Hi-tech Frontier

Gateway adds the 15.6-inch NV series to its laptop lineup Gateway seems to be on a roll with new product announcements lately. Tonight the company's unveiled a new NV series of laptops with one-touch backup and powersaving features. Let's get down to business: the 15.6-inch laptop's got an LED-backlit display with 1366 x 768 widescreen resolution, up to 4GB DDR2 RAM and 320GB HDD, DVD optical drive, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N, multi-card reader, VGA and HDMI out, four USB 2.0, 6-cell battery, and Windows Vista Home Premium. Fanciful color choices? We got you covered: NightSky Black, Midnight Blue, Cherry Red, and Coffee Brown. Doling out $499 will net you a 2.1 GHz AMD Athlon 64 with Radeon HD 3200 graphics, while the $599 option comes with 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with GMS 4500MHD.

Monkey USB Speakers If you don’t like the soft touch of the Plush Monkey USB Speakers, here’s an alternative that might suit you better. Or, use them together with the Monkey USB Webcam with Pen Holder. Features: Recharged by USB Built-in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery Simple, just plug-in, no driver install LED indicator Apply to any audio devices with 3.5mm audio jack, e.g. PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod, PDA, MP3 player … etc. Speaker output: 2W Dimension: 61mm dia. x 53mm tall Weight: 40g The Ape Head USB Speaker is available from the USB Geek website for $10. There are two colors to choose from: yellow and orange.

Sharp launches Brain PW-AC900 e-dictionary in Japan Sharp's really been stepping up the e-dictionary game of late -- what with the MID-looking RD-PM10. It's latest offering -- the Brain PW-AC900, however, is a little less exciting. It's very similar to its predecessors in the PW line -- PW-TC930 physically, but has a host of new features, including a simple text editor, multi-lingual dictionary, pronunciation, and vocabulary drills. It boasts a 5-inch VGA LCD, a text pad that's 30 percent larger than previous offerings, MicroSD and USB ports. It'll be available in Japan on the 10th of July. No word on pricing.

Sony T90 reviewed In an already overpopulated compact camera market, the Cyber-shot T90 solicits attention with a 16:9 touch-screen LCD and a sliding lens shield. The lads over at PC Mag grabbed one of these Sony shooters for an in-depth prodding and poking session to determine whether the external appeal of the camera is backed up by solid technology under the hood. Praise was meted out for image sharpness and 720p video recording, though battery life was found disappointing.

Philips debuts PowerSensor-equipped Brilliance monitor Energy-saving monitors are hardly anything new, but Philips has taken things a bit farther than most with its new 22-inch Brilliance LCD, which packs a built-in infrared "PowerSensor" that can detect when someone's sitting in front of it. If it finds that it's been left by its lonesome, it'll dial down the brightness and cut power consumption by 50% -- all of which operates independently from the PC, so there's no compatibility issues to worry about. As a monitor, however, things are a bit less exciting, with it boasting a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 5ms response time, and the usual VGA and DVI inputs. No word on a release 'round here just yet, but it looks like folks in the UK will be able to pick this one up next month for £170, or about $280.

Sega-licensed "Retro Gen" might have you hunting for cartridges Sega's already given its seal of approval to a few Genesis / Mega Drive-based handhelds, but never one like this new "Retro Gen" device from Innex, which makes use of actual, dust-collecting cartridges instead of just some mere on-board memory. Of course, not everyone has a stack of Genesis carts at their disposal (a sad state, indeed), so the handheld also apparently comes pre-loaded with 20 unspecified games, and you'll supposedly even be able to eventually load some "licensed ROMs" onto an SD card using a special cart. While it's still not clear exactly how widespread of a release it'll get, at least one retailer does already has it up for pre-order for just $49.99 (discounted from $59.99), and it's promising a ship date of July 25th.

Robot USB Flash Drive This colorful and playful series of USB flash drives consists of six different models in various shapes and colors – all designed to look like cute little toy robots. They come with a 2 gigabyte large storage capacity and their LED eyes lit up when you plug the USB stick into a computer. There are the six different colors you can choose from: yellow, black, blue, pink, red and white. ##CONTINUE## The AntDesignStore Robot USB Flash Drives are available over at the Geek Stuff 4 U website for ¥6,000 YEN (about $63 USD) a pop.

Sony launches VAIO Signature Collection, $2,000 VAIO P Been getting the feeling that your laptop was missing that certain something, that little detail, the perfect touch... crocodile skin, perhaps? Well check yourself, homeboys and homegirls -- Sony has just launched a line dubbed the "Signature Collection" which should suit all of your fashion / money havin' needs. Besides offering a handful of its laptops like the CS390 in new skins (the aforementioned fake animal flesh in multiple colors, "kaleidoscope," and all kinds of high gloss varieties), Sony is also introducing a snappier version of the VAIO P (the P699E/Q) -- a glitzy black iteration that will only be available to 1,000 customers. Sure, you'll have to shell out a totally barbaric $1,999 to get one, but it'll come equipped with a 1.86GHz CPU and a freaking radical 256GB SSD. A glorified netbook is worth $2k in our awesome economy, right?

BeamBox outs MiLi Evolution Mini Power Projector for iPhone, iPod touch Pocket projectors -- if they aren't quite 'all the rage' -- crop up all over the place these days. Beambox has teamed up with MiLi (makers of some fine iPhone chargers) on this newest one. The MiLi Evolution Mini Power Projector works in conjunction with your iPhone or iPod touch, docking it into the unit which then acts as projector and charger in one. The LCOS projector boasts 10 lumens of brightness for VGA projection of an image from 3 to 70 inches. It'll be about $255 when it's released around the end of July.

Ku! Phone Concept with Ability to Form Switches, Buttons, and Wipers Over The Surface Nowadays, touchscreens are drastically being used by mobile phone manufacturers but among many others, missing of tactility problem is taking place most often. Ku Phone is a revolutionary touchscreen phone concept that can overcome this problematic approach by passing a temperate electric current for different material sizes both linear and three-dimensional ones. This handset is designed to form switches, buttons, wipers, etc over the surface of the mobile for any particular application. Moreover, this phone can demonstrate finger force to a given area and a moderate resistant or a feedback can be produced accordingly. For example, button pressing or wiper movement at the phone can completely imitate the analogous components of traditional systems. ##CONTINUE## This phone includes a giant, bright, flexible and energy-saving OLED screen which is the only way of interacting and can independently produc...

Rhea Jeong's Void LP player concept cheats at gravity Designer Rhea Jeong's Void LP player seems devoid of reality, but it was inspired by the very real and very cute "Vinyl Killer," a little VW Bus that can propel itself around a record and play the tunes with its tinny speaker, naturally wearing out the precious LP in the process. The Void LP takes the concept of a self-sufficient speaker, amp and needle (the red ball), and then tosses them all into the air with a magnetic saucer. We're sure it sounds terrible, and it seems a little fantastical, but one thing's for certain: we want.

GE Shows Off New Digital Camera E1250TW When I hear the name GE, digital cameras are not what spring to mind. I think of light bulbs really. Still GE has a full line of digital cameras and other stuff that doesn’t have to do with lighting our homes. The company announced its latest digital camera recently called the E1250TW. The cam sports a 12.2-megapixel resolution and a 28mm wide angle lens with 5x optical zoom. The most interesting feature of the camera is that the 3-inch LCD is touch sensitive. ##CONTINUE## Other features include auto scene detection HDTV out, face detection, blink detection, smile detection, an auto adjust LCD, and red-eye removal. A special mode allows users to shoot panoramic images as well. The camera is available now on HSN and on Amazon.com.

Lenovo S12 gets a VIA Nano option Wanna trade in some battery life and get a bit of extra speed in the deal? Lenovo is now offering its spanking new S12 netbook with a VIA Nano ULV 2250 processor and VIA Chrome9 HC3 graphics instead of the usual Intel Atom / GMA 950 combo, which should offer a little more pep (at least in some applications) and lops $50 off the original's spendy $500 asking price. The Nano setup will draw more battery than the Atom, so you might want to invest that extra cash in another battery if you can track one down, but at least the $450 price includes a 6 cell as standard.

Acer's behemoth M900 reviewed As Windows Mobile devices go, it's virtually impossible for an entrant in the game not to be compared to HTC, and Acer's M900 is a prime example -- the specs look great on paper, but it's pretty much got to stand toe-to-toe with the Touch Pro2 to get any time in the limelight. Pocketnow did the honors with the landscape QWERTY slider, finding that the screen's great -- what's not to love about a 3.8-inch WVGA display, after all -- and the Samsung processor blazes, but the firmware load is buggy (not to mention downright crappy-looking compared to TouchFLO), free RAM's hard to come by, and virtually everything about the hardware feels cheap. At over $600 unlocked, it's a tough pill to swallow, particularly in the US where you've got to find an importer you know, trust, love, and play canasta with on Thursday evenings.

T-Mobile myTouch 3G announced The good news is that T-Mobile USA has finally gotten around to announce its second Android handset, the myTouch 3G; the bad news, though, is that you can't have it just yet. The carrier-customized version of the HTC Magic that has already shipped in parts of Europe, Asia, and Canada features a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, AWS 3G for use on T-Mobile's high-speed network paired with quadband EDGE for global roaming, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Exchange support, and -- of course -- Android 1.5 with all the virtual keyboardin' you can handle. Better than the G1? Other than the larger internal memory common to all Magics, that's strictly a matter of personal taste -- but don't worry, you'll have a while to sort it out, because T-Mobile won't even start taking preorders from current customers until July 8 for $199.99 on a two-year contract. Those orders will start shipping in late July, with full national availability following ...

Toshiba's TG01 running Snapdragon launched as T-01A in Japan One of the hottest pieces of gear this year just made its way to retail in Japan. Less than a centimeter thick, the NTT DoCoMo T-01A is the same TG01 device revealed by Toshiba back in February running Qualcomm's ultra-fast 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. As such, our far east brethren can lay claim to that 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resistive touchscreen display; HSDPA, GPS, and WiFi radios; and Toshiba's custom-built UI meant to mask its Windows Mobile 6.1 core with a bit of Rothko misdirection. And now that Toshiba's home country of Japan is all set, we hope to see the TG01 make its launch debute in Europe and beyond.

Sprint launches LG LX370, Samsung Exclaim, and HTC Snap You've been able to find the Exclaim and Snap for a while now if you've dug through third-party retailers hard enough, but Sprint's finally selling them directly from its own site. The Snap -- which we'd already known would hit this week -- is a portrait QWERTY handset running Windows Mobile 6.1 with support for HTC's Inner Circle functionality to block out email noise when you feel like you're about to lose your mind; it runs $149.99 on contract after rebate. The Exclaim is a low-cost QWERTY side slider designed to do battle with rival LG's Rumor 2; it'll set you back $79.99 on contract. Finally, the LX370 is a basic numeric slider with a 2 megapixel camera, running $99.99 with your name on the dotted line.

JVC LED-backlit, 7mm-thin 1080p LT-32WX50 LCD HDTV CEDIA's UK show is going on right now across the pond, and while things are rather quiet overall, JVC has definitely garnered a fair bit of attention with its 32-inch LT-32WX50. The 1080p set features 100Hz dejudder technology, a 4,000:1 contrast ratio, 90 percent of Adobe's RGB color space and -- here's the real kicker -- a thickness of just seven millimeters. The whole panel weighs just 11 pounds, meaning that even the weaklings should be able to transport, move and install this one sans any overpriced help from Geek Squad. Around back, there's a pair of HDMI inputs, a PC port, an SD card slot and a USB connector. If all goes well, it should start hitting retailers this fall, but there's no mention of when it'll ship stateside.

Sony Ericsson X1 and C510 Better late than never, right? Some sixteen excruciating months after its announcement, Sony Ericsson's WinMo superphone -- the mighty XPERIA X1 -- has finally come to Rogers as expected. Considering that the X1 is still very much one of the world's premier smartphones (on paper, anyhow), the on-contract promotional price of CAD $249.99 after discounts seems reasonable enough -- of course, whether you feel the same way after three years of mobile marriage is another story altogether. Staying within the Sony Ericsson realm, the C510 has also launched, an attractive candybar with 7.2Mbps / 2Mbps HSPA and a 3.2 megapixel cam; it's all yours for CAD $79.99 on contract.

Samsung Galaxy now available The big Android news today is all out of London and New York today, but if we move a bit eastward, there's some cool stuff going on in Deutschland, too: Samsung's i7500 Galaxy is now available. The beastly smartphone immediately becomes the highest-end Android device to date and will have a little while to enjoy the top of the hill until the Hero drops, thanks in no small part to its 5 megapixel cam, support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 8GB of internal storage, and a 3.2-inch AMOLED display. Looks like it's yours for €69.99 (about $98) on contract, so count us in -- and how about some time on the Nürburgring while we're at it?

Nokia N86 8MP reviewed, "arguably the best device that money can buy" For anyone firmly planted in the touch world, the N86 8MP may feel like a bit of a step backwards -- but as non-touch Nokia smartphones go, the N86 8MP represents a new high end, outdoing the N85 and possibly beating the final nail into the coffin of the aging N95 series. The dual slider's just been released over in the UK, and All About Symbian has done its typically fantastic job of breaking the phone down to the nitty gritty. Anyone used to the N95's well-documented creakiness will be pleasantly surprised, as AAS reports that the N86 8MP is one of the most solid phones Nokia has made to date (they've been getting better for a while now, we'd say), though the added chunkiness over the N85 might be a big drawback for some -- especially considering that it's essentially the same phone as the older model other than the better camera and the active kickstand. In the final analysis, the cam...

HTC Ozone for under $50? Is it cooler than Sprint's Snap? That's for you to judge, but whatever the case, Verizon has now announced its own version of HTC's latest WinMo Standard handset. The so-called Ozone features WiFi, global roaming capability, VZ Navigator and visual voicemail support, a QWERTY keyboard (which feels great if it's anything like its cousin's), and a beefy 1500mAh battery that we're betting will keep this thing going all day and then some. The best part, though, might be the price: it'll be just $49.99 on contract after rebate when it launches online on June 29 and in stores on July 13.

LG intros 55LH95 and 55LH93 wireless LCD HDTVs Maybe it's just the disco-inspired wallpaper that has our motors all revved up, but whatever the case, we're pretty jazzed about LG's newest 55-inch duo. The 55LH95 and 55LH93 are the company's latest ultrathin LED-backlit sets, both of which slim down to 24.8 millimeters and pack a grand total of 3,360 LEDs -- a number that LG claims is around seven times that used in most edge-lit LED TVs. There's also a 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, a 240Hz refresh rate and -- potentially most intriguing -- a mysterious wireless feature that enables DVD and game consoles to transmit information sans an HDMI cable. There's no mention of what technology is baked in (AMIMON's WHDI, perhaps?), but either way, we're hoping the same stuff remains once these get announced for North America. Estimated pricing on the July-bound (in South Korea) sets is pegged for $5,500 and $5,900, respectively, and LG is apparently planning...

Sony Ericsson intros T715 slider, VH310 Bluetooth headset Sony Ericsson's pushing its Walkman and Cyber-shot sub-brands harder than ever these days, but there's still plenty of good stuff in the regular range, too -- take this T715, for example. The newly announced slider features a 3.2 megapixel camera with "photo light" (don't call it a flash), sunlight-viewable 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3G, an impressive claimed 20 days of standby time, and a compact shell -- SE says it's the size of a credit card when closed. Launched alongside the T715 is the VH310 headset, available in your choice of silver or black with three different earpieces and two loops to fit your screwed-up head perfectly. Look for the phone to launch in Galaxy Silver and Rouge Pink (isn't that a contradiction?) in the third quarter -- and yes, both global and North American 3G versions will be available.

Pantech's SKY IM-R470S Somewhere in the past year, Samsung and LG spontaneously decided that mobile UIs should rotate in three-space as though each screen is a face on a cube. Other than sheer visual bedazzlement, there's not a lot of practical value to that -- but that's not stopping Pantech from getting into the game. It's coining its 3D interface "TruEmotion," and the first handset to take advantage of it will be the IM-R470S launched by Pantech's SKY division in Korea. The phone features a 3.2-inch VGA touchscreen and -- if we had to guess, anyway -- it probably supports T-DMB reception, but you'll need to be local to pick it up when it launches in July.

Samsung's 12 megapixel M8910 Pixon12 cellphone tries to make your camera obsolete Yes, folks, that day you've been so eagerly awaiting is nearly here. Soon you won't have to suffer the agony of pixel envy on your cellphones thanks to Samsung's M8910 Pixon12 and its whopping 12 megapixel sensor, capturing light through a 28mm wide-angle lens like that in the Nokia N86 (which has a miserly eight megapixels on tap). Sammy's handset has been put through its paces ahead of release, stacked up against the likes of a Canon A620 and a 350D SLR. The phone does quite well, producing images as good or better than its compact competition, but we're not quite sure we agree with the assessment that it "can reach the detail resolved by a true DSLR" -- at least, not in this batch of images. We want to believe, though, we really do; those SLRs are heavy, and we're not a particularly strong bunch.

Mvix Ultio "It Plays All" HD media streamer for $179 We'd heard rumors Mvix USA would be rolling out an upgraded 1080p capable media box to rival the earlier MvixPVR and here it is. Dubbed the Ultio, it has a list of supported codecs and containers that rivals the new Popcorn Hour C-200 in its thoroughness -- DivX® (3/4/5/6), Xvid, AVC-HD, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV-9, ASF(WMV9), MKV, DVD(IFO, VOB), ISO, MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AC3 -- it's all here, with a slightly awkward Swiss Army knife-themed tagline to boot. The $169 price tag is sans-3.5-inch SATA HDD, though you can add one for $79 (500GB) $90 (1TB) or $139 (1.5TB). Of course network streaming is a part of the package, with Mvix's usual suite of Samba / UPnP / BitTorrent (mentioning compatibility with PlayOn and Tversity specifically to get all your Netflix, YouTube and other streaming sources to TV) via Ethernet or optional Wireless-N dongle. It's up for pre-orders now, take a close look at the specs and pics t...

Lancer's iJector is the $700 projector for your $200 iPhone For that $700 price quoted above you were probably hoping for some sort of impossibly small and stylish pico projector, able to consume your iPhone, beam its contents onto the nearest flat surface, and make everyone nearby say "Ooh." Sadly the truth is not quite so charming, with Lancer Corporation's iJector looking to be smallish but not particularly svelte -- or stylish, for that matter. It sports the ubiquitous iPod dock on top that will accept a suite of Apple devices ranging from Gen 1 iPod nanos to iPhones running OS 3.0, and also has video input and output so that it can work with non-Apple devices, beaming a maximum 50-inch image at a disappointing 557 x 234 resolution. Did we mention that, at ¥64,800, it's nearly $700? It is, and it's shipping to Japan next month if for some reason you're still interested.

Sprint launching BlackBerry Tour on July 20th? When the teaser went up, we knew the hotly anticipated BlackBerry Tour for Sprint was right around the corner, but the only hint of a release date was "later this summer." Lucky for us, the, um, insiders at Inside Sprint Now have clarified the vague window for all of us mere mortals. They confidently state that the Tour will be available on July 20th, just over a week after the purported release date on Big Red. This hasn't yet been confirmed by Sprint, but we're sure they want this baby out sooner rather than later, so quasi-mark your calendars, quasi-set your alarms, and get your $199.99 ready.

Snaefell Bike Features A Literal Sidecar I don’t know what possessed François Knorreck to create the Snaefell, a handcrafted motorcycle/sports car hybrid, but the results are like a terrible traffic accident gone right. The motorcycle part of the Snaefell is based on a Laverda, while the sidecar is a mashup of a Volkswagen GTI, an Audi 80 and a Citroen Xantia. Overall the creation cost about $21,000+ to build, but what’s more impressive is that it took François 10 years and over 10,000 hours to make it a reality! Congratulations?