anti-reflective technology to improve playability when you’re outside. Have a look at what CNET thinks about it:

Hacking the PSP 3000

The hacking community was initially unable to hack the PSP 3000 because of the new CPU (the motherboard turned out to be a TA-90v2), and that board does not work with the PRE IPL exploit used to break

the previous versions. The reason for this is that the motherboard has its own PRE IPL that checks the firmware thoroughly, if this is bypassed then the PRE IPL is cut off completely which thereby stops any potential modifications to the system. On June 5, 2009, Custom Firmware 5.03GEN-A for

HEN was released, and that is compatible with both the old PSP-2000 v3 and the new PSP-3000. It lets players play game backups (ISO/CSO), PS1 games, and let’s you get into the VSH, PSN, or recovery mode if you want. This was a huge step in the right direction for ending Sony’s PSP 3000 piracy protection.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Check reviews and prices for and/or purchase the PSP 3000 from Amazon.com

See what GameSpot thinks of the PSP-3000

Official Sony Website for the PSP series

If you’re interesting in hacking your PSP-3000, check out PSP-3000hacks.com

It’s sexy, it’s cheap (relatively speaking: around $150 for the full system), and most importantly the audio quality is excellent for the price. The Sony Xplod CDX-GT920U has a front auxilary input, a rear USB input, three preamp outputs, plus you can add satellite or HD radio control modules, which lets you have plenty of options for expanding the head unit. The interface

plus the structure of the menus within are superb and make finding songs exceptionally easy. The only real downside is that the CDX-GT920U doesn’t natively support the Apple iPod, although you can still simply plug it in through the front aux.

Interface and Controls

The way in which the CDX-GT92OU is laid out is very similar to the rest of the Xplod line: there are four buttons (Mode, Source, Shuffle, and Display) and a chrome toggle which surrounds the dial. This layout is very easy to use because of the way almost all operations are handled through the dial. The dot-matrix display is very good, clear, and easy to read, but I would advise you to simply turn off the animations as they resemble the quality of an early Nintendo Gameboy.

The primary reason you’d want to buy the CDX-GT920U is

its digital audio features plus the “Quick BrowZer” mode–makes for very easy navigation of your digital audio files. This particular Xplod supports WMA, MP3, and AAC burned to a CD or stored on a USB device (like a MP3 player or USB stick). Also, there is an external iPod adapter

which you can get as an add-on for $50, and there are modules for satellite and HD radio available as well.

Audio Quality

The CDX-GT920U is packing serious heat with a three-band EQ with seven presets, along with Sony’s DM+ which improves the audio quality of a digitally compressed song like what you would find on the MP3 format. I tried the DM+ system by listening to music on audio CD, and then the same song from a 128Kbps MP3 file. As I would expect, the CD did sound a little bit better than the MP3, whether the DM+ was on or off, but the DM+ system did work to a degree by improving clarity at the high end of the audible spectrum.

The DSO system (that’s Dynamic Soundstage Organizer) created a much more ambient sound field and really made a big difference, I must say–it really feels like it’s lifting the sound up from the floorboards and making the high end of the sound spectrum clearer. Around the top volume, DSO did cause some low-end distortion, but at all other levels I think it can make even OEM speakers sound awesome.

Power

You’ve got 52 watts (maximum) pushing through

4 separate channels, so yeah the CDX-GT920U can be quite loud if you want it to be. The sound quality is even fairly clear at these higher volumes, but, like I said, there is some distortion near the top. And if that’s not sufficiently eardrum-busting for you, there are three 4-volt preamp output lines, one of

which is dedicated specifically for a subwoofer that has an adjustable, built-in, low-pass filter.

Additional Resources

Official Sony website for the Xplod Car Audio System

See Amazon.com for different Xplod systems and read the reviews for them (I haven’t found anywhere with better prices for these systems)

the Vaio W Netbook (yes, they’re saying it’s a real netbook this time) will be available in the U.S. in August of this year for….$499! Frankly, I’m impressed, I really expected them to overprice the thing, but that’s right in the upper end of netbook territory. Here’s what we know for sure so far: 10.1-inch 1366 x 768 screen, 1.6GHz Atom, 160GB HDD, Bluetooth, 802.11 b/g/n, Windows XP, 1GB of RAM, two USB ports, Ethernet, webcam, and MemoryStick / SD card readers–pretty standard as far as netbooks go, I really hope they’re not going to price this one over 400, since you can get a laptop now with way better specs than that for 600… Of course, like all other Vaios, it will probably end up being the prettiest, sleekest, and most ergonomic in its class (the picture you see above is actually the Vaio W, and I’ve got a video below straight from Sony on it)–and you know you’re going to pay for that, too. Here’s a clip that Sony has put together showing of the Vaio W, it doesn’t have much info, but you do get to see it from lots of angles…erm…yeah:

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Official Sony U.S. page for the Vaio W - yes, they are accepting pre-orders, and students get a discount of some sort.

Official Sony Japan page for the Vaio W

motherboard such that they can get an Intel Atom processor AND their own 9400M GPU on board, which is the same GPU used in Apple’s Macbook Pros. This will allow small, cheap, compact netbooks to do what everyone expects small, cheap, compact netbooks to suck at: heavy-duty graphics. Nvidia is actually claiming that netbooks equipped with the Ion system are capable of being full-on gaming and HD video machines that are so powerful they might as well be called laptops:

“The Netbook term was created by Intel to define a segment offering a limited experience, but with Ion you don’t have those same limitations. These systems can handle mainstream gaming, HD video, and new GPU-powered applications. You might as well call them notebooks, because that’s what they are.”
–Rene Haas, general manager of notebook products at Nvidia

Specifically, Nvidia says the Ion has:

• Premium DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
• Full 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio
• NVIDIA® CUDAâ„¢ technology to accelerate the most demanding applications, vastly improving your PC’s ability to work with visual content such as video encoding
• Premium Windows experience with Windows Vista and Windows 7

The Samsung N510 will also have a 160GB hard disk drive, 1GB of memory, Wi-Fi (draft-n), Bluetooth, and a Webcam. It’s expected to be released sometime in July of this year (so VERY soon then, as it’s June 30th right now as I write this).

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Official Nvidia site for the ION system

between the 3, I’d say these new Gateways are the prettiest, just look at this:

Tech Specs

The 15.6 inch models get an LED-backlit display with 1366 x 768 widescreen resolution, they’ll take up to 4GB of DDR2

RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a DVD optical drive of some sort, multi-card reader, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N, VGA and HDMI out, four USB ports, a 6-cell lithium ion battery (no word on how long a charge lasts), and Windows Vista Home Premium. They’re available in: NightSky Black, Midnight Blue,

Cherry Red, and Coffee Brown. They start at $499 for the 2.1 GHz AMD Athlon 64 with Radeon HD 3200 graphics, while the 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with GMS 4500MHD runs $599.

Additional Resources

Official Gateway page for the NV series

Recently Vizio introduced a whole bunch of new HDTVs: the XVT, M and E series. Now, mind you, Vizio is American (based out of Irvine, California), not Japanese, and has only been around since 2002, and…they

have just been blowing away the competition from Tokyo recently with their line of LCD HDTV’s. Their XVT series is going to soon be featuring the new TruLED VF551XVT, which has a hot 240Hz dejudder gizmo, and will sport several models ranging from 32 to 55 inches in size. The M

series is the prettiest of the bunch, it has 1080p panels, 120Hz technology, and a JAVA design. Lastly, the E series (E is for Eco) uses much less power than the rest, and has screen sizes from 19 to 42 inches–all models are energy efficient, meeting and exceeding Energy Star 3.0 requirements.

HDTV + Wireless High-Speed Internet = WIN

What really got my attention, though, was the promised XVT series with Internet Apps and 802.11n wireless technology plus a slider QWERTY Bluetooth remote that looks like this:



Now, other HDTV manufacturers have bragged about being able to access Netflix and download movies right from your TV, but Vizio have just set the bar a LOT higher by claiming that you’ll be able to get…ready?…All this: Yahoo! Widgets, Flash, Blockbuster OnDemand (!), Flickr, Pandora, Vudu, Revision3, Facebook, Twitter, Showtime, Rhapsody and Accedo Broadband. In the infamous words of Neo, “Woah.”

Prices

Vizio says that there is absolutely no price premium for these features, with the 55-inch model going for the same $2,199 price as the model it’s replacing, although the 47-inch is over $200 more than the previous edition at $1,699, but it does come with the local dimming LED backlit technology that was previously only in the 55-inch. The 42-inch model is going to be the first and most affordable available at $1,199 (no LED), which will be available in October, with the higher-end ones following in November and December of 2009.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Vizio Homepage

Awesome CNET article called “The secret of Vizio’s success”

sensitive, just like the Diamond2. How about specs? Well, it’s sporting a 528MHz processor (Qualcomm) with a 512MB ROM and 288MB of RAM, plus a FM radio, aGPS, a light sensor, WiFi, an accelerometer, and HSDPA (though not for the U.S.). The screen is a formidable 3.6″ at 800×480 resolution, which is the highest resolution Win Mobile will support. It ships with the 6.1 version of Windows, but you can upgrade it for free to WinMobile 6.5 in a couple of months when it’s released. Right now the Touch 2 is only available to Vodafone customers in the U.K. (just released there a few days ago), but it should make its’ way to the U.S. soon.

Unboxing the HTC Touch 2

Further Reading on the Touch 2 Pro

Official HTC website for the Touch Pro2

Extremely detailed specs for the phone nerds

Official Vodafone UK site for the Touch Pro 2

***EDIT: Lots more photos plus a video have been added at the bottom!

Asus and Disney have gotten together to make a sort of laptop for kids, except it’s technically a netbook instead of a full-on notebook, resulting in it having just a 8.9 inch screen and only costing $350–which makes it perfect for a

kid’s first computer, in my opinion. It’s relatively inexpensive, it’s small (kid-sized), it’s got a custom kid-friendly interface that sits on top of Windows XP with a bunch of pre-installed parental controls on it, and it’s available in what Disney’s calling ‘Princess Pink’

(with florals) or ‘Magic Blue’ (with Mickey Mouse icons), and it comes with special Disney themes based on Toy Story, Wall-E, Mickey Mouse, etc. In addition to that, the kids can only correspond via email to those people which are approved by the parents. It’s going to be available with either a standard 160GB hard drive, or a 16GB SSD, and it will come with WiFi but not 3G.

Available features will include a Radio Disney widget that streams music from the channel in real time, plus there are widgets for things like a digital memo pad, calculator, and a stopwatch. There’s even a photo application that lets your kid insert his or her own picture on top of a bobblehead.


It’s targeted at kids between 6 and 12 years old, the projected release date is late July of this year, and they’ve already said that it’ll be available at Toys ‘R Us and Amazon.com.

More Photos Plus Hands-On Video of the Disney Asus Netpal:

Video!:

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Official Asus page on the Disney Eee PC with long list ‘o specs and other stuff

especially since the list price, according to Asus, is going to be $560. Engadget swears they’ve seen a 3G version, but no one knows when or if that one will ever make it to market. More eye candy (video below):

Further Info

Slashgear says avoid the Intel 520, opt for 530 instead

right side up, no matter how you tilt the camera–nice touch. Additionally, the initial Amazon reviews on it are excellent. Now, do let me point out that this camera is meant to be sort of a poor man’s D90, and I’m sorry but you can tell: it feels a bit too rubbery and plastic, the build quality just isn’t there, so you can tell it’s intended for amateurs, GWC’s, and photographers not making enough yet to afford a full-on pro’s camera.

The internals on the D5000 are pretty much the same as what you get on the D90, and that’s really the essence of what I’m saying here: you’re getting a D90 in a somewhat-less-sturdy case, so do you really need it to be sturdy or not? The D5000 has the same 12.3 megapixel sensor, the same

11 area TTL autofocus, and the same ISO 200 – 6,400. The two major notable features lacking in the D5000 that the D90 does have are an in-body focus motor and a pentaprism viewfinder (the D5000 has a pentamirror). Also, the D90 has a better 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR lens, a higher resolution rear

LCD, and, most importantly, a top-mounted display (the D5000 tries to make up for a lack of a top-mounted display with the super-duper GUI). The MSRP for the all-pro D90 (Amazon.com D90 page) is about $1,150 whereas the D5000 can be had for just $850.

More than you’d ever want to know about the D5000 (33 pages worth)

The people over at Digital Photography Review have got hold of a D5000 and put together thirty-three pages of mind-numbing detail about it, have a look: Nikon D5000 Review at dpreview.com