Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

All you World of Warcraft fans should start working on that groove in your computer chair and stocking up on the red bull. Blizzard officially announced the news in a pamphlet handed out at BlizzCon that the WoW series will continue to grow with the release of the “Wrath of the Lich King” expansion.

Some new features of the expansion include; the addition of a new character class, aptly named “Death Knight,” which just sounds awesome, who cares how much it may suck. Note, the Death Knight will be one of the 3 hero classes (thanks to my WoW-geek friend for pointing this out). Also, your level 70 Orc Shaman is no longer all mighty and powerful with the addition of 10 new levels, allowing you to level your character all the way up to 80.

The expansion also gives you a little more space to roam around with the addition of Northrend, where the Lich King rules. If your character is looking a little bland at the moment don’t worry as new hair styles are coming, as well as the option to change your current character’s hair.

No idea when the expansion will be released, but we will have you covered when it does. Some friends have told me that I should start playing, though I could spend my time doing more useful things—like writing new stuff for you guys, but I am open to the idea. Leave a comment with a yay or nay if I should start playing. We can all start a Gadgetell guild, though I don’t think it would be much of one…

Via [Joystiq]

In another attempt to save your TV from the effects of a loose grip, a little too much to drink, and a game of Wii bowling, Nintendo has updated the clasps on the straps that hold your Wii-mote. The new clasps now appear to lock down, hopefully ensuring the straps do not slip.

There haven’t been too many TV injuries regarding the Wii reported lately, so this may just be a slight upgrade to ensure new Wii owners don’t bust up their TVs, and not a full-fledged update to all Wiis.

Via [Joystiq]

Dell has been very hush-hush about their upcoming line of Latitude XT tablet PCs. But our friends over at Engadget have the low-down on what dell will be putting into this thing.

The XT will have a single or dual core Intel ULV CPU, with crummy integrated graphics, but who plans on gaming with their tablet? The display will come in at 1280 x 800 and be LED-backlit with the option of an outdoor viewing option. The standard USB ports (3), ethernet, firewire, and VGA out.

Other options and features include WiFi options all the way up to 802.11n along with bluetooth. Other networking includes an optional 3G card (HSDPA, EV-DO Rev. A). To top it off the tablet has an ExpressCard slot, option Smart Card slot, and a fingerprint reader.

This is definitely a feature-packed tablet, but it still doesn’t explain Dell’s weird YouTube marketing. (If you’re going to destroy something, you may as well blow it up Dell.)

Read [Engadget]

Swedish site Fosfor got their hands on the much coveted O2 Cocoon phone before the rest of us, making us gadget bloggers very jealous. The site was generous enough to provide us with some unboxing pics, I’m fairly sure this was just done to make the rest of us even more jealous.

All kidding aside, the phone is just stunning, simple and elegant. The same can be said about the packaging, which, in my opinion, gives Apple packaging a run for its money. The phone looks great, seems fairly functional. Hopefully O2 will raise some awareness and spark some creativity into future phone design, as most phones still look fairly bland these days.

Read [Fosfor] via [Gizmodo]

So it looks like those of you who were looking to finally get some exercise with the launch of Nintendo’s Wii fit will have to wait, unless you live in Japan of course. The Wii fit is set to launch sometime in 2008 for around $70.

Nintendo has probably the most revolutionary product of this “gen.” First with the Wii, now moving into accessories that just astonish you at what you can do with them. We’re just hoping the Wii fit will be compatible with some other game titles, as I can see Wii-Yoga getting old after about… 2 minutes.

Via [SlashGear]

Gadget-maker extraordinaire Samsung took a huge $43 million loss after a power outage at it’s Giheung complex. Slightly below the previously projected estimates of $54 million. The company has now reported the half-dozen production lines affected are now “fully operational.”

The disruption brought news that it could extend a shortage of NAND flash memory through “at least the first half of august.” NAND is the same flash memory used in both your flash-based iPods and iPhones. The news also brought a fear of shortage to the market driving the price of NAND chips up 6.3% to a record $19.02.

Via [Gizmodo]
Follow-Up [Engadget]

Kanguru, a company famous for it’s line of portable storage devices, has released a new drive that claims to be environmentally friendly. The new drive claims to reduce power consumption by over 75%, saving you on your electric bill, and also making the drive last longer.

The drive goes into an idle mode after 3 seconds of inactivity, using only 80% of normal power. After 3 minutes the drive goes into standby mode, using 10-20% of normal power consumption. And after five minutes the device goes into power down mode and uses only 5-10% of normal power.

The drives are USB 2.0 and range from 80gb, costing only $94.95, up to 750gb, costing around $349.95. The drives are Parallel-ATA (PATA), but SATA versions are on the way.

Via [Gizmodo]

The guys over at CrunchGear got a sneak peak and hands on demo with the LG Trax. The Trax is a 3G music phone, similar in shape and form factor to that of the Razr (what isn’t these days). The phone allows you to listen to your music via the Bluetooth headset.

You can also easily send your favorite pics and video clips via MMS, but there has been no word on the quality of the camera you’d use to take these pictures and video clips. But we’re assuming it would be in the 1.3 megapixel range. Storage expansion will be in the form of a microSD card.

The LG Trax will be available later this month in your local Verizon store, no word yet on pricing.

Pictures [CrunchGear]

LG has just announced their new line of LCD HDTVs named Opus, denoted as the “best of everything” line by LG. The displays come in 42, 47, and 57-inch models, all of which are 1080p.  These TVs keep your video looking it’s best with 120Hz TruMotion to prevent jagged edges on images, Super IPS and XD Engine. If you’re like me, you have no idea what those terms mean, but they sure make this TV sound better than it already is. The TV also has TruColor which shows 92 percent of the NTSC spectrum.

The price of the TV is not all that appealing to us average Joe’s, but if you have that cash to spend the lineup starts at $2499 for the 42 inch, and continues up to $4499 for the 57 inch. The TVs will be available some time this September.

Via [CrunchGear]

The guys over at T3 seem to have gotten their hands on the great new flip phone, the O2 Cocoon. The Cocoon has an all white body with a black finish on the inside for the keys, as well as a blue LED display on the back. The display lets you know what time it is, who’s calling you, or even what song you’re listening to.

The Cocoon is not only a good looking phone, but a very functional one as well with a built-in music player and enough space to hold around 500 songs. Add in the 2 megapixel camera and you have yourself a good all around phone. Hit the jump to see T3’s quick video showing off the Cocoon.

Read [T3]