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New Jawbone Headset from Aliph Now Official

by Paul Miller, posted May 15th 2008 at 10:47AM


Don't call it Jawbone 2, Aliph's Jawbone sequel is the company's new flagship product, with the old Bluetooth headset being put out to pasture to make way for the new hotness. The new Jawbone is 50% smaller than the original, and includes "NoiseAssassin" technology, a followup on the noise canceling tech of the original. There's a faster processor on board to handle heavier signal processing duties for canceling out ambient noises better and faster, along with that Voice Activity Sensor which lets the Jawbone know when you're talking so the rest of the time can be noise free.

A new fast charge battery can suck up 80% of its capacity in 30 minutes, but the overall battery life is lower than the original, with 4 hours of talk time and 8 days of standby. The whole unit weighs in at 10 grams, and is available now for $130 at AT&T retail stores and online at Jawbone's site. Initially it's being offered in black only, but silver and rose gold (pictured after the break) versions are coming soon.

Sony's PSP Skype Headset Finally Arrives Stateside

by Paul Miller, posted May 9th 2008 at 2:21PM


If you've got a PSP-2000 and a hankering for some VoIP on the run, Sony has finally brought its Skype-friendly PSP headset to US retail. Unfortunately, it won't work with those original fatty PSPs, and at $30 you've gotta ask yourself how much you'll really be using it for -- the original price was set at $20. That said, it's undoubtedly the easiest way to get up and running with Skype and in-game voice chat on the PSP, since it used to require two separate accessories to pull it off. Oh, and if you're Skype curious, be sure to check out the how-to guide over at PSP Fanboy. [Source: PSP Fanboy]

Pioneer KURO and Friends Hands-On

by Paul Miller, posted May 8th 2008 at 11:47AMBreaking News


We got to plant our eyeballs on Pioneer's second-gen KURO plasma display (bottom center), along with all that other new gear Pioneer released today. While all by its lonesome the new flagship display is no doubt impressive, when stacked up against the competition it becomes quite clear that this new KURO is the one to beat.

Granted, this was Pioneer's own setup designed to make us believe precisely that, but we certainly did find the new display notably blacker than its predecessor, and quite a lot better than the competing offerings Pioneer had on display. The new KURO projector was also quite impressive, and we even got treated to the much-improved start times of Pioneer's new Blu-ray players.

Gallery: Pioneer KURO and friends hands-on

Dell' "Hip" $699 Mike Ming Inspiron 1525 Laptops

by Paul Miller, posted May 7th 2008 at 2:19PMBreaking News


You know you're in for a treat any time your favorite gargantuan Texas-based computer company claims to have captured the "downtown art scene" and "youth culture" on a laptop lid, but we've gotta give Dell credit for these new designs courtesy of Mike Ming. Unfortunately, the new "Bunch O Surfers" and "Sea Sky" (pictured) looks have been tacked onto Dell's boring-as-could-be Inspiron 1525 budget laptop. But hey, not bad at all for $699, especially considering the 3 gigabytes of RAM that comes standard. Another shot after the break. [Source: Dell]

Continue reading Dell' "Hip" $699 Mike Ming Inspiron 1525 Laptops

BlackBerry 9000 Gets a Very Early Review

by Paul Miller, posted May 7th 2008 at 7:32AM


We're all about reviews of products before they're released, but reviewing something before it's even been officially confirmed by a company is its own special brand of magnificent. Granted, these are more like the hands-on impressions of a self-confessed BlackBerry addict, who was willing to fork over $828 US on the off chance that the eBay auction the other day was actually legit. A week later Kevin of CrackBerry.com has the BlackBerry 9000 in hand and seems to be loving every minute of it.

Apparently the keyboard is better than the 8800 series, the OS4.6 is smooth, fast and pretty, and the 480 x 320 LCD is "awesome." And don't get Kevin started on 3G: the logo alone brought a tear to his eye -- we're clearly dealing with a bona fide fanboy here. That said, it's an encouraging sign to see all those leaked shots weren't just for show, there's a real-live performer behind the legend. Kevin's major caveat is the size and weight of the phone, compared to his Curve, but we're sure the $828 hole in his checking account will have him coming to terms with that drawback in the near future. He'll be posting more details and impressions as he goes. [Source: CrackBerry]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Zune 2.5 Update Brings TV Downloads, Zune Card Sharing

by Paul Miller, posted May 6th 2008 at 11:12AMBreaking News


Microsoft has quite a bit in store for the Zune faithful with its new Zune version 2.5 software update. The high points are the new Zune Card integration and the addition of TV show downloads on Zune Marketplace, but much-requested features like gapless playback, improved syncing controls, meta data editing, auto playlists and other tweaks have also been included. On the marketing front, Microsoft is really pushing the Zune Pass going forward, and will be launching a new TV commercial to help plug it. Subscribers will particularly benefit from the new Zune Card sharing, which lets you automatically score copies of your pal's favorite songs, artists and recent plays -- non-subscribers can view that Zune Card info, but will have to buy the tracks if they want to have a listen.

Unfortunately, news on the video store front isn't so compelling: Microsoft is only adding TV shows at this point, no movies, and there's no way to pull video you've bought on your 360 over to your Zune. There's no reason Microsoft can't close this loop and turn some scattered media offerings into a compelling ecosystem, but until then we suppose we'll have to thank our lucky stars that we can shell out 160 MS Points ($2.00) for TV shows we can watch for free online. The 2.5 Spring Update is a free download and should be available nowish.

Gallery: Zune 2.5 Hands-On

Is This the New iPhone?

by Paul Miller, posted May 2nd 2008 at 9:44AMBreaking News

Well here's an interesting one. French iPhone blog iPhon.fr got these pics from an anonymous and unverified source, and while there's no way of telling if the shots are legit, they certainly have a truthy ring to them. They follow what we know so far about the shape, size and color of the upcoming 3G iPhone, and while there's always the possibility of knockoff, a Photoshop job, or some other evil plot to mislead us, we're certainly not going to discount these shots entirely in the runup to iPhone's second coming. [Source: iPhone.fr]

[Thanks, Janvier]

Biomagic "Pixie Dust" Regrows Man's Lopped-Off Finger

by Paul Miller, posted May 1st 2008 at 11:40AM


It's the stuff of sci-fi and really crappy awesome horror films, but now it looks like regrowing damaged skin and limbs isn't so far-fetched -- in fact, it's already happening. A certain 69 year old Lee Spievak lost half an inch of finger to an aggressive model plane blade, and doctors had little hope for the appendage. Lucky for Lee, his brother Alan works in the field of regenerative medicine, and sent him some powder (which lee calls "pixie dust") to apply to the finger.

Four weeks later Lee had grown back the entire finger, as good as new. The pixie dust is actually modified cells scraped from the lining of a pig's bladder cleaned into a general-purpose tissue generator -- the cells basically tell the body to grow instead of scar. Doctors have high hopes for the cells, for everything from amputees to burn victims to cancer patients. We're just waiting until they can program these cells to grow that third arm we always wanted. [Source: BBC Health]

HANNSpree Reinforces Claim on Ugliest TV in Existence

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 29th 2008 at 6:46PM

Just when you though HANNSpree's idiotic and pointless LCD stylings couldn't be topped, here comes HANNSpree to do it again. The company just launched a 15-inch "Starlight Blue" display in the UK, comprised of some of the worst sci-fi-inspired curves known to man, in conjunction with a bit of pretty princess glitter to complete the atrocious effect. Should you happen to accidentally bring this XGA display home for the £99 ($197 US) asking price, we recommend a burning with fire. [Source: Pocket-light]

Enterprising Youngster Gets Himself Stuck in a Claw Machine

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 18th 2008 at 6:30PMBreaking News

This little kid is on to those scammy claw machines, and decided to take prize collection into his own hands. Unfortunately, he didn't plan that escape route well enough, and ended up stuck among the machine's bountiful goodies. Words of him meeting a claw-worshiping alien cult, followed by wild 3D hijinks set to the musical stylings of Randy Newman are totally unfounded. Video is after the break. [Source YouTube via Tech Digest]

Verizon's New $30-Per Month-Unlimited Browsing Plan for Smartphones

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 14th 2008 at 5:38PMBreaking News

Verizon Wireless has been slow to catch up with the smartphone data access plans offered by competing carriers, with premium prices and some confusing options, but things are taking a real turn for the better.

The new "E-mail and Web for Smartphone" plan goes for a mere $30 a month when paired with a qualifying voice plan, and is available with the SMT5800, XV6800 and the MOTO Q9m, with other devices to hop on board in the coming months. Verizon's press release is very careful to tout unlimited e-mail and Web browsing, not data, and we have a feeling Verizon will be clamping down pretty hard on anybody trying to tether with this plan.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Two Ships Taken Into Custody Over Mideast Cable Cuttings

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 14th 2008 at 1:16PMBreaking News

Turns out the United Arab Emirates took two ships into custody on February 19th after those infamous cable cuttings. Wayward anchors are suspected to be at fault, and the Korean company responsible for one of the vessels just agreed to fork over 60 grand in damages in exchange for the release of its ship.

The other ship, which is owned by an Iraqi company, is still under Dubai custody, and the two sailors on board were arrested and are awaiting prosecution next week. As for us, we're standing by our space aliens in league with garden gnomes theory. It all just adds up.

[Thanks, Mike]

From Economic Times

De Grisogono Meccanico DG All-Mechanical Digital Watch

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 11th 2008 at 6:30PM


See, now we're torn. Do we spend our imaginary rainbow dollars on that Real Crystal LED Watch concept we saw the other day, or do we pretend like we could ever scrap together enough pennies to afford this very real De Grisogono Meccanico DG timepiece? The watch is apparently the first all-mechanical digital watch -- no LED trickery here -- and is sure to cost a fortune. Only 177 of 'em are being built.

Via Sybarites

Nikon Debuts Slim, Wi-Fi-friendly Fashion Camera

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 10:54AM


Nikon is fleshing out its "Style Series" of shooters with the COOLPIX S52 and S52c (pictured) compact cameras. The two cameras are pretty much spec-for-spec identical, other than the Wi-Fi capabilities of the S52c, which allow it to upload shots wirelessly to services like Flickr or Nikon's own "my Picturetown." Otherwise, you're looking at a pair of fairly standard compacts, with 9-megapixel sensors, 3x zoom, optical image stabilization and so forth.

Both will be available in May, with the S52 retailing for $250, and the S52c arriving at $280.



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