Hottest Electronic Gadgets

Archive for August, 2009

If you can handle its 24-inch screen, the Medion X9613 all-in-one certainly looks the part of a perfectly contained HTPC.

Loaded with Windows 7, the X9613 features a multitouch screen, Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, Nvidia GT240M graphics, 4GB of RAM, Blu-ray drive and even a second Sideshow monitor (that box you see on the bottom, we believe). But it’s the system’s glossy, touch-button and fingerprint-friendly design that would make it an aesthetically welcome addition to one’s typical array of home theater equipment.

Announced for Europe only at the moment, the X9613 is priced between $2,100 to $2,700 after conversion. Luckily, these types of rigs will only get cheaper.[New Gadgets via Engadget]

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Santech might not be the most familiar name around here, but the company has a bit of history in the mobile field, and its latest 13.3-inch effort definitely merits a second look. Coming in under that magical mental barrier of an inch in thickness and sporting an Intel CULV processor, it’s slinky and (just) powerful enough to be called an ultraportable. Add in a claimed 12 hours of battery life, and the LV1 would seem like a viable competitor to Acer’s Timeline series, but it falters on pricing, which — once you add the 8-cell battery to the base unit of a SU3500 1.4GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and 160GB HDD — is €701 ($1,003) after taxes, or €100 more than an almost identical Aspire 3810T from Acer.

[Via Notebook Italia]

Filed under: Laptops

Santech LV1 is low voltage and low fat, but not low price originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Flash memory and device manufacturer SanDisk clearly has a thorough understanding of the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” And we sure are pleased about that, because when the company decided to update its extremely popular Sansa Clip, it could have mangled a perfectly peachy player. …

Originally posted at MP3 Insider

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After Puddy’s ho-hum appearance earlier this month, the revolving celebrity door that is the Apple I’m a Mac ads now feature the gruff and tough Robert Loggia as the PC’s personal trainer.

Now, I’m a Mac user (surprise!), but I think I’m starting to agree with Dan on these commercials. They’re getting a bit long in the tooth and a bit forced, no? [Apple via CrunchGear]

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Looks like smartbooks really are the new netbooks, after all. Aptly exemplifying déjà vu, German company Smartbook AG has issued a cease-and-desist to Netbooknews.de, claiming it owns the trademark and copyright on the term “smartbook” and that its use on the news site is damaging to the company’s reputation and credibility. The letter demands that within two weeks all instances of the word be stricken from both the German and English-language versions, despite the latter being hosted in the US, outside of German jurisdiction. Of course, the logical thing would be to go after a company like Qualcomm who’s been using the designation all along, and not the outlets who report on it, but why let a little common sense get in the way of some good ol’ fashioned internet drama, eh Smartbook? By our count, it was almost exactly six months between Psion sending out its first cease-and-desist on “netbook” to media outlets and its eventual acquiescence and settlement with Intel, so consider the clock here officially ticking.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Filed under: Laptops

Smartbook AG (the company) follows in Psion’s footsteps, issues cease and desist letter to website using the term ’smartbook’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bokeh, which is the out-of-focus light distortion in the background of a photo, is more and more seen as an aesthetic element of photography. This lens brings it more attention by shaping those blurs into stars, hearts, and more.

The Bokeh Filter is a physical lens that attaches to any mainstream DSLR and blocks out small pieces of light to create the desired patterns. Changing the cool blurry streetlights behind your ladyfriend into hearts? Cheesetastic. But used subtly (that would mean using no shapes that are also found in a box of Lucky Charms), this could bring a really cool element to some photos. And hell, if you’re going for outright cheese, might as well do it naturally and not in the edit room, right? [Bokeh Filter via Geekologie]

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We saw the top, we saw the poster, and now it looks like we’ve got more or less the whole deal: Canon’s EOS 7D has been leaked in (most of) its gory detail. At the heart there’s an 18 megapixel sensor and dual DIGIC 4 processors, which shoots stills at 8 FPS with ISO from 100 to 6400 and a special 12800 ISO mode. The 3-inch LCD has a 920,000 dot resolution, while the viewfinder offers 100% coverage and a built-in digital level. Naturally the camera picks up the HD movie capabilities of the 5D, but no word on how it might expand upon them just yet. All this info has been gleaned from a Chinese forum, so we’re still obviously awaiting on official word from Canon — but if the rapid leakage rate is any indication, it can’t be too far off.

[Thanks, Darko]

Read – Spec breakdown
Read – Forum source

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon EOS 7D pics and specs leak out originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That blurry thing under the display is the SR-H2000.

(Credit: Sirius XM)

I went to Sirius XM’s New York City headquarters on Wednesday to see what’s new. They showed a bunch of docking units and the like, but the only new product that got my juices flowing was …

Originally posted at The Audiophiliac

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Forget about nuclear winter. Humans are resilient. We will survive. So how many nukes will it take to destroy every single human being in the planet, on first blast? Here’s the calculation in graphic form—with a surprising answer:

The first part of the graphic—created by David McCandless—shows how much space is actually used by the entire population. According to the Guardian Datablog and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, only 12.5% of the planet’s surface is actually occupied by humans. A total of 18,617,500 square kilometers.

Click next above to continue or here to see the gallery in normal post form

Now, the most powerful active nuclear warhead in the world is the B83, which has a destructive power of two hundred Little Boys, the bomb that destroyed part of Hiroshima. That’s a 14.9-square-kilometer total destruction area. Complete instant tanning, and obliteration of anything in sight. To give you an idea of what this space means, Manhattan is 58.8 square kilometers. Central London is 26 square kilometers.

Click next above to continue or here to see the gallery in normal post form

Now divide the total number of square kilometers by the destruction radius of the B83 to get the total number of nukes required for instant annihilation. As you can see, we need 123.36 times the amount of nukes available today: 10,227 nukes vs 1,241,166 nukes needed to completely disintegrate every single one of us in a millisecond.

Conclusion: WE NEED MORE NUKES, NOT FEWER. Better die instantly than having to survive nuclear winter and another yet another horrible movie with Mel Gibson playing Mad Max. One that would last for a few hundred years at that. [David McCandless—Thanks David Keyes]

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Pentax may not be the first name you think of when scouting a new DSLR, but it’s certainly closer to the top now than it was prior to the K-7’s release. The semi-pro cam saw positive review after positive review flow in, giving even the Nikon and Canon faithful reason to pay attention. At right under $1,300 for just the body it didn’t come cheap, though the high-def movie capture mode, ability to snap HDR shots natively and 14.6 megapixel sensor help to justify the MSRP somewhat. What we’re really after here are your thoughts; for those that bought in, have you been pleased? Is the low-light performance sufficient? Is the autofocus snappy enough for your tastes? Or more importantly, how happy are your clients with the results? Comments are all yours, so get to it!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

How would you change Pentax’s K-7 DSLR? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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