Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Piracy is a massive problem in the music industry as it is getting easier and easier to get your music free off the Internet.  Obviously the music industry is trying to keep up, and the people at Bopaboo (what a weird name!) think they have come up with a solution: second hand music.  But not any old music, oh no, you can now buy used digital music.  “How on earth does this work?“ I hear you cry, and that is exactly what I thought, but let me first explain the idea behind this and what is supposed to happen. . . .

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Sections: Audio, Web, Websites

This is where we call out the tech moves that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity. 

Here’s what caught my eye this week:

• Zune Phone inbound?
• Kindle 2 sucking life out of holiday sales?
• 7-11’s new video section
• HDTVs for pennies?

Follow me into the madness.

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The Eee PC has been the most popular net book since it started selling, namely because it was the first, but also because it is damn good at what it does. However a few people have some qualms with it, mainly about the fairly low storage that it offers: 12GB.  I know I could easily fill that in a day and obviously the people at the Japanese company GreenHouse agree with me as they have released some Eee PC hard drive upgrades.
You can now replace your measly 12GB SSD with either the 32GB or 64GB modules which will over quintuple your storage, making the Eee PC a much more attractive option.  The specifications aren’t awful (considering that it is for the Eee PC) with 35MB/s and 15MB/s, but comparing that to a desktop internal hard drive it is poor and even for a laptop it is slow.  What’s it cost to upgrade that Eee?  Keep reading.

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If the just released Flip Mino HD would be available in any of the local stores in the country where I’m currently residing, I would certainly not hesitate in getting this as a gift to myself.  In fact, I might even get another one for my son.  The Flip Mino may be so cool and attractive enough to get you to buy it even before you take a look at its specs.  In fac,t you don’t have to worry about the specs, as you would certainly not be short changed in this department.

The Flip Mino HD is Pure Digital’s take on HD-capable camcorder market.  And instead of clashing with the other HD-capable camcorders in coming out with their own units touting support for large-capacity storage SD cards, Pure Digital opted to use built-in 4GB flash memory only.  For some camcorder users this would be enough for a one-hour video which they can easily upload to YouTube or other video sharing sites.  Find out more after the break.

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Popular science just awarded Pacemaker, a mp3 player that turns anyone into a DJ, as a “Best of what’s new” winner in the Gadgets category.  The device is part of a larger platform that encompasses a user community which provides legal uploading and mix sharing as well as a desktop application.

The Pacemaker at its gadget-y heart is a 120GB mp3 player with display and touchpad.  Various inputs allow some crazy stuff, all in a very mobile little unit.  The device features multifunction buttons that allow different inputs on the touchpad.  I am certain it is easier to use than the diagram which outlines all the functionality shows. 

Keep reading to find out some more about the Pacemaker.

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The pre-Black Friday deals keep pouring in.  Not satisfied with actually making all their money on the day after Thanksgiving, some companies have been cutting prices early. 

If you’re in the market for an HDTV, 6th Avenue has the Panasonice Viera TH-42PZ80U 42” 1080P Plasma HDTV for just $807 and free shipping.  If you’re a NY or NJ resident, your price will be higher since you have to pay sales tax up front.  That’s a pretty good deal on this TV since it usually runs for about $900-$1300 at various stores. 

To get the TV at that price, go to 6ave.com and make sure you use the coupon code AFL5 at checkout for 5% off. 

Go get the TV at [6thAve]
via [BFads.net]

• Burger King’s Wii-themed kids meal toys, $5 off coupon codes
• The new pirate busting idea: second hand music
• Cyber Monday numbers in - 15% more spending than 2007

With recent rumors that an updated MSI Wind will be coming soon, this price cut is not much of a surprise, but it is still welcomed.  Best Buy, which has just recently began selling the MSI Wind netbook, originally had it selling for $399.  Now it is just $349.99, which means another reason to grab a Wind, that is if you were considering a netbook purchase. 

This price cut may have me reconsidering the Eee PC 1000h I was about to hit the checkout button for.  Sadly, the one drawback is the fact that it is currently listed as backordered, but if you can handle waiting a bit, this looks to be a great price.

The MSI Wind that you will find at Best Buy is running Windows XP and features a 10-inch display, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 120GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM.  Additionally, it sports three USB ports, and Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, a built-in card reader and a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam.  You know, the typical netbook specs.

Product [Best Buy]  Via [OhGizmo!]

• Verizon lowers Samsung Omnia pricing, now at $199.99
• Eee box gains home theater features
• The new pirate busting idea: second hand music

Asus set a target of 5 million units of its Eee PC netbook to be sold this year, which they appear to be reaching.  The only problem is that shipments of the Acer Aspire One are creeping towards its ambitious target of 6 million sales, 20% more than the Eee PC.

The title of “best selling netbook” is one that Asus will be incredibly reluctant to give up as it was mainly them who came up with the netbook idea, and it has been through them that the craze has spread.  However the numbers do not lie, Asus only shipped 1.7 million in the third quarter while Acer managed 2.4 million, and advantage they intend to continue into the fourth quarter with predicted sales to exceed this quarter.

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Asus may be a little optimistic, or maybe just cocky, but they believe that they can make a 1430% increase in sales this year over last year with their Eee PC. Yes, they are predicting that they can make 5 million sales this year, and although it is unclear as to whether this just includes the Eee PC, or if this prediction incorporates many of the other products that have been given the Eee PC label, it is still very optimistic either way.

Or is it? Last year Asus had the whole of the market, which considering their 350,000 sales wasn’t massive; however the market for low cost ultra portable computers has increased massively, and Asus president Jerry Shen (who made the above prediction) also said that they expected this marked to grow to 10 million sales overall. If you then consider that HP’s Mini-Note has only been available for a few months, that Acer and MSI have yet to release their Eee PC-competitors, and Dell hasn’t even officially announced its entry into the marketplace, they may just have a good chance at getting the predicted 50% of the market.

I personally think that although they may get 50% of the market at most, 10 million sales is probably a bit to many, but we will see.

Via [Liliputing]

• Eee box gains home theater features
• Nintendo brings in a whopping $6 per Wii
• The new pirate busting idea: second hand music