Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

If you’re (still) waiting on your M1330, you are probably more than aware of the increasingly negative comments over at Direct2Dell.

It looks like some orders have finally started to ship, but even they are prone to delay, and it seems that no one has any confidence in the delivery schedules quoted. Still blaming new ‘manufacturing processes’ Dell will hopefully resolve this sooner rather than later

Via [Notebooks.com]

Adding to its “Elevated Standard” (ES) line Sony have just announced three more models (STR-DA5300ES, STR-DA4300ES and STR-DA3300ES), all packed with features, all presented in very professional black casings, and all supporting both 1080/60p and 24p video formats and upscale video via HDMI up to 1080p (composite, S-video, component and HDMI)

Top of the new features is the ability to distribute high definition content to a second room.  They also offer picture-in-picture for monitoring multi-zone output, iPod integration through the receiver’s Digital Media Port feature and a range of options including a PC WiFi client for streaming digital music, a Bluetooth receiver, and a docking station for select Network Walkman products.

The STR-DA5300ES will be available in September for about $1,700, while the STR-DA4300ES ships in October for about $1,300.  The STR-DA3300ES will be available in August for about $1,000.

Press Release [Sony]

There is much speculation, but little sympathy on the street it seems, for departing CEO Hugh Panero, who will leave XM Satellite Radio in August. Nate Davis, recruited by Panero to fulfill the role of President and COO will step up to hold the fort as interim CEO as well as continuing in his role as President.

The company’s official statement thanks Panero for his efforts “Hugh took satellite radio from a concept and turned it into the popular, mass market, consumer entertainment product it is today. I thank Hugh personally for his friendship, and professionally, for nearly a decade of industry leadership,” said XM Chairman, Gary Parsons, but no mention of his future

Coming just before XM’s earnings call and with no long term successor identified Thursday’s meeting could be somewhat interesting.

Widely regarded as a extremely personable and down to earth man the word on the street has been that Panero was playing a far less significant role at XM for quite some time and was already scheduled to leave after the mergerwith Sirius closed, which begs the question as to why the departure was brought forward.

Via [Orbitcast]

At first glance the new M70 PMP-series from Sony seems good value (8GB $358, 4GB $294 and the 2GB $256), but with the same screen as a PSP (16:9 480x271) which costs $169 + $150 for a 8GB MS Duo, what is the actual point of it?

In fact the PSP has the additional advantage of streaming media over WiFi and of course runs over 200 games, and they both support virtually the same array of video and audio formats including AAC2, AVC, MP3, WMA etc.

It is only when you get to the part where they say that it is “a portable DVR” that the light starts to go on, although it is a very dim light as the details regards implementation are very limited to say the least. It does say that the recordings are saved in MPEG-4 SP QVGA in 1.3Mbps at 30fps.

The provision of a MS Duo will help when storage runs out and it doubles as a USB host device for importing pics from DSCs. It looks like the flash-based Sony M70 is possibly going after Archos PMPs, except the latter use primarily hard drives.

Via [Everything USB]

Never judge a book by it’s cover, so I guess never judge a screen by it’s picture but this 30-inch LCD from Samsung, their first using DisplayPort sure looks impressive.

Due to go into mass production in the second quarter of 2008 it has 2560 x 1600 resolution thanks to the zippiness of the new interface which, at twice the speed of today’s interfaces, transmits graphics data at 10.8Gbps.

Technical Specs:
Samsung’s new LCD only requires a single DisplayPort interface, instead of the two DVI (Digital Visual Interface) ports now used. In a joint undertaking with Genesis Microchip Inc. (Santa Clara, California), Samsung developed its 30” panel using a new four-lane, 2.7Gbps/lane interface chip. The interface technology processes 2560x1600 pixels of graphics data at up to 10 bits of color depth or 1.07 billion colors, a feat that would normally require at least three DVI or four LVDS interface chips.

Samsung’s new 30” LCD also offers the company’s proprietary Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (S-PVA) liquid crystal technology for 180° viewing angle, and 300nits brightness.

Specifications: Display size: 30” Resolution: WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) Response time: 6ms Viewing angle: 180°/180° Contrast ratio: 1000:1 Mode: S-PVA Brightness: 300 nits Colors: 16,777,000 Color saturation: 100% Interface: DisplayPort

Via [Gizmodo]

For anybody that spent their childhood been told “don’t play with your food” this design from Joel Hesselgren is a very cool use of LEGO that actually would make it acceptable to play with your food!

The white column holds the salt while the black column holds the pepper, and the amount of each is regulated by how many of the holes are covered at once. You can get an equal distribution of salt and pepper, a 2:1, or just one or the other.

Not available on the market yet - but we can hope!

Via [Gizmodo]

Meet a concept chair that would look equally at home in the playground, as it would in the living room.

I am not sure if this a spinning wheel for a large hamster, or part of a futuristic Scalextric set (the seats can be linked together) but it is an amazing design. In fact it makes me want to go and lie down, or should that be curl up?

The picture says it all really!

Designer [Victor Aleman]

Elecom, a Japanese tech-peripherals manufacturer, has released arguably the most colorful headphones on the market. With a spec of 20Hz~20kHz, 10mW these headphones probably aren’t going to be the best on the market, but for sheer fun and ‘loudness’ these colorful headphones probably come in the Top 5.

Akin to sticking a couple of M&M’s in your ear maybe, but they are sure to make you stand out in a crowd.

Via [Gizmodo]

The boys at Georgia Tech have made some fairly significant improvements to the gesture-based technology they are working on.  It is still very much in the concept stage, but they are now looking at it as a means of controlling a number of gadgets as well as as a game interface.

The “techy bit” is a system which makes use of five infrared sensors to pick up on your gestures, which then get interpreted and sent to the device you’re trying to control via Bluetooth.

No sign of a release date at the moment, or even of when it will be able to go into production.

Read [Discovery] Via [Ubergizmo]

Looking at the latest conceptual multimedia player from Can-Hong Huang, it would be all but impossible to imagine that it boasts the ability to play back audio to a set of wireless earbuds or speaker dock, and even projects videos onto your pull-down screen.

Although the stick itself can be twisted and manipulated in order to change tracks and adjust the volume adding a remote capability to the wireless earbuds would surely be the way to make this really useful?

Via [Engadget]