Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
At CES, Samsung unveiled a laptop that has a transparent OLED screen that can let up to 40% light through it from the background. Although it might not be fully practical in a laptop design a transparent OLED screen has applications elsewhere such as being embedded on to the wind-shield of your car allowing navigation to be overlayed on to the road ahead.
The current maximum transparency on other screens is only 25%, so bumping that up to 40% by Samsung is a good achievement. [Read more…]
At the Microsoft [MSFT] keynote at CES, Steve Ballmer showed off the new HP Slate that will be launching later this year. Not much information was provided about it although it was seen running the PC Kindle app. The HP Slate is Windows based (I assume Windows 7) and features multitouch.
Gaming can be done on the Slate but the only game shown on the demo was Frogger which isn’t really an intensive app.
The front of the devices houses the screen that looks to be somewhere between the 9 and 11 inch range along with a border around it. There are no buttons on the front of the HP Slate. Around the sides there are a few buttons which I assume are to wake it up, switch wireless on as well as changing the volume, but as this is currently a prototype this could potentially change. [Read more…]
It seems like Nintendo are creating a new Nintendo DS handheld gaming system that will have upgraded graphics as well as motion sensing technology.
Improving graphics is generally a step forwards for console makers, so adding better graphics to the DS 2 does make sense. I’m yet to be convinced of motion control on a handheld though although Nintendo have done well with the Wii and DS, so seem to know what they are doing in general. [Read more…]
CrunchGear spotted an ultra-thin TV at CES called the LG LEF. Unfortunately nobody knew anything about it, not even the LG reps. The most they could offer was that it landed in Vegas straight out of Korea.
The TV measures about 1/4 of an inch in thickness making it very slim. The main functions of the TV are held in the block base that supports the TV with the screen and backlight being housed in glass alone which allows for the ultra-thin TV to be just that… ultra-thin. [Read more…]
Samsung have unveiled a number of TV’s over at CES 2010. The top of the range TV to be revealed is the Samsung LED 9000 series ultra-thin screen that achieves it’s thinness by cramming a lot of the innards in to the pedestal it sits on.
The screen it’s self looks great and runs at 240Hz to allow for smoother video to be run. A unique remote control was also launched that is capable of showing content on it’s screen from other video sources making it very unique.
The TV follows on with the 2010 theme of 3D and will be capable of transforming regular 2D content in to 3D (somehow) as well as being able to play 3D content that’s due out later this year. [Read more…]
iFixit managed to quickly get their hands on the new phone from Google [GOOG] called the Nexus One that was announced and put on sale yesterday.
The Google Nexus One has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor inside and has a very nice 3.7 inch 480 x 800 WVGA AMOLED screen that has capacitive touch. Google describe the phone as being a “superphone” due to a few features not currently found on other Android phones.
As always, iFixit were very quick to break apart the $530 phone to see what was inside. Tools required to get the phone apart included the iPod Opening Tools, a T4 Torx Screwdriver and a Philips #00 Screwdriver. [Read more…]
If you live in a house where the heating doesn’t really warm your hands then this iPhone application is designed for you. Pocketheat is an application that you can download that runs processes forcing your iPhones CPU to run at 100% while switched on. When running the processor at 100% the iPhone warms up slightly and can in theory keep your hands a tad warmer.
Reviewers have described the application as providing a pleasant but brief warmth to your palms.
The screen of the Pocketheat application looks like a heater and has a knob where you can turn the temperature from low to high, I assume taking the iPhone to various levels of CPU usage depending on how warm you want it to get. [Read more…]
M-Edge have created a new case for the Amazon Kindle called the Guardian. The Guardian is capable of protecting the Kindle from scratches as well as water. With this case around the Kindle you can take the device in to depths of up to 1 meter.
The case it’s self is designed to float too should you drop it in water. Another function allows the Kindle to float upright allowing you to read in water without holding on to the device. [Read more…]
D-Link have announced a new wireless N pocket router that as the name suggests, is pocket sized allowing it to be packed up for travel. The router is capable of creating a wireless N network (802.11n) or can be used as an AP as part of an existing wired network.
The Pocket N router also has an Ethernet port allowing a PC, XBox or similar device to connect up to a wireless network. The device also uses SharePort technology that allows users to share USB devices. [Read more…]
Amazon have announced the Kindle DX will be shipping with Global Wireless enabled allowing it to function in over 100 countries. The new version of the Kindle DX will start shipping on January 19 at a cost of $489.
The Kindle DX is an eBook reader that comes with a 9.7 inch eInk screen. Wireless connectivity is built in allowing you to download eBooks anywhere you can pick up a mobile phone signal.
Downloads take about 60 seconds to complete and once downloaded are stored on the device for you to read at any time. The DX is capable of storing around 3,500 books allowing a very healthy library of books to be carried in your bag. Other features of the Kindle DX include auto rotation to put the books in to landscape mode automatically if required. [Read more…]
Rollei have launched the Rollei Flexline 100 inTouch that measures 15.6mm thin and comes in three colours of glossy black, blue or glittering metallic pink. The corners of the camera are smoothed and the trim is aluminium.
On to the technical side of things, the camera has a 10 megapixel CCD sensor along with 3x optical zoom, face and smile detection.
The Flexline 100 has an integrated image processing feature that allows you to retouch pictures captured on the camera to perform basics such as red eye removal and changing the lighting. [Read more…]
We have heard on a weekly basis about Apple [AAPL] building a tablet device probably to be called the Apple iSlate. What we haven’t heard much about is Microsoft [MSFT] creating a tablet other than a couple of mentions of the Microsoft Courier a few months ago that’s more of a split screen booklet rather than a tablet. What we hear today though is that Steve Ballmer will be unveiling a tablet at CES during his keynote speech.
If this happens it will come weeks before a rumoured unveiling of Apple’s iSlate which could either be a good or a bad thing. If done right then it wont be another “me-too” type device and hopefully this is the case. [Read more…]
