Apple 30 inch Cinema Display
The 30inch Apple Cinema Display is going for cheap(er) with a price cut of $200 bucks. So it now sells for $1799 instead of $1999. It’s still expensive in my opinion. But they are having other cuts too on other slightly smaller displays. The 20 and 23 inch cinema displays are going for $599 and $899 respectively.
This move, the price cut and all has me wondering if they’re going to present something new soon. Like maybe a LCD monitor that can play TV and tell you what’s for dinner and pay your bills :P
Anyway, this deal is pretty good, esp on the 20 and 23 inch ones. If you want to double up your screen, now’s definitely the time to buy them. You can go to their APPLE STORE to order one now.
Source: Engadget
A Japanese company called Y-E Data announced 6 months ago that they have created the world’s first wireless USB hub called YD-300. Now they’re ready to ship their product to anywhere in the world. However, they’ve got some pretty undesirable reviews from the guys at Engadget who says that they’re not living up their promise of 480Kbps for up to 10metres.
While they promise up to 480Mbps at distances of up to 10-meters, in practice however, this drops to a paltry 30Mbps (max!) and even that degrades significantly over just a few meters.
Yikes, that can’t be too good. But it’s good if you have two computers side by side then it’d makes things easier. Maybe because this is the first hence it’s till very noobie in the sense of functions and frills - this wireless USB hub doesn’t support isochronous data, quality of service, or medium bandwidth reservation to ensure data arrives in time so that means you can say bye bye to quality video streaming. This is probably for the basics only.
The YD-300 costs ¥39,800 ($338). I’d probably wait for something better to come out, really.
Source: Engadget
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InstantMusic Ripper
Now if you have one of those old vinyl records of the Bee Gees or Beatles lying around or any of those golden classics, you might wanna invest in this InstantMusic Ripper that rips vynil and cassette tapes in no time. Now that you have a backup of all that music, it’s time to take out the puncher and punch holes into that vynil and make decorations with it. Or if you have a bunch of cassette tapes…well…recycle it so 1 thousand more can have plastic bottles to use.
The gadget even comes in bundled up softwares for PC and Macs so that your ripped music has a place to go and be managed. Pretty well thought out.
Here are some of the specs:
Product Features
* Record Your Old LPs and Cassettes to CD, MP3 or your iPod
* Save music as MP3, WAV, WMA and AAC (iPod) audio formats
* Burn professional quality CDs
* Capture from any audio source: cassette, turn table, TV, radio, DVD
Specifications
* Audio IN: RCA Stereo (Left and Right); SPDIF (Toslink)
* Audio Out: RCA Stereo (Left and Right); SPDIF (Toslink)
* Power: USB bus power (no external supply needed)
* USB: USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 compatible as a Full Speed Device
Capture:
* 16 bit Sampling Rate: 8, 11, 16, 22.05, 32 44.1 or 48 kHz
* THD+N = 0.01%
* SNR= 89dB
Playback:
* 16 bit- Sampling Rate - 32, 44.1, 48 kHz
* THD+N = 0.005%
* SNR = 96dB
This is a product of ThinkGeek.
Sony Luma LCD
The Luma Series of LCD is the new desktop display LCD from Sony. Despite having said that they will stop all production on destop display LCDs, they went ahead and made this one. Now, this sleek looking screen are made to target people like graphic designers and video editors. Of course, if you’re feeling decadent, you can get one of these 20-inch screen babies yourself. Daily email will never feel so luxurious with this big widescreen staring back at you, in fact you can read two emails from two different accounts side by side!
There will be three different models from the Sony Luma Series; two different 20-inch models available (LMD-2050W, LMD-2030W) and one 24-inch model (LMD-2450). The price is not out yet, unfortunately but you can read about the buzz here
Source: Gizmodo
Thanko has come up with a lot of weird USB creations in the past. And this time, they’ve created an Air Purifier that you can plug into a USB point in your computer. Cos uhm you know, most people are stuck on their computers so for their health benefits it makes sense to make health products USB friendly……
I actually laughed when I saw this creation. It just looks so funny. See for yourself:
Thanko’s USB Air Purifier
“I can breathe in front of my computer again!!!!!”, is what she’s saying, I bet. LOL! She looks so funny and the guy did too…geez, how much did they pay those actors. The product only cost $20 bucks but I don’t know if I’d buy it even if it’s 5 bucks…i wouldn’t want to be caught dead wearing that weird looking mask.
Source: Gizmodo
Remember those days when vinyl was the in thing? My uncle has a collection of vinyl records to which I broke some because they look so flimsy that my young 9 year old hands just had to try its strength on it. Anyway, after some heartbreaking moments and being screamed by my mother, my uncle put on Engelbert Humperdink’s record…*shudders*
USB Turntable
But shuddering aside, i was fascinated by how a small needle is the only point used to play the vinyl on a turntable. Anyway, now, vinyl records are a dying breed, if not already dead. I found this gadget on ThinkGeek where it’s a USB Turntable by Numark. How cool is that? It’s cool because now, you can play your old Engelbert Humperdink’s songs via a USB Turntable. I would shout “The Vinyls are back!” but i think this gadget is just another fad. It’ll fade away - yes, right after you rip your vinyls into MP3’s yo’!
Product Features & Specifications
* Professional quality turntable connects to your PC via USB
* Rip your vinyl directly to MP3 or WAV format
* Ships with Audacity software (compatible with PC and Mac) for removing clicks, pops, and other undesirable characteristics of vinyl
* Audacity supports high-speed recording, then returns music to original playback speed
* Audacity software includes ability to export to WAV and MP3
* Anti-skating control for increased stereo balance
* Support for both 33.33 and 45 RPM playback speeds
* ± 10% adjustable pitch control
* RCA line outputs
* Plug and Play USB compatibility with both PC and Mac
* Packaged with all necessary cables to interconnect with both a computer and stereo playback system
Source: ThinkGeeks.com
Model 5500
Kodak is finally manufacturing quality desktop printers for home and office use. We all know that Kodak only supplies us films mostly and their machinese, not only are they huge, are used to process the films the sell us, mostly. Yes, it’s apparently great quality and now we can use it at home. HP better watch its back now that Kodak is out with their desktop printers. We all know the best printers are from HP but they are sitting on a very shaky throne for now.
Kodak’s secret is to skip over the whole bait and switch model of most printer sales, where everybody discount their printers heavily, and make it all back on exorbitant ink prices. Kodak will be charging reasonable prices for its three new EasyShare All-in-One printers, the 5100, 5300 and 5500 which can print copy and scan for $150-$300, but the ink costs are at $10 for a black cartridge and $15 for a five color cartridge. With ink about half the price of competitors — Kodak’s secret is a print technology that doesn’t require the print head to be in the cartridge, just ink — Kodak is hoping consumers will feel free to print more photos and in turn buy even more ink from them
The not so secret technology is purportedly able to create prints that will last up to 100 years. That’s enough time for your great grand children to see your graduation pictures. Since it’s catridges are half the price of its competitors, Kodak is definitely looking for a great headstart…and not to mention sharpening its thorns for HP for many moons to come.
Source: Engadget
PingMag recently wrote an article about 10 of the bizarre USB objects you can buy these days, both in Japan and around the world.
From the list, my favourite would probably be the USB food drives, which you can find easily in Japan. As it is, Japan is famous for having very life-like plastic food on display in the windows of restaurants everywhere! It would only be a small jump to turn these plastic food models to portable USB memory sticks.
All of the objects are functional, even if they are just a gimmick and can actually be bought now or in the future. But there are a few things missing from that list. Maybe I’ll write up a list one day…
Link:
PingMag - 10 Unusual USB Objects
I know it’s a bit late, but who cares?
Brad posted about the opening of the new Apple Store in Shibuya, and since I couldn’t be there, instead of making up stories that make me look cooler than I am, I’d rather just link to his blog instead. Anyway, his post involves free t-shirts, heat, sweating, crowd, DJ Kentaro, Zazen Boys, iTunes Music Store download cards givaway, and upcoming indie bands, so go and read it. (They’re
recruiting by the way.)
Q: What is this and where does it come from?
A: It is a PC case created by Katsuya Matsumura, and since you can see its panties, it comes from Japan, of course…
This case is one in a series of original sculptures of his, and you can see the step by step explanation of how he creates them on Kat’s Land (his website). Custom made cases cost between $1000 and $3000.
Via Popgadget
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