Unusual BlackBerry patent

Here's another sighting from the patent office. RIM has come up with a novel keypad, one that has trapezoid keys arranged in a V-shaped keypad. According to Cellpassion, this radical design is supposed to make typing easier and may even be found on a touchscreen and not as a physical keypad.

RIM is no stranger to unconventional input keypads as its SureType keypad shows. This is just a patent and may mean nothing. We'll probably see in the coming year if there'll really be a BlackBerry that looks like this.

Via Gizmodo

XPS M1530 gets hi-res screens

We do not give out Editors' Choice awards easily, but the the XPS M1530's combination of good looks and pure brawn gave it this distinction. Barring the insanely-fast XPS M1730 with its dual Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT graphics card, the M1530 could possibly be the fastest 15.4-inch gaming machine to hit Asian shores.

Due to popular demand, Dell is now offering higher-resolution screens for the US market. The standard 1,280 x 800 display can now be upgraded to 1,440 x 900 pixels or 1,680 x 1,050 for US$50 and US$150, respectively. This is great if you intend to watch high-definition movies on the display, though for that purpose we would rather hook up the XPS M1530 to an LCD TV. Unfortunately, there is no news yet on whether this option will be making its way across the Pacific.

Your new shower A/V buddy

You can always rekindle your American Idol dreams during a shower, but if singing is not your cup of tea, check out this nifty waterproof gadget from Japanese company Evergreen. The EG-FTV71S is a portable self-contained TV packed with a 7-inch screen and stereo speakers, complete with an inbuilt digital tuner and rechargeable battery. It has a respectable 3-hour battery life and is packaged with an array of accessories including a drip-proof remote controller and external TV antenna.

This petite 600g flat panel is strictly for the Japanese market and retails at a whopping S$480 (US$315.79). That's about twice the street price of a comparable made-in-China portable DVD player.

Click for larger images:



Via Akihabara News | Photo credit: Evergreen

One-handed unplugging

Here's a clever idea from Korean designer Yoo-Kyung Shin. This power strip has levers on each power outlet to facilitate unplugging. Usually, when we remove plugs from power strips, holding it down with the other hand is necessary, but with this concept called the Raise Me Up, all you have to do is press the lever and the plug will pop out effortlessly.

Admittedly, having to use two hands to unplug a device doesn't really bother us. But we can see how this can be useful for those who stash their power strips behind tables where they are out of sight because getting two hands in there can sometimes be problematic.

Via Yanko Design

Canon releases new firmware for 1Ds Mark III

Canon has released new firmware, version 1.0.6, for the EOS-1Ds Mark III, the company's US$8,000 21.1-megapixel flagship SLR camera.

The update "improves the reliability of communication with some CompactFlash cards" and "fixes a phenomenon involving color cast and vertical lines appearing in images," the company said on the firmware download Web site.

Via Digital Photography Review

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