Gadgety News

Say “wow!” to Nokia’s new (Mighty) Morph(ing) concept phone.

Nok would be utilising nanotechnology to give it a flexible body with a transparent display that could be re-shaped depending on the user’s needs.

The electronics inside it would also be transparent and flexible, allowing the entire phone to be contorted and stretched into bracelet shapes or tablet form, and nanotech cleverness means it would even clean itself! 

Developed in cooperation with Cambridge University this futuristic blower is being displayed at the MoMA in New York.

Here’s a pretty cool looking synth by Future Retro.

The Revolution R2 looks fantastic with its aluminum construction finished in gun metal grey and white with blue leds.

It has a circular sequencer interface, which allows single handed control as well as remote pattern selection using MIDI program change messages.

A built in remix feature allows 265 variations for each pattern and song, which gives more than 65,000 possible overall patterns.  The sound engine uses true analog synthesis throughout and the PC board has a new RAM chip, which extends the battery life from 1.5 years to a complete decade.

All this can be yours for around $750 which I think is pretty good for a synth that looks like it could control the Death Star!!!!!!!!!

Now, this is not surprising news but as Microsoft hasn’t filed a press release I though I’d report it.

Microsoft used its Gamerscore blog, which it says is the “inside scoop from Microsoft Xbox and Games employees” on Saturday to announce that they would halt production of HD-DVD drives for the Xbox 360.

John Porcaro, Sr. Group Manager in Microsoft’s Global Games Marketing Team, managing Online Communications, said in a statement on the Gamerscore site:

As a result of recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers, Microsoft plans to withdraw from HD DVD. Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, but we will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in the market. As we stated earlier, we do not believe this decision will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace. HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own.

Microsoft mentioned earlier this year that they might consider Blu-Ray……

……….if they do produce a blu-ray player I think it might be a good idea to swap/give discounts to people that have already bought their additional HD-DVD players to plug into their 360s.

No Bond-girl should be without this rather natty rock. 

This “Killer Engagement Ring” flips the diamond so the pointy side is facing out ~gulp!~

Diamonds are renowned for being super hard so this makes the ring a pretty serious weapon, capable of cutting skin right down to the bone, double up as a glasscutter to allow covert entrance into secret labs and it could also be used to gouge the love rats’ Porsche if deemed necessary.

Like women aren’t scary enough!

Thankfully it’s only a feature at Yanko Design………………..for now………….

Back in the day jamming with your buddies involved carting real instruments to a garage/studio/back room of the local Workingmens Club, etc and making a racket - now it seems like anyone with a coupla iPhones and a Nintendo DS can become the latest in New York avant-garde. 

My real gripe is that this could be then end of “must have own transport” at the end of every ‘Muso wanted’ ad.  End of an era if you ask me :0P

It’s all pretty cool tho; check out iBand on YouTube

Here is the latest in the Bravia line - the cute and flat friendly M1 series.

The 20-inch ¥110,000 ( £550ish) and 16-inch ¥90,000 (£450ish) LCDs match 1366×768 screens with 1,200:1 or 1,800:1 (respectively) contrast ratios.

They both boast Bravia Engine 2 image processing, 24p True Cinema 1080p-compatible HDMI inputs, plus VOD and DLNA connectivity - so they say.

It represents in various combinations of bezel colors, expect these HDTVs in the background of your favorite J-pop and/or anime vids beginning March 25.

Krell, the makers of high-end audio gear in the States, are planning to bring their £1,300 iPod dock to Blighty!

The Krell KID iPod Dock hits our shores this month.  They promise the sweetest possible sound from your little MP3 juke box.

Krell says, this is “the first product of its kind to utilise the fully differential output of the internal DAC for iPod devices”. 

I’m still not sure how good a £100 iPod will sound - even through almost one-and-a-half-grads worth of dock - I’m guessing that if you’re not using lossless audio on that iPod you may as well not bother.

If you’re short of space and can’t quite squeeze in a mini hi-fi system but love your tunes I suppose it’s not a bad buy.  :0)

The new Shuffle is identical to its older sibling but, at 2GB, has twice the storage.  This equates to around 500 songs clipped to your clothing.

It costs £45 with the 1GB version reduced to an extremely reasonable £32. 

There will probably be more Apple announcements next Tuesday.  iPhone SDK please ;0,

T3 has learned that Tosh may be bowing their heads and joining the enemy now that the dust is settling after the HD-DVD v Blu-Ray battle!

A spokesman for the company has said that “there are no plans at the moment” for individual players, but the company are “reviewing” their strategy for Blu-ray drives in their range of laptop computers.

More on this when I get it :0)

Sorry about the sites’ downage :0S

For some reason my WP upgrade went a bit wrong - also I was getting hit by spam aplenty.

But now; I’m back and badder than ever!

Thanks for your patience and understanding - I was feeling much love yo.

J 

NVIDIA? Mobile Phone? NVIDIA? Mobile Phone?

Yup, they’ve been flashing about their cellphone applications processor: the APX 2500.

As CNET points out, that chip is largely the result of NVIDIA’s acquisition of ‘PortalPlayer’ back in 2006, and represents the company’s first attempt at building a true computing processor for mobies.

The chip itself (based on an ARM11 core) is able to run at speeds up to 750MHz and encode and decode 720p high-definition video! This lends itself to the possibility of some pretty capable cellphone/video camera hybrids.

Remember this is NVIDIA - They’ve squeezed in some of their GeForce graphics technology that’s designed especially for low-power devices, which they say is to allow for 3D interfaces.

No exact details as to when and where we can expect this, but it’ll apparently start to make its way into phones sometime next year.

Noks new N series packs a massive iPhone-matching 16GB of storage as well as a Micro SD slot. It keeps the same old 5-meg snapper, although this time there are two LEDs taking care of business when it comes to lighting up.

There’s a 2.8-inch screen, on which you’ll be able to view mobile telly via a DVB-H tuner. 

There will also feature the new Nokia 2.0 maps, which they claim will make pedestrian Sat-Nav a breeze, with the map adjusting itself as you take a wander around.  You’ll have to come up with new reasons why you’re late now!!

It keeps all the good stuff from the N95; WiFi, AGPS and A2DP Bluetooth and there’s the recently launched N-Gage thrown in too.

It’s due to head into the wild in the third quarter, hitting your wallet for 550 Euros. That’s SIM-free, but we expect it’ll come free to those who are willing to lash out on the right contract.

Slim Devices have their cool ‘Duet’ ready for preorder!

For $399 you get the controller, charging stand and one reciever.

It’s pretty much like the Sonos system (but cheaper) and you will be able to tap into Rhapsody and Pandora.

There is a possibility for buying additional receivers later on - but these are not available on their own yet.

I’m really tempted but would like to read a few reviews before I hand over the cash - but the other Squeezeboxe reviews have been all positive.

Meet Modu!

There has been a great deal of deliberation as to what Modu was going to be - and now I’ve found out the answer I feel slightly silly.

Modu is a Modular Mobile - the clue was there all along - spose that’s the reason why I’m a muso and not a detective!

The idea is that the actual handset can be slipped into “modu jackets” which will let the owners completely change the look of their handset without having to replace it.

The other half of the deal is slinging the Modu into different modu-enabled consumer electronics, or “modu mates”.  I’m talking car stereos, photo frames, DAPs, and whatever else you can dream up. 

It is pretty exciting as Blaupunkt, Universal Music, and SanDisk are already onboard, the Q4 launch should be a big deal!!

I for one have bought loads on Ebay and sold quite a bit on there as well so when the change in fees was announced I was a little unsure and, as it turned out, rightly so.  These lower fees actually end up costing more for items sold - just a little lower if you are unlucky enough not to get a punter.  I suppose that’s fair.

But in an unusal move they have banned sellers from giving “negative” feedback on buyers. What’s THAT about?

The whole point of the feedback ratings was to inform the would people that they will acutually receive their goods, on time and as described - and that the buyer would pay equally promptly.

I know that there has been some instances where negative feedback to a seller has resulted in the buyer receiving the same, just out of spite and vice-versa - but in the larger picture all seems to have worked pretty well in my experience.

I can only assume that this move may hurt Ebay a little.

Apple has officially confirmed its outing a 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPod Touch.

The Apple store was down Stateside for over an hour, with bloggers suggesting some O2 stores have already taken delivery of the beefed up Jesus phone.

You can go and grab one right now!

It’s going to cost £329 over here, the same as the new 32GB flash iPod.

To be honest; the latter was quite a surprise.  The touchscreen ‘pod is also yours now if you fancy.  You are being spoilt aintcha?

For now, the phone remains on the EDGE network rather than getting a bump to 3G, so if you haven’t splashed out, maybe you should keep your hands in your pockets for now….who knows what’s round the corner……

To truly be one with the Force a young Jedi should let it flow through them - let it guide them in making their own weapon, the Lightsaber.

Failing that, get a kit online - namely the Force FC Lightsaber Construction set.

The kit contains instructions and all the parts which enable you to create the weapon of your dreams from 1,000 or so different designs!!

You can change the color (red, blue or green) of your saber with the flick of a switch and they can’t do that in the films.

The Lightsaber kit is available from Play for £49.99

Those well informed folks at T3 have news that Sony are getting ready to drop a new, lithe PS3 later in the year.

I’m guessing that the S-meister is going to send it to the same health farm as they did with the PSP last year.

I’m crossing my fingers that it will look like the pic taken from T3 - that would be totally awesome, as long as it doesn’t lose anything in the shrinkage - could it be that this is the rumoured 160gig version?

That’s more-or-less everything that’s being said out there.  Keep watching this space!!