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Viewsonic Nettops: VOT130 & VOT132 Hands-On (with video)

Flatulent One — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:02:36 +0000

I suspect your first question is (it was mine): what the hell is a nettop, and what is it good for? Ok, the best way I can explain it is this: a nettop is the desktop version of a netbook. Netbooks are small, inexpensive, laptops designed for performing all but the most demanding tasks, specifically centered around word processing and internet use. This is what a nettop is for, except that it’s a desktop (so it’s not quite as compact, because it doesn’t need to be mobile), the

components are less expensive (because they don’t need to be small enough to fit in a tiny netbook case), and it has no display (thereby further lowering the price–you could use a display you’ve already got, a cheap second-hand one, or possibly your TV). This is an excellent option for those

who can’t afford anything more expensive, as a second or third PC in the house, or as a first PC for a child. Check out the hands-on video of the latest offering from Viewsonic (includes prices):

Additional Information About the Viewsonic Nettops

Slashgear talks about the new VOT132 series of nettops from Viewsonic

Official Viewsonic website (nothing on there yet about the new nettops that I could find)

Sony Ericsson W350 Review (with hands-on video)

Flatulent One — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:07:26 +0000

The Sony Ericsson W350 is one of Sony Ericsson’s ‘Walkman’ phones, specifically the least expensive of the range, and itâ€™s the first flip phone from Sony. This is an excellent little budget phone that does almost everything that it’s more expensive brothers, such as the W580i, do, with the only difference that I can see being the reduced screen size and resolution on the W350, which doesn’t really make much difference. It really is a very pretty phone (also very small), plus the controls are simple and very intuitive to use with the best example of this being the external music player controls on the back of the flip (which means those controls are on the front of the phone where you can easily access them with your thumb when the flip is closed as it would normally be). Have a look at the unboxing and more detailed review we’ve got here:

The battery on the W350 was also quite impressive: I did a test to see how much talk time I could get on a single call, maximum, and on a single call I managed to get just short of 8 hours before the phone died, which is even better than Sony Ericsson’s 7 hour estimate. Incoming calls from someone using the W350 sounded just a bit muddy in that voices were deeper than in person, plus you could hear a bit of irritating static-like noise on the other end, like the caller was outside in the wind…except they weren’t.

However, there were several other features that made up for this, such as being able to synchronize your Outlook contact list with the phone–the address book on the W350 is actually similar to what you would

find on a smartphone, and although I wasn’t impressed with the keyboard, there was never a need to type in the address, due entirely to the Sony Ericsson PC Suite. For a 1.3-megapixel camera, the W350 was capable of taking surprisingly good quality pictures, though they weren’t excellent. At a lower zoom level the pictures had a very nice appearance and the

colors looked excellent, however at full crop it was apparent that there was some heavy noise reduction which was dampening details, thereby giving the pictures a sort of pastel look, so edges were fuzzy and details hazy.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Check out the Sony Ericsson W350 on Amazon.com

See the official Sony Ericsson site for the W350.

Here’s another very detailed review by MobileBurn.com that I was really impressed with, definitely check this out if you want more details or a second opinion.

Sony PSP 3000 Review

Flatulent One — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:03:59 +0000

The Sony PSP 3000 series is just an updated version of the Portable Slim and Lite (also know as the PSP-2000), released in 2008, but the improvements are important and since the price is the same as before, I’m quite happy with it. It’ll soon be replaced by the PSP Go, which is supposed to get released in October of this year (2009). Compared to the Slim and Lite PSP’s, the PSP 3000 has a better LCD screen (most notably an

increased color range), half of the pixel response time which reduces bluring and ghosting problems, as well as five times the contrast ratio and a new sub-pixel structure, a better microphone, newly redesigned logos and buttons, a new disc tray design, along with

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

Sony Xplod Review

Flatulent One — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:34:36 +0000

The Sony Xplod CDX-GT920U In-Dash Car Stereo System

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)

GTA 4 Review (Grand Theft Auto 4 Review for Xbox 360)

Flatulent One — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:23:58 +0000

GTA 4: The Lost and the Damned

Grand Theft Auto IV received unanimous praise from video game reviewers, critics, and magazines world-wide. On review aggregators GameRankings and Metacritic, GTA4 is one of their highest rated games ever. Before it was released, Rockstar refused to send copies of GTA4 to anyone. Instead, everyone (of the few people invited), including major critics, had to come to Rockstar to play the game or go to hotel rooms that Rockstar had booked specifically for this purpose. Xbox World 360 gave Grand Theft Auto 4 a 98% rating, which is the highest rating that it has ever given, they even said it was “everything we were entitled to expect, and yet somehow impossibly more.” GameSpot gave it a perfect score of 10, which made GTA 4 the first game since 2001 to receive such a rating. Alright, enough hype, have a look at this:

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Official Rockstar website for Grand Theft Auto 4

Read the reviews for GTA 4 on Amazon.com (so far it’s got 4/5 stars with 317 customer reviews)

Read the review for GTA 4 on Gamespot.com

See what IGN has to say about the game. (by Hilary Goldstein)

Sony Vaio W Netbook Release (with video): Finally, Sony Makes an Affordable Vaio Netbook!

Flatulent One — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:39:29 +0000

Sony Japan has just announced that they are going to make a new netbook, supposedly one that’s more inline with the price of other netbooks ($300-$500 range), as opposed to the ridiculously overpriced (around

$1000, starting price) Vaio P that was the only netbook-like choice available from Sony until now. ~~There’s no official release date that’s been given yet~~, but as soon as there is I’ll immediately edit this post and have it up, so bookmark or subscribe:UPDATE! Yes, it only took one day but Sony has made an official announcement that

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

HTC Hero Review with Video

Flatulent One — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:24:31 +0000

This is the third Android-based phone that HTC has done, and it seems like the first two were just experiments: this is the one that

brings it all together and gets everything right, and of course the biggest plus of having one of these phones is NOT having to use Windows Mobile . Part of the reason I say this is the first real deal Android from HTC is that on this one, for the first time, they’ve put HTC proprietary

software that will give the Hero a lot of the capabilities (like widgets, add-ons, and TouchFLO 3D elements) of Windows Mobile that weren’t there before, so this one really is meant as a viable replacement for a WinMo-based phone. Not only that, but this one sports a curved casing, track ball, white or black matte colors, and a capacitive touch screen (there’s been some debate over whether it’s capacitive or resistive, but the general consensus seems to be that this is the much better capacitive), plus the on-screen keyboard has been called “the best touchscreen typing experience we’ve ever felt” by Engadget when they got ahold of one. Have a look at the video:

Tech Specs

This is a copypasta straight from HTC official website for the Hero (link at the bottom):

Processor: QualcommÂ® MSM7200Aâ„¢, 528 MHz
Operating System: Androidâ„¢
Memory: ROM: 512 MB, RAM: 288 MB
Dimensions (LxWxT): 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ( 4.41 x 2.21 x 0.57 inches)
Weight: 135 grams ( 4.76 ounces) with battery
Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution
Network: HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz

Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)

Device Control: Trackball with Enter button
GPS: Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity: BluetoothÂ® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
Wi-FiÂ®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSBâ„¢ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
3.5 mm audio jack
Camera: 5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Audio supported formats: MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows MediaÂ® Audio 9
Video supported formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows MediaÂ® Video 9
Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1350 mAh
Talk time: Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA, and up to 470 minutes for GSM
Standby time: Up to 750 hours for WCDMA, and up to 440 hours for GSM

Expansion Slot microSDâ„¢ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

Special Features: G-sensor, Digital Compass

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Extremely detailed review from a Russian site called Mobile-Review

Offical HTC site for the Hero

Pentax K-7 Review with Video Sample

Flatulent One — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:13:25 +0000

The Pentax K-7 has been declared one of the best DSLR cameras available at its’ surprisingly reasonable (all things considered) price tag of around $1300 by such fine publications as Wired and Photography Blog, and

you can see why: there’s a 3-inch Live View LCD, an HDMI port, shake reduction, in-camera lens correction, and a greatly improved dust reduction system. It has a 14.6 megapixel sensor which is contained along with the rest of the bits in a rugged magnesium alloy body, has an HD movie mode that captures video at

640 x 416, 720p (1,280 x 720) or 1,536 x 1,024, all of which are at 30fps. Now, that’s more than both Nikon’s D90 and D5000 have got (both max at 720p), and although Canon’s T1i does 1080p, that’s only at a choppy 20fps. Now, what’s really going to tickle your wedding vegetables is the High Dynamic Range (HDR) capture mode, which can grab a trio of pictures, and then combines them in-camera to expand the exposure gamut.

Just How Good Is the Video?

Well, someone’s already managed to get one and shoot a quick sample video for us, have a look:

It’s just now (like, today) been officially released for sale and you can even order it on Amazon now, brick-and-mortar retailers should have it by this weekend at the latest.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

An exceptionally good and detailed review over at PhotographyBlog

Official Pentax website for the K-7

Toshiba TG01 Review (with video walk-through) and Release | TG01 Phone

Flatulent One — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:06:30 +0000

The reason this phone is such a big deal is that it’s the first device ever released with Qualcomm’s awesome new Snapdragon processor and

chipset, which tops out at 1.3GHz (that’s as fast as the Intel Atom processor used on netbooks and it’s in a PHONE!)–this phone gets the slightly less quick 1GHz processor with the QSD8x50 chipset. According to Engadget,

“The new chipset supports multi-mode UMTS andCDMA 3G connectivity in the same 15 x 15-mm package as well as featuring enhanced 2D acceleration and 3D graphics core, integrated GPS, high-def video recording and playback, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, and support for WXGA (1280×800 pixels) displays pumping out your choice of MediaFLO, DVBH, or ISDB-T digital mobile television.”

Here, look: we’re now getting processing power equal to that of current netbooks (which will do *almost* everything a laptop will do) in our phones. This means that since several netbooks, like the Samsung N510 which is packing the same GPU as a Macbook Pro that allows it to handle the same

graphics as a serious laptop, are now capable of exactly the same stuff as lower-end laptops. Therefore, netbooks are soon expected to essentially become small laptops, and mobile phones like the Toshiba TG01 have the same processing power as those netbooks, so it’s not much of a stretch to say we’ll have

full-on computing power and capabilities in our cell phones within a couple of years–yes, basically you’ll be able to carry your laptop around in your pocket in a package the size of the TG01, how about that?

Video Walk-Through from MWC 2009

A lovely video tour of the new Toshiba TG01 by our favorite people over at Engadget, do have a look:

Toshiba TG01 Release in the U.K.

It’s official: the TG01 will be released for sale to the public in the U.K. on July 9th, starting with a press event in London to launch it. The website Orange.co.uk did have the TG01 listed here as ‘coming soon’, but they’ve since taken it down because it’s gotten a lot of attention online. Definitely keep checking back there, I’ll bet they put it back up at some point.

Basic Tech Specs

The TG01 is sporting a relatively huge 4.1 inch W-VGA screen, will run Windows Mobile 6.1, has 5 hours of talk time and 11 days of standby, comes with Facebook & Youtube apps pre-installed, WiFi, microSD expansion, GPS, a 3.1 megapixel camera and, of course, the simply blisteringly fast 1Ghz SnapDragon CPU on board.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Official Toshiba website for the TG01 in Europe

Engadget talks about the July 9th release in London

The U.K. newspaper ‘The Mirror’ outs the orange.co.uk website for displaying the TG01

Olympus ‘PEN’ Camera Review: The Olympus E-P1

Flatulent One — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:32:30 +0000

First off, as you’ve probably noticed, there are two striking things about this camera:

It’s gorgeous!
It’s itty-bitty (with a big lens)!

Officially, Olympus has this to say about what exactly this thing is:

“Olympus Unveils A New Era With The E-P1: Not A Point and Shoot. Not An SLR. Itâ€™s A PEN. What Will You Create?”

I mean, with the stainless steel and leather, it’s actually quite reminiscent of a classic old 1950′s 35mm film camera, like the old Canon my dad has. As a matter of fact, I’ve found out that it was specifically designed to

pay homage to the old ‘pen’ series of Olympus cameras of small, fixed lens, SLR models from the 60′s and 70′s. The build quality is excellent, it feels surprisingly compact and solid in your hand, especially compared to full-sized DSLRs, and could be easily carried in a small bag. It has a lovely 3-inch display that works wonderfully indoors, but is

pretty much invisible outdoors, and the downside to this is that the E-P1 has no view finder, which means if you can’t see the display you just have to guesstimate and hope you get lucky. Mind you, however, Olympus does offer an optional viewfinder for 100 bucks, but it doesn’t go through the lens and can’t really compare to the ones you find on the standard DSLRs. Also: no flash. There isn’t one included anyway, that’s another extra $100 above the $799 price tag if you want it.

Video Quality

The E-P1 is capable of AMAZING 720p video, you just have to see this it’s unbelievable, here’s a video clip that Engadget recorded with their E-P1:

As you can see, the quality is excellent, the continuous focus lens works great, but there is a problem with the audio: you can hear the lens focusing, and Olympus isn’t offering an external audio input on the E-P1 right now.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Offical Olympus Site with about 20 pages of tech specs

Extraordinarily detailed review by Gadling Gear