WowWee Rovio Reviewed: Fantastic mobile webcam platform
October 5, 2008
The first full review of WowWee’s Rovio mobile WiFi webcam has gone up, and if you were hoping the news would be bad and save you from spending $299 on a must-have robot, think again. While we knew the tech specs were tempting - WiFi, poseable webcam, control either locally, from preset routines or via a web-interface - it turns out to be more than just a passing entertainment and suited to all sorts of robot experimentation.
Getting particular kudos is the painless setup - five minutes from box to play - and “unparallelled mobility”, courtesy of the three omnidirectional wheels. Re-entering the charging dock, something you really don’t want to go wrong if you’re halfway across the world, is similarly slick.
There are a couple of caveats, possibly the biggest being the lack of support for WPA WiFi encryption in the current firmware build, only WEP. Apparently WowWee are working on an upgrade. There’s also no audio functionality in browsers other than Internet Explorer.
Still, neither of those facts are enough to dissuade Robots-Dreams in their opinion that the WowWee Rovio is likely to be “the hottest robot for the upcoming holiday season, and for a long time to come”:
“This robots functionality, usefulness, styling, and ease of use sets new standards. Not only is it a fantastic mobile webcam platform, it also lends itself to other applications. We can easily imagine colleges and research labs using ROVIO as a robotic platform to investigate swarming, or, on the lighter side, a new robot soccer league” Robots-Dreams
[Via Slashgear]
Digital Cube Telson UMPC reappears, could break into reality soon
October 5, 2008
Before we go any further, we’d like to inform this here Telson UMPC that if Pandora can finally get out of the starting blocks, so can you. Today, we’re looking at new evidence that Digital Cube (the handheld’s new parent) could be inching ever closer to bringing this shockingly thick gaming handheld to market. Out of seemingly nowhere, images have emerged of the portable posing beside a USB 3D camera dongle (saywha?); additionally, we’re told that it will pack a 1.2GHz VIA C7M CPU and feature a 4.3-inch display, 512MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive and Windows XP. Oh, and we’re also informed that it’ll be “released in October” in at least one section of the world, so we’ve got T-minus 27 days to see if that claim is legit.
[Via Engadget]
Super Talent launches budget-priced 128GB solid-state drive
October 4, 2008
Memory manufacturer Super Talent has announced its MasterDrive LX series, featuring a 128GB solid-state SATA drive with a projected price of $300. One of the company’s earlier 128GB drives, the MasterDrive OX, retails for over $435, almost 50% more than the LX. Price reductions come at the cost of performance though, as the OX’s sustained read/write speeds of 150MBps/100MBps are decreased to 100MBps/40MBps in the LX drives. The NAND-based drive uses wear leveling to increase life, giving the drive over 70 years of service when writing up to 50GB per day. A $180 64GB model is also available, featuring the same read/write performance as the 128GB SKU.
[Via DigiTimes]
Sony Reader PRS-700 with touchscreen announced
October 4, 2008
Sony has announced the Sony Reader PRS-700, a new touchscreen-capable addition to their Portable Reader System line of electronic book readers featuring e-ink technology. Joining the Sony Reader PRS-505, the new PRS-700 is about the size of a paperback book and weighs around 10 ounces. For about $100 more than the PRS-505, the PRS-700 features a light for reading in the dark, allows readers to take notes with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, and allows readers to flip through virtual pages with either their fingers or a stylus that also allows for highlighting text. This new model should be available next month for about $400.
[Via Gizmodo]
Acer releases ultra-high-end Aspire Predator G7700 gaming rig
October 4, 2008
Acer has released its ultra-high-end Aspire Predator gaming rigs, revealed earlier this year. Shipping in two editions, the $1,650 G7700-UQ9300A includes a liquid-cooled 2.5Ghz Core 2 Quad processor, a GeForce 9600GT graphics card, 8GB of memory, and two 640GB drives, while the $2,200 G7700-UQ9550A ups the processor to 2.83Ghz, sports the GeForce 9800GTX video card, and gets an extra 640GB hard-drive giving it almost 2TB of storage. Acer also sells a matching 24-inch, 1920 x 1200 resolution gaming monitor, the $400 G24, that includes both DVI and HDMI ports and has a 50,000:1 contrast ratio with a 2 millisecond response time, according to the company.
[Via Engadget]
Revised PocketSurfer2 gets unlimited lifetime surfing in UK, old one gets cheaper here
October 3, 2008
DataWind’s PocketSurfer2 hasn’t exactly made a huge impact here in the US, where it was unceremoniously re-dubbed the PC Edge prior to being released to the back cabinets of electronics retailers next to piles of unwanted Shifts. It’s seen more success in Europe, where surfers on the go can now buy a nicely upgraded model, the PocketSurfer2R. It shares the prior device’s basic layout and 640 x 240 screen, but contains a GPS receiver inside and a small touchpad to the upper-right of the keypad. More notable, though, is the new “Immortality Plan,” which won’t guarantee that you’ll still be rocking out when your grandkids retire, but, for a one-time fee of £60 (a little over $100), offers unlimited surfing over the lifetime of the device. Given we’re stuck paying $25/month here, we’d call that a bargain. This new model won’t be coming stateside, at least not yet, but the older one has received a $100 price drop to $199. Via Engadget
Hard drive that fits in your wallet
August 29, 2008
A 20-gig 1.8″ hard drive, with the absolute minimum of enclosure, is on sale for $45 in China. Sourced from Samsung, the unit has a tiny USB plug and a picture of a platter assembly on the side.
Crush hard drive! Crush!
[Beto via Everything USB and Gadget Lab]
NEC to release its 5.2M camera phone ‘N906i’ in Japan in June
May 27, 2008
SEOUL, Korea (AVING) —
Adopting a 3-inch WVGA display, the N906i supports HSDPA and 1-Seg.
It is expected to be available in June.
IDAPT to introduce its multi-charger ‘innovative adapter’
March 9, 2008
IDAPT introduced its multi-charger ‘innovative adapter’ during CeBIT 2008, which is designed to charge a variety of digital devices at once including handset, mp3 player, digital camera and mobile game machine. Suggested price is 49.94(EUR).
Via AVING
Planon to present its pen-shape portable color scanner ‘DocuPen RC800′
March 9, 2008
Planon(www.planon.com) presented its pen-shape portable color scanner ‘DocuPen RC800′ during CeBIT 2008. It takes 4~5 seconds to scan and it can store 100’s pages into memory. It can be charged via USB port and you can add memory capacity with a microSD card. Suggested price is 299.99(EUR).
Via AVING
