Devices

New devices to consumer digital media

Sony Gets Colourful With Vaios
Fashion aficionados concerned that the hue of their laptop may clash awfully with their high fashion clobber will be delighted to learn that Sony is releasing their Sony F-type laptops in four stylish colours.
With Sony offering the laptops in white, pink, green and blue, fears of a haute couture faux-pas should be banished forever, although uptight Daddy-o’s can still purchase the laptop in sensible, corporate silver.
The slimline F series Vaios come in F20, F30, F50, and F70 flavours, with the top of the range F70 offering a 15.4inch widescreen with 1680×1050 pixels, fast Pentium M780 2.26Ghz processor, 1 gig of RAM, Geforce GO 6200 and 128MB of video RAM in a 2.8kg package.
Measuring 14.3-inches wide, 10.4-deep, and just 1 inch-thick, Sony’s engineers have managed to wedge in a 100GB drive, dual-layer DVD±R/RW/RAM and a Webcam for showing your friends your latest Pierre Cardin outfit.
Carbon Fibre Laptops
It seems that Sony can’t get enough of the funky finishes right now, with Sony Korea announcing two new carbon fibre laptops last week, the VGN-TX17LP/B and VGN-TX16LP/W 2.
Using space age technology usually being used for, err, planes and racing cars, Sony claims that these new VAIOs are twice as strong compared to existing T series notebooks, and weigh 30% less.
The display panel is a mere slip of a thing at 4.5mm thick with the designers waxing lyrical about the “sapphire black and platinum white” finish.
The Vaio TX series offer a handy AV mode button which makes the machine available for watching movies or listening to music in just 12 seconds with no need to boot up Windows.
The claimed battery life is impressive – up to 9 hours and 14-15 hours with an extended battery.
We’ve no idea of the price yet and – yes, you’ve guessed it – it’s only being released in Korea for the time being.
5 October, 2005
Japan’s Ceatec Show Opens Today
Japan’s largest annual IT show, Ceatec (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies), opens today and will feature around 700 companies, according to the organisers.
Last year, the show – the largest international exhibition in Asia for the technology and electronics sectors – attracted 182,000 people with greater numbers anticipated this year.
Naturally, Simon Perry – the Digi-Lifestyles big cheese – is at the show, so you can expect hot news and updates from the floor over the next couple of days.
Running from Tuesday until Saturday at the Makuhari Messe convention centre, Chiba, just outside Tokyo, the show is designed to provide a platform for Japan’s technology vendors to display their latest gear and showcase prototype products.
The anticipated unveiling of rival HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc players could prove to be a show highlight, and there’s great interest in the eagerly awaited new high-definition TVs.
Sharp is expected to show off a hard-disk drive-based digital recorder that is capable of recording two HDTV programs at once, with the machine ready to roll just one second after being switched on.
Toshiba has promised to display a super-slim 12.7 millimetre high drive designed for laptops which can read HD-DVD discs and read and write DVDs and CDs.
Naturally, there’s loads of activity on the mobile phone front, with new products and technology on offer, including portable fuel cells from network operator KDDI.
The company has been working with Hitachi and Toshiba to develop fuel cell-based chargers for cell phones, with the first commercial products expected on sale before the end of March 2006.
As well as shiny new consumer boxes, Ceatec also showcases the products of component makers, with Matsushita showing off a flexible optical circuit board and Seiko Epson displaying a flexible memory chip for use in flat-panel displays.
Born out of a merger between Japan Electronics Show and Com Japan, Ceatec attracted 172,053 visitors in its debut year in 2000, rising to 182,490 visitors last year.
Ceatec
4 October, 2005
Samsung Go Memory Mad, Investing $33Bn
Blimey, Samsung have announced that they are planning to invest $33 Billion in memory chip production over the next 7 years, Reuters is reporting.
By expanding its production lines in its main semiconductor fabrication site near Kiheung, and its seperate site at its Hwaseong semiconductor plant, by eight fab lines and one R&D, it should reach its target by 2012.
Samsung currently a major supplier of memory chips to much of the industry including Apple, for their iPod, Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Portable and Dell. This move marks confidence in their increase in demand as more devices become user memory storage over hard disc.
Earlier this month Samsung got a lot of attention when they announced a 16G-bit NAND flash memory chip that will lead to removable memory cards of up to 32Gb, when 16 of them are gathered on a single card.
Samsung originally entered the semiconductor business in 1974, and with this move they are hoping to reach $61 billion earnings from total semiconductor sales by 2012.
Reuters report
Samsung
29 September, 2005
i-mate K-JAM Smartphone/PDA Announced
Building on the success of their hugely popular JAM phone, i-mate have announced the new K-JAM smartphone/PDA.
Powered by a TI OMAP 850 200MHz processor, the quad-band smartphone features a nifty slide out keyboard, with a form factor of 108mm x 58mm x 23.7mm (roughly the same size as an i-mate JAM, but with a deeper case).
The keyboard slides out from the left side of the phone, with the screen rotating into landscape mode for typing.
Built-in storage capacity has been increased to 64MB SDRAM RAM and 128MB ROM (for programs and user’s storage), supported by a miniSD memory expansion slot.
The display comes in the form of a 2.8″ QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) 64k Transflective screen, and the device runs on the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 OS.
Wireless connectivity is taken care of via integrated Bluetooth 1.1, InfraRed and – delightfully – built-in WiFi
Like its predecessor, the phone sports a 1.3 megapixel camera with a new video/flash light. We hope it’s the not the same one that shipped with the i-mate JAM because that one was spectacularly rubbish.
Equally rubbish was the low-volume distorto-matic speakerphone, but i-mate seems to have addressed this issue by adding new dual speakers with 3D surround sound.
The phone offers support for a wide range of music formats, and claims 10 hours running time in PDA mode and 4-5 hours talk time.
As with other HTC-manufactured phones, consumers can expect the K-JAM to emerge under a panoply of different names over the coming months, depending on the service provider.
i-mate
26 September, 2005
Humax PVR-9200T: Freeview Duovisio PVR Launched
Humax have dished out detailed information about their new dual-tuner, Freeview-enabled PVR, the PVR-9200T.
Like the Sony RDR-GXD500 we reviewed in April 2005, Humax’s PVR lets users watch and record digital terrestrial Freeview TV shows, with lucky UK consumers able to feast on over 30 channels of freebie programming.
With two tuners onboard, Humax’s PVR-9200T (or “Duovisio” as it likes to be called), lets you record one channel while watching another or you can really push the boat out and simultaneously record two channels while playing back a previous recording.
Receiving and recording of pay TV channels is possible through a special CA module.
There’s no DVD recorder on board, so storage is taken care of by a fairly generous 160GB hard drive, supporting up to 100 hours recording.
The unit comes with preloaded software, allowing for picture-in-a-picture and “assorted trick play, diverse formats of recording and recording services playback, all through the time shift recording function.” We’re not quite sure what that last bit means.
Folks baffled by the complexities of traditional video programming will enjoy the 7 day Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) with the Duovisio providing support for subtitles, digital teletext and interactive features.
There’s also a handy USB2.0 port provided for MPEG A/V file transfers between the Duovisio and a PC, letting users play back their digital photos or listen to MP3 files downloaded from a PC.
Humax
22 September, 2005
Dell Axim X51v PDA Rolled Out
Dell has announced three updates to its popular Axim PDA series, headed up by the powerful, VGA-enabled X51v.
The flagship model is physically very similar to their existing X50v, but runs on the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and comes with more memory and powerful features.
With a hefty 624 MHz Intel PXA270 processor lurking inside, the Dell Axim X51v incorporates a 3.7-inch 640 x 480 VGA TFT display, powered by an Intel 2700G Multimedia Accelerator offering 16 MB of dedicated video memory.
Onboard storage comes in the form of 256 MB of non-volatile memory, with expansion taken care of by SDIO compatible SD/MMC and CompactFlash Type II card slots.
One big difference from previous models is the use of non-volatile memory, which means that the new Axim X51v uses RAM exclusively for running programs and stores all programs and data in flash.
The good news is that this results in extended battery life and means that data stays intact when the battery goes dead, but there is a downside.
Because flash memory is slower than RAM, activities that involve shunting a lot of data between storage flash and operational RAM (like opening files or rebooting the device) become slower.
PC Magazine found that opening times on large Word documents were much slower than on earlier models, taking up to 18 seconds compared to the nippy 3 seconds on the X50v.
They also found that file writes to the default storage directory took three times as long as on the X50v, and reads took nearly eight times as long, but the machine performed well with video files and opening ClearVue PDF, Pocket Excel/Excel Mobile and Pocket Internet Explorer/IE Mobile documents.
Connectivity is taken care of with integrated Bluetooth 1.2 and Wi-Fi 802.11b support, with WPA and LEAP security for the latter.
Dell have bundled in a generous software bundle of games and applications including 3D mini-golf, Geo Rally 3D and full versions of the Battery Pack Lite utility and the excellent Resco Picture Viewer.
Looking down the range, Dell’s new Axim X51 and X51s devices offer 520 and 416 MHz processors respectively with smaller 3.5-inch QVGA displays and no Wi-Fi 802.11b connectivity in the X51s.
The Axim X51v is now available in the US and Europe, priced $500 USD (£271, €390) with the X51 and X51s knocking out for $400 USD (£220, €340) and $300 USD (£166, €280) respectively.
21 September, 2005
Commodore Is Back With GPS Multimedia Player
Mention the name “Commodore” to old skool gamers of a certain age, and you might see a tear welling up in their eyes as they recall long, blissful hours playing Frontier Elite, Sensible Soccer and Lemmings on the legendary gaming platform.
After suffering a crushing fall from grace in the mid 1990s, Commodore’s new owners (Yeahronimo Media Ventures) have re-launched the brand, and announced a cutting-edge multimedia GPS Videpod.
Codenamed ‘The Navigator Combo’, the Windows CE-based handheld comes with a 30GB hard drive (preloaded with maps), a big 3.6in touch-screen display and an integrated GPS receiver, all packed into a refreshingly chunky case.
As well as providing satellite navigation, the portable media centre can also play back music in MP3 and WMA format and video in MPEG-4 and DivX formats.
Music tracks can be downloaded from online music stores like Napster and Virgin Digital, or from their very own Commodore Music Store.
Videos can also be downloaded from the Internet or transferred from PCs via USB 2.0, or stored on SD memory cards.
The new handheld forms part of a series of new products announced by Commodore at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin.
The company has entered into a partnership with SupportPlus Europe, for the distribution and sales of Commodore products in Europe.
The two companies presented a wide range of shiny new consumer electronic products for consumers and the retail market, including MP3/MP4-players, C64 gaming joysticks, multimedia download dispensers and home media centers.
The management of YNMO and SupportPlus anticipate gross revenues from the Commodore Products in the European market to exceed 162 Million Euros within 3 years.
“In the ’80s and ’90s the name Commodore represented successful, innovative and technically first-class products,” said Ben van Wijhe, CEO of YNMO.
Building up to the required mutual backslap, he added, “Therefore the management of Yeahronimo and SupportPlus believe it is an obligation, when using the Commodore name, to continue offering the electronics consumer with products that have a high-quality and are attractive in price. SupportPlus already has showed they are an excellent partner in the historic re-launch of Commodore.”
www.commodoreshop.com
www.commodoreworld.com
Commodore/Amiga history
20 September, 2005
GetMeThere: Pay As You Go Mobile GPS Launches in UK
GetMeThere.co.uk has launched what they are claiming is the first, free to install, Pay-as-you-go Mobile Satellite Navigation solution in the UK.
A joint venture between Toyota GB and IS Solutions, the TARA (Traffic Avoidance and Routing Application) Mobile SatNav is aimed at mobile and smart phone users in the UK.
Customers won’t have to buy expensive hardware or annual licences to use the Satellite Navigation system as the TARA Mobile SatNav works with any compatible mobile phone and a GPS receiver.
Instead, punters pay on a per-journey tariff, with TARA Mobile SatNav charging £1.50 ($2.70, €2.22) to the mobile phone bill for each destination, with users allowed to update their route to check traffic conditions, take an alternative route or to re-calculate the journey if they have the orienteering skills of an alcoholic amnesiac
The system offers a comprehensive suite of features, including full turn by turn navigation, voice commands, traffic avoidance, auto-zooming maps as a junction approaches, hands free use, European road network coverage with full address, house number, street and postcode search.
All route calculation and traffic avoidance is processed remotely, with the data automatically downloaded onto the mobile via GPRS.
Jon West, Director of GetMeThere.co.uk said “With over 4.5m navigationsystems expected to be sold this year across Europe, TARA Mobile SatNav has arrived just in time to provide a low cost, quality solution for the intelligent motorist. With GPS devices now available at around the £50 ($90, €74) mark, SatNav has become a must have for all motorists”.
TARA mobile SatNav is available as a free download from GetMeThere.co.uk and is compatible with a long list of mobiles including popular Nokia models such as 3650, 3660, 6260, 6600, 6670, and 7610,T-Mobile’s MDA II and Compact and O2’s XDA II range.
GetMeThere.co.uk
20 September, 2005
Samsung CEO: NAND Flash Will Replace Hard Drives
Hard drives are soon to go the way of 8 track cartridges and steam powered radios according to Samsung’s semi-conductor CEO Dr. Chang Gyu Hwang.
Coming hot on the heels of the launch of their 16Gb NAND flash chip using 50nm technology, Hwang reckoned that all the hep cats would soon be dumping their unfashionable hard drives and hanging out with the solid-state flash memory crew.
“NAND flash technology development continues to double density growth on an average of every 12 months,” Hwang observed, while quietly giving a nearby hard drive a few hard kicks.
A dimly-lit colleague stroking a white cat added, “This year, it appears clear that NAND will surpass NOR as the most popular flash memory.”
NAND flash memory is currently widely used in digital cameras, mobile phones, USB flash drives and portable music players such as Apple Computer’s groovy new iPod Nano.
With a cackle in his voice and a size nine sending a RAID array skywards, Hwang reckons that we’ll soon be seeing laptop memory cards with 32GB of memory, based on multiple 16Gb flash chips.
NAND flash uses a 50nm process which shrinks the flash memory to just 0.00625 square microns per bit, 25 per cent down on the previous 60nm process.
Forcing a rough screwdriver into a helpless hard drive, Hwang predicted that these mega-chips will appear late in 2006 or in 2007, based on mass production of the new Samsung chips in the second part of 2006.
If the HD-torturing Samsung head honcho is right, we can expect to see a 32Gb NAND chip this year, enabling hefty 64GB memory cards, followed by 128GB memory cards next year.
With this kind of NAND flash storage capacity, Samsung’s plans to ruthlessly wipe hard drives off the face off the earth could begin to take shape.
A big advantage of using flash memory in notebooks is that the technology is resistant to the sort of mechanical shocks that can often knacker a hard drive.
But the technology isn’t perfect, with flash chips having a finite life in read/write cycle terms and increased memory card costs and power consumption.
With analysts predicting $1.7bn (£930m, €1.38m) in revenues for NAND memory this year, global NAND flash memory revenues are expected to reach $9.4bn (£5.15m, €7.65m) and Samsung is looking to cut themselves a large slice of that lucrative pie.
In another part of their south-Korean HQ, Samsung unveiled a new 7.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor for high-end digital pictures and fusion semiconductors for next-generation smartphones and PDAs.
Samsung
14 September, 2005
O2 Xda Exec Mobile PDA With 3G Launched
O2 has announced the launch of the o2 Xda Exec, the first PDA and mobile phone combo device to feature 3G.
Touted as a laptop replacement with a built-in 62-key QWERTY thumb keyboard, the handheld is also the first to incorporate the brand spanking new Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.
Manufactured by the Taiwan based HTC, the phone is also sold as the HTC Universal, T-Mobile MDA IV, Vodafone VPA IV, Orange SPV M5000 and Q-Tek 4040.
Bedecked in a custom smart black finish, the o2 Xda Exec sports a large 3.6″ 640×480 65k transflective colour backlit LCD which can be swiveled around to let the device be used as tablet or as a mini laptop.
Reflecting its business focus, the phone comes with Pocket Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF viewers pre-installed and offers Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, 3G and tri-band GPRS connectivity.
There’s a 1.3 megapixel camera (1280 x 960) with built in flash onboard and a second CIF camera for videocalls.
Russ Shaw, Marketing Director at O2 was ready to froth up the product: “The O2 Xda Exec takes the Xda range to the next level, giving busy professionals the ultimate mobile experience.
The laptop style keyboard combined with the responsive and intuitive operating environment make this device easy to use and an effective laptop replacement for when people are out and about.
Combined with our service bundle, we believe that the O2 Xda Exec will build on the success of the Xda range, extending our market share still further into 2006.”
Much as we’d love to enjoy the “ultimate mobile experience”, the o2 Xda Exec doesn’t quite do it for us.
Sure, it sports a mouth-watering feature list and looks way cool in its super-sleek black finish, but that trouser-bulging bulk means we’ll be sticking with our less capable iMate JAM for now (but, there again, we’re not the swivel-action execs that the phone is aimed at.)
The o2 Xda Exec is available from £399.99 (~$730, ~€593) for pay monthly contract customers and will be available in UK O2 stores and other leading distributors.
Technical stuff:
- OS: Windows Mobile 5.0
- Intel XScale PXA272 520MHz
- 128MB Flash ROM, 64MB RAM
- 3.6″ 640×480 65k transflective colour backlit LCD
- up t8/4/15/250 GSM Talk/3G Talk/PDA/Standby time
- GSM Tri-band (900/1800/1900), UMTS Single-band (2100)
- GPRS class 10, UMTS 64/384
- Bluetooth 1.2, Infrared and mini-USB connector
- Wireless LAN 802.11b
- SDIslot
- 3.5mm AudiConnector
- StereSpeakers
- Integrated camera (resolution 1280 x 960) with LED flash, 2nd CIF camera for videcalls
- Integrated antenna
- 15 buttons (Answer, Hangup, Backlight on/off, OK, Start, Camera, Power, VoiceRecord, 5-way navigation pad
- 62-key QWERTY keyboard with light sensor tauto-adjust the screen and keyboard backlight
- Removable battery (1620mah)
- Weight: 285 grams
o2
13 September, 2005