Gadgets Future

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 7:14PM
Be honest here, GoLive2’s Stix didn’t stand a chance at being taken seriously, and even when one reviewer attempted to have fun with the unashamed Wiimote knockoff, he failed epically. The Stix 200 looks strikingly like Nintendo’s accelerometer-packin’ controller, though this 2D-only rip was seen as “a set of slightly unresponsive, highly inconvenient arrow keys” rather than an exciting new controller. The PC games that can be played with the device are equally dreadful, and while the 3D-capable Stix 400 might be able to make up for some of the 200’s shortcomings, we can’t wholeheartedly say it’s even worth the effort to check out after reading this review.

[Thanks, Robert]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Philip’s always impressive surround lighting technology has progressed another step to the new Philips Aurea II.  The Aurea 2 technology will first be available in the 42-inch Philips 42PFL9903 and the 37-inch Philips 37PFL9903 models.  Philips make vast improvements in their ambilight / Aurea technology every year and the new Aurea II is the very best yet.

Philips Aurea II makes uses of an improved glass (no longer plastic) active frame which surrounds the 1080p LCD screen to extend and reflect the colors on the screen into the frame and project around the screen.  This leads to a more effective and impressive display and viewing experience.

The Philips 42PFL9903 and 37PFL9903 feature a new 100Hz clear LCD 1080p screen with a very fast 2ms refresh rate and 17big RGB color processing for 2,250 trillion colors.  A very high dynamic contrast ratio of 30,000:1 along with Philips Perfect Pixel HD Engine and Perfect Natural Motion ensure great colors, contrast, detail and motion handling.

The new Philips 42PFL9903 with it’s new Aurea II feature really puts on a great show, and also boast some great features to get the very best out of HD.  Also featured is an integrated digital TV tuner, DLNA support to steam media from other networked equipment and four HDMI 1.3 inputs.

• Philips 42PFL9903 | 42-Inch, October 08, £2500.
• Philips 37PFL9903 | 37-Inch, October 08.

Just over a week ago we reported on the tip of a new Philips Essence LCD HDTV to be announced at this years IFA. It turns out that most of the information in the rumors were correct, and the Essence is a 42-inch LCD model called Philips 42PES0001.

Philips has taken a similar route to Sony, where they have designed a minimalist and stylish thin HDTV which can be wall mounted and look like a picture frame. The Philips 42PES0001 has one of the slimmest frames (21mm) I have seen on an HDTV, given it a great look with a glossy black aluminum frame. The 42-inch 1080p LCD HDTV is just 33mm / 1.5 inches deep and makes use of a connectivity hub, so that only one cable connects to the HDTV, sending the video, audio and power. This all helps make the 42PES0001 / Essence very clean and simple, which makes it a pleasure to be wall mounted, or of course on the stand.

Also featured is dedicated 2x 15W speaker bar, which can be connected to the bottom of the set, or not used at all if you have your own sound setup for a cleaner look. Philips Perfect Pixel HD Engine is used on the Philips 42PES0001 which processes 500 million pixels per second and 2250 trillion colors to deliver vast image enhancements such as sharper pictures, better colors and reduced noise. The 1080p LCD screen on the Philips 42PES0001 has a very fast 2ms response time and high 66,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and wide color gamut for deep blacks and rich colors.

100Hz Clear LCD technology doubles the frame rate to provides smooth flowing motion without image blur. DLNA networking is also featured to steam media from other networked devices.

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 3:12PMNeurosurgery with robotic assistance is getting pretty old hat nowadays, so it looks like scientists are trying to up the difficulty factor by keeping their patients awake — a team of French doctors just completed the first successful removal of malignant brain tumor from a still-conscious patient, using a computerized laser and an MRI scanner to guide the probe. The fiber-optic laser was fed into the brain through a 3mm (.12 inch) hole in the patient’s skull and guided via MRI to the tumor, where it fired for two minutes and completely destroyed the cancerous tissue. Once the tumor cells were dead, the cable was removed and the patient was allowed to return home — all within a single day. That’s pretty impressive, and it comes on the heels of 15 similar trials where five out six patients who underwent the total removal procedure were cancer-free nine months after surgery. The team says further research will cost an additional two million euros to progress, but if this technique works as well as they claim after peer review, we’d guess that money won’t be hard to come by.

[Via Fark]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 6:42AM
If there’s anywhere exactly wrong for displaying a speaker’s prowess, it’s in the middle of a tradeshow booth. The subtle musical stylings of Sony’s ultra-high-concept Sountina speaker were a bit lost to us as our ears warred against the IFA drone, but what we could hear sounded just fine to us — and there’s no arguing with the looks. We kept expecting Tesla to jump out from behind a curtain and start spouting off about some free energy properties of the organic glass tweeter, but sadly walked away Tesla-free. If we were to make a value call about the sound, we’d say the mids were a bit of a no-show, while the smooth variances of the high-end were alright, but not life changing. But we won’t.

Gallery: Sony’s Sountina rattles our bones… sort of

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 6:15AM
We just went on a whirlwind tour of Navigon’s booth here at IFA 2008, and while a sea of barely distinguishable GPS devices has a tendency to send us into sudden and violent fits of napping, we thought we’d give you a look-see just in case you feel otherwise. The only real standout was the new 7200 (pictured), which has a flat, glossy front, and is a joy to touch — we’re not positive it’s capacitive, but it feels a ton better than the regular dull resistive touch of most GPS units out on the market. We also took a look at the 2200 and 2150 Max, as you can see in the gallery below. Knock yourself out.

Gallery: Navigon’s 7200, 2200 and 2150 Max in the flesh

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Filed under: GPS

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 10:49AM
Well, that took long enough, now didn’t it? We’ve been hearing about an 8.9-inch MSI Wind for months now, but it has just now popped up on the outfit’s website. The Wind U90 will pack an Atom N270 processor, built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, stereo speakers, microphone, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, 512MB or 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 resolution panel, 80GB hard drive and a 4-in-1 card reader. Additionally, you’ll find an Ethernet port, three USB 2.0 sockets, VGA out, a 3-cell battery (optional 6-cell available upon request) and a weight of 2.2-pounds. Your guess is as good as ours when it pricing / availability, but hey, we’re just thrilled to know this thing is destined to be more than a trade show crasher.

[Thanks, Peter]

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Filed under: Laptops

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 7:19AM
Delta Electronics might’ve jumped the gun a bit with its claim of firsties on Texas Instruments’ new “PhlatLight” HD LED DLP projector tech. Delta hasn’t brought even a prototype to IFA, but over at Texas Instruments there’s a Vivitek version of the lamp-free projector tech, which TI claims will be the first to market sometime in Q4 of 2008. The specs they rattled off are undoubtedly impressive: 50% better color range, 500,000:1 contrast ratio, 30% less power draw, and of course 1080p to put a feather in the cap. In TI’s darkened viewing room the image was certainly impressive, but we’re guessing specs like these could carry over nicely into our less-than-ideal bedsheet setup back home.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Gallery: Texas Instruments’ new LED-based DLP projection shines in person, due Q4

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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Earlier this month, Sony entered the PMP market in China by shipping out their PMX-M80. Today, they have announced another PMP that they plan to sell there as well, however, this is one is more affordable than the PM-M80 and will accompany the PMX-U50 and U53.

The PMX-U55 sports a 2.4-inch screen with a 320 x 240 resolution, supports a few formats including MP4, H.264/AVC Baseline profile, AVI, MP3, WMA, and AAC. It’s only 7.5mm thick, so it’s pretty thin. Battery life isn’t too bad - 12 hours of audio and 5 hours of video playback. The 2GB model is already available, however, it is only available in pink at this time. It will sell for 498 Yuan, which is about $73 US.

Via [PMP Today]

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by Darren Murph, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 1:20PM
There was no shortage of case mods at NVIDIA’s NVISION conference, but this one in particular managed to snag the majority of the spotlight. Created by Richard “DarthBeavis” Surroz, the Blade-themed DayWalker actually houses three separate computer systems; two are for playing games, while the other acts as a server. Conceptually, at least, the rig is designed to enable two users to play against one another, and given the “50+ fans” and triple SLI GTX 280 GPU setups (among other things), it’s no shock to hear that it’d cost around $18,000 to $20,000 to build again. ‘Course, that’s chump change when you’re stuffing away millions of dollars owed to the government — just ask Snipes… oh, wait.

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Filed under: Desktops