Dan Wu

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Stories By Dan Wu

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    PlayStation
    PlayStation By Dan Wu

    PSP games region-free after all, but UMD movies locked

    We've reported before on the fact that some games for the PlayStation Portable do indeed sport a region-coding number, but now that the US games are finally out, we're happy to note that Sony (as promised) did not put a region lock on any of their games. Which means that yes, you can play any Japanese game on that fresh, mint-condition, scratch-free PSP you just picked up (or if you've had a PSP for a few months, there's now a few new American titles you can add to your library). Sony did lock up the UMD movies, so those of you with Japanese PSPs won't get any Spider-Man 2 action.

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    Apps
    Apps By Dan Wu

    iPSP 2.0 for Windows

    Mac PSP gamers have known about iPSP (the easiest method to sync with the PSP for Macs) for quite some time, and now there is a PC version in the works. Kaisakura gave us an exclusive first peek at iPSP 2.0 for Windows, which automatically saves your gamesaves, optimizes pictures for display on your PlayStation Portable, transfers music, and encodes videos (much simpler than our How-To guide a few months back) for playback on the PSP. We think Sony really should offer some kind of easy-to-use software similar to iPSP, but in the meantime, iPSP 2.0 should be out shortly (before the US PSP launch) and set you back about $25.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Toshiba Satellite P35-S629 17-inch gaming notebook

    Toshiba just updated their line of widescreen 17-inch Satellite P35 gaming laptop. The P35-S629 sports a Mobile Pentium 4 3.3GHz processor, 512MB RAM (upgradeable to 2GB), a 100GB hard drive, a built-in DVD recorder drive, and either an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 or 9700 video card. Comes standard with SRS TruSurround XT technology and Harman Kardon speakers and is available now directly from Toshiba for $1800.

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    Computing
    Computing By Dan Wu

    Tranquil T2e MCE2005 Media Center PC

    Tranquil PC (a UK outfit) has a new Media Center PC called the the T2e MCE2005 that runs on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, uses a low power VIA 1.2 GHz CPU, Serial ATA hard drives, and has a heat pipe system (similar to what Shuttle uses in their XPCs) to create a quiet home theater PC that can sit next to your TV without driving you nuts with obnoxious whirring fans. The T2e also has optical audio out, a slot loading DVD drive, a GeForce 128MB FX5200 graphics card, and comes with 512MB of DDR266 RAM. [Thanks, Stefan]

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    Accessories
    Accessories By Dan Wu

    Logitech ViewPort AV 100 Bluetooth video conference cam

    This one almost slipped by: the Logitech ViewPort AV 100 brings Bluetooth capability to your video conferences, with a VGA quality webcam and a built-in Bluetooth headset and microphone. It can send images up to 30 frames per second, does face tracking using digital pan and zoom, a USB 2.0 interface, and works on any Windows 2000 or XP PC. [Thanks, Marke]

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    Wearables
    Wearables By Dan Wu

    iRiver cuts prices to compete with the iPod shuffle

    Admitting that Apple's inexpensive iPod shuffle is putting a little bit of pressure on them, ReignCom, the makers of the iRiver line of MP3 players, has cut the prices of their flash-based models by 20 to 25 percent in Korea (with other markets to see price drops in February). This follows Cowon's price cut of 15 percent (10 percent for international markets) on their iAudio audio players. Note that neither cut extended the discounts to their hard-drive based players.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Virtua Stick USB PC controller

    As a follow-up to their popular Saturn USB gamepad, Sega has released the Virtua Stick PC USB joystick, which features a clicky gumball joystick, eight Japanese arcade-style action buttons (with L and R buttons surrounding the six main ones), and a Start and a Turbo button (great for shoot'em-ups) up top. The Virtua Stick sells for $85 and works on PCs with Windows 98SE and above, and on Macs with OSX 10.2.8 or newer. We like that Sega kept it old school by using metal plates at the bottom of the joystick (just like many of our old imported Japanese joysticks)—NCS advises putting a towel underneath it, lest you suffer some ice-cold chillin' on your lap.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Axis Communications 211A Network Camera with two-way audio

    We've always wondered why most video security cameras only transmitted audio one way, and so has Axis Communications, which has created the 211A network camera, which transmits 640 x 480 VGA video through Motion JPEG and MPEG-4 simultaneously and allows viewers of the video stream to voice communicate live with the people they are monitoring. The Axis 211A has built-in support for audio and Power over Ethernet (which means you just need one Ethernet cable for power, audio, and video) and will be $900 when it's released in February (yeah, steep).

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W5

    The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W5, an update to the DSC-W1, is a 5.1 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom, 32MB of onboard flash memory, a 2.5-inch LCD screen, and will retail for $350. The DSC-W5, which for some reason reminds us of an old Canon Powershot, uses Memory Stick or Memory Stick Pro media, can capture up to 9 shots in a burst mode at 1.6 frames per second, and will record video at 640 x 480 VGA resolution at 30 frames per second.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Dan Wu

    Gametech portable Pocket Famicom (NES)

    Available for just eighty bucks, you can relive your '80s videogame nostalgia with the Gametech Pocket Famicom (it can play NES games with an adapter), which surpisingly does not look like a lame third-party attempt at a handheld, though we're not quite sure of the legality of being able to play Famicom games seeing as how this isn't produced by Nintendo. It comes with an video cable to connect to your TV, a headphone jack, and runs on 3 AA batteries. We're now waiting for a day when folks produce a portable Sega Master System. [Via GadgetMadness]

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Sharp Actius MP30 notebook review

    Sharp's ultraportable Actius MP30 laptop weighs only 2.8 pounds, runs Transmeta's Efficieon 1.6 GHz processor, has a 10.4-inch screen, with 512MB RAM, a 40GB hard drive, and built-in 802.11g WiFi. PC Magazine finds the keyboard a little small (87 percent of a full-size keyboard) and the Efficeon runs about 15 percent slower than a similar speed Pentium M, but the laptop lasted a respectable 3 hours on a battery charge and has Intervideo's Instant Play, which lets users play DVDs and CDs (the store-bought kind) without needing to boot Windows.

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    Computing
    Computing By Dan Wu

    Western Digital 6GB one-inch hard drive

    Western Digital is joining the growing list of hard disk manufacturers making mini one-inch hard drives. The WD drives will have that Compact Flash form-factor and come in capacities as large as 6GB, use low power consumption, spin at 3600 rpm with a 12ms access time. The first ones set for release in the second quarter of 2005, expect to see them in plenty of MP3 players (and lots of other mobile gadgets) before the end of the year.

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    PlayStation
    PlayStation By Dan Wu

    Sony may open up PSP UMD format

    So the control freaks at Sony might take a big step and do something smart: allow other manufacturers to use the PlayStation Portable's Universal Media Disc (UMD) in their own devices. Other companies would not be able to play PSP games on their machines—that will be exclusive to the PSP, of course—but obviously Sony thinks they have a shot at making the UMD a popular format for music and videos on portable devices. They'd be opening up the format to potential piracy (since they'd inevitably have less control over the discs' use, as well as their manufacture and distribution), but loosening the reins is really the only way they're going to put the "universal" in "Universal Media Disc," right? If they really want to impress they'd take the next logical step and sell UMD recorders that would let consumers burn their own movies, music, and yes, even games to the discs, but we probably shouldn't get ahead of ourselves.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Canon PowerShot A510

    Canon's newest entry level 3 megapixel digital camera, the A510, sports a 4x optical zoom, uses Secure Digital memory cards, and only requires 2 AA batteries for operation. Replacing the A75, the A510 can also record 640 x 480 VGA video clips up to 30 seconds long, weighs 6.3 ounces, and will be available this month for just $200.

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    EVs and Transportation
    EVs and Transportation By Dan Wu

    OLED displays to debut in high-end cars

    It's going to be a few more years before you have an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display on your desk or in your living room (though they have already found their way into smaller gadgets like MP3 players, cellphones, and even the odd digital camera display), but if you're fixing to get in on the action, OLED screens are slated to show up in the dashboards of cars like the Aston-Martin DB9, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the Chevrolet Corvette later this year. The big deal about OLED displays is that they're brighter, clearer, and less power-hungry than LCD screens—and once the economies of scale thing kicks in, they promise to be cheaper to produce, too. We're already gazing lustily at that 21-inch prototype Samsung was showing off the other day.

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    Samsung
    Samsung By Dan Wu

    Samsung's new line of high-def upconverting DVD players

    Samsung is making a big push with their new line of DVD players that upconvert video to high definition formats (720p/768p/1080i) with the DVD-HD850 ($199), the DVD-HD950 ($249), and the DVD-V9500 ($249). There are many DVD players now that upconvert to hi-def, but only Samsung has models that upconvert to the 768p format, which is the native numbers of lines many plasmas have (1366x768 is a quite popular resolution for 50-inch models). The players all have HDMI outputs, with the DVD-HD950 also adding support for both DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD). All three should be available by the middle of the year.

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    PlayStation
    PlayStation By Dan Wu

    iPSP Mac sync for your PSP

    Remember how we did a little How-To last month detailing how to get videos onto your Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)? Well, that tutorial was for PC users only, and since we know not everyone swings that way we figured we'd pass along the news that there's now an application for all you Mac people out there called iPSP. Besides converting videos for playback on your PSP, iPSP also automatically backs up your game saves, integrates with your iTunes music, and syncs your iPhoto photos as well. [Thanks to everyone who sent this one in]

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    Samsung
    Samsung By Dan Wu

    Samsung flexible LCD

    So Samsung has made a 5-inch flexible LCD panel out of plastic (most LCDs are made of glass) that weighs a scant 0.8 ounces and has a resolution of 400 x 300. Samsung is looking to roll out (pun intended) the first flexible displays by 2007, with the first applications expected to be for notebook computers and portable consumer electronics.

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    Smartphones
    Smartphones By Dan Wu

    LG U8380 global UMTS world phone

    Some details have leaked out about the U8380, LG's new tri-band GSM phone (900/1800/1900 MHz) that also works on the European high-speed UMTS 2100 MHz network (that's 3G, baby). The U8380 has a 1.3 megapixel camera, voice recording and dialing, does video calls, and can also play MP3s. Note that Cingular is also building out UMTS in select markets in the US for possible release this year, but this probably isn't one the phones they're going to use for testing the network. 

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    News
    News By Dan Wu

    Minox DC 5222 five megapixel digital camera

    Minox, the creators of the blingin' gold-plated DC 4211, have announced the DC 5222, which is a 5.2 megapixel pocket-sized camera with a large 2.5-inch LCD screen, 3x optical zoom, 30 second video recording, uses SDIO memory, and is housed in a small pocketable housing (even smaller and lighter than the popular Sony DSC-T1 according to the listed specs) that is 88.5 x 24 x 54.5 mm and 130 grams (4.6 ounces). While we don't know yet what kind of picture quality of the DC 4211 produces, we've got to poo-poo the fact it uses the old, slow USB 1.1 to interface with a PC.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    LG VX8000 review

    PC Mag reviews the LG VX8000, the first Vcast-capable phone, which serves up Verizon's EV-DO video-on-demand to your cellphone for $15 a month, and finds the content watchable, but not too thrilling, as they quickly lost interest in the sparse clips (from CNN, Sesame Street, and NBC News). It's unfortunate that the phone is still stuck in WAP-only mode (no web browser or using it as a modem for your PC) because they found the speeds on the EV-DO quite speedy (as we did with EV-DO PC cards) and found it was a waste just for faster WAP. The VX8000 performed well capturing video (at a resolution of 176x144 pixels and 15 frames per second) and the photo quality of the megapixel camera was good outdoors, but there is no memory card to offload pictures or video (and no Bluetooth, though that's coming with the VX8100) so you're stuck with uploading via Verizon picture messaging.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Axion AXN7200 20-inch LCD TV/DVD combo

    We think Axion has quite a little combo unit in their AXN7200, a 20-inch 4:3 LCD with a built in top-loading DVD player which also plays music CDs, VCDs, and MP3s and incorporates a TV tuner. It has component and S-Video inputs, stereo speakers, includes a IR transmitter for optional wireless headphones, and should be available within three months (no price announced yet).

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    PlayStation
    PlayStation By Dan Wu

    Amazon UK lists PlayStation Portable March 18 release date

    Though not confirmed by Sony themselves, Amazon UK has begun taking pre-orders for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with a ship date of March 18, something which falls in line with the rumblings we've been hearing of a US launch in mid to late March. They list the price at £180 (a whopping $337 US), but UK gamers have been used to the unfriendly prices of consoles for years (an Xbox is still $182 US with no games included).

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    News
    News By Dan Wu

    Sony Qualia 001 Creation Box for clearer TV

    Sony has created a new device called the Qualia 001 Creation Box which promises to improve picture quality on even high definition televisions, making colors more vivid, clearer, and flicker-free and allows you to project hi-def images from a standard definition source. They promise to add the Creation Box technology to future TVs (we're betting Qualia TVs get first dibs), but for now, the only way you can utilize it is by buying the Qualia 001 black box which comes with a remote. We're not quite sure who's going to pony up $4800 for such a box (Japan only of course), but we'd love to see how much better the over-the-air analog picture improves on our old 13-inch Sony Trinitron from 1987 by using it.

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    Accessories
    Accessories By Dan Wu

    D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G730AP pocket WiFi router

    Currently the smallest WiFi G router available, the D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket Router has good range and throughput using 802.11g and can easily switch between being a router, access point, or Ethernet client. While there are no Ethernet ports onboard, the DWL-G730AP can be powered by a USB port and has 128-bit WEP and WPA-PSK security.

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    Reviews
    Reviews By Dan Wu

    Epson L-500V review

    Epson's L-500V adds a new twist to the digital photography home market, adding fast continuous mode shooting (three frames per second) and user-choosable picture frames to their five megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom, a 2.5-inch LCD display, and an SDlO memory card slot. It's available for around $400 and Steve's Digicams says it produces good shots and is perfect for the traveler. [via PhotographyBlog]

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