Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

POSBRO G100 Mobile WiMAX Gaming Device

With all of the news coming out of Wimax World USA this week, it's plain to see why 2008 will be the breakout year for the high speed wireless technology. But how about some Mobile Wimax device news? POSDATA has some, with the unveiling of the POSBRO G100 Mobile WiMAX Gaming Device, a new gaming platform that will enable gaming enthusiasts to download games and access the Internet using high-speed Mobile WiMAX connections. The company claims that the G100 (FLYVO) is the first Mobile Wimax gaming device, but maybe they never saw the iRiver G10 WiBro (mobile wimax) portable gaming console that was announced over a year ago. Or maybe they have, the devices have a similar design, don't you think?

While the G100 terminal works with games developed by POSBRO, it does give an idea of the kinds of Mobile Wimax devices we will see beginning in 2008. The G100 will operate in its initial release at 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz bands according to POSDATA.

Slingbox SOLO Introduced

You have to give props to Sling Media for coming up with some awesome products in the past year. Now the company has introduced the new Slingbox SOLO that connects to a standard definition or high definition set top box, enabling users to view home cable, satellite or digital video recorder (DVR) programming on PCs, laptops, Macs, and smartphones from anywhere in the world via an Internet connection. A toned-down version of the Slingbox Pro you might say.

Dell XPS M1730 Extreme Gaming Notebook

Dell makes a splash at Digital Life this week announcing the new XPS M1730 gaming notebook that Dell likes to call the "beast."  The XPS M1730 (starting at $2,999) is said to be the first gaming notebook in the world to feature AGEIA PhysX 100M processor mobile technology, with a system that also allows gamers to overclock the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor X7900 to Bin +2 (up to 3.2GHz) and featuring NVIDIA SLI technology with support for DirectX 10 graphics. The Dell XPS M1730 gaming notebook has a back-lit keyboard with separate 10-key number pad, and it can be personalized with four color accent choices: Crimson Red, Sapphire Blue, Bone White, and Smoke Grey. Taking full advantage of the power of the XPS M1730, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 from Ubisoft will be included with the system for a limited time only.

“Dell is committed to the creation of PCs that will take hard-core gamers to new frontiers,” said Glen Robson, head of Dell’s XPS systems. “The XPS M1730 engineering team worked with developers on leading titles such as The Orange Box from Valve’s Half Life 2 and 2K Games’ BioShock to help ensure this notebook can deliver the full-throttle power required for the most anticipated PC games.”

Palm Centro Smartphone Coming from Sprint

Announced at Digital Life in New York City, the new Palm Centro is Palm's smallest and least expensive smartphone to date. It's smaller and lighter than Palm's Treo smartphones, and offers voice, text, IM, email, web, contact and calendar capabilities, plus a full-color 2.2-inch 320x320 pixel touch screen and QWERTY keyboard for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement,. Palm Centro will be exclusive through Sprint in the United States from October 14th for 90 days starting October 14th.

Centro has a Palm OS (v5.4.9) and operates on the Sprint Mobile Broadband 3G EV-DO CDMA network enabling users to manage email, check stock quotes, watch videos on YouTube and more, on-the-go. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera  and is available in onyx black or ruby red colors.

Palm Centro also includes the functionality of SEVEN’s mobile e-mail solutions via Sprint’s Mobile eMail. SEVEN’s mobile e-mail solution provides Centro users easy access to their AOL, Windows Live (includes MSN and Hotmail), Gmail, Yahoo! and other ISP accounts. This is a free download for any Sprint data subscriber.

iRobot Looj and iRobot ConnectR Showcased at DigitalLife

Say hello to the iRobot Looj "Gutter Cleaning Robot" and iRobot ConnectR "Virtual Visiting Robot." If you recall, the iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaning robot, with over 2 million units sold to date, is already out there cleaning floors worldwide, and these new iRobots have their own useful features that may catch on with consumers on the bleeding edge.

Gateway One PC is an all-in-one Beauty

Today at the Digital Life consumer electronics show in NYC, Gateway finally unveiled the slim and stylish Gateway One all-in-one PC which also functions as a TV, DVD and CD player. With its space saving design, the Gateway One brings thoughts of the new Apple iMacs, but the ONE has hidden speakers pumping high-fidelity audio behind its polished surface. Gateway One also features a 19-inch widescreen LCD, webcam, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and Windows Vista Media Center optimized remote control as well.

This all-in-one PC does a good job of hiding cables, using a "smart" power module and strategically placed, easy to access USB and Ethernet ports that eliminate cable clutter. The Gateway One uses less power than a typical desktop PC, and it's also said to be almost completely silent when running.

Xacti HD700 Pocket-Sized 720p HD Camcorder

Here's another pocket-sized HD camcorder from Sanyo. It's the new Xacti HD700 720p HD camcorder, which records both high-definition video and 7.1-megapixel photos to an SD or SDHC memory card. The ultra-compact HD700 records in the advanced MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video format encoding and uses the same optical processing engine found in the higher-end Xacti VPC-HD1000, which is said to process images quickly with lower power consumption. Priced at about $599.99, the Sanyo Xacti HD700 will be available in Silver, Red and Brown colors in the U.S.A. at the end of October, 2007. 

The Xacti HD700 has a large 2.7 inch LCD that flips out from the camera and rotates up to 285 degrees, and the camcorder features 5X opticle zoom, plus 12x digital zoom for up to 60x zooming capability when combined. The HD700 captures 7.1-megapixel still photos and and features low-light performance with up to ISO 3200 sensitivity. Sanyo also incorporated a new "Face Chaser" function which automatically detects and isolates, and focuses faces, detecting up to 12 independent faces at a time.    

Sony Xplod Car Radios, iPod Music Players

Sony has introduced new Xplod in-dash head units for listening to your digital music player, satellite radio or HD Radio on the road. Aimed at drivers on a budget, the CDX-GT520, CDX-GT420IP and CDX-GT320 head units come with the supplied wireless card remote (model RM-X151) for controlling music from the front or back seat. The top-of-the-line CDX-GT520 CD receiver model costs $140, and supports MP3 and non-DRM WMA and AAC codecs. It's also iPod, satellite radio and HD Radio ready, and features front, rear and subwoofer preamp outputs. Other slick features include a flip-down detachable faceplate, and a 13-segment, LCD with blue LED display; and blue key illumination.

T-Mobile Sidekick LX and T-Mobile Sidekick Slide Announced

T-Mobile USA announced the new T-Mobile Sidekick LX and T-Mobile Sidekick Slide devices, both featuring the newly launched, custom-designed MySpace application. The Sidekick LX will be available in a midnight blue or espresso brown colors on October 17th for existing T-Mobile customers and to the general public on October 24th for $299 with contract. Designed by Sharp, the Sidekick LX is thinner than previous Sidekick models, and features a large WQVGA screen and the famous swivel display, 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, multimedia messaging, and mood lights that let users set specific light settings for various communication alerts, whether a text message, phone call, email, etc.

Myvu Solo Plus iPod Video Eyewear

If you're a fan of Myvu's Made for iPod Personal Media Viewers, the company has announced that the new Myvu Solo Plus will be compatible with Apple's new iPod touch, iPod nano video and iPod classic, as well as all fifth generation iPod models. The video eyewear device turns any video iPod into a hands-free, private cinema, and it also makes one look pretty spaced-out. This portable video watching device actually works well and fits comfortably on your head, but please...don't drive while wearing one.

Myvu Solo Plus will be available in October, and retails for $199.95 in the U.S.

The Made for iPod myvu was named the "Best Wearable Display" for 2006 by iLounge, an Innovations 2007 Design and Engineering award recipient by The Consumer Electronics Association, and a 2007 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.