CES 2010

Guess what, a HD web camera.

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 No Comments

Since Skype has announced that it will support HD video during conversations, we thought it would take a year until we see a camera that would allow you to use this feature. Turns out, it wasn’t that long. FaceVision has announced a brand new HD camera called the TouchCam N1 camera. Simply connect the camera with the USB cable and there you go, 720p HD resolution video. No more pixelation when we see your face, though for some of our readers, we suggest you don’t get this – unless you want people to see your face, or take the time to put makeup on to cover those blemishes on your face.

Still, I don’t even know why we need a HD camera or even HD video during Skype calls, but apparently it’s wanted by users of Skype.

iPhone gets a QWERTY keyboard accessory

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 No Comments

CES 2010 BlockWe all know that typing on the iPhone is a big hassle, especially when your message is going to be very long – that, or you just felt like writing an essay on your iPhone via email. Now, there’s a new keyboard without jailbreaking or hacking it. Called the iType, it’s basically a QWERTY keyboard and has a dock station for your iPhone so it can connect to it. It also won’t drain the iPhone’s battery as it has its own.

According to the Register, ION (the makers of the device) expect this out in the first half of the year with a cost of £70 (approx. US$112.23).

Intel brings app store to netbooks

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 No Comments

CES 2010 BlockIntel has decided to follow in Android, Apple, Blackberry and Nokia’s footsteps in opening up an app store. This endeavour, however, will not be mobile phones, nor for laptops, but for the netbook laptops. Called the Intel AppUp, it will allow users to find, download and purchase software that would run fine on the Atom processor. Applications selected will run on either Windows or Moblin-based operating systems, but will also offer applications that use Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight in the near future.

Intel has already signed up Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung to bring this to their netbook range and will collaborate on the store. The program is currently in beta and can be downloaded from its website.

LG brings out the Rumour Touch

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 No Comments

LG is bringing out the Rumour Touch (or, the Rumor Touch if you’re an American) to the US carrier Sprint, but you can also see this coming to other countries. The phone boasts a 3-inch touchscreen, 2 megapixel camera with video recording, a microSD card slot, 3.5mm standard headphone jack and a QWERTY keyboard, making it easy to type out emails or SMS messages with ease. It also has a continuous talk time of up to 7 hours.

There’s not really much to say about this, mainly because the press details were vague. It will be available in the US in the first quarter. You can, however, start to preorder the device.

LG goes LED with new monitors

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 No Comments

CES 2010 BlockMove over LCD, LED is starting to pick up. LG has announced that it will release the E50 Monitor series, which will become LG’s flagship monitor series for LEDs. Coming in 20-inch, 21.5-inch and 23-inch sizes, it features a new technology called “Dual Screen” that automatically divide the screen to view two programs at once – though you could do the same thing by the “Show Windows Stacked” function.

The 23-inch class will be the only monitor in the line to provide 1080p resolution; but all three have a power saving of over 40 percent and a “Mega” contrast ratio. The monitors are also 0.69-inches thick (not surprising, LED monitors are slimmer than LCD).

There will also be an E40 monitor series, which will only come in a 23-inch size. This series will incorporate “the same core functionalities” of the E50, but what features that both monitors will share remain unknown.

No word on availability and pricing.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, Dr Dre to sell overpriced earphones

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 1 Comment

Dr. Dre has added Sean “Diddy” Combs to his headphone line, joining Lady Gaga, as Monster announced that they will be introducing the Diddy Beats pair of earphones. Sporting what they claim a “high-tech aluminium and leather-wrapped housing and high polished enamel” in a silver chrome and black finish, they will set you back US$179.95.

It also features that little thing that control your music in your iPod and handle calls from the iPhone, though I think Apple sells headphones with that same feature with a price tag lower than that.

Verizon, NVIDIA show off the ICD Vega

By Terence Huynh on January 9th, 2010 No Comments

Looks like tablets are really getting popular at the start of the decade – mainly because of the Apple rumours. Now, another company we have never heard of has decided to launch their own tablet. Called the Vega by ICD, it is a 15-inch touchscreen table that will have a T-Mobile UK SIM card inside so you can connect to their 3G network. It will also have Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Vega tablet features a NVIDIA Tegra 250 mobile web processor for “uncompromised Internet browsing” and 1080p video playback even if it is undocked from the base. It will also have a 32GB internal SD card with a microSD card slot, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 512MB of RAM, Bluetooth, FM radio, an accelerometer, dual digital microphones and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The device is being showed off by NVIDIA and is operating on the LTE network provided by Verizon Wireless. Yes, that’s right. LTE. That’s better than 3G – because its supposed to be better since its a 4G technology.

No word on pricing and availability. Gallery is below.

DMC releases the OCEAN and TIDAL eBook readers

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 No Comments

eBook reader announcements are rolling in, especially when CES’s actual start day happened. DMC Worldwide, a company we basically never heard of (in Australia, that we know of), has announced that it will be releasing a eBook reader lineup known as the COPIA, and it will have two models – the OCEAN and the TIDAL (and yes, we also thought they were pretty lame names).

The OCEAN is also subdivided with a 6-inch model, a 9-inch model with 3G and another 9-inch model without 3G connectivity to purchase books on the fly. Meanwhile the TIDAL features a 6-inch screen, but also comes in three models, one without touch, one with touch and no 3G, and one with touch and with 3G connectivity.

All will have an ePaper display, with 4GB of internal memory (with the exception of the TIDAL model with no touch, it has 2GB of internal memory) and  has support for WiFi 802.11b/g (again, the TIDAL model with no touch doesn’t feature this) and they also have an earphone jack, microphone and a microSD card slot (yet again, the TIDAL model with no touch doesn’t have that).

Pricing will start between US$199 – US$299, and will be available for purchase online in April. It will hit retail stores in June. Gallery is below.

Lady Gaga, Dr. Dre help Bono with new headphones

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 No Comments

CES 2010 BlockThe (PRODUCT)RED line has the support of Dell, Microsoft, GAP and Apple; and now it will have the support of Dr. Dre and Lady Gaga as Monster able has announced that there will be a special edition of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. Anyway, the (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition Beats Solo Headphones is a standard headphone with an integrated sound-isolation.

It also will have a new feature call “ControlTalk” that will allow it to control your iPod’s music and allow hands-free calling on the iPhone.

If you don’t know what PRODUCT(RED) is, it is a simple initiative where you purchase a product that is red by participating companies and a certain amount will go to the Global Fund to support AIDS programs in Africa – oh, and Bono started the initiative.

It will hit store shelves at several US and UK retail shops in early February with a price tag of US$229.95.

Intel announce WiDi HD

By Stewart Wilson on January 8th, 2010 No Comments

CES 2010 BlockStraight from CES, Intel have announced the WiDi HD. Working over wireless, you can stream your HD media to your television set via a HDMI connection. Your PC will need a Core i3, i5 or i7 processor together with the receiver box which will set you back $100. Intel demonstrated netflix from a laptop with Windows 7 streaming over to a TV.

Netgear will be the first to provide the receiver box for the TV called “Netgear Push2TV PVT1000″. The Toshiba Satellite E205 will also be the first laptop to have native Intel  WiDi support.

Microsoft brings out Arc Keyboard

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 1 Comment

Remember the Arc Mouse, that really cool and portable mouse that can be folded up for portability? Well, Microsoft has finally paired it up with the Arc Keyboard, released today at CES. It’s thin and like its brother, it is wireless and has a range of up to 15 feet. It also has a on/off button so you can preserve the battery, and a four-way directional pad, so the four buttons of the left, right, up and down effectively fit on this button.

It will be on sale on February 21; and the US, it will be sold exclusively at Best Buy. It will have a recommended retail price of US$59.95.

Dell updates Inspiron line

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 No Comments

After updating the Inspiron Mini line, Dell has brought out an update to the Inspiron 14, 15 and 17 laptops. The new laptops have been redesigned for “on-the-go media consumption” and have a new thin chassis, 16:9 HD displays and will have an Intel Core i5 processor that will start at US$849 and are available now. There will also be versions with a Core i3 processor that will start at US$569 later in the month.

The desktop lineup also gets an update with the Inspiron 580 and the Inspiron 580s. These will feature either a Core i3 or Core i5 processor and will have a 320GB hard drive and 4GB of DDR3 memory. You can buy them now, with the starting price tag of US$499. Gallery of the Inspiron 17 laptops and the 580 desktop are below.

Dell brings out tablet concept

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 1 Comment

Featuring a 5-inch screen and will be Android powered, Dell has released images of its new tablet concept. And that’s about it, virtually no details have been released other the first two – and that’s usual from all Dell product teasers. Why use a 5-inch display? We don’t really have an answer for that yet. But apparently it will ship later this year – according to the Direct2Dell blog. Gallery is below.

Plastic Logic brings out QUE – and expensive

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 No Comments

We all knew it would be making the product announcement. Plastic Logic has finally revealed the QUE proReader, an eBook reader – though they claim it is so much more – that is super slim and is suitable to read newspapers thanks to its large crisp display. With 8.5 x 11-inch dimensions, it has signed up a number of newspapers, including the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Fast Company – all which join other announced titles like USA Today and IDG publications like MacWorld and PC World.

It will be sold in mid-April 2010, while preorders have started today. Later in the year, Barnes and Noble will start selling the QUE. It will come in to models: the 4GB that will cost US$649 and US$799 for the 8GB.

Alienware launches 11-inch gaming laptop …

By Terence Huynh on January 8th, 2010 No Comments

… because that is so possible. Well, now it is. This is the Alienware M11X. Alienware is known for their gaming laptops, and this is no different. According to them, it will demonstrate the power of a 15-inch laptop but it is not a 15-inch laptop. This is a 11-inch laptop and is a sub-US$1000 notebook. We don’t really know what is inside but all we know is that it has 6 1/2 hours of battery life; a NVIDIA GPU which is you can switch to it without restarting or logging out; have a DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA and it looks thin.

Gallery is below.

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