Web Talk

Transcend has just unveiled its digital frame called T.Photo 720. Despite it is a little unattractive because of its bulkiness, it’s quite full of features and, just by listing them, I feel like buying one of it right away! As a matter of fact here is what you can find embedded into its big case:

• 7′ TFT LCD screen in 800×400 resolution.
• 2Gb of inner memory.
• Stereo Speakers.
• Slot for microSD/SD/SDHC/MMC/MS/M2/CF.
• FM Radio tuner.
• You can also listen to MP3 and  watch video in 3GP/ AVI/ MOV/MJPEG/ MPG and MP4 format.
• Its software include a big watch and a calendar.

Well, one of its big disappointment  is the lack of a Wifi antenna. Lately the market has started showing a lot of devices, including digital frames, having Wifi antennas to connect to the Internet and display a lot of infos such as news, weather and such. A good example is the excellent PIXXA digital frame whose review can be read here. Anyway I like this frame because it shows  how companies such as Transcend are listening to clients more and more. The list of features included in the little device is a good example of what people really want namely devices capable of doing a variety of things. The new trend seems to respond to such a question: Why own many devices when you can have one with all the features you wish for?

Creative has just unveild its the new Portable Media Players X-Fi and ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN. Both these PMP are fully compatible with MP3, WMA, WMV, AVI, MJPEG, MPEG4-SP, DivX 4 and 5, XviD, and unprotected iTunes music. The WLAN, Zen X-Fi will also be able to stream and download music directly from home PC. Here is the press release directly from Creative: “We’re very excited to achieve this breakthrough of adding our X-Fi audio technology to a ZEN player, setting the highest standard in audio quality for portable music players. Some of the top recording artists in the music industry are very outspoken about the poor quality of digital music. We addressed the issue of the poor quality of digital music by inventing X-Fi technology, which restores the quality of music that is lost during the digital ripping process, and now for the first time ever we’ve been able to implement this technology in a ZEN,” said Craig McHugh, President and COO of Creative. “We also give you the freedom and flexibility of being able to listen to music, watch videos and view photos on your Creative ZEN X-Fi with Wireless LAN that are stored on your PC. You can also wirelessly add your favourite music, videos and photos to your player from your PC, so you’ll always have them with you wherever you go.” Here instead is a brief list of their most important features:

• 2.5-inch TFT display with 16.7 million colours
• Integrated FM Radio with 32 presets.
• Microphone for voice recording.
• Built-in speaker so you can listen to your songs without any earplugs.
• Exclusively on Creative ZEN X-Fi with wireless LAN so that you will be able to chat with Yahoo Messanger and  Windows Live! Messenger.
• Sync with Microsoft Outlook - contact, calendar, “To Do” list.

The ZEN X-Fi comes in two different memory sizes namely 16GB and 32GB for S$329 and S$399, respectively. The Creative ZEN X-Fi 8 GB is going to hit the market by end of this month for S$229.00. Both of these models are just available for the Singapore market so far.

Are you a podcaster releasing tons of podcasts on your blog? If so you may be interested in this nice website letting you create a lot of free podcasts with a nice skin. Blogamp is a web-based application that lets you create your own podcast to put on your blog. Just upload your MP3 file ( which doesn’t have to be bigger than 25MB) on Blogamp’s server and you will get a code to put on your blog right away! Its features include: customise your podcast skin color, track your listenership, add e-commerce and video links, embed or Pop-up player on any site or social network, add your own RSS Feeds. If you want to know more, click on the link to get a full list of Blogamp ’s features.

Apple has just unveiled it new iPhone with 3G wireless technology, GPS and new store applications letting users buy a lot of software ranging from games to business, from entertainment to health. “Just one year after launching the iPhone, we’re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “ iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.” The new iPhone sports a new integrated software (iPhone 2.0) whoch gives user a bunch of new features including Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide push email, calendar, and contacts sync. “iPhone 3G delivers an amazing 10 hours of talk time on 2G networks and 5 hours using 3G, with up to 5 to 6 hours of web browsing, up to 7 hours for video playback and up to 24 hours for audio playback,” according to the company. “iPhone 3G takes advantage of MobileMe, a new Internet service that pushes email, contacts, and calendars from an online “cloud” to native applications on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. With MobileMe email, messages are pushed instantly to iPhone, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads, and push keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically updated on other devices. With iPhone, you can even snap a photo and post it directly to a MobileMe Gallery to share with friends and family.” The new 3G iPhone’s features include Continue reading »

If you have been looking for a nice e-dictionary to use abroad with some spicy in it, namely a lot of features stuffed among its circuits, well, you quest is over. In fact, Iriver has just unleashed its D5 multimedia e-dictionary to the world. But what is it exactly? First of all, let me tell you that if you think this little device has to do with ultraportable devices then you are dead wrong. As its name suggests, it is mainly an electronic dictionary with a lot of features which turn it into something really close to a PMP than anything else (portable media player). Here is a list of its features:

• Available in black and white.
• It comes in two versions: GB ($299.99) and 4GB ($349.99).
• Included in the box: pouch, earphones, USB 2.0 cable, installation CD, and guide.
• 3-inch 480 x 272 TFT display.
• QWERTY keyboard (52 keys).
• Dictionary available: Dictionaries: Korean-English, English-English, Korean-Japanese, Korean-Chinese.
• It can read the following audio-formats: WMA, ASF, OGG, MP3.
• It can read the following video-formats: AVI (MPEG-4 SP).
• It can read the following picture-formats: JPG (3600 x 2400), GIFT (1024 x 768), BMP (1024 x 768)
• Text viewer.
• FM radio.

If you want to buy one of this lovely e-dictionary, click here.

If you think that VX767 is the new Onda motorbike, well, you are wrong. As a matter of fact this is the name of the new PMP (portable media player) unveiled by Onda which is going to hit the market soon (no word about its price or its release date). Despite the fact that it looks like the iPod, it has so many features that, in my opinion, is far much better than the Apple’s baby. Its main features include:

• 4,3″ screen ( 480 x 272 pixel).
• 400 MHz processor.
• It manages to read the following formats: M, RVB, FLV, AVI, MOV, ASF, MP4, WMV, 3GP, MPG, MP3, WMA, APE e FLAC.
• Radio FM.
• Voice recorder.
• TV-out
• The battery can last as much as 40 hours.
• Support for SD.
• Games , support for pictures, Flash, LRC lyrics etc

I wrote “etc” because the features are really a lot! I think Apple should shake itself a little bit. With these kind of devices how long is the iPod going to last ? I think Apple is still surviving thanks to its fame. The iPod offers really little, and for many bucks. Folk, Wake up! There are better gadgets than it! Just look around.

A few days ago I spoke about the nice and cool Jetbook and now what do we have here? Another e-paper promising you to get rid of your dusty book shelves! The new thing is called Cybook Gen3 and it is very thin and sexy looking, without speaking about its nice screen that lets you read outdoor without any issue. Its most important features include:

• 6-inch E Ink Vizplex screen, 166 DPI, B&W with four gray scal. (no color? well, first disappointment!).
• Resolution 600×800 .
• Processor Samsung 200MHz.
• Linux Operative System.
• Weight: 174 g including battery.
• Battery: 1000 mAh Li-polymer battery letting you refresh the screen 8,000 times.
• SD support, mini USB.
• Formats suported: Mobipocket PRC, PalmDoc, HTML, TXT, PDF, image (JPG, GIF, PNG), sound (MP3), fonts (TTF).

This small, really small free software does something really big: it records all your Skype conversations. In fact, Callgraph lets you save your most important conversation in an mp3 file, automatically. It also lets you record Skype to Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeOut calls without any limits tagging your conversation to retrieve them easily. To start using it visit this website.