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Archive for August, 2008

Sony’s Bravia BDV-IT1000

Posted Friday, August 29th, 2008 by Alex Ion

There’s a new home theater system from Sony, dubbed Bravia BDV-IT1000. But it’s not just any home theater, it’s a Blu-ray home theater system that manages to output 700 W of total power from it’s tall and slim speakers that use a brand new finger-sized full-range speaker drive unit to be able to boast that much.

Other than the output, the Blu-ray player and receiver seems quite capable, featuring BD-Live readiness, a couple of HDMI inputs, optical digital and analog stereo audio inputs, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD support, and Sony’s trademark Digital Media Port to accommodate a range of add-on devices.

There isn’t anything official yet, so we don’t have a price to tell, but we’re pretty sure Sony is going to do it soon. We can’t wait.

via Sony Insider

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Wooden Boat Deck For Sunbathing

Posted Thursday, August 28th, 2008 by Alex Ion

When you read such a title you usually expect a lake and a boat, or something in that niche. But no. The German guys from Volkswagen got their brains storming to come up with a very innovative solution for the recreational vehicle show that will soon start in Dusseldorf. Though not able to drive on or under water their Caddy version features a sailboat style deck on the roof that can be modified for relaxation and sunbathing.

But they didn’t stop here. Apparently, to make things look as close to reality as possible they also installed a wooden ladder built into the glass for easy access to the roof. Just how cool is this? Though it’s still a concept I can see this one going mainstream with people leaving for a quick barbecue and some quality tan.

via Jalopnik

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The Museum of Modern Arab Art

Posted Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 by Alex Ion

Architecture is a main point in Dubai or most of the big Arab cities, with stunning buildings that win medals at all the design contests worldwide. That’s why these guys need a Museum of Modern Arab Art.

Located in Doha, Qatar, it looks like an enormous artificial sand dune but it’s actually a two-level  air-conditioned 350,000-square-foot building, shelter for over 10,000 works of art. The project designed by architect Rafael Viñoly in New York City, should be ready by 2010 and should contain nothing less than 5,000 paintings, 700 antiques, sculptures, metalwork and ceramics, a calligraphy section, photography and applied art.

There aren’t any price figures so far but that’s certainly going to be the most expensive sand dune ever, and that is going to be the main reason why more and more tourists will gladly pay a visit to the desert to see modern Arab art.

I have a question though. Why isn’t the Museum of Modern Arab Art, in Dubai? They seem to be the first when it comes to modern architecture, right?

via Dezeen

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Hand-carved wooden animal flash drives

Posted Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 by Alex Ion

USB toys are not really the way I have fun, but these wooden animal USB drives have really made it for me. Why? Just take a look at them. I’m not going to call those that built these, perverts or anything, but it’s weird that they had to stick the technology right into the arses of these cute little figurines. Who’s in charge? The Japanese.

Designers from Monodo made sure that we get the little schnauzer, the elephant, the swan, the hippo and the little piggy, all with 1GB of memory located “behind”.

Everything will be official in a couple of weeks and if you want to make sure your friends will laugh when you’re copying a movie or some documents from one computer to another, make sure you have $70 to spare for these hand-carved wooden animal flash drives.

via Fareastgizmos

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Canon EOS 50D - Leaked specs and images

Posted Monday, August 25th, 2008 by Alex Ion

There are already professional voices on the market talking about the new Canon EOS 50D specs which sure are impressive, but we managed to snap some images of the precious DSLR. And boy they’re precious. Actually the guys at Photography Bay managed to get the official pictures and one 1600 ISO image sample that features the 18-200mm lens kit option.

Click to view full resolution

Click to view full resolution

But back to the specs of the new Canon EOS 50D:

  • it’s a 15.1-megapixel with a standard 1.6x CMOS sensor
  • a 9-segment AF/AE sensor array
  • 14-bit image processing thanks to the Digic 4 processor
  • shoots from ISO 100 to ISO 3200, with “expansion” to 6400 and 12800
  • face recognition auto focus
  • 6.3 frames-per-second high-speed shooting
  • HDMI output
  • 95% view viewfinder

We don’t know the exact date we’ll get to see the precious on the streets or what the retail price is going to be, but we do know that a lot of pros are waiting for it. Canon, we’re in line! Move a little bit faster, please!

Sources 1, 2, 3

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The Sonance Kayak Speaker

Posted Friday, August 22nd, 2008 by Alex Ion

If we’re to consider simply the shape, well you can say it somehow resembles with a kayak. Right? I don’t know exactly who got the inspiration to call it the Kayak speaker, but I also don’t care.

The guys at NACSound who designed it, managed to create something that really got my attention. Could it be because I’m renovating my apartment and I have to buy furniture and stuff? Probably. Most likely!

But what’s up with the Sonance Kayak Speaker? Apparently it can be installed both horizontally and vertically and it offers stereophonic sound from a single speaker thanks to an acoustic reflector suspended in the center. Output is decent I must say: 60W with a sensitivity of about 86dB.

There’s one smaaaall drawback to me buying it for my living room. It costs only $2,900

Sonance via Dvice

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USB 3.0 Controller Specifications and a Test

Posted Thursday, August 21st, 2008 by Alex Ion

We’ve told you about USB 3.0 some while ago, but now we have most of the details after AMD, NVIDIA and a bunch others, came out with the controller specifications.

The most interesting things are that even though it will provide faster rates (10 times faster - up to 4.8Gbps) than USB 2.0 it will still be backwards-compatible. Trying to offer higher transfer speeds, it can both read and write at the same time from your portable storage device, while the downloads and uploads are separated on different lanes . Apparently, that’s going to help charge gadgets or any other devices much faster.

Now that you know most of the things about USB 3.0 a test is needed. Fresco Logic took care of that at IDF 2008 using a development platform based on Xilinx Inc’s FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), that managed to go over 350MBps. That’s not bad for a dry test, right ?

via TechOn, MaximumPC

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Meizu M8 Gets Detailed

Posted Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 by Alex Ion

Officially we knew it as Meizu M8 Mini One, but CEO J. Wong changed the way we’re going to address it and gave us a few official details (and a picture) on what to expect. The first models are going to roll out of the factory in October or November (the latest) are going to be white and the name is going to be just “M8″.

Though the new photo he’s luring us with is not revealing too much, we do know that the new Meizu M8 will feature a camera located far in one corner and should pack speakers on the side.

“I am even more anxious than you guys, we’ve put in so much effort for so long, I also desire to see some results” Wong said.

So it’s two or three months before we get a new phone on the market, the new Meizu M8.

via MP4Nation

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HTC Touch Diamond on Sprint from September

Posted Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 by Alex Ion

Just a quick question. Would you buy the HTC Touch Diamond if it would be on Sprint, if it were $299. Of course that’s the price after signing a contract for 2 years and getting all sorts of rebates, but I still think that’s a good deal.

The main specs include the TouchFLO 3D user interface, a full HTML (Opera) browser, a 3.2 megapixel camera, 4GB internal memory, stereo Bluetooth technology and EV-DO Rev. A. It’s running Windows Mobile 6.1 and is going to offer support for Outlook Email, Sprint Mobile E-mail (IMAP and POP3), Picture Mail, Sprint Navigation and Live Search, Sprint TV and Sprint Music Store.

I don’t think that’s a bargain but I think Sprint is really going the right way with this one. I’d definitely get mine with them.

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Lumibras - The Glowing Bras

Posted Monday, August 18th, 2008 by Alex Ion

We, men, have to be honest and admit that women’s breasts wouldn’t need more attention, because we have our eyes to spot every little detail over there.

Apparently Lumigram is not on the same channel with us, and they thought of creating fiber optic bras that emit a “soft and sensuous” glow when they have the batteries on.  It could be perfect for a night in the club, because they last for about 12 hours.

Not sure if the $145-$250 bras are going to get you a partner unless you have your own weapons beneath the glowing material. They’re being sold online at Lumigram. Anyone that wears them or undresses someone that had them on, please comment below and let us know of your experience.

via Inventorspot

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