Best Gadgets World

by Ryan Block, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 2:12PMLooks like that sale at Amazon’s turned into a full blown price cut — Dash has officially lowered the price on the Dash Express from $400 to $300 (not including service, of course). Of course, this can be interpreted one of two ways: they’re selling so well that economies of scale have kicked in, and everyone saves money buying the GPS — or, the fresh-faced company’s sole product isn’t doing very well in the marketplace, leading to this second price drop so far. We’re hope it’s not the latter though, we’re definitely stoked to see where else Dash can take us.

Update: Dash let us know that sales are meeting expectations, and they’re capitalizing on the big uptick in new buyers during the last $300 price promotion. Good to know!

Update 2: Bonus! People who bought on or before May 31st are getting three free months of service. Thanks, Justin.

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Filed under: GPS, Wireless

Even after all the Sony Ericsson handsets that were recently launched, they still have some in the works. Thanks to a recent FCC listing, we now have at least some of the details on a new clamshell style 3G-capable handset that will be heading to T-Mobile, the TM506.

Typical with the FCC leaks, all of the details have not been given, in this case it was notably the camera specs that were left to remain a mystery, but aside from that we are quite pleased with what was revealed.

The TM506 offers tri-band GSM (850/1800/1900MHz) support as well as being capable of taking advantage of T-Mobile’s AWS (1700MHz) 3G network. Other features include a built-in GPS receiver, Bluetooth, a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot and an (albeit small) external display.

While the pricing and availability have not been released it is expected to be available shortly. Lets just hope they release it in a few more color varieties aside from the pictured green, because that is sure to be a color that is either loved or hated. Keep reading for a few more images of the TM506…

Read [FCC] Via [MobileBurn]

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One Etsy seller has a cute and definitely eco friendly idea to make use of those old records.  The seller artyfakt takes the recycled records and sleeves and creates a box for CDs.  Which almost seems a bit late.  Isn’t it time that we start making holders for our USB drives out of old CD cases?  Either way, if you’re for reusing old items, then this little box would likely work well for more than CDs.  I think anymore I own all of four actual CDs.  To which there isn’t a case for a single one, I just have a book for them.  It just seems a bit ridiculous to have the plastic cases sitting around when  book takes up so much less room.

If you have a massive stash of USB drives then I suppose you could dump those in this too.  Then at least you’d be using the box for current technology as opposed to using a box made out of outdated technology to store other outdated technology.  Each box will hold up to twelve different CDs and each ranges in price.  From $45-$75, likely depending on how hard it was to obtain the old record.  Unfortunately being Etsy, these aren’t items that are sold by the bundle.  So you’ll have to pick yours up quick before someone else does.

Source: Great Green Goods

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Asus has added a new weapon in its arsenal of gaming rigs, the ARES CG6155 Desktop PC. From the picture of this rig alone, you’d know that beneath the facade is a powerful piece of gaming machine. The red led light surrounding the rig is definitely a thing of beauty and adds up to the machine’s fierce look.

Ok, enough of the design and let’s get on to business. This rig would definitely win the heart of even the hardest of all hardcore gamers with its Quad-core CPUs which according to Asus is the most advanced of their lot. In addition, this machine also features a 3-way SLI graphic cards and extreme factory over-clocking that can boost the machine’s CPU performance by up to 33%.

Other features of this gaming rig that makes it stand out among the rest is a Blu-ray optical disc drive, high-definition audio and DDRIII memory. And anticipating the rigorous usage that the ARES would be dealing with from hard core gamers, Asus made sure that the rig is equipped with the best liquid cooling modules. The ARES 6155’s liquid cooler ensure that the machine maintains a cooler temperature when in used.

Want more to know more goodies that this machine delivers? Here’s a rundown of its basic specs; Vista OS, Intel Core2 Extreme QX9650 CPU, NVIDIA nForce 790u Ultra SLI chipset, dual channel DDR3 1333MHz memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX280-3 3-Way SLI graphics, up to 4TB of hard drive space and a Blu-ray drive.

Read [Asus News] Via [Far East Gizmos]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 4:45AM
Looks like NHK brought a prototype 33 megapixel, 8K Super Hi-Vision projection system to the auditoriums of CommunicASIA. Using a pair of LCoS projectors, NHK threw 7,680 x 4,320 pixels illuminated at 8,000 lumens onto a screen measuring 6.6 x 3.7 meters. The images were recorded from a prototype 8K studio camera — as it good as it gets until the first live SHV television broadcasts are demonstrated in September.

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Filed under: Displays

Sony wants to grab top spot in the camcorder industry by releasing the first high definition camcorder that comes with both Smile Shutter and face detection technologies. This new camcorder, known as the HDR-CX12, is able to record video in full High Definition (1,920 x 1,080 resolution) while capturing picture perfect 10 megapixel photos as long as there is still space to spare on the Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo/Memory Stick PRO Duo Mark2 inside. The HDR-CX12 is also impossibly small, sharing the rough measurements as that of a soda can (2.8″ x 5.3″ x 2.8″), making it a snap to carry around whenever you head off for the next destination.

The inclusion of Sony’s unique Smile Shutter technology allows you to snap both smiling subjects and record video simultaneously, which is pretty new to me. Imagine having everyone playing a game in the garden, and you decide to capture a video for posterity so that you can embarrass your kids in front of the grandchildren next time (what will you show the video on then? Camcorders with projectors?). While rolling the, er, Memory Stick, your adorable little one stops and musters a heart melting smile at you. The moment will automatically be captured in 10 megapixel glory without you having to lift a finger, thanks to the built-in Smile Shutter algorithm. Saves you a whole lot of trouble, but then again you could end up sifting a large amount of photos at the end of the day while shooting a wedding video. Good thing that function can be turned off when it isn’t needed.

Other features of the Sony HDR-CX12 include a 2.7″ Clear Photo LCD Plus display, Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound recording and a built-in zoom microphone for clear dialogue recording. The assignable dial makes it easy to control focus, brightness and white balance manually for that perfect home video. It will hit retail stores early this August for approximately $900.

Press Release

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 4:45AM
Looks like NHK brought a prototype 33 megapixel, 8K Super Hi-Vision projection system to the auditoriums of CommunicASIA. Using a pair of LCoS projectors, NHK threw 7,680 x 4,320 pixels illuminated at 8,000 lumens onto a screen measuring 6.6 x 3.7 meters. The images were recorded from a prototype 8K studio camera — as it good as it gets until the first live SHV television broadcasts are demonstrated in September.

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Filed under: Displays

So it is a Friday afternoon, and you just can’t wait for work to finish so that you can go home and unwind, waiting for Croatia to bundle fighters Turkey out of the Euro 2008 tournament before you see the Dutch dismantle the Russians. In order to pass some time at the office, why not pick up this $70 USB Digital Microscope? Powered by your computer’s USB port, you will be able to use it to check on just how much bacteria there is around your desk, perform a quick scalp check on your colleague’s head while role-playing as Jane Goodall. It is capable of magnification from 10x up to 200x, so I’ll let your imagination run wild on what exactly you would like to see.

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Sprint/Samsung is turning the dial up on marketing the brand new Instinct and is targeting the iphone in saying that the Instinct is mainly just way faster. Well if their video demos are any indication, then it’s true. Here’s one comparing GPS functions (you can see the rest of the videos by looking at what’s related):

Some of the Instinct’s juicy features - EV-DO network access, video player, music player with downloads, TV viewing, e-mail, quick shortcuts to popular Web application like news, sports, and more; photo viewer, and of course, GPS navigation.

As one reviewer pointed out, despite the Instinct winning in the speed department for many of the commonly shared features, you do need to keep in mind that the iPhone is a smartphone, nay, a platform upon which you can build and run limitless applications. Of course, the Instinct does only cost $130 and sits on Sprint’s speedy EV-DO network.

Oh yes, assuming you reserved a unit, you can get one today!

Posted in Phones

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 2:40AM
Another day, another batch of Centrino 2 laptops, these ones coming to us from ODM bigwig Compal, which has just announced four models based on Intel’s latest and greatest platform. Those include the 15.4-inch JHL90 and JHL91, and the 14.1-inch JHT00 and JHT01 models, each of which are available with your choice of Penryn processors, along with NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics on the JHL90 and GeForce 9300M GS on the JHT00, or integrated Intel graphics on the two lower-end models. Otherwise, you can expect to get your choice of 5,400 rpm or 7,200 rpm hard drives (no SSD though), a max 4GB of RAM, Intel Turbo Memory, a DVD burner or Blu-ray drive, and integrated WiMAX in addition to the usual WiFi and Bluetooth. No word on a price or release date, but you can pretty safely bet that you’ll be seeing these under any number of brands in the not too distant future.

[Thanks, Michele]

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Filed under: Laptops