Not that I was a cheap guy or anything but is there anyone here that would pay $50,000 for a 56-inch screen? Apparently that’s how much you’re going to pay for Westinghouse’s 56-inch D56QX1 Quad HD display that should go on SALE (are you kidding me?) this month. Does that mean that the “real” price is $100,000 ???

This baby is running at 3840 x 2160 Quad Full HD resolution (with 8.3 million pixels).

Apparently the target to buying a 56-inch Westinghouse D56QX1 are engineers, architects, visual imaging and editing professionals and production studios, and medical and geological professionals, as well as mining companies who’ve shown interest in the technology.

That definitely excludes most of us, but I’d sure like to see Sex and the City on it.

via TGDaily

Anyone in the US really annoyed by that? It’s not the first time when ASUS makes one of their products available in other parts of the world. Like UK for example. No, don’t get us wrong it’s not really bad, we really envy those Brits right now because they’re going to get their hands on ASUS’ 17-inch G70 gaming laptop before all of us in the States.

In case you missed it, this monstrosity features a 17-inch WUXGA / WXGA+ panel, an optional Core 2 Extreme processor, twin GeForce 8700M GT graphics cards (that’s hot hot hot), 1GB of RAM, an optional Blu-ray writer, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth / WiFi and oodles of LED accents.

Rumors say that this puppy is going out for £1,999 (~$3,950). I’d sure like to test one because I’m not sure if my girlfriend would agree with me actually buying one. Not that I could since it’s only available in the UK at the moment.

In the “it never happens to me” series, it did happen to me. Recently my laptop’s hard drives crashed/died and the data I had on it, was crucial. First thing I did was to panic and then I had to find online, a company that would help me recover everything.

After a few hours of search, I decided to leave hard drive recovery to DTI Data. They seemed to be the most professional and the fact that they are one of the only companies to offer free upfront flat rate price quotes on single hard drive data recovery was a big plus for me. But a fair price wasn’t the only thing I had in my mind. Another reason I was lured to go with DTI Data was because of the data guarantee; don’t pay unless they recover the lost data.

How they do it

DTI Data has a biometrically secure (class 100) clean rooms, is authorized by all major hard disk manufacturers and is experienced with recovering data from your laptop or PC hard drive and ca even assist you with DIY Data Recovery Software and file undelete tools. They can also do hard drive repair for larger corporations or home grown businesses. From what I’ve been told all software they have was built in house, so I guess these guys are really good.

 Can they help?

They also maintain a data recovery resources, library to publish articles with tips and tricks on how to recover data by yourself or how to preserve your data. This is where I learned that chkdsk is not a recovery tool and you shouldn’t run it, that heat plays a major role when it comes to the destructions of hard drives, memory or CPU and that dust causes poor connectivity and restricts the air flow.

What they offer

The full list of services includes:

• hard drive recovery
• data recovery services
• data recovery software
• RAID data recovery
• Exchange server recovery
• SCSI hard drive data recovery
• and other specific data recovery needs.

DTI Data did a great job with my laptop hard drive so I guess this is why this article. I’m very happy that I paid a fair price and I got all my data back in a very short period of time. If you needed one more thing to convince you that these guys are good at what they do, you should know that since 1992 they had over 100,000 clients and NASA’s quote “Lockhead Martin referred us” is a very big plus.

We continue our reviews and this time it’s a scanner. We all use scanners at home for family slides, photos and negatives or at the office, because it’s easy and fast. But what are the best of all these models? Today we’re here with a Canon CanoScan 8800F to see if it’s good of anything.

Like always we start with the manufacturer’s description:

• Auto-Image Fix
• Certified USB Hi-Speed
• Mac OS and Windows Vista compatible
• 19200 dpi by Software
• resolution of up to 4800 x 9600 color dpi; up to an amazing 19,200 color dpi
• 35mm 4 x 12
• Medium Format
• 48-Bit depth yields over 281 trillion possible colors.
• Incredible resolution: The included software greatly enhances resolution, up to an amazing 19,200 color dpi.

This review is not going to be long because the facts talk for the Canon CanoScan 8800F scanner. I was very impressed with the great software that allowed me to do everything I wanted, and with the high quality of the scans. It is one of the best ways I’ve found to scan negatives and slides while at the same time to offer great paper scans.

There were things I liked less like the fact that scanning is pretty slow, but I guess there’s a price to quality.

Samsung has began the mass production of Spinpoint F1 RAID Class (F1R) 3.5″ SATA hard drive that features a 1TB capacity.

The F1R is designed for enterprise storage and surveillance applications and comes with an industry-leading seven year limited warranty for enterprise applications. Enterprise applications are usually very demanding; databases, email and web servers, super computing, software development, data warehousing, surveillance technologies, call centers and near-line/backup storage systems are just a few that can use the Spinpoint F1 RAID Class 3.5″ SATA hard drive.

It features high performance, high reliably and low power by delivering the world’s highest recording capacity using only three platters and running at 7,200rpm. The dream ends with a 16 or 32MB cache, a Serial ATA 3.0Gbps interface, a 175MB/s maximum media transfer rate and NCQ for random I/O performance.

What do you think?

Samsung

Thanks to our friends who’s been delivering us DVD players for review, this week we have Philips DVP5980 to see if it’s good of anything. What I knew about it was that it produces high quality outputs for the analog and digital audios and that it plays DivX, JPEG photos, MP3 and WMA files. Everything turned out to be true and considering that DVD players prices are dropping really fast, we’re very happy with it. But let’s get a little deeper and review it.

If one year ago we only dreamed of features such 1080p upscaling on high end products, Philips DVP5980 will cost less than $100 if you find the right place to buy it.

Philips DVP5980 PROs

• USB port that lets you play music, photos and videos from flash memory devices
• HDMI output - you can also use the HD JPEG feature, which lets you view digital photos in their original resolution
• Scart and a electrical digital audio output for Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks
• DiVX playback is smooth and stable
• no weaknesses in the bitstream transfer

Philips DVP5980 CONs

• decent sound quality (no the best)
• doesn’t play DVD-RAM
• we’ve seen better 1080p pictures from pricier players

Overall it’s a great product because the quality you buy for that cheap price, is GREAT.

Aztech’s WL850MS wireless HD multimedia streamers are designed to sit between your modem/router and HDTV settop box/console/media player. It comes as a receiver - transmitter pair supports 1080p media streaming via the high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi technology.

It also has multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antennas for extended coverage and 2.4 GHz /5GHz dual-band capability which makes the new WL850MS less prone to interferences like cordless phones, microwave ovens and Bluetooth devices.

There is another high end version available that integrates an ADSL/VDSL modem, 802.11n wireless router, network switch, DECT phone base, VOIP telephony, powerline adapter and a USB host along with all the standard features available in base model.

via CnetAsia

HTC is going to launch its second generation Advantage X7510 - a pocket sized laptop with great power and usability. It features a high end 16 GB internal flash memory, finger print reader and face detection, anti-spill keyboard and it gives great power working with multimedia and office documents and web browsing.

HTC Advantage X7510 features a 5-inch touch screen placed intelligently under the keyboard, that you can access by sliding the keyboard. It is controlled by a finger friendly application and should be perfect for people who are on-the-go but need to stay in the loop, all without compromising power and functionality.

Although preorders went from $1300 back in March, it’s pretty uncommon for such prices to actually stick. If you’re an anxious customers who can’t wait for it to be available, don’t get lured in with such “offers”.

via Pocketables

Some could say CD players are outdated, but believe me there are some budget audiophile who need high quality sound from their Compact Discs. A very good solution if you’re one of them keep in min that Marantz CD5001 could be the ideal CD player to upgrade your system with. The main specs are:

• Plays CD, CD-R/RW Discs
• Super Audio CD Grade 192kHz/24-bit Cirrus Logic CS4392 D/A Converter
• Pitch Control
• CD Text Compatible
• Newly Designed Headphone Amp. with Buffer Circuit

Pros
Great sound. Low price. Good for all music types.

Cons
Cheesy build quality. No balanced output.

Overall, the new Marantz CD5001 is a real entertainer with an inviting sense of life, and the kind of crisp, relentless timing that works wonders with rhythm-driven music

is a great buy and stands as proof that great hi-fi doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

We’ve been anxiously waiting for Sharp to bring its 108-inch LCD TV for a while now and the wait is over. The LB-1085 has scheduled its first delivery for June 19 to Shinjuku Piccadilly, Toyko’s biggest multiplex. It’ll stand tall from the 3rd floor of the theater’s open lobby so that viewers on the first floor can see movie trailers and impressively enjoy an ultraclear picture.

The 3.2m² widescreen sports a low-noise, fanless design which has been designed to handle round-the-clock continuous operation - perfect for all night long back-to-back movie sessions, has a resolution of 1920 X 1080 and features 760 million colors.

This massive 430 pound behemoth utilizes a fanless design that minimizes intake of dust from outside, which further improves its level of technical sophistication as a public display.

It is blessed with rich assortment of inputs needed for connectivity to peripheral equipment and devices: it has 3 HDMI, 1 DVI-I, 2 component, 1 S-video, 2 composite, 4 RCA analog auido, and 1 Stereo-mini slots. The expected price for the new Sharp LB-1085 goes around $101, 000 and is aimed to the rich, right?

via Impress