Gadgets Future

Christmas might come early to the people in North America as HTC prepares itself to launch a GSM HTC Touch Diamond model before December 25th, shortly after receiving a certification from the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission). Originally, HTC was supposed to market its CDMA Touch Diamond model in North America only, although a recent firmware update has managed to unlock the 850MHz frequency. Well, only time will tell, but there’s no harm in saving up from today onwards.

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 31st 2008 at 4:51AM
After a long long delay from that March 2007 announcement, Sony Japan just opened its doors to applications for the closed beta testing of playstation Home. Sony expects to drop 10,000 gamers (18 years old and up) into the virtual world when it launches in beta sometime in late August. Closed beta tests are due in other markets (er hem, the US) at about the same time with an open beta coming sometime later in the year. Lucky beta testers will be able to explore the 3D world and play games like PacMan in the Namco Museum, both of which are pictured after the break.

[Via Impress]

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

The FCC has revealed information on a new clamshell cell phone crom ZTE Corporation of China - the A139+. This handset looks set to be a working man’s model if it is ever released, since the functions are all but the bare necessities, although it will probably be attractively priced to garner its fair share of buyers. Some of the specifications include :-

• GSM 850/1900 MHz or EGSM 900/1800 MHz
• 16MB internal memory
• 4MB RAM (what a miser)
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• TFT display with 176 x 220 resolution
• Alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, and world time functions

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 31st 2008 at 2:04AM
Remember the ASUS Eee PC roadmap we peeped a few days back? Right, the one that lists the new Ultimate S-series and Pro Fashion Eee PCs amongst the 23 models. Turns out both categories are planned for a 2008 launch with specs like dual-core Atom processors, 120GBs of hard disk, and 32GB SSDs. This according to ASUS president, Jerry Shen. The first Eee PC with a 32GB SSD (wink wink Buffalo) will launch in late September and feature a 10-inch, 16:9 aspect LED backlit display and battery life of about 4-5 hours. As members of the Exquisite and Extremely slim and light S-series, these Eee(ee) PCs will cost between $700 to $900 with the “high-end market” in mind. Funny, we didn’t know there was a high-end to the race to the bottom.

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Filed under: Laptops

Shaw Communication from Canada will be rolling out a whole new channel known as “The Frame”, and this one will feature nothing but background ambiance and picturesque scenes. The Frame is available on Channel 225 in Toronto, launching nationwide from September onwards. Each scene will last for up to 30 minutes before it is changed, and individual images are rotated every 30 seconds. Better get an energy-friendly TV to go along with this channel if you ask me.

Shaw Communication from Canada will be rolling out a whole new channel known as “The Frame”, and this one will feature nothing but background ambiance and picturesque scenes. The Frame is available on Channel 225 in Toronto, launching nationwide from September onwards. Each scene will last for up to 30 minutes before it is changed, and individual images are rotated every 30 seconds. Better get an energy-friendly TV to go along with this channel if you ask me.

by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 30th 2008 at 11:37PMLooks like Intel’s clearing out all its Classmate inventory in preparation for that new model — it just inked a deal with Portugal for 500,000 of the chubby gray laptops. The Classmates will be manufactured in Portugal as part of the deal, and the final subsidized cost to students will vary based on each family’s income, with a max of €50 ($78). Kids should be getting their new machines at the start of the new school year, so it looks like things should be moving along quickly here.

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jul 30th 2008 at 9:16PM
According to a report, Microsoft isn’t just looking at the next version of Windows (no, not Mojave) for future OS possibilities, but is looking beyond the Windows architecture altogether with a project known as Midori. The new OS is still in the “incubation” phase (which puts it slightly closer to market than R&D projects), but Microsoft has admitted to its existence, and the Software Daily Times says at least one team in Redmond is actively working on the new architecture.

The basis for the platform centers around research related to Microsoft’s Singularity project, and envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems. The researchers are working to create a concurrent / parallel distribution of resources, as well as a method of handling applications across separate machines — religiously-dubbed the Asynchronous Promise Architecture — which will set the stage for a backwards-compatible operating system built from the ground up, with networks of varying size in mind. Says the SD Times, “The Midori documents foresee applications running across a multitude of topologies, ranging from client-server and multi-tier deployments to peer-to-peer at the edge, and in the cloud data center. Those topologies form a heterogeneous mesh where capabilities can exist at separate places.” Like it technical? Hit the read link for an in-depth look at the possible shape of Microsoft’s future.

[Via Yahoo!]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Networking

by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 30th 2008 at 9:40PMAlthough the 30-pin Dock connector in the iphone 3G looks the same as it has since it was introduced in the 2G ipod, it’s different in one important (and maddening) way — it doesn’t support charging the older FireWire charging pins, only the newer USB method. That means a whole host of older chargers and docks don’t work with the iPhone 3G — and it also means that we’ll be seeing a lot of adapters like this one from Ridax make the scene. Hopefully other manufacturers won’t see fit to charge a whopping $40 for two connectors and a resistor like Ridax, but if you’re desperate enough to drop two Jacksons on this thing, you’ll also be able to charge through the built-in mini-USB connector on the side. We’ll wait, though — we expect to see some cheaper, smaller options on the table by the time this thing ships in September.

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Filed under: cellphones

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 30th 2008 at 3:39PM
Although we were able to take an all-too-brief peek at Olympus’ EVOLT E-520 late last month, the results weren’t exactly indicative of what this thing is capable of — you know, considering the unit in question was defective. The cats over at PhotographyBLOG managed to secure a fully functional unit, and results were much, much improved. Although reviewers didn’t go quite so far as to call it the perfect camera, it sure came close in their eyes. Aside from the depressingly small viewfinder and the low quantity of AF sensors, critics found the unit quite hard to bash. Overall, it managed to snag a stellar 4.5 out of 5 rating, and better still, it was said to be just the thing for “beginners and enthusiasts alike.” Taking Olympus more seriously in your search for a suitable DSLR just might be in order.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras