Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Recently, Samsung announced two new MP3 players, the YP-Q1, which is pictured above, and the YP-U4. The interesting thing about the Q1 is that it is the first MP3 player by Samsung that sports their DNSe 3 audio technology, which restores what is lost when songs are compressed.

In addition, it comes with a light-up D-Pad, 2.4-inch LCD screen, FM tuner, photo display and video playback. No word on exact formats for video and photo, however it is set to come in a few different models which include 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB of flash memory. Next, we have the YP-U4, which is an upgraded model of the Samsung U3. It comes in a stick-like shape, a full directional pad to navigate within the device and a monochrome OLED screen. Furthermore, it comes with a battery life of up to 16 hours.

The Samsung YP-Q1 has been slated for an October release, and it would sell in a few different colors. The YP-U4 is already retailing it select areas.

Via [Electronista]

Samsung has taken a 120GB 1.8-inch hard drive and recently put it into a shiny black, credit card sized enclosure. Seemingly without an official name, the new drives feature a shiny black exterior with a hard drive logo and a simple statement of “The Storage World In Hand.”

All things considered 120GB is quite a lot of storage for a drive enclosure of that size, and certainly beats using a regular USB flash drive in terms of capacity. The drive does offer some nice perks in that its a 4200rpm drive which only requires 1.4W of power, which means it will not require anything other than a spare USB port for power.

MORE »

Samsung has announced its feature rich Blu-ray player, the BD-P2500. Boasting interactive features such BD Live and Bonus View, this Blu-ray player gives out a full HD audio-visual experience through its Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) processing and 7.1-Channel analog audio outputs. Even better is the fact that the BD-P2500 does not only play Blu-ray discs but also does upscaling of standard DVD’s in full HD 1080p quality.

A quick rundown of the BD-P2500’s features would give us a built-in wired Ethernet connection, 1GB internal flash memory, USB port, HDMI 1.3 output with xvTCC Deep Color support, and 24fps film mode. The player also tops in the sound department since it can decode high-resolution digital multichannel audio soundtracks as well as outputs Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS either as an uncompressed PCM signal or through 7.1 analog outputs. In addition, users can receive feature updates and upgrades through its embedded Ethernet connection, USB port as well as a CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc.

The Samsung BD-P2500 will be available sometime in October and carries and retail price of $499.99.

Read [Samsung] Via [Akihabara News]

Today, Samsung has officially unveiled their once rumored ultraportable X360 notebook. Judging from the specs, the X360 should be a decent around town or traveling notebook with its light weight of just 2.8-pounds. Not to mention its slim design which measures in anywhere from as thin as 0.66-inches up to a still thin 1.2-inches at its thickest point.

In addition, the specs are seemingly just as nice, the X360 will be powered by a Centrino 2 ULV processor and will feature a 13.3-inch display with a 1280 x 800 resolution. Other features include a standard 1GB of RAM that is upgradable to 4GB, your choice of a 64 or 128GB SSD or a standard 120GB hard drive. The X360 also offers a 1.3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR, an ExpressCard slot, three USB ports, HDMI, VGA-out and a 7-in-1 card reader. One item that is missing, but also comes as little surprise is that the X360 does not offer any optical drive.

MORE »

Samsung has announced four new digital photo frames, two of them, the SPF-85H and SPF-85V will be available on September 1, while the other two, the SPF-105P and SPF-105V will be on store shelves on October 1.

Both the SPF-85H and SPF-85V digital frames sport an 8-inch screen with an 800 x 600 resolution and support SD/MMC/MS/XD media cards and also have a USB memory slot. In addition, the SPF-85H is packed with a 1GB internal memory, an auto on/off function and auto photo resize. The SPF-85V only packs in 64MB of internal memory but makes up for it with its Wi-Fi connectivity, it also features auto rotation, a rechargeable battery and InfoLink, which is a free information service for news, weather and stock information.

MORE »

T-Mobile has recently announced a new promotion in which many phones that they offer from Samsung will be available for free or free with a rebate. This promotion will start on September 3, and will probably end a month later, although an official ending date was not announced.

With a new contract or phone upgrade, you can get the Samsung T229, Samsung T429 or the Samsung T339 for free. The Samsung T639, Samsung Blast and the Samsung Katalyst are all free, however they require a mail-in-rebate $50 rebate. The last phone, the Samsung T819, is also free and that comes after a $100 mail-in-rebate. This might be a good way to attract some new customers for T-Mobile as they have been known for their promotions.

Via [BGR]

Although Samsung’s MX20 SD camcorder may fall a bit behind other camcorders available on the market for not having an HD video recording feature, it still is worthy of our attention and perhaps money because of one outstanding feature. And that is the facility to directly upload video into YouTube or iPod from the camcorder without needing to transcode the video files.

To some, that feature more than makes up for not being able to capture high-definition video but well for some, that would be a turn off. If you’re one of those who don’t mind the lack of HD quality, you’d be glad to know that the Samsung MX20 nonetheless kicks out some high-standard features that include H.264-enhanced video quality, 3D noise reduction technology, a Schneider lens with 34x optical zoom, Hyper Digital Image Stabilization, advanced face detection technology, a 680K CCD sensor, a swivel hand-grip, a 2.7-inch LCD screen, iCheck and iScene modes and a very important SD/SDHC memory card slot.

The Samsung MX20 SD camcorder will be available in the Japanese market sometime in September. And our Japanese pals will have a choice of either black, white, red or blue. Pricing details are not yet available but we expect this to come with a lower price than most of the cheap HD camcorders currently available. For us non-Japanese camcorder-loving geeks, we may have to wait for awhile before the MX20 gets an international release.

Via [Akihabara News]

It seems like it may be a good time for T-mobile over the next few months.  Android is reported to be dropping by mid-October, and now US customers will be getting the Samsung T919.  Sure, Samsung usually saves its better phones for Verizon or AT&T, but this one is an exception.  The T919 seems to be more of an iPhone imitator as TmoNews calls it a “dumbphone,” rather than a clone, but it’s impressive nonetheless.

The Samsung T919 comes with 3G, a touchscreen, up to 16GB memory with microSD, video streaming, 5-megapixel camera and GPS with voice commands.  Seems to beat out the iPhone in some aspects like the camera and voice commands for the GPS.  It doesn’t look as cool as the iPhone, even if the back of it is brushed aluminum.  The UK version of the phone has a front-facing camera, however that is not expected to be included on the US T-Mobile version.

It seems like a good phone, but the timing seems strange.  Why release an iPhone-like phone now when Android is around the corner?  Though this seems to appeal more to people who like the idea of a touchcreen phone without AT&T and not the idea of a touchscreen phone with a more fully featured OS.

Via [TmoNews]

A lot of cell phones are thrown away every year (I know I’ve thrown out a few), and eventually end up in landfills, not decomposing like they should be, due to the plastic they are made of.  Well, that’s what’s happening now.  Samsung wants to change that, though.  Samsung has unveiled the E200 Eco, a more environmentally friendly version of the E200.  What makes this one different is that it’s shell is made from bio-plastic which is made from corn.

Having not had a chance to actually see the phone, I can’t comment on it’s how trustworthy the bio-plastic is.  All bio-plastic I have encountered has been in cup form and has been very flimsy.  It’s nice to see Samsung trying though.  Given the nature of cell phones, it’s doubtful many will be as environmentally friendly in the years to come.  The easiest option, though, would be to make recycling cell phones much easier for consumers.  I doubt everyone who gets a new cell phones thinks about what they do with the old one unless they are handing it down to someone else.

Read [Digital Trends]

We have recently seen a firmware update come for the Instinct that offered some notable improvements for items such as increasing the audio volume when using Bluetooth, as well as improvements to the signal and battery indicators and the web browser.

With that update having been rolled out, it seems Sprint decided it was time to begin rolling out some individual updates for applications.

These new updates will not be coming all as one big package but instead on a case by case basis, so expect to be prompted to download and install an update when launching apps in the short term future. The updates are going to include Picture Mail, the web browser, Sprint TV and Radio, Sprint Navigation, Sprint Email, Sprint Music Store, Visual Voicemail and Mobile Sync.

Read [InstinctInsight] Via [Mobile Burn]