Tatum and Denim blog

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation, Wireless

Hey all you Sportster fans out there, don’t think we forgot about you in the midst of all the Stiletto 2 excitement. Sirius let us snap a few shots of this latest iteration in their popular line of dock-and-play radios, but frankly, you’ll probably get a better feel for its color screen in the professionally done press photos here than from the handful of shaky pics we managed to fire off. A little more exciting are the live shots we got of the upcoming SCV1 backseat tuner and kid-friendly remote, along with a sample of the video feed — none of which were in the press material sent out today. Also of interest to Sonos owners out there will be the screenshots of Sirius doing its streaming thing over the multi-zone system — and while the GUI is certainly tight, we weren’t paying enough attention to really attest to the quality of low bitrate audio they’re offering. Click below for all the hands-on goodness…

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Wireless

Alright, so it’s really not all that much different than its predecessor in terms of functionality, but you gotta love the slightly sleeker design and bulked up WiFi of the new Sirius Stiletto 2 — and the ability to add more tunes via microSD doesn’t hurt, either. Not a lot to say about this one that we haven’t covered with the original — i.e. if you weren’t happy with issues like reception or content restriction, you probably won’t be into the sequel either — so instead of rehashing the specs for the zillionth time, we’ll let you get right to the gallery…

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I don’t know what I was thinking, but I missed out on SIGGRAPH this year. I particularly wanted to go to get a first hand opportunity to try out Microsoft’s Surface computer. Here’s a video of the Surface device that one of the attendees recorded and posted to YouTube:

So cool. Look at all the different people try to resize images at the same time. It gets my brain thinking about how I could modify MathPractice for a very unique and different experience. I realize that the Surface computer is being targetted towards other markets, but maybe someday. Someday.

uichirow is the photographer of this video and has a couple other recordings that you can check out here.

JazzMutant was also displaying their Dexter multi-touch mixer. From what I understand the digitizer uses a resistive technology. I’m curious to give it a try. After using the iPhone’s capacitive touch, I’m leaning towards capacitive as the way to go for multi-touch. It’s so much more responsive and it appears to be more precise. Here again, the real way to tell is to give it a go and SIGGRAPH would have been the place to try it out.

Multi-touch sounds like it was a hot topic at SIGGRAPH, but there were other new technologies I would have liked to check out, such as the latest version of he E Ink devices. I’ve seen them before, but each time they seem to be getting better and better. Larger, higher resolution, more vibrant. Anderlanglands.com has some photos here of the E Ink e-book as well as several of the other emerging technology exhibits.

I’m kicking myself, why did I miss SIGGRAPH?

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Filed under: Features, Laptops, Wireless

Obviously unaware that we’re not exactly the classiest folks around (we were the only ones there wearing shorts and a T-shirt), Sony invited us to a decidedly swanky “product unveiling” at Rockefeller Plaza’s 66th floor Top of the Rock observation deck, replete with such pricey fare as caviar, salmon canapes, crab salad, tuna tartare, and grilled shrimp, along with four varieties of champagne (from a 2000 Veuve Clicquot Reserve Rose to a 1996 Bollinger R.D., if you must know) to wash it all down with — and as if that weren’t enough booze, several bottles of well-aged scotch sat prominently atop a fully stocked bar. This whole luxury theme was meant to sway our coverage about reflect the high-end status of the company’s 11.1-inch VAIO TZ, whose $2,200 minimum price tag gets you a waif of a Santa Rosa-based ultraportable featuring a carbon fiber exterior, 32GB SSD, WWAN in the form of EV-DO Rev. A, and a MacBook-style keyboard, among other goodies. Sorry to cut this short, but we’re off to shower and shave with the pleasant smelling men’s products that Sony stuffed in our gift bag (we gave everything else — cigars, lip balm, four dollar bottled water, book on wine — away to elevator operators and people on the subway), so this would probably be a good time to check out the gallery below. And, as a special, one-time only bonus, we’ve also included photos of the recently announced VAIO-branded LF-V30 LocationFree streamer, whose component jacks enable HD place-shifting, and with which the entire VAIO lineup will soon be compatible thanks to pre-loaded software…

Gallery: Hands-on with Sony’s VAIO TZ superultraportable notebook

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Cellphones

One of the inevitable first questions that gets asked when laying out hundreds of dollars for a device with a giant, glossy, gorgeous touchscreen is, “just how the heck am I going to protect this thing?” It turns out that the iPhone may not need any particular babying, but for the paranoid among us, Power Support is offering its “Crystal Film” through Apple stores. Ironically, Apple itself says that protective films aren’t recommended since they can interfere with the iPhone’s ability to register gestures, but sho’ nuff, walk into any brick-and-mortar Apple Store and you’re going to see these packs on the shelf. No matter how scratch-resistant it may seem, we figure there’ll be plenty of people willing to lay out the $14.95 sticker price for the marginal additional peace of mind Crystal Film offers, so we wanted to take a look at just how user-friendly the stuff is.

Continue reading Hands-on with Crystal Film for the iPhone

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Wireless

Roaming from cell towers to WiFi hotspots and back on the same phone sounds pretty cool, right? Engadget Mobile has the lowdown on T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home service — the Nokia 6086, the Linksys router, the whole shebang — so head on over to get an up-close peek at the goods!

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Filed under: Laptops

Akihabara News got their hands on Fujitsu’s new FMV-U8240 UMPC and have posted their impressions from using the device over a three day period. The first point worth referring to is the enclosure, which is undoubtedly compact but which also gives off a distinct mid-90s gadget vibe. (One of the machine’s quirks are two little LEDs for night typing: cute.) If you can stomach the style, you’ve got good ergonomics to make up for it: apparently the keyboard is acceptable, which is the closest you can get to a compliment for a keyboard that’s just under 7 inches wide. As is to be expected in a UMPC that only weighs 1.28 pounds (584 grams) the feature set is a bit of a compromise, with an 800MHz A110 Intel CPU appearing to be the weak point at first, although it’s apparently capable of playing 720p DivX video flawlessly. Battery life is a rather disappointing 2.5 to 3.5 hours of real world usage, and the reviewer had issues with the swivel screen and the touchscreen: he hopes that these are pre-production problems, and at $1,190-$1,360 a piece depending on configuration, we’d hope so too.

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Hands on With Fujitsu’s Pocket-Size Convertible UMPC  —  Fujitsu claims its FMV-U8240 is the smallest available UMPC.  —  Fujitsu Ltd. unveiled an ultramobile PC that’s small enough to fit in a jacket pocket.  —  The machine will first be promoted to corporate users as a secondary PC …

Source:   PC World

Link:   http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131889-pg,1/article…

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Since I still haven’t found a day to drive up to New York City and back, I’m relying on other folks to hit up the Samsung Experience. We’ve heard from Mike Cane on the new Q1U and today I happened across another early hands-on account. This one is from Alex, who we profiled in January when he started his blog that focused on what UMPC he should get. He eventually settled on the Q1P, but he recently decided to give the Q1U a once-over. He loved the form factor, but first impressions on performance were average at best. Bear in mind, we don’t know the configuration settings of the display machine, so it’s highly unlikely to be optimized.

Alex pointed out one item that I was really curious about because I was concerned when I heard the specifications of the integrated cameras; well, the front one in particular. The camera for video conferencing is just .3-Megapixels as opposed to the 1.3-Megapixel camera on the back of the unit. Alex indicated that the res and pics were sub-par, but we’ll have to see how the units truly perform when optimized and tweaked. For me, the camera isn’t a compelling factor, but I’m curious, how many potential Q1U owners plan to use one or both the cams on a regular basis?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features

Well lookey lookey, the cellphone fairy dropped us off an unbranded Motorola Q9 to fool around with. Cut to the chase: we’re not going to lie: the fact that it’s larger than the Q is somewhat unacceptable in our eyes — we really don’t care that it has HSDPA, 3G is no longer an excuse for a big ass phone. Also unfortunate: no more scroll wheel, you’re now stuck with the usual up/down rocker buttons. The keyboard, which looks especially tactile, isn’t really all that fantastic, and kind of reminded us of a grid of slick, round hard-candies. Basically, we’re not super stoked for the Q9, but hey, it ain’t over until it’s out, and this thing hasn’t shown any signs of US release in the near future, so maybe they’ll have time to work out some kinks.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Kudos to T-Mobile for rushing (in relative terms) Windows Mobile 6 to its Dash, an honorable move that makes it the first carrier to launch a Windows Mobile 6 device in the US. We’ve had a chance to run through the re-upped device today, and, well, what can we say: it’s a faithful implementation of Windows Mobile 6 Standard. As we’ve said before, Windows Mobile 6 is an extraordinarily incremental upgrade; the new operating system alone probably doesn’t warrant rushing out tomorrow and picking up a shiny new Dash, but for existing owners, we can’t think of a better way to close out the week. Click on for the glorious visuals.

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Filed under: Features, Portable Audio

At this point, WiFi-equipped DAPs aren’t completely novel, but they’re still novel enough to command a good deal of attention — especially when they’re coming from companies like Sandisk through collaborations with Zing. In fact, the $249 Sansa Connect bears a truly striking resemblance (both physically and in user experience) to the reference device Zing was showing off last year — much more so than its distant cousin from the same Zing drafting board, Sirius’ Stiletto. Though the Sansa Connect obiviously loses the Stiletto’s satellite radio capabilites, it dominates the Stiletto (and the Zune, for that matter) in its effective use of 802.11 airwaves. Why most manufacturers have yet to pick up on the WiFi formula for this class of devices, we don’t understand, but hey folks, it’s easy: give us streaming, easy PC-free downloading, and firmware updates over the air. We’re all awash in hotspots at this point, so let’s take full advantage, yeah? The Connect is tied to Yahoo! Music Unlimited for its subscription download model and streaming radio, and we’ve gotta say, a WiFi DAP really brings the model into its own. It almost trivializes the need for serious storage in the device — this one makes do with 4GB plus microSD expansion — because you can get literally any music in Yahoo’s catalog whenever you have a data connection handy. All of Yahoo’s features carry over, too: ratings can be saved from the Connect, album art is downloaded in real time, and you’ve even got Messenger on here. All of LAUNCHcast’s stations are available to stream, and of course, you can build your own station based on personal tastes. And for users of other services that employ secure WMA, rest easy: you’ll be able to pull your songs into Yahoo Music Jukebox (or, if you subscribe to Unlimited, just grab the song again if you’re so inclined). We tested this with URGE and it worked like a champ.

Continue reading Hands-on with the Sandisk Sansa Connect

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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Filed under: Cellphones, Networking

While we’re all patiently waiting for UMA to go national (any carrier want to step up to the plate here?), Samsung’s taking a decidedly different approach to mobile VoIP with its Ubicell product unveiled this week. Carriers are apparently keen on embracing it, too, with Sprint planning on offering it later this year at a to-be-determined price. We had a chance to check it out this morning, and it looks decent enough; it’s reasonably small and it won’t stand out in most decor (especially if you can just set it next to your wireless router). The craziest feature might be the integrated GPS that — get this — locks you out if you try to get all clever and take the Ubicell outside of US territory. In other words, Sprint has no interest running a femtocell in, say, Madagascar.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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Filed under: Tablet PCs

It was only a pre-production model, but we managed to get hands-on with the C5, that medical-centric Tablet PC that Motion Computing announced about a month ago. Obviously meant for healthcare professionals rather than regular consumers, but the C5 is definitely one fine-looking machine. Click on the gallery for a handful of hands-on shots.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Color us impressed. We got our first shot at Helio’s upcoming superphone today, and from the all too brief time we had, we think this thing is gonna pack a punch. The dual slide mechanism was extraordinarily smooth — one of the smoothest we’ve ever felt. It’s big, but not unreasonably so for a handset of its capability and form factor, and the software build seemed slick and stable (the messaging app was killer, in particular). Click on for the Ocean in all its split-personality glory!

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

So we happened to get our hands on an HTC Advantage last week, and damn is this thing ready to rumble. The keyboard (which we just weren’t that fond of) snaps into place from a good inch away, and feels more like an industrial magnet than something you’d find on a consumer device. The VGA screen is fantastically large and bright, and played back full-res video without a hiccup. It even has an idle mode with a couple mini-widgets and an email ticker when the keyboard is magnetically latched onto the body to protect the screen (that VueFLO nav, we think). Check out the gallery to get a better sense of what you’re in for, but be warned: this is a machine by and for handheld computing enthusiasts and cellphone nerds. So even though HTC wants you to replace your laptop with an Advantage for short trips, it’s still a beast of a connected PDA at heart.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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