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Toshiba has announced a new digital video recorder with HD DVD drive that is able to record HD video to standard DVD discs, and also features a 300GB built-in HDD. The new VARDIA RD-A301 DVR, HD DVD integrates an HD Transcoder that converts MPEG2 video to MPEG4 AVC
video compression technology that achieves longer recording time for high-definition video, allowing longer HD videos to be
recorded to HD DVD-R discs. The Vardia RD-A301 also
supports"HD Rec," so you to record HD video to standard DVD
discs in HD quality. "HD Rec" allows a single-layer 4.7GB DVD-R disc to store up to two hours of HD video. The RD-A301 also supports dual recording of HD broadcasts,
From November 1, 2007 to January 31, 2008, Toshiba will run a HD DVD
player and recorder marketing campaign that will include a free HD DVD
of "Transformers", this year's mega-hit movie, for purchasers of a
relevant HD DVD product who register for the campaign.
The RD-A301 includes 1 HDMI output, 1 D4, an S-Video, and
Ethernet port, and remote control. It will first be released in Japan December 2007 for about 600€, or about $865 US.
Lookin for GPS on a budget?
The new affordable Magellan RoadMate 1200 GPS unit is a pretty good deal for the holidays. Priced at $229.00, the pocket-sized Magellan RoadMate 1200 entry-level GPS unit is designed for easy portability and boasts a full-size 3.5” bright QVGA anti-glare touch screen with an intuitive user interface designed for fast input with a minimal amount of keystrokes. It features an ultra-slim, pocket-sized design, and offers “turn it on and go” auto navigation functionality.
Harman Kardon have announced the new Guide + Play GPS-310, GPS-510 and
GPS-810 portable GPS navigation units featuring a WQVGA LCD touchscreen, text-to-speech
and real-time-traffic features, Windows Media digital-rights management
(WM-DRM10), a picture viewer, Bluetooth hands-free calling, and rotary wireless controller.
The Harman Kardon Guide + Play GPS-310 ($349.99) GPS-510 ($449.99) The GPS-810 ($599.99) will all be available beginning November 2007.
The beautifully designed Pantech duo slider phone is now available in the U.S. exclusively from AT&T for a special introductory price of $199.99 with rebate and two year contract. It's a 3g UMTS/HSDPA-enabled cellphone with the added convenience of a full QWERTY keyboard for messaging, and a numeric keypad for calling.
It's a bit smaller than the similarly designed Helio Ocean dual-sliding phone.
The Pantech duo is powered by the Windows Mobile 6 operating system and features Office Mobile so yo can Microsoft Word and Excel documents, view PowerPoint presentations, and view e-mail messages in their original rich
HTML format. The Pantech duo with Windows Mobile 6 includes Microsoft’s
Direct Push Technology for up-to-date e-mail delivery and automatic
synchronization of Outlook calendars, tasks and contacts through
Microsoft Exchange Server. The device will also support System
Center Mobile Device Manager enterprise-grade
mobile management security and access server when the Mobile
Device Manager will become available in the second quarter of 2008.
Panasonic's new
DMP-BD30 High Definition 1080p Blu-ray Disc player is the first Blu-ray player to be introduced with Final
Standard Profile, which adds new advanced functions like Picture-in-Picture and Audio Mixing to the Blu-ray movie experience. Picture-in-Picture allows you to watch a movie while having the film's director or an actor pop up to discuss a scene, or
with an animated movie you can see an actor performing their
character's voice over, while watching the movie.
The Panasonic DMP-BD30 has a SD
Memory Card slot for playback of High Definition content recorded in the
AVCHD format, or viewing digital still images
recorded to an SD Memory Card. The player also features Deep Color Compatibility, and HDMI 1.3B
that enhances step gradation from 8-bit 256 up to 12-bit,
4,096 step gradation. The
DMP-BD30 also provides1080/24p playback, for the same 24-fps (frames per second) reproduction as the original movie. An included EZ-Sync HDAVI
Control allows users to operate their Panasonic home theater
system with one remote.
Panasonic's DMP-BD30 Blu-ray Player is expected in stores this November at a cost of $499.95.
Samsung's new Super-WriteMaster SH-S203N DVD burner gets the title of "world’s fastest DVD burner," with16X dual layer recording offering 30-40 percent improvement over today's 10 to12X DVD burners. The SH-S203N DVD burner features LightScribe technology, support for all CD/DVD/DVD-RAM discs, and can back up 8.4GB of data or video to a disc. LightScribe technology lets users engrave labels, photos, and designs right onto CD and DVD discs.
I hope this does not become a trend in the mobile phone industry. I'm talking about cellphones made of wood, not very Earth friendly is it? Well don't worry, fortunately this LG Shine Wood phone (LG LB-2500H) is made of a stainless steel cover that is just etched in wood grain patterns. At least I hope so.
On to a few specs. The LG Shine Wood phone features a 2Mpx camera, e-dictionary, DMB TV, Bluetooth, and a multimedia player. It's priced at 473,000 Won (362Euros, $525) and will first be released in South Korea.
The NVIDIA has released the GeForce 8800 GT graphics processing unit giving gamers even more high-performance graphics power and intense gaming experience for
next-generation DirectX 10 games like Crysis, Hellgate: London,
and Gears of War. GeForce 8800 GT is priced from $199 to $259, and also supports current DirectX 9 games.
In addition to 112 stream processors—each individually clocked at 1. 5GHz—and a 256-bit memory interface running at a blazing-fast 900MHz, the GeForce 8800 GT is designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus standard and is backwards compatible with the original PCI Express standard.
The GeForce 8800 GT also marries the best-in-gaming with the best-in-HD. It leverages NVIDIA’s revolutionary second-generation video processing engine to deliver high-quality playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray movies on everyday PCs. The new programmable video processing engine takes on all of the high definition H.264 video decoding, freeing the CPU to perform other tasks and significantly reducing power consumption, heat, and noise.
Skype and mobile operator 3 have made the 3 Skypephone official, announcing that the Internet phone will start selling on November 2 in the UK, with Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden getting a 3 Skypephone release later this year. The Skype-enabled handset has fully integrated Skype functionality with contacts, call logs and presence, and will cost about £49.99, or about $100 with a pay-as-you-go plan or free on a contract. The 3 Skype phone lets you make free Skype to Skype calls and send free Skype instant messages from your mobile phone to other Skype users around the world, and you can also make conventional calls, as well as access 3’s range internet services.
This Halloween, the T-Mobile Shadow smartphone will make its debut showing off a slick slider design by HTC. T-Mobile Shadow aims to make it as easy as possible for people keep in touch with each other through the phone’s innovative design and simple user interface. T-Mobile says that customers can call, send an e-mail, text or
instant message, and share a picture, video or voice note, all with a
push of the button right from the myFaves home screen. It's a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 device featuring a large radiant screen, a 2.0-megapixel digital camera with video capture, and Wi-Fi and EDGE-enabled high-speed Internet access. It includes a T-Mobile Address Book that lets users import contact information from Yahoo!, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail services onto the phone using my.t-mobile.com, and automatically back up the phone’s address book online.
Toshiba has announced a new digital video recorder with HD DVD drive that is able to record HD video to standard DVD discs, and also features a 300GB built-in HDD. The new VARDIA RD-A301 DVR, HD DVD integrates an HD Transcoder that converts MPEG2 video to MPEG4 AVC
video compression technology that achieves longer recording time for high-definition video, allowing longer HD videos to be
recorded to HD DVD-R discs. The Vardia RD-A301 also
supports"HD Rec," so you to record HD video to standard DVD
discs in HD quality. "HD Rec" allows a single-layer 4.7GB DVD-R disc to store up to two hours of HD video. The RD-A301 also supports dual recording of HD broadcasts,
Lookin for GPS on a budget?
The new affordable Magellan RoadMate 1200 GPS unit is a pretty good deal for the holidays. Priced at $229.00, the pocket-sized Magellan RoadMate 1200 entry-level GPS unit is designed for easy portability and boasts a full-size 3.5” bright QVGA anti-glare touch screen with an intuitive user interface designed for fast input with a minimal amount of keystrokes. It features an ultra-slim, pocket-sized design, and offers “turn it on and go” auto navigation functionality.
This Halloween, the T-Mobile Shadow smartphone will make its debut showing off a slick slider design by HTC. T-Mobile Shadow aims to make it as easy as possible for people keep in touch with each other through the phone’s innovative design and simple user interface. T-Mobile says that customers can call, send an e-mail, text or
instant message, and share a picture, video or voice note, all with a
push of the button right from the myFaves home screen. It's a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 device featuring a large radiant screen, a 2.0-megapixel digital camera with video capture, and Wi-Fi and EDGE-enabled high-speed Internet access. It includes a T-Mobile Address Book that lets users import contact information from Yahoo!, Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and other e-mail services onto the phone using my.t-mobile.com, and automatically back up the phone’s address book online. 
