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Haier's 15.4-inch W51 laptop completes Merom hat trick
Haier completes their trifecta of new laptops with this 15.4-incher set to join the 12.1-inch and 14-inch laptops announced last week at the Korean Electronics Show. Starting with Intel's T5600 Core 2 Duo processor, the W51 features a 1280x800 WXGA widescreen display, Intel 945GM with optional 128MB of nVIDIA GeForce go 6400 graphics, a CDROM / DVD combo drive, an 80GB disk, and 512MB DDR2 RAM to get you started. Like the others, we still don't have any dates or prices. However, with this line-up of lappies building upon their white-goods, flat panels, cellphones, and other consumer electronics, well, let's just say that Philips and Samsung had best keep an eye on this Chinese powerhouse.
Haier's DF-S150 PMP with GPS and DMB TV
In our daily mission to find interesting gadgets for you to ogle at, we sometimes indulge ourselves by moaning about devices that will likely never hit American shores: PMPs are probably the most obvious example of this, seeing as we've covered literally dozens of Asian PMPs with only a small percentage ever making it across the Pacific. Our second far eastern PMP in as many days also emerged from KES 2006, and comes with the normal anonymous numerical name, just like all the others. The DF-S150 portable media player is a relatively high spec model which can pick up DMB TV channels, track your location via GPS and a built-in map, and also comes with features such as an FM transmitter, a touch screen interface, TV Out, and an SD card slot. We don't see any information on pricing or availability, but you weren't really expecting there to be any, were you?
Haier HV-2200TSW brings 22 inches of radiance
Sick of news from the Korea Electronics Show? Of course not, that's why you're reading Engadget on a beautiful Sunday instead of being outside and enjoying the world. We've just come across this new piece of Haier hotness, the HV-2200TSW. Oh yes, it's comin' atcha with a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, packs 300 candelas-per-square-meter of brightness, brings a 700:1 contrast ratio and has a 5-millisecond response time. And we welcome you to guess as to whether we know the price of this display or when you can get it. Yes, it's just as frustrating for you as it is for us.
Haier's 12.1-inch W12N laptop
If Haier's 14-incher is just a bit too unwieldy for ya girlie-man then how about trying on their svelte, new 12-incher? Oh yeah ultra-portable lovers, the W12N 12.1-inch laptop goes WXGA (1366 x 768) and loves on the T5600 Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Intel 945GM graphics, 512MB DDR2 RAM, 80GB disk, CD/DVD combo drive and slaps a 2 megapixel swivelin' camera up in the top bezel. Niiice. Still, without dimensions, price, and launch date well, we're going to keep our pawn shoppe hearts in check for now.
Haier's new W61N 14-inch Merom offering is looking fit
You know, Haier's expertise isn't limited to networked air conditioners and ALP phones that we'll never see in the States. They also build laptops and lots of other things that we'll never see here either, and their new Core 2 Duo W61N is looking not-too-shabby. The 14-inch compact unit sports a 1.83GHz T5600 processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, integrated Intel 950 graphics with 128MB of shared memory, DVD/CD-RW combo drive and a 1280 x 768 resolution LCD. No word on price or availability, but we'll let those Korean kids deal with that, since that's where this is headed.
Haier Korea showing off networked air conditioners
We're not exactly sure what gives an air conditioner "artificial intelligence," but our buds at AVING claim to have found one at the Korea Electronics Show, now underway in Seoul. Haier Korea, the Korean branch of the Chinese manufacturing jack-of-all-trades showed off two models, including the KFRd-72LW/O ("standard type") and the KFRd-35GW/O ("wall mounted type"). Both come with an LED display (but what doesn't these days?), an air purifier, an anion generator and dehumidifier. And if that wasn't enough, how about the fact that both air conditioners can be controlled via cell phone or PDA? Yeah, we know you want one -- sadly, we don't know when these will be released, nor how many South Korean won you'll have to dish out to get 'em. Keep reading if you're interested in a close-up of the display, or if you just like watching seals slide down snowy hills on their tummies...
Haier's tiny "Black Pearl"
Ridiculously small phones are picking up a good head of steam elsewhere, and Haier thinks that the US might finally be ready to experience that same level of frustration the next time your phone falls out of your pocket and into the couch. The upcoming Black Pearl (not to be confused with the larger, SureTyped, trackballed Pearl) lacks GSM 850, but that's not stopping the company from encouraging folks to pick 'er up unlocked here in the States and operate on GSM 1900 alone. For its 2.24-ounce, 3.5 x 1.25 x .75-inch frame, the lil' candybar packs a fair amount of punch with an MP3 player, FM radio, microSD slot, and OLED display on board. Now we only need to hope RIM doesn't decide the world needs an all-black Pearl, and we'll continue to enjoy the clarity in phone model naming conventions we're so accustomed to.
PalmSource and Access drop more info on their ALP OS
The recent months have been dark days indeed for the Palm OS, especially for its spiritual successor, codenamed Access Linux Platform (ALP). Palm is letting its license to the oft-delayed OS expire this December, and we haven't heard of too many device manufacturers stepping in its place. The good news is that Access-owned PalmSource hasn't been just sitting around a doing nothing, and they recently hosted a one day mini-conference at LinuxWorld to show off their wares so far. Apparently the core OS is fairly completed, and PalmSource is mainly working on the bundled applications that will ship with the OS. Classic Palm OS emulation is said to work perfectly well, even with the requirement by the OS to scale those 320 x 320 native applications to ALP's preferred QVGA touchscreen resolution. There were plenty of Haier N60 flip-phones on hand running the chosen res, along with a few prototypes with VGA screens and a keyboard -- a good sign of things to come. Unfortunately, the only pics allowed were of the developer tools running a virtualized version of ALP in Ubuntu -- a boon to developers, but no device-based eye candy for us. The biggest enhancement so far is multitasking afforded by the Linux base, though sexy features in the NetFront browser, new HotSync interoperability standards, and a newfound return to Palm OS looks of yore seem quite popular as well. In fact, with the OS's ability to be skinned with SVG graphics, Palm could conceivably make a branded version of the OS that would be quite familiar to old users, and dub it the Palm OS 6 we've always wanted. PalmSource says they're still on track to deliver the OS to licensees at the end of the year, with the first ALP products finally emerging next spring.[Via Brighthand
Haier, Metalink show off draft-n-equipped TVs
It's been over a year since we first spotted Metalink's draft-802.11n components designed for networked home theater gear, and now it seems that the company has finally found a partner willing to include the technology in a slew of next-generation products. Known as WLANPlus, the chipset family is poised for integration into TVs, DVRs, and DVD players from Chinese manufacturing giant Haier -- perhaps best know around here for the pen-like P7 cellphone -- which will allow consumers to broadcast multiple high definition streams around the house thanks to draft-n transfer speeds in excess of 200Mbps. The two companies revealed their partnership at this year's SINOCES, where Haier had several WiFi-equipped TVs on display in a multi-room setup meant to simulate simultaneous streaming in a household environment. GigaOM points out, however, that it may be awhile before we see actual products stemming from this deal hit the marketplace -- if we ever see them at all -- as Metalink doesn't seem to be in the best financial shape, having already lost $4.1 million in the first quarter of this year alone.[Via GigaOM]
More not-1080p silliness at SINOCES
It's clear to us now, even the manufacturers don't know what is 1080p and what isn't. Well, maybe they just don't care. TWICE's report from SINOCES (Chinese CES) indicates many manufacturers are putting the 1080p tag on everything they can, if a TV can accept a 1080p signal but not display it, and even on displays that don't do 1080p at all. As they note, it's not such a big deal yet in China because until HD DVD and Blu-ray launch there won't be much at that resolution to watch. They also mentioned Chinese manufacturers looking at the US market as a hard one to enter because of low-priced 1080p displays like the Westinghouse LVM-47w1. Hisense, who manufactures the Best Buy house brand and HP televisions, was showing a 71-inch 1080p plasma based on the LG one we've seen before, maybe you'll be getting an in-store demo sooner than you think. Conspicuous in their absence apparently are EVD and VMD based players, targeted as low cost alternatives to HD DVD and Blu-ray using old school red laser technology.[via Home Theater Blog]
Haier selects Philips ULC phone design for China
Chinese handset manufacturer Haier recently announced that they've selected Philips' Ultra Low Cost (ULC) reference phone design based on the Nexperia 5128 chipset in their bid to get cellphones into the hands of as many of China's 1.5 billion potential customers as possible. The handset itself, the the HG-Z1000, promises 280 hours of standby time and a relatively weak 3 hours talk time. Given its ultra low cost nature, you shouldn't be suprised to learn that it's otherwise pretty short of features, although it does have a vibrating alert, SMS capability, and 16 soft midi ringtones. Haier also seems really intent on the phone's "ultra low cost," although they don't say how low that cost will actually be, nor do they give a firm launch date.[Via Slashphone]
LG's Style-i "hands-free" headset available from Verizon
LG's Style-i, the Bluetooth cellphone accessory that took the "hands-free" out "of "hands-free headset," is now available exclusively from Verizon, and for a little cheaper than the $150 we originally reported. As you'll no doubt recall from our original mocking write-up of the Style-i, this Haier P7-lookalike is designed for the same purpose as other Bluetooth headsets -- to let you make calls while your phone is charging or in a bag -- but without the convenience of, you know, freeing up your hands. Actually, LG almost had us sold on this $130 product until we found out that you can't daisy-chain two of them together -- how are you supposed to pick up a call if both your phone and first Style-i are charging simultaneously?[Thanks, Brett]
Live at CTIA: Haier's knockoff heaven
We're sure the majority of these devices are tri-band Asian phones, but in the last year Chinese manufacturer Haier has returned triumphantly to CTIA with a veritable cadre of sweet knocks on namebrand cellphones. Take the above W800 rip, the M260, which features 2 megapixel camera, 262k color touch screen, and MiniSD slot. See, sometimes fake can be better than real. Click on for the rest.
