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Last Polaroid cameras and film to be sold at Urban Outfitters tomorrow
We've had a hole in our hearts ever since the original Polaroid company stopped manufacturing instant film, filed for Chapter 11, and sold off its brand name, but it looks like those crazy kids at The Impossible Project are making some small moves to turn things around after picking up the pieces last year: they'll be selling the remaining stock of cameras and film at Urban Outfitters starting tomorrow. Sadly, that's not much, as there are only 700 hand-numbered kits containing a deadstock Polaroid ONE600 Classic camera and a pack of Type 779 film available, but at least there's more film to go around if you already have a camera -- additional 779 packs will also be on sale until stock runs out. We're not sure if this plan will raise enough cash to start the factory up again -- or if anyone else even cares about Polaroid anymore -- but you know where we'll be standing in line tomorrow morning. [Via OhGizmo!]
Bee.One electric car to be tiny, cheap, and cute
British start-up Bee has just dropped some details on its forthcoming uber-affordable electric car, the One. This five-door affair will have a top speed of around 80 miles per hour, with a maximum range of 200 miles before needing a recharge. The car will run on two battery packs stowed under the floor, and will be easily swappable in case charging stations start popping up all over the U.K. The One will also have a constant 3G connection for management and performance system software monitoring and updates. The most exciting detail about the car, however (besides its adorable attitude) is likely to be its pricepoint: £12,000 ($17,700) plus the recent government subsidy of £5000 ($7400) for electric car purchases will bring this puppy down to about £7,000 -- or just over $10,000. Sure -- it's not Tata-cheap... but this one's electric! The One is scheduled to go into production during 2011 with an initial run of about 12,000 vehicles. One more render of the car after the break.
TomTom intros ONE 140 and XL 340 series, ships GO 740 LIVE
TomTom decided to bust out a pair of announcements this morning, so we won't waste any time getting right to the crux of it. That splendiferous GO 740 LIVE, which was introduced at CES this January, is finally shipping in the US of A. If you'll recall, this is TomTom's first connected navigation system, which can download real-time traffic information, fuel prices, weather reports, etc. If you're intrigued, you can snag one now with three months of LIVE Services for $399.95. Moving on, we've got four new systems entirely: the ONE 140 / ONE 140s (3.5-inch display; 140S announces spoken street and place names) and the XL 340 / XL 340s (4.3-inch display; 340S includes speech functions). Each of these include the company's IQ Routes technology and Advanced Lane Guidance, features that were previously reserved for higher-end PNDs; furthermore, the new crew also includes maps of Mexico. Catch 'em all this month for $179.95, $199.95, $229.95 and $249.95 in order of mention.[Via GPSReview]Read - GO 740 LIVE now shipping in USRead - ONE 140 Series and XL 340 Series%Gallery-49036%
10-inch Acer Aspire One now official in the US
You've read the specs, gawked at the pics, and pored over the reviews -- and now Acer will officially accept your hard-earned United States currency and ship you a 10-inch Acer Aspire One D150. Yep, it's here, and although we've more or less moved on to waiting for the next generation of netbooks based on Ion or at least the Atom N280 with the GN40 chipset, the D150 is basically as good as the current crop of 1.6GHz Atom N270 machines gets for $350 -- just make sure you score the good battery. So, anyone gonna shell out, or are we all waiting for round two together?[Via iTech News]
10-inch Aspire One does a little government work at the FCC
It looks like Acer's 10-inch Aspire One D150 is getting set for a US debut, as it just popped up in the FCC's all-knowing database. Nothing here we didn't know or couldn't guess -- Acer's own list of changes from the 8.9-inch Aspire One consists of the screen size and a new Bluetooth module -- but it's nice to see Uncle Sam giving this bad boy the once over before it starts beaming its WiFi terror rays into our homes. Or, you know, running XP to browse Facebook, whatever.[Via mini-notebook-laptop]
Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten not leaping to add new digital channels
Australia's Seven, Nine and Ten -- the three free-to-air networks in the country -- are now free to launch new digital channels to supplement their current offerings, but on the whole, there's not much excitement about doing so. Thus far, the only one that has even announced plans to launch a new channel with distinct programming is Ten, which hopes to debut a 24-hour HD sports channel dubbed One. If everyone would follow suit, the commercial networks alone could offer a total of nine stations with unique programming. Sadly, the networks have known about this opportunity for two years now, but it seems to us that everyone might be waiting around for another to seriously approach the opportunity before they follow suit. Monkey see, monkey do, right?
TomTom's ONE XL II makes pit stop in FCC database
Ever since TomTom's latest ONE navigator hit back in April, we've been left waiting, wondering when the next ONE XL would ever surface. Thanks to the FCC and its all-knowing database, we can confidently say that the unimaginatively named ONE XL II (what, ONE XXL was taken?) is well on its way to a US release. The user's guide doesn't give us much in the way of actual specifications, but based on the magnificently taken external photographs, we suspect this one will be more evolutionary and less revolutionary. Not that you couldn't guess that from the name, but whatever.
Acer's Aspire One on sale in America, said to be shipping
Acer played it safe early last month by telling Americans to expect its Aspire One "later this year," but just a month and change after UKers had the privilege of toying with one on video, here she comes. So far, we're seeing a couple of variations for sale here in the US, two of which include the $399.99 A110-1295 (8GB SSD) and the $422.99 A150-1006 (120GB HDD). We're also hearing that select e-tailers are already slapping those shipping labels on there and moving 'em out to anxious consumers, so be sure and chime in when your confirmation arrives. Wait, what? You already own six netbooks? Ah well, what's another one amongst family?[Via AspireOne, thanks Tony and Timothy]
Happy Birthday, iPhone
Yes, it is hard to believe, but our pal the iPhone will be 1 year old at 6 pm EST today. The iPhone has undergone many changes over the past year: from generating all the hype and buzz to being the best way to do everything on-the-go. The original iPhone sold at 6 p.m. (in each time zone across the US) at Apple and AT&T corporate stores for a retail price of $599 for the 8GB model and $499 for the now-discontinued 4GB model.With Apple set to release the next generation iPhone on July 11th, we can only stop and look back at all the accomplishments Apple has achieved over the past year. The iPhone has definitely changed the way we look at smartphones.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Elonex ONE toyed with on video
Sure enough, that 100 quid laptop we heard about early last week is already making the rounds, as the BBC caught up with the ONE at The Education Show in Birmingham, England. Granted, this thing is far from stylish (okay, so it's downright ugly), but it's hard to expect too much more given the ultra-low price tag. Satisfy your curiosity by checking out a minute long clip of the unit in action -- go on, it's right there in the read link.[Thanks, KC]
Elonex One: England's 100 quid laptop
Everybody and their mother's got a super-budget laptop these days (see: OLPC, Eee PC, Cloudbook, Pixel Qi, etc.), and next at the table will apparently be Elonex, which intends to introduce the £100 (~$200) One on February 28th at The Education Show in Birmingham, England. Obviously the intention here is to sell to education markets, but the One is also going to be up for grabs for "adult learners, business users, people who are constantly mobile, elderly people and first time internet users." We don't have any better shots of the thing, but apparently this One (not that One, or the other One) will weigh "less than a kilo" (2.2 pounds), has a 7-inch screen, three hour battery, 1GB of flash memory, and runs on Linux. Apparently there's also a more expensive £120 model that has double the memory (2GB) and Bluetooth, to boot. Both will also have access to a service called ONEunion, which will "feature artwork and music for download, opportunities to get your own content added to the club as well as a range of competitions," presumably for the kids. More on this thing later this month, aye guv'na? [Via Times Online] Update: jkkmobile's got some additional info. Looks like the One could be a rebadge of a Fontastic A-View ultra-cheap Chinese "simple PC". Not that we're really surprised -- we mean, who the hell are Elonex to pop out of nowhere with this thing?
How would you change Dell's XPS One?
Back in October of last year, we all wondered just what impact Dell's leaked XPS One would really have on the all-in-one PC, nay, computer market, and truth be told, we're still waiting for something definitive. Sure, the first press shots were emanating with all kinds of sexy (for a Dell), and this thing was teased more than any single hunk of plastic and metal ever should be, but it still maintained a certain aura that kept people anxious for release day. Shortly after going on sale in mid-November, reviewers from all walks of life managed to fall innocently in love with Round Rock's latest, but as with most other XPS machines, we're fairly certain the discerning crowd that this piece is aimed at will find plenty of reasons to nitpick room for improvement.If you were given a round-trip ticket to Texas with keys to the XPS One's design laboratory, what would be your first (and second, and third...) order of business? Are you honestly satisfied with the graphics performance? Is the built-in display that you're now stuck with up to snuff? Does it really look as good in your humble abode as it did in a classy New York City furniture store? Of course, we fully understand that Dell must have done something right here for ole Walt to highly praise it, and while we're sure the current incarnation of the One may suffice for many, we want to hear your vision of One.one. Shout it out below!
Dell and Microsoft get official with (PRODUCT) RED gear
We knew Dell and Microsoft would be giving some of their gear the Bono treatment this week, but the two companies and the AIDS-in-Africa relief project unveiled their partnership in style today at Davos. Just like we'd heard, the XPS m1530, m1330, and XPS One machines are all going crimson, as well as the 948 AIO printer. Microsoft's kicking in a special (PRODUCT) RED-themed edition of Vista Ultimate to keep things special on the OS tip, and obviously you'll feel better about things with donations of $50 - $80 of each machine's purchase price going to RED, and $5 on the printer (hey, those margins are low enough as it is). All the new stuff should be available by the end of the week in the States, and by January 31 in 30 additional countries -- or right now for your viewing pleasure in the gallery. %Gallery-14555%
Dell's XPS ONE now on sale
Shortly after being leaked, revealed, unclothed and paraded around in public, Dell's 20-inch XPS ONE is finally available to the masses. Up now on company's webstore are four pre-configured systems, with the high-ender rocking a Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, an 8-in-1 multicard reader, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO graphics set, and a 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA hard drive. Additionally, you can snag a built-in Blu-ray burner and a hybrid analog / digital TV tuner to keep the TV / film buffs happy, but expect to throw down between $1,499 and $2,399 depending on options.[Thanks, Joshua]
XPS One to hit on November 19th
Considering we've already seen Dell's XPS One from every possible angle -- including flayed open -- you'd think that the marketing folks at Dell would have just given up by now, but the company's just updated that XPS One preview site with a super-dramatic teaser video featuring the new tagline "Welcome Beautiful." More importantly, the video also features a launch date: November 19th. Of course, by then we'll have probably already purchased, hacked, upgraded and sold a half dozen of these things, but we promise to still pretend to be surprised.Update: Now that a couple commenters have mentioned it, the video's backing track does sound awfully familiar -- anyone know which exact GarageBand loop it is?Update 2: It's "Contemplative Synth 01." At least Dell bought a Jam Pack, eh?[Thanks, James]
Mossberg reviews the Gateway One, accidentally reviews the iMac again
We've seen a couple reviews of the Gateway One already, but when it comes to reviewing sleek all-in-one PCs, we turn to the master: Walt Mossberg. Unkie Walt's been playing with a couple slick desktops lately, and surprisingly, none of them are the iMac -- although he can't seem to resist the comparison. Walt's got the Gateway One this week, and while he praises the machine's design and slick power brick / I/O breakout box, he's not particularly impressed with the machine's 19-inch screen, processing power, or, most damningly, stability -- he suffered two blue screens while testing. Add in the fact that the entry-level One is $100 more expensive than the cheapest iMac and offers a smaller screen, no built-in webcam, and a slower processor, and you've got Walt telling you that the iMac is still the best all-in-one out there. Up next: the XPS One.
Dell teases the XPS One
We're not sure what suspense there is left to build around the XPS One -- we've already seen it naked before the harsh light of the FCC -- but Dell's not ready to let the magic die, and has posted a teaser slide for its new all-in-one up on Dell.com. Apparently the machine is "The end of the PC as you know it," which is definitely news to us, but hey, maybe we've known a lot of PCs. No more info than that, but interested parties can punch in their email addresses to receive info like ship dates...oh, we have those too. Damn. Well, it's a pretty picture, at least.[Thanks, Joshua]
Gateway One review roundup
The first reviews of the Gateway One are starting to trickle in, and while the sexy all-in-one is garnering universal praise for its sleek, accessible design and innovative power brick breakout box, it looks like beauty's only skin-deep in this case: both Computer Shopper and CNET found the machine's performance to lag behind competitors like the 20-inch iMac, with Computer Shopper saying that looks aside, the One is just a "regular midrange PC." Other annoyances included the smallish 1440 x 900 19-inch screen, which CNET says lacks "pop," and the odd decision to break the webcam out into an easily-lost attachment. All that aside, however, both reviewers found it hard to argue with the direction Gateway's gone with the One -- it seems like the iMac finally has some serious competition.Read -- Computer Shopper review (7.9 out of 10)Read -- CNET review (7.1 out of 10)
Gateway busting out artsy all-in-one PC next week?
Gateway is passing around an invite to New York's Digital Life attendees, promising the grand unveiling of... something. The invite is tagged with a cute little "Gateway One" logo, or maybe it's "One Gateway," and all signs are pointing towards a new all-in-one PC with decent aesthetics. Also, breakfast will be served, so you know we're all over it. The press conference will be at 9AM EDT on September 27th.
One Piece Unlimited Adventure gets stretchy, swingy
We'll admit to being somewhat negligent in our anime viewing. To put a fine point on it, we don't know the first thing about One Piece. But we know brawlers, and any such game where you can play as a stretchy-arm guy is okay with us.One Piece Unlimited Adventure uses limited "swing attacks" that are activated by waggling-- specifically, shaking the Wiimote. The high-speed pummeling shown above is such an attack. Check the link for pictures of all the other (significantly less stretchy) characters and their swing actions, and click the post break for a couple of screens.
