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BlackBerry Curve 9300 prototype gets handled on video
BlackBerry lovers, are you sitting at home on a Friday night itching for the latest device scoop? Or out but glued to your screen checking news sites in between BBM relays? Looks like TechnoBuffalo (with a little help from Negri Electronics) has you covered: hands-on time with the Curve 9300. This prototype 8500 replacement has T-Mobile UK bands and is actually working (although with OS 5 at the moment). Compared with its predecessor, the keyboard is apparently improved, the side buttons more flush with the device, and there are a few cosmetic differences as you can notice in the picture above. Video after the break... now get on with your evening, k?
Samsung's 2010 3DTVs priced from $1,700 to ridiculous and everywhere in between
Enjoy your CES peek at Samsung's ultrathin 9000 series LED-lit LCD HDTV, with its touchscreen, video displaying remote control (also available as a $350 add-on for the 7000, 8000,and 750 series televisions) and 3D capability? That's good, because bringing the 55-inch UN55C9000 home in April will cost you a cool $6,999 (the thrifty can slum it with the 46-inch version for $5,999.) Still, if you're just looking to jump in on 3D without spending the max money, the cheapest model available at first will be the standard LCD LN46C750 available in May. In between, there's all manner of LED (most of them listed above, both with and without 3D capabilities) or old-school CCFL backlit LCDs plus a healthy lineup of plasmas arriving over the next few months, so with a note that grabbing 3D Blu-ray player and display at the same time will net a couple free pairs of active shutter glasses and a copy of the Monsters vs. Aliens 3D Blu-ray, check Samsung's site for each type to see what your budget can handle.
Samsung 8500 series LCD TVs feature local-dimming LED backlights, Yahoo! widgets
Sure, we might all just be getting used to LED-backlit LCD HDTVs, but this train ain't stopping, Chico -- Samsung just got official with the 8500 series, which features the next-generation of local-dimming LED backlights. The 54.6-inch and 45.9-inch 240Hz sets are just 1.6 inches deep and offer a 7,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, a 2ms response time, and an Energy Star 3.0 savings mode that continually adjusts the picture and backlight to optimize both picture quality and power savings. You're also getting Samsung's usual suite of connected TV features, like the Yahoo! Widget Engine, DivX playback, and DLNA support, but you'll be paying handsomely for all this newness -- the 45.9-inch UN46B8500's MSRP is $3,599, while the 54.6-inch UN55B8500 will run you $4,499.
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 and 8500 launch deets outed
Still haven't scraped together enough change to get yourself a fancy new 8800? Well just wait 10 more days and you can get (a little bit of) that hip-cool technology for peanuts. The GeForce 8600 GTS, 8600 GT and 8500 GT are all due on April 17th, hitting at the $199-$229, $149-$159 and $89-$129 price points, respectively. Specs scale nicely, with 256MB of GDDR3, a 675MHz core clock and a 1000MHz memory clock at the top end, on down to the 128 to 256MB DDR2 or GDDR3, 450MHz core clock and 700MHz memory clock at the bottom. Before too long, the even more basic 8400 GS and 8300 GS will round out the set, but hopefully you won't have to stoop that low to get your DirectX 10 on.
Unboxing Verizon's Chocolate
Screw waiting until the official release this week -- we want to live vicariously through the few lucky souls who've already managed to score a piece of Verizon's Chocolate. A HowardForums member has managed to hook us all up, putting down his glossy black bundle of joy just long enough to snap a few shots of the VX8500 being extracted from its packaging materials. As might be expected, the phone looks to quickly get covered with smudges and fingerprints, but such is the price one must pay for mobile exclusivity these days.[Thanks, Damian]
Qtek 8500 gets put through its paces
HTC's Qtek brand may be looking to close up shop but they're going out with a bang, dropping their version of the Star Trek / Smartflip. TrustedReviews has posted a fairly thorough, honest opinion of the WM5 clamshell, and the reviewer has thrown a good bit of fair criticism at the phone. The shared 64MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM leave less than half for the user to play with, battery life when busting out the tunes works out to about four hours, the headset connector is of a proprietary design, and the phone is arguably not quite as stylish as the RAZR it looks to emulate. The author concludes that while the 8500 is the only real game in town if you demand a WM5 flip, there's no compelling reason to get it over, say, a Faraday.
