Gadgets Blog News

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 29th 2008 at 1:45PM If the E60 had you dozing last night, you’ll be conked out in no time by the time you finish reading this. Pentax is at it again, proving that point-and-shoot cameras can still be boring this day and age. The M60 tries to be fancy with a 10-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 2.5-inch lcd monitor, “approximately 36.5MB of built-in memory,” movie / panorama modes, a variety of scene modes and smile detection capabilities to boot. (Read the full post about ‘Pentax rolls out another yawner: the 10MP M60 point-and-shoot’…)

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A final US release date still has not been announced for the blackberry Bold, but that does not seem to matter to Tiger Direct. They have just recently added the Bold to their website as a pre-order item promising delivery in September. The Bold is a little on the pricey side at $649.99, but all things considered its not that bad of a price for an unlocked handset that is as hot as the Bold. It also looks like Tiger Direct is expecting to receive their shipment ahead of the actual availability date, because they mention that any pre-orders will ship on the “street date.” Product [Tiger Direct] Via [Into Mobile] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘Tiger Direct offers the BlackBerry Bold for pre-order, will ship in September’…)

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A final US release date still has not been announced for the blackberry Bold, but that does not seem to matter to Tiger Direct. They have just recently added the Bold to their website as a pre-order item promising delivery in September. The Bold is a little on the pricey side at $649.99, but all things considered its not that bad of a price for an unlocked handset that is as hot as the Bold. It also looks like Tiger Direct is expecting to receive their shipment ahead of the actual availability date, because they mention that any pre-orders will ship on the “street date.” Product [Tiger Direct] Via [Into Mobile] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘Tiger Direct offers the BlackBerry Bold for pre-order, will ship in September’…)

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For nearly HP users have had to deal with a defect in the NVidia Graphic processors installed in eleven of HPs most popular laptop models. Now, finally, HP is fessing up to it and offering warranty solutions to fix the problems. The defect, which occurs in the NVidia G84/G86 series graphics chipsets, was initially denied by the Graphics manufacturer as being so widespread. But after Dell announced measures to deal with the issue, the writing was on the wall and HP was forced to take similar action since the defect hits models ranging from HP’s Pavilion dv2000, dv6000, and dv9000 series laptops, as well as the Compaq Presario V3000 and V6000. (Read the full post about ‘HP Fesses up to laptop graphic defect’…)

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Palm is back?  Perhaps.  Today, Palm announced they sold their two millionth Centro smartphone.  The $99 beauty is showing the world maybe Palm was just charging too much to gain some lasting market traction…perhaps that is too harsh.

Indeed, Palm seems to have a hit on its hands: Admob Mobile Metrics shows the Centro making the list of phones accessing the mobile internet (#7 for June).  Palm is psyched to be on the list:

“Consumers are ready to do more on their mobile phone, and Centro has struck a chord around the world,” said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, Inc.

(Read the full post about ‘2 million Centro owners can’t be wrong about Palm’…)

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Oh, tech manufactuers… why do you think that making a phone or a hard drive look like a powder compact is the way to our hearts? Nothing makes me more annoyed - except covering everything vaguely girl-oriented in pink, perhaps. As Engadget gleefully reports, Samsung has designed a concept compact hard drive that looks similar to a piece of make-up - and this picture shows it surrounded by make-up, to prove the point. You know, ‘cos we women are so crazy about cosmetics, we’ll buy anything if it looks like we can paint our faces with it. So far though, this is just a concept - and maybe it should stay that way. I think the design is sleek and all, but I don’t agree with making tech designs gender specific. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung thinks patronising women will get us into tech; Engadget agrees’…)

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Inject some fun into your house chores with the RC Floor Sweeper - a device that is guaranteed to get the kids scampering after you, asking for dibs on getting the floor cleaned. The reason is simple - one end of an electrostatic dust mop has been connected to an RC car, letting you clean your room in record time without having to walk around (at least until the range between the remote control and car is too far apart). This will take care of minor dust bunnies and all, but it won’t do nuts for stains on the floor. Other drawbacks include not burning any more calories and you’re polluting the environment with more batteries. (Read the full post about ‘RC Floor Sweeper’…)

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Ex-Google worker Anna Patterson has already sold away one of her innovative search techniques to Google before, but doesn’t plan on selling her latest idea to Google anytime soon. In fact, instead of helping Google, she aims to single-handedly take down the search giant. Her new search engine, Cuil, aims to be better than Google had ever been. Initially kept on a low profile, Cuil (pronounced “Cool”) was designed by three Google engineers and boasts the fact that it indexes about 3 times more pages than even Google does (around 120 billion pages). Whether this will convince Google users to make the transfer is another story completely, but they can definitely try. (Read the full post about ‘Ex-Googler launches rival search engine Cuil aiming to trump Google.’…)

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NTT DoCoMo of Japan will be rolling out the Raku Raku Phone V from the 1st of next month onwards, and this will be a Fujitsu-produced clamshell handset that aims to simplify things for older folk. Some of the more interesting functions include repetition and slow pronunciation of conversation, speech recognition and text, the ability to track the health of the owner of this phone (no idea how this is done), and a pedometer. It supports national and international W-CDMA networks, and other specifications are as follows :- Internal 2.8″ TFT widescreen display External 1.4″ black-and-white FSTN display microSD/microSDHC memory card format 2 megapixel CMOS camera GPS navigation capability No idea on how much this will cost, but chances are you won’t be able to find it outside of Japan. (Read the full post about ‘Raku Raku Phone V hits Japan’…)

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I remember the Japanese Pokeman characters from an addictive cartoon show which featured the just-too-cute-for-words yellow Pikachu, but as my daughter became older, he lived primarily on her DS. She should have entered the Pokeman Video Game showdown; she’s been playing it long enough. Over the past two weeks, more than 1,000 Pokemon fans swarmed Los Angeles and New York, for the chance to become the ultimate Pokemon Video Game Champion. From as young as 6 to 43, contestants vied across the nation for their title, with the decision to be made in Florida. Competing on Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearls Nintendo DS ( who wouldn’t want one of those?), the Japanese finalists will take on the American winners August 16th at Orlando’s Disney World. (Read the full post about ‘Get Your Game On! - Pokemon Showdown’…)

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