Archives for October 2007
Panasonic rolls out Blu-ray trio
Philip Wong | Oct 11, 2007
Panasonic has caught up with its Japanese compatriot Sharp by introducing three Blu-ray and hard drive combo Hi-vision recorders. At the top of the echelon is a 1TB DMR-BW900 capable of recording up to a whopping 381 hours of HD broadcasts. To enable this feat, the new entries are all equipped with advanced MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 in addition to the usual MPEG-2 encoder. The former is the same compression technology found in Blu-ray and HD-DVD products.
Besides a pair of hi-def broadcast tuners, there are HDMI version 1.3 Deep Color and Blu-ray interactivity supports. The higher-end DMR-BW900 and 500GB DMR-BW800 also output judder-free 1080p24 which put both on par with full-featured Blu-ray players in the market. These, together the 250GB DMR-BW700, will be launched in Japan from November 1. There's no news of an Asia launch.
Samsung trots out three music phones that rock
Damian Koh | Oct 11, 2007
Is the Asia phone market getting too unpleasantly crowded for the likes of Samsung? In its latest mobile launch outing, the Korean chaebol has bypassed its Asian neighbors including even its own backyard, to court Europe. While we are awaiting word from the consumer electronics giant on the availability of the devices in our region, here's what Samsung fans in Asia are missing out.
Two of the models, the SGH-F330 (slim HSDPA slider) and the SGH-F210 (swivel stick), are already out in Germany for 260 euros (US$368) and 280 euros (US$396), respectively. The third model which resembles the Nokia N95 with its two-way sliding mechanism, appears to veer away from the usual Samsung handsets that proliferate mobile shelves in Asia.
What makes the SGH-i450 interesting is a touch wheel navigation to access the multimedia menus. There's also HSDPA, Bluetooth stereo and it runs on the S60 3rd Edition platform with Feature Pack 1. Oddly, this is targeted for Italy, out end this month at a price of 360 euros (US$509) without subsidy.
Update: According to Samsung Asia, the SGH-F330 and SGH-F210 are scheduled to be launched this quarter in Asia, while the SGH-i450 will be rolled out in selected markets in the same period.
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Palm Treo 500v launched in Singapore
John Chan | Oct 11, 2007
First announced exactly a month ago, the Palm Treo 500v smart phone is now available in Asia, at least in Singapore. The 500v was launched in partnership with European carrier Vodafone in September and still bears that operator's brand name even though Palm has released it with M1 here.
Using Windows Mobile 6 standard, the 500v is Palm's first Treo without a touchscreen. It still has the same QWERTY keypad found in every one of its PDA-phones, but sports a different set of features from earlier Treos because it is targeted at the consumer market rather than business users. One point that really stood out for us was the exclusion of threaded messaging, a mainstay of Treo devices--whether Palm OS or Windows Mobile-based ones. We have a unit and will be posting up a full CNET Asia review soon. In the meantime, read a review done by our colleagues in the UK.
The 500v will be available in some countries in the Asia Pacific by the end of the year, though Palm could not be more specific about when and which countries at this point. In Singapore, it is available only in gray from M1 at S$498 with a two-year contract as well as at S$698 from retail outlets.
Update: Read our full review here.
Speakers good enough to be eaten
Damian Koh | Oct 11, 2007
If speakers could speak (what irony), the new Bluetooth accessory from Sony Ericsson would probably scream "eat me!". Wrap the MBS-100 up in wrinkled gold foil and we may be able to fool people into biting into this oversized Ferrero Rocher. According to Sony Ericsson, the MBS-100 (name's not cool) is its first portable speaker that's able to stream music wirelessly from a phone via Bluetooth stereo. A fully charged internal battery delivers up to 5 hours of music playback. However, you're out of luck if you intend to get hold of these speakers this festive season as they will be available only from Q1 2008 in selected Asia-Pacific markets.
Update: While you're still grappling with news that you cannot get hold of these cute speakers, you can hop over to read our first take on the K630i which was launched at the same time. We have a video of it, too!
PSP Slim and Lite debuts at S$280
Reuben Lee | Oct 11, 2007
According to the press release, the PSP Slim and Lite has an almost identical footprint as the original version, but as the name suggests, it is also slimmer and lighter. In fact, Sony claims that the new PSP is 33 percent lighter (189g) and 19 percent slimmer (18.6mm), making it more comfortable to hold. The reduced form factor is partly due to the thinner battery and possibly the manual UMD cover. The earlier PSP has a catch that pops the UMD cover.
On the performance front, the PSP Slim and Lite promises better battery efficiency as well as loading times. The key feature, however, is the video-out function which allows users to play games as well as view pictures and videos on TV. One of our bloggers who managed to get his hands on the TV-out cable has the full details on this function. You can read more about it here.
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