More new players from Cowon

Aside from the beast of a player that is the Q5W, Cowon also launched two other devices, the Cowon A3 Extreme and Cowon iAudio U5.

The A3 Extreme is a PMP with an 800 x 480 4-inch display. It may not have all the features of the Q5W, but is no slouch in the video department. It can process 720p (1,280 x 720-pixel) video clips, so you don't have to convert your high-definition files before transferring them to the player. Other features include USB 2.0 host, FM radio and lossless line-in recording. The A3 will come with either a 30GB or 60GB hard drive. Its price and availability in Asia Pacific has yet to be announced.

For something you can actually put in your pocket, there's the iAudio U5 music player. Its features are a little more pedestrian including a 1.8-inch color LCD, FM radio and built-in flash memory up to 8GB. This one is expected to be available in December, though no price has been confirmed.

Click for more images of the U5:

   

Free HD soccer fix for StarHub cable subscribers

We have good news for you folks in Singapore who are current StarHub HD channels subscribers. Thanks to growing competition like SingTel's MioTV, it looks like StarHub is now hoping to keep its subscribers loyal by broadcasting selected 2007/2008 Barclays Premier Leagues matches live in HD for free! These programs will be offered through an upcoming HD Showcase channel bundled to its S$16.05 HD Plus package from November 24.

You can look forward to at least two live matches per match week and up to 92 matches for the current Premier League season. That's not all. The telco also plans to introduce more HD content from a variety of different genres in the near future. To sample the scheduled lineup, check out your onscreen TV guide or logon here for more details.

Canon announces two ultra-bright XEED projectors

While contrast is the overruling factor in home theater projectors, it is brightness that's calling the shots for their multimedia counterparts. Canon's latest XEED duo is designed specifically to meet the market demand for ultra-bright light cannons. The SX7 and X700 are the company's latest LCoS-based offerings, packing powerful 4,000 ANSI lumens brightness ideal for large-screen conference hall installations. Other interesting bits are HD-ready DVI input and a 1.7x zoom for added setup flexibility.

If you are a graphics professional, the top-of-the-line SX7's inbuilt support for Adobe RGB and SRGB color space will also be a bonus for precise color-matching, critical in industries such as printing and medical imaging. The 1,400 x 1,050-pixel resolution SX7 has a retail price of S$9,200 (US$6,764.71), while the XGA-equivalent X700 is priced at an entry-level S$4,999 (US$3,675.74).

Doromobile's HandleEasy frees your mind for other stuff

When was the last time you looked at a phone and walked away feeling more depressed than ever because you didn't understand half the features on the handset? The phone-makers seem to understand what we want more than we do. So we end up with a mobile phone that's endowed with all the wizardry we'll never use. If you're fed up like our Crave UK counterparts, you might want to consider the Doro HandleEasy 326gsm by Doromobile.

The Doro HandleEasy bucks the trend by stripping down to bare basics, bringing us back to the Stone Age of mobile history--to simply make and receive calls. The buttons are massive, straightforward and toy-like even, but that's the whole point anyway. We're just not too convinced by its 99.99 pounds price tag, and that's before factoring in the shipping costs. If you're unfazed by the price, then this might be a handset that's really (and we mean it) easy to handle.

Via Crave UK

Portable media player enclosures go the extra mile

Almost two years ago, Consus wowed us with a 2.5-inch enclosure which played video and MP3 files directly onto a TV. Though the formats were limited to a handful of common standards, it did free us from the need to lug along a PC or DVD player when we stayed in hotel rooms.

Recently, we spotted similar enclosures that not only play processer-intensive formats like XviD, DivX and DVD MPEG-2 files, but also include additional functionality in the form of an SD card slot and OTG capabilities. The latter is essentially a USB port which can transfer files from any USB storage device directly to the harddisk sans a computer. This is a great boon for those who love to take tons of photos on their digital cameras, as they can transfer the contents to the hard drive and save money on multiply memory cards. Though it requires power for the file transfer function to work, some brands bundle an external power adapter which uses four AA-sized batteries.

These enclosures can be found in most Asia IT stores under different brand names like Gemini and Consus with prices ranging from S$70 (US$51.47) to S$100 (US$73.53).

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