Gadget Access

Maria Sharapova bears the distinction of having become Sony Ericsson’s very first global brand ambassador. She will retain the title exclusively for four years, and the soon-to-be 21 year old will be working closely with the company’s design team on a range of products and accessories. She will also undertake consumer brand campaigns designed to attract core target audiences.

The out-of-court agreement complements Sony Ericsson’s 6-year $88 million global title sponsorship of the Women’s Tennis Association Tour which was signed in January 2005.  According to Dee Dutta, Corporate Vice President and Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson:

“Now in our seventh year as a company, the brand has evolved significantly and securing a global brand ambassador is a natural progression to take our brand to the next level in an increasingly competitive market place.”

Known as a celebrity sports personality, Maria Sharapova added to Dutta’s commentary:

“Even though most people know me as a tennis player, I have so many passions beyond the sport like fashion, music, film and design; which Sony Ericsson and I are going to be exploring together through Sony Ericsson and I are going to be exploring together through our partnership.”

Well, here’s looking at you kid and whose serve is it anyway?

Read [Mobiledia]

Back in early December, Birmingham, Alabama had become the first school district in the U.S. to purchase the XO laptops from the OLPC project. It now seems they may not have put as much thought into having these actually work as they did when placing and negotiating the order.

The city was seemingly unaware that Wi-Fi must be in place before the laptops can go online. Sadly this has also lead back to the “inappropriate Web content” argument, it seems that Board member Virginia Volker is more worried about the kids looking at p0rn than actually learning. In response Bob McKenna, who is Langford’s liaison to the City Council has stated that filters would be added to the school routers and that parents need to be “on the lookout as well.”

In the mean time the city is planning to “make the whole city Wi-Fi.” This will begin with the churches, fire station and even on the top of City Hall. Hopefully they will remember to include the schools as well. The laptops are expected to be in the hands of students beginning in March.

Read [Everything Alabama Blog]

One gaming success story deserves another. Here it is. In just over 2 years, the Guitar Hero series has grossed $1 billion in sales. Yes, Austin Powers fans, that’s a ‘B’. Dang. Why did my parents send me to sys admin school instead of game programming school? Oh wait, they didn’t.

Posted Jan 24th 2008 3:03AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
USB-based musicality is great and all, but sometimes you want to cut the cord and play live. IK’s StompIO USB stomp box is apparently the ticket to such a life of freedom, since it packs in a good amount of software amps and software controllable switches and the like, but it also does all its own amp modeling when away from the computer. The bad news is that freedom comes at quite the price: StompIO is available now for $1,050.

Posted Jan 24th 2008 12:47AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Digital Cameras
We’re still at aloss for much hard data, but at least now Samsung’s Korean site is officially acknowledging the existence of the GX-20 DSLR, which has a 2.7-inch live view LCD, 14.6 megapixel high dynamic range APS-C sized CMOS sensor, dust reduction, RAW and JPEG modes, ISO to 3200 (with a 6400 setting), and a March release date — somewhere, for some price. More as we get it.

Posted Jan 24th 2008 1:41AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Digital Cameras
How does a 14.3x Fujinon manual zoom lens, 8th generation 11 megapixel Super CCD sensor and new RP III processor sounds to you in a consumer camera? That’s what you’ll get next month when the $800 Fujifilm S100FS goes big box. Fujifilm’s “most advanced consumer model” features Dual Image Stabilization (optical image and picture stabilization), up to ISO 6400 sensitivity at 6 megapixels (ISO 10,000 at 3 megapixels), 2.5-inch tilting LCD, 3 megapixel burst mode for a maximum of 50 shots at 7fps, and unique film-simulation modes optimized for portraiture, low-contrast (soft), vibrant colors (Velvia), or general use (Provia). Sounds good, but we’ll have to wait for the reviews to see if there’s any substance to the hype.

Gallery: Fujifilm’s FinePix S100FS is their “most advanced” consumer model

In addition to the recently announced K20D, Pentax has also introduced the K200D, a 10.2-megapixel digital SLR. Similar to the K20D, the K200D also features a large 2.7-inch LCD monitor, improved PRIME image processor, Shake Reduction and a weather and dust resistant body. The K200 also features:

• Versatile Auto Picture and Scene Modes: This will automatically set the best mode to shoot in (such as Portrait, Landscape and Macro). It will also set an aperture and shutter speed, adjust the white-balance, saturation, contrast and sharpness levels.
• High-precision 11-point Wide-frame auto-focus: The SAFOX VIII system features 11 sensor points (with nine cross-type sensors) that will let you focus with the highest precision.
• Custom Image Function: These will allow users to select between six preset options that include Natural, Bright, Portrait, Landscape, Vibrant and B&W. Users can also further adjust image processing to include saturation, hue, contrast and sharpness.
• Comprehensive Dust Removal System with Prevention, Removal and Alerting Devices: Which prevents dust from sticking to the surface and also allows for any dust that may stick to be shaken off, which then sticks to an adhesive strip for easy removal.
• Auto Sensitivity Control Up to ISO 1600: This will automatically set the optimum sensitivity up to ISO 1600, based on brightness level and lens focal length.
• Bright, Clear Viewfinder: With the combination of a lightweight penta-mirror prism with Pentax-original finder optics and the Natural-Bright-Matte focusing screen you will get a bright image with an approximate 96-percent field of view and an approximately 0.85-times magnification.

The K200D offers an easy-to-use interface while incorporating advanced imaging technology from the award winning K10D.  This K200D will grow with an amateur photographer’s skill as they learn more about their hobby by offering more features than what is found in entry level models,”

The K200D will retail for $799.95 and begin shipping on March 2008.

Product [Pentax]

Posted Jan 23rd 2008 7:53PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Home Entertainment
With a name like RF Remote Commander, it has to be good, right? Unfortunately, this here device looks to be a forthcoming member of Sony’s IPELA family, which fits more in the boardroom than the living room, generally speaking. Nevertheless, the PCS-RF1 does have a few likable buttons, such as presentation, microphone, zoom in / out and connect / disconnect. Granted, it’s easy to see that this thing wasn’t designed with home theaters in mind, but we’re sure there are a few engineering minds out there already dreaming up ways to connect the aforementioned keys to something in their setup. Per usual, the price and release date remain unknown, but if history repeats yet again, it’s oh-so-close to being ready for primetime.

Microsoft Group Product Manager for Windows Mobile Scott Rockfeld says, “”We are definitely moving into making Windows Mobile come alive for the consumer.” This says to me -and anyone else using Windows Mobile- “it has been a dead product for years and we’ve been faking the updates.” So, Microsoft is filling an open position for its VP of Marketing for mobile communications and will pump Zumobi, which sounds like a character from Star Wars Episode 2, but is in fact a bit of software that aims to make WM better for web browsing.

According to PC World, analysts believe Microsoft will focus its development on the cash-rich nice of enterprise applications.  Which, beyond support for MS Exchange is completely lost on me as Word and Excel readers/editors are lame at best (on Windows Mobile) thanks in part to the small screen these devices have and in part to the software that refuses to acknowledge the small space needs.

The rumor mill points to an ‘09 release of WM7.  Adding more marketing power isn’t going to help, that’s my take.  What is yours?  Is Windows Mobile nearing the end of the rope?

Read: [PC World]

Samsung have announced two new series of HDTVs for release in early 2008. They have announced the Samsung Series 5 LCD, and the Series 4 LCD, with the aim of merging form and function into a well priced HDTV that features many of the same components of their higher range sets.

The Samsung Series 5 LCD models are avaliable in five different sizes, the smallest 32-inch LN32A550P, 37-inch LN37A550P, 40-inch LN40A550P, 46-inch LN46A550P and the largest 52-inch LN52A550P model. They all feature a 1080p (1920×1080 pixel) LCD screen which offers the highest HD format avaliable. The LCD screen used is Samsung’s Super Patterned Vertical Alignment (SPVA) LCD panel which provides a superior image quality along with a high 178 degree viewing angle.

Down-firing stereo speakers are specially designed to increase audio quality, and are hidden from the stylish looking frame. The Samsung Series 5 LCDs also feature touch sensitive manual controls, eliminating any side buttons. There are three HDMI inputs, including one which is side mounted along with a USB 2.0 port.

The Samsung Series 5 LCD HDTVs

• LN32A550P - 32-Inch
• LN37A550P - 37-Inch
• LN40A550P - 40-Inch
• LN46A550P - 46-Inch
• LN52A550P - 52-Inch