Archives for December 2009

Barnes & Noble Nook Review Roundup

bn-nookA number of Gadget blogs managed to get their hands on a Barnes & Noble Nook for review this weekend. On Saturday we mentioned that the Nook was reported to have some lag on the colour screen and unfortunately the reviews seem to indicate the same issues in that there is a lot of lag causing the wrong things to load up along as the force close message seen on Android based phones.

The Nook is unique in that it has a smaller colour screen to allows you to flick through your library of books and tap on the screen to launch them on to the main e-ink screen. The smaller capacitive touch screen measures 3.5 inches while the larger e-ink screen measures 6 inches and is capable of displaying up to 16 shades of gray. [Read more…]

Barnes & Noble Nook gets Hands-On

nook-hands-onA tipster managed to supply Engadget with some hands on pictures of the Barnes & Noble Nook eBook reader. Although the eReader looks great, problems have been reported with a laggy Android interface.

Regarding the lag between the Android interface and e-ink display, the tipster mentioned that all he wanted to do was use the e-ink display as a touchscreen. The colour screen is small and he said although a nice idea, he wanted to get away from using it quickly. [Read more…]

TruePower Power Outlet with USB Ports

USB-Power-OutletTruePower is a regular power outlet for a wall that also embeds a couple of USB ports. By having USB ports on the wall you can easily power your gadgets without the need of using a separate PSU.

It is expected that TruePower will start shipping early next year assuming it gets official approval for launch. The power outlet is capable of charging any USB device such as a mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, PDA, MP3, PSP, MP4 as well as USB chargeable digital cameras. [Read more…]

Apple Mac Pro gets 3.33GHz Processor

Apple-Mac-ProApple have updated the high-end Mac Pro computer with a bigger and better processor. The new processor is a 3.33GHz quad-core Intel Xeon that ads another $1,200 to the price of the Mac.

The better processor takes the price from $2,499 up to $3,699 although if you can settle for a 2.93GHz processor then you just add another $400 to the base price of $2,499. [Read more…]

Worlds Largest Milky Way Photo Unveiled

Space-ImageThe image shown here is a scaled down version of a photo measuring 37 meters in length and 1 meter tall around the edges. The picture was captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope and was put together with an impressive 800,000 individual photos taken by the Spitzer.

Stitched together the images captured show 2.5 billion infrared pixels… “It covers an area of the sky about as wide as a pointer finger and as long as the length of arms outstretched, which might sound small, but covers about half of the entire galaxy, says Robert Hurt, of the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech.” [Read more…]

CrunchPad to be Officially Revealed on Monday

crunchpadOn Monday we mentioned that the CrunchPad suddenly dropped in the 11th hour due to the other company involved called Fusion Garage basically kicking TechCrunch out of the program. This of course was in TechCrunch’s words.

Chandra Rathkrishnan, the partner over at Fusion Garage has now said he will hold a video webcast where he is planning to share his side of the story as well as reveal the CrunchPad (this part will be behind closed doors) as he is full intended to launch it. [Read more…]

ASUS 1201N Available for Pre-Order

aus-eee-pc-1201N1ASUS were planning to launch the ASUS Eee 1201N this month, however, it was delayed until next month.

Amazon have the ASUS 1201N available now for pre-order with a tentative shipping date of January 15.

The 1201N netbook is priced at $499 and comes with an Intel Atom 330 processor along with NVIDIA’s ION chipset. [Read more…]

Motorola Sholes Tablet XT701 – More Pics

Motorola-Sholes-TabletYesterday we mentioned the Motorola Sholes Tablet that had a few images leak. We came across some more pictures yesterday that show the device in full along with a few more details that have been revealed.

The Sholes Tablet has been called the XT701 and is similar to the DROID without a QWERTY slide out keyboard. According to the source of this information the Tablet will run the Android 2.1 operating system when launched. Other features include a 3.7 inch screen, has a 5 megapixel camera and from what reports say, it runs very well. [Read more…]

New Nokia Symbian UI Revealed

nokia-symbian-UI_1Nokia have revealed pictures of the new Symbian UI and what they are planning to make it look like. Nokia have mentioned that for next year they are releasing just one Maemo smartphone and will be spending the rest of the time concentrating on the Symbian OS.

Nokia have said that the main problem with Symbian OS isn’t the OS it’s self, but actually the UI (User Interface). What Nokia are planning to do is reduce the number of taps you need to do to get around the menus. Rather than setting up an email address with 4 taps, it will reduce to 2 screen taps. Other menu’s and features will also get enhanced in the same way, such as easy access to music, photos etc… [Read more…]

Another Motorola Android Handset Spotted

moto-android-round-black1This morning we wrote about the Motorola Sholes Tablet that was spotted recently. Since writing about that, another Motorola smartphone has been spotted that runs the Android OS.

The name of the phone is not known at the moment, but from what a tipster at BGR has said, the phone will run an 800MHz processor, have a 3.8 inch display along with an 8 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash. [Read more…]

Panasonic VIERA X1 HDTV Gets 36% Discount

Panasonic-VIERA-X1If you are looking for a decent HDTV this Christmas and want to catch a good discount then Amazon have a Panasonic VIERA X1 HDTV on offer with a 36% discount. The VIERA X1 is a smaller 26 inch screen that is ideal for a smaller living room or perhaps a bedroom and normally has a retail price of $549.95, but has been cut down to $349.98 at the moment on special offer.

A quick run down of specs show that the screen measures 26 inches as mentioned above and can display a HD resolution of 720p. An SD card reader is built in the TV allowing you to share pictures with friends and also a system called VIERA link allows compatible systems to all be controlled through the TV such as a Blu-ray player, sound system or HD camcorder. [Read more…]

Canon Touchscreen DSLR Patent Revealed

Canon-TouchScreen-DSLRA patent has been found that was filed by Canon and provides details of a touchscreen DSLR camera. Filed back in April and approved in October this year, the patent describes a DSLR camera where you can easily manipulate the settings by touching the screen rather than the buttons.

The patent was found to be just 13 pages long. One of the first things that comes to mind with a touchscreen on a camera is that when you look through the viewfinder, your face is actually touching the screen. To prevent settings being changed by accident the system can be programmed with what eye you look through the viewfinder with and when you look through it, the parts of the screen that your face will touch have the touchscreen portion disabled. When moving away the portion of the screen then can be touched again. [Read more…]