Best New Technology

Do you happen to own a HTC-based product? Well, there is now a 3-in-1 ExtUSB Headphone Adapter that enables you to use a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone with your HTC devices instead of HTC’s proprietary headphones which frankly, aren’t up to par when it comes to audio performance. Not only that, you will be able to hook up a microphone to it as well while the additional USB port offers an extra avenue for charging your HTC device. It retails for an affordable $15 a pop.

DVICO of Korea has just rolled out its next generation multimedia player known as the TViX HD M-6500A. Features of this set top box includes :-

• Sigma SMP8635 processor
• HDMI 1.3a
• SATA hard drive
• Support for MP3, WMA, PCM, DTS, WMV9 and WMV-HD, DIVX, XVid, HDV and MKV files formats
• Support for Network Attached Storage(NAS)
• Gigabit Ethernet connectivity

This model will come equipped with a HDTV receiver, bringing high definition goodness smack into the middle of your living room. Better make sure you have a TV that’s up to par.

Looks like Apple has started to ship its Time Capsule - the newest external hard drive from Cupertino which is just about the only solution available for those who want to perform wireless Time Machine backups from your notebook. The Time Capsule debuted at Macworld, being an 802.11n Wifi base station that was equipped with a choice of 500GB or 1TB hard drive, enabling you to back up files to the drive or share files across a network without having to hook up to a cable. The 500GB and 1TB model will retail for $299 and $499, respectively. Sounds pretty interesting? There’s more after the jump.

While the Time Capsule is a pretty okay product on its own, it is in reality a workaround for a feature in Mac OS X Leopard which actually disappeared into thin air right before Apple was getting ready to ship its new operating system. Just before Leopard made a splash in retail stores, Apple actually touted the fact that wireless backup features was part of the Time Machine, and the intuitive backup and recovery program was included with Mac OS X 10.5. Unfortunately, such claims were removed from the ad copy a few days before the Leopard made an appearance, and the sudden yanking of words was never explained on an official basis from what I can see. This means there is absolutely no way to take advantage of the Time Machine feature on a MacBook or MacBook Pro with an external hard drive without hooking it up to the notebook via a physical connection, which pretty much defeats the purpose of providing wireless backup capability while on-the-go (being at home with a Leopard server or a Xsan storage-area network is another different story altogether).

Guess the external hard drive requires some form of additional intelligence to process the Time Machine handoffs over a wireless connection, which meant Apple needed to design the Time Capsule by throwing in updated firmware or software. Hopefully Apple can include such a capability into future software updates for Leopard instead of forcing ordinary folks like you and I to purchase the Time Capsule if we want to do a wireless backup.

Source: News.com

Posted Feb 29th 2008 9:33AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: cellphones

We remember when there was actually a glimmer of hope that the quarreling between these two may end — man, was that a long time ago. Anyways, the International Trade Commission has reportedly upheld a judge’s ruling made back in December which affirmed that Nokia did not violate Qualcomm patents. As expected, the latter firm expressed its utmost disappointment in the decision, and is already considering yet another appeal process. Then again, we may actually be a little sad if it didn’t.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Amethyst crystals, “luxury” box and carrier bag. €1670 ($2500). Please, God, no!

Swarovski Fashion Rocks - DJ Headphones [Hypebeast via Book of Joe]

One thing that sets iPod owners apart from generic brand buyers is that they are prepared to pay for smart design and good engineering. So why do so many iPod accessory makers ship ugly tat, deluding themselves that it will sell to a self-selected, tasteful audience?

Exhibit A: The Eos. A pretty neat product, the Eos is a a wireless speaker system for the ipod. You dock your mp3 player in the base station and from there tunes are beamed around the house via a proprietary GigaWave wireless network. The base station and one extra stereo speaker cost $250 and further units can be added for $130 a pop. There is a remote control, and an innovative power plug: the speakers hang from the power socket but the plug detaches for tabletop use.

The trouble is, it is as ugly as sin. from the bottom of its plastic bubble base to the tip of its blue glowing antenna. Best of all, though, is the “How it Works” video on the site, which strongly resembles “The Science Bit” from shampoo commercials. WiFi interference is characterized as red blocks, bouncing off the super-powered GigaWave signals. The link below will take you straight there.

Product page [Eos]

In another round of Verizon Loves/Hates consumers, we have the new AirCard/smartphone data plans that are being announced on March 2nd in the spotlight. With Verizon having announced their unlimited calling plans and also details about their new “Open Network” to be set loose later this year, they looked like they were becoming more user-friendly. Well, that’s changed with this most recent event.

Beginning March 2, the newly-announced data plans for smartphones and AirCards are now beinging advertised as 5GB per month for $59.99, the same price as before. But this time, it has a catch that shoots them in the foot multiple times: if you go over your 5GB limit, each megabyte afterwards is 50 cents. So even if you go to 5,121 megabytes, you’ll be paying $60.49. We knew there were going to be tradeoffs in the good/bad Verizon ordeal, but did they really have to keep it the same? All you out there who’d like truly unlimited data, check out Sprint with their EVDO cards. Unfortunately for those like me who’s only EVDO Rev. A provider is Verizon and were getting ready to buy an AirCard, you’ll be stuck with the new plan.

No word on if you’ll be able to keep your old terms of service on your existing data plan, though.

Via [MobileBurn]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Posted Feb 28th 2008 11:11PM by Richard Lawler
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We don’t know if Jeffrey Katzenberg got a text message, fax, e-mail or smoke signal indicating the format war was over, but Video Business has confirmed Paramount and Dreamworks Animation will (rather abruptly) to stop releasing HD DVDs after next week. If you were looking forward to Bee Movie on March 11, Sweeney Todd on April 1 or the just announced There Will Be Blood, those are cancelled. Into the Wild and the appropriately-named Things We Lost in the Fire will be Paramount’s last reminders of its exclusive agreement. Not specifically mentioned was Star Trek: TOS Season 2, but don’t hold your breath. Blu-ray release plans are still up in the air but we wouldn’t be surprised to hear something soon. As far as hd dvd movies still scheduled, that leaves two from Universal (for now) and twelve from Warner Bros, who may have been the first to leave red, but will apparently be the last major studio out the door.

Read - Video Business
Read - High-Def Digest

Inkel is a Korean based company has released the MU-D Multimedia Dictionary; a hybrid device between a PMP with a DMB TV Tuner (Digital TV), and a dictionary.powered by WinCE 5.0. The MU-D also comes with a 4.3” LCD with a 480×272 resolution, 4GB of internal memory support, and supports SDHC cards up to 12GB. The MU-D is a Korea exclusive for an unknown price.
[Source]

Don’t worry, you’re not losing it — yet, anyway. Corsair has indeed already launched a 16GB (and 32GB, for that matter) Voyager flash drive, but its forthcoming Voyager GT promises access speeds “up to four times faster” than standard USB 2.0 drives. Furthermore, this one comes housed in a water and shock resistant all-rubber casing, and could be entirely more appealing if that keyring slot were expanded to open bottles. Nevertheless, Corsair’s hoping that you’ll find enough to love to drop $169.99 after it debuts at CeBIT in just a few days.
[Source]