Sony is giving itself a big pat on the back this morning as it celebrates 85,000 PlayTV units sent to retailers over the two weeks since the PS3 Freeview recorder accessory started shipping to retailers.
Although Sony does have a tendency to be a little sneaky when it comes to these kind of figures - units shipped isn’t a measure of units sold by any stretch - it shows that retailers are expecting gadget fans to be all over the £70 device this Xmas.
To help put the numbers into perspective, Freesat - the UK’s new-ish free-to-air satellite service featuring high definition programming as well as most of the same channels that Freeview offers - is celebrating its own milestone this morning. Freesat has now reached 100,000 unit sales, but it has taken a full five months to get there.
As our T3 review revealed, PlayTV is an excellent add-on for any PS3 console, but if you have a PSP kicking around too, well, it’s time to call in favours and start blackmailing Santa to make sure one of these finds its way into your stocking.
And this got us thinking… maybe Sony should be persuaded to give a helping hand by developing a Freesat version of its PS3 tuner accessory. After all, there’s a ton of unused Sky dishes out there, ready and willing to be tuned into Freesat, and the added HD would fit in nicely with the PS3’s high definition capabilities. The software’s already damned near perfect, so we only need the hardware. How’s about it, eh?
(via GamesIndustry.biz)
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Not just your average sat nav unit, the ClarionMiND is described as a ‘next -generation mobile device’, despite looking suspiciously like a slight twist on the very last generation UMPC.
Still, it’s not a bad little thing, packing in the ubiquitous Atom processor, a 4.8-inch screen, 4GB SSD, 512MB of RAM and Wi-Fi/3G/Bluetooth 2.0+ connectivity for all your handheld essentials.
It’s good for media playback, web browsing (with its flash-friendly Firefox browser) and email, as well as offering applications for YouTube and MySpace. Everything you need in a motorway service station car park in fact.
Once back on the open road, you can hook it up on the windscreen to take advantage of the SiRFstarIII GPS and real-time traffic support. Just as long as your journey isn’t more than two hours - that’s how long the rechargeable Li-ion lasts. Look out for it in November, priced around 649.99 Euros.
Related Links
- Clarion launches VRX388RUSB dashboard
- Clarion announces in-car iPod gizmo
Clarion (via Pocketables)
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As consumers, we’re constantly craving more and improved features on our phones. But as modern-day treehuggers, we are also worried about the impact on the world from our oft-upgraded handsets. What’s the way forward? Well, according to Sony Ericsson, it could be the GreenHeart phone.
This newly-unveiled concept is currently being touted as the environmentally-friendly phone of the future, those recycled looks created from bio-plastic, including a keypad that’s made from recycled plastic. Greenie points are also scored from the zero charger with 3.5mW standby power and HTML-based e-manuals (rather than printed instructions).
None of which is coming to a store near you. The designers are currently running this past senior execs in an attempt to get something similar in production. You can’t argue with the principle, but do you really want to go back to using an off-grey T610? Exactly.
Sony Ericsson (Via Boy Genius Report)
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According to a Japanese business news source, Nintendo is planning a successor to the wildly popular Nintendo DS Lite. It could even be landing before the end of the year.
The new model, yet to be given a name or shown off in official pics, will include a built-in camera, improved wireless functionality and music playback. This latter function will certainly help in Ninty’s campaign to put the kibosh on R4DS cartridges, which offer music playback as well as providing a very handy way of pirating DS games.
It is suggested that game devs may be able to use the camera for new gameplay elements. It could be to capture pictures of players gurning at the screen through particularly tricky levels, or to provide some kind of EyeToy-esque interactivity.
Either way, having a built in device goes one up on Sony’s rival PSP, whose camera is sold as a separate accessory.
The new models are expected to sell for around 20,000 Yen - roughly the same amount as a current DS Lite console. We’ll let you know as soon as there’s an official nod.
(Nikkei Net via CNET)
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NewEgg.com is currently offering a Kingston 4GB SD for around $8! The lowest price I’ve seen so far, and shipping’s free if you select the 3-7 day option. Just click on the picture above or the link below to get that much-needed item for your digital camera or handheld computer!
Kingston 4GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card
Tags: 4GB secure digital cards, HC, Kingston, SD, secure digital cards
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No, the cellphone software, developed by a London start-up, doesn’t work with specialized sensors. Rather, the app tracks the user’s movement patterns via GPS, and computes whether he’s walking, driving, or flying.
Carbon Diem’s inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for input from the traveller.
A pretty simple approach that apparently works… unless the owner can break the sound barrier by just running. (textually.org)
Tags: carbon emissions, tracker
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Some new technology down under lets users see a reflection of themselves, and manipulate virtual clothes over their body so that they can see how they look like in a snap. Pricing and availability info are displayed on top, and users can have pictures of their virtual outfits sent to their mobile phones for later perusal.
It’s understandable that retail shops want to make things easier for guys who apparently don’t like to try clothes. After all, making shopping as easy possible means more potential for profit. But the gesture-driven interface already looked clumsy in the above video, and user experience expert Jakob Nielsen once asserted that:
Many user interfaces designed for the movies feature gestural input and 3D data visualizations. Immersive environments and fly-through navigation look good, and allow for more dramatic interaction than clicking on a linear list of 10 items. But, despite being a staple of computer conference demos for decades, 3D almost never makes it into shipping products. The reason? 2D works better than 3D for the vast majority of practical things that users want to do.
To be honest, the virtual changing room seems more like novelty than convenience.
Tags: hallenstein’s, virtual changing room, virtual dressing room
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The concept is simple: take a yoyo, and place a small lithium-ion battery that juices up whenever you play with the yoyo. Add a USB power port, and you’ve got yourself a portable charger! Questions remain about the viability of the “iYo”, especially how many yoyo play sessions it would take to fully charge the battery. And, why the iPhone focus? Does the concept designer realize that the iPhone isn’t the only gadget out there?!? (dvice.com)
Tags: iYo, yoyo charger
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The sad fact with self-assembled PCs is that the importance of power supplies are forgotten. This component deserves some weighty consideration, especially since many make the mistake of buying a power supply that provides more than they really need. This obviously ties up money that could’ve been used for a better video card or processor.
Before you even think of assembling your own PC, you should take a look at AnandTech’s article on Debunking Power Supplies. The money quote:
If people really took the time to examine system power requirements, we would see a tremendous increase in sales of 300W to 400W PSUs. The truth is that the vast majority of systems would run optimally with such a “small” power supply. Even if you’re running SLI/CrossFire, you don’t actually need a 750W power supply. (Of course, we recommend purchasing a good quality power supply, as there are certainly “750W” PSUs out there that can’t reliably deliver anywhere near that much power.) To help dispel some myths relating to power requirements, we’ve put together a couple of charts.
Check out the whole article here.
Tags: anandtech, choosing, power supplies
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Check it out: mimicking the classic wooden setup, but in the words of Boing Boing, “this one has a working safety and is far prettier. (And heavier!)”
Tags: DIY, Metal, Rubber Band Gun
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