NIKON D3X

NIKON D3X


Well it has been perhaps one of the most talked about releases in recent years and finally this morning Nikon have announced their new flagship, the Nikon D3x . Following the usual Nikon trend for having an "x" version with increased pixels, the Nikon D3x now produces a 24.5 megapixel file which should please all those who have been clamouring for Nikon to match the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk III and 5D Mk II.
Sensor: Nikon have designed a brand new 24.5 megapixel FX format CMOS sensor that has been engineered specifically for the D3x.
ISO: The default range is ISO 100-1600, but is expandable to make it ISO 50 to 6400.
Image Processor: Such a huge file does produce some performance issues but Nikon have addressed these with a modified version of their existing EXPEED digital image processing system.
UDMA: The Nikon D3x fully supports the new UDMA cards, which allows you to get a higher performance card to deal with the increased file sizes of the Nikon D3x.
Shooting Speed: The Nikon D3x allows you to shoot at 5fps in the full FX mode and 7fps in the cropped DX mode.
HDMI support: The Nikon D3x provides a type A output for HDMI playback of images, this will be a very useful feature for those in the field of fashion or studio photography.
ADR Auto setting: The Nikon D700 introduced the Auto setting to the Dynamic Range function which allows the camera to control the dynamic range according to the situation. Many of you will know that I changed from my Canon system to use the amazing Nikon D3 and now have two of these plus a Nikon D700. It seemed obvious to me last year that Nikon had to bring out a high resolution DSLR and the forums have been alive these past few months with rumours and speculation.The Nikon D3x certainly provides that, in fact it is a 100% increase, and that alone is worth the price. Frame rate at 5fps is acceptable as these users are not generally needing to blast, and the new HDMI support will allow much better viewing options for clients present during the shoot. So for these target sectors the Nikon D3x provides market leading performance and will be a must have camera.

COWON Q5W

COWON Q5W

Cowon's most ambitious product to date, the Cowon Q5W, is a super-charged, touch-screen portable video player (PVP) with an astounding list of features. The Cowon Q5W comes with a hefty price tag ($549 for 40GB, $599 for 60GB), however, and its dense, needlessly complicated feature set may overwhelm some users.

With a recessed 5-inch wide-screen display and elegant metal construction, the Cowon Q5W looks like a Cowon D2 on steroids. Considering that the Q5W comes in at nearly a pound of unwieldy metal girth--measuring 5.5 inches wide, 3.5 inches high, and 0.8 inch thick--it would also make a decent weapon should you choose to hurl it at someone. The Cowon Q5W's 5-inch touch screen (800x480 resolution) is both beautiful and responsive.The top edge of the Cowon Q5W includes conveniently located buttons for controlling volume, a power switch that doubles as a hold button for disabling onscreen controls, two built-in speakers, an infrared sensor for the included remote control, and a pinhole microphone for creating voice recordings. A useful (often necessary) stylus pen for the Q5W's touch screen is conveniently housed in the top-right edge of the player. Packed into the left edge of the Q5W are jacks for a 3.5mm headphone cable, a 2.5mm headset cable (for voice recording), a power adapter input, a USB-to-PC port, a USB host port, and the oddest feature of all: a fragile, retractable antenna that we first thought was for the FM radio, but is actually used for Wi-Fi reception. The back, bottom, and right edge of the Q5W are bare, save a small proprietary port on the bottom for the player's AV cable output and optional GPS dock. The Q5W supports an extensive list of acceptable audio and video formats (including DivX, XVID, WMV, MPEG, and audio formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, OGG, FLAC, APE, MPC), but chokes on AAC, h.264, MKV, VOB, and MOV files. Beyond the in-depth audio and video playback features, the Cowon Q5W includes a built-in FM radio, standalone Flash file player (presumably for games), photo viewer, text reader, and voice recorder. The Q5W also includes a suite of Microsoft applications that run natively on its Windows CE 5 operating system, including MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer, WordPad (which makes the text reader somewhat redundant), and a couple of card games.

NINTENDO DSI

NINTENDO DSI


Ninty overlord, Saoru Iwata, took the wraps off the new DS model, the DSi, which continues the handeld's incredibly boring naming conventions. The lowercase 'i' could be an acknowledgement of the fact that nothing without that one important letter somewhere in the title has any hope of being recognised as a desirable technology product. Or it could be something clever to do with the two cameras that the new handheld is equipped with. These cameras, located on the inside hinge and on the outer edge of the upper screen, are only equipped with a weak 640 x 480 pixel sensor. TThe DSi gets a major upgrade to its predecessor's multimedia abilities. While each was capable of playing music and browsing the internet, it was only through third-party tools; Nintendo wanted them to be for gaming only, which set it aside from the multifunctional PSP.The DSi includes an integrated photo viewer, MP3 player and web browser; a major step in the multimedia direction that will challenge new mobile devices.The screen width has been increased by a quarter of an inch, to 3.25". Unfortunately that comes at a cost. The battery life has taken a bit of a battering; on its brightest setting you can only expect 3 hours of gameplay, compared to the 5 hours of the DS Lite. At more restrained settings you can milk as much as 14 hours out of the DSi - easily enough to keep you busy on a trip across the Atlantic.

Sony XEL-1 OLED TV

SONY XEL- 1 OLED TV

Sony's XEL-1 represents the first widely available OLED-based TV. OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, and its benefits, according to the company, include improved contrast ratio, wider viewing angles, and better color reproduction. According to our tests on the Sony XEL-1, most of those claims have merit. Of course, this is an 11-inch TV for $2,500, and its 960x540 native resolution doesn't even qualify it as an HDTV, so its appeal as a product is limited to only the most profligate wastrels. Sony hasn't announced any plans to produce larger sizes in 2008, and we expect that bigger OLED sets, whether from Sony or another manufacturer--Panasonic, Hitachi, Samsung Electronics, at least, have made large investments in OLED--will cost a mint thanks to manufacturing difficulties and the usual high price of early-generation technology. Nevertheless, if the XEL-1 is any indication, OLED looks like the real (next big) thing. The first thing most people notice when they see the minuscule XEL-1 is the outsize base, and the second is the sliver-thin panel itself. These two design characteristics go hand-in-hand. OLED allows the XEL-1's panel to measure a vanishing 3mm deep, and thinner OLED prototypes have been demonstrated--even ones that can be rolled up like a parchment scroll.Faced with the need to actually plug things into the XEL-1, Sony slapped it atop a base that looks vaguely like a portable DVD player in its own right. It doesn't spin discs, but the base does include a string of inputs on the back panel, a row of buttons on the top front, and a single silver arm on the right side that supports the screen on a tilting hinge. Chrome along the back of the base and the backside of the panel match the arm, for an overall look that's as sleek and modern as any TV we've seen. The screen itself is coated with a mildly reflective surface that nonetheless collects less light than the glossy frame around the screen. For whatever reason, perhaps related to manufacturing difficulties, Sony decided to give the XEL-1 just 960x540 pixels, exactly half of 1,920x1,080 (aka 1080p) on both the horizontal and vertical axes. Paste together four XEL-1 screens, and you've got one 1080p displayTheThe XEL-1 has a fine selection of picture-affecting features, including three picture modes that can be independently adjusted per input; four color temperature presets; two flavors of noise reduction, and a few fancily named extras (Back Corrector, Clear White, Live Color) that should be turned off for best picture quality.he XEL-1 has a fine selection of picture-affecting features, including three picture mhe XEAs you'd expect from a TV with a paucity of back-panel space to devote to connections, the XEL-1's jack pack lacks its share of inputs. For standard AV sources, there are only two HDMI ports and an RF-style input for antenna or cable. The XEL-1 makes no provision for standard analog sources, but really, who's hooking a VCR up to this thing? The back panel also includes a slot for Memory Stick (Pro and Duo compatible) as well as another proprietary Sony item, the port for a Bravia Internet Video Link. The short story on performance is that the Sony XEL-1, thanks to all those fancy diodes, displayed the deepest black levels we've ever seen from a shipping TV.

Blackberry 8900

BLACKBERRY CURVE 8900

You see the BlackBerry Curve 8900 isn't just an incremental improvement to the 8300. It smashes it in every possible way. In fact so good is the 8900 that unless you desperately need 3G connectivity it is arguably a better handset than the flagship BlackBerry Bold.

Starting with the physical dimensions at 109x60x13.5mm the 8900 is more slim line than the Bold and significantly lighter at 109g to 136g making it genuinely pocket friendly. The 8900 also feels very solid and shares a great deal of the Bold's sleek new styling as well as the same improved trackball and convenient top mounted screen lock button.

Equally good is the 2.4-inch display which actually packs in more pixels (480x360 verses 480x320) than the Bold's 2.5-incher and is a joy to behold with razor sharp icons, vivid colours and - if anything - a slightly warmer tint in the manner of the iPhone 3G when placed alongside the original iPhone.

The camera in the 8900 is better too with a welcome bump from the two-megapixels seen in both the 8300 and the Bold to 3.2-megapixels with autofocus and an LED flash present and protected under a class cover. Granted the results aren't going to worry any Cybershot, Pixon or Renoir owners but it's a nice little upgrade.

RIM hasn't skimped on the other features either with GPS and Wi-Fi still part of the mix along with the full Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP for streaming music to headphones. Another key component for many, voice recognition, also appears while the keyboard is as easy to use as ever with just the right amount of give. We found our typing accuracy to be better as well thanks to the spacing introduced between the keys since the 8300 and again in similar vein to the Bold.

Showing RIM's desire to engage the man the in street as well as those permanently positioned behind their desks, the 8900 sports a top notch multimedia player which offers support for MP3, AAC/AAC+, WMA, DivX, Xvid, H.263 and more - a list many of which an iPhone owner would be envious. No fatal flaw here either as a 3.5mm headphone jack is fitted, though perhaps it would be better located on the top than the side.

There's no falling down when it comes to battery life either with official stamina quoted at up to a mammoth six hours talk time and 19 days of standby. In reality this translated to a good day to two days when combined with moderate use and should prove more than enough for most. Something which can't be said for the paltry native storage (under 100MB) RIM tends to supply inside its handsets (Storm aside). That said, the inclusion of a microSD expansion slot compatible with cards up to 16GB means this won't prove an issue.

World's Thinnest LCD HDTV

SONY KDL-40ZX1

Sony's taken the crown in the race for thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi's (likely throwing up in the bathroom right now) and comes within a whisper of Pioneer's ultra thin concept. Featuring a LED backlighting, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz MotionFlow tech, x.v.Color and BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing this is about as close to a 40-inch window on your wall as is likely to arrive soon. Only one HDMI in is directly on the screen itself, all unnecessary HDMI / USB / component inputs are relegated to a base station, with the option for wired or -- possibly WHDI based? -- 5Ghz wireless (unfortunately limited to 1080i max resolution for now). We'd mention the XMB GUI, AcTVila video on-demand and DLNA support, but at some point it's just piling on. A mere 490,000 yen ($4,474 U.S.) puts the ZX1 on your wall, due at your local Japanese retailer November 10. See you there?

Nokia N99

NOKIA N99


Nokia is going to soon announce the launch of the next Nseries mobile phone with a 8 Megapixel camera .The design is similar to the Nokia N93 mobile phone which comes with a slider and the camera can be rotated in any direction. The Nokia N93 had only a 3.2Megapixel camera but this one may have a 6 to 8 Megapixel camera and make it the best digital camera mobile phone with the highest sized image resolutions and quality. Though Nokia has not released any official news about this upcoming mobile phone but this a kind of rumour which is spread everywhere because Nokia needs to overcome their own 5Megapixel N95 and Sony Ericsson K850i mobile phones.

The features are expected to be:-

• 9 way front joystick button.
• 16GB FLASH internal memory, up to 4GB mini SD slot.
• 16:9 3.2″ wide screen.
• GPS.
• MP3, DIVX XVID MPEG AVI video reading.
• WLAN WIFI qwerty pad.
• 8MP camera.
• 3CCD 720 pixel wide 30fps video capture .
• & a price range of around 1000$.

Sony VIAO P

Sony VIAO P Series

Japanese electronics giant Sony debuted a powerful, fashionable notebook computer small enough to fit in a purse or suit jacket.The Vaio P Series “lifestyle” personal computer is the size of a standard business envelope for mail and weighs a mere 1.4 pounds. “It easily fits in a purse and I know for a fact it fits in a jacket pocket,” Stan Glasgow, Head of Sony’s Operations in the United States, said as he unveiled a garnet-coloured P Series Vaio in Las Vegas on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show.

FEATURES:-

• The mini-notebook has built-in Bluetooth and wireless Internet connection hardware along with global positioning satellite technology.You can be connected where ever there is a cell phone signal.
• The new VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC is around the size of an envelope and as thin as a smart mobile phone which can easily be carried in a jacket pocket or in a ladies purse while integrating all the features of a complete laptop.
• The entire system weighs around 1.4 lbs and The stylishly small Vaio has a high-resolution 8-inch LCD screen. It is priced at $900 .
• Though the model is having only 8 inch diagonally wide screen but it delivers a high-resolution of 1600 x 768 in LED backlit. So the user can experience the full web pages as well as can see full screen movies or even can work in spreadsheet or word processing soft wares with no side scrolling. This next generation model also incorporates Sony’s XBRITE-ECO™ LCD technology which produces images in true colour and razor sharp details.
• The VAIO P Series Lifestyle consumer model (VGN-P80H/W, VGN-P70H/R, G, W) features Intel Atom Z520 CPU .
• 60GB hard disk and on-board 2GB RAM.
• The model is shipped with pre-installed Windows Vista Home Basic.
• It is also equipped with IEEE802.11b/g/n and NTT DoCoMo FOMA High Speed WAN connection and Bluetooth.
• The normal battery lifetime is around 4.5 hours.

The unit is available in some eye-catching colours including garnet red, emerald green, onyx black, crystal white and classic black. The sleek system is matched with carrying cases and Bluetooth colour-coordinated mice to complete the look. Sony also claims that the keyboard is very conveniently placed so that user won’t feel any problem during typing.

Sony has expressed in press conference that P Series Lifestyle PC will be launched primarily in 33 countries including North America and Europe as well as Russia and China.

NVIDIA Personal Supercomputer

NVIDIA PERSONAL SUPERCOMPUTER

Nvidia and its partners have announced the availability of the new GPU-based Tesla personal supercomputer. The Tesla personal supercomputer is claimed to offer up to 250 times the performance of a standard PC or workstation, yet remains small enough to sit on an office desk and plug into a standard power strip. At the heart of the new Tesla personal supercomputer are three or four Nvidia Tesla C1060Nvidia graphics card, but without any video output ports. Each Tesla C1060 has 240 streaming processor cores running at 1.296 GHz, 4 GB of 800 MHz 512-bit GDDR3 memory and a PCI Express x16 system interface. While typically using only 160-watts of power, each card is capable of 933 GFlops of single precision floating point performance or 78 GFlops of double precision floating point performance. computing processors, which appear similar to a high-performance

While the Tesla C1060 computing processors are powerful, they have a massively-parallel architecture that may have trouble with serial computing modes. The Tesla personal supercomputer also features a powerful Intel or AMD quad-core processor, which is another important component of the system, especially when dealing with these serial computing modes. The Tesla personal supercomputer includes at least 4 GB of system memory per included Tesla C1060 card and at least a 1200- to 1350-watt power supply. System noise is rated at less than 45 dbA and the supported operating systems

include Windows XP, Red Hat and SUSE.

It is pretty clear that the Tesla personal supercomputer is not designed for PC gaming, but rather for highly computational research and professional work. Ideal types of applications for this system would likely include the processing of large sets of consistent data, such as transcoding a DVD or studying seismic activity. The GPU-based Tesla Personal Supercomputer is now available from retail HPC OEMs, system builders and resellers, including Dell, Asus, Western Scientific and Microway. Prices vary depending on configuration, but expect to pay around $10,000 for your own personal supercomputer.

Blackberry Storm

BLACKBERRY STORM 9500

The BlackBerry Storm, or BlackBerry Thunder, is a smartphone developed by Research In Motion (RIM). It is part of the BlackBerry 9500 series of phones. It is RIM's first touchscreenResearch In Motion patented technology of providing haptic feedback. It will be available through Vodafone in the UK, Ireland, Australia and India, Verizon Wireless in the United States, Telus and Bell in Canada.

device and first device without a physical keyboard. It features a touchscreen which reacts physically like a button via SurePress, a

• SurePress: The Storm's most prominent feature is its SurePress™ touchscreen. This screen allows the user to navigate through the phone using their fingertip, similar to a computer's mouse, and "click" the screen by pushing down to select. Users have the ability to adjust the screen's settings so that double tapping can be employed as an alternate method to select and navigate the phone. This made the Storm one of the few touchscreen smartphones to provide haptic feedback.

• Display: 3.25 in (8.3 cm) TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive HVGA scratch-resistant screen with 360 X 480 pixel resolution and able to display 65,536 colors. The touchscreen eliminates the need for use of a stylus as it uses a glass capacitive touchscreen.

• CPU: The Storm utilizes the MSM7600 from Qualcomm a dual core CPU with ARM11 400 Mhz and ARM9 274 Mhz.

• Battery: The Storm features a user-replaceable, rechargeable DX-1 Li-ion battery stated to be capable of providing up to 5.5 hours of GSM talk time, 6 hours of CDMA talk time, or 360 hours of standby.

• Text Input: The Storm implements a virtual keyboard on its touchscreen. Using its accelerometer allows the user to switch between a virtual SureType keyboard when held normally, and in a full QWERTY keyboard when held in landscape mode. The device has an automatic spell check correction, and predictive text,

• Camera: The device features a built-in 3.2 megapixel camera located on back which features flash and autofocus.

• Memory: The device features 1GB of onboard memory and an expandable memory slot support for a microSD card of up to an additional 16GB.

Nintendo Wii 2

NINTENDO Wii 2

According to games blog Joystiq, analyst Evan Wilson from Pacific Crest Securities, reckons Ninty is lining up a new edition of its revolutionary console in 2010.

He says that this will kick off a new round in the ever bitter next-gan gaming wars, with the Big M ripping the covers off a new Xbox later that same year.

He also says that Sony will weigh in with a full redesign of the PSP, which will go up against an all-new DS Lite.

Seems terribly exciting to us, but whether these dreams come true remains to be seen. Analysts are tricky customers and can either be spot on, or, like Apple lover Piper Jaffrey, be very wrong a lot of the time.

In the meantime, we'll have to content ourselves with news of an all new slim version of the PS3 later this year and hopefully a slew of improvements to the existing hubs.

ARCHOS 605 Wi-Fi

The 605 is Archos’ new fifth generation flagship PMP that crams nearly every feature one could want into a PMP. They have even offered a few different capacities including a flash version with expandable SDHC memory that can add up to 32GB of flash memory when those capacities become available. The 800x480 pixel screen with a 24bit (16.7 million colors) screen looks fantastic at any viewing angle.

It sounds like the 605 is the ultimate PMP. Well… almost. While the 605 has a thorough feature set and performs very well, the interface needs to be completely overhauled. Archos, fire your interface designers and start over, then I may be able to call the 605 the ultimate PMP.

• Capacities: 4GB Flash + SDHC Slot, 30GB, 80GB, 160GB
• Size: 122 x 82 x 15 mm (4GB / 30GB), 122 x 82 x 20 mm (80GB / 160GB)
• Weight: 150gr (4GB), 190g (30GB), 260g (80GB / 160GB)
• Screen: 800x480 pixels, 4.3'' TFT LCD, 16 million colors – Touch Screen
• Video Support: WMV, DivX, XviD, MPEG4, (H.264 +AAC*, MPEG-2 AC3 5.1*Optional Plugin)
• Audio Support: MP3, WMA, WAV (AAC*, AC3* Optional Plugin)
• Photo Support: JPEG, BMP, PNG
• Battery Life: 17 Hours Audio, 5.5 Hours Video
• Recording: Video (MPEG4 640x480 @ 30FPS), Audio (WAV)
• Transfer Protocol: MSC/MTP User Selectable
• Other Features: Wi-Fi (802.11g), Opera Browser (optional), PDF viewer

Accessories

Included

The 605 comes with just what you need to get started: the player, earbuds, two styli, a protective pouch, a proprietary USB cable, Wi-Fi connection software, and a quick start guide.

Google Android

GOOGLE ANDROID

The world's first Android-powered handset has finally hit the market under the guise of the T-Mobile G1 with Google, and it certainly doesn't disappoint in its 'Google-y-ness'.

The interface

Well, it's nicely laid out for starters. The icons that you like most can be placed wherever you want on the home screen, and you can wipe that left or right to access more applications you've decided need home screen loving.

The pull out menu and the fact you can 'pull down' open applications is very nice too... it works well and feel very intuitive.

The access to Google's applications, such as Mail or Maps, is very easy, and you can tell they've been formatted for this OS, as the simplicity of use, such as having your mail laid out in a long list, is easy to see and feel.

The G1

The slide out keyboard has a nice feel to it; the keys aren't too far apart and the whole thing sits nicely in the hand in both landscape and portrait mode, though operating the trackball with one hand and using the touchscreen was a little bit tricky.

Messaging, be it MMS, SMS or e-mail, is only available via the QWERTY, and the little kickblock at the bottom of the handset, where the call / terminate, menu, home and back buttons are housed, get right in the way when you're typing.

However, let's look at the negative points right now: no accelerometer, no 3.5mm headphone jack, the handset is a bit bulky (though it does have a keyboard) and there's not even a hint of multi-touch.

Nokia N97

NOKIA N97


Nokia surprised everyone with the touchscreen slider N97. It’s like an iPhone or a Storm. But dare I say... better? Nokia saw what people want nowadays and adapted. After trying out their first touchscreen on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the Nokia brainiacs where ready for the next big thing. The Nokia N97 will certainly be the flagship smartphone of Nokia for quite a while. Here are some of its features, which will make you choose it:

• a 3.5 inch widescreen 16:9 touchscreen
• haptic feedback
• full QWERTY slideout keyboard
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash
• up to 32 GB of storage
• up to 16GB additional memory via microSD
• Symbian S60 5th Edition
• up to 37 hours of music / up to 4.5 hours of video
• A-GPS and GPS
• HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth connectivity
• a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Phone will cost 550 Euros before taxes and subsidies and it will be launched in the first half of 2009.