March 31st, 2006
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Today Toshiba rolled out its first HD DVD players in Japan, becoming the first company to offer one of the next-generation (HD DVD or Blu-ray) optical disc players. The price in Japan is expected to be 110,000 yen ($940).
Sony aims to offer Blu-ray-based players in the United States for around $1,000 in July.
The Japan launch of Toshiba’s HD DVD players will be followed by the U.S. debut in April.
Toshiba, Japan’s second-largest electronics conglomerate, is set to offer two models of HD DVD players, the HD-XA1 and HD-A1, in the United States for $799 and $499, respectively. Source: Reuters
We Say: I’m not in the mood for another standards war, like Betamax vs. VHS, so I’m sitting this one out for a while. Hopefully prices will drop as I wait.
March 31st, 2006
By Jimmy Daniels
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
In a previous post entitled 180solutions Blows More Smoke Up…., a former employee of 180solutions responded in the comments section, he was not too happy as he thought I was attacking the employees and not the management. I have conducted an interview with Ex180 and have posted it on another blog titled 180 From the Inside Out.
I will say that the people that do pay attention and do talk about it aren’t overly proud of it. Occasionally a few people will get together and express real anger over the spin put on by management, but that’s on the rare side. Personally, when if someone asked what 180 did after I told them who I worked for, I just said ‘internet advertising’. If it was someone who already knew about 180 I felt like apologizing immediately. Not everyone is like that of course, I remember one guy that sent out a wide distribution email vehemently defending the goal of the company, (it was sent to most if not all of the company). He really believed it.
Click here to read the whole interview.
March 31st, 2006
By Jessamy Hawley, Contributing Writer
RealTechNews
Marware’s new dock for iPod nano oozes easy chic. It’s got a simple curved design in black or white, all the connections you’ll need, and a £15-er price-tag that won’t compromise your next shopping next spree.
The shiny stand doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel – it just holds your miniature music player upright, lets you sync tunes and charge up the battery via its USB connection, and there’s a couple of 3.5mm audio output jack for hooking it up to your hi-fi or speakers.
We say: Also spare a thought for the PocketParty speakers before you make your purchase.
March 30th, 2006
By Jessamy Hawley, Contributing Writer
RealTechNews
No longer do you have to forego cashmere cardigans because you’ll never find the time to drop them off at the dry cleaner. LG’s new Steam Direct Drive Washing Machines let you do your dirty work at home, thanks to its
LG’s unique new Dual Spray system which spews forth hot steam for 40 minutes and then spends the next 20 minutes sucking creases out of your attire.
They’ll be available in cherry, rose, aqua blue, black or white from June 2006.
We say: Anything that elininates the need for expensive trips to the dry cleaners and ironing gets our vote!
March 29th, 2006
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
There has been a lot of attention paid to hearing loss and MP3 players, especially ones that use earbud headsets, and particularly (of course), the iPod. In fact, if you recall from my earlier story, Apple had been sued over iPod-caused hearing loss.
The free update, available for video iPods and all iPod Nano models, also includes a parental lock option. After setting the volume limit, parents can lock the setting with a combination code to prevent children from raising the maximum volume without their knowledge.
The move follows a string of news articles and research reports, including a recent hearing in Washington, warning people not to listen to their MP3 players at excessive volume levels for prolonged periods.
The Mac maker also faces a class-action lawsuit that charges the company of not taking adequate steps to prevent hearing loss among American iPod consumers, despite limiting the output of the devices to 100 decibels in France. Source: News.com
We Say: As the article says, this sort of limit was in place in France (ironically, which Apple might pull out of, because of the new law regarding DRM that appears to be on its way to passing) , so why didn’t Apple just anticipate this and offer a fix globally, before?
March 29th, 2006
By Jessamy Hawley, Contributing Writer
RealTechNews
There’s USB gloves and then there’s these oh-so-pretty-I’ll-even-wear-them-in-summer mittens. Known as G-Gloves (yes, the ‘G’ stands for girls), the knitted accessories feature itsy-bitsy pastel designs on the fingertips. Plug them into your USB port (or not) and type anything at all. Just get them on…
Not too big, not too small for girly paws, each mitten has two built-in warming pads that heat by 10 degrees in five minutes.
We say: Get a pair!
Click here to read more.
March 29th, 2006
By Jessamy Hawley, Contributing Writer
RealTechNews
Designer Marcel Nuendorfer has come up with the ultimate gag for blokes – a pee-straight game for the bog. Known as “On Target”, it features a pressure sensitive screen that comes to life, producing images and sound, when the man of the house takes perfect aim…
We say: Girls get one of the urinal pastimes for your bloke under the guise of a joke and insist on an immediate closed-door demonstration.
March 29th, 2006
By Chief Gadgeteer, Gizmos for Geeks
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews.
A new consumer device, called the Spam Cube, claims to stop 96 - 99% of spam regardless of your computer platform or the type of e-mail you use, and it plugs right into your home network. Oh yeah, and it works without a subscription. Now my interest is piqued. Works without a subscription, without updates? As a sys admin who has worked with SpamAssassin, the Open Source community’s venerable spam tagger, I’m really curious. What sort of magic algorithms is this little company using? Will it still work well in a few years, or even 6 months? The war between spam and spam-recognition has been something of an arms race or of escalation. Everytime you think you’ve contained 99% of it, spammers seem to come up with a new method to avoid your spam-blockers. So how does Spam Cube do it? I really have to try this to believe it, but at $150 a pop, I’m not about to shell out that much for it. So far, Gmail does enough of a decent job for me not to worry about more than 5 spams per day.
Source: Gizmos for Geeks.
