S-series
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Sony Walkman S740 spied in Japan
Sony has a new Walkman S-series device in the chute as demonstrated by this S740 model seen hanging out at the Sony Dealer Convention in Japan. Hard data is scarce but visually we can see a slightly tweaked industrial design with beefier earbuds and a lack of stereo speakers -- at least on the front. Otherwise, we're told that these will ship in 8GB and 16GB capacities.Update: Looks like a few more images have leaked out -- it must be true, right? Thanks, Glenn!
Video hands-on: Sony's Walkman S-series is no Mickey Mouse audio player
If you're in the market for a dedicated, easy-to-pocket audio player that can handle the occasional video then it's hard to beat Sony's new Walkman S-series of players. The latest Walkmans, priced at $110 (8GB) or $130 (16GB), are the first from Sony with integrated speakers and include a plastic kickstand in the box. As usual, the sound was excellent but Sony cheated a bit at its IFA stand by equipping the demo units with high-end Sony over-the-skull cans. Hey, whatever it takes, right? Nevertheless, Sony always bundles good-quality earbuds (MDR-E804Y in this case) with their gear unlike some other manufacturers who shall not be named. Switching between the stereo-speakers and headphones is as simple as throwing the physical slider along the right-side of the unit -- speakers that sounded pretty decent as long as your expectations are set appropriate to the unit's physical size. Video playback was fine but it's hard to be enthusiastic about watching anything other than very-brief clips on the S-series' tiny 2.4-inch QVGA display. But in a pinch, no problem. Plenty of pics in the gallery and a quickie video walk-around after the break.
Sony Walkman S Series puts on its game face for video promo
It's not a hard-hitting impressions piece, but if you're seriously jonesing for some good ol' fashioned moving picture technology, here's your first taste of the Sony S Series Walkman in promotional video form, care of Sony Europe's marketing department. We learn it has speakers, it's thin, there's a long battery life, and you can record FM radio... but the things we really want to see, like the stand and its video playback prowess. Bummer, but hey, maybe we'll get our own hands on it later and find out then. Video after the break.[Via Player Bites]
Sony S and E Series Walkman players start officially rocking the tunes next month
We've been seeing Sony's S Series Walkman around the town since July, and Sony's finally seen fit to make it official, also introducing the slightly lower-rent E Series. Specs on the former are completely in-line with expectations, including a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD, FM tuning and recording, along with support for a suite of formats including MP3, protected WMA, AAC, H.264, and WMV. Again as expected it offers battery life of 42 hour hours when playing music through headphones and 6.5 hours of video, but what we didn't know was that when you're rocking it out boom box style through the integrated speakers that drops to 17 hours and five hours oh so respectively. A palette of colorful options including black, pink, violet, and red will be available, with an 8GB model going for $110 and 16GB for $130. If that's a bit too rich for you there's the 2-inch E Series, sporting a slightly smaller chassis, slightly lower battery life (30 hours music and 4 hours video), and a slightly lower price of $80 for 8GB and $100 for 16. Both ship next month.
Sony S-Series Walkman lists itself on French retail site, just wants to be noticed
That Sony S-Series Walkman we spotted a couple of weeks ago has reared its speaker grill-laden head once more, only this time in what looks like an accidental unveiling on French retailer Materiel's website. According to the specs list -- accompanied by some new official press shots that give us little reason to doubt its validity -- the 8GB NWZ-S544 and 16GB NWZ-S545 feature a 2.4-inch QVGA widescreen display, stereo speakers, a microphone, FM tuner, a Li-ion battery for a reported 42 hours of audio / 6.5 hours of video, and what appears to be a built-in stand for convenient video watching. Codec support includes MP3, non-DRM AAC, WMA, H.254, MPEG4, and WMV. No fanciful colors like in the first pic, we've only got black listed for now, to the tune of 129€ ($182) for the 8GB model and 149€ ($211) for 16GB. We're still waiting on Sony to fess up to the device, but really, it can't get much more official. A price and release date for US would be nice, though. [Via Sony Insider] Read - 8GB NWZ-S544 Read - 16GB NWZ-S545
Revamped Sony S-Series Walkman pops up in leaked press photos
The well-connected chaps at Sony Insider have it on very good word that the above press shot is showing what'll be a new addition to Sony's Walkman lineup, likely a revision to its popular S Series. Hard to tell scale, but looks like either the screen's gotten bigger or the device smaller. In addition to the four color options -- red, blue, pink, and just peeking in on the right, black -- there's also that perforated grill on the front, which we figure is a good sign of some speaker. Excited? Hold that thought -- according to the mysterious source, this PMP isn't scheduled for arrival anytime soon.
HP's ProBook 4510s laptop reviewed, meets or exceeds expectations
Are you a businessperson needing a bit more power, intrigued by yesterday's HP ProBook s-series unveiling but not impulsive enough to spend your business's hard-earned money without a full review? Better fire up that expense report, because according to Laptop the ProBook 4510s is a solid investment. Its styling and performance get high marks, and 4.5 hours of battery life is decidedly stout for this class. The Chiclet-style keyboard was said to be a little flexible, but that full number pad is a nice bonus. The 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display impressed, and it's even available in gloss or matte finishes for the same $699 overall cost. That's definitely an option we can get behind.
Intel Core 2 Quad S-Series shaves power consumption to 65W
In a relatively hush-hush manner, Intel recently slipped out energy saving versions of its Core 2 Quad Q8200, Q9400 and Q9550 CPUs, all of which are suffixed with a simple "s." Put simply, these S-Series chips are built using the same 45 nanometer process technology as used on the regular models, and aside from TDP, all the specifications are exactly alike. The difference comes in power consumption, as the S crew sucks down just 65 watts compared to 95 watts in the standard issue models. Tom's Hardware had a chance to handle, benchmark and report on these new power sippers, and lucky for you, they found performance to be equal to that of the higher power chips. Granted, you'll have to pony up a few extra bucks in order to treat Mother Earth (and your energy bill) better, but at least we're working down the power ladder instead of the other way around.[Via Tom's Hardware, thanks Jonathan]
Sony brings 120Hz Motionflow, BRAVIA Engine 2 to lower-end V-, S-, and L-series HDTVs
While Sony's already revealed its secrets with the action packed VE-Series and ZBR9 family, it's the V-, S- and L-series that'll hit the sweet spot in terms of price for the vast majority. Not much has been improved upon within the 52-inch KDL-52V5100, 46-inch KDL-46V5100 and 40-inch KDL-40V5100, but all three now feature the BRAVIA Engine 2 and Motionflow 120Hz technology for improved sharpness and detail in fast-moving images. Furthermore, they include four HDMI inputs, BRAVIA Sync and a USB port for loading up external media. The V-Series also features Sony's own LightSensor technology and dynamic backlight control to ease up on energy usage. The 52-inch KDL-52S5100, 46-inch KDL-46S5100, 40-inch KDL-40S5100 models, and the 31.5-inch KDL-32S5100 all boast 1080p panels and three HDMI ports, while the 31.5-inch KDL-32L5000 and 26-inch KDL-26L5000 ratchet things down to 1,366 x 768 in the resolution department and take aim for your nearest guest room / kitchen. Head on past the break for the full release, and keep an eye out for all of these to start shipping sometime this Spring.
Nokia's E63 spotted at Symbian Smartphone Show
There's really no point in Nokia keeping this one "behind closed doors," as the E63 -- for all intents and purposes -- is official. Look, we've seen the thing mentioned in a cluttered Nokia XML file, we've seen an atypically clear spy shot and now we're seeing it undercover at the London-based Symbian Smartphone Show. After the crew at Mobile Industry Review tracked down someone with the handset discretely hidden in their bag, they did manage to get this quote out of him: "It looks like an E71, but it's plastic." The casing was a bit thicker than the E71, but who knows if it'll get slimmed down before it finally ships. Speaking of -- Nokia, how's about a ship date now that we're onto you?
New Sony Walkmans surface at IFA booth
Sony's IFA press event isn't for another couple of hours, but we managed to sneak these shots of Sony's minor refresh to its Walkman lineup. Everything is looking nice and sleek, and the screens on the S-series players we saw that were on looked sharp and bright, but we're still waiting to see the fruit of Stringer's talk last year about not suffering at the hands of Apple as badly in portable video as they did with portable audio -- these Walkmans just aren't doing it. Stand by for official news as we get it.%Gallery-30639%
Nikon's S600 rounds out the new Coolpix lineup
We're not sure how it slipped by before, but Nikon's got one more in its new S-series Coolpix cameras, the S600. The 10 megapixel camera bests the recently-announced S550 with a 2.7-inch LCD, 3200 ISO and optical image stabilization, but cuts the zoom to 4x and jacks the price to $299. The camera will be available in March. [Via gizmag]
Leaf Aptus 75S, 65S and 54S debut
Leaf recently announced its newest digital back cameras, the Leaf AFi S-series -- which includes three models, the 75S, 65S and 54S. These new cams range from a 22 to 33 megapixel resolution, shoot at speeds from 0.8 seconds per frame (up to 75 frames per minute), have an unlimited burst depth, bring a "new, lossless image-compression engine," and pack FireWire 800 and up to 800 ISO sensitivity. Further, the camera has a good-sized 6 x 7 cm viewing screen on the rear panel. However, despite all the fanfare for this new series, we don't have the info we really want -- how much it'll cost (if you have to ask, you can't afford it) and how soon we can get one (does it really matter?).[Via LetsGoDigital]
Toshiba drops a bomb: Gigabeat V in the US
Well, well, well -- it seems that Toshiba's been up to more in the portable media space lately than just helping Microsoft out with the Zune manufacturing. In fact, ole Tosh has been working on a DTV-less version of its Japanese OneSeg-capable 30GB V30T; shake off the TV tuner, and you've got America's own MEV30K. This model borrows many of its features from the popular S series -- including Microsoft's Portable Media Center software, WMV9, WMV10, and PlaysForSure video playback, plus support for MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, WAV, and Windows DRM 9 / 10 audio files -- but, like the V30T, tosses what will probably be some well-received spec bumps into the mix. Besides the addition of a built-in speaker, the main changes here involve screen size and battery life: the V30K sports a 3.5-inch TFT LCD (compared to the 2.5-incher on the S, though both share the same QVGA resolution) and promises up to 8 hours of video or 25 hours of audio playback on a full charge (as opposed to the meager 2.5 and 12 hour lifespans for video and audio, respectively, on the S). We're sure that there are more than few people interested in this stamina-filled $400 Gigabeat, so the good news is that pre-ordering begins today through Crutchfield and Amazon, though a nationwide rollout is not expected until sometime in October. Let the iPod comparisons commence!
