Author: Duncan Geere
Samsung Memoir gets official
Samsung’s got a decent line in cameraphones going on, with last year’s Pixon and Omnia, and now it’s throwing this – the Memoir – into the mix. It’s got an 8-megapixel sensor, 16x digital zoom, and a xenon flash, along with full touchscreen and aGPS.
There’s five shooting modes, and uploading your snaps to the internet is easy, with Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Photobucket and Snapfish integration. There’s 3G for uploads, but no Wi-Fi sadly, so you might consider uploading in low-quality, at least until you can get home. No word on pricing, but it should be arriving this month.
(via BGR)
Optoma takes the wraps off its HD82 ThemeScene high-end projector
LCDs and Plasmas get big, but for a MASSIVE screen, you can’t beat a projector. Optoma’s latest addition to its ThemeScene range is the HD82, which will project a vast 150″, high definition picture onto a wall, ceiling, or even onto a shower curtain, if you so desire.
It’s got a whopping 20,000:1 contrast ratio, 680:1 ANSI contrast, and 1080p full HD. It claims ‘near-silent’ operation, and the bulb should last 3,000 hours in standard mode. Connectivity-wise, there’s two HDMI ports, component input, Scart, DVI and VGA, so there’s very few things you won’t be able to plug in. It’ll be available this month, and cost £3000.
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Sennheiser CX 300-II in-ear headphones – a "killer upgrade"
If you were about to go out and buy a pair of Sennheiser CX-300s, then STOP! Because Sennheiser has just dropped us an email informing us that there’s an upgrade coming this quarter that’ll significantly improve its mid-range earbuds.
The CX 300-IIs feature a completely new drive unit and capsule that goes much louder, with better bass, clarity and dynamics. The cable’s softer, with improved ‘strain relief’ (sounds painful), and it now comes with a carrying pouch. Basically it’s all-round better.
The price has gone up – from £20, which you can now get the 300s for – to £40. It comes with the aforementioned pouch, 1.2m of soft cable action, and three ear adapter sizes. Available in black, white, silver, red (pictured) and pink. Oh, and for a fiver more, you can get a lanyard version, which lets you hang a mobile phone or MP3 player around your neck.
Sennheiser CX 300-II Precision (Black)
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COLUMN: Facebook – will it still be around in five years?
Facebook’s now been around for five years, but will it still be around in five years’ time? There’s a long and a short answer to that question. The short answer is yes. A website, operating at www.facebook.com, will still be going in five years. That, assuming the internet survives the next five years, is a given.
But will it still be the cultural force that it is today – 150 million users worldwide, twice the size of its nearest competitor, leading to academic misconduct, arrests, multiple lawsuits, house-trashings and viruses? I suspect the answer might be no. Click over the jump to find out why.
Photoshop Magnets – for your geeky designer Valentine
Do you, or someone you know, spend a little bit too much time in Photoshop, tweaking those digital camera images a little more until you really can’t see the difference any more? Well, here’s the perfect birthday present, or Valentine’s gift, I suppose. It’s a set of magnets that look like the myriad of menus and toolbars that come in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Brazillian company Meninos sell these magnets on their own for $25, with a 20″ magnetic whiteboard for $65, and with a 40″ whiteboard for $95. That seems rather on the bargainous side, to me. Just a pre-order for the moment, though – they’ll be shipping on Feb 15th, so your Valentine will have to make do with an order confirmation until it arrives.
Meninos (via Technabob)
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Homeless man designs revolutionary speakers
A homeless bloke called Kevin Nelson who lives in California has managed to find a way of getting two distinct stereo sound channels out of a single cabinet. He’s calling it “Crossover Imaging”, because it involves wiring the crossover in a very special way. Each speaker delivers both a left and a right channel.
He’s been working on it since 1989, but despite winning out in comparisons with Polk, KEF, and Klipsch, and a low low price of less than $1,000, he’s only sold 35 pairs. That might be why he’s homeless, I suppose. His company – Zealth Audio Loudspeakers – is currently looking for investors to start full-scale production.
Cnet (via Crunchgear)
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Oscars screeners appear online in six days, on average
Six days. That’s all it takes for most Oscar screeners to make it onto the internet after they’re sent out to Academy members. Andy Baio at Waxy.org has compiled a massive spreadsheet of the dates at which different films appear online.
This year, on nomination day, 23 out of 26 films were already available in DVD quality. Australia and Changeling leaked shortly after. Only one film – Rachel Getting Married – still remains unavailable at the time of writing. I suspect that the pirates are only going to see that as a challenge. Definitely check out the full list, because it’s shocking how quickly some of these movies leak.
Waxy.org (via Crunchgear)
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Google Maps for Mobile gets an update – with friend tracking!
There’s probably something wrong with the fact that I get little buzzes of excitement when mobile apps that I use get an update. This morning’s Google Maps for Mobile update was even buzzier than normal, though, because it introduced a new feature that people have been clamoring for for some time.
The new version of Google Maps for Mobile features a service called Latitude, which uses the GPS in your phone to track your location, and the location of your friends, much like Yahoo’s Fire Eagle service. You can see exactly where your pals are hiding out, and there’s plenty of built-in privacy control too.
Man killed by exploding mobile phone
A man in his twenties in Guangzhou, China, has died after an exploding mobile phone severed an artery in his neck. He’d just replaced the battery after charging it. It’s unclear what make or model the phone was, or if it was a dodgy third-party battery, but police are investigating.
Amazingly, it’s the ninth recorded death by exploding phone in China since 2002. One man died when his battery overheated due to the heat of an iron mill he worked at and blew a hole in his chest. Since this incident however, newspapers have published advice on how to avoid mobile phone explosions that I think we can all take on board. Click through to see them over the jump.
Amazon quietly launches casual game downloads
Suddenly, unannounced, Amazon has enabled a casual games download service in the States. It’s got more than 600 available, each costs less than $10, and there’s a try-before-you-buy service available to, where you can play a game for 30 minutes before you buy it.
No sign of anything more hardcore, this is so far just limited to Bejewelled and the like, but if this is a sign of things to come then it could be the shot in the arm that PC gaming needs. Especially if recent figures suggesting that half of PC game purchases are digital is true.
Amazon Games Downloads (via Kotaku)
Related posts: SEGA launches marginally disappointing online “casual” gaming portal PlaySEGA | Microsoft says “Mii too!” and will join the casual fun on November 19th
