FocuSoft Tech Blog

LG’s 15-inch OLED screen is still drop dead gorgeous, likely priced to kill
CrunchDeals: Garmin nuvi 885T for $310
How Sony can beat the Kindle, provided it can find its shoes and its glasses after it wakes up
Samsung’s upcoming WB5000 24x zoomer shoots RAW photos and HD video
CerevoCam: New camera automatically uploads pictures to social media sites
Sound Bomb Speaker
Live From Tokyo: Cerevo Debuts Digital Camera That Automatically Uploads Pictures To Multiple Social Media Sites
Fuseproject commissioned by the City of New York to make bike helmets look less bad
Walmart Gadget Shoppers Sometime Look Like THIS [Image Cache]
Australian PS3 Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit isn’t as ultimate as you might expect

LG’s 15-inch OLED screen is still drop dead gorgeous, likely priced to kill

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 09:21 AM PDT

Whooo. (Not Wooo.) Amazing how a few well framed PR shots can reignite gadget lust, just when it seems extinguished. Sure, LG’s 15-inch OLED HDTV will probably follow the path of Sony’s $2,500 11-inch XEL-1to the land of ridiculously overpriced trinkets that few can or will purchase and eventually falls by the wayside when larger, cheaper options become available. Still, checking out that ultra bright screen in these photos has us checking our bank account for an extra few grand, refreshing the feeling last experienced when we checked it out in person at CES. The appearance of these on LG’s Flickr stream would appear to support the summer mass production-December launch we’ve been promised, who else is wishing the 30-inch version wasn’t delayed until 2012?

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

LG’s 15-inch OLED screen is still drop dead gorgeous, likely priced to kill originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CrunchDeals: Garmin nuvi 885T for $310

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 09:00 AM PDT

f3142c3a44gps.jpg CrunchDeals: Garmin nuvi 885T for $310 Amazon’s got a fully-loaded Garmin nuvi GPS unit for $310 after a $53 discount, good today only. The 885T features traffic, weather, Bluetooth, and even “directs you to the preferred lane while driving.”

Data is fed from MSN direct — traffic, flight status, Doppler radar weather, gas prices, movie listings, stock info, news, and more. There’s also a built-in Bluetooth speakerphone and voice compatibility that allows you to request information from the device using spoken commands.

The GPS unit itself features a 4.3-inch widescreen display (touchscreen), four-hour battery life, microSD expansion slot, and is 0.7 inches thick.

Garmin nuvi 885T 4.3-inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator [Amazon]

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CrunchDeals: Garmin nuvi 885T for $310

How Sony can beat the Kindle, provided it can find its shoes and its glasses after it wakes up

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 08:27 AM PDT

20060105-img_2775-stringersony-320
Farhad Manjoo has a nice “what-if” story up on Slate about what Sony can do to beat the Kindle. Sadly, what Manjoo is doing here is akin to helping a little old crazy lady across the street – at best his advice will be ignore and and worst he’ll be cursed out.

He basically writes:

Anyone looking to beat the Kindle, then, should look to the iPod: Study everything that Apple’s rivals did, and do the opposite.

Whoa, slow down there Zen Master. Sony had been spinning its wheels for half a decade. Its memorysticks, its UMDs, and its ATRAC files have been kept around in a wrong-headed effort to “define” the market the way it had defined hardware during the 1980s and 1990s and it has fallen so far that I doubt it even knows who the iPods rivals are let alone how to avoid their traps. The same goes for the ereader.

My thinking is this: the ereaders will sell. They’ve already sold about 400,000 of the first generation. People buy them because they have lots of PDFs they want to read and they live outside of the US. Those are the only reasons why they buy them. All Amazon has to do is start selling the Kindle outside of the US and it’s curtains. Sure there will be second tier readers, but I doubt Sony’s will be one of them. The second tier will be a cheap ebook for students that will soon replace the written word and will probably be based on an open-sourced hardware design.

In the end, Farhad means well. Sony had a good run but I wonder if a company with such a tin ear is listening to his advice, let alone understanding why it needs it.

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How Sony can beat the Kindle, provided it can find its shoes and its glasses after it wakes up

Samsung’s upcoming WB5000 24x zoomer shoots RAW photos and HD video

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 08:13 AM PDT

Samsung has a new one in the works, the WB5000, presumably offering the price advantages of an 24x zoomin’ all-in-one with some of the features and image quality of a DSLR — that’s the dream, anyway. The camera shoots 12.5 megapixel stills, with full manual controls, face detection and support for RAW formatted images, while also offering HD recording and a relatively compact form factor. True details are scarce, but it sounds promising on the surface. The WB5000 should be out in the fourth quarter, no word on price just yet.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Samsung’s upcoming WB5000 24x zoomer shoots RAW photos and HD video originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CerevoCam: New camera automatically uploads pictures to social media sites

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 08:01 AM PDT

3d3cf6c61115x161.jpg CerevoCam: New camera automatically uploads pictures to social media sites

I just came back from the CNET Japan Innovation Conference 2009 [JP] in Tokyo, where Cerevo, currently one of the most ambitious tech start-ups in Japan, showed its self-developed digital camera aimed at heavy social media users for the first time.

The company has just seven employees (two of them are part-timers) but big plans: Cerevo intends to dramatically simplify the process of uploading and sharing pictures online by providing both an extra-easy to use camera (the “CerevoCam”) and a photo sharing site (”CerevoLife”) specifically geared towards owners of that camera. And the company wants to bring its idea in front of a global audience.

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CerevoCam: New camera automatically uploads pictures to social media sites

Sound Bomb Speaker

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 07:44 AM PDT

sound bomb speaker Sound Bomb Speaker The Sound Bomb Speaker would be something that we would advice against bringing on a flight with you, as it might just rouse the suspicions of poorly trained airport security personnel who might want to play hero that particular day and detain you for a lengthy questioning period. It does resemble a bomb by all means, but don’t expect it to come with explosive sound just because there is the visual potential of offering just that. The Sound Bomb Speaker can be powered when plugged into your computer’s USB port directly or use a quartet of AA batteries instead whenever you want it to go portable. Firebox has placed a £24.95 bounty on this.

Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Sound Bomb Speaker copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

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Sound Bomb Speaker

Live From Tokyo: Cerevo Debuts Digital Camera That Automatically Uploads Pictures To Multiple Social Media Sites

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 07:31 AM PDT

Combination of Wi-Fi/3G-enabled camera with photo sharing service
Users first need to get the digital camera that Cerevo designed completely from scratch. The device features a 9MP CMOS sensor, Wi-Fi 802.11n (b/g/n), 3G HSUPA support, a USB port, a MicroSD card slot and a 2.4-inch LCD.

The noteworthy point about the CerevoCam is the network function. It’s able to upload pictures to CerevoLife, a photo management and sharing service optimized for play with the camera. Photos are being transferred automatically (via Wi-Fi), which means you can shoot pictures late at night and find them on CerevoLife the next morning without having to take the camera out of the bag. The site offers 5GB of free storage space for every user, which is enough for around 4,000 pictures.

Cerevo notifies you of picture uploads via email and allows you to share pictures from your email client (or CerevoLife) on Flickr, Twitter, Picasa and other services. You’ll get a warning via email when the battery is about to die, too.

If you plug a 3G modem into the camera’s USB port, you can upload pictures directly from the device to various sites in real-time. (With Wi-Fi, pictures take a few seconds to pop up on CerevoLife.)

Launch by year-end in a crowded market
It’s amazing what Cerevo CEO Takuma Iwasa and his tiny team have accomplished so far, but the start-up is facing serious competition, especially when the CerevoCam will actually sell. The network functions could be easily integrated into future cameras by the big makers. Not to speak of the many smartphones out there, which are already being used to flood sites like Flickr and YouTube with pictures and videos (even though Cerevo scores with the convenience factor). And there is no shortage of decent photo management sites either.

Cerevo plans to launch both the CerevoCam (for about $210, in black and white versions) and the corresponding photo site by the end of this year. Iwasa told me this could happen in Japan in late October/early November when things go well, with international markets following soon after (CerevoLife will get a fully translated interface, while the camera features Japanese and English menus).

The company has so far raised $1.3 million in series A from Tokyo-based VC firm enova [JP].

You can read more about the CNET Japan event (in English) here.

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Cerevo

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Live From Tokyo: Cerevo Debuts Digital Camera That Automatically Uploads Pictures To Multiple Social Media Sites

Fuseproject commissioned by the City of New York to make bike helmets look less bad

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 06:27 AM PDT

In cities like New York, where bikers ride right alongside heavy traffic, bike helmets are a must. Trouble is, apparently plenty of riders don’t like wearing them because of vanity — most bike helmets aren’t exactly attractive, if you haven’t noticed. Well, the City of New York’s commissioned Projectfuse helmets — that combine safety with an attempt at decent stylings. The helmets feature a two-fold design, with an inner protective polystyrene, which is then covered with a customizable soft fabric that attaches with straps. No, you cannot buy them yet, and we don’t know anything about pricing or availability yet, but we do know that you can score one for free — yes, free — at various events around the city. Let us know if you snag one!

[Via Wired]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation, Wearables

Fuseproject commissioned by the City of New York to make bike helmets look less bad originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Walmart Gadget Shoppers Sometime Look Like THIS [Image Cache]

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 05:40 AM PDT

This guy doesn’t look like your average gadget shopper…unless he’s shopping in Walmart. We’ll I’ll be dammed—he is shopping in Walmart! I know this because the site People of Walmart told me so. Hilarous. Sad. Disturbing…check it out. [POW]

Walmart Gadget Shoppers Sometime Look Like THIS [Image Cache]

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Walmart Gadget Shoppers Sometime Look Like THIS [Image Cache]

Australian PS3 Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit isn’t as ultimate as you might expect

Posted: 29 Aug 2009 04:33 AM PDT

Sony’s PlayStation 3 already only does everything, so what more could you possibly need? Australians can find out for themselves with the Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s really just the PS3 remote and two discs, but at $60 AUD (that’s $51 for US), it’s only one Banjo Paterson / $10 AUD more than what the remote retails on its lonesome. Both bundles include 300 as the first film, so you’re really choosing between 10,000 B.C. and Batman Begins. Not exactly a tough decision unless you already own Batman, but then again, you still might opt for a second copy instead.

[Via Kotaku]

Read – Batman Begins / 300 bundle
Read – 10,000 B.C. / 300 bundle

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Australian PS3 Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit isn’t as ultimate as you might expect originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 06:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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