LG's Super Multi Blue HD Player spotted in CompUSA

In the really long name for a gadget device department, the new LG hybrid device has been seen for sale at a local CompUSA here in Texas (yeehaa). We wrote about this player earlier this month and already just a few days after the close of CES it's being sold right here in my backyard! A member of the forums at AVSForum.com has posted first-hand pictures of the new player.

In case you hadn't heard, the Super Multi Blue HD Player is LG's answer to detente in the next-gen DVD format war: playback capabilities for both formats bundled in a single player, the LG BH100 ($1,200 list)...Word was the player would hit Best Buy and Circuit City in early February, but it looks like a few are already trickling out into the channel. While we don't expect this to be a big seller at its lofty $1,200 price, it is nice to see it shipping.

Thanks to C|Net's blog Crave for the news.
LG's Press Release (1/7/07)

Update! I just got off the phone with Ed in A/V at my local CompUSA store here in San Antonio, TX and he said they have 4 in stock, 1 on display and they arrived at their store on Friday! Looks like I'll be paying them a visit to test out the new player for myself. I'll have a writeup and pictures soon.

N800 Review: First Impressions of Nokia's Latest Internet Tablet

Jose_R.A.M over at the MobileBurn.com Forums has posted a very in-depth review over the recently announced and CES-featured Nokia n800 internet tablet. We just featured an article that included the n800 right here, but now you can get your treats and eats again by checking out his comprehensive first-hand review over this cool gadget.

Read more here

Roundup: Nokia Gadgets at CES 2007

Here is a roundup of the latest devices released by Nokia and showcased at this year's CES, complete with news briefs:


From MobileBurn.com
Nokia, which has long shied away from releasing thin devices, has today announced its entry to the ever-crowded thin handset market with the new N76. Nokia states that it did not want to compromise on features just to shave thickness off the device, and as such, this 14mm (0.5") thick handset boasts some impressive specifications when compared to its rivals.


From GearLog.com
At Nokia's booth at CES I saw this little stunner of a phone, the 6300, running the new Yahoo! Go Mobile 2.0 application. The 6300, which will probably sell for between $250 and $300 before rebates if it ever does come here, is gorgeous -- the 320x240 screen is deliriously bright and sharp, and the whole phone has an elegant, metallic glow. Like the beloved and now-deceased 6230, it's also full of features that it doesn't immediately show, like a media player that supports 2GB memory cards, a 2-megapixel camera and an FM radio.





From IGN.com
Nokia pulled back the curtain on the new N800 Internet Tablet at CES 2007 today, marking several significant improvements over the N770 model. The N800 immediately strikes onlookers with its svelte profile and attractive casing. The face on the updated N800 is dominated by its screen, flanked only by speakers and a traditional thumb pad input.


From InfoSyncWorld.com
The biggest change in the N93i is the design. In fact, aside from the incremental upgrade to the Symbian S60 Series 3 OS, the design is the only change, but the change is significant. The original N93 was unique, but very bulky. It was more like a small camcorder than a phone. Though the N93i only pares a tenth of an inch from its thickness, the phone is considerably lighter.

Nokia Nseries Homepage

The Amazing Colored Bubbles!

Thanks to Shiny Shiny for the news - They may not look as amazing as the title ensues, but this creation is certainly worth mentioning. A company called Ascadia has created "the worlds first" colored bubbles, called Zubbles. How a company could make something as old as it is fun, entertaining again is quite a feat. These colorful creations are due to come out this spring to a toy store near you!

Check out the video
Zubbles Home

ASIMO Robot Runs at CES 2007

Nothing impresses me more than to see the advances in robotics, especially the humanoid-kind. The lucky few who attended this year's CES got to see a glimpse of the future by seeing a running robot in action. This robot, called ASIMO for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, was designed by Honda. That's right, the same folks who make cars, trucks, and motorcycles for the masses have all along been working on a robotics project to develop a humanoid robot to eventually aid us in everyday tasks to saving lives. We aren't that far away from creating a robot much like the one in Bicentennial Man and it will be exciting to see what's next. Below is a video of ASIMO in action, check it out:



More ASIMO Videos
ASIMO Homepage

New Line of SanDisk Sansa Players

The team at SanDisk was onto something when they decided to start competing with the likes of Apple in the portable mp3 player market which is currently dominated by the numerous flavors of the iPod. SanDisk has released a number of mp3 players onto the market under the moniker of Sansa, and have attracted quite a positive response with their smooth silky design and intuitive interface. I recently purchased a Sansa, specifically the e250R which comes bundled with a two-month trial of Real Rhapsody and I LOVE IT. I have taken it with me on my travels across state and to my office to relax while I work. I've even looked at other things one can do with these players, including this. I don't imagine I'll have anything bad to say about the upcoming line of players that were showcased by SanDisk at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.


Starting in the lightweight division, the Sansa Express has a list of features that's surprising given its small size. Unlike any of the other players in the Sansa line, this one can be plugged directly into your computer's USB port without the use of a USB cable. It comes with a microSD card slot for expandable memory, an FM tuner, a vivid OLED display, and a mic for voice recording all for only $60 bucks!


Heading off the middleweight division is the Sansa Connect which brings streaming music to your ears via a WiFi connection and includes support for photos and internet radio. Topping off this truly mobile mp3 player is a handy microSD card slot to expand upon its initial 4GB of space.


Arriving at our heavyweight division we have for you the Sansa View showcasing true video capabilities sporting DVD-quality video and a wide variety of video file types and resolutions. It has a vibrant 4" screen and a built-in speaker to show off its multimedia prowess and comes with an SD/SDHC expansion slot for future expansion sizes up to 32GB! This 8GB player, like my Sansa e250R mp3 player, comes preloaded with content sure to keep new buyers busy playing with it long before they even get around to uploading their own material. Out of all of the devices being showcased by SanDisk at this year's CES, I'm looking forward to this one the most.

LG to make hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD Player

Only to spice things up even more, the folks over at LG are cooking up a hybrid player that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. Unfortunately, you can expect about 0.01% of the population to actually purchase just such a player due to the fact that the heated battle between both formats is still going on and the average consumer is left in the middle still choosing the older DVD standard for their viewing pleasure. Consumers are just now getting warmed up to buying HDTV's without too much hesitation as prices have gone down dramatically and production has increased sharply. DVD's are finally becoming ubiquitous, and now here's a pair of standards that to some seems more evolutionary than revolutionary.

At least one other company looks to follow suit with a hybrid player, and seeing how much LG is investing in this idea, manufacturers and standards committees alike should take notice and think about how much they want to continue investing in this ongoing format war.

Read more: Arstechnica

SanDisk Introduces 32GB Flash-based Notebook Drive

SanDisk will be releasing en masse a solid-state disk drive for notebook computers real soon. What does this mean for you the consumer? You can look forward to faster hard drives that drain up to 87% less power, thereby increasing the time you can spend on your wonderfully decked-out notebook PC. After spending a week using a company-owned laptop out in the field and waiting forever for apps to load, something like this would be a boon for me. Unfortunately, it looks like me and the rest of the regular consumer market will have to wait up to 5 years before this technology becomes affordable enough.

Read on: Arstechnica

CES is on its Way

The Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) is just a couple days away and already I'm seeing juicy tidbits floating around the internet of new technology and upcoming products. I'll be featuring the latest updates on the what's being showcased at this year's CES complete with pictures and editorials from around the web. So sit back and enjoy.

An article from PCMag.com reads:

Based on the flow of pre-show announcements we've seen, the world of wireless is going to take off at CES. We expect to see new solutions for pre-ratified 802.11n wireless networking, and several companies plan to show wireless USB technologies. What's the promise of Wireless USB? Among other applications, users will be able to point digital cameras and camcorders at PCs and transfer video content with no cables. At CES, one entire Tech Zone is dedicated to new forms of wireless distribution.

Full Article

Telescope Goes Mobile

Edwin over at Coolest-Gadgetes.com writes about the latest mobile gadget to hit camera-phone enthusiasts: The Zoom Telescope. Here's a blurb:

The Zoom Telescope is capable of offering up to 6x zoom, although it wasn’t stated whether it is optical or digital. Currently compatible with either selected Sony Ericsson or Nokia cellphones, all you need to do is strap the Zoom Telescope to your handset, place the telescope portion securely over your camera’s lens, and you’re good to go. Of course, if you have a much better camera that has at least 2 megapixels, the picture quality would be much better. Just bear in mind that you still won’t be able to capture nuts under dark conditions.

Now at US$19, this might be inspiration for me to breath new life into my trusty old Nokia 6230. All I'll need to do is clean out a year's worth of dust and dirt, slap this sucker on there, and start shooting!

Source: Coolest-Gadgets.com

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a Happy New Year in 2007! Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday and may this new year be bigger and brighter!

My Black Friday Special: Sandisk Sansa e250R MP3 Player

Among those hapless souls waiting in line at one of many department stores nationwide on the eve of Black Friday, I found myself camping out alongside my cousin and uncle in front of a Fry's Electronics store in Houston, TX. This story I shall tell in a later blog post. For now however, I will fast forward to Best Buy ten hours later among the hourdes of senseless shoppers. While my uncle was scoring the latest deal on an HD Toshiba projector I found myself in the mp3 section checking out the latest sales. In the end, I came out on top with a Sandisk Sansa e250R 2GB mp3 player for only $99 bucks!

I will be featuring a review over this mp3 player in the coming days right here on Convergence Daily, but for now here is a tidbit covering this lovely device. This mp3 player also happens to play movies, FM radio, display photos, and do voice recording. This particular model is branded with Best Buy's Rhapsody player software which is comparable to Apple's iTunes and includes a microSD slot for extra storage (among several "one-ups" on Apple's iPod). So far this product is exceeding my expectations and I have yet to tap into its full potential after just a week's worth of use. Be on the lookout for the write-up over the Sansa e250R in the coming days!

IE7: The Journey Back to the Original

I've been using Internet Explorer 7 at work consistently now for about a month and have grown accustomed to it. Some of the features I enjoy are the easy tab generation, the ease of adding favorites (showing the whole tree-view of your favorites), the somewhat streamlined interface, and the ability to view all of your tabbed windows in one single window. The obvious benefit to using IE over Firefox as a whole is that a high percentage of webmasters program their websites to be IE-compatible so the likelyhood of you coming across a page that doesn't format correctly is very slim.

My only major complaint with IE7 as it was with earlier versions is the speed. After you open a few windows (or in IE7's case, tabs) and keep your browser open for awhile you'll notice the performance decrease (I did, but then again I have multiple programs open: topographic mapping software, Outlook 2003, an RDP session, Trillian, Google Desktop / Google Talk, and FeedReader if not more). Firefox was a welcome change with tabbed browsing and a faster startup and operating speed, something I adored since I typically don't have time to waste sitting in front of a monitor waiting for pages to load.

The downside is that because a higher percentage of people still use IE today, most of your virus and malware-writers program malicious code especially for the IE browser. Personally, I've always been able to stay clean as long as I steer clear of objectionable sites and other sources of censurable content and keep my antispyware and antivirus programs up to date.

Unfortunately, the novelty of Firefox being virus free in the early days provided a false sense of security that has now worn off. Virus-writers are taking obvious notice at the growing market share that Firefox is attaining (soon will be approaching 15%) and are shifting gears to develop malware and search for vulnerabilities to exploit. Some of us expected this as a result of the exponential growth due to the grassroots campaign across the web for users to jump the IE bandwagon and come aboard the Firefox one. I was one such user and still basically am, using the Firefox browser mostly at home (even as I type this article), but as the title of this article illustrates I have dipped my toes once again in Microsoft's pool for lack of a better reason: work.

Media Center Machines Abound!

I was reading an article about a Linux-based operating system coded for the upcoming Playstation 3 game console (already?!) and found mentioned in the comments of the article a PVR/Media Center package called MythTV. At version 0.20 they've come a long way at developing a wonderful mix of form and functionality in this grassroots project. This is not meant for your typical novice Windows Media Center newbie but rather for those who seek to take more control over what digital convergence has to offer in the realm of entertainment and function.



Yellow Dog Linux for the PS3, mentioned above, will prove to be a power house taking advantage of the core components of the PS3 architecture and blending them with the functionality and customization of the Linux OS. Looking at the these two solutions I'm starting to see the lines blur among game systems, media center machines, and the typical personal computer. It won't be long 'till we rely on just one machine to centralize all of our tasks and leisures at home.

IE7: Internet Explorer's Latest Edition

I have been using the beta for quite some time now, but have primarily used Firefox due to faster loading times on the browser itself and webpages. I work for a local WISP in an environment that's fast paced. I get a hundred or more calls on my cell every day from contractors to CEO's asking for information but not willing to wait a long time for it. That means I have to pull up numerous web pages containing a variety of information about our network and the company behind it w/in milliseconds.

I've always enjoyed using Firefox since it's inception, but let's face it there's still a number of websites out there (including many of Microsoft's own) that aren't formatted correctly for Firefox and don't display or work correctly with it. A lot of our company's own development projects and systems base their compatibility on Internet Explorer not Firefox (unless I make a fuss about it).

So, now that IE has made it's debut into Final Release I will attempt again to go "all-IE". In the coming days or weeks I'll report on how successful (or unsuccessful) I am at leaving the Firefox bandwagon. Please feel free to share your comments on IE7, good or bad, all are welcome.

Gaming and the Mobile Lifestyle

Gaming and the Mobile Lifestyle

Date: 05/13/2004
In today’s society more and more of us rely heavily on devices to get us through each waking moment; from alarm clocks that wake us up to PDA’s reminding us of those important daily tasks. The ‘double mocha in the veins’ segment of the population generally want these devices to keep their lives in sync. That’s where the glut of gadgets comes in, but there’s always that need to wind down and relax. And nothing helps to relax those nerves more than to blast a few nasties with a rocket launcher in Doom II for the PalmOS.

This is where the convergence of gaming and the mobile lifestyle meet. For many years, handhelds have had a prominent place in gamer’s hearts. From the Game Boy and other’s before its time to today with Sony and more recently VIA making a presence in the handheld gaming arena, each are hoping to play a part in the lifestyle of mobile gamers worldwide. Gaming is being incorporated into more and more of the daily lives of many.

So, it behooves these developers to devise games which capture their audience’s attention. No longer will they remain content with Snake II on their cell phone or Space Trader on their PDA. They demand more. Portable game consoles such as the “new” Game Boy Advance SP offer a diverse selection of games, most of which are in-depth and offer great graphics and decent sound. This is plainly because they are dedicated gaming machines.

Now enter the world of PDA and cell phone gamers.

In this market we have a group of people who manage their daily lives and game all on the same device. Naturally, game developers are trying to take advantage of the cell phone segment because the cell phone is the one device man won’t leave home without. For some, the cell phone is surgically attached to their ear and it’s become their fifth appendage.

With the advent of ‘bigger better faster’ technologies cell phones are finally cranking out some decent gaming potential. You pair that with the fact most PDA capabilities are now being incorporated into cell phones, and now you’ve got a killer device. The Nokia N-Gage is just such a device that manages to incorporate most of these features, unfortunately it didn’t live up to all the hype. Hopefully its successor, the N-Gage QD, will fare better in today’s gaming market and offer a better gaming library. Nevertheless, we have a plethora of other cell phone manufacturers that are gearing their new releases more towards gamers.

For those of us still using PDAs and are remaining loyal in doing so, we have a new entry named Tapwave Zodiac. In my opinion, the Zodiac has potential to lead in the PDA gaming market. They use the proven PIM (personal information management) capabilities of PalmOS 5 software and pair that with the dedicated graphics capabilities of ATi hardware and this results in a strong offering. With an already expansive library of software titles supported under PalmOS 5 and titles optimized for the Zodiac I can imagine myself spending countless hours on the machine whilst traveling to and from work and elsewhere.

In today’s world we each live life on the go. Information is a commodity and gaming is a necessity. Our lives are a culmination of attempts at balancing the two to manage productivity and protect our own sanity at the same time. What will gaming and the mobile lifestyle be like in 5 years? 10? It all depends on how far digital convergence takes us.

(Reprinted: 1/31/06)

Microsoft & Palm Marry; Firstborn is the Palm Treo 700w

Widespread reviews of the new Palm Treo 700w are coming in mixed flavors, however the brunt of the reviews are positive. Treobits has put together a comprehensive list in their forums for you to go through. I'll also update this post with other reviews across the web. Feel free to let me know of reviews currently not on this list!

I'll update this post with my own personal views on the Treo 700w shortly, for now enjoy!

Verizon Wireless Takes Music On the Go

Next month Verizon Wireless plans to compete with the rest of the mobile music foray by delivering their own helping of over-the-air music downloading on select phones. Here's a clip from C|Net News.com:

The new service, called V Cast Music, is scheduled to become available on Jan. 16 at Circuit City, Verizon Wireless stores and Verizon's Web site, according to documents seen by CNET News.com. It would allow customers to browse, preview, download and play music from a mobile handset and a computer.

I haven't seen Motorola's ROKR phone make any big statements in my sleepy town of San Antonio, but that's not to say there's definitely a market for this type of technology. You just have to know how to deliver it. I think Verizon Wireless has got the methodology right but what's going to be crucial is the pricing and the online library available to consumers. The form-factor and UI of the phones offering the V Cast Music service will also be key to widespread consumer adoption. Personally though, I'm quite content transferring my own favorite music to my phone's MMC card via bluetooth and have no problem waiting until I'm in front of a PC (at work or home)!

Motorola RAZR V3c Review @ MOBILEDIA

What has become quickly ubiquitous in the mobile phone market in just a year is now receiving an upgrade. No, not in some pretty color or diamond studded montage but in actual features and technology. The new RAZR V3c is improving on what is already a statement in cell phone fashion adding a better camera, more multimedia features, a faster connection via EVDO, and of course a sexy new design. MOBILEDIA has served up a thorough review of this new phone from Motorola, go check it out! As for me, I'll just stick with my Nokia 6230 for now.

DARPA Grand Challenge Winner, Best Robot of All Time

My dad, a Lt. Col. in the Marine Corps and also a DARPA employee, was priviledged enough to attend this year's DARPA Grand Challenge (and actually got to tailgate one of the challenger's throughout the 150-mile long course). One of the contestants in this year's grueling race, a test of true AI brawn and brainpower, was Volkswagen's own Touareg named Stanley (it's namesake belonging to its owner Stanford University). Fortunately for Stanley, he won WIRED Magazine's Best Robot Ever award. Way to go Stanley!