Eclectic Electronics

Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player now available (to some people)

Posted: 01 May 2009 03:30 PM PDT

The Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player is now available, to select people. The company is now reportedly sending invitations to those who were left out on the Early Adoption Program (EAP). Over 27,000 people have applied during the EAP, but only some have gotten their chance. Once all invitations have been exhausted, Oppo will start offering the BDP-83 to the general public.

Pricing is set at $599 USD for the BDP-83. Eligible individuals who line up to pre-order can get it for just $499 USD. It will also be available in other countries. For a complete list of countries, head on over to Blu-ray.com.

You can pretty much consider the BDP-83 somewhat like a super Blu-ray player, because it will most probably have the upscaling wonders that Oppo’s are known for, plus a full-featurerd Blu-ray player to boot!

[via Blu-ray.com]

Get the chance to be a Palm Pre reviewer!

Posted: 01 May 2009 02:30 PM PDT

Palm doesn’t have anything else on the horizon, so if they are soliciting data via their online questionnaire to look for Palm reviewers… You can very well bet it’ll be about the Palm Pre. PreThinking confirms that Palm will be offering the Pre for review when available.

If you wanna try your luck on getting picked by Palm, then head on over to take this short quiz. You must be a US resident and at least 18 years old to be qualified.

[via Tech Ticker]

Analyst predicts that the Palm Pre will be a total failure

Posted: 01 May 2009 02:00 PM PDT

According to Hugo Miller, Palm might limit the initial shipment of the Pre to just 375,000 units. This, in my opinion, is a very very bad idea. They should strike hard while their competitors are still sleeping. Who knows where people’s wallets will drag them when other devices start popping out everywhere?! New Apple iPhone anybody?

Reports also indicate that Palm and Sprint are hanging on hard to each other to survive the storm. Although Palm stock has tripled since the announcement of the Pre, the company has reported seven straight quarterly losses. On the other hand, Sprint has lost 4.5 million subscribers since the CEO switch to Dan Hesse during 2007.

If Palm does not plan this out well, this may very well be one of the biggest mistakes they will ever make. They should strike while the iron is hot! The Palm Pre sure does look nice and has an interesting operating system, but will it actually deliver?

[via CrunchGear and The Dallas Morning News: Technology Blog]

Acer confirms Windows 7 release date?

Posted: 01 May 2009 01:30 PM PDT

Acer has confirmed that their upcoming all-in-one Z5600 PC will come pre-loaded with Windows 7, does this mean the new operating system will be hitting store shelves soon?

Acer also confirms that Vista-loaded models purchased 30 days prior to the release date of the Z5600, will be eligible for Microsoft’s free upgrade program.

Reports indicate that the main reason in loading Windows 7 into the all-in-one Acer Z5600, is to utilize the additional capabilities of the upcoming operating system.

The Acer Z5600 all-in-one PC is set for an October 23, 2009 release date. The company also reveals that their rival company, Asus, will have the its offering, the Asus EEE Top, sometime at the end of September for customers to “touch and feel.”

Microsoft has previously been suggesting that Windows 7 will be released sometime in January 2010. Microsoft’s probably allowing Acer to get an early crack at Windows 7 but I believe they’ll hold off and we will still have to wait a while until Windows 7 actually hits retail shelves.

[via D' Technology Weblog and Pocket-Lint]

HTC Snap “Inner Circle” sneak peek

Posted: 01 May 2009 01:00 PM PDT

The HTC Snap is by no means an innovative phone, but of course, some people extremely loyal to HTC would still get the device. The “Inner Circle” feature is no different from Nokia’s caller group function. “Inner Circle” is simply HTC’s unique term for filtering e-mails.

Let us not fail to mention that although the HTC Snap runs on Windows Mobile, the 2.4-inch display is non-touchscreen. HTC aims to make navigation easier via the trackball on the center of the handset.

“Inner Circle” allows you to form an e-mail group, hopefully HTC would allow multiple groups to be made. Otherwise, you’d probably be stuck with just the usual personal and professional segregation. Shown below are screenshots of the “Inner Circle” feature in action on the HTC Snap.

QVGA (320 x 240) resolution is such a bad idea for Windows Mobile phones nowadays. I don’t know why HTC still goes with it. Sure, it works when you’re on the phone and navigation interface, but when you get to running those applications… It just doesn’t deliver enough real estate! VGA (640 x 480) should be made standard.

If you wanna check out a review of the HTC Snap, then click here. T-Mobile USA, is also set to get its own version of the HTC Snap (codenamed Maple) sometime July 2009. No word on whether T-Mobile’s HTC Snap would incorporate the “Inner Circle” feature.

Seagate Replica Complete PC Backup System requires almost no human intervention

Posted: 01 May 2009 11:30 AM PDT

Seagate’s new Complete PC Backup System, called Replica, pretty much functions like Apple’s Time Capsule sans the 802.11n WiFi base station functionality.

The Replica backups your entire system, data files, operating system files, media files and basically everything else that you have on your primary hard drive. Just plug it in, agree to the Terms of Services (TOS), and you’re good to go! The Replica saves hard drive information as changes occur, so you don’t have to worry about anything being lost or being accidentally deleted.

Both types are set for a May 4, 2009 release. Price is $130 USD for the 250GB single-PC version, while the multi-PC 500GB version will set you back $200 USD. Frankly, I think they should be offering bigger storage capacities for the single-PC version, since hard drives go up to as much as 1.5TB now.

According to Seagate’s official Replica page, the multi-PC version gives you 500GB storage and comes with a vertical space-saving dock. It would be entirely possible that the 250GB single-PC version does not include the space-saving vertical dock. The Replica also comes with a special boot CD that you might need in the event of a catastrophe.

For more information, you can download the specifications sheet from the Seagate website.

[via Lockergnome and Coolest Gadgets]

PSP-looking classic game emulator, the PXP-900, plays almost everything you can think of… plus more

Posted: 01 May 2009 08:15 AM PDT

Shown above is the PSP-looking classic game emulator, the PXP-900. The product features a 3.5-inch QVGA (320×240) screen, 2GB internal memory for storing games (and that’s a lot, considering how small these games actually are) and other media. The PXP-900 also has a SD card slot (4GB maximum).

The PXP-900 supports games the following Nintendo (NES), Famicom (Japanese Nintendo), Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Super Famicom (Super Nintendo in the US) and Sega MegaDrive (Sega Genesis in the US).

It functions as a portable media player or PMP, among the multitude of file types it supports, includes the following: RM, RMVB, AVI, WMV, ASF, MPG, MPEG, MPE, MP4, DAT, MOV, DAT video; MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, RM-Audio, AMR, AAC+ audio, even JPEG, BMP, GIF images. Basically everything you can think of throwing at it, besides the kitchen sink.

The PXP-900 has two 3.5mm headphone jacks (probably for the PMP functionality) and TV-out. Pricing is said to be $89.99. It comes in black, blue, white or red.

[via technabob and iTech News]

Custom-made, front-firing Elemental Designs (eD) A7-900 production video

Posted: 01 May 2009 05:30 AM PDT

Do you sometimes get curious, about how a huge Elemental Designs (eD) home theater subwoofer is made?

The video below shows how the gigantic, flagship product of eD is built to customer requested specifications. If you would notice from the picture above, the conventional A7-900, is down-firing.

The eD A7-900 has the following specifications:

Model Name	A7-900 Home Subwoofer
Amplifier Power	1300w RMS
Subwoofer Driver Size	Dual eD 18″ Subwoofer - Ov.2 Platform
Cabinet Type	Vented / Downfire (in this case, front-firing)
Room Tuning	18Hz FR - (16-100Hz +/-3dB @110dB In Room)
In Room Avg	SPL 129.93 dB (10-100Hz Max Output Avg)
Shipping Weight	435lbs
Price	$2,200