Digital Technology for Digital Living.
April 28, 2005
Nokia N-series phones
Nokia has released information on a new series of phones, the N70, the N90 and the N91.
The N90 and N91 in particular seem to be the interesting models. The N90 has some very useful camera features, while the N91 (pictured) focuses on mutimedia with a 4G hard drive.
Random | Comments (0) | General
April 27, 2005
Aussie iTunes, Almost Here!
More as it develops.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Music
April 26, 2005
iTunes Music Store Loads Aussie Flag.
This little flag button just made our week even more joyful. It just got added to the iTunes Music Store web server.
Link from AppleTalk.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Music
April 25, 2005
Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Canon announced the new PowerShot S2 IS a few days ago.
According to PhotoReview Australia, it’ll be in Australia by the 1st of June.
It’s got a few interesting features:
- Can shoot continuously at 2.4fps until the memory card becomes full
- Can take still pictures while recording video (video gets paused automatically)
- 12 times optical zoom
- 640 by 480 at 30 fps (with stereo sound) movie mode
Thanks to Dave, for pointing me to word of the announcement in Digital Photography Review.
Kap | Comments (0) | Digital Camera
April 22, 2005
Crowe Says iTunes Music Store A Week Away in Australia.
Here’s the question. Was Russell Crowe just speculating like the rest of us, or does he really know?
Russell Crowe appeared on The John Laws radio show this morning to promote his latest solo music to an Australian audience. At about 10:45am Crowe got talking about availability of his work he mentioned that: “you can download some of music from iTMS which is available in australia on the 28th [of April]”.
Also, is the [of April] an addition by AppleTalk Australia, or did he just say “on the 28th”, in which case it could still be next month.
Regardless, this is still hot news for iTunes lovers. Bring it on we say!
Update : (April 24, 2005) You can hear the audio of Russell’s statement here in M4A format thanks to Joz
Update : (April 24, 2005) Bexta, Aussie dance artist, also spills the beans on her website, and suggests Australian iTunes Music Store is due within the month.
Gadgetman | Comments (4) | Music
April 21, 2005
Athlon Dual Core chips
oooh - due to launch tomorrow! And apparently they’ll be available for desktops, and maybe even work with existing motherboards (after a BIOS update).
Random | Comments (0) | General
Windows Mobile PDA with GPS
This device certainly looks interesting….. GPS functionality included with a PDA/smartfone device is just one step closer to having one device in your pocket that does everything you want. (Until we do away with pockets and just have the things implanted into our bodies…. but doesn’t microsoft have a patent for that?)
Related Link: Windows Mobiles 6 Games Download Windows Mobile 6 software and games at Wm6software.net
Random | Comments (4) | General
Nikon releases new cameras
News of the new release Nikon D70 and D50 should be everywhere, but check out full details on the Digital Photography Blog or directtly from Nikon (D70, D50)
Random | Comments (0) | General
April 18, 2005
Music Industry Plays Games In Australia.
In a press release today, Sydney lawyer, music industry commentator, and academic, Alex Malik has revealed further evidence that the recording industry in Australia has little respect for their customers.
Jesse McCartney’s single, “Beautiful Soul”, is currently number one on the Australian single charts. Unfortunately the record label has discontinued production of the single. Now why in the world would a label end the life of a single while it’s still at the top of the chart? Malik believes that it’s to force customers to buy the newly released album, which of course provides a greater profit margin.
The evidence is compelling. Unless you get lucky and find the single in a store, the only method for getting the song is to buy the album, or use illegal methods such as peer-to-peer technology. Even every online Australian music store doesn’t have the single available to purchase. McCartney isn’t alone.
Mr Malik’s comments follow his recent study, which showed that many of the songs in the Australian singles chart, including McCartney’s #1 hit song were unavailable to be purchased in Australia as a paid download. In the study, Mr Malik found that 20% of the songs in the top half of the Australian top 50 could not be purchased from any of the authorised retailers of digital downloads. Many tracks could be purchased on one or two of the websites but not all websites. Less than one third of all recordings in the top half of the singles chart could be purchased from all authorised MP3 websites.
This begs the question, when will iTunes Music Store come to town, and when it does, will it stock these elusive singles? There are several rumours for the launch date, with all indications that it’ll be before June.
Cross posted to The Gadget Show.
Gadgetman | Comments (0) | Music
April 16, 2005
Handheld Tablet PC
From the only Engligh characters on this page, this device appears to have been launches at Japan’s IDF 2005, running Windows XP Tablet Edition on a 600Mhz Pentium M.
Babelfish and Google both failed on translations though…. so the rest of the details are left as a mystery. Perhaps one of our readers has some tricks up their sleeve? Comments welcome!
Random | Comments (1) | Portable, PDA
April 15, 2005
Electronic Program Guide Comes To Australia (Finally).
You’ll remember that we posted about IceTV last year. Well it seems that they’ve launched their service in Melbourne and Sydney.
iceguide is the first of many ice services which make TV viewing a more user-friendly experience.
iceguide provides an on-screen TV guide that shows you what is on for the coming week on all free-to-air channels.
iceguide works with digital set-top-boxes, personal video recorders, or media centre computers. It is an electronic program guide that allows you to schedule recordings by simply highlighting the names of the programs you want to record and clicking your remote control.
It is an inexpensive subscription service that can be delivered to your home via the Internet.
Not exactly the service they talked about launching last year, but still, nice and compelling for those that want or have a Topfield TF5000PVRt (IG4TF), Showshifter (IG4SS), MythTV (IG4MT), or other PC-based PVR (IGXML). A 12 month subscription costs $156, or as the image suggests, a special bundle for $1099 to include the TF5000PVRt, which usually lists around that price.
Other Websites: iPod Australia Buy Ipod online in Australia
Gadgetman | Comments (5) | PVR
X-treme capture
Ever wondered exactly which koala pushed that tree out in front of you while you were on your dirt-bike?
Or which direction your keys fell last time you went sky-diving?
Looks like Samsung has the answers with its new Miniket Extreme camcorder that allows an external camera to be plugged in - Available from Amazon
Tapeless recording with 10x zoom… sounds very nice!
Random | Comments (0) | Video
April 14, 2005
Cold Soldering Tool
Something I’ve come across on a few sites lately is a Cold Soldering Tool. It claims to be able to heat up to 500ºF (260ºC)in less than a second, and then cool down in less than five.
The other handy thing is that it’s completely portable and cordless. It runs on 4 AA sized batteries, and is suitable for hobbyists with light PCB work.
Now being an Engineering student, and the tool costing roughly $20 USD from various sites like thinkgeek, I’m quite tempted to have one shipped over ASAP just to try it out.
Anyone else heard about this neat tool?
Review at OCWizard
Ken | Comments (1) | Portable, Peripherals
PSP Photo Shoot
We’ve always found there’s nothing like some sexy photos of the latest gadget to stir up interest.
Sony-Korea have taken an artistic approach to this with their latest PSP photo gallery, casting fish alongside the usual eye-candy.
I’m personally still deciding tossing up between the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
Ken | Comments (3) | Console
ADSL2+ is here!
The ACIF released a final technical spec of ADSL2 and ADSL2+ yesterday, allowing for speeds of up to 24Mbit/s.
Apparently Internode was the quickest Aussie ISP to then offer this service, and some customers have reported speeds “in excess of 18Mbit/s”
Full story at Whirlpool
Random | Comments (0) | Broadband
April 13, 2005
iPod dock for Onkyo
Onkyo has available a special dock for the Apple iPod, which makes use of Onkyo’s RI (remote interactive) feature on many of the amps and receivers.
The dock allows basic charging of the iPod, as well as the full use of the Onkyo remote to control the iPod.
I’m personally a great fan of integrating devices, eliminating the need for a dozen remotes and increasing user-friendliness for the less geekily-inclined.
Original Onkyo Press Release
Onkyo’s Japan site with more pics.
Ken | Comments (1) | Music, Peripherals
XBox2 MTV times
According to Team XBox the Australian MTV show time for the new console is Australia: Friday, May 13, at 19:00
Random | Comments (0) | Console
Its… an.. umm… mouse
Can anyone read Japanese?
Looks kinda sexy… but how many people will complain that the scroll wheel makes their coffee cup unstable?
Random | Comments (1) | General
iSync 2 support more phones in Tiger
Apple’s iSync software has been slow to support new mobiles coming out lately, leading to a bunch of grumbing from people with new phones that just won’t sync their address books with the Mac.
Along with the release of Tiger, Apple have announced iSync version 2, which now supports a much increased list of mobiles and ability to sync properly via Bluetooth with Motorola phones.
There are lots of new entries, including a bunch of later Nokias, A whole lot of Motorola phones and the latest from Sony Ericssion.
Graeme | Comments (0) | Mobile Phone, Software
Where is my Gadget?
You should be starting to get excited…. its out there… the technology ingredients are falling into place…
Hard Drive capacities are increasing (This animation is a crack-up)
Liquid lenses will allow small devices to zoom & focus without the need for traditional bulky glass lenses – just like your eye! (well.. for those of us without glasses at least)
WiMAX should provide DSL equivalent speeds (for those of us living close enough to cities anyway).
And then with VOIP we should be able to slash the costs of calls – to anywhere in the world!
Screens are getting more flexible
And there is even some decent software to run the thing with!
Add in to this companies like HTC (the makers of the O2 mini, and other things), Samsung (making phones with hard drives and high resolution, 7Megapixel! cameras), and Archos (who have been pushing the boundaries on portable media products ), along with many, many other companies….
And the final result of all this?
No one knows yet… but its a fair bet that Gadget Lounge readers will be lining up to order one!
Tell us what you’d like to see in your device in the forum.
Random | Comments (1) | General, Mobile Phone, Broadband, Music, Wireless, Portable, PDA, Digital Camera, VOIP
