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Jabra BT2050 Bluetooth Headset Hands-on: Sony PS3 and Phones

I have had the pleasure of reviewing this Jabra BT2050 Bluetooth headset over the last two weeks, which I found has some good and some bad points as I will explain.

When the Jabra BT2050 arrived I was impressed with the slick and well presented packaging, so it shows that Jabra care about their products from the start before I even had a chance to use the headset Read more

Navigon 7200T GPS with landmarks and 3D signs

Navigon have just released its latest satellite navigation system, the 7200T. This device looks very stylish and has a rather sleek design. It is said to be on sale as from October 2008, and will be around $449.

There are many impressive features with this unit. For a start, it has Reality View Pro which means that the signs are all in photo realistic 3D. So you never really need to miss your exit again. It also offers free real-time traffic updates for life, therefore allowing the user to avoid congestion on the roads and provides an alternative route. One of the features that caught my eye is the voice destination entry. It uses advanced voice recognition to allow the driver to speak the address, which is a lot safer.

It features a frameless, 4.3inch touch screen display. The device comes with 64MB of RAM, 2GB flash storage, an SiRF GRF3i+ GPS chip and microSD card support.

The 7200T comes with Bluetooth for hands free communication while on the move. It also has Directhelp, giving the user instant directions and contact information to nearby pharmacies, roadside assistance, police stations and hospitals, so help is always at hand.

For more on other Satnavs visit Here.
Source Engadget.

Update on ASUS’s new Eee Download service

When ASUS launched their new Eee Download service, people thought it would be a welcome addition to Eee pc user’s. Instead it has caused quite a bit of confusion in only the few days of being live.

One of the biggest problems being, that every file on the site is in the supposedly Click ‘N Run format, or CNR for short. This is meant to be an easy and quick way for the installation of Linux applications, that is when the distro supports CNR. But for the unfortunate ASUS and Eee Pc users the Xandros distribution doesn’t.

You can read lots of feedback about the new service on the forums at eeeuser.com, this is what started the discussion at the above link:

I have tried to download and try out some the software from here but all I’m getting is a file with a .cnr extension. Is there any information on how to install the progs on the forum anywhere?

For more info see Engadget or other ASUS news. If you want to give us your 2 cents on the new Eee Download service, then leave a comment below.

New Nokia Smartphones: N79 and N85

Nokia has recently announced that they will be releasing their two new Nseries smartphones. One being the N79 and the other will be the N85. The release date is due to be tomorrow.

The N79 is said to be replacing the older version N78. The camera on this phone has been updated from 3.2 mega pixels to an improved 5.0. It uses a dual-LED flash. It is designed as a fashion phone that will have changeable back covers, so the owner can have to their taste. It is in a candy bar style and comes with full 3G, WiFi and GPS features. The 4GB microSD card lets you store more than the previous model. And for someone like me, who likes their music, that is a good thing.

Nokia’s N85 is the better model and is replacing the N81. This camera has also been upgraded to five mega pixels, and includes GPS. It also has an AMOLED 2.6 inch screen, which should provide a better color. It can run about 28 hours of music from just one charge.

This N85, like the previous N81 is thought to be an N-Gage friendly phone. It has an 8GB microSDHC card and also gives the owners an option of upgrading to an impressive 16GB or more later on if wanted. They can access the internet through the WiFi or HSDPA-based 3G, although we’re not aware if it has international support yet.

For more pictures or information on these phones visit Electronista.

Cowon S9 Curve: The most stylish PMP

For those of you that like your media players, then the new Cowon S9 Curve is one to check out.

With it’s 3.3-inch screen which is an AMOLED capacitive touch panel, which produces 16 million colors with a pixel size of 480 x 272.

This media player sports an impressive 500MHz dual-core processor, and an integrated T-DMB digital television tuner. Other features include Bluetooth, a G-Sensor accelerometer, TV-out and an FM radio.

The Cowon S9 Curve will give you around 40 hours of music playback from just one charge, that’s almost two days of music love from this little gadget. Currently we have no idea of the price or a release date, but we will update you more information as we get it. Visit Engadget for more info or view other PMP’s on PR.

Olympus Stylus 1050 SW, 1040 and SP-565 UZ Cameras

When it comes to stylish point and shoot cameras, Olympus have the edge thanks to innovation around the UI. Their new Stylus 1050 SW has a durable design, and is due for release in October for about $300.

This feature packed model can even take a drop from 5-feet (that’s about 1.5-meters), and can still work in temperatures as low as 14 degrees F (which is -10 centigrade), it can also be submerged under water to 10-feet deep or about 3-meters.

It has 10.1-megapixels with 3x Optical Zoom and 5x Digital Zoom Seamless to 15x, and a 2.7-inch display.Olympus’s new feature called Tap Control which is motion-driven, it enables you to tap a couple of times on either of the sides top or back to change the camera’s modes which is a great idea.

This camera designed for everyday life particularly those with kids, and has the usual in-built feature’s like Face Detection which tracks up to 16 faces which is good for portraits and group shots. Perfect Fix In-Camera Editing lets you resize, insert into frames and various other text options.

Digital Image Stabilization and the memory is more versatile in this latest model, it takes Olympus’s standard XD-Picture Card but will also come equipped with an adapter, which will enable microSD memory cards to be used, which is better as they are much cheaper to buy.

View more Digital Camera’s or read more on this post via Engadget

KAON KM35 PMP: Internet and Mobile TV

What about this for a handy little gadget. The KM35 PMP from the Korean company Kaon Media, is a mobile TV and Internet device.

This means that wherever you are, you can watch live TV or access the internet with its built in WiFi. The device is fairly lightweight at 160g and measures 117×75×17mm, making it quite compact to carry.

The unit runs on Windows CE and has a 1750mA battery that gives approximately 2.5 hours of playback time, using DVB-T. You can get an optional FM tuner on the unit if you like listening to the radio at times.

It also comes equipped with SD and CAS card slots. It comes with either 8GB or 4GB NAND flash. Also a choice of T-DMB, DVB-T/H or ISDB-T tuners. It has a 3.5 inch 320×240 16.7M color touch screen.

Read other news about Portable Media Players Here
Found Via Engadget

New Asus Eee PCs: 1000HD, 904HD, 901 and 900 XP

Just the other day I was looking online at my local computer store and I saw that they was advertising a laptop, I couldn’t believe how cheap they’re getting. Today we hear there are four new Acer Asus laptops being released.

Out of the new Asus laptops the 1000HD XP is the largest model with a 10-inch display. The 900 XP, 901 XP, and 904HD XP all have 8.9-inch screens with a 1024 x 600 resolution.

The Asus 901 XP is the only laptop fitted with the Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor. As far as we are aware the other three models have Intel Mobile CPU’s.

All of the new Asus’s have Ethernet jacks, 1GB of RAM and 802.11b/g WLAN apart from the Eee PC 901 XP that also features draft-N WLAN. Bluetooth connectivity is an extra on the 1000HD XP.

The 900 XP has a 16GB SSD, the 901 XP will come with a 12GB SSD, and the 904HD XP has a 80GB SATA HDD. All models will feature Microsoft Windows XP Home.

Prices will be $542 for the 1000HD XP and 901 XP, $479 for the 904HD XP, and the 900 XP will cost $447. Sadly all the models are only available in Taiwan at this time. View more Asus news or visit Pocket Lint.

2009 Honda Fit gets a price

Japan’s popular subcompact car, the Honda Fit was launched last October but they have now announced an updated version that will be available in Canada as a 2009 model. The launch date that Honda gave was September 15.

The updated model has had the width, the overall length and the wheelbase increased, which has given passengers more space. They have also increased the maximum cargo capacity to 1622 litres, which is up from the previous 1186 litres. And I know how handy a little extra space can help for all those shopping trips.

Because the Honda Fit has gained a little extra weight, the engineers have grafted a brand-new 1.5-litre i-VTEC engine. You have the choice of either a 5 speed automatic or manual transmission that produces 117hp.

There will be four versions available, the Sport at $19,280, the LX at $17,380, the DX-A at $16,280 and the DX at $14,980. You can also check out all our auto news here.

Source: Read

Samsung BD-P2550: Shows up out of nowhere

We’ve known for a while now that Samsung planned for two Blu-ray players in their lineup, but we’ve heard nothing for a long time.

Today we have heard that Best Buy have started selling the Samsung BD-P2550 for $499. The new model includes some features that the BD-P1500 does not have, like Silicon Optix HQV video processing and 7.1 analog outputs.

Although the BD-P2550 does not have BD-Live, but with the included USB port and network connection, a quick firmware update should do the trick.

As a Sony PS3 owner I find it a mystery why anyone would want to pay $499 for a dedicated Blu-ray player, when you can get Blu-ray and BD-Live in Sony’s Playstation 3 for a cheaper price.

The Samsung BD-P2550 features a remote with batteries and A/V cable, HDMI-CEC networking, and it is compatible with VC-1, MPEG2 and H.264 formats.

The outputs include 1 optical digital audio, 1 stereo audio, 1 HDMI, 1 composite video and 1 component video. You can enjoy the full HD 1080p video output if you have a compatible HDTV. For the full features visit Best Buy.

Via engadget

The Xplore iX104C4 Tablet PC

I don’t know whether you can remember back in 2006 when Xplore technologies brought out their rugged iX104C3 tablet PC. They are now launching the new and improved version, the iX104C4.

The rugged construction makes this product durable to drops, rain and dust etc, making this good to use in various environments and locations. It is truly portable and is lightweight for ease of use.

The new version is not only compatible with Windows XP, but also with Vista. Xplore must be confident in their product as they are offering a three year warranty, which is good. It has many docking solutions for different working environments such as offices, vehicles and warehouses.

The specifications are quite impressive for this tablet pc. It has the usual Bluetooth and GPS options and also wLAN and wWAN. It comes with a good sized hard drive of 120GB, plus if desired an optional solid state hard drive. It also has 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a reasonably fast 1.2GHz Intel Core Duo processor. It still has the 10.4 inch LCD screen, but is now 50% brighter than the previous model due to the Dual Mode AllVue Xtreme display technology. It also has an integrated fingerprint reader.

Source Engadget

Star Wars TIE Fighter webcam

How about this for a webcam then.
This TIE Fighter webcam from Wesco Limited looks unusual compared to standard webcams, but is ideal for all those Star Wars enthusiasts.

This gadget may look a little silly on top of your laptop or monitor, but would be great for those of you who like to keep in touch with fellow Star Wars fans.

It has a built-in microphone, which is an added bonus. That means audio and video from one unit. It also has two Led’s on the front located just under the cam that may help the webcams performance in low lighting, and even plays sound effects from the Star Wars movies.

I’m not a Star Wars fan myself, but I thought that this gadget really does have a fun factor to it.
Rumoured to be available for about $40

View Source Engadget

Call of Duty World at War: success by flamethrower

As soon as the internet heard about Call of Duty World at War and that is was going to be set in WWII, it hit a brick wall with gamers who prefer Call of Duty 4’s modern combat.

COD4 has become one of the biggest games played on the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3; this is mostly thanks to its modern warfare theme.

Call of Duty 5 might be set in world war two but it has a secret weapon in the form of a flamethrower. While there are many features that make up COD5, gamers would have loved the flamethrower in COD4.

There is a video below of Call of Duty: World at War co-op gameplay, where you can watch the flamethrower in action. You can see the flames cutting down lines of enemies on the battlefield.

Will the flamethrower make you buy Call of Duty 5 or is there any other feature that will?

Download Burnout Paradise on Sony PS3 Store

For those of you that didn’t buy Burnout Paradise or your dog chewed on the disc, then you will have your chance to download a copy of the game from the Playstation network store in the fall, rumored to be around $30.

If you have played Burnout Paradise then you will know that it’s not the best graphics game, but it’s a driving game with action and fun gameplay.

Some gamers don’t like burnouts arcade style or unrealistic approach to driving but then this is the very reason why burnout is so popular…a driving game with extreme speed and thrills.

Being able to download Burnout Paradise from the PSN Store and many more titles in the future is a great idea, which will save valuable shelf space.

Who wants to be swapping between discs every time you change games when there is a better option?

Digital game downloads on the Sony PS3 wont be for everyone but it’s certainly better for the environment.

Source: Read

Gaming Sales Keep Falling: Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii & Sony PS3

The latest NPD Group sales figures have been released this week and they show that all positions of the major consoles remain the same in July as they were in June.

While we will touch on the exact results in a moment, first let’s focus on an interesting trend that seems to be forming. There seems to be a downward trend in sales figures for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Sony PS3.

Looking at the past results, this trend stands out a mile but what does it mean to the gaming industry? Feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The top three places in total software sold are as follows: Third place went to Guitar Hero On Tour (309,700) on the Nintendo DS, second place goes to Wii Fit (369,600), and first place was held by NCAA Football 09 for the 360 at 397,600 units sold.

In hardware sales third place went to the PS3 with 225,000 units sold, then in second we have the Nintendo Wii with 555,000 units, and pole position goes to the Nintendo DS with 608,400.

The gaming industry as a hole saw sales of $1.19 billion which is made up from Accessory sales at $152 million and Software sales of $591.1 million and Hardware sales $446.9 million, if you want to know more about these NPD Group sales figures then go to Efluxmedia.

Sony Mylo 2 wants to be your Internet Device

With ultra mobile pcs and netbooks becoming the must have gadget for staying connected on the move, you can understand why a brand would revamp a product for this market.

This is Sony’s Mylo 2, which has been known as the personal communicator until now. Its been rumored that the company has begun branding the gadget an “Internet Device”.

You may remember Sony’s Mylo 2 (aka Personal Communicator) circa 2006, the little gadget may have not had the success that is deserved. In today’s UMPC market an internet device is what the consumer wants, not a Communicator…smart move Sony.

Time will tell what effect this rebranding will have on the sales of Mylo 2, but thinking of my brother who bought the same razor just because they changed the color…anything is possible.

You can read more about this news on Pocketables or read other ultra mobile pc news here.