Even if Meizu products are not (yet) available outside China I really like their specs and by writing about them there is a slight chance other manufacturers will think of including similar features in the products already available on our markets.

Just like for the miniPlayer there is nothing really revolutionary about this product. However the amount of features it includes is what sets it apart from the rest. I don’t think there is another product available on the market that has all the features packed by this device and everything it has seems really useful. To sum things up I must tell you that the E3C has audio playback (MP3, WMA, WAV formats), FM radio tuner, voice recording, text view, photo browser, lyrics display, games and a calculator. If you thought this are all the features of this product you are wrong as the 28g (1 oz.) player packs a lot more and you can see them all by accessing this link.

We continue presenting the line of PDA phones by Asus with another GPS enabled device that is ready to take you anywhere with explicit voice commands and turn-by-turn directions. Besides being a navigation device and a mobile phone the P535 is also a PDA with impressive features just like the P735, Pegasus concept or the A686/A696 PDAs.

Powered by a 520 MHz processor, the P535 has 64 MB of SDRAM, 256 MB of flash memory and a miniSD expansion slot. Being able to connect to a computer using either USB 1.1 or Bluetooth 2.0 protocol, the device also supports WiFi 802.11 b/g connectivity. Using this feature a multitude of internet applications are available: email, internet browser or even Skype telephony.

Asus’s PDA phone is running Windows Mobile operating system which incorporates a Mobile Office suite for viewing and even editing Microsoft Office files. The OS also features multimedia support by enabling video and audio playback. You can create your own pictures and videos thanks to the 2 MP built-in digital camera that can capture video at QVGA resolution (320 × 240 pixels) @ 30 fps.

Researchers from the Purdue University unveiled today a device that is supposed to mimic the functions of Star Trek’s “tricorder“. Just like in the famous TV series, the new portable device allows identifying chemical elements and even the chemical composition of different substances.

To be true the “tricorder” is actually a mass spectrometer shrinked to a portable size. However its dimensions are not quite like in the TV series (yet). The product resembles more a 10 kg box, but even that is a major improvement when you consider similar devices weight 30 times more and need special preparation for the samples they analyze. Being truly portable the new mass spectrometer can be powered by batteries and it needs no special preparation for the samples it analyzes but it’s not quite the PDA-like device from Star Trek (You have in the image bellow a design comparison between the two devices).

According to the Purdue researchers the device was used for analyzing cloth, food and in tests it managed to identify cocaine on bills in less than a second. Although this is just an experimental device, it could not take long until such products will be available as two companies are already looking into it.
For additional details please visit Purdue’s announcement.

Founder of Wi-Fi TV, Alexa Kanakaris, is the guy that believes in this new idea of bringing wireless TV directly to your vehicle. They are an internet based TV company with hundreds of channels, and are now trying to expand by seeing possibilities for vehicles and cell phone users, that would be able to watch friends’ movies, video clips or the local TV station.

The idea is not really bad since they invented DVD players in the back seat of your car, but honestly think of what the price will be for this technology to install it. Would it be for all of us? Not even close. I am also thinking about who’s going to use it, because if you don’t spend a lot of time in your car, traveling a lot this is not going to be a good investment since listening to music, chit-chatting or watching the land out the window is usually enough to spend your time. And if you buy this new system for your kids, make sure Wi-Fi TV have some cartoons programs for them in the back.

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Samsung presented its latest PDP TV codename “Cannes”. The new PDP technology inside the new Samsung PDP TV Cannes such as Ultra Daylight that delivers a contrast ratio of 1000:1 in a bright room and 1500:1 in a dark room, Natural True Color with improved color reproduction processing red, green and blue on 18bit or the Real motion studio which will bring you clearer images, and reduce blur on letters or outlines is ready to offer a pleasant relaxing time in the living room.

I guess you all know what Cannes is, and this is how Samsung inspired their name of the latest PDP TV in their portfolio. They will also have some promotions for those buying the product, with free invites to the famous film festival. The new Samsung PDP TV Cannes comes in three models. The 42-inch that will cost around $2300, the 50-inch model with a price of $3650 and the full HD 1080p model, pricier than the other two, that will make you spend about $9600.

[via AvingUSA]

Olympus Japan has launched the Olympus VJ-10 radio. The radio has a 37GB hard disk. The purpose of the enormous memory is to store over 2,500 hours of recording. It records in WMA format (32 - 128 kbps). The device can be preprogrammed for 20 recordings which are saved in different folders depending on the frequencies. The Olympus VJ-10 has a 3.9 inch (128 x 400) monochrome STN display, USB 2.0, amplifier and stereo speakers which sound much better thanks to SRS and WOW XT. The Olympus VJ-10 is just a simple AM/FM tuner. It doesn’t support satellite radio and is a little expensive. The price settled for this device is 40,000 Yen ($ 335). Perhaps the decision of selling the VJ-10 as a radio server explains the high price.

[Credits: Newlaunches]

Grunding has launched a Linux-based phone. Grunding have presented the mobile this month at the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona. The U900 runs Linux and an RTOS (real-time operating system) on a NXP ARM9-based SoC (system-on-chip), using VirtualLogix platform technology.

This clamshell is a 3G device. The U900 comes very well equipped. It features all standard options of these days. We didn’t find any news about availability and pricing. Below you can check the technical specifications and the performances of Grunding U900.
Here is the specifications list:

• Dimensions: 3.6 x 2.0 x 0.5 inches (92 x 50 x 14 mm)
• Weight: 94 grams
• 2-inch QVGA (240×320) TFT display with 262K colors
• External 96×64 OLED display supporting 65K colors
• 1000mAh Lithium-ion battery
• talk time up to 2.5 hours
• standby time up to 220 hours
• 2MP CMOS camera
• Zoom, LED flash, multishot
• VGA video camera
• Stereo audio player supports MP3, AAC
• Browser supporting WAP 2.0, xHTML
• SMS and MMS clients
• Image viewer for JPEG, GIF, Animated GIF, BMP, WBMP
• Melody formats AMR-NB, Midi
• Ringtones 64 polyphonic with ADPCM
• Internal user memory 100 MB
• Supports microSD cards up to 1GB
• Connectivity: Bluetooth and USB
• MIDP 2.0 Java game environment
• Animated wallpaper
• Picture CLI
• Date/time in idle screen
• Calculator
• Voice recorder
• Alarm clock
• Handsfree speaker
• Options: stereo headset, car charger, USB cable, bluetooth headset

[Credits: Linuxgobiz]

Apparently the computer maker is giving into people’s pressure just like with the introduction of AMD based products. Dell recently announced it will start shipping desktops and notebooks with pre-installed Linux on them and consumers are the only ones to blame.

Last week Dell did set-up two websites (www.dellideastorm.com and www.studiodell.com) to get the consumers opinions and suggestions on their products and apparently the number one request was clearly for Linux products. For the time being Dell is only working with Novell, the company behind the SUSE distribution, but, as many distribution have been requested, they intend on letting the users decide what Linux flavor will be installed on their desktop or notebook.

Other open source solutions were also requested to be pre-installed on computers, like the Firefox web browser or the Open Office suite and Dell is looking into that too. However, the company stills recommends Windows to their consumers and this might take years to change.

Earlier this week Sony has announced it will launch new, cheaper versions of Blu-ray players for this summer. The BDP-S1 player available now on the market has a price of $999, so demand isn’t quite high on such products. Actually if your are looking for the best deal for a Blu-Ray player you might want to take a look at the gaming console PlayStation 3. The $499/$599 PS3 comes equipped with a drive capable of reading Blu-Ray discs and it is also a next-gen gaming console so you really can get two great products at less than half the price.

However, there are people who are not at all interested in the gaming part (I know hard to believe), and these people just want a device capable of playing movies that come on the Blu-ray discs. For this people Sony intends to release in the following months a cheaper player, the BDP-S300, at a price of $599, but rumours of an even cheaper one ($499) have reached our ears. From the informations we have we hear that the BDP-S300 will mainly have the same features as the BDP-S1, fact that leads us to believe Sony desperately wants to win the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray war.

The two competing formats have been claiming the victory for themselves from the time the reached the market, but although Toshiba’s HD DVD had a better start, it appears the Blu-Ray Disc is catching up and might even get the lead all thanks to the PS3. However, at the time being there is no clear winner and it might not even be one for years, that’s why we are recommending to wait a little longer, or to buy a device capable of playing both types of discs.

Do you read books while traveling? That’s good because you have a perfect substitute from Sony. The Portable Reader offers a new digital reading experience. The Reader is very convenient. I will explain you why. It is an ultra portable device weighting 9 ounces and only 0.5″ thin. The Portable Reader is sleek, slim and it’s more compact than many paperbacks.

The PRS-500 Reader has a large 6″ display which uses the E Ink technology. Thus, the screen rivals text on paper. It doesn’t have a backlight, so you need a well-lit area. However, the display offers great visibility indoors or outdoors. The Reader has 64MB internal memory, but it features a slot card. You can download eBooks from Sony Store into your computer and then upload them via USB cable. The device can turn over 7,500 pages with one charge. It charges via USB cable. The Sony Portable Reader can display RSS news feeds, blogs, and PDF files. The device retails at $349.99 in Sony Store.