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Archive for August 30th, 2008

Stix 200 Wiimote wannabe reviewed: it’s just as awful as we imagined

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 7:14PM
Be honest here, GoLive2’s Stix didn’t stand a chance at being taken seriously, and even when one reviewer attempted to have fun with the unashamed Wiimote knockoff, he failed epically. The Stix 200 looks strikingly like Nintendo’s accelerometer-packin’ controller, though this 2D-only rip was seen as “a set of slightly unresponsive, highly inconvenient arrow keys” rather than an exciting new controller. The PC games that can be played with the device are equally dreadful, and while the 3D-capable Stix 400 might be able to make up for some of the 200’s shortcomings, we can’t wholeheartedly say it’s even worth the effort to check out after reading this review.

[Thanks, Robert]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Keepin’ it real fake, part CXXXVIII: HiVision knows that even netbooks need fake friends

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 2:52PM
HiVision (also known as Shenzhen), a Chinese OEM exhibiting at IFA, is completely unabashed about its collection of netbook look-alikes, which range from 400MHz ARM-based computers that could retail for as little $150, to full featured VIA-powered affairs. Everything was as plastic as could be, of course, but the HP Mini-Note rips were almost passable as sexy. Almost.

Gallery: HiVision knows that even netbooks need fake friends

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Filed under: Laptops

Philips 42PFL9903, 37PFL9903 | Aurea II

Philip’s always impressive surround lighting technology has progressed another step to the new Philips Aurea II.  The Aurea 2 technology will first be available in the 42-inch Philips 42PFL9903 and the 37-inch Philips 37PFL9903 models.  Philips make vast improvements in their ambilight / Aurea technology every year and the new Aurea II is the very best yet.

Philips Aurea II makes uses of an improved glass (no longer plastic) active frame which surrounds the 1080p LCD screen to extend and reflect the colors on the screen into the frame and project around the screen.  This leads to a more effective and impressive display and viewing experience.

The Philips 42PFL9903 and 37PFL9903 feature a new 100Hz clear LCD 1080p screen with a very fast 2ms refresh rate and 17big RGB color processing for 2,250 trillion colors.  A very high dynamic contrast ratio of 30,000:1 along with Philips Perfect Pixel HD Engine and Perfect Natural Motion ensure great colors, contrast, detail and motion handling.

The new Philips 42PFL9903 with it’s new Aurea II feature really puts on a great show, and also boast some great features to get the very best out of HD.  Also featured is an integrated digital TV tuner, DLNA support to steam media from other networked equipment and four HDMI 1.3 inputs.

  • Philips 42PFL9903 | 42-Inch, October 08, £2500.
  • Philips 37PFL9903 | 37-Inch, October 08.

French doctors use laser to destroy brain tumor in conscious patient

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 3:12PMNeurosurgery with robotic assistance is getting pretty old hat nowadays, so it looks like scientists are trying to up the difficulty factor by keeping their patients awake — a team of French doctors just completed the first successful removal of malignant brain tumor from a still-conscious patient, using a computerized laser and an MRI scanner to guide the probe. The fiber-optic laser was fed into the brain through a 3mm (.12 inch) hole in the patient’s skull and guided via MRI to the tumor, where it fired for two minutes and completely destroyed the cancerous tissue. Once the tumor cells were dead, the cable was removed and the patient was allowed to return home — all within a single day. That’s pretty impressive, and it comes on the heels of 15 similar trials where five out six patients who underwent the total removal procedure were cancer-free nine months after surgery. The team says further research will cost an additional two million euros to progress, but if this technique works as well as they claim after peer review, we’d guess that money won’t be hard to come by.

[Via Fark]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Philips 42PES0001

Just over a week ago we reported on the tip of a new Philips Essence LCD HDTV to be announced at this years IFA. It turns out that most of the information in the rumors were correct, and the Essence is a 42-inch LCD model called Philips 42PES0001.

Philips has taken a similar route to Sony, where they have designed a minimalist and stylish thin HDTV which can be wall mounted and look like a picture frame. The Philips 42PES0001 has one of the slimmest frames (21mm) I have seen on an HDTV, given it a great look with a glossy black aluminum frame. The 42-inch 1080p LCD HDTV is just 33mm / 1.5 inches deep and makes use of a connectivity hub, so that only one cable connects to the HDTV, sending the video, audio and power. This all helps make the 42PES0001 / Essence very clean and simple, which makes it a pleasure to be wall mounted, or of course on the stand.

Also featured is dedicated 2x 15W speaker bar, which can be connected to the bottom of the set, or not used at all if you have your own sound setup for a cleaner look. Philips Perfect Pixel HD Engine is used on the Philips 42PES0001 which processes 500 million pixels per second and 2250 trillion colors to deliver vast image enhancements such as sharper pictures, better colors and reduced noise. The 1080p LCD screen on the Philips 42PES0001 has a very fast 2ms response time and high 66,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and wide color gamut for deep blacks and rich colors.

100Hz Clear LCD technology doubles the frame rate to provides smooth flowing motion without image blur. DLNA networking is also featured to steam media from other networked devices.

Creative’s Zen Mozaic, X-Fi players hands-on

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 2:01PM
We won’t belabor these two: X-Fi has been spotted plenty of times before, and the Zen Mozaic “is a crap,” as our friends at Engadget Spanish put it. There was no functioning WiFi to test out the X-Fi’s networking features, but they looked pretty tedious on the surface, and the player is otherwise okay but unimpressive. Meanwhile, the Zen Mozaic is just another in a long line of shoddily built — if interesting looking — low-end DAPs from Creative. Next!

Gallery: Creative’s Zen Mozaic, X-Fi players hands-on

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

DayWalker case mod is amazing, can’t solve Wesley Snipes’ tax evasion problems

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 1:20PM
There was no shortage of case mods at NVIDIA’s NVISION conference, but this one in particular managed to snag the majority of the spotlight. Created by Richard “DarthBeavis” Surroz, the Blade-themed DayWalker actually houses three separate computer systems; two are for playing games, while the other acts as a server. Conceptually, at least, the rig is designed to enable two users to play against one another, and given the “50+ fans” and triple SLI GTX 280 GPU setups (among other things), it’s no shock to hear that it’d cost around $18,000 to $20,000 to build again. ‘Course, that’s chump change when you’re stuffing away millions of dollars owed to the government — just ask Snipes… oh, wait.

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Filed under: Desktops

Nabaztag’s Violet debuts “Mirror” general-purpose home RFID reader

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 8:10AM
While we’ll always know Violet for its iconic bunnies, the company is branching out into a more direct RFID application. The Mirror RFID reader is a USB-pluggable little platter that can read RFID tags and launch an assigned action on the computer when it spots a tag it knows. Examples we saw included a tagged post card of Vegas launching a corresponding picture on the computer (lame), a tagged toy car bringing up a map (getting warmer), a tagged umbrella launching the weather forecast (now we’re cooking with gas), and a cute little mini-Nabaztag figurine doing whatever it wants (en fuego / choose your own tired metaphor). We could see the reader being put to use for the computer illiterate, or children having their first go at a PC, but we’re more excited to see what hackers can make of the tech — old people and children are overrated. No word on price or release date yet, but Violet has a press conferenced planned for Monday, so we should know more then.

Gallery: Nabaztag’s Violet debuts “Mirror” general-purpose home RFID reader

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Filed under: Peripherals

RED’s next move: Monstro super DSLRs

by Thomas Ricker, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 3:19AMRed CEO, Jim Jannard, is stirring up trouble in the RED User forums, J. Wong-style. His latest volley discusses the new Mysterium “Monstro” sensor program, the next evolution (and future free upgrade) to the Mysterium X sensor slated for RED’s 5k Epic. The most interesting revelation though is this little nugget: in addition to Epic, RED plans to place Monstro into, “another camera aimed squarely at the DSLR market.” He later adds, “Future cameras will shoot ultra-high resolution stills and motion…” Now, considering that the second generation, full-frame, ~25 megapixel Mysterium X is already a serious challenge to 35mm film, we can only imagine what this DSLR with a third generation RED sensor might offer. Hear that Nikon? Your D90 is just the beginning of this story. Let’s just hope that televisions and monitors, already struggling to reach 4k, Quad HD can keep pace.

[Thanks, Jundai]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

HTC’s Android-driven Dream revealed in glorious spy photos

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 12:25PM
Sure, we’ve seen some blurry videos and managed a few stolen glimpses when Andy Rubin demonstrated this beast, but now we’ve gotten our hands on a slew of pictures showing off a very real T-Mobile-branded Dream in all its Android-running glory. Not only does this confirm the design spied in those FCC docs as well as show off that nearly-done version of Android, but it seems to confirm the fact that this will be headed to T-Mobile, and sooner rather than later judging from the looks of the above device. Needless to say, our inner-geeks are completely geeking out right now. Hit the gallery below for a handful of other views of the phone.

[Thanks, Michael]

Gallery: HTC’s Android-driven Dream revealed in glorious spy photos

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Filed under: Cellphones


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