Keian
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BlackBerry will release a curved-screen slider phone later this year
BlackBerry's recovery relies on the company's reinvention as a software and services business, which has enabled its hardware designers to go a little bit wild. At Mobile World Congress, BB's handset chief Ron Louks just pulled out a prototype of a handset that looks like the holy union between the Leap and the Passport. There's no name for the device just yet, but the company describes it as a "dual-curved, all-touch display with a keyboard," with that latter component situated on an old-fashioned slider beneath the display.
Keian Japan P71-A2-JP: part photo printer, part photo frame, all modern marvel
Just when you thought you'd seen it all, along comes a photo printer that is also a photo frame (or vice versa) to completely rearrange your concept of reality. The P71-A2-JP from Keian Japan houses a 7-inch, 480 x 234 LCD for doing the photo frame thing, complete with SD card and Memory Stick support, a USB host plug and even a little bit of MP3 playback. What's surprising is that there's a full-on photo printer in back to print out those shots worth cherishing a bit longer than ten seconds on a repetitive cycle. The 300 dpi prints probably won't blow minds, and that screen is depressingly low-res, but all-in-all this is a pretty neat little solution to a problem you didn't have.
Keian intros KDVD850HDMI upscaling DVD player with DivX support
While we've seen quite a few luxurious upscaling DVD players come through for those still quietly sitting the fence as the Blu-ray / HD DVD war wages on, Keian's KDVD850HDMI offers up another reasonable substitute to full-fledged high definition discs, and throws in DivX support to boot. Aside from kicking plain ole DVDs up to 1080i via HDMI, playing back DivX files, and touting the admittedly strange dual microphone inputs for that karaoke flair, this unit also touts the ability to render picture-based slideshows and play back MP3 / WMA from USB thumb drives or flash memory cards (SD, MMC, MS, xD). Of course, you'll find the typical coaxial / optical digital audio outputs as well, and while this unit isn't apt to win any awards in the quality department, it should help your (presumably depleted) post-Christmas bank account out by demanding just ¥10,800 ($91).[Via Akihabara News]
Keian's KDV8900S MPEG-4 SD video recorder and MP3 player
Oh lookie, yet another low cost MPEG-4 video camera with MP3 player. While we're certainly not expecting this ¥19,800 (about $168) MPEG-4 shooter from Keian to deliver anything near the quality as the ¥50,000 (roughly $429) CG6, it's worth a peep for that price, eh? The KDV8900S (pictured) brings 32MB of on-board storage with a 5 megapixel CMOS sensor capable of shooting MPEG-4 recordings at 640x480 / 30fps onto SD card. The cam also snaps stills which can be previewed on the twist-and-fold, 2-inch display and throws in an MP3 player with built-in speaker and headphone jack just for fun. Also announced is its lesser, 3 megapixel KDV6800S cuz which attaches a larger 2.4-inch display but without MP3 playback for ¥16,980 or about $144. Don't worry, we wouldn't bore you with a picture of that one even if we could dig one up of decent quality. Both expected to launch in Japan on Wednesday.
