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Fujitsu shows off color e-ink tablet concept
It's all well and good to drool on color e-ink prototypes from afar, but Fujitsu has already managed to squeeze a whole VGA display into a 4.7-inch x 6.3-inch handheld unit. The concept sports 4096 colors, 32MB of built-in memory and a miniSD slot, but weighs a mere 6.2 ounces. We're not sure about the exact thickness of this thing, but it's pretty dang thin -- hardly thicker than a mini USB port -- and we'd kick Sony's oft-delayed PRS-500 to the curb in a heartbeat to view the comic adventures of a Jewish Ryu on this Fujitsu device when or if it hits the market.
Sony's Vaio C series of 13.3-inchers
Sony just released their 15.4-inch Vaio N series of fashion computers for the home, now they're gunning for your personal style with the release of the Vaio C series. As such, the press release is more focused on the colors on offer -- seashell white, blush pink, spring green, espresso black and urban gray -- than the product itself. In fact, in Europe the names change to karma white, free spirit pink, natural green, timeless black, and nomad grey. Uh, Sony, less time in market research and more time on battery fabrication please. Thanks. Nevertheless, don't be fooled by those girlie looks 'cause these Core 2 Duo offerings bring plenty of power in that Vista Premium ready chassis. Starting with a 13.3-inch XBRITE-ECO wide screen display, Sony delivers 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics, 120GB SATA disk, up to 2GB memory, a dual-layer DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, ExpressCard and multi-format memory card slot, and the usual array of Firewire and USB 2.0 ports all in a 5-pound slab. Expect 'em to start posing hard in your favorite coffee shop come October when they drop for $1,350 (starting price) or a bit later depending upon your color persuasion. More shots in blush pink and spring green after the break -- come on sissy, you know you want to look.[Via Laptoping]
TGS 06: New system colors spotted [Update 1]
It looks like Sony may consider bringing out some flashier PSP designs. While these aren't "official" yet, Sony rarely shows system colors that never materialize. This camo PSP looks especially hot, and will be a must-have for a true SOCOM fan. Hopefully, it won't fall under Sony's "Signature" line of systems, or you'll most likely be unable to afford it. Other pictures from Dengenki showcase more traditional blue, yellow and red systems, which can be seen after the cut. Me? I like the yellow one the best.Will Sony ever officially announce these system colors? And if they do, will they ever bring them to the States? (Hey, we still don't have the white PSP.)See also:A closer look at the pink PSPGetting intimate with Kacho-Fugetsu[Via PSP-Vault][Update 1: Now features Silver PSP]
Colorize your Menu bar
I'm not a huge fan of color in the menu bar, but that probably stems from the fact that I'm not a huge fan of color in the rest of my operating environment (and why I use the graphite visual style). However, it seems that there are a good many people want their OS to look like it was made by Fischer Price, and that's where iColon and MenuPics come in. These two applications both do exactly the same thing; add a dash of color to the otherwise drab utilitarian menu icons sitting in the top-right corner of your screen. The only real differences between the two are universal binary status (iColon is, MenuPics isn't) and how many customization options they give you (iColon only adds color to the normal Bluetooth, Airport, and Battery Meter, while MenuPics gives you the choice to change the icons all together.)
Get ready girls: Pink PSP!
Maybe all this talk about a PSP redesign is from all these new colors of the PSP that are being revealed at once. You may remember Sony's insanely expensive Signature PSPs. Well, add another new "limited edition" color to the mix: pink. Or, should I say p!nk, because it's designed "in collaboration" with the somewhat popular pop star. It'll come in a Value Pack only and cost €229, or £169. And yes, like many cool things Sony-related, this is solely Europe-only. You'll also pick up some exclusive downloads from YourPSP.com when you purchase the pink system. From the press release: "PSP is not exclusively for men, there is a PSP for everyone, and whoever you are, PSP can fit into your life."I'm somehow doubting the limited edition nature of this package. You may remember that all hell broke loose once the pink DS Lite came out. Who wouldn't want to capitalize on the rabid girl market? Of course, Sony's done stranger things before... like refuse to bring the white PSP to the US.[Via IGN]
Prepare for Wii
Waiting for Wii got you down? Stack some DVD cases together on a shelf, kick the coffee table aside, and grab a remote -- so says Paul Starke in his latest editorial at Nintendojo. He offers a number of tips the desperate fanboy person can look to when the Wii blues gets to be too much of a burden. A few of his recommendations: Wave around a television remote or GCN mic (gotta build that Wiimote muscle). Update your home network for wireless if you haven't already. Choose a color (or start practicing your case mod technique). Our addition:Try not to chew off your own fingernails while waiting for info!
Hey Folders! adds colored folders to Finder
Hey Folders! is a handy utility from the maker of Mail.Appetizer that extends the Finder's colored label feature to labeled folders themselves. As you can see, the entire folder icon takes on the color of the label, though files (fortunately) do not receive the colored overlay treatment (I wager that would result in some really funky looking icons). Hey Folders! requires a small amount of manual work to get it to start with each login, however, as you simply need to add it to your startup items if you want it to augment your finder 24/7 (it's a background process known as a daemon; it won't appear in the dock or menubar - only in a process list like Activity Monitor). Full instructions are listed at the Hey Folders! site. Note: at the moment, Hey Folders! is PPC only, but the developer told me a Universal Binary version is 'coming soon.'Hey Folders! is offered as freeware from Bronson Beta.
Korea to get 6.9mm Samsung X820 as SPH-V9900
The "world's thinnest" phone, Samsung's SGH-X820, is a little piece of Korea that much of the world can get its hands on -- but not to worry, folks, they're gonna do a little something special just for their home crowd, too. Re-released in Korea as the SPH-V9900, the handset looks to sport a veritable cornucopia of button icons not found on its international sibling, but more importantly (depending on who you ask, anyway) the V9900 will be offered in a wider variety of colors. So if owning a powder blue phone that virtually disappears when you hold it sideways is your calling in life, it's time to pack your bags folks; your device is only half a world away.
Hitachi showing off color version of Albirey e-paper
Now that monochrome e-paper is a pretty standard affair, those at the forefront of e-ink technology have moved on to perfecting the real killer app, which is full-color displays. We've already seen a tiny color model from Fujitsu, and a larger, but only two-color offering from Bridgestone, and now Hitachi -- maker of the black-and-white Albirey e-paper -- is showing off a 13.1-inch version of this product will an impressive 4,096-color palette. Apparently the power-saving "RGBW" filter enables the device to display bright whites as well as deep blacks, but the trade-off is the unit's rather underwhelming resolution of just 512 x 384 pixels. Therefore, we probably won't be seeing color eBooks anytime soon, but the low res should be adequate enough for certain types of signage that would benefit from the paper's ability to hold a picture in the absence of power; we think they would look great advertising all the quality products found at Engadget's retail location.[Via MobileRead]
On improving the iPod's aging UI and experience
The iPod is the 800-pound gorilla of the DAP industry - there's no doubt about it (well, almost). In its 4+ years of existence, the player has quickly won owner's hearts because of its ease of use and seamless iTunes management experience, amongst other reasons. I personally have owned one of every generation of iPod since the original 5 GB model with the *gasp* mechanical scroll wheel, before all this fancy touch wheel stuff you young whipper-snappers are spoiled with today.In all this time, however, the iPod's famously simple UI has more or less remained that way - staggeringly basic. While I personally am no fan of devices that add features and options simply for the sake of claiming 'it has more', I'm starting to think that there are a few areas that the iPod's UI and experience are in serious need of an update. Music (and video) collections are getting larger, people are interacting with their devices and the libraries on their computers through increasingly new (and truly useful) ways, and I think the iPod needs to catch up with the times.
TUAW Tip: make friends with Mac OS X's Font and Color palettes
One of the things I'm sure we all love about Mac OS X is how integrated so many of the apps and services are with each other, but did you know that integration can stem all the way down to the fonts and colors you use amongst your apps? In almost any input-based, Cocoa-written app you're running (Firefox, for example, is not written in Cocoa), you can press cmd + t to open a simple, unassuming fonts palette that you've probably seen at one time or another. But if you chose a particular font and size that you like in one program, you can click on the gear in the bottom left of that panel and chose 'Add to Favorites' which places it in a category aptly named Favorites on the left side of that panel. The beauty of this is that any other program that has access to that system-wide fonts palette can also make use of the fonts you mark as favorites. For bonus points, click and drag the dot at the top of that panel to reveal a preview area (pictured) where you can see what your font is going to look like before running with it. Next up is the Color palette, accessible with the cmd + shift + c shortcut. This palette employs the same basic concept: you can use it to find a color you like, and then drag a swatch of that color to the white squares at the bottom of the panel to save a version and share it amongst your other Cocoa-based apps. These little built-in tools can be really handy when working across many apps in Mac OS X. You can set a favorite font in Yojimbo (or your choice of other junk drawer apps), and then use it when chatting with a friend in Adium or iChat. Use a favorite color for highlighting in OmniOutliner? Why not save it for the next Mail message you have to send, or those Final Cut Pro and Motion projects coming down the pipeline?By no means are these a revolution feature of Mac OS X that'll rake in the switchers, but they might just make your daily activities go a little bit smoother.
Lightscribe to get color?
Apparently, the staff at TGDaily were flipping through the user's manual for one of their Lightscribe-equipped drives when they stumbled across a rather oblique mention of an upcoming color version of the current monochrome technology. They did a little journalizing and eventually contacted an HP PR staff, who informed them that "Lightscribe color background CDs are expected to be available later this year." This could be referring to the different colored Lightscribe discs that have seen release here and there, but when it comes to truly color laser CD imaging, obviously no official announcements have been made yet. We wouldn't be entirely surprised if the launch so many a Lightscribe fans have been waiting for winds up being timed to coincide with the announcement of an HP HD DVD drive or two. For right now though, we'll be sticking to our analog CD and DVD labeler, or as you may know it by its other name: a Sharpie marker.
Sony Ericsson's K750i comes in red
Sony Ericsson didn't really strike us as too huge on the whole re-release that device in a new color strategy, but starting, well, last Saturday it would appear our UK pals can snag a lipstick red K750i from Carphone Warehouse. As for the rest of us, we'll just have to live with what we've got now: the K750's far more advanced successor, the K800.
Nexxion Curves: TVs in color
Mmmm, teevee. If we can't have 'em big, then please oh gods of the blessed manufacturing process, deliver them in a variety of fashionable colors. Rising from the offal of our sacrificial lamb come these new 15-inch neXXion CURVEs which feature a 4:3 aspect ratio, 1024x768 resolution, 500:1 contrast ratio, 160-degree visibility, 12-millisecond response, and slot loading DVD player. Can somebody, we said a-somebody, give us an "amen" brother!? Ok, then how about the $400 or so dollars these will pull when they hit Japan June 23rd? Yeah, didn't think so.[Via Impress]
Taco HTML v1.7.2 is Universal
If Dreamweaver is a bit overkill for some web work on your desk, Taco HTML might just be the editor for you. It's a small yet feature-packed web editor with tag coloring, HTML preview, syntax checking, code snippets and more. It's my favorite editor for HTML pages or tweaking a WordPress PHP page file or two.As far as I can tell, Taco HTML is provided free, and is a Universal Binary. Check it out if you read this post in less time than it takes Dreamweaver to start up.
Widget Watch: Art Director's Toolkit
Code Line Communicators, developers of Art Director's Toolkit, has developed a handy widget for easy-access to some of the tools and features of their app right within your Dashboard. However, the widget only comes with a copy of Art Director's Toolkit 5; the latest version which I don't believe is bundled with Macs just yet.Either way, this widget definitely pulls its weight, as it can "Search through thousands of color swatches in industry-standard libraries, view characters and keyboard equivalents of fonts, sample colors on-screen, convert fractions/decimals/units of measure, calculate file sizes, and much more."While the widget is listed at Apple's Dashboard download site, the link simply points to the latest version of Art Director's Toolkit.
QuarkXPpress 7 released, but not as a Universal
QuarkXPress 7 has hit the streets, but it oddly isn't a Universal Binary (Steve Jobs, if you remember, announced at January's Macworld event that Quark had a beta UB version available). A UB update to version 7 is reportedly going to be made available later this summer (I guess Adobe isn't the only big software house having trouble). This new version brings plenty of new features to the table including enhancements to typography, color management, transparency (apparently it can do such advanced things as color opacity, drop shadows and alpha channels now), non-destructive mask manipulation, revolutionary 'Composition Zones' which let you design once and use anywhere with live updates, as well as improvements to productivity and collaboration, output and digital workflow and much more. Check out Quark's entire new feature list for the full details, as well as Macsimum News with summaries of what all the new features mean to you.Quark is also taking QuarkXPress on tour through seven US cities as well as Toronoto, Canada. Take a look at their schedule for details and registration information.
Ricoh's R4 returns blue-clad
Yeah, we know, we know, we're not into covering colorized model re-releases. And we're by no means letting Ricoh off the hook for simply re-releasing their R4 in another color -- ahem, Mystic Blue -- a few months down the line, presumably to drum up sales and attract attention. But we do have to admit that it's especially uncharacteristic for this particular camera maker; besides, are you really able to resist such a tiny camera with a 7.1x optical zoom, even in that kinda ug pseudo Yves Klein blue? Didn't think so. And no, you won't find it on their US site, which happens to be so grossly out of date the figure we're using to estimate the last time it was updated is years.
MacBook Pros now available in 20 colors - from ColorWare
It seems like the rumors of multi-colored MacBook Pros were true, though Apple wasn't the one who dipped them in paint. ColorWare, purveyors of colorized high-end electronics, has added the 15-inch MacBook Pro (sorry, no 17-inch - yet) to their array of products you can purchase new and colorized. They also offer their colorizing service for those who need to add some colorful zing to that old 'n busted product you bought mere weeks ago.Their highly-secretive colorizing process costs $449 (not including shipping) for Apple's pro notebook line, which also includes the new MacBook Pro. A base model 1.83 GHz MacBook Pro purchased from ColorWare in something other than Apple's standard titanium grey will cost $2449, while the higher-end 2.0 GHz model sells for $2949. You'll also have to wait for your brighter and shinier Intel-based pro Apple notebook: current shipping times are 2-3 weeks.I have yet to see one of these in the wild, and it's hard to say what my reaction would be. Apple has obviously done a fantastic engineering and design job on their latest PowerBook line. Notice how virtually nothing changed between PPC and Intel machines - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Still, it's good to have choices, even if they're $449 choices.[via The Apple Blog]
Orbino: hand stitched leather iPod cases
I have never heard of Orbino until today, and I'm becoming perplexed as to why. They make what look like stellar hand stitched leather cases for all three of the current model iPods, offering a choice of styles, colors and unique clip and lanyard designs. Quickly browsing through their site, it looks like most of their cases run a respectable $39, which is a good price for a leather case (*ahem* Apple) that actually lets you use the iPod while it's wrapped up.Check out Orbino's offering, and if any of y'all TUAW readers have already snagged one, feel free to post your thoughts.
