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i-Station Z3D 7-inch 3D Android tablet requires glasses, how convenient
Come on, you knew it would come to this. In an industry obsessed with 3D as a means of boosting sales, somebody was bound to introduce a 3D tablet that requires glasses (polarized, no doubt). While other companies like Sharp have 3D tablet ambitions designed around its glassesless parallax barrier display technology, Korea's i-Station has bolted from the gate with a 7-inch (800x480) Z3D 3D tablet featuring the Android 2.1 OS, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radio, 5000mAh high capacity battery, DMB television, either 32GB or 64GB or storage (depending upon model), and 1080p video support. And really, what could be more convenient than carrying around an extra pair of glasses just for viewing 3D content? A stylus perhaps? One can only hope. Of course, i-Station has plenty of tablet options to choose from including the similarly spec'd "i-Station Dude" and miniature "Buddy," all pictured above just for you pal. Expect the Z3D to launch in November for KRW600,000 or right around $500. A few more pics after the break.
Digital Cube works WiFi, HD playback into i-Station T9, forgets the HD screen
It's pretty obvious what it takes to play in the current generation of PMPs: enough juice to process HD videos, and an HDMI port to get it off the player and onto the big screen. Unfortunately, the new i-Station T9 from Digital Cube sort of stops there. It has great codec support, and even WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity (to be enjoyed by what OS is unclear), but unlike its big brother S3's WVGA display, the mere 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 screen on the T9 will have us looking for an HDMI port a bit early. No word on price or availability.
Digital Cube storms back with touchscreen-based i-Station E9 PMP
Digital Cube may not be a household name in portable media players (at least on this side of the Atlantic), but there's no doubt that its latest attempt at greatness is a real looker. The touchscreen-based i-Station E9 arrives with an expansive 3-inch panel, hardly any buttons to speak of, an FM tuner, accelerometer, video output, support for more formats than you can shake a stick at and a user interface that looks particularly fascinating. Battery life is pegged at just 12 hours for audio and 4 hours for video, but with prices set for $115 (4GB) / $132 (8GB), we won't kvetch too loudly.[Via Cloned In China]
Logic3 intros i-Station Rotate iPod / iPhone dock
It sure is tough for iPod docks to stand out from the pack these days, but it looks like Logic3 has found one fairly unique way to get its new i-Station Rotate unit noticed, with it packing a rotating mechanism that will let you adjust your iPod or iPhone to suit your screen format. Other than that, it looks to be a fairly standard speaker dock, with it boasting a whopping 10W of total output power, a video output for some larger screen viewing, a 3.5mm line-in jack to accommodate your non-Apple devices, a remote control, and accommodations for four AA batteries to let you take it on the road. You won't be able to get your hands on this one until January, however, when it'll set you back $130.
Digital Cube reveals i-Station T5 PMP with HSDPA
Another month, another i-Station. This time, though, Digital Cube has really managed to pique our interest with the T5, a fifth-generation PMP that boasts such luxuries as inbuilt HSDPA and a 4.8-inch WVGA (800 x 480 resolution) display. We're also told that it'll be rocking a T-DMB TV tuner, an FM module, 3D user interface, SDHC card slot, 8GB / 16GB of internal storage space and an e-dictionary, of course. Pricing and release information has yet to be revealed, though you can bet it'll be hitting up South Korea before it ships anywhere else.[Via PMPToday]
Digital Cube's i-station UDIC gets hands-on treatment
One thing's for sure about Digital Cube's i-station UDIC: it's not your mother's electronic dictionary. Boasting a full (albeit tiny) QWERTY keyboard and a unique swivel screen, the HDD-packin' device could easily be mistook for a miniature UMPC (a convertible one, at that). Just in case you've forgotten, it also features a 4.3-inch display, text-to-speech support and an Alchemy AU 1250 CPU. Pricing has been set for ???398,000 ($396) / ???448,000 ($446) in the Korean market for the 30GB / 60GB editions, and you can check out a video of some spicy hands-on action in the read link below.[Via SlashGear]
Digital Cube busts out i-station UDIC electronic dictionary for Korea
It looks like Digital Cube's i-station brand knows no bounds, with it emblazoning everything from UMPCs to PMPs to GPS/PMP/DMB combos, and now even the ever-popular and slightly perplexing "electronic dictionary." That latest entry comes in the form of the i-station UDIC which, like most electronic dictionaries, does a good deal more than just defining and translating, something that should come as no surprise given the device's 60GB hard drive, 4.3-inch touch screen (which can be flipped around), and other decidedly non-dictionary features. No word on a price, but you know where you'll have to go if you want to get your hands on one.[Via Tech Digest]
i-Station lets loose U43 do-it-all PMP
At this point, we're fairly certain i-Station will only use a number other than "43" in its product titles once it has exhausted the entire US alphabet, but since we're not quite to that point, we're forced to live with U43 this go 'round. As expected, this Korean PMP is packed to the brim with features, including a 4.3-inch WQVGA (480 x 272) display, WinCE 5.0, a T-DMB receiver, GPS, e-dictionary, 30GB / 60GB hard drive and support for a smorgasbord of file formats. Notably, some features will depend on which flavor you pick up -- Standard, DMB or NAVI -- but the whole lot plays nice with MPEG1/2/3/4, AC3, DivX, XviD, WMV, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, FLAC, APE, JPEG, BMP and PNG. 'Course, all this functionality won't run ya cheap, as word on the street pegs this bad boy at ???448,000 (or around $481).[Via AkihabaraNews]
iPhone news roundup: benchmarks, Facebook, and (obviously) rumors
There was a lot of iPhone chatter this week -- although Apple might have done all it can to lock the little bugger down, it seems people are still finding ways to extend and explore its capabilities, while AT&T might have finally gotten the hint about those ridiculous paper bills. Logic3 unveiled the i-Station Traveler (pictured), the first speaker dock we've seen specifically for the iPhone. While most iPod docks tend to work fine with the iPhone, the $60 Traveller is designed specifically around the horizontal orientation, allowing you to watch movies while the iPhone is docked. Meebo and Facebook both launched iPhone-specific versions of their sites, allowing you to IM your friends and stalk your exes with all the swoopy-slidey flair you'd expect. Orange continued to act all coy about potentially being Apple's partner in France, saying only that it had "no comment" on the iPhone, even as rumors heat up. The iPhone got straight-up benchmarked for the first time: Craig Hockenberry whipped out his stopwatch and discovered that Javascript in MobileSafari runs right around eighty times slower than on a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo Mac. He also whipped up a little app using that pirate toolchain we love so much and discovered that native ARM code runs some 200 times faster than Javascript in the iPhone. Looks like that Safari sandbox might not be so "sweet" after all. AT&T seems to have decided that its vendetta against the trees of the world might be a little misplaced, and is in the process of moving to "summary billing," according to a call center employee. Either that, or they're trying to guilt people into switching to e-billing by sending out ridiculous bills. Really, that's what the email says. All in all, a pretty busy week for the iPhone -- kinda makes you wonder how much action there'll be when Apple finally releases that official SDK, eh?Read - i-Station TravelerRead - MeeboRead - FacebookRead - Orange declines to comment on the iPhoneRead - iPhone benchmarksRead - AT&T reducing paper bills[Thanks, risingsonn and The Boy Genius]
i-Station N7tu navigation system does DMB on the side
i-Station's latest GPS / DMB / PMP conglomerate isn't too terribly differentiated from its do-it-all siblings, but the stylish design, expansive seven-inch LCD, and built-in hard drive make it hard to shun. This navigation device includes integrated stereo speakers, a SiRF Star III receiver, DMB TV tuner, SD expansion slot, USB connectivity, rechargeable battery, and your choice of a 30GB or 60GB internal HDD. Of course, you'll also find the usual photo viewer and media player functions within, and while pricing information seems to be absent, we Americans won't be ponying up for this Korean-based gizmo anyway.[Via NaviGadget]
Digital Cube's i-Station M43: another do everything PMP from Korea
What's with Digital Cube and the number 43? 42, that we could understand but why do we need an S43, T43, G43, and now this, the i-Station M43 all from the same company? Is Digital Cube trying to say that each is one better than the answer to the ultimate question? Anyway, the new M43 PMP flaunts a 4.3-inch touchscreen LCD, up to 60GB disk, DMB mobile TV, and integrated GPS and e-Book reader depending upon Classic, Dic, or Navi model chosen. Prices range from ???300,000 to ???400,000 or about $323 to $431 in mean green. [Via Akihabara News]
Hands-on with Digital Cube's "world's smallest" UMPC: the G43
The first thing you need to know about Digital Cube's i-Station G43 UMPC is that it's small. Not crazy small, just small for a device labeled a UMPC. That's primarily due to that fact that it sports a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 touch-screen display instead of the big ol' 7-incher featured on most UMPCs. Its primary limitation then, is the fact that it runs an AMD Geode LX800/900 running at 500MHz (throttled back to 398MHz in the prototype on display at CeBIT). That means XP and Linux, no Vista Home Professional for you. Still, with 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, choice of 30GB or 60GB disks, a speaker dock, USB-host port, and a nice touch-pad mousing interface along the left-hand side, it will certainly fill a void in somebody's ultra mobile lifestyle. You know, whenever it might ship.Update: Will be out in Korea this summer for about $700 with a rest of world launch in September or October.%Gallery-2131%
Digital Cube gets an i-Station dictionary gig with the T43DIC PMP
You know, Casio ain't the only game in town when it comes to these e-dictionary units that seem to be so popular in Asia. The folks at Digital Cube might not be willing to do something so silly as attach a keyboard to one of their PMPs, but they've apparently done just about everything else to prep this i-Station T43DIC for the exciting life of an electronic dictionary. Of course, those 30GB and 40GB capacities are probably meant for storing a bit more than mere words, but i-Station puts a nice little educational spin on the usual mindless video fare: subtitles are linked to the dictionary, so you can translate the complicated "I'll shoot you in the face" and "you complete me" type of phraseology that those Hollywood intellectuals are always trying to throw around. Prices are set at 398,000 won ($425 US) for the 30 gigger and 448,000 won ($479 US) for the 40 gigger, but that's about all we know about this device, other than a few screenshots that show this pen-based device to have quite the full-fleshed, shiny OS. Though the similarities in looks to Digital Cube's BMP-1430 probably mean the two PMPs share more than a few specs under the hood.
Digital Cube spiffs up its line with i-Station Mini DX
If Digital Cube's original Mini, which was only released a couple of months ago, wasn't quite shiny enough for you, it looks like they're at it again with the Mini DX, which adds an FM tuner, USB host support and a microSD slot. The player face also got nice little revamp, but otherwise there's still that same old 2.4-inch LCD, T-DMB, 1, 2 and 4GB capacities -- though the 4 gigger hasn't gone totally legit just yet -- and hefty format support of its predecessor. The 1GB player should be going for 198,000 KRW (about $213 US), while the 2GB version hits 248,000 KRW (about $267 US). Naturally, neither player is slated for the States.[Via Electronista]
i-Station NetForce Navi GPS device comes fully loaded
The big trend right now in Asian GPS devices is to include some T-DMB television along with the trusty nav unit (sadly, we've got no idea when us Yanks will see anything similar). As such, the i-Station NetForce Navi has just done the inverse, pairing GPS with what we'd previously seen on the similarly-sized classic T-DMB NetForce device. The new Navi has a 4.3-inch (800 x 480) TFT LCD, HSDPA, a T-DMB receiver, and can play loads of video files (includes H.264) and audio formats as well. And yes, we agree with Navigadget's assessment that if the NetForce Navi were to come out Stateside, it would give the nuvi 660 a run for its money, particularly if it was priced lower than $1,000.[Via Navigadget]
