Toshiba has long lost the High Definition battle against Blu-ray, and have decided to focus on DVD players instead. Their latest model, the XD-E500, is touted to come jam packed with modern technology in order to justify the $149.99 price tag - almost double standard “upconverting” players. This DVD player is not meant to compete or replace Blu-ray players, but will do its level best to improve the playback of regular DVDs. I suppose if you have a sizeable DVD library, getting the XD-E500 might be worth the additional detail, but for folks who want the real thing, kindly skip this and pick up a Sony PS3 instead. Tags: Hi-fi, gadgetry, gprs, mobile phone (Read the full post about ‘Toshiba XD-E500 DVD Player’…)

So, what do we have here? Sony New Zealand has started showing some new models of Walkman players on their site. Word on the street say that these new Walkman players donning the model name NWZ-E430 are entry level Walkmans and appear to be a sequel to Sony’s A600 series. But this time, the NWZ-E430 will sport a 2-inch screen and probably up to 8GB of storage. Perhaps taking a cue from other media players which make it easy for users to load music files onto their media players from their PCs, the NWZ-E430 fully supports drag-and-drop functionality as well as compatibility with a sync software. In addition, said Walkman would also come with an FM tuner, support various music formats to include AAC, MP3 and WMA. (Read the full post about ‘Sony accidentally leaks out some new budget-friendly Walkman players’…)

Palm’s newest Treo - the 850, also known as the Treo Pro, has been leaked across the entire Internet no thanks to an accidentally uploaded presentation that could not be pulled off before rabid Palm fans got hold of it. Well, this mistake has silver lining since it has been touted to be the best looking Palm ever by many people, and will be part of next year’s line up. Another interesting point to note is this will be a Windows Mobile-powered smartphone, so you can forget about the Nova operating system which has been in the works for far too long, IMHO. It will come in a black and white color scheme, featuring a 3.5mm headphone jack, a wireless button for quick Wi-Fi access, a microUSB connector, 3G connectivity, a 2.4″ 320 x 320 resolution touch screen display, a 400MHz processor and 100MB RAM. (Read the full post about ‘Palm Treo Pro leaked’…)

The inexpensive eMachine desktop PC that was my Windows Vista box died a sudden death last week on Wednesday (looks like a system board problem). I’m going to spend a week or two deciding what to buy to replace it (the low-end Dell Inspiron 530 looks interesting and affordable).

Until then, I decided to move some of the RAM from the dead Vista PC to an old PC running Fedora Linux that had some bad RAM. I updated Firefox on the Fedora PC to version 3 and installed the latest Adobe Flash for Linux. However, sites with Flash on them didn’t work with Firefox.

I reinstalled Adobe Flash, looked at the Firefox plugins directory, and all looked well.

(Read the full post about ‘Adobe Flash not playing nicely on Linux workstations’…)

From the moment I read the subject line of this PR email, I thought I would hate this crazy convergence device, or at least have some fun at its expense: Introducing The World’s Only PC Keyboard With Built-In Color Scanner But it actually looks great. The Keyscan, as you will have guessed, is a USB keyboard with a built in sheet-feed scanner. The paper goes in through a slot at the top and exits at the bottom. We don’t expect this to be up to digitizing your library of medium format photos, but for occasional use, it’s nice to have the scanner tucked out of the way instead of cluttering up the desk. The demonstration video (below) also shows that a little thought has gone into the software. (Read the full post about ‘Hybrid Keyboard Scanner Read and Writes’…)

The iphone 3G has certainly done much better in Japan than expected, but that doesn’t mean it will take over the place of traditional clamshell 3G handsets in that country. Panasonic’s latest release, the P706ie, will be available via NTT DoCoMo and comes with the following :-

• 3G connectivity
• 2 megapixel camera with autofocus
• 3″ display
• microSDHC memory card slot
• Front-facing camera
• Shortcut keys

No idea on pricing, but it is readily available in the market now.

Tags: TV, electronic toys, computers, gps

The Chordette Gem is a Hi-Fi peripheral that introduces the wonders of Bluetooth A2DP connectivity to your Hi-Fi system in addition to a USB port, enabling you to hook up your computer straight to the Hi-Fi while enjoying wireless audio thanks to the newly added Bluetooth feature. Perfect for folks who just want to come home and relax, kicking back their legs while fiddling with their cell phone to connect to the Chordette Gem-enhanced Hi-Fi system and playing their favorite tunes over much better speakers compared to the handset’s generic ones.

(Read the full post about ‘Chordette Gem’…)

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 18th 2008 at 2:14AM Hey, look — another cart before the horse scenario! Long after coming to grips with the fact that Lenovo was indeed producing an IdeaPad S9 and S10, the netbook(s) have surfaced in the FCC’s lair. Interestingly, the User Guide looks to tackle both machines in one fell swoop, suggesting that there’s not enough difference to warrant the writing of two whole pamphlets that no one will read. (Read the full post about ‘Lenovo’s IdeaPad S9 / S10 shows up in FCC database’…)

by Thomas Ricker, posted Aug 18th 2008 at 4:45AM HP just unveiled a pair of rugged (MIL-STD 810F tested for dust, altitude, and high temperature) Centrino 2 12-inchers with the launch of its 2530p laptop and 2730p tablet. The 2730p bests the HP 2710p launched last year with the inclusion of a touchpad and new jog-dial along the side for use when the tablet is in slate mode. HP is also offering improved ULV (up to 1.2GHz) and LV (up to 1.86GHz) Core 2 Duo processor options and faster, 1.8-inch 5400RPM hard drive (up to 120GB), 80GB SSD, and Qualcomm’s Gobi dual EV-DO / HSPA wireless option for near-complete WWAN support globally. (Read the full post about ‘HP’s rugged EliteBook 2730p tablet and 2530p laptop for suits and Gobi squares’…)

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 18th 2008 at 1:25AMWhile Sprint and Verizon consider final monikers for the HTC Touch Diamond, some North Americans are already enjoying the thing up in the Great North. The ecstatic folks over at Mobile Syrup were able to snap up Telus’ version of the WinMo 6.1-packin’ handset, and of course, they put together a video review for us Americans to drool over. The 7:15 clip includes a few comparison angles with other mobiles and a full walk-through of the user interface. Reviewers found the web browsing on Opera Mobile to be a real treat, and of course, they couldn’t deny the awesomeness of the 640 x 480 resolution display. (Read the full post about ‘Telus’ HTC Touch Diamond gets video review’…)