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Panasonic sweetens the 3DTV deal with Coraline, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D Blu-rays
We know what you're thinking: "there's no way I'm buying a 3DTV until there's actually some content available to watch." To tide you over, Panasonic's announced a promotion for new buyers to be among the first to get Coraline and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on Blu-ray 3D. Buy any VT25 model HDTV (sorry VT20 suckers), send in the UPC and coupon and 8-14 weeks later (we know, lame, right?) you should be getting two discs in the mail. While two toss-in flicks might not be a good reason to spend $2 - $3 thousand dollars at a time, we can always look back to the dark ages of 2009, when you could spend in the same range and get absolutely nothing as a throw in. No word from Twentieth Century Fox or Universal Studios when they'll be unleashing either flick at retail either, so this could be the best way to get your hands on them for a while -- check out the full details in the press release after the break or on Panasonic's registration website.
Kingston rolls out second-gen SSDNow V Series drives
Kingston's already proven itself to be pretty proud of its SSDNow V Series drives, but it's still found some room for improvement, with it now rolling out its second generation batch of drives in the line. Available in your choice of 30GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities, the new drives promise some improved performance (with PCMark HDD 2005 scores of between 18,900 and 20,117), and join the company's V+ drives in adding support for Windows 7 TRIM functionality, which should help maintain the speed of the drives over their lifespan. As before, you'll also be able to choose between either standalone unit or a bundled kit for desktops or laptops, with prices ranging from $109.99 to $377.
Kingston takes a bat to its SSDNow V Series drive
We put one of Kingston's SSDNow V Series drives through its paces last month, but we can't say we went quite as far as Kingston itself has gone in its latest demo video, which takes stress-testing to an all-American extreme. You can probably guess what happens next considering that Kingston is out boasting about the video, but, hey, it's not everyday that you get to see 256GB fly off the end of a bat. [Thanks, Shane]
Kingston's $85 40GB SSDNow V Series SSD gets heavily benchmarked
Aw, snap. For years now, we've been waiting (and waiting) for solid state disc prices to stoop down from the realm of you've-got-to-be-kidding-me, and now it finally looks like the everyman can ditch the HDD and get onboard with flash. Kingston's newly announced SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive ain't very capacious, but for just $84.99 (after rebates) at NewEgg, it's definitely affordable. The drive itself isn't slated to ship until November 9th, but the cool kids over at Legit Reviews seem to have already wrangled a unit for review. Kingston promises sequential read rates of up to 170MBps and write rates of up to 40MBps, and while that's certainly not mind-blowing, it's not too awful given the 2.5-inch form factor and bargain-basement price. Oh, and critics found that the drive far surpassed published speed ratings in testing, which is always completely and utterly awesome. Hit the via link for more, vaquero. [Via Legit Reviews]
BenQ grabs green card with LED-backlit V2200 / V2400 Eco monitors
We firmly believe that the all-too-popular 'green card' is flailed about far too haphazardly these days, but whatever the case, BenQ's sure doing its darnedest to explain just how much Ma Earth adores its latest duo of V Series monitors. The 24-inch V2400 Eco and 21.5-inch V2200 Eco are both outfitted with LED-backlit 1080p panels, comically inflated dynamic contrast ratios (5,000,000:1, if you can even believe that) and a shell constructed from 28 percent recycled plastic. Meanwhile, we're told these panels can suck down around 30 percent less power while in Eco mode, and overall, they consume approximately 36 percent less power than CCFL displays. If you're onboard with everything, look for these to land in your neck of the woods soon, with China getting 'em first in a week or so.[Via Far East Gizmos]
Kohjinsha's new L and V-series UMPCs get GPS, higher screen resolutions
Kohjinsha's UMPCs might have gotten a little overshadowed by the Eee, but the company is making a renewed push with two new models. The new L series replaces the SA series, retaining the aging AMD Geode chipset but upgrading the keyboard and bumping the touchscreen resolution to 1024x600, while the V series replaces the K series, keeping the Intel A110 chipset but adding GPS and a 7mm optical drive. Both models should be shipping in the middle of the month, but there's no word on pricing -- we'll let you know if we hear any numbers at CES.[Via jkkmobile]
Fujitsu unveils 15.4-inch LifeBook V1010 for the budget-minded
Although it's no $300 Gateway, Fujitsu's LifeBook V1010 does manage to come with a bit more oomph than the aforementioned cheapie. Designed for "price-conscious markets," this machine can be had starting at $799, and it offers up a 15.4-inch WXGA panel, 1.86GHz Intel T2130 processor, Windows XP, GMA 950 graphics set, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 120GB SATA drive, 59k modem / Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g support, a dual-layer DVD writer, and a six-cell Li-ion rated for 2.25-hours of usage. Granted, you can spend more than eight Benjamins if you'd like, but at least the base configuration won't break the bank too badly.[Via Laptoping]
Toshiba drops a bomb: Gigabeat V in the US
Well, well, well -- it seems that Toshiba's been up to more in the portable media space lately than just helping Microsoft out with the Zune manufacturing. In fact, ole Tosh has been working on a DTV-less version of its Japanese OneSeg-capable 30GB V30T; shake off the TV tuner, and you've got America's own MEV30K. This model borrows many of its features from the popular S series -- including Microsoft's Portable Media Center software, WMV9, WMV10, and PlaysForSure video playback, plus support for MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, WAV, and Windows DRM 9 / 10 audio files -- but, like the V30T, tosses what will probably be some well-received spec bumps into the mix. Besides the addition of a built-in speaker, the main changes here involve screen size and battery life: the V30K sports a 3.5-inch TFT LCD (compared to the 2.5-incher on the S, though both share the same QVGA resolution) and promises up to 8 hours of video or 25 hours of audio playback on a full charge (as opposed to the meager 2.5 and 12 hour lifespans for video and audio, respectively, on the S). We're sure that there are more than few people interested in this stamina-filled $400 Gigabeat, so the good news is that pre-ordering begins today through Crutchfield and Amazon, though a nationwide rollout is not expected until sometime in October. Let the iPod comparisons commence!
