26th February 2008 Archive

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Toshiba unveils sub-notebook HDD pair

UMPC-friendly too

Toshiba's post-HD DVD re-habilitation continues - today it announced two new 1.8in hard drives, a family of products it highlighted as a cornerstone of its future product strategy. Enter, then, the 80GB MK8016GSG and the 120GB MK1216GSG, a pair of small HDDs aimed less at portable media players like the iPod - a key …

Storage 26 Feb 10:02
Sony updates advanced digicam range

Features up, price down

Sony has expanded its H series of advanced digicam shooters with the H50, which ushers in an increased number of megapixels alongside a welcome price drop from its H9 predecessor model. Sony's Cyber-shot H50 digicam, with smile detection and a 15x optical zoom The Cyber-shot H50 has 9.1 megapixel, compared to the H9’s 8.1 …

Cameras 26 Feb 10:32
Nintendo to introduce online play charges

Wii Points inflation

Nintendo has announced plans to rake in even more cash out of the Wii. It will begin charging gamers to play some video games online over the console's Wi-Fi link. Dubbed Wi-Fi Connection Pay and Play, the service will see virtual red stickers added to certain titles to highlight to users that they must pay to play them online …

Consoles 26 Feb 10:40
Lenovo intros skinny, low-weight ThinkPad

X300 debuts

Lenovo has introduced its latest sub-notebook, the 1.42kg ThinkPad X300, in Japan ahead of its Western debut. The X300 packs a 13in widescreen 1440 x 900 display lit with an LED backlight, but when closed is just 18.6mm thick. It still features an integrated dual-layer DVD writer. The machine's based on a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 …

PCs 26 Feb 11:23
Sony and Sharp to partner on tenth-gen LCD plant

Super-size panel production

Electronics giants Sony and Sharp have shaken hands on a deal that’ll see both companies invest in a factory designed to punch out cutting-edge LCD panels. The pair will form a jointly owned subsidiary which is set to be up and running by the end of the April 2009. The JV will use a Sharp LCD panel production factory, which is …

HD 26 Feb 11:42
Venturi Mini in-car FM music streamer

Review Handy, helpful little hi-fi add-on

This is one of those gadgets that doesn't really fit into any pre-existing category largely due to it actually being three things in one: a standalone hands-free phone device, an RDS FM music streamer and, by way of its USB port, a charger. Out of the box, the Venturi is about the size of an average candybar mobile phone, …

Gadgets 26 Feb 12:02
Sony intros next-gen Blu-ray players

Latest BD interactivity features added

Sony last night introduced its latest standalone Blu-ray Disc players, both incorporating the latest Blu-ray interactivity features. Sony's BDP-S350: BD Live coming via firmware update The BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 both support what Blu-ray calls Bonus View, but is perhaps better known as picture-in-picture. It'll allow disc …

HD 26 Feb 12:16
TangoX dances in to challenge Eee PC, CloudBook

VIA's NanoBook UMPC design appears again

Chip maker VIA's sub-notebook reference platform, the NanoBook, has made another appearance, this time as South Korean vendor Sungjut's TangoX. Does it look familiar? It should - it's virtually identical to Maxdata's Belinea s.book 1. Sungjut's TangoX: Belinea s.book 1 rival The resemblance runs right down to the Skype- …

PCs 26 Feb 12:44
Apple updates laptop lines

It's Tuesday afternoon. It's time for an Apple upgrade

Keeping with its tradition of launching new products each Tuesday - including recently the larger capacity iPod Shuffle, and the iPod Touch and iPhone memory upgrades - Apple has updated both the MacBook and MacBook Pro line-up. Apple's MacBook Pro: now with 'Penryn' processors The 15in and 17in MacBook Pro models now …

Mac 26 Feb 13:54
HTC to release handset video 'fix'

But not hardware-accelerated video drivers

HTC has pledged to release a "software optimisation" that will dramatically improve its handsets' performance. However, the news may not impress phone owners hoping for full video drivers. A number of users of HTC handsets have complained that some models don't provide the video performance they believe the hardware is capable …

Phones 26 Feb 15:27
Vodafone shows off Samsung i640

The i620's younger brother

Vodafone has updated its website with news of a successor to the Samsung i620, cunningly called the i640. Samsung's i640 is available through Vodafone's UK wesbite The phone, which is now available to buy in the UK, retains the i620's slider design. Specifications provided by Vodafone are annoyingly vague, though the …

Phones 26 Feb 17:17