Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

Cowon A3 PMP Pricing and Release Details, Cowon Q5W Out Now

The Cowon A3 portable multimedia player is jammed with features, and the word is, it will be available in early December for Holiday shoppers in the US. Crave reports that two versions of the PMP will be available including a 30GB Cowon A3 priced at $349, and a 60GB version priced at $399. Both feature a 4-inch TFT LCD display with 800x480 resolution, and support for just about any media file format you can ask for including AVI, DivX, XviD, MP4, ASF, MKV, VOB, OGM, WMV 7, H.264, and MPEG for video and MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, OGG FLAC, Apple Lossless, AAC/AAC+, AC3 audio formats. Viewing photos is not a problem, the photo viewer supports JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP, and RAW formats, and there's also a 720x480 video recorder, line-input recorder (FLAC, WMA), voice recorder, FM tuner, and FM radio recorder. Component, S-Video, and composite video outputs are also included.

Verizon XV6800 Smartphone Now Available

The Verizon XV6800 smartphone, based on Windows Mobile 6 Professional, arrives in stores December 5th, but it can already be purchased online. This is another winner manufactured by HTC, featuring a large 2.8" touchscreen display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, speedy EV-DO support with 2.4 Mbps data download rates, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support for stereo headsets, and built-in WiFi. The XV6800 smartphone includes a 2 megapixel camera with flash auto-focus, as well as video capture capability, and a microSD card slot that supports up to 8GB cards. Let's get to the price: How does $399.99 with a 2-year contract sound?

HD VMD Players Coming to the USA

As you know, Blu-Ray and HD DVD disc formats have been competing for a while now, but here comes the HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format to shake things up even more. US electronics distributor PC Rush has ordered 10,000 of NME's 1080p HD VMD Multilayer Players, and they will start selling them in December through their E-commerce site, and they will be distributed to retail outlets in the US through associate company Distenex.

HD VMD is based on NME's (New Medium Enterprises) proprietary Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) format with red laser technology, and boasts true HD with 1920 x 1080i/p resolution, up to 40 Mbps bit rate playback, and  DVD up-scaling. The HD VMD player also supports CD, DVD (DVD 5 & DVD 9) formats. The best part is, HD VMD's are said to cost about the same as DVD's, while rivaling the image quality of Blu-ray and HD-DVD. For the moment, the problem is finding a good selection HD VMD movies to watch.

Look out for HD VMD player pricing at PC Rush soon.

JVC HA-S900 Lightweight Headphones

JVC released a new pair of high-end headphones that are light, foldable, and come with a gold-plated iPhone-compatible plug, four-foot tangle-resistant cord, and carrying case. The JVC HA-S900 over-the-ear headphones have sound-insulating cushioned ear pads that block out ambient sound, and should make for a comfortable fit.

"The new JVC HA-S900 offers high quality sound reproduction in a lightweight, foldable over-the-ear headphone. The HA-S900’s performance is achieved through the use of new RING PORT structure which carbon compound diaphragm mated to a ported ring that controls the diaphragm’s movement, or sound pressure level, and so provides greater detail across a wide frequency range."

The JVC HA-S900 headphones are available now for $129.95.

Fujitsu's 320GB 2.5 Inch SATA Hard Disk Drive for Notebook PCs

Fujitsu has announced the launch of its new MHZ2 BH series 2.5" mobile hard disk drive with a maximum capacity of 320 GB. According to Fujitsu, 320GB is the industry's highest capacity point for a 2.5" 5400RPM HDD, and it's fast, with a Serial ATA (SATA) 3.0Gb/sec interface that delivers transfer speeds of up to 300MB per second. Fujitsu claims that the MHZ2 BH hard disk drive achieves the world's lowest levels of power consumption, operating at 1.9 watts when reading or writing data. The MHZ2 BH series was developed to fill the growing demand for higher capacity storage for future notebook PCs, compact PCs, and HDD recorders, and it's scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2008.

Z2 - Zipit Wireless Messenger 2

The new Zipit Wireless Messenger 2 handheld device won't let you edit Office documents on the road, but you will be able to get your instant messaging tasks done via Wi-fi. The Z2 recently won a 2007 DigitalLife Best of Show award for portable gear, perhaps because it's the only device of its kind that offers wireless IM connectivity with no monthly or per message fees. The Z2 supports AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN IM platforms, while also creating one buddy list that covers all three platforms. The full backlit QWERTY keyboard and 2.9” 320 X 240 Color TFT LCD screen should make texting easy.

Zipit Wireless Messenger 2 can also play music with its MyTunez music player. You can kick the sounds that are stored on an optional mini-SD card, or radio streamed from the Internet, while the MyPhotoz feature will handle your photo viewing needs.

 

Dell Precision T5400 and Precision T7400 Workstations Available Now

Designed for running high-performance applications in engineering, digital content creation, scientific, finance and software development fields, Dell's powerful new Precision T5400 and Precision T7400 workstations are now available featuring the latest Quad-Core and Dual-Core Intel Xeon 45-nm processors. Both machines are said to offer the highest levels of performance and expandability available in a Dell workstation, with the fastest Intel processors, high-end OpenGL graphics, scalability and massive memory capacities.

Dell XPS M1530 Multimedia Notebook Ships

Dell's new XPS M1530 notebook brings a fresh new look to the company's portable PC line-up, with standard features that include a high definition widescreen 15.4-inch display, slot-load optical drive, DirectX 10 capable graphics, touch sensitive media buttons, plus an HD Blu-ray disc drive and HDMI support. The XPS M1530 also comes with noise cancelation earbuds, a travel remote control that stores away in the ExpressCard card slot, built-in webcam, and fingerprint reader. Three configurations are available now with prices starting at $999, $1,099, and $1,499.

The XPS M1530 includes Dell’s useful MediaDirect and Instant Office technology for fast one-button access to music, movies, pictures, calendar items and contacts without booting up the system. A choice of three colors are available, including standard Tuxedo Black, Crimson Red, and Alpine White.

LG Shine Phones come to AT&T for the Holidays

In case you missed it, the elegant LG Shine phone arrived in AT&T stores on Nov. 23 - Black Friday. The Shine by LG is also available online at http://www.att.com/wireless for $149.99 after a two-year contract-activation agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. As we saw when the LG Shine launched, this cellphone is a slider, featuring a 2.2-inch mirror LCD screen, and a slick silver brushed-metal exterior design. It comes with video and camera features including a 2.0-megapixel camera with video recording capability. LG Shine's music player supports MP3, WMA and AAC formats, as well as Napster and emusic mobile music services, making this a very nice Christmas gift to give, or receive this year.

Cyber Monday Tech Toys and Electronics Deals

Comscore reports that Black Friday 2007 saw $531 million in online retail spending, up 22 percent from last year, but today's Cyber Monday online shopping is expected to break all records and surpass $700 million in online spending. Cyber Monday is of course the Monday immediately following Black Friday, so the Christmas shopping season is now in full swing. Online retailers are hoping that consumers will be using their computers to shop for holiday gifts from home or from the workplace this Cyber Monday, and let's face it, shopping online is now easier than waiting on line in stores. Check-out the Cyber Monday tech toys, electronics deals and holiday discounts below:

• Best Buy Cyber Monday Specials
• Circuit City 3-Day Cyber Monday Sale
• Staples One Day Only Cyber Monday Sale
• Walmart Cyber Monday Specials
• CompUSA 24-Hour Cyber-Monday Sale
• ToysRus Cyber Monday Toy Sale
• CyberMonday.com Online Deals
• more deals at the Digital Tech and Gadget Shop