Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week:

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iriver’s Korean site has started showing off the company’s latest portable media player, which was originally previewed during CES 2008, the iriver Spinn. This 3.3-inch player sports and AMOLED touchscreen display and haptic feedback feature. It supports various music formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC and ASF as well as video formats including MPEG4, WM9 and WMA. In addition, this player also features DMB for mobile TV viewing.

Other features of the iriver Spinn include a radio, flash, Bluetooth, a new analog SPINN Wheel, and either 8GB or 4GB of flash-based storage. It now boasts of 24-hour audio lifespan and comes in a metal and plastic casing that is just 0.42-inches thick.

The iriver Spinn is now available for pre-order in Korea with an suggested retail of around $259 for the 4GB model and $299 for the 8GB model. No word yet as to when the Spinn will be released internationally, although rumor has it that it will hit the UK market around August.

Via [Akihabara News] Product [iriver]

• iriver upgrades their E100 series
• Asus gets official with the Eee Top all-in-one PC
• Cowon’s S9 to be available in United States by December

Cowon has announced its latest touchscreen media player, the P5. Featuring a large 5-inch, 800x480 touchscreen display, the P5 boasts of haptic feedback mechanism which simulates a physical button through vibrations. The P5 runs on a fast 700MHz processor and can decode full DVD-resolution video in offline formats including AVI, DivX, MPEG-1/4, WMV and XviD. In addition, it also supports over-the-air TV with a built-in DMB tuner.

Other features of the Cowon P5 player include Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, supports APE, FLAC, OGG, MP3 and WMA audio formats, FM radio, optional internet access through a USB-based Wi-Fi adapter and it gives out 14 full hours of music playing and 9 hours of video watching despite having a large display screen. The P5 comes with either 40GB, 60GB or 80GB’s of hard drive storage.

Slated for release on July 29 in the Korean market, the P5 will be available in a black, red or silver aluminum design. Unfortunately, no word yet on whether it will get an international release.

Via [electronista]

• Asus gets official with the Eee Top all-in-one PC
• LG’s hot new touchscreen at AT&T
• Cowon’s S9 to be available in United States by December

Motorola has announced its latest music tech phone gadget, the E8 Music Phone. The E8 features a ModeShift, which lets you navigate through the phone’s features. This shows how the buttons change as icons shift according to what feature the user is into. It allows for an easy-to-manage set of music controls. However, the E8 Music Phone does not display visible buttons when it is turned off. When switched on, it goes back to the where the user last left off.

It also has that standard phone interface when one is to make a call. Motorola declares it to be their first phone to have a haptic feedback feature. The E8 comes with 2GB of internal storage, and is expandable by up to 2GB, as well. It uses Windows Mobile 11 for easy drag-and-drop of music tracks onto the device. The phone works with a 3.5mm headphone jack, and offers the feature of an airplane mode to serve as a standalone music player.

Via [ShinyShiny]

• T-Mobile offering the Motorola ZN5 for free, this weekend only
• Veterans Day salute: surprising gadgets from wars
• RadioShack’s Black Friday ad now available

“You have to try out the Motorola ROKR E8” says Gadgetell Executive Adam Berger - which means in his code: “get you butt over to Moto’s booth and get some info.“  So I acquiesce to his demands and bebop over to the jam-packed Moto booth and start playing with this music phone.

This phone appears to be your average joe music/basic phone…right up until you touch the keypad.  If you close your eyes -and I did- it feels like you are depressing a button.  But it is a touch screen surface.  What you are feeling are tiny location specific vibrations.  It truly is remarkable.  At first, I kept holding the phone up to see if the screen was giving or what kind of trickery was involved; it was that good feeling.  I found nothing but the marketing guy smirking at me.  But it gets better.

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Check out the gallery: Peep Show: Motorola’s haptic ROKR E8

I flew to Las Vegas, as did many of us, with the anticipation that this CES would showcase the collective response to the iPhone brought out at last year’s Macworld.  Apparently, that was naive.  I fully expected to be “wowed” or perhaps even “bowled over” by the big guns (LG, Samsung, Sanyo, Motorola, Sony Ericsson).  Instead, largely I was non plussed.  I showed up for all my booth tour appointments and waited to be shown their response.  After all they’ve had just about full year since getting a public glance at what was coming.

To me, CES was the perfect launching pad for return volley.  A response from the makers at this show, would have

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