GadgetReview

The WSJ is reporting that Barnes and Noble will officially announce their e-reader device as early as tomorrow.  Word is that the e-book reader will be called the “Nook”, let users share books with friends and cost $259.  The news comes by way of a leaked full page ad, which one has to assume isn’t going to be placed in the Wall Street Journal, at least not any more without a significant discount.

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Sony’s had their struggles with R&D, as evidenced by the failed Mini Disc and UMD formats.  Now it looks the behemoth has plans to release a prototype spherical like display that could achieve massive fanfare or be lost in the annals of obscurity.

While I’m not sure what the practical applications could be – I suppose a digital photo frame that could be viewed from 360 degrees would work – the idea of being able to view an image from any angle (yes porn), no matter where you stand is pretty captivating…and without any special glasses.

Specs include a 13×27-cm device with 24-bit color image measuring just 96×128 pixels.  Small yes, but remember that this is a prototype and supposedly they’ve got plans to show it off at the Tokyo Digital Content EXP0 2009 this coming Thursday.  I just wonder if the tech can ever be cheap enough to end up in my home’s living room (or bedrooms).

[via Engadget]

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Today we’re talking about the new gotta-have-it watch, a watch that has all the performance of an MP3 player, but also a cool blue, almost holographic, face that screams “gadget buff”.

The Tick Tack Music Watch is like a wearable MP3, complete with a headphone jack and a set of tiny earbuds included.  It’s still in the concept stages right now, so you can call this a bit of a leak, and so there’s also not a lot of details about storage capacity or battery life or even price data just yet.

While I like the thought of an MP3 player in a wristwatch, I really have to wonder if this will go over that big when put alongside the likes of an iPod.  IPods really aren’t that much bigger than a wristwatch, and they probably hold more songs and deliver better quality audio, too.  But time will tell, as it so often does, so stay tuned.

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Pictured above is supposedly Barnes and Noble’s e-reader.  While specs and a wireless carrier have yet to be announced, or leaked in this case, rumor has it that it has an e-ink display on the top 3/4 of the device for reading magazines and books, while the lower quarter is a color LCD screen that will not only be good for perusing book covers but will double as a touchscreen keyboard or mutlitouch surface.  …Continue reading: Gadget Leak: Barnes And Noble’s E-Reader Has Two Screens

Sometimes, you wish you could get access to shaky, variable quality information about just about any topic.  it’s times like these that we usually turn to the internet–but what if we’re away from the wireless internet or what have you?

That’s where the WikiReader device comes in.  It’s powered by two AAA batteries that are estimated to last a full year in this device, and comes with a monochrome touchscreen so you can scroll and track things.

I admit, it’s probably pretty cool to have access to three million articles worth of Wikipedia, especially wherever you happen to be at the time.  Updates are delivered on a quarterly basis, and you can also get a microSD card option added to your WikiReader for just an extra $29 a year.  It will probably do horrible things to barroom trivia contests–NTN is probably freaking out and wetting itself as we speak–but the idea is still plenty cool.

The base unit itself costs $99, and will be available on Amazon on the order of Real Soon Now.

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HP is dropping mutitouch displays like it’s hot.  The biggest of the 4 announced today is the LD4200tm, which measures 42-inches and produces a full HD picture at 1920×1080.  To keep costs down on this massive touch display, they opted for a combination of infrared and imaging sensors, forgoing the costly capacitive technology.  To make all this magic happen, though, you’ll need to plug it into a computer via USB, while the screen’s imagery will be displayed by HDMI.  Other specs include a 9ms response time, 3000:1 contrast ratio and 500 cd/m2 brightness.

Expect the LD4200tm to show up in public environments and cost about $2,800.

HP press release regarding the HP Pavilion dv3 with TouchSmart, HP TouchSmart600 PC with 23-inch full HD 16:9 display and HP TouchSmart300 PC with 20-inch 16:9 display after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: HP Launches LD4200tm, A Massive 42-inch Touch Display And A Slew Of Other Touch Products

For sometime now FLO TV has been partnering up with device makers to deliver streaming TV any where you travel in the US.  But now they’re ready to take on the hardware market and yesterday they introduced the FLO TV Personal Television.  Steve just posted an article this AM about the announcement and this afternoon I got a hands on with the device.

I’m not floored or jaw dropped and I’ll come right out and say that it’s too expensive for what they’re offering.  But with that said the device isn’t all that bad or all that great.  The screen is far from reactive but the UI is simple and straight forward.  You can swipe up and down on the screen while viewing live TV to switch channels – it brings up a menu bar displaying the program and you tap on it to switch to that channel.  You can also hit the menu button to see all the 15 channels and upcoming content.  If you click on a future show it will provide you with the option of scheduling a reminder, which comes in the form of a vibration and/or tone – you can also setup season notifications.  And of course there are volume buttons as well as a mute button and headphone port.  Since the screen only measure 3.5-inches it’s not a vast improvement or leap over most smartphones today, but streams are relatively instantaneous and the battery life is 5 hours when viewing live TV.

You can preorder the device at Amazon for $249.99, and it looks like you can pay monthly, yearly or every 3 years – each increase in time results in a monthly discount.

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Remember how the digital TV switch left most portable TVs useless?

Well, the folks at Flo TV have developed a portable television device that laughs at the digital divide, the Flo TV  Personal Television.

No waiting.  No buffering.  No nothing–just start watching and use your fingertip on the touchscreen to move the image back and forth.  Even better, the Flo TV gets fifteen channels, including Comedy Central, MTV, MSNBC and NBC News.

Of course, this doesn’t come free–you’ll have to shell out a whopping $8.99 a month with a three year commitment, and the device itself will run you an extra $249.99.

Pricey, but if you’ve ever wanted to easily carry cable content around with you, this is exactly the device you want.

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So 3M, those great innovators, have come up with a way to get you to watch 3-D on your mobile device of choice, but without the glasses entirely.  Check THIS out:  they’ve developed this optical film (that you can apply to any gadget’s backlight system) that uses two alternating rows of LED to project left and right images one after the other to the viewers’ eyes.  This in turn allows for a stereoscopic 3-D image but without the need for glasses.

The film works on any device with a viewing size of nine inches or smaller, and to watch video in 3-D via this method requires the video be displayed at 120hZ.

I find myself a bit skeptical to the value of this, but admit from a conceptual level this is blisteringly cool–after all, turning any mobile gadget into a 3-D player with only a strip of plastic?  That’s MacGyver-grade gadgetry right there.

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I was just perusing Amazon when I noticed an announcement on their home page stating that they’ve dropped the price of the Kindle from $299 to $259. What’s more interesting, though, is the addition of the Kindle International, which demands a $20 premium over the now cheaper Kindle but includes the ability to download books in over 100 countries. Otherwise, it’s the same old Kindle.

The International Kindle will ship October 19th, but they’re taking preorders starting today.

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