.  Well under an inch thick, it was a visual delight to anybody who saw it.  Ironically, any disappointment was saved for the owners themselves: the payoff for those market-besting dimensions was underpowered components and the tendency to overheat.  Now, Apple have freshly inflated the Air with new technology, in fact just about everything down to the memory is new.  Second time around, have they created the ultimate ultraportable?

Where with the original Air it was the outside that was revolutionary, this time around it’s the inside where all the major changes have happened.  Out goes the old 2GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, to be replaced with 2GB of DDR3 1,066MHz; storage gets a kick too, with the entry-level Air going from 80GB PATA to 120GB SATA, while the SSD version doubles to 128GB.  Similarly, the integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics chipset of the original Air is junked in favor of the same NVIDIA GeForce 9400M chipset as found in the new unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro.

In fact similarities between the Air, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro are now all the more obvious.  Casing design is one such area: Apple was generous with their credit to the Air during the recent unibody MacBook announcements, as paving the way in laser-cut aluminum design.  Requiring a little closer examination is the switch from Mini DVI to Mini DisplayPort, again as found on its bigger siblings, supporting DVI, VGA and Dual-Link DVI via various adapters.  Otherwise there’s still the same single USB 2.0 port and headphone socket, with wired Ethernet available only via an optional USB-to-RJ45 adapter.

Processors, then, are subject to only the mildest of tweaks: the 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo is still present, but the 1.8GHz gets a slight bump to 1.86GHz.  Cache gets a moderate nudge to 6MB.  Still, combined with the far improved graphical capabilities, the second-gen Air has much more grunt than its predecessor.  Display, a 13.3-inch LED-backlit 1,280 x 800 panel, and networking, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, go unchanged; the trackpad is also physically no different, which means a separate button rather than the whole surface being clickable, and no new glass construction.  However there is support for four finger gestures.

All of that notwithstanding, your first - and lasting - impression of the MacBook Air is the design.  Even nine months or so after its first unveiling, it’s still one of the sexiest laptops on the market.  Part of that, perhaps, is that rival ultra portables lack the gracefully tapered edges that make the Air feel even thinner than its 0.16 to 0.76 inches.  Weight is 3lbs, while the 12.8 x 8.94 inch dimensions mean it will still fit into a legal envelope.

When we talked to Apple last week, they seemed legitimately excited at the prospect that the Air could work as a primary laptop rather than as a compromise for portability.  For that to be true, we’d need the slimmest MacBook to be able to not only offer basic browsing and netbook-style duties, but also step up for a little impromptu media editing and similarly processor-stressing tasks.

Our testing suggests it’s capable of just that.  Although the Air is never going to be a serious media cruncher, a 260MB video took roughly 3 minutes to import into iMovie and a 4-minute video took around 12 minutes to export at 640 x 360 resolution.  You’ll have more fan-noise while you do it, but it’s certainly less of a chore than with the old Air.  The issue you’ll most likely run into is space: as with any other system using an SSD, you trade speed and stability for capacity.  By removing unnecessary printer drivers, unused languages and standard apps like Garageband we managed to claw back around 5GB; on a 128GB drive that’s a lot.

Compared to the late-2008 MacBook and MacBook Pro, the Geekbench results are unsurprising: the Air still comes in third with an overall score of 2467 in the 64-bit tests, compared to its chunkier siblings at 3170 for the MacBook and 3664 for the Pro.  That’s part of the reason that Apple expect the Air and the standard MacBook to occupy their own niches; the latter, with its double RAM capacity and higher performance, will appeal to Photoshop and video editors, while Air users are pegged as frequent-travelers doing little more than web browsing, email and word processing.  Improved media crunching is more a sop to watching high-resolution video on that gorgeous display, than it is a sideline in heavy-duty editing.

However, what you do get - with the SSD version of the Air, anyway - is a nice chunk of real-world usability.  Start-up time is more than halved compared to the first-gen Air, regularly coming in at under thirty seconds, and apps load quickly.  You don’t get a burnt lap, nor go deaf from fan noise, either.  Where the first Air had a habit of whipping itself into a broiling frenzy during thorough use, we found the new model comfortably sat at between 120 and 135 degrees.  Processing video saw that jump to between 175 and 185, with the aforementioned crank up in fan speed, but it quickly returned to the normal operating range once the video was done.  Happily we saw none of the freezing or lock-ups that the Air used to suffer from.

Higher-powered graphics usually means an impact on battery life, and sure enough there’s a penalty in overall runtime.  Apple quote 4.5hrs from the new Air, down thirty minutes from the original, and while we never like to see usage times moving in that direction we at least found that to be an accurate estimate.  With the backlight set at half (which, thanks to the LED system, is no hardship) and WiFi turned on, we managed around 4.25hrs of casual surfing and emailing.  Watching video halved that, and video processing is an even quicker way to drain the battery.  Speaking of which, the Air’s battery is still non-user-replaceable.

The Air still isn’t a cheap notebook - the 1.6GHz model with 120GB SATA HDD comes in at $1,799, while the 1.86GHz version with 128GB SSD is $2,499 - but there’s less of a sense this time around that you’re paying solely for the design.  The solid-state model actually offers twice the storage for around $300 less than its first-gen counterpart.

Unlike the first time around, the SSD Air is the one we’d recommend.  Yes, it’s considerably more than its HDD counterpart, but its impact on performance is what makes the second-generation MacBook Air such a pleasure to use.  If budget is such a consideration as to make the SSD upgrade impossible, we’d steer you instead to the MacBook, which can now compete (if not best) the Air in style.  The Air remains Apple’s niche road-warrior option; now those owners can spend more time battling the competition than their notebook.  If you fit the profile, you won’t be disappointed.

MacBook Air (late 2008) unboxing video

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Brando is known for their many computer gadgets and USB devices, but this one is especially cool. The USB Notebook Cooling Pad is not your ordinary USB-powered computer cooler. In fact, this one features a HDD Slot built right into it.

This laptop cooler measures in at 300m x 252mm x 32mm. It weighs just 504 grams and looks pretty stylish. But besides its looks, this Cooling Pad is actually equipped with three USB hubs, making connecting your devices much easier. Plus, it features a 2.5-inch SATA HDD slot, so hooking up external storage shouldn’t be a problem, either.

The HDD slot supports up to a 250GB SATA HDD. With two fans, this Cooling Pad is one of the most feature-filled I’ve seen. You can get the USB Notebook Cooling Pad now for $33. When using it, just make sure not to bump your HDD or other devices on anything as they stick out of the back of the Cooling Pad.

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Posted by: Jane Douglas

This week I've been mostly fiddling with an HTC Touch HD, polishing off Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge, episode two of the Penny Arcade game and studiously contemplating which of the recent netbooks to spend my cold, hard cash on. More on that last one next week.

Next up, the best of the channel over the last seven days:

 
Gaming Goss: Different every time

The world's most expensive kit

Is tech ruining relationships?