Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

We’ve partnered up with LogicBuy.com to bring you today’s Recession-O-Rama deals.  What do we have for you today?  You can grab a HP G60t laptop for $150 off, get $100 off a 160GB PS3 bundle (which includes Uncharted Drakes), 20%an invisibleSHIELD iPhone protector as well as 20% off a Lenovo T400 Thinkpads, and finally 25% off a HP TouchSmart tx2z convertible tablet/laptop + a Linksys router.  The economy may be depressed, but you don’t have to be.  Grab something to entertain yourself.

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The iFrogz brand of headphones known as EarPollution have found a way to combine comfort, superior sound, and individuality into a price range that can fit any digital DJ or casual listener.  Music can spark a range of emotions but if you don’t hear every note, enjoy every boom, and let your mind wrap around the message, it is safe to say that your headphones are to blame.  Keep reading to find out how these headphones performed.

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We’ve partnered up with LogicBuy.com to bring you today’s Recession-O-Rama deals.  What do we have for you today?  You can grab a few different HP laptop for $450 off, 20% off select Lenovo Thinkpads, and some discounted Dells.  The economy may be depressed, but you don’t have to be.  Grab something to entertain yourself.

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BD-Live, the relatively new Blu-ray feature that enables you to access content via your Internet-connected Blu-ray player has begun to make its way into more and more titles.  A new release of Step Brothers goes one step further, with access to a “Boats N Hoes” music video editor, allowing you to quickly put together your very own version of the video used in the film, using clips from the movie.  Once you’re done, you can upload the video using your BD-Live connection to share with friends and check out other people’s efforts online.

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As you can image, we are prone to hearing about ever single new home media networking hard drive and back-up solution that is released onto the market. But what I saw at Iomega really impressed me (and Doug). The new Home Media Network Hard Drive provides a super easy-to-use network storage for your home. To get going all you need to do is plug in the devise to a power adaptor and a ethernet cord (which should be connected to your router). You then go through a very basic install wizard on your computer and you can begin playing back your pictures, videos and music from almost any other device, including game consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3), digital picture frames or networked TVs. There is also a USB slot on the back so you can share a printer over your home network as well. Plus, the unit backups your computer (PC or Mac) automatically—it can even be synced with two computers. Seriously, this could not get any easier. They plan to add a bunch of features in the coming months such as remote access over the net. It is available now in 500GB ($179) and 1TB ($249) options.

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Check out the gallery: Iomega makes home media networking the easiest I have ever seen

The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association), group that puts on CES each year, have confirmed that CES 2010 will have a dedicated Apple section. While out at Macworld, IGD held a town hall to start the discussion on the future of Macworld, figuring out how they will move ahead without Apple’s presence.

With this announcement, many have begun to rumor that Apple may too join the party in Vegas, but that seems a bit unlikely. It does make sense to have a dedicated Apple section at the show, but should more appropriately be called “Apple Accessories”. To be honest, it seems that they could almost fill an entire wing of the convention center with iPod docks, iPhone cases, matching portable hard drives, and more. I would certainly appreciate if these were sectioned out, though it may be tough now that almost everyone company has some Apple accessory or another. But the likelihood of Apple actually joining the party seems extremely unrealistic. If they are not going to do Macworld, why would they do CES—Apple has never been the company that plays well with other’s rules.

That being said, it would be very interesting if Steve Jobs can do the opening CES keynote.

Read [Cnet]

• iPod touch with camera coming this spring?
• Apple App Store gaming update for the week of November 16 to 22, 2009
• Black Friday 2009: Apple announces a special one-day shopping event

At CES 2009 I had the opportunity to sit down in a roundtable discussion with three of the leading Samsung execs from the Digital Media Business. Mr. Sang-heung Shin, Dr. Dongho Shin, Mr. Kyung-shik Lee fielded questions from the press around Samsung’s HDTV strategy, their entry into LED TV, ambitions with Blu-ray, and the future of internet enabled television. Here are some of the leading Q & A from the chat (paraphrased):

Is LED HDTV a new category of televisions or a replacement for current models (ie. Plasma, DLP, LCD)?

This is a new category for Samsung and will not be a replacement for any of their current models. OLED is not yet ready for Samsung and LED offers superior picture quality against today’s standards. They did go onto say that DLPs will be phased out over the next year, but this is irregardless of the LED entry. 

Is OLED the next generation TV display technology?

LOED is one of the best technologies for the future but it needs more time and lower prices before it can be introduced. Currently only small screen sizes are available: 1-3” screens in portable media players and the 11” Sony set coming in at $2,000. If a consumer can purchase a 46”+ set for $2,000 what would make them buy an 11” OLED. Until a 40” set (the optimal consumer size) can be released at a reasonable price Samsung will not enter the market.

What is Samsung’s Blu-ray market share in the US and internationally?

Well 5 million Blu-ray players have been sold in 2008 (excluding the PS3). The goal for 2009 is 10 million. According to NDP Samsung is number 2 both in the US and globally, with a share of 28-30%, respectively.

Does Samsung believe that there should be a 3D HDTV standard, as Panasonic has called for? And is Samsung interested in participating?

Samsung is happy to have a standard for 3D but the discussions have not gotten to that yet. This will be discussed more over the next year.

Will Blu-ray become irrelevant with the increases in capacity and lower costs around flash memory? Or due to the advent of IPTV, and streaming HD content (ala Netflix)?

Samsung sees flash memory as a part of the Blu-ray experience.  In the future more and more memory (likely flash) will be built into Blu-ray players for added functionality, such as BD-Live. Further, the internet hook-up on Blu-ray players allows for future upgrades and more added functionality. The difference between DVD and Blu-ray is that DVD is a static experience, while Blu-ray adds another dimension via its internet connectivity.

Where will internet enabled TVs go in the future? Will we move beyond widgets and streaming content?

We believe that Yahoo is just the first of many entrants into this area. It is an open platform and will continue to develop over time.

Why would a consumer purchase a high-end Blu-ray player? (Background information: knowing that a Blu-ray player outputs a 1080p digital signal, and you transmit that over HDMI you should not loose any picture quality at all. So why pay more for the player?)

There are four reasons we can charge a premium for our player, and why we sell higher-end models.

1. Correct, the video is the same between players. The main difference is audio options. Higher-end player tend to offer more audio formats as well as more audio outputs, including analog.
2. Higher end models add more features such as BD-Live and increased internal storage, PCconnect, Pandora, Netflix, etc.
3. Some of the higher-end models are more stylish. And with Samsung, out BD players match the design of our flat panel TVs.
4. Finally, in higher-end models the TV will recognize the BD player and will auto-adjust the picture to provide the optimal watching experience.

• iPod touch with camera coming this spring?
• Apple App Store gaming update for the week of November 16 to 22, 2009
• Black Friday 2009: Apple announces a special one-day shopping event

At CES/Macworld Speck introduces a new line of iPhone cases dubbed the Candyshell. These cases mix soft rubber with hard plastic to offer your iPhone some needed protection. I often fear these sort of full-wrap cases because dust gets under the case and ends up scratching your phone. Thankfully the rubber interior prevent these scratches by holding the case nice and tight, like a tiger. In addition to that Speck showed off a bunch of rather stylish laptop bags as well as watering hole (unfortunately for me it opened at 11).

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Check out the gallery: Speck wraps your iPhone in a Candyshell (and has kegs)

Click for a larger image.

As always Sony’s booth was huge and packed. Here is just a few things that were on display:

• OLED Walkman NWZ-X1000
• VAIO P series netbook
• DVD based camcorders
• Huge hard drive based camcorders
• G series Cybershot WiFi digital camera

• iPod touch with camera coming this spring?
• Apple App Store gaming update for the week of November 16 to 22, 2009
• Black Friday 2009: Apple announces a special one-day shopping event

Check out the gallery: Sony booth tour; from wifi cameras to the Viao P. We've got it all.

As far as I could tell there was nothing that new at the Creative booth, but they certainly didn’t skimp on the toys. A company that has continue to fly under our, and likely your, radar showed up with their two digi-cam models the original and the HD. They also had a plethora of speakers, webcams, and headphones. The coolest part of the tour was the introduction of ZiiLABS StemCell computing.

Though short, enjoy the booth tour.

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Check out the gallery: Nothing new at Creative but plenty of good toys