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IRL: Nikon D3S, iPod 4G and Klipsch's Image One headphones
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. We almost don't want to talk about our tablets and phones this week, just because one or two show-stoppers here and there have made pretty much everything we own seem wholly inadequate. So we'll tell you about the stuff we won't be trading in anytime soon. For James, that means a good pair of over-ear headphones, for Darren it's a $6,000 camera and for Daniel it's a 40GB iPod with "Dan Cooper is awesome" engraved on the back (19 year-olds, right?). No complaints this time: just a trio of Engadget editors sounding off on what's been worth it.
Motorola MOTOACTV hands-on (update: video with Dean Karnazes!)
So when Motorola teased its "faster, thinner, smarter, stronger" event we were pretty sure that was a not-so-subtle reference to the 7mm-thick Droid RAZR. As it turns out, the company was also being quite literal. Instead of a Xoom 2, the outfit rounded out its New York City presser with MOTOACTV, an iPod Nano-like touchscreen device that plays music and keeps track of your various fitness vitals. While we couldn't take it more than a few feet away from the pedestal where it was on display, we did get to poke around its UI for a few minutes and put that 600MHz processor to the test. You know the drill: hands-on photos below, along with impressions and a short vid after the break.%Gallery-136870%Joseph Volpe and Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Sony outs water-resistant Walkman NWZ-W260, is about to launch new high-end models
As far as unusual designs go, Sony's been having one productive week. First the tablet team showed off the funky S1 (and funkier S2) and today Walkman's managed to grab our attention. The outfit just announced the NWZ-W260 series, a music player baked directly into a pair of lightweight headphones -- all told, a bolder setup than this. In case it wasn't already obvious, Sony has its eyes set on the sweaty, gym-going type, and to sweeten the deal it's coated the player in a water-resistant finish. It's rated for up to eight hours of battery life, and also packs a quick charging technology that would allow you to rebound to an hour's capacity after just three minutes. The included software, meanwhile, allows you to drag and drop tracks from Windows Media Player and iTunes for Windows -- so long as they're not DRM-protected, 'o course. It'll go on sale next month, with a 2GB version (the NWZ-W262) fetching $59.99 and a 4GB number (NWZ-W263) going for $79.99. Meanwhile, it's clear Sony's got some more players coming at the higher end of its lineup. The company just pushed four A860 series Walkmans through the FCC, with capacities ranging from 8GB to 64GB -- a new high for Sony. CNET has also been chatting up sources who say the player will have a large OLED screen, noise-canceling technology, and Bluetooth 2.0. Meanwhile, FCC documents also show Sony is prepping a pair of S760 series players with either 8GB or 16GB of storage, an LCD screen for video playback, and Bluetooth. As CNET notes, Amazon jumped the gun and listed them in Europe with converted prices of $225 to $494 for the A series and $182 to $211 for the S series. How much will they actually cost once they arrive stateside? Looks like we'll find out soon.
iriver U100 PMP gets official reveal, P100 and D2000 leave something to the imagination
The teases over at iriver are ready to show you what they've got: the neon-colored U100. We reported on the PMP, along with the P100 and the D2000 last month, but it looks like iriver is going to leave us guessing on the last two. The U100 sports a 3.1-inch (320 x 480) touchscreen, up to 16GB of internal memory, WiFi, microSDHC, and an FM tuner for those who still listens to the radio. It plays 720p video and touts 50 hours of battery life for audio playback and 11 hours for video. iriver isn't ready to give us all the details quite yet -- an official release date and pricing are still under wraps -- but they have provided another video to keep us interested. Hit up the source link to see for yourself.
Samsung MP3 player goes 60 hours on a charge
Once upon a time, it meant something to have a digital audio player that went upwards of two full days without needing a charge. Since then, we've seen many, many examples, and it's just not that exciting anymore. But you know what? It's still not that often we see a DAP with 60 hours of battery life and a 3-inch, QVGA TFT LCD that plays ten hours of DivX, Xvid, WMV and H.264 video to boot, so we think Samsung's YP-RB might deserve an honorable mention. The player was recently spotted in a Korean distributor catalog in 4, 8 and 16GB varieties, and we hope (but doubt, given tricky patent licensing issues) that we'll see one stateside sometime soon.
