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Cameras
Casio's just added three new cams to its range of Exilims: The EX-Z300 and EX-Z250 both have the new Exilim Engine 3.0 processor inside, which should make them faster and suffer less noise than previous cams creating "“beautiful imagery” according to Casio. The Z300 has a 1/2.3-inch 10-megapixel CCD and wide-angle zoom lens, while the Z250 has a smaller 1/2.5-inch CCD with just 9-megapixels. Though the Z85 lacks the new engine, it's more intended for beginner "point and shoot" photographers with a very pared-down "easy" mode, but it's still got 9-megapixels and a ten-person face recognition mode. All three will be out in October for $350 for the Z300, $250 for the Z250 and $180 for the Z85. Press release below.
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Casio Adds to Exilim Digicam Range: Z300, Z250 and Z85
Casio's just added three new cams to its range of Exilims: The EX-Z300 and EX-Z250 both have the new Exilim Engine 3.0 processor inside, which should make them faster and suffer less noise than previous cams creating "“beautiful imagery” according to Casio. The Z300 has a 1/2.3-inch 10-megapixel CCD and wide-angle zoom lens, while the Z250 has a smaller 1/2.5-inch CCD with just 9-megapixels. Though the Z85 lacks the new engine, it's more intended for beginner "point and shoot" photographers with a very pared-down "easy" mode, but it's still got 9-megapixels and a ten-person face recognition mode. All three will be out in October for $350 for the Z300, $250 for the Z250 and $180 for the Z85. Press release below.
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PS3
160GB PS3 Bundle Announced For U.S.
Along with a new PSP and PS3 wireless keyboard, Sony also announced a 160GB PS3 today at the Leipzig Games Convention. In the U.S. it will come bundled with a Dual-Shock SIXAXIS and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It hits in November in time for Xmas at $499, as the high end option coinciding with the $399 80GB "Core Pack" announced at E3, adding room for Sony's video download plans no doubt. The console itself appears to be the same as previous PS3s. The U.S. version comes with a voucher for the PS Network game PAIN, but the Euro 160-gigger includes €70 of free "downloadable content" vouchers. Full presser to follow: More »
Led
Electronic Sandwich...Thanks Mom?
While the refined carbohydrates of Wonder bread coupled with the classic duo of butter from crushed peanuts and the fruit that comes in a jar have powered America's youth for generations, the digital era has ushered in a new use for food. Namely, not eating it. This "electronic sandwich" transforms the binary bliss of PB&J into pretty much just binary, and when you add a bit of power, the sandwich lights up: More »
Cellphones
LG Invision: AT&T's Smallest, Cheapest Mobile TV Phone
A fairly quiet announcement, LG's Invision is the third phone to support AT&T's mobile TV service. It's got the same fat candybar form factor as the Access, but it's smaller, so presumably less awkward. Otherwise it's a basic multimedia phone for $99, if you were looking to get your mobile TV on for cheap. [AT&T]
PS3
Sony PS3's VidZone Service Gives You Free Music and Video
Sony's just announced a video service for their PS3 called VidZone, which somehow offers up free music and videos, albeit only in PAL regions for the time being. It'll allow you to streaming unlimited music on demand for free, but it's unclear whether it'll be ad-supported, or whether the catalog will be full of only Sony BMG tracks, or whether these are horrible tracks that nobody wants to hear anyway. We'll update with more info when we get it, but this is separate from the current PSN service which already lets you buy and rent movies (which is shown in the screenshot above). [Maxconsole]
PS3
PlayStation 3 Keypad to Bring Thumb Typing to PS3
Sony has just announced a keypad peripheral that sits on top of a DualShock 3 and SIXAXIS to allow QWERTY typing. It sounds a lot like the keypad Microsoft released a while back for the 360, but apparently it has a touchpad for mouse support as well (and it could even be used in some games). The pad will come in 8 different configurations/languages for PAL regions this November and there's no US release announcement yet. [Kotaku and Maxconsole and Engadget]
psp-3000
Sony Makes PSP-3000 Official
We knew the PSP-3000 was on the way, but now Sony has made it official. We don't have a full spec sheet yet, but the big two updates are going to be a new, brighter screen (for gaming in sunlight, which is currently impossible) and an integrated microphone (making those impromptu Skype chats a whole lot more practical). No word on US release yet, but the PSP-3000 will be available in Europe on October 15th for €199. Hopefully we'll have a better picture for you soon, but it looks a lot like the existing PSPs. UPDATE: It's coming to the US on Oct 14, and it will hit with a new pack, click through for the update: [Kotaku] More »
Motorola
These days, most in-the-know folks would sooner eat glass than carry a Motorola phone. The company has shredded its reputation by failing to address basic interface design issues: freeze-prone software, head-scratching menus, keys that demand Herculean strength. It's baffling that such a venerable company could build such frustrating phones, considering the zillions presumably spent on development. How did Motorola make such a bollocks of its wireless division? Now that the company has annointed new wireless division chief Sanjay Jha, we surveyed former staffers for the inside scoop, as well as their advice on how to right the ship.
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Motorola Insider Blame Game: Engineers Shoved Designers Aside
These days, most in-the-know folks would sooner eat glass than carry a Motorola phone. The company has shredded its reputation by failing to address basic interface design issues: freeze-prone software, head-scratching menus, keys that demand Herculean strength. It's baffling that such a venerable company could build such frustrating phones, considering the zillions presumably spent on development. How did Motorola make such a bollocks of its wireless division? Now that the company has annointed new wireless division chief Sanjay Jha, we surveyed former staffers for the inside scoop, as well as their advice on how to right the ship.
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11:00 AM on Wed Aug 20 2008
By Brendan I. Koerner
4,200 views,
35 comments
in-flight wi-fi
American Airlines In-Flight Wi-Fi Launches Today on Three Routes
If you're flying on an AA 767-200 from NYC to San Francisco, Miami or Los Angeles, you can kick the tires of American's new Gogo/Aircell in-flight wi-fi service for $12.95 (the rate for flights over 3 hours). It's the same provider Delta will be using as they roll out the service fleetwide starting soon. Let us know how it is from the air, Giz jet-setters. More »
Spying
Forget those naff spy pens: This spy camera watch from Brando may actually be a decent spying gizmo. For example... can you see the camera in the photo of it? It's in the whorl of the numeral 2, and the watch is pretty convincing. It only shoots 352 x 288 pixel AVIs, but it does carry 2GB aboard, so that should be good for a whole bunch of sneaky vids, and its rechargeable batteries get juice from a USB connection. Just cover up that USB port with a sticker or plug of some kind so it's less obvious, and spy away. Presumably it also tells the time, but that's curiously not mentioned on Brando's web page. Yours for $236. [Brando]
Spy Camera Watch Looks Like it May Actually Be Good For Spying
Forget those naff spy pens: This spy camera watch from Brando may actually be a decent spying gizmo. For example... can you see the camera in the photo of it? It's in the whorl of the numeral 2, and the watch is pretty convincing. It only shoots 352 x 288 pixel AVIs, but it does carry 2GB aboard, so that should be good for a whole bunch of sneaky vids, and its rechargeable batteries get juice from a USB connection. Just cover up that USB port with a sticker or plug of some kind so it's less obvious, and spy away. Presumably it also tells the time, but that's curiously not mentioned on Brando's web page. Yours for $236. [Brando]
BlackBerry
BlackBerry 8210 and 8820 Flip Phones Leaked by Web Retailer
A tiny mistake by online retailer Expansys has revealed two new quad-band BlackBerry clamshell phones. Some info on the 8220 has surfaced before, but the 8210 seems new. The phones are apparently very similar, with both having a 2.6-inch internal 240x 320 pixel screen, a small 160 x 128 external screen, and clamshell format. Both have SureType keyboards and a trackball, 2-megapixel cam and microSD expansion. But while the 8210 has in-built GPS, the 8220 sports Wi-Fi connectivity. There was no release date or price available on the leaked page before it was whipped down by Expansys. [Reghardware]
Xbox 360
New Official Xbox 360 Controller Spotted
Over at a German games convention going on now, IGN has come across a new Xbox 360 controller by Microsoft. Apparently it looks pretty much identical to the old one (pictured here) but includes an entirely redesigned directional pad (which makes sense, because the current d-pad isn't so good). Here's what IGN had to say about the play experience: More »
Palm treo pro
Palm Treo Pro Official
This week's best kept secret just got official: The Palm Treo Pro is a Centro-sized Windows Mobile 6.1 phone (whither Palm OS?) with tri-band 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS with a 320x320 touchscreen, exactly like the recent Treo 800w. Powering the show is a 400MHz processor and 128MB of RAM. And yep, the proprietary Palm connector is ditched for micro-USB. Hurray for standards. They're selling it unlocked through the online store for $549 in the fall. [Palm]
Cgi
The woman above is not real. I mean, she was real once, when real actress Emily O’Brien provided Image Metrics (you know their work from GTAIV) with 35 facial poses in front of a pair of digital cameras. From there, O’Brien was dismissed so the animators could go to work. Apparently "ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real." And the results—while not always perfect—are pretty extraordinary. Here's Emily's "interview":
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Emily Isn't Real, But Would You Have Guessed?
The woman above is not real. I mean, she was real once, when real actress Emily O’Brien provided Image Metrics (you know their work from GTAIV) with 35 facial poses in front of a pair of digital cameras. From there, O’Brien was dismissed so the animators could go to work. Apparently "ninety per cent of the work is convincing people that the eyes are real." And the results—while not always perfect—are pretty extraordinary. Here's Emily's "interview":
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HDTVs
Mitsubishi 40mm-thin HDTV Panels Sport External WHDI Wireless Tuner, BD Player
While there have been several other ultra-thin TVs to cheat on size by moving some of the set's guts into an external box, we're starting to see a few of the biggies taking advantage of the newly-codified WHDI spec to beam the signal from the external box to the screen wirelessly. Details are somewhat thin on these new concept Mitsubushi panels, which are 40mm (a hair over 1.5 inches) thick and should reach manufacturing before the year is up. But their use of WHDI (like these Sharp sets before them) to link the panel to the external tuner box adds an interesting twist to this trend. More »
Architecture
Real Sim City Comes to Life in the Desert
Yesterday's images of the almost-finished Burj Dubai blew our minds with its scale and grandiosity. Today, reader David Hobcote zooms out his Canon 1Ds Mark III on board a Bell heli to show us the current state of some of Dubai's new landmarks, including the stunning New Atlantis Hotel and the first house constructed on one of The World's artificial islands. Yes, it looks like a new Sim City running in a PlayStation 3. More »
Lighting
