Best New Technology

by Nilay Patel, posted May 5th 2008 at 11:11PM

It looks like Creative’s getting set to muscle in on Pure Digital’s Flip Video — online retailer JR.com has specs up for something called the Vado VF0570-P, and they’re basically identical to the Flip Video Ultra, apart from a slightly larger 2-inch screen. Other than that, you’re getting the same 2 hours of VGA-res video on 2GB of built-in memory and YouTube support for the same $100 price. No pics or ship dates yet, but we’re guessing we’ll see something official pretty soon.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Before that other Newton, there was Newton, the helpful, friendly housebot. Equipped with an "IBM PC XT equivalent system," a "16-bit real-time microcomputer," and a 20MB hard drive, Newton was kind of like a PC crammed into the body of a cheap R2-D2 knockoff. With baleful orange eyes peering out of a swiveling, saucer-shaped head, watching you.

"You’d be amazed at what he can do," the cheesy 1980s jingle promises. But what exactly he does is not clear from the video, apart from distracting kids from working on their homework, attempting to scare an obviously sedated baby and comforting an old lady who appears to have slipped into the late, pathetic stages of dementia and loneliness.

As the excellent Paleo-Future blog suggests, fast-forward to 6:20 in the video to experience the Newton theme song in all its glorious, big-haired awesomeness.

Internet TV is cool and is starting to redefine the way consumers watch TV programs. But what would be even cooler is if you can watch your Internet TV programs in high definition, right? Actually you can soon do that with the newly launched and uber-cool device called the ZVBox. ZeeVee, the manufacturers of the ZVBox call this technology localcasting, whereby anything that you have on your PC will be streamed by way of the ZVBox into your HDTV display.

How is this possible? Actually, it works as simple as hooking your ZVBox to your monitor and your HDTV. The ZVBox will stream everything that you do on your PC and localcast this to your HDTV via channel ZV that goes through your cable. What makes ZVBox even better is the fact that it is not limited to localcasting Internet TV programs. Like we said, it can broadcast everything from your PC. So, you can view your own video, view high resolution photos, do your internet activities and many other things. What’s more, you can connect the ZVBox to multiple HDTVs. So, while you and your wife are watching in the comfort of your living room, the kids can watch on their own TV in the comfort of their bedroom.

But of course, all cool devices come with a price, and for the ZVBox it doesn’t come cheap. You can snag one ZVBox by pre-ordering at Amazon for $499. However, you’ll have to wait until June to find out if the price is worth it as that is when they are estimated to begin shipping..

Product [ZeeVee] Via [Gear Live]

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Ladies and gentlemen, here’s another iphone clone to hit the market, and this time it is known as the FW8800 from China (where else). It comes with a plethora of features that might actually astound you as well.

• 3.5″ touch screen display at 480 x 320 resolution
• Multi-touch input
• 2GB internal memory
• Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 GSM
• WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
• 2 megapixel camera

by Darren Murph, posted May 5th 2008 at 3:29PM

We’ll spare you our feelings on just how cheesy this thing looks, as we’re fairly certain you can judge that for yourself. Those with no shame and an unrequited love for all things gold, however, may actually find this one quite appealing. Cooper’s Amber F1 purportedly features a 2.8-inch widescreen LCD, support for RMVB, AVI and FLV formats, a built-in equalizer, SRS WOW technology, a bundled case and an obligatory set of gilded earbuds to ensure public humiliation. A price or release date wasn’t immediately apparent, but please don’t say you’re willing to dig around to find out. Please?

[Via PMPToday]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

The recently released ASUS G70 notebook computer is a special machine for extreme gamers who likes everything in dual quantities. The G70 is based on a “Multi Dual-Engine” architecture with a duplex structure in its major system components, including dual graphics engine, dual hard drive bays and dual fan systems. For its gaming power, the laptop relies on dual NVIDIA 8700M GT graphics cards in SLI technology with 1024MB GDDR3 of dedicated memory. Its dual hard drive bays lets you store up to 640GB data while its dual cooling fans keeps it extra cool. In addition, the laptop features a secondary screen that displays critical system information, in-coming email and message alerts and personalized messages.

And as far as designing is concerned, the notebook is worth every penny. According to Asus, every inch of the G70 is designed to match the spirit of gaming. Also, the hexagonal and aluminium effect textures, and LED lighting system makes it super cool. What’s more, the LED lights at the rear of the unit change color with fan speed, and that on the side of the display can be configured to flash when the CPU is under load.

Specification

Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 or Core 2 Duo T8100/T8300/T9300/T9500 Processor
up to 4GB DDR2 RAM
max 640GB hard drive
Dual Nvdia GeForce 8700M GT in SLi with 1GB memory
17.0″ WUXGA/ WXGA+ Color Shine, quick-response time, LCD
Blu-Ray Drive
Built-in 2.0 Mega-pixel camera
802.11a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 2.0
ASUS Direct Messenger (2nd display)
Windows Vista Ultimate.
[ Source ]

On a global scale, Nokia pretty much dominates the cell phone market. At last count, the company’s worldwide market share for mobile handsets hovered just below 40 percent in Q1 2008. But here in the States things haven’t gone so well for the Finnish cell phone manufacture. Indeed, North America has been a particularly tough nut to crack for Nokia in part because the company just doesn’t have many CDMA-based phones that can be sold through big carriers like Verizon and Sprint.

According to Nokia’s chief designer Alastair Curtis, that’s about to change. In an interview with Finland’s Helsingin Snaomat, Curtis said the company is planning to release a number of new models that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of U.S. carriers in the coming months. Some of these phones will be new CDMA-based models, he said, while others will be European adaptations that can take advantage of the more common calling frequencies and bands used in North America.

Avi Greengart, Current Analysis’ mobile research director, says this is a prime opportunity for Nokia to start refocusing its attention on the U.S. market — especially with other big names in the mobile space foundering (Motorola, cough, cough).

“I can say that they’re tickled with the long-term changes in the U.S. market — things like open networks and the move to LTE,” Greengart said back in April. “Those play right into Nokia’s hands. But they have no time to lose. They certainly can’t wait for LTE. They need to invest in CDMA now. They also need to start getting their high-end GSM products to the U.S. market now.”

From the looks of it, Nokia seems to be doing just that.

[Reuters via Electronista]

As expected, Dell today launched two new addition in its Vostro line of budget notebook computers. The 13.3-inch 1310 and 15.4-inch 1510 are targeted towards home users and SMBs, and offers decent specification at a reasonable price-point. The 1510 can be customized with Core 2 Duo T5670 (1.8GHz), 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, dual layer DVD burner, 802.11g wireless, Bluetooth, fingerprint reader, and Windows XP. It starts at $600 with Celeron M 540 (1.86GHz) processor.
[ Source ]

Believe it or not, this fabulous piece of treasure is a LAPTOP bag.

It’s one of the prettiest laptop bags I’ve ever seen. For one thing, it’s PURPLE. Another thing, it’s made of SUEDE material! And lastly, it doesn’t look like a laptop bag at all. It’s so fashionable you can tote it around like a normal bag to complete your everyday outfit!

You can carry it like a hand bag using the bamboo handles (that’s so chic!) or wear it as a body bag or shoulder bag with the padded sued shoulder strap. It also has a lot of compartments so you can just stick in your other gadgets and stuff as well.

Sadly, it fits most 14″ laptops… my Mac Book Pro won’t fit! *cry*

Where to buy: Jtotebags.Com
Price: $175.00

[ Image source from Jtotebags.com ]

Tags: cute laptop bags, jtote

If there’s one thing we’re passionate about here at Popgadget, it’s the need to make great technology easy to use and available to everyone. So I’m excited that Apple has been busy considering how to adapt its cult cell phone (you know the one…) to the needs of the hearing-impaired.

According to Gizmodo, AT&T has just announced something called the Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) for iphone users. TAP will give iPhone customers with disabilities the choice of unlimited text messaging, Web browsing and easy access to e-mail for $40 a month.

TAP is available to new and existing iPhone users with qualifying disabilities, all of whom will have to complete an application for eligibility to access the service.

AT&T’s website has application instructions, if you’d like to know more.