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Engadget visits Nokia House, walks down memory lane (video)
It's not the first time Engadget editors have stepped foot at Nokia House -- the company's HQ in Espoo, Finland -- but it's always a treat, and our visit this week is no exception. Today we took a walk down memory lane, and spent some time with several Nokia handsets -- from one of the very first mobile phones to the Lumia 920. We played with some of the more iconic models and designs, such as the 1011 (first GSM handset), 1610, 7700 / 7710 (S90), 7280 (lipstick phone), 770 / N800 tablets, N-Gage / QD, 3300, 8800, 8110 (from the Matrix movie), N93 / N93i, N91, N92, N76, N95 and finally the 7650 (the first handset running Symbian). In addition, we also got to handle some of the Lumia 820 and 920 accessories, including the Fatboy wireless charging pillow and JBL-branded Power Up speakers. Check out the gallery below then hit the break for our hands-on video. Oh, and don't forget to tune in tomorrow for our live Q&A with Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop.%Gallery-166392% Update: That music-centric handset which uses an IBM Microdrive is the N91 (not N90) and was announced in 2005 (not 1995), and that flip-phone is the N76 (not the N75) -- sorry for the slip in the video. Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Samsung Spinpoint A1 resurrects 1-inch microdrive format with 30, 40GB
Just when you thought the 1-inch microdrive format was dead and gone, along comes Samsung -- masters of flash memory, especially in portables -- with their own 3600RPM 30 and 40GB CompactFlash-sized (42.8 x 36.4 x 5mm) drives. Surprisingly enough, they're shipping now for $200.
Delkin targets pros with ExpressCard 34 CompactFlash Adapter
There are already a number of solutions on the market for amateur photographers looking to offload SD- and MemoryStick-confined photos to an ExpressCard-equipped laptop (Buffalo and Y-E Data both offer such card readers), but for pros looking to transfer pics from more capacious CF cards or MicroDrives, USB readers and camera tethering have so far been the only options. Well that long nightmare is about to come to an end, thanks to Delkin's upcoming ExpressCard 34 CompactFlash Adapter, which works with both PC and Mac laptops sporting either 34- or 54-millimeter slots. Coming October 16th for $60, the Delkin adapter promises 20MBps file transfers, keeping downtime at those weddings and Bar Mitzvahs to a minimum. Okay, so soon you'll be able to get your SD / MS / CF transfers on without much hassle, but won't someone please, please think of the humble xD card?
Hitachi's Wooo DZ-HS303 DVD camcorder with HDD
T'is the season for DVD camcorders: following the 3CCD VDR-D400 from Panasonic and the iVIS DC22 from Canon that we just spotted comes a model from Hitachi called the Wooo DZ-HS303 (yes, you read that right); unlike these other devices, though, the Hitachi -- dropping August 30th -- also lets your capture video to an 8GB MicroDrive. Billed as the world's first camcorder to sport both a DVD and hard drive, the HS303 features a 10x optical zoom, standard 2.7-inch LCD, and three megapixel CCD, all in a 560-gram package. All-in-all a pretty decent feature set for 130,000 yen ($1,132), but as Digital World Tokyo points out, Canon will give you HD capabilities for only a few bucks more. [Via Digital World Tokyo]
TrekStor's 8GB CS-D USB micro-drive
Seems like everyone and his monkey has an 8GB USB flash drive these days. Still, that hasn't stopped TrekStor from claiming that their 8GB CS-D USB stick is the "world's highest capacity stick storage device." Hey TrekStor, maybe you forgot about PQI's 16GB U510 or Kanguru's 64GB KFDM flash drive? Oh wait, your $180 drive is based on a shock-mounted, 1-inch hard drive! Well, give us a shout when you hit 12GB, m'kay?
Seagate announces bevy of new drives
Seagate's not holding out on us today, people. They've launched a whole slew of new drives, such as: the Momentus 5400 PSD (Power-Saving Drive), a 5,400RPM drive with 256MB non-volatile memory -- also known as a hybrid drive (which we've been hearing oh so much about); the Momentus 5400.2 FDE, their latest mobile drive, now with full disc AES encryption; the Momentus 5400.3, the largest yet laptop drive with 160GB of storage space on those tiny 2.5-inch platters; the Momentus 7200.2, a 160GB 7,200RPM 2.5-inch drive; the Savvio 10K.2 146GB 10k RPM 2.5-inch drive (small enough for a laptop, designed for a blade server); the ST18 1.8-inch 60GB perpendicular media-device drive; and, of course, a new 8GB Pocket Drive. Expect those to trickle out throughout the year, but we'll be paying especially close attention to our 160GB laptop drive (or, preferably, the 200GB Toshiba), oh yes we will.[Via TG Daily]
iRiver's E10 gets an early look
We won't deny that we're a little jealous CNET Asia got their chance to fool around with iRiver's 6GB E10, which we've been eyeing with lustful eyes for a little while now. Sounds like interfacing with the clicky buttons wasn't always expeditious in navigating the UI, so iRiver added some programmable shortcut keys; the 32 hour battery life and Flash Lite video support are also niceties. Unmentioned was codec support, PlaysForSure compatibility, etc., but what they weren't too fond of was the proprietary connector (so what else is new?), the non-user-programmable 182 TV brand IR remote function (which if you ask us kind of seems like a haphazard feature thrown in from the concept device heap), as well as the fact that while it does also support MPEG-4 video, that's about all it supports. Yeah, no device is perfect, but we're not about to give up on this thing yet, no sir.
