Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Just in case you haven’t scooted on over to the HD side of things lately, we thought you should know that the $600 you’ve got stashed away for that forthcoming BD-P2400 Blu-ray player can now be used for something else. According to WesleyTech, the unit has been canned by Samsung, and if that wasn’t enough, those excited about the BD-UP5000 HD DVD / Blu-ray combo player will be forced to exude even more patience until the thing actually ships in December. Granted, Sammy may use the extra time to update the specs a bit, but we feel your pain, regardless.
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays

Sony just went live with their latest eBook reader, the PRS-505. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen it but its always good to get an official release. Available “this month” for $300 in silver and dark blue, Sony’s 500-followup features a new electronic paper display that is more responsive with a better contrast than its predecessor while offering expansion for Memory Stick Duo or SD memory cards. A new USB Mass Storage mode allows for a lickity-quick transfer of files when connected to your PC. Isn’t it refreshing to see a late 90’s indie band coming out in support of Sony, eh Joey?
[Via Mobileread]
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones
Our main man Ed Colligan is on the scene once again, this time giving some serious lip service to investors on the future of Palm and its “upcoming” new OS. According to reports, Ed informed the the crew of dudes and dudettes (via the company’s Q1 FY08 conference call) that the Centro systems team and Foleo engineers are “totally focused” on delivering the Linux-based OS (Palm’s in-house work, not ACCESS’s ALP), and announced that it will be available by the end of the next calendar year. Fleshing out his bold statements, Colligan noted that the new platform will retain the ease of use and developer support of the badly ailing current Palm OS, and that it will enable the company to deliver the UI across various products, including Foleo-like devices. The Palm honcho went on to say that development has gone, “As well as possibly could be expected,” […]

Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones
As the ongoing battle between the naysayers and the paranoid continues, Neil Bullock is making sure that those situated squarely in the latter camp have a way to “protect” their unborn child(ren). MummyWrap is a “sleeveless, loose-fitting garment for pregnant women made from a light-weight copper-based cotton fabric known as Swiss Shield,” and according to its creator, it can “minimize the risk of electro-magnetic radiation (EMR)” warping your kid’s brain before he or she ever sees the world. ‘Course, we’re not going to step in and suggest that you do / don’t need this, but for those who’d rather be safe than sorry, you can order one now for $69.95. As an added bonus, it should go great with your Isabodywear underwear.
[Via Textually]
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays

If you’ve ever in need of a projector in a tight spot, Hitachi might just have the device for you. The new CP-A100J doesn’t really have mind blowing specs (XGA resolution, 2500cd/m2 brightness, and VGA, S-Video, component, and composite ins), but the fact that it can throw up a 48-inch picture standing just 0.5cm back from the wall, and a 200-inch picture from 3-feet 9-inches back certainly isn’t anything to snub your nose at. Unfortunately, while you won’t be snubbing your nose, you will be paying through it: the CP-A100J is going to run over ¥500,000 (about $4300 US) when it’s released in January of 2008.

Gallery: Hitachi’s new CP-A100J short-throw LCD projector

 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Displays, Features, HDTV

Just as expected, Hitachi is showing off its sub-inch thick 32-inch LCD HDTV samples at CEATEC today. Unfortunately we were able to glean practically no information about the TVs from the Hitachi reps present, but we’re already having a hard time deciding whether 32-inches at 18.8mm thick is better than 11-inches at 3mm. Decisions, decisions.

Gallery: Hitachi shows off its 0.74-inch thick LCD HDTV in person

 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Robots
While we greatly appreciate the research done by the fine folks over at Georgia Tech, we can’t exactly say that we’re shocked to hear that Roomba owners (in particular) actually care about their vacuums. In a study revolving around the intricacies in human-robot relationships, gurus found that “some Roomba owners became deeply attached to the robotic vacuums and that there was a measure of public readiness to accept additional robots in the house — even flawed ones.” Interestingly, the report goes on to state that consumers would be less likely to complain if troublesome / faulty household bots were “emotionally engaging,” and considering that some folks were willing to “buy new rugs, pre-clean floors and purchase refrigerators with higher clearances” for their Roomba, we suppose we can’t really argue with the findings. Now, robot manufacturers, don’t you go ditching quality just ’cause we’re pushovers, capiche?
[Image courtesy of Halo5]
 
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Original post by Darren Murph

Sony pulled the cover off their new PRS-505 Reader today, which features a new body, a few new tricks, and a few dressed up old ones. Instead of black, the Sony Reader now comes in silver or dark blue. In addition to the color change, Sony is touting the redesigned button layout, claiming a more intuitive experience—but it mostly looks like they rearranged the existing buttons of the PRS-500 to make them more accessible.
And though Sony claims the screen has a higher contrast and faster refresh rate, no exact specs were given. Other new features include a doubling of the internal memory to hold 160 eBooks instead of 80, and a new USB mass storage mode. Old features: battery life still lasts for 7,500 page turns and the Reader also displays PDF, RTF, TXT and JPEG formats like before. SD and Memory Stick slots are also provided for memory […]

Original post by Adrian Covert

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Sony was all about showing off their new turbo-thin XEL-1 OLED TV at CEATEC today, and we have to hand it to them, this thing is kind of mind-blowingly thin. Naturally that kind of thinness is a little hard to capture in photographs — it’s kind of one of those things you have to see in person. But once you do check it out, you may just find its gorgeous, bright pseudo-HD, 1m:1 contrast ratio picture hypnotizes you from remembering its ridiculously high ¥200,000 (about $1700 US) price and piddly 11-inch size. We want one on our desk, like, yesterday.

Gallery: Sony 3-mm thin XEL-1 OLED TV in person. Oh, and it’s fricking thin.

 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Plenty going on in Tokyo these days, and CEATEC’s latest up. We’re out at the show today, and already we can tell that ultra-thin TVs are the new hotness in Japan this year. Don’t wander far, coverage is coming right up!
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Ryan Block