Samsung SGH-i570 Symbian smartphone
Samsung seems to be very busy these days and is apparently working on a new Symbian based smartphone, the SGH-i570. It does look similar to its Windows Mobile 6 based sibling, the SGH-i620. Both phones features a slide-out keyboard and somewhat similar styling, but in all honesty, the SGH-i570 looks like the dogs in comparison in stylish gunmetal black over plastic iPod white for the SGH-i620.
The SGH-i570 will be running Symbian 9.1 and it should feature Wi-Fi, HSPDA, EDGE and Bluetooth. Pretty good specifications in terms of connectivity and the only thing missing is a mini-USB port. It also comes with 160MB of built in memory and it takes microSD cards if that's isn't enough.
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Ion Audio does tape to USB deck
The day has come that you never expected would arrive, someone has been made enough to build a dual tape deck that connects to a USB port. Ion Audio, the company behind the USB record deck came up with the idea to make a tape deck, since its USB connected record player has been a huge hit.
The imaginatively named Tape2PC comes with MixMeister's EZ Tape Converter which does the dull stuff for you and sticks your recordings into iTunes. Aparently the Tape2PC doesn't even need any drives to work, it's all plug and play and off you go.
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Merc Stealth gaming keyboard appears
Ideazone, the company behind the Zboard is back with a new product, the Merc Stealth. Although the Merc has been around for some time, the new, updated version comes with three different backlights, red, blue and purple. This might not seem all that special, but the Merc Stealth also has illuminated characters on all its keys.
This should hopefully make it easier to use the keyboard in a dimly lit room and you can adjust be backlit in three steps as well as switch it off completely. As with the original version, the Merc Stealth features 34 dedicated gaming keys that are labeled and according to Ideazone are positioned for ultimate precision and control.
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Samsung working on GPS handset
Samsung is apparently working on a new handset with integrated GPS as part of its new line up of handsets that are expected to arrive late this year or early next year. The unofficial model name is i550 and it will also be using the Symbian S60 operating system. This is not the first time Samsung has developed a phone with Symbian as its OS, although it's not Samsungs main choice of OS for its handsets, unlike Nokia that almost exclusively uses Symbian.
The i550 is also meant to be a 3.5G handset with HSDPA, although it only supports speeds of up to 3.6Mbit. It's meant to have a 2.6-inch display which will hopefully have better than 240x320 resolution, 128MB of RAM and 150MB of ROM. The built in memory can be expanded via a microSD card slot and the phone features a mini USB connector.
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Xbox 360 gets a price drop in the US
The Xbox 360 will drop in price in the US, by as much as US$50 depending on the model. If this is in preparation for a new model or not isn't clear. However, the Core model is rumoured to be dropped shortly, but until Microsoft confirms this, it's only a rumour. It would be nice to see more models with HDMI and we wouldn't think that it is a costly addition and Microsoft should really offer it across the range.
The Core version is dropping from US$299.00 to $279.99. The Premium version will drop $50 in price, from $399.99 down to $349.99 and it will come with a free copy of Rockstar's Table Tennis. Finally the Elite will drop $30 in price from S479.99 to $449.99, making it much more competitive against the PS3.
It will be interesting to see how Sony responds to this price drop, if at all, since it doesn't seem to be enough of a price drop to really worry Sony. Microsoft is still too far Nintendo's super low Wii pricing to cause Nintendo any concern. Let's just hope that Microsoft follows suite in the rest of the world and gives us a price cut as well.
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Logitech G9 is real, new G15 keyboard
Remember the spy shots of the Logitech G9 that we posted a couple of weeks ago? Well, it turns out they were the real deal and the new Logitech G9 mouse was announced today. It really looks just as weird as the ones on the pictures, but there's a good reason for it, as what wasn't shown on the spy shots, was the fact that it comes with two removable "jackets".
Logitech supplies what it calls a Wide Load and a Precision grip for the G9 to make it fit different hand size and different play styles. The Wide Load grip features a satin finish while the Precision grip features Logitech's DryGrip technology. Logitech is planning to release additional grips for the G9 in the future. The G9 features the highest resolution we've seen on a mouse at 3,200 dpi and it does of course feature laser technology. The sensitivity can be set between 200 and 3,200 dpi.
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Gigabyte X38 getting ready
Although Gigabyte was showing the GA-X38T-DQ6 at Computex this year, we've found out some more details about the board and Gigabyte is still working on the final details of the board to have it ready in time for the launch. As you might notice from our pictures, there's something lacking, namely the chipset cooling.
There's a good reason for this, as the version that was on display at Computex didn't feature the final cooling solution. It seems like the X38 chipset is running as hot as we've heard and it demands quite a good cooling solution to keep it cool. Gigabyte has also changed the VRM design on this boar and as you also can see from the picture, the board has most of the power regulation in a straight row.
Nvidia MCP73 for Intel appears online
Nvidia's MCP73, or GeForce 7050 and 7025 has made an online appearance on a Chinese website called Yesky.com. They've got their hands on a board from a company called Topstar, not a brand we can say that we're familiar with. You might have notice that Nvidia is using the same models names here as they're doing for the MCP68 for AMD.
The MCP73 is a single chip solution and it will be available in three different versions, the MCP73PV or the GeForce 7050/nForce 630i, the MCP73S or the GeForce7025/nForce 630i and finally the MCP73V or the GeForce 7025/nForce 610i. The main difference here is that the most basic version doesn't support 1333MHz bus speed, DVI or HDCP and it also lacks Gigabit Ethernet and some USB ports and some RAID functionality.
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Cooler Master launches CM 690 case
Cooler Master has just announced their latest case, the CM 690, which is a rather stylish new design that comes in black mesh. It is a spacious mid-tower case with plenty of features. It can house up to seven 120mm fans and there's space for a slim 80mm fan behind the motherboard tray to further enhance CPU cooling from the rear.
The PSU is mounted in the bottom of the case to improve the stability and cooling and Cooler Master has fitted a top mounted 120mm fan to exhaust the hot air at the top of the case. The CM 690 also has holes for mounting a water cooling unit a the top of the case.
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New multi-function camera from Samsung
Samsung has released its latest i-series digital camera, the i85, which features an 8 Megapixel sensor and 5x non-protruding optical zoom. It also features a high resolution 3-inch LCD display and it's only 2cm thick. But these are just a range of features that you'd find on just about any decent camera these days, so Samsung has turned the i85 into something a bit out of the ordinary.
The i85 will allow you to watch MPEG, AVI, MOV, WMV and ASF movie files on it an thanks to a built in 2.5mm headphone jack, you can use it as a PMP. It will also play MP3 and WAV audio files. It also has two stereo speakers with SRS 3D audio.
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