May 20
Sony’s portable robotic dancing speaker is now officially on sale in USA. Sony Style lists both white and black version at $399.99. It is not as revolutionary as they suggest, but watching Rolly roll and flap around is certainly interesting. I’m still not convinced that a $400 price-point is appropriate (you can instead get, oh I don’t know, PLAYSTATION 3?).
It is supposed to be in stock, and will ship starting tomorrow. Watch a video demo, and decide for yourself if this robot belongs in your household:
May 16
I’m all for convergence, and Brother’s new model MFC-885CW takes the cake for being the most feature-packed on the marketplace. This color inkjet can of course print, copy, scan and fax. It also features a 4.2" flip-up widescreen LCD so you can preview, enhance and print photos directly from built-in memory card slots. It can even preview received faxes before you decide to print them.
MFC-885CW then adds wireless 802.11b/g for wireless printing, scanning and faxing, support for faxing from PC, and even a standard document feeder for fax, copy and scan.
Going above the multi-function printer, this model also bundles a cordless telephone handset and a built-in digital answering machine that can hold up to 29 minutes of messages + speakerphone.
If you decide to by one printer for your house or small business, this $230 USD machine can do almost anything you desire. Full specs after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
May 15
General Electric Co. is looking for buyers for its 101-year old appliances division. Perhaps best known for its refrigerators and washers/dryers, GE’s move is widely heralded as analysts believe the low-margin and low-growth market has too much foreign competition.
Analysts expect the appliances division to be worth close to $6.5 billion.
[Read full news from MSNBC]
May 06
Microsoft’s Zune media player will finally arrive on Canadian store shelves in June. There will be 3 versions: 4GB, 8GB and 80GB, retailing for $140 to $250. Starting today, you can join the party early by downloading Zune software, although music and video purchases won’t be available for the foreseeable future.
Mar 31
Since cellphone’s camera megapixel count keeps going up and up (currently 5 megapixel is widely available), and stand-alone cameras are already over 10 megapixel, it surprises me that webcam world has been stuck on VGA or 1.3 megapixel. HP’s Elite Auto Focus webcam changes that by putting in a 3 megapixel CMOS sensor. It can record VGA quality videos at 30fps, 5X digital zoom and it can shoot pictures at up to 12 megapixels (4096×3072 pixels) by software interpolation.
Product price and availability haven’t been announced yet.
Mar 20

I welcome all robots that will simplify life’s mundane tasks such as building cars, construction, farming and commuting. But until robots gain a level of intelligence that could wipe out the human race, I will settle for a robotic vacuum… Samsung is no stranger to robot vacuum manufacturing and the latest model Hauzen VC-RE70V is very attractive and pretty intelligent to boot, one-upping the closest competitor Roomba.
Unlike the Roomba which relies on hitting things to figure out where it is going, Hauzen has a built-in camera. It will take pictures to build a map of your place and see where it is going. No longer will a robotic vacuum rely on bumping into things as its main navigational feature. In addition, this can go back to the recharging cradle when it runs low on juice. And there’s also a remote control if you want to direct where your vacuum should go… No price announcement yet, but it should be available in Korea later this month.
Jan 16
Apple announced a new version of the firmware (1.1.3) for iPod Touch which enables it to view rented movies as well as additional apps that were ripped from the iPhone: Mail, Google Maps, Weather, Notes and Stocks. What’s surprising is Apple is actually charging money for this firmware upgrade whereas new iPod Touch units that ship with 1.1.3 installed won’t cost $20 more…
There is another and very free option to getting these 5 applications without paying Apple. You can simply jailbreak your iPod Touch, and install those applications yourself. Just doing a quick search on Google will get you started.
Of course, if you’d like to view movie rentals on your unit, you are stuck with paying for the upgrade.
Jan 15
Apple’s just announced MacBook Air is indeed a very sexy machine and it rightfully holds the claim as the world’s thinnest laptop. However, a quick comparison to the offerings from Dell and Sony that offer the same screen size show, as it is the case most of the times, you do pay more for the sleek design.
| |
MacBook Air |
Dell XPS M1330 |
Sony SZ740 |
| Processor |
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6 GHz |
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz |
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz |
| RAM |
2 GBs |
3 GBs |
2 GBs |
| Storage |
80 GBs |
250 GBs |
120 GBs |
| Internal DVD drive |
no |
yes |
yes |
| 802.11n |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| WAN |
no |
option |
option |
| Speaker |
mono |
stereo |
stereo |
| Weight |
3 pounds |
4 pounds |
4.2 pounds |
| Price |
$1,799 |
$1,524 |
$1,430 |
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