Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Another day, another furious litigant claiming that an Apple product infringes on one of their patents. Today we’ve got ZapMedia, who’s having some fun with a patent granted Tuesday by claiming that it covers tech used in both the iPod and iTunes. The patent describes a central media server and a “plurality of media player devices” that access the server over various networks — but it was filed for on September 20th, 2005, which, you’ll note, is after the 2003 launch of the iTunes Store. Hmm, not to worry, ZapMedia also says it has a 2006 patent on similar tech — but a quick search of the USPTO doesn’t show any other patents issued to the company. Looks like someone’s got a little explaining to do, no?
Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer, but he’s not your lawyer, and none of this, particularly the quick USPTO searching part, […]

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Portable Audio

We haven’t heard much about Samsung’s pebble-tacular YP-S2 DAP, but maybe that’s because there’s not much to say: the 1GB player comes in a variety of metallic colors and plays WMA and MP3 for about 10 hours at a go. We’d suppose it also works well as a skippin’ stone, but it’s all just conjecture till it hits in May. Check a little vid after the break.
Continue reading Samsung’s round YP-S2 DAP gets the sneak peek action
 
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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Storage

32 and 64GB capacities aren’t all that impressive when it comes to SATA II 2.5-inch solid state drives, but OCZ’s new devices do claim 120MBps read and 100MBps write speeds which would put it up there on the ranks. Unfortunately, OCZ neglected to clue anyone in on price or release date for these puppies.
 
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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon’s got another three new PowerShots going out this evening. What you need to know:

SD890 IS (above) - 10 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 2.5-inch display, sub 1-inch macro
SD790 IS - 10 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, 3-inch display
SD770 IS - 10 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, 2.5-inch display

They’ll be out in April, and will run you $399, $349. and $299, respectively.
[Thanks, Dave]

Gallery: Canon’s new PowerShots: SD890 IS, SD790 IS, and SD770 IS

 
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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Those hot/cold “Blu-ray coming to Xbox 360” rumors just cooled off a bit again, with product manager Aaron Greenberg telling Reuters “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience”. Clear enough? He also dropped the nugget that Microsoft expects to trail the PS3 in sales again in February, but should have things turned around by April, just in time for the GTA IV launch, which should also be right around the time this rumor rears its head again. In the meantime, digital distribution anyone?
 
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Original post by Richard Lawler

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
There are spicy meatballs, and there are spicy meatballs — and now there’s a figure that will be tossed around for decades to come, one which will instantly represent the caution companies should take when embarking on another format war: a billion dollars. At least that’s what Nikkei is reporting that Toshiba’s losses on HD DVD totaled in 2007 alone: a ¥100b, or about $982m USD. It won’t drive Toshiba under or anything, but you seriously have to ask yourself, was it really all worth it? [Warning: subscription req’d]
[Via Reuters]
 
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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Late last month, we actually posed the question of buying a Blu-ray player now (being that the format war is over and all), or waiting things out until prices sink and Profile 2.0 players flood the market. Aside from the PlayStation 3 — which is actually priced fairly reasonably if you were in the hunt for a new console anyway — it seems as though HD DVD’s exit has actually caused Blu-ray player prices to creep back upwards. Granted, this is about as far from surprising as it gets — after all, it’s nothing short of supply and demand working its magic. Still, it wasn’t too long ago that we saw Toshiba actively putting pressure on the Blu camp to reduce prices in order to stay competitive, and now that said pressure has vanished, stickers on the whole have headed north. Ah well, it’s not […]

Original post by Darren Murph

Sterling Silver Love Heart Swizzels Matlow
If you’re getting sweet, there’s no better was to celebrate your sugar-coated adoration for the lady in your life than with a sterling silver love token in the shape of that classic childhood confection, the Love Heart.
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Original post by jk

Being caught unprepared during a zombie attack is tantamount to jumping into a lion cage with big pieces of ham strapped to your neck. Be prepared. And part of being prepared is having the right equipment, which is why you should invest in these Zombie Survival Kits now for sale on eBay. You’ll never know when you need it. Well, you will know when you need it—when the mofuckin’ zombies come. [eBay]

Original post by Jason Chen

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We apologize for the blurriness of the image — imagine you are looking through the photographer’s tears — but what you see before you is supposedly an esploded iPod touch. Tipster Max S. tells us he had the pleasurable experience of having his touch catch on fire between the glass and the components, which can’t have been a fun time for the iPod. The heat managed to burn his desk, and needless to say Max won’t be getting any more use out of the thing. Apple has been kind enough to issue a free replacement, and is apparently going to look into the situation to see how much of an anomaly this is. This is of course “hot” on the heels of that iPod nano incident, and while an exploding iPod situation would be bad enough for Apple and consumers, what we’re really not […]

Original post by Paul Miller