Olympus VJ-10 Radio Server

Olympus VJ-10 Radio ServerLooking like it’s teleported straight off the film set of 2001:A Space Odyssey is this new futuristic radio from Olympus sporting a colossal 37GB of disk space and a 3.9″ screen.

Details are rather scarce at the moment – actually, all we’re going on is a short article and some nice pics – but its curvy, silver-clad lines are pushing all the right buttons for us.

According to the limited specs available, the unit can record up 2500 hours of programming depending on the selected recording mode (32 to 128Kbps WMA), letting fans of The Archers store over a year’s worth of rustic shenanigans on the device. Oh the joy!

Olympus VJ-10 Radio ServerWe can’t see any mention of a DAB radio on the radio which suggests it’s not for the UK market, but naturally there are presets galore for AM/FM bands.

According to the akihabaranews.com article, “Olympus did things very well by presetting 20 different programming depending on the frequencies you’re choosing”, which we think means that you can program recording schedules.

MP3 and WMA files can also be uploaded to the VJ-10 for playback and the radio can be used as external hard disk via the built in USB port.

Olympus VJ-10 Radio ServerThe publicity shots show the radio in what looks like a docking bay, although with no pics of the thing untethered perhaps the radio doesn’t pop out after all. Which would be a bit rubbish.

The VJ-10 Radio Server measures up at 205x120x89mm, weighs 640g and we haven’t the foggiest if or when it’ll ever drift past the white cliffs of Dover or how much it will cost. But we still like the look of it.

[via]

Freeloader Solar Technology Portable Charger

Freeloader Solar Technology Portable ChargerHaving a ton of the latest technological gadgets bulging in your pants may give you a Noughties swagger, but you’ll be looking like a prize chump if the batteries go flat, so Solar Technology’s new Freeloader charger might help you keep your cool.

Billed as an ‘advanced portable charging system’, the portable device sports twin fold-out solar panels for that mini-Space Station look, with the makers claiming that the panels can charge up the internal battery in as little as 5 hours.

Freeloader Solar Technology Portable Charger
They may not sound much, but seeing as some Brit summers seem to contain less than five hours sunlight in total, it’s a good job that the Freeloader has a trick up its sleeve, offering the option to charge up the internal battery via a (supplied) USB cable.

This gives you the chance to store up on battery power before you leave the house and then top it up whenever there’s a bit of sun in the sky.

The 1000mAh environmentally friendly Li-ion battery seems to have a reasonable bit of oomph to it too, and is quoted as being able to power an iPod for 18hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, PSP for 2.5 hours a PDA for 22 hours.

The Freeloader can hang on to its battery charge for up to 3 months and can conveniently charge a device while its internal battery is being topped up via the solar cells or by USB cable.

The charger comes with a power master cable and eleven adaptors to fit a ton of devices listed on their website:

Freeloader Solar Technology Portable Charger

  • LG Chocolate series phones
  • Motorola V66 series and current V3 series phones
  • All Nokia current and N series phones
  • Samsung A288 and current D800 series phones
  • Sony Ericsson T28 and current K750 series phones
  • 4mm straight jack for Sony PSP, Tom Tom sat nav, digital camera’s, PDA’s and two-way radio’s
  • Mini USB for Blackberry Smart phones, Nintendo DS, Bluetooth headsets etc
  • USB 2.0 female socket for iPod, iPod Shuffle, MP3 players, smart phones, PDA’s, GPS “plus much more”

Sized up at a portable 123mm x 62mm x 17mm and weighing 185g, the stylish Freeloader comes in a tough aluminium case and could prove a handy purchase for travellers, road warriors and folks looking forward to this year’s festival season (Glastonbury mudstorms notwithstanding).

The Freeloader solar charger is available now from Solar Technology’s website at £29.99.

Freeloader

iAxe USB Guitar For Laptop-Toting Plank Spankers

Guitar bands may well be back in, but all those clunky effects pedals and old-school spaghetti cables are unlikely to impress the chix at the front, so aspiring Rock Gods may want to check out the new iAxe USB Guitar.

iAxe USB Guitar For Laptop-Toting Plank SpankersAs the name suggests, this Strat-shaped guitar comes with a USB port, allowing aspiring six string warriors to plug into their laptops and access a host of cool effects.

The guitar certainly looks the part, sporting a maple neck, solid body, single-coil pickups with 5-way switching, shiny chrome machine heads and a whammy bar letting you go for a bite while the sustain continues making that ‘eeeeeeeee’ sound.

The ‘idiot proof’ software supplied lets bedroom plank spankers jam along to their own music, with the ability to slow down or speed up tracks to learn those tricky licks and difficult ‘shapes’.

iAxe USB Guitar For Laptop-Toting Plank SpankersThere’s also a multi-track recording/editing function for laying down dual-guitar sonic attacks, delicately layered tracks or a Ronnie Spector wall of noise.

If your neighbours aren’t down with your late night, death metal interpretations of teenage angst expressed through the medium of a heavy fuzzbox effect, there’s a handy headphone socket to help keep the noise down to minus eleven.

The sound may well be Shea Stadium, but at just £99 the price is definitely Bull & Gate, and the USB iAxe is available now for wannabe six string renegades on the highway to desolation from online widget merchants, Firebox.

European PS3: No Emotion Engine: PS2 Compatibility ‘Limited’

Sony has just let it be know that it will be redesigning the internals for the EuropeanPS3, removing the Emotion Engine, which gives compatibility with PS2 games.

European PS3: No Emotion Engine: PS2 Compatibility LimitedThe Emotion Engine will instead be handled in what they call, “a new combination of hardware and software emulation which will enable PS3 to be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation (PS) titles and a limited range of PlayStation2 (PS2) titles.”

Much fuss was made by Sony of the Emotion Engine when they were building up to the initial release of the first PlayStation. CNN even went as far as asking if the PS2 will replace the PC, with claims like, it was “two times faster than a 733-MHz Pentium III and 15 times faster than a 400-MHz Celeron at handling tasks like full-motion video.”

Now we know that Sony are keen to make the maximum amount of money reduce the amount of money that they are losing from selling PS3s. According to iSupply’s estimate on the Bill Of Material of the PS3, they’ll save $27 on this.

Many UK gamers were angered when they felt that they were paying over the odds for the UK PS3 when the price of £425 was made official. This news will do nothing to make them feel better.

The real danger is that if people think they’re going to get less of a machine that their-cousins in the US and Japan have, that may well be the last straw in deciding which ‘Next-Gen’ console they’ll buy – even if they never end up playing any of their old PS2 games.

Sony is on a knife-edge with this one. We’ve already postulated that the PS3 might not be bought in the way that was once thought, before the Wii caught peoples imaginations.

What is strange is that in an interview at the start of February, SCE UK managing director, Ray Maguire, said that the machines were being built at that point, but omitted to mention that they would be fundamentally different.

Full release follows …

23/02/2007 10:00
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Announces Hardware Specification of PLAYSTATION®3 for Europe

London, 23 February 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today announced that PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) to be launched in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia on 23rd March 2007 would utilise a new hardware specification.

The European PS3 will feature the Cell Broadband Engine™, 60 GB hard disc drive, Blu-ray Disc player, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, SIXAXIS™ wireless controller. It also embodies a new combination of hardware and software emulation which will enable PS3 to be compatible with a broad range of original PlayStation® (PS) titles and a limited range of PlayStation®2 (PS2) titles.

“PS3 is first and foremost a system that excels in playing games specifically designed to exploit the power and potential of the PS3 system,” said David Reeves, President of SCEE. “Games designed for PS3 offer incredible graphics quality, stunning gameplay and massively improved audio and video fidelity that is simply not achievable with PS and PS2 games. Rather than concentrate on PS2 backwards compatibility, in the future, company resources will be increasingly focused on developing new games and entertainment features exclusively for PS3, truly taking advantage of this exciting technology.”

European PS3: No Emotion Engine: PS2 Compatibility 'Limited'Some additional PS2 titles will become compatible on the PS3 system through regular downloadable firmware updates, which will be made available through the PLAYSTATION®Network, from http://www.playstation.com or via PS3 game discs, with the first update planned for the launch date of the 23rd March 2007.

Users will be able to check whether their titles are compatible with PS3 at http://faq.eu.playstation.com/bc. This site will be available on 23rd March to meet launch day.

1. A device compatible with Linear PCM 7.1 Ch is required to output 7.1 ch audio, supported by Dolby TrueHD or a similar format, from the HDMI OUT connector.

2. This system does not support output from the DTS-HD 7.1 Ch. DTS-HD 7.1 Ch audio is output from a 5.1 or lower channel.

3. Usability of all storage media types is not guaranteed.

4. Certain PlayStation 2 format software titles may not perform properly on this system. Visit faq.eu.playstation.com/bc for the latest information regarding compatible titles

PURE DMX-25 DAB Micro System With MP3 Playback Launched

Those lovely people at Pure have launched another means of listening to DAB radio and other audio, this time in a compact micro Hi-Fi form.

PURE DMX-25 DAB Micro System With MP3 Playback LaunchedThe new PURE DMX-25 DAB Micro System with MP3 playback comes with the ability to playback MP3/ WMA files from portable USB flash memory drives, SD memory cards and CDs. Beyond those terribly modern means, there’s also two auxiliary inputs, letting you connect iPod, MiniDisc or MP3 player.

This micro system is Micro with the main unit being 140mm wide and 150mm tall – not much wider than a CD case.

All the DAB goodies are available including autotuning to all available stations and scrolling text showing news, sports results, artist names and track titles (as long as it’s supported by the broadcaster). Pure tells us that some areas of the UK have up to 55 DAB stations these days.

The CD player isn’t just for the run of the mill audio CDs. It will playback CD-R and CD-RW disks with support for CD Text and audio CD playlists. The DMX-25 also plays back MP3-CDs, including support for ID3 tags, giving significantly increased capacity.

For those of you who love to know about the guts of what you’re buying – The DMX-25 is powered by the Frontier Chorus FS1010, which incorporates the revolutionary META multi-threaded processor and Universal Communications Core technologies developed by Imagination Technologies. So there!

DMX-25 is on sale from April 2007 from major retailers and independent hi-fi dealers nationwide for just £129.99 (SSP inc. VAT).

Tech Specs

Tuner: Stereo digital radio with full Band III and FM reception. ETS 300 410 compliant and capable of decoding all DAB transmission modes 1-4 up to and including 192 kbps. Supports FM RDS and RadioText.

Frequency ranges: Band III 174-240 MHz, FM 87.5-108 MHz.

CD Player: CD-R and CD-RW playback compatible. Support for 20 track audio CD playlist. Multiple playback modes (repeat, shuffle, etc.). MP3 & WMA playback, including support for ID3 tags.

PURE DMX-25 DAB Micro System With MP3 Playback LaunchedSpeakers: 4 Ohms (nominal) impedance. 10W RMS power handling. Two-way design. Treated paper mid-bass driver. Custom-tuned crossover. Rosewood finish. Removable grilles.

Input connectors: Two 3.5mm line-inputs for auxiliary devices. USB host port for flash-based memory sticks (key drives) and powered media devices. SD memory card support.

Output connectors: 3.5mm stereo output for headphones.

Controls: Power on/standby, clock/sleep, source, tune/select, menu, timer, info, presets, volume, play/pause, stop, fast forward, rewind and MP3 directory navigation.

Remote: Fully featured infrared remote control. Uses 2 AAA batteries (supplied).

Presets: 30 presets (10 DAB and 20 FM).

LCD Display: LCD display with 16 x 2 characters, plus additional function icons.

Mains power supply: 240V. Euro/UK power socket adapter.

Approvals: CE marked. Compliant with the EMC and Low Voltage Directives (89/336/EEC and 73/23/EEC).

Dimensions (mm): Unit – 140 wide x 150 high (280 with CD compartment open) x 230 deep (including controls). Speakers – 130 wide x 205 high x 160 deep.

Aerial: Wire dipole DAB/FM aerial.

Warranty: Comprehensive two year warranty.

Pure DMX-25

USB Rules Mobile Phone Interfacing

USB Rules Mobile Phone InterfacingUSB rules the roost for people loading and unloading content on and off their mobiles phones. It was employed in more handsets than all other interface standards combined in 2006, according to iSuppli Corp.

While the wireless alternatives of WiFi and Bluetooth might grab the news headlines, good old-fashioned USB keeps doing the doo, primarily because some sort of USB is on pretty much any computer since it’s introduction ten years ago.

iSupply think this dominance will continue to the point where, by the end of 2010, USB will still be the leading local interface, being included 764 million of all handsets shipped that year. They also think that Bluetooth will be fitted to all handsets, while NFC and WiFi will become stronger that their currently weak position.

Alongside getting content on and off the phone using the varied interfaces, there will be a corresponding increase in flash memory add-in cards. iSupply are predicting significant increases, with the 186m units shipped in 2005 increasing to 640m units in 2010.

It was interesting to note that the whole range of new Sony Ericsson phones were fitted with Memory Stick Micro (M2), and not the now-standard Memory Sticks. When we queried it with company people, they said that was the trend, allowing the size of the handsets to shrink.

iSupply

Nikon Coolpix P5000 Announced

Nikon Coolpix P5000 AnnouncedNikon has announced several additions to its new Coolpix lineup today, but the one that’s caught our eye is its high-end Coolpix P5000 prosumer model.

The specs look enticing: 10 megapixel sensor, stablised 3.5x zoom, high ISO range, 2.5-inch screen, add-on lenses and a neat, all-black compact design (3.9 x 2.5 x 1.6 in.).

Nikon Coolpix P5000 AnnouncedWe like proper image stabilisation (rather than the ISO-booting sleight-of-hand touted by some makers) and the P5000 comes with optical lens shift VR (Vibration Reduction) technology borrowed from Nikon’s upmarket SLR camera systems.

With clever-clogs angular velocity sensors (we could have used some of them last night in the pub) measuring camera movement, the camera automatically calculates the amount of compensation required, with the VR lens unit adjusting position to negate offset camera shake.

Nikon claim that their VR system provides sharp images up to three steps slower, which should give the camera an edge over some of its rivals in low light shooting.

Nikon Coolpix P5000 AnnouncedIn line with most of its rivals, the P500’s ISO range soars up into the grainy heights of ISO 3200 capability (at a reduced 5M capacity), with an Anti-Shake and High-Sensitivity mode automatically selecting the optimal rating.

Photographers who can’t stop themselves fiddling and tweaking about with any dial they can get their hands on will enjoy the camera’s Program, Shutter Priority,
Aperture Priority Auto and Manual modes, backed by 16 scene-optimised Scene modes and seven different movie modes.

Nikon Coolpix P5000 AnnouncedThey’ll also enjoy the optical viewfinder, even if it is a bit of a squinty affair, with the rechargeable Lithium-ion battery EN-EL5 promising around 250 shots on a single charge. There’s a vaguely useful 21meg of internal memory with a SD card slot offering SDHC card compatibility.

Nikon have also announced optional accessories including a 0.67x Wide-angle Converter and a 3.0x Telephoto Converter lenses, with the camera’s built in hotshoe ready and willing to accept flashguns from Nikon’s advanced Speedlight range.

DPreview

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Released

Adobe Releases Photoshop LightroomAfter a lengthy sojourn in beta, Adobe has finally released version one of its Photoshop Lightroom photographic software

Aimed at pro/enthusiast photographers, the software aims to “simplify photography from shoot to finish” by providing a simple interface for managing, adjusting, and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.

Boasting support for more than 150 camera raw formats, the program lets users edit, adjust and experiment with photographs while protecting the original data, whether it be in JPEG, TIFF, PNG or RAW formats.

Adobe Releases Photoshop LightroomWith more and more users shooting digitally and hard drives rapidly filling up with zillions of image files, there’s gold in them thar hills for software companies providing solid image management tools, and Adobe is hoping to nudge ahead of respected rivals like Portfolio, ACDSee and iVew MediaPro (now swallowed up by Microsoft).

Naturally, Lightroom comes with a super-slick interface and a veritable shedload of tools for viewing, organising and managing your precious snaps, including batch processing, file renaming, DVD back-up and keyword searching.

Adobe Releases Photoshop LightroomThe new Key Metadata Browser comes with an improved ranking and rating system, sporting colour labels and a pick/reject system.

Photos can be fine tuned using tools for globally correcting white balance, exposure, tone curves, lens distortion, and colour casts, with “task-oriented modules” helping users get through typical workflow jobs.

There’s also a new tool for tweaking hue, saturation and luminance, and Clone and Healing brushes for dealing with the pesky bits of dust that seem to head en masse for our Nikon’s sensor the second we change lenses.

Adobe Releases Photoshop LightroomPhotoshop Lightroom runs under Mac OS X 10.4 or Windows XP (and, presumably) Windows Vista, and will be knocking out for an upmarket £125 (excl VAT) before April 30 rising to a hefty £175 (excl VAT) after that date.

Photoshop Lightroom

Vista Launch: Boxed Copy Sales Down, PC Sales Up

Although punters waited an eternity for the chuffing thing to be released, first-week retail sales figures for boxed copies of Windows Vista were almost 60 per cent down on sales registered for the first week for its predecessor, Windows XP.

Vista Launch: Boxed Copy Sales Down, PC Sales UpThe figures, from the market research group NPD Group, calculated that the dollar value of Vista retail box copies shifted during the week of 28 January crashed 32 per cent compared to the value of XP box copies sold during its debut in October 2001.

It’s not all bad news for Billy and the gang though, as the sales of new PCs running Vista went through the roof after Vista’s launch, up a massive 67 per cent over the same period last year.

Conceding that direct comparisons are difficult as many stores were clearing out their XP inventory prior to Vista’s launch, Chris Swenson, a software analyst with NPD commented that the figures, “still reflects a fair bit of growth.”

Swenson added that the seemingly contradictory figures are down to consumers twigging that they need a beefier system to be able to run the bells and whistles of Vista, so some are going out and buying a new PC rather than upgrading.

Vista Launch: Boxed Copy Sales Down, PC Sales UpThere’s no such confusion with Office 2007 sales however, which recorded very strong retail sales, more than doubling the first week sales for Office 2003.

There’ll also be much hand rubbing at Microsoft with the news that consumers are upgrading to the higher end versions of Vista, with the average selling price recorded at around US$207 – up two thirds on the average selling price of XP.

“So, although total dollars were down compared to XP, I think the preliminary data shows that Microsoft’s gamble on a new high-end Vista SKU will help keep dollar volumes from declining as rapidly as unit volumes in the near term,” observed Swenson.

Via

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%)

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%)After one battle too many with our ever-flaky Epson printer (see: My Printer Hell), we elected to get ourselves a cheap laser printer for knocking out black and white documents (and those annoying PDF manuals that now keep coming with new products).

The printer was a cinch to set up, and for a laser it’s a compact jobbie too, measuring a reasonably modest 14″ x12″ x10″ (378 x 299 x 227 ) – perfect as a desktop printer for the home/small office.

The Samsung ML 2510 hooks up to the PC via USB, although Samsung have also included a parallel port for users still trundling on with steam-powered desktops (but there’s no Ethernet port for networking, unfortunately.)

We were certainly impressed with both the Samsung’s print quality and speed. Text came out every bit as crisp as you’d expect from a laser and our test prints managed to just surpass Samsung’s claimed 24 pages per minute, peaking at an impressive 26ppm.

Capable of 1200 x 600 dpi output, the ML-2510 handled text cleanly and crisply, although – as with most lasers – photos weren’t too hot.

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%)The printer tray at the bottom stores a useful 250 sheets, so you can let it get on with big jobs unattended, with the printer fairly quiet in operation.

With just a combined toner and drum to replace, maintenance is something of a no-brainer task, taking less than a minute.

Replacement toner cartridges can be picked up for fifty quid or so and should be good for around 3,000 pages; working out at around 1.6p per page (not including the paper).

It’s worth noting that although the ML-2510 comes with a free cartridge, it’s a bit of a cut-down number and can only handle 1,000 pages.

Still, that’s really nitpicking when you consider that you can pick up this fast, cheap-to-run and excellent printer for around £70. As cheap as cut-price chips!

Our verdict
Features: 82%
Ease of Use: 87%
Build Quality: 88%
Overall: 87%

Samsung ML-2510 Laser Review (87%)SPECIFICATIONS:
Monochrome laser printer
Format A4, 76 x 127 mm, Legal (216 x 356 mm)
Paper Classic paper, Transparencies, Labels, Cards, Envelopes
Resolution 1200 x 600 dpi
Speed Up to 24 pages per minute
Computer Interface Compatible USB 2.0
Optional Exthernal Ethernet box
Compatible Platforms Windows 95/98/Me/NT4.0/2000/XP/2003 Server,
Divers Linux including Red Hat 8~9, Fedora Core 1~3, Mandrake 9.2~10.1 et SuSE 8.2~9.2,
Mac OS 10.3
Cartridges Monobloc toner catridge
Dimensions (mm) 378 x 299 x 227
Weight (Kg) 5
Other 1st page printing time: 8.5 s
Sound level: printing 50 dB /35 dB on standby
Max monthly prints: up to 10 000 pages/month
Integrated memory: 8 Mb