Sunday, March 30, 2008

Enter the Bluetooth Walkman

Sony’s latest Walkman player, the NWZ-A820 is the first from Sony to feature Bluetooth capabilities. That’s not all; the player also offers video-in recording with real-time MPEG4 encoding. It sports a 2.4-inch QVGA screen.The player also has a video-out, so you can attach it to a compatible display device. The accessories for the player include a cradle and an external speaker system, which are priced at around Yen 20,000 (Rs 7,200) and Yen 3,000 (Rs 1,100) respectively. The player itself is available in 8 GB and 16 GB for 28,000 Yen (Rs 10,000) and 38,000 Yen (Rs 14,000) respectively.

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Sony Ericsson W61S

The W61S is loaded with a 5.1 megapixel autofocus camera and falls under the Cyber-shot umbrella. It’s equipped with a CMOS sensor and aside from 3x optical zoom it uses Sony’s ‘Exmor’ technology from the Pro Alpha DSLR. The camera boasts Kaokime Lite (auto-adjusts brightness on face detection for ideal facial tones), Smile Shutter Lite (auto-releases shutter on detecting smiles) and anti-shake abilities.
As if that weren't enough, the W61S has a large 2.8 inch WVGA display with a resolution of 400 x 800 pixels that apparently uses Reality MAX technology as in Sony’s Bravia HD TVs. WOW!! Aside from all that (as if all that’s not enough to make you want to fly to Japan), it has other usual features such as Bluetooth, GPS, TV-out and external memory support via microSD cards (Not M2?)

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Samsung and Adidas Presents SGH-F110 miCoach Fitness Mobile

Samsung and Adidas have revealed miCoach SGH-F110, a mobile which gives accurate feedback about your daily workout activities with the miCoach System. The new mobile from Samsung comes with a workout tracking system that provides heart rate monitoring in addition with step counting mechanism.Aimed at the fitness freaks this mobile comes with a belt that has to be worn around the chest which measures the heartbeat and a stride sensor needs to be placed in the shoe laces for step counting.
Specifications of SGH-F110 :
Comes equipped with a 2 Megapixel camera
FM radio
MP3 player
1 GB storage
2 Inch display
Bluetooth ready
GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Eric Liedtke, Vice President of Adidas Brand Marketing said, “miCoach is the most advanced interactive training system in the marketplace, blending sophisticated mobile technology with the most advanced in sport innovation and training.” Liedtke added, “The uniqueness of miCoach is that it collects and analyzes personal data and then customizes training plans based on your fitness level and specific goals, while giving you real-time feedback during your workout via the miCoach phone.”
Expected release date: Mid 2008, No info about pricing yet
Techlivez price predict: Rs 12K-15K

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Secret Stasi Files Reveal East German Army Had Porno Unit in '80s

A secret stash of porno movies made by the East German army during the Cold War has been discovered. During the '80s, an amateur film circle was set up in a barracks in Biesdorf, East Berlin, in order to provide blau movies for the army top brass as well as visiting dignitaries. Despite the politburo's anti-pornography stance, over 100 people were involved in the films—in front of, as well as behind the camera.
The films, with titles such as Glass Dreams, Private Werner's Big Surprise and F***ing for the Fatherland, were made on 12mm cameras. Initially, a dozen men were involved, but by the mid-'80s, there were 160 people in the know. Soldiers were measured up to see if they were well-enough endowed for a starring role in the films, which were short and shoddy.
Former soldeier Dietmar Schuertze, now a media spokesman for the Bundeswehr, worked as both actor and sound assistant on the movies. "They were made, essentially, in secret but nothing got done in that man's army without the approval of the brass," he said, adding that they were made for the ruling classes' consumption. Filming often took place at garden parties, with officers and party officials checking the action out.
Some of the less salacious moments were shown on German TV earlier this week, but the quarter-century-old movies were incredibly dated. "I didn't recognize myself," said one former soldier. "And neither, thank God, did my wife." [Telegraph]

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Castro Retires, Cuba Gets Cellphones

We don't know whether to laugh or cry, but the people of Cuba today finally get the proud first-world privilege of 2-year carrier contracts, overpriced text messages, data service they'll never use and half-empty buckets of minutes that will surely run out by the middle of the month. Until now, Cuba had the lowest cellphone usage in Latin America, because individuals could only get cell service via their jobs or foreign carriers, but now the new Cuban prez, Fidel's brother Raul, says it's okay for everyone to jump in and cell up. Question is, how many can afford it?
[Reuters; AP]

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The World's Largest LED Chandelier Sips Electricity, Champagne

This 7000lb behemoth chandelier has a 35-foot diameter of steel, glass and acrylic. It features 328 lights. And it only uses 1120 watts of electricity. Constructed by Meyda Tiffany for the e Stanley Theater in Utica, New York, the opulence of a gigantic piece of lighting art is unquestionably more palatable when it's not eating our coal, killing our dolphins, etc. Bonus shot after the jump. [Meyda Tiffany via Gizmowatch]

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Vinho Verde, a Wine Bottle with Built-In Glasses

A truly great idea, or a truly dangerous one? Perfect for oenophiles, or perfect for winos? This bottle by designer Viktor Pucsek lands smack in the middle of all those questions: it's a wine bottle with built-in "glasses." The idea of Vinho Verde is that you pop-off the portable paper cups, which also double as labels, for when you want a sip or two. It's just a concept, and I kinda hope it stays like that: I like my Portuguese green wine too much to sully it by drinking from a paper glass. [Yanko designs]

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Drum Table: Perfect Accompaniment for Drinking Songs

It's a table. With drums built in. And other percussion instruments, you can swap around. Yey! Need to know more before you buy one to go in your student home? See the video (it's better than the photo.) The Musical Rumba Series tables are handmade by artist Tor Clausen, and are available in four different sizes, each accommodating a different number of instruments. So, ok, they're probably not ideal for drinking game frolics unless you all club together and try really hard to not spill beer on one: the prices range from $800 to $2,900.

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Warner Music Pushes for Mandatory Music Tax on Your Internet Bill

If iTunes music subscriptions don't happen, it's not because the industry lacks interest. Universal's already got a sub plan; Sony BMG is forging ahead with their own; and now Warner Music is investing serious resources and effort into pushing for a monthly music tax. They want $5 a month tacked onto everybody's internet bill, and in return, everyone would have unlimited access to basically all known music. It's not as generous as it sounds.
Michael Arrington points out that a $5 tax—besides essentially turning music into a service requiring us to perpetually suck on the industry's teat—would double its size, from $10 billion to $20 billion. So of course the labels are all for it. It's guaranteed revenue that would flood their coffers like never before. Warner's plan calls for the cash stream to flow into a pool that'll be split between copyright holders and artists. But we all know how hard labels want to screw artists.
And as Arrington points out, it would basically freeze innovation in the industry, meaning labels would be able to ream them that much harder. Not to mention, thanks to the fine print, we'd probably no longer own our music. But that's the whole point. [Portfolio via TechCrunch]

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Best Buy Pressured Microsoft To Create Crippled Vista Label; Intel Off the Hook?

A month ago, everyone wanted to vilify Intel for pressuring Microsoft into approving the crippled "Vista Capable" label for certain low-grade PCs. But new evidence suggests A) that Best Buy was instrumental in approving the sinister two-tiered Vista approach very early on and B) that all of this hare-brained scheming seems to have originated at Microsoft itself.
According to CRN ChannelWeb, Vista marketing director Rajesh Srinivasan and others devised the now infamous two-tiered Vista Ready/Vista Capable plan— the latter category known to be incapable of handling the nice Vista Aero visual interface because of paltry Intel integrated graphics support—in the summer of 2005. Srinivasan pitched the idea to Best Buy as early as August 2005, and Best Buy was apparently gung-ho on it.

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