Casio's High-Speed Camera

We pretty much flipped over the Casio EXIFILM PRO EX-F1's insane rapid fire mode when we get our hands on it: 60fps still shooting, and up to a retardiculous 1200fps video for super slo-mo. David Pogue gives the full review, and spends a page lauding how freakin' fast this camera is. Besides loving the sheer rate of fire, he really digs the pre-record mode, which constantly shoots while you're just halfway pressing the shutter, so even if you're too slow to hit just the right moment, the camera's already got it. But! "Unfortunately, this highly unusual, almost experimental piece of equipment includes nearly as many downsides as breakthroughs."

The low light performance sucks, courtesy of a tiny light sensor, which is half the size of a beginner's DSLR. So you need brilliant lighting to avoid dim or blurry shots. And Casio's solution of "one of the brightest and fastest flashes ever on a consumer camera" ain't much of one, unless you're into harshly lit photos.

Topping that bit of suck off, the digital (not optical) eyepiece is crummy, and both start-up and focusing are sloooow. No zooming, during HD video capture either. And high-speed videos offer no sound or any setting changes mid-filming. But overall, Pogue says that those sniggles are "like complaining that your 7-year-old violin virtuoso is lousy at sports" and that "Casio deserves congratulations for innovating in so many big, bold, industry-defying ways." Buy it for speed, not the other stuff

Apple unveils Mac Pro, Xserve with 8 cores

Even though Apple’s MacWorld is only a week away we wouldn’t expect Jobs and company to just stay quiet during the whole week of CES, patiently waiting for their time. Today Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro and the Xserve both with the ability to be powered by up to 8 processor cores.

The Mac Pro houses two of Intel’s 45nm Quad-Core Xeon processors at up to 3.2GHz giving it twice the power of the prior model. It comes packing a 1600MHz front-side bus and as much as 32GB of 800MHz memory, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card with 256MB, dual gigabit Ethernet and 4 available HDD bays that combined can bring 4TB of storage to the new Mac Pro. Also, the number eight is most significant here with processor cores but it’s also the number of 30-inch monitors that can be driven by the computer.

The new Xserve rack-mount system from Apple also boasts 8-core processing with it’s Intel Xeon 5400 chips, 3TB of internal hard drive and 32GB of memory. It also has speedier memory with a 1600MHz system bus and 800MHz memory. It also features a couple of PCI expansion slots and an easily accessible USB port on the front.

This announcement is a little bit surprising as we would think Jobs would want to save some big announcements like this for his own conference next week, but maybe Apple has something even bigger on the horizon? Both the Mac Pro and Xserve are available now from Apple with the Mac Pro starting at $2,799 and the Xserver starting at $2,999.

It's a Bed! It's an iPod Accessory! It's Shiny!

Alberto Frias' $16,000 Transport "perceptual pod" struck us as a definite "both."

The Transport is a hand-made composite fiber-glass pod containing a waterbed, LED lighting system, and a stereo system featuring speakers by Anthony Gallo. The inside is matte white, the outside is a shiny iPod-friendly white gloss.

Frias obviously intends it to be an iPod accessory, to which we responded, "Eh." But upon reflection, we realized that the Transport could probably be fed a signal by just about any high-end source and we got to musing: "What's wrong with a sanctuary where you can feel cozy and just drift along with the music?"

Maybe it isn't really High End. Then again, maybe it is.

Not that there's anything wrong with having fun.

The six million dollar theater: drool factor is high!

If your typical high-end home theater with rows of plush seats, velvet wallpaper, and popcorn machines offers Cadillac levels of performance and luxury, then Jeremy Kipnis' $6 million ultimate home theater is more like a fire-breathing Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, the fastest production Ferrari ever built.

This home theater is all about aggressively advancing the state of the art of picture and sound presentation. Yes, it's comfortable and beautiful, but its prime directive is a quest for the very best. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is overlooked. Kipnis won't settle for second best.

Kipnis calls his creation the Kipnis Studio Standard, and if all goes according to plan, wealthy movie industry professionals, actors, directors, and producers will be lining up to commission him to custom-design and build a KSS for them.

Well, I spent some quality time checking out the KSS system and came away from the experience totally dazzled by the ultra-high resolution (4,096 x 2,160) picture from the Sony SRX-R110 Digital Cinema Projector. The uber Sony produces four times the resolution of 1080p image.


Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference LCR-2800 Center-Channel Speakers

The 8.8 channel audio system is fed by a well-balanced combination of audiophile solid-state and vacuum-tube amplifiers. The KSS is astonishing in the way it delivers power, but with 11,315 very high-quality watts on tap, that's hardly surprising. The 8.8 channel system uses 16 (!!!) 18-inch subwoofers and that might be why the KSS is easily the most effortlessly powerful home theater I have ever heard. Unlike all of the other high-end home theaters, the KSS was designed to present picture and sound beyond that found in even the finest screening rooms. Kipnis spared no expense to build the very best.

Gamers Cockpit GT3 gives us gamers wood

Forget about those cheap steering wheel video game accessories if you have some serious cash to spend - the folks over at The Gamers Cockpit have your virtual racing desires covered if you have the money put down. Meet the GT3, priced at around $3,250.

The Gamers Cockpit GT3 will work with select racing games on your PlayStation 2 or Xbox 360. It consists of an all steel chassis, advanced racing seat, steering wheel, pedals, a Logitech surround sound system, your choice of video game console, your choice of video racing game and a 19-inch Samsung LCD television.

What we particularly like about the chassis is that you can customize it in a bunch of different colors. The same can also be done for your racing seat. About the only thing missing now is a beer company sponsorship and a bimbo in a bikini sprawled across the simulator.

Van Der Led WM2 Cellphone Watch Actually Looks Good Enough to Strap On

The Van Der Led WM2 is a quad-band GSM watch that actually looks good enough to wear. Dare I say it’s even sexy? Watch phones generally do not look this nice.
There's a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 1.3-inch screen,260k color touchscreen display, a dialpad on the strap, 1GB storage for MP3/MP4 files, and stereo Bluetooth support, and boasts up to 240-hours of standby or 300-minutes of talk.
The numeric pad makes it easy to use and really stands out and they even kind of resemble studs in the distance.
The only downside is its $471 price tag, but anyone who's in the market for a cellphone watch probably has that kind of spare cash to throw around and obviously doesn't care about how other people perceive them.

Nokia Touch UI phone code-named Tube

Word is that Nokia are finally preparing their own full Touch UI handset - codenamed "Tube". An image of the new handset was shown in a presentation slide at an event held in California yesterday. While we don't have the slide in question, we do know the Nokia Tube handset looks a lot like the Apple iPhone.

The Nokia Tube will be the first Touch UI device by Nokia and while Nokia officials are still not getting into details such as OS or shipping date, we are pretty much sure we are talking Symbian Touch UI here.

It would be a hard competition, since all sorts of rumors predict that Apple will be announcing a whole new 3G version of their over-hyped iPhone within 2 months and they will be releasing it within September.

Since the launch of iPhone in June 2007, Apple has shipped 6 million devices (actually being closer to 4 millions), but that doesn't put them anywhere near to being a major Nokia competitor, Tom Libretto, vice president of Forum Nokia said. "We've done that volume since we've had dinner on Friday," he shared.

Comments like that however only show the frustration of Nokia at the Apple's success - be it minor in volumes when compared to the millions of low-end handsets Nokia sells everyday. There is no place for dispute that Apple have achieved enormous success with their first and only handset - they've changed the structure of the American market for mobile phones beyond recognition and managed to create an unprecedented hype that made the iPhone popular world-wide even before it set foot outside American soil.

We haven't heard much of Nokia Touch UI interface since its announcement back in October 2007. While we did see a live demo at the MWC 2008 held in Barcelona, it was nothing close to a real device, but instead a computer emulation with a touchscreen. Have a look at the video in question:

Source: GsmArena

Alienware Area-51® m15x = Great Gamer

Area-51® m15x – 15.4-inch Widescreen

Alienware engineered the Area-51® m15x notebook from the ground up for both performance and portability. Expert design, superior performance and innovative software are only the beginning.
System Highlights
First 15.4-inch notebook with Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme
First 15.4-inch notebook with NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX
Up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 Memory
Dual Hard Drives with Smart Bay Technology
Extreme-High Definition Video (1200p) and HD Audio
Command Center with AlienFX® Lighting Control
Stealth Mode Power Management

Earn some $$$

Numai la Dacie se putea intampla asa ceva :))

Dacia verifica Logan-urile produse pana in 2007


Toate Logan-urile produse pana in 2007 vor fi supuse la un control anticoroziune. ESENTIAL 102.062 unitati Logan a comercializat in 2007 Dacia in Romania.



Dacia va efectua un control anticoroziune la toate modelele Logan berlina produse pana la inceputul anului 2007. Motivul oficial anuntat de producator se refera la existenta unor puncte de oxidare in pasajele rotilor din spate ale anumitor vehicule. Verificarile vor fi efectuate cu ocazia viitoarei revizii.

"Aceste puncte de oxidare localizate sunt legate de patrunderea apei prin pasajele rotilor spate ca urmare a unor operatiuni imperfect realizate in cursul procesului de fabricatie (aplicarea de mastic si/sau pozitionarea unui obturator). Actiunile corective au fost deja aplicate in uzina pentru asigurarea celei mai bune calitati de fabricatie, mai ales in momentul aplicarii de mastic, operatiune care necesita dexteritate", se arata intr-un comunicat al constructorului auto, citat de Mediafax.

Daca in urma verificarilor sunt descoperite puncte de oxidare, atunci se va injecta suplimentar ceara protectoare in anumite portiuni ale caroseriei. Posesorii masinilor vor fi instiintati printr-o scrisoare de operatiunea de service, care va fi gratuita. Dacia nu precizeaza numarul modelelor Logan berlina vandute in Romania pana la finele anului 2006.