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A nice, but not particularly in-depth, survey of the dizzying array of options out there when it comes to mice these days: corded, cordless, optical, etc. I’ve recently just made the switch to an optical mouse (Microsoft’s Wheel Mouse Optical, pictured at right), but can’t bring myself to buy a cordless one just yet, especially…
Excellent New York Times article assessing Microsoft’s new Windows XP Media Center Edition, which is supposed to turn your PC into a home entertainment hub. By the way, there was a piece on Slate yesterday slagging off TiVo. It made a lot of solid points, but the timing is a little curious, since it’s appearing…
Yep, that does look exactly like T-Mobile’s Pocket PC Phone. But it’s not. It’s the new SX56 Pocket PC Phone from Siemens for AT&T Wireless. The SX56 uses the same exact reference design as T-Mobile’s Pocket PC Phone, and has the same 206 MHz Intel processor, 32MB of RAM, and 12-bit display. Same big retail…
Looks like the two new handhelds from Dell are going to be priced at $199 and $299, which can only mean one thing: a Pocket PC price war. Finally. Read
Reviews of a couple of new LCD monitor/TV combos, the 17-inch EN-7500 LCD from Envision Peripherals (pictured at right), and the 18.1-inch Xenon 1810E from Elegreen. It looks like these hybrid displays are starting to really take off, but how come both of these models come in a 5:4 aspect ratio instead of a 16:9?…
LA Times article examining the curious state of portable DVD players and the lack of demand for them. There’s one simple reason why they haven’t caught on – people can watch movies on their laptops. Still, once the prices for these come down and they cost around $100 (and prices are falling – some portable…
A DVD/DVR combo from Panasonic that might just be the Holy Grail for disgruntled TiVo owners. The DMR-HS2 has a 40GB hard disk for recording up to 52 hours of television, and a built-in DVD burner for archiving shows to DVD-R when you the hard drive runs out of space. Great news for anyone trying…
Lots of buzz about the new Dell Pocket PC today. CNET reports that leaked specs have turned up that describe the new handheld as having Secure Digital and Compact Flask expansion slots, a 3.5-inch transflective TFT display, and a jog dial. Not much more info available, such as price or memory. How long until some…
80211-planet.com reviews ViewSonic’s airpanel 100 wireless monitor. A wireless monitor sounds great, since you’ll have one less cable to plug in, right? Calling the airpanel 100 a wireless monitor is something of a misnomer, since with it’s 10.4 inch LCD touchscreen, 128 MB of RAM, 206 MHz processor, and Windows CE .NET operating system, it’s…
TechTV on the best laptops for under $1,500. Their pick: Toshiba’s Satellite 1405-S151, which for just $1299 has some pretty impressive specs: a 1.2MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, a 30GB hard drive, and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive. Read Amazon
Logitech plans to release a wireless webcam with a resolution of 510X492. Curiously, the Logitech QuickCam Cordless uses RF rather than 802.11b or even Bluetooth. Read
David Berlind of ZDnet on why Dell’s Pocket PC will almost certainly be worth waiting for. Read
From Fujitsu, a new robot that can be remotely controlled by cellphone. The Maron-1 is designed for home security and can operate household appliances as well. Read [Via Slashdot]
CNN.com on how the Zire, Palm’s new budget handheld, is being aimed at students, housewives, and other non-business users. The price is right ($99.99), but I suspect that budget handhelds won’t take off with the general public until they are more than just fancy day planners. They need to have wireless Internet as well, something…
Chris from TabletPCTalk points out a new Tablet PC for the educational market from British company RM. It has a 10.1″ display, integrated 802.11b, a 733MHz processor, 256MB of RAM, and a 20GB hard drive. The Teacher’s version even has a biometric fingerprint scanner to protect it from being used by “inquisitive” students. Read [Thanks,…
Not sure whether this is such a good idea, but researchers at NTT DoCoMo have figured out a way transmit data between PDAs by having it pass through, now get this, the human body. And quickly too, at about 10 megabits per second. Anyone else both freaked out and impressed by the fact that our…
Great article in the San Jose Mercury News about retailers like Dynamism and TKNY (which is just a few blocks from my apartment!) that import crazy gadgets and super-slim laptops from Japan that will never be officially released here in the US. Read [Thanks Jon!]
InfoSync piece comparing the relative merits of Palms versus Pocket PCs in light of the release of the Sony’s new CLIE PEG-NX70V handheld [pictured at right], which is the first Palm with hardware specs that rival a Pocket PC, as well as the first to run Palm’s new OS 5. Read Amazon
A new line of digital camera attachment for PDAs from Veo called the Photo Traveler. These pop into an SD or Compact Flash slot. They’re priced to go on sale later this month at $99.99, and with 24-bit color and 640×480 resolution, it looks like they’ll take pretty decent pics for a PDA camera. Read…
Speaking of memory, the BBC is reporting on a breakthrough in using individual atoms for memory storage that could eventually result in CD-ROMs that can store 650 million megabytes of data. That’s 130 million MP3s, which is probably more than every song ever recorded. Read