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Interesting piece in Business 2.0 on why so many gadgets these days have blue LEDs. Read
Sharp has refreshed its Actius line of notebooks from Sharp, with the super-thin UM32W (pictured at right) the real stand out of the bunch. It’s just 0.77-inches thick, weighs about 3 pounds, and has a 1.0GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, built-in 802.11b, and a 40GB hard drive. Read [Via CoolTools]
Fortune’s Fall Technology Guide, which has a good summary of what’s hot in gadgets this season, is up. Read
Judie from The Gadgeteer trashes a gadget that is hitting the market just few years too late: the Vosonic V-MP3H, an oversized “digital data player” that plays both MP3s and MPEG-1 video files. Costs about $200, which seems reasonable, but has a tiny screen and only comes with a 16MB Compact Flash card, which is…
CNET roundup of budget PCs. Even cheapo desktops are remarkably powerful these days when you think about it. Read
A review from the Louisville Courier-Journal of Merconnet’s GMX-TV, a 6-inch LCD television that retails just $145. Read
TechTV on whether or not Palms and Pocket PCs can effectively double as MP3 players. Read [Via PocketPCThoughts]
CDR-Info review of two 52x CD burners, AOpen’s CRW5224 and Sony’s CRX220E1 (which is actually a 48x burner that can be speeded up with a firmware upgrade). Read Amazon – Sony CRX220E1
Dell’s new Pocket PC, the very poorly named Axim X5 comes out November 18th. Read
CNET review of that new $3000 plasma TV from Gateway. They say there are some problems with black-level performance, but that overall it is “unquestionably the best value in the 42-inch plasma category.” Read
Six new cellphones from Nokia, all with color screens: the tri-band 7250, which has a built-in digital camera; the 6100, the world’s smallest and lightest GPRS phone with a color display; the dual-band 8910i, which is a version of the 8910 but with a color display; the tri-band 5100, with a color; the entry-level 2100;…
An astute reader writes in to point out that Sony Ericsson’s hot new cellphone, the T68i, is for sale again at Amazon. The T68i has built-in Bluetooth, an attachment for taking digital pictures, and sells for just $49.99 with activation. Amazon [Thanks, Mark!]
A gutsy, and possibly crazy, move from Gateway. They’re not just introducing a new 42″ widescreen plasma television (which is a departure from its core business of selling PCs) they’re also going to sell them for just $3000. That’s still a lot of money for a TV, but that’s about half what the average plasma…
Wired News looks at the imminent launch of the Tablet PC (just a few days left!) with a review of Electrovaya’s entry into the field, the Scribbler. Read
A video review by JustPPC of Belkin’s USB Infrared Smartbeam, which is used to transfer files wirelessly to your computer from IR-enabled devices like handhelds and cellphones. Read
Few details are available at the moment, but it looks like HP’s Pocket PC aimed at the low-end of the market, the iPaq 1900, will be hitting stores soon. Read
A new MP3 player from Archos, the Jukebox FM Recorder 20, which looks just like the Multimedia Jukebox, but has a monochrome screen and only plays MP3s. Has a 20GB drive, uses USB 2.0 for file-transfer, and has a built-in voice recorder. The really handy feature of the FM Recorder 20, though, is that it…
Two new Pocket PCs from Toshiba have come out in Japan, the Genio ec550 GX and GS. Both have 400MHz processors, 240×320, 65,000 color screens, and CF, SD, and PC card slots, but the GX has more memory, with 128MB of RAM compard to 64MB in the GS. Read [Translated from Japanese using Babelfish]
Tom’s Hardware Guide roundup of multi-format flash memory card reader/writers. Lots of options out there right now. Eventually nearly all PCs will have these built-in, but in the meantime they recommend SanDisk’s ImageMate Dual Card Reader (pictured at right) and Belkin’s Media Reader/Writer. Amazon – SanDisk ImageMate Dual Card Reader Amazon – Belkin Media Reader/Writer
DCViews.com reports that Sony is recalling some of its DSC-F717 Cyber-shot digital cameras, because under certain conditions it cannot focus and the resulting photographs will be blurry. Read