Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

Vado Pocket Video Camera from Creative

Creative's new Vado pocket video camera offers a simple and easy solution for capturing and sharing video. Priced at an affordable $99.99, the Creative Vado is perfect for YouTubers who do not care to lug around a heavier camcorder. The Vado records up to two hours of 640 x 480 VGA video on its built-in 2GB of memory, which you can then easily transfer to your PC via the flip-out USB connector, or watch video on Vado's 2-inch color LCD screen. After plugging in the USB, Vado's built-in software program prompts you to copy the video, or drag videos directly to your PC. The software also takes you to YouTube or Photobucket, or Box.net where you can post your videos with ease. The camera has a removable rechargeable battery that let's you shoot two hours of video on a single charge.

Olympus E-520 DSLR Camera Announced

Olympus has announced the new 10 megapixel E-520 digital SLR camera which is scheduled to be released at the end of May. This is the latest addition to the Olympus E-System series of interchangeable lens type digital SLR cameras, and it features a built-in image stabilization mechanism functional at up to 33x when used with ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses. The Olympus E-520 boasts a new 10-megapixel Live MOS Sensor and the TruePic III image processing engine, face detection, Live View shooting, and a 2.7" LCD.

Canon SELPHY CP770 "Basket-Style" Photo Printer and Ultra-compact CP760 Photo Printer

That strange object above is Canon's new "Basket-Style" photo printer called the SELPHY CP770. This compact photo printer is ready to go wherever you need it, thanks to Canon's bright idea to bundle everything in a basket-style storage bucket. Inside you have the printer, but it also stores accessories including paper, ink cartridge and power cord. 

Canon's new design innovations were created with a focus on improving mobility and usability based on the printers' broad range of uses, including printing photos for family albums, school art projects and scrapbooks. Each printer has larger buttons arranged in a "makes-sense" layout, designed for simplicity and easier navigation through menus. The number of buttons on each printer has been reduced from 12 buttons on previous models, down to nine for more simple functionality.

Eye-fi Introduces New Wireless SD Memory Cards

Winning a Yahoo! "Last Gadget Standing" Award at CES 2008 must have been encouraging for Eye-fi. The makers of the wireless SD memory card have now extended the product line-up with three new wireless SD cards, including the re-named original Eye-Fi Card, which is now called Eye-Fi Share, plus the new Eye-Fi Explore which will automatically add geographic location tags to each photo before you upload photos from a Wi-Fi hotspot, and the new Eye-Fi Home card which enables you to wirelessly upload digital photos to your home computer.  The new Eye-Fi wireless SD memory cards will be available June 6, 2008.

WiiWare Games Launched by Nintendo

Nintendo has launched a new collection of games for Wii called WiiWare, which can be downloaded directly to your Nintendo Wii in exchange for various levels of Wii points from the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel. The new WiiWare games come from a wide range of developers, with six games already available including Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Frontier Development's LostWinds, XGen Studios' Defend your Castle, Nnooo's Pop, High Voltage Software's V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack, and Gameloft's TV Show King. Nintendo promises that new WiiWare games will be launched every Monday, so start saving up your Wii points.

BlackBerry Bold Smartphone = RIM BlackBerry 9000

The BlackBerry 9000 video tour we saw the other day is now joined by official news from RIM stating that the new Blackberry smartphone will be called the BlackBerry Bold.  After seeing how fast the device was running in that video, it's now known that the Blackberry Bold smartphone is equipped with a 624MHz Intel PXA270 processor, and the phone boasts a BOLD HVGA 480 x 320 pixels transmissive TFT LCD with 65,000 colors, and a newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard. Research In Motion's new Bold phone has 1GB of onboard memory, 128MB flash memory and a microSD/SDHC card slot which supports up to 16GB cards. It's expected that AT&T will be first to release the Blackberry Bold smartphone with speedy 3G HSDPA connectivity this summer in the U.S.

BioShock The Movie?

It's true. Gore Verbinski, director of the Pirates of the Caribbean flicks has signed up to direct the movie BioShock for Universal Pictures. He's not a bad choice to pull-off a movie based on 2K Games' smash hit video game, and this will add to the incredible success of Take-Two Interactive Software.

To make sure this project is done right, producers are going after John Logan, Academy Award-nominated writer of "Gladiator," "The Aviator" and "Sweeney Todd," to do the screenplay. BioShock the game, has sold more than two million copies worldwide so far and the sequel BioShock 2 is expected to be released in 2009.

We probably won't see BioShock the movie until 2011 or so, but BioShock fans can rest assured that the film makers will have them in mind when filming begins.

Samsung Glyde Phone Hits Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless and Samsung Mobile announce the availability of the Samsung Glyde phone (U940) which can be purchased online and at Verizon Wireless Stores in the U.S. for $249 with a two-year contract and $50 rebate.

There's a lot to like in the Samsung Glyde, including its multimedia and messaging features, a nice 2.8" advanced touch-screen, a full HTML browser, and a well designed full QWERTY keyboard. If you send text and instant messages often, and are looking for a new device, this phone should definitely be on your list. On the multimedia side, the Glyde features Verizon's V CAST Music and Video, while the phone's 2.0 Megapixel digital camera sports a flash, up to 9 step digital zoom, and Auto Focus. The Glyde is a CDMA / EVDO phone, and it includes a microSD card slot which supports up to 8 GB of external memory, and Bluetooth stereo headset support.

Burnout Paradise Videogame Coming to PC

EA's Criterion Games studio will be releasing a rebuilt for PC version of the thrilling Burnout Paradise driving game. It will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, and it's said to be "customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content."

The game was only available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 videogame consoles, and it's already won over 55 awards worldwide so PC gamers should be excited to get in on the action.

"Burnout Paradise for the PC will combine all the open world racing, intense speed and action of the original game with new gameplay for the PC version."

Dell XPS 730 H2C Gaming Desktop PC Video Presentation

Here we have a Dell representative presenting the recently announced Dell XPS 730 H2C gaming desktop PC which allows gamers to play Crysis at full 1920x1200 resolution and 30+ FPS. The performance of the XPS 730 H2C is enhanced with support for optional quad-core processors, quad GPU graphics solutions and up to four hard drives. You'll have a choice of external chassis on this gaming PC, including a 2.4mm anodized aluminum chassis on the XPS 730 H2C in Victory Red and Stealth Blue colors, or brushed aluminum in silver on the air-cooled XPS 730. As you can see in the photo, each chassis can be configured with an optional X-View clear side panel that allows you to see the high performance components on the inside. You can keep the machine extra cool with an optional patent-pending cooling solution. The air-cooled XPS 730 desktop PC starts at $3,999, and XPS 730 H2C starts at $4,999.

Nokia N96 Phone Review and Demo Video

The Nokia N96 phone was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2008 back in February, but it will still be a while before most consumers will be able to buy one. The Nokia N96 multimedia computer is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated sales price of about 550 euros ($800), but Italian mobile website Cellulare-Magazine.it were able to get a review model and they've shot a pretty in-depth review and demo of the Nokia N 96 which you can watch below.  You can also read all the juicy Nokia N96 smartphone details while you're at it.

BlackBerry 9000 Phone Video Tour, Demo, and Review from CrackBerry.com

A BlackBerry addict named Kevin Michaluk over at CrackBerry.com went all-out to get his hands on a BlackBerry 9000 phone before the rest of us, and let's be thankful for that. A full BlackBerry 9000 preview and review is ready for you at their site. Here's Kevin's story:

"Remember those three BlackBerry 9000 units that showed up on eBay? As I made note in an earlier post, when the auction got pulled by the powers that be (err.. RIM?!!) there were still two units remaining, leaving one Crazy BlackBerry Addict anxiously waiting for the delivery of this next generation BlackBerry smartphone.

As luck would have it, it turns out I’m the Crazy BlackBerry Addict! When mention of the eBay 9000s came up in the forums, there was plenty of discussion as to whether the devices were legit or not. The images accompanying the auction seemed too good to be photoshopped and were unlike any other leaked 9000 pictures I had encountered previously, so it only took a few minutes to make the decision to click the Buy it Now button and PayPal over the funds. At £399.99GBP + £19.99GBP shipping (~ $828USD) it was a gamble, but potentially a good deal considering previously reported rumors that the 9000 could carry an MSRP in the $900-$1,000 range. Worst case scenario if things went south I’d eat KD for a month and have a good story to tell."

UPDATE: RIM Blackberry 9000 is officially named Blackberry Bold smartphone!

Clearwire WiMAX Mobile Broadband Company Formed

Sprint and Clearwire's Mobile WiMAX partnership and Sprint's XOHM WiMax 4G Mobile Broadband brand were announced last year, and we've been waiting for the results ever since. Well, we'll have to wait just a little longer folks, but it's not all bad news. Clearwire Corporation and Sprint Nextel Corporation have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their WiMax wireless broadband businesses to form a new communications company which will be named Clearwire.  Just as we heard from the previous announcements, the new company will be focused on creating the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network in the United States, so it's only a matter of time before we see embedded Mobile WiMAX chipsets in laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, UMPC devices and consumer electronic equipment. Clearwire hopes to get the Wimax network deployed and ready to cover between 120 million and 140 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2010.

"WiMAX technology is expected to allow users to wirelessly access a range of multimedia applications, such as live videoconferencing, recorded video, games, large data files and more – anywhere in the network coverage area."

Sprint and Clearwire combining their WiMAX businesses is no surprise, but the new Clearwire mobile broadband company, a $14.5 billion venture, also has investments from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

Here's the breakdown:

Comcast will invest $1.05 billion, Intel Capital will invest $1.0 billion, Time Warner Cable will invest $550 million, Google will invest $500 million, and Bright House Networks will invest $100 million for an aggregate total of $3.2 billion. Add Sprint’s contribution, which includes all of its 2.5 GHz wireless spectrum and Xohm WiMAX related assets valued at $7.4 billion, and we can see that a nation-wide WiMax network is definitely on the way.

Andrée Putman Designs a Digital Photo Frame

French designer Andrée Putman has added her sense of style to a new digital photo frame from Parrot. The black and white checkerboard design won't appeal to everyone, but fashionistas might especially like the idea of owning a Putman designed digiframe.

"I would like to pay tribute to Parrot for daring to think that this wonder of technology could be coiled up inside a beautiful wrapping," explains Andrée Putman.

The Parrot digital frame by Andrée Putman uses Bluetooth technology, allowing you to transfer photos from your camera phone, and you can also upload your photos via an SD card or by connecting a mini USB cable. The digifram's internal memory is said to be capable of storing over 400 photos. Along with Andrée Putman's minimalist design, this digital picture frame features an LCD screen with a 15 cm diagonal measurement with customized light setting. The frame automatically rotates and resizes photos to fit the screen, and you can customize the display with a wide range of slideshows.

Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop gets an Artsy Mike Ming Re-Design

We've seen quite a few laptops sporting unique graphic designs lately, such as the HP Pavilion dv2800t Artist Edition,  the VAIO Graphic Splash laptops, and the sweet Jessica Alba Sony VAIO FJ celebrity designed notebook.  Not to be left out of a trend, Dell has tapped the talents of Brooklyn-based artist Mike Ming, who has done a few graphic designs for the Dell Inspiron 1525 notebook which starts at $699. The Special Art Edition Inspiron 1525 laptop features two exclusive artworks by Mike Ming, making for two uniquely designed laptops with the themes “Bunch O Surfers” or “Sea Sky.”

A new Dell manufacturing technique brings alive every color and brushstroke on the laptop’s cover, creating a fluid, graffiti-inspired tattoo effect that lets style pioneers add another level of individuality to everyday life.