Samsung NX5 Digital SLR Hybrid made Official

June 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Samsung has announced a new hybrid Digital SLR camera called the Samsung NX5. The NX5 is a lower spec model than the Samsung NX10 allowing it to have a lower price tag.

The AMOLED display on the NX10 is not used on the NX5 and instead, it uses a 3 inch LCD. The CMOS sensor can capture 14.6 megapixels and is an APC-C format sensor.

Also the camera is capable of using all NX-mount lenses that the NX10 can use. The price tag is $855 although surprisingly the so called more expensive NX10 can be found over in Germany for the equivalent of $619 at Amazon. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Camera Gadgets

HTC Legend AMOLED Screen Has Problems with Grayscale

June 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Some people have reported problems with their HTC Legend smartphones. The problem appears to be the way it shows grayscale colours in that it cannot show them properly.

The HTC Legend uses an AMOLED display which was criticised for the problems which prompted Tweakers to investigate further.

To do this the website used colour-testing equipment where the could test to see exactly what was happening under a microscope. The screen on the Legend did show problems with pink, grey, brown and green showing up rather than just grayscale (seen in the larger image below). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

BlackBerry Bold 9650 Available June 3 on Verizon

June 2, 2010 by 3 Comments

Verizon [VZ] has announced that the BlackBerry Bold 9650 will be launching on it’s network on June 3. The Bold 9650 can be ordered this Thursday with the device showing up in stores on June 10.

Features on the BlackBerry Bold 9650 include an optical trackpad, WiFi that can connect to 802.11b/g networks and Push to Talk functions.

The phone it’s self measures 4.4 x 2.44 x 0.55 inches and weighs 4.8oz. It has a glossy black finish with chrome highlights. As can be expected from all BlackBerry devices, there is mobile and messaging capabilities on this smartphone allowing users to easily have access to emails whilst on the move. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Motorola FLIPOUT Android Smartphone Announced

June 2, 2010 by 2 Comments

The Motorola FLIPOUT has been spotted a couple of times in the past. After a few months of details here and there, we now have official word from Motorola about the FLIPOUT and what it exactly is.

The Motorola FLIPOUT runs the Android 2.1 operating system. It has a smaller 2.8 inch QVGA touchscreen and a unique keyboard that flips out by rotating the device around the top corner.

Features include a three megapixel camera that is fixed focus. 3G connectivity is included. It has 512MB of memory built in and this can be expanded by a microSD card.

The device is square and measures 67mm by 67mm and is 17mm in thickness. It has an 1170mAh battery. For music playback, regular headphones can be used in the 3.5mm headphone connector. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Google Chrome OS Launching in Autumn

June 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

Google [GOOG] said today that it is planning on launching Google Chrome OS this year in the autumn. Chrome OS will be free to use.

“We are working on bringing the device later this fall,” said Google vice president of product management Sundar Pichai at CompuTex Taipei, Asia’s biggest IT trade show.

It is expected that millions of people will download the new operating system when it launches. The OS it’s self is based around the Chrome browser and is designed to function with web based applications such as Google Docs, GMail and other applications. All data is stored in the cloud allowing you to open up your computer session from any computer or tablet that runs the OS. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Tech News

Commodore Invictus gets Inspiration from Eee Keyboard

June 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

Commodore has created an ASUS Eee Keyboard style device called the Commodore Invictus.

Not much is known about the device at the moment other than it being Ion-based. The touchscreen to the right of the keyboard uses resistive touch with a stylus. Wireless HDMI is built in and it is believed to have a 5+ hour battery installed.

It also appears to be running Windows XP from what we see on the small screen in the picture. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Computer Gadgets

Lonely Planet 1000 Experiences Apple iPad App Free for a Limited Time

June 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The Lonely Planet 1000 Experiences app has been switched to free for a few days in honour of the All Things Digital Conference.

The 1000 Experiences application normally costs $20 and brings the top 1000 ideas for things to do while out and about around the world. The application is configured like a card deck where you can scroll through the cards and find the best activity/experience to do. [Read more…]

Filed Under: iPad

Toshiba Flexible LCD Panel – Bend to Zoom In and Out

June 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Toshiba has created an LCD panel that is flexible. When bending the screen the program running on the screen can be zoomed in and out of. Google Earth has been used in this case as an example of how to zoom in and out of the planet. When bending backwards the planet zooms in and when bending inwards, the planet zooms out.

The screen is an LCD panel that measures 8.4 inches. It has an SVGA resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. The substrate used for the panel makes it just 0.1mm thick allowing it to be flexible. The bend sensor is also placed on the back of the screen.

Custom software was created to track the bend of the screen. The screen it’s self can be bent with a curvature of up to 50mm. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Displays

Intel Canoe Lake Ultra Thin Netbook Designs on Show

June 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

On Monday, Intel announced it’s next generation Intel Atom processor. The new processor is called Intel Canoe Lake and due to cooling methods used within, it allows for ultra thin netbooks to be created.

It is important to note here that the netbooks on show are just design references to show end users what is potentially possible. When companies do launch netbooks with the new processors inside you can expect to see 14 – 15mm thin netbooks running an Intel Canoe Lake processor along with a 10.1 inch screen and a 1280 x 1080 display and Windows 7. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Laptops

Skype extend Free 3G calls on iPhone to 2011

June 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

Skype launched it’s update VoIP app over the weekend by releasing version 2 of the software. New features in the Skype update included the ability to make VoIP calls over 3G rather than being restricted to just Wi-Fi like the previous version.

However, when installing the software update and running it for the first time, a message popped up saying calls over 3G are currently free (ie, Skype to Skype), but that in the near future from August 2010 a small monthly fee would be charged for the service.

Skype has changed their minds on this and is now extending the free period from August 2010 to the end of 2010 and will start charging the small monthly fee beginning next year. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Microsoft Respond to Google pulling their OS

June 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday we wrote about Google [GOOG] and the rumours that they were pulling Microsoft [MSFT] operating systems from staff computers giving them the choice of only Linux or Mac OS with the eventual move towards Chrome OS.

Although Google hasn’t officially made a statement about pulling Microsoft operating systems from it’s staff computers, Microsoft has gone ahead and responded.

When it comes to security, even hackers admit we’re doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it’s not just the hackers; third party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Tech News

Steve Jobs Interview on D8

June 2, 2010 by 1 Comment

Last night, Steve Jobs was interviewed at D8 and a number of things were spoken of. Nothing said was particularly new as we expected, but the interview gave some great insight in to how and why Apple [AAPL] makes the decisions it does. The reason nothing particularly new was announced is that the WWDC event is starting this coming Monday which is where we will hear all the good stuff.

In no particular order we should add, the first thing we will mention is about the iPhone OS and where it all started. It was quite a surprise when Steve said in effect that the iPad came first. iPhone OS was designed to run on a tablet originally at which point Steve said that it would make a great phone. Apple switched to creating the iPhone and of course, the iPad followed about 3 years after that. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Tech News