gadget news and reviews

CES 2010: Innovation With NVIDIA +

2010 is looking to be a very exciting year for dominant graphics card maker Nvidia as they release a plethora of new products aimed at driving future trends, starting today. From increasing the threshold of desktop graphics to dramatically changing the way users can experience the mobile revolution, Nvidia has put a significant amount at stake in their predictions for the coming trends. From what we at Skatter Tech have seen this year at CES, Nvidia looks to have a solid lineup and will definitely be a major player.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang gave a private press conference in which he announced three new and exciting technologies Nvidia and partners will bring to market over the coming year. Read More

Papershow, Write It. Show It. (Review) 2

Canson’s latest product, the Papershow, aims to revolutionize presentations with a new technology that offers an easy way to present without having to use a keyboard, mouse, or clicker. The kit includes some special paper and Bluetooth-powered pen and receiver. Once setup, the device offers the ability to present slides, images, and digital charts while editing and making changes live. Papershow essentially becomes a whiteboard using a projector and a computer controlled with a pen on paper.

To get started, I popped in the AA battery into the pen and plugged the Bluetooth USB receiver into my laptop. My Windows 7 machine had some issues running the application at first, but it worked once running in compatibility mode for Vista. Since all the software runs off the device, there was no more installation hassle. During configuration, I had to choose which style paper I had planned to use, and in my case, it was the A4 notebook. The starter kit comes with both an A4 notebook of 40 pages and 30 pages of 8.5×11 inch printer paper. The Papershow pen will only work with this special paper. There are nearly invisible dots integrated throughout each sheet which allow the pen’s technology to detect movement and behavior. There are several icons on the side of each sheet which through a quick tap allow changing color, shape, thickness, etc. Other icons on the side allow refining the presentation with post-its, arrows, shapes, and other tools. These controls also allow editing by redoing, undoing, and even deleting objects or slides. You can also print and export your presentation for future reference.

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Nvision 2008: Keynote +

Earlier today I had a chance to attend the Nvision 2008 Keynote given by Nvidia’s CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, in Downtown San Jose. It was just a short drive away since Skatter Tech is located in Los Gatos. The Performing Arts Center was packed and was decorated in Nvidia’s favorite color, green. Nvidia’s CEO covered a range of topics about how Nvidia’s GPUs have played a role in our world and also went on to talk about much of what kind of technologies we’ll be seeing in the near future. Let’s get started…
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July 2008 – Wii/PS3/360 Games +

It seems that July will be yet another slow summer month as developers are biding their time until the holiday season to release their triple A titles.

Nintendo Wii:

• Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge – dpt entertainment AG
• Order Up! – Zoo Games
• NCAA Football 09 – Electronic Arts
• Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 – MTV Games
• Wonder World Amusement Park – Majesco Entertainment
• Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon – Square Enix
• SPOGS Racing – D2C Games
• Freddi Fish Kelp Seed Mystery – Majesco Entertainment
• Purr Pals – Crave Entertainment

PlayStation 3:

• Beijing 2008 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games – Sega
• NCAA Football 09 – Electronic Arts
• Soulcalibur IV – Namco Bandai Games

Xbox 360:

• Golf: Tee It Up – Activision
• Schizoid – Microsoft
• NCAA Football 09 – Electronic Arts
• Soulcalibur IV – Namco Bandai Games
• Spectral Force 3 – Atlus

Games List: Nintendo Wii | Sony PS3 | Microsoft Xbox 360
Purchase Games: Amazon’s Selection (ships free + no tax)

PlayStation Store Gets Revamped +

There have been numerous rumors and mockups that have hit the web over the past few weeks regarding a whole new look that is coming to the PlayStation Network Store. We can set all those aside since SCEA has now officially put out a statement along with a few neat screen shots.

“The new design will deliver a hugely improved navigation system, much greater scope for categorization and a dynamic new user interface.”

According to PlayStation, the update will be released by mid-April, which is just two weeks away. A software update to the console will also accompany the new PSN Store. The bad news in all of this might be the fact that no new content will be available until this upgrade is pushed out. Fortunately this shouldn’t affect PlayStation Network game play, accounts, or virtual wallets.

Update: According to the PlayStation Blog, no new content will be added to the PlayStation Store for the next two weeks. (North America) However with the re-launch, plenty of new content will become available including a demo of the highly regarded Gran Turismo 5 Prologue!

Links: us.PlayStation.com

Amazon Customer Service Rocks! 8

I recently purchased a portable fridge for my dorm room on Amazon. When I received the package, everything worked fine, but there was a very visible dent on the side of the door. Being the picky person I am and wanting my full $200 worth, I asked Amazon for a replacement unit. Amazon kindly agreed to replace the damaged unit and since I was in a rush, they even threw in “One-Day Shipping” through UPS. I placed the original unit at the door for UPS to pickup, and when I got home the original package was taken and the replacement was at the doorstep.

The “new” box looked pretty badly beaten up, smashed, and torn. When I opened the box I was horrified to see the fridge’s front door had a HUGE “bullet-hole” looking crater. The rest of the unit was scratched up, smashed inwards, and bulging out. And to top that, the unit was soaked in some weird liquid. I decided to open the fridge door, to make things even worse, it fell right off its hinges. Read More

New iPod Nano, Classic, & Touch! 18

Earlier today (September 5th) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs introduced a bunch of new products. Some of these include a new iPod Nano, iPod Classic (aka Video), and the iPod Touch. The new lineup (picture above): iPod shuffle, nano, classic, touch, & iPhone.

iPhone Updates & Price:
As we are heading backwards though the keynote, the last item Apple touched on was the iPhone. Since the 8GB iPhone was so popular, the price has now been dropped to just $399, which is a $200 price-cut (originally $599). As for the 4GB model, it will no longer be produced or found in stores. The 8GB iPhone will be available at it’s new price online and in Apple and At&t Stores. A new update will also be available soon, which will include support for the Mobile iTunes Store.

The iPod Touch:
The ‘touch’ looks quite similar to the iPhone, has just about all the features, and even features an almost duplicate multi-touch interface, but doesn’t have a the “phone” part. The unit uses a 802.11b/g WiFi signal instead of the 2G At&t network for all its communication needs. Just like the iPhone, the iPod Touch has a Safari browser with built in Google/Yahoo search. Plus while connected to a hotspot or home network, the ‘touch’ allows browsing and playing YouTube content and even purchasing and downloading new songs on the go with the new fully fledged iTunes WiFi music store. The iPod Touch sports a 3.5-inch widescreen display for music, photos, videos, album art, coverflow, web browsing, and features an accelerometer to detect the unit’s upright or landscape orientation. With an ambient light sensor, battery life is conserved by adjusting the brightness to the unit’s surroundings, in result offering 22 hours of music and 5 hours of video playback. The iPod Touch will be available later this month (no exact date set just yet) in capacities of 8GB and 16GB priced at $299 and $399 respectively. Read More

Verizon Downgrades Upgrade Plan 9

If you are a long-time Verizon Wireless customer, you should be quite aware that you have the ability to upgrade your cell phone every two years. Normally customers were offered a total of $100 towards a new phone if they agree to sign another two year contract with Verizon and had maintained a monthly plan of $30 or more. However this is no longer the case. With Verizon Wireless’s “New Every Two” plan, pretty much everyone with any sort of contract has to pay more to upgrade to a new device.

The new plan goes as follows: If a customer has had a monthly plan of $35 or more for 2 years , they then now qualify for only $50 towards a new phone after signing another 2 year contract instead of the previous $100. To receive a total of a $100 towards a new phone, as it was before, the customer must be paying at least $80 or more for their monthly plan for the entire two years or the last three months before becoming eligible to upgrade. Even though some may be eligible to get a $100, they will still be stuck with a new contract. In addition those who are thinking because of their family plan, everyone can new phones, WRONG, only the primary line will be eligible.

Verizon, in their defense, claims that the cost of cell phones has been “drastically” dropping over the last 10 years. I have to agree that prices of any electronic gadget does drop over time as it becomes cheaper to produce. BUT when the price of the new popular Motorola RAZR 2, which will be a hit during the holiday season, is on sale at a price of $250 with yet another 2 year contract, I have to disagree. What do you guys think? Is Sprint, Cingular, or T-Mobile handset upgrades any better?

Links: Verizon Wireless New Very Two | FAQs

Blu-ray Outsells HD DVD Movies 2

Last week, Home Media Research released a study revealing that Blu-ray had just outsold its competitor, HD DVD, by 2-to-1 for the first half of 2007. To be specific, HD DVD movie sales only reached about 795,000, while Blu-ray reached 1.6 million. To be even more specific the popular Spartan epic, ‘300′, which became the fastest selling High-Def movie, sold 190,000 Blu-ray discs and 97,000 HD DVDs (approx 2-to-1 again). Even the popular movie rental service, Blockbuster Video, which began offering rentals of both formats in late 2006, announced in June 2007 that they have decided to drop HD DVD and stock Blu-ray in all stores.

Although it may seem as though Blu-ray now has the upper hand, HD DVD is still in the game. While Blu-ray has the support of many large corporations, including HP, Dell, and Apple, HD DVD has secured more deals with major movie studios. If HD DVD continues to grab exclusive content from Universal, Rouge, Paramount, DreamWorks, and Warner Bros through the Christmas season, they might just be able to take down Blu-ray for the 2nd-half of 2007. Despite this, as of this week, there are 322 Blu-ray titles while HD DVD just falls a bit short, with 273 movies. Read More

Apple iPhone Update & Ads +

Today, during the 79th annual Oscars, Apple aired their first iPhone “teaser” commercial. The AD features ~30 different movie clips of famous actors through many eras simply saying “hello” on phones. Also if you didn’t notice, which most people probably won’t, the “cingular” text on the phone from the original press release has now changed to At&t due to the change of the company name after the merger.

Apple originally announced the iPhone this year in January during MacWorld 2007, however the device will only be available to consumers in mid-June 07. The iPhone will only be available through one service provider, Cingular, after launch. Apple however has hinted that it may become available through other providers within a year after launch.

In other iPhone news, Apple recently settled their trademark lawsuit with Cisco last week. The two companies came to an agreement to share the name and both are free to use the name for any of their products. Cisco is currently using the name, iPhone, for their line of Linksys VoIP phones.

Links:.iPhone AD | Cisco & Apple Agreement
Related: Apple Announces the iPhone