All 4 Toys

A 3D digital photo frame may seem a bit excessive for even the most all-compassing technology bandwagon, but the folks from Newsight have managed to put a somewhat unique spin on the idea with this frame recently on display at SID 2010. Like some of the company’s other displays, this 3D LCD is auto-stereoscopic — meaning you don’t need any pesky glasses — but it also takes things one step further by supporting what’s known as “motion parallax,” which effectively means you can “see around” an image. As you might expect, that involves a bit of trickery, but Newsight says its image processing software can take any traditional 3D (or even 2D) image and create five separate images out of it that let you see the same image from different angles. Unfortunately, that image processing must first be done on a PC with the current model, but Newsight promises that the next model will have built-in processing, and it’s already taking about a third version that will let two frames send images to each other. Read more »

We’ve heard a similar message from Nokia dating all the way back to MeeGo’s introduction at MWC back in February, so it comes as little surprise that Espoo is apparently trumpeting the virtues of ARM for its first MeeGo-powered device that’s still targeted for the tail end of 2010. What might make this particularly interesting is the fact that MeeGo 1.0 is clearly further along for Atom devices than it is for the Cortex A8-based N900, not to mention that Nokia has already warmed up to Intel thanks to its Booklet 3G — but regardless of the silicon, getting the platform solid enough for any sort of retail device by the end of 2010 still seems like a tricky proposition when you figure that the ARM build doesn’t even have a proper user interface yet. Ultimately, it might come down to a question of size; Intel still hasn’t proven that it can scale Atom down far enough to tackle the smartphone market head-on, so if Nokia wants to go small with its first MeeGo hardware, that alone could be impetus enough to go ARM. Read more »

For years now, hotel chains have been toying with alternative ways to letting patrons check-in, access their room and run up their bill with all-too-convenient in-room services. Marriott began testing smartphone check-ins way back in 2006, and select boutique locations (like The Plaza Hotel in New York and Boston’s Nine Zero) have relied on RFID, iris scanners, biometric identifiers and all sorts of whiz-bang entry methods in order to make getting past a lock that much easier (or harder, depending on perspective). This month, InterContinental Hotels Group announced that they would soon be trialing OpenWays at Chicago’s Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center, enabling iPhone owners to fire up an app and watch their room door open in a magical sort of way. Other smartphone platforms will also be supported, and as we’ve seen with other implementations, users of the technology will also be able to turn to their phone to order additional services, extend their stay or fess up to that window they broke. There’s no word on when this stuff will depart the testing phase and go mainstream, but we’re guessing it’ll be sooner rather than later. Video after the break, if you’re interested. Read more »

LG and iRiver have teamed up to develop a music phone, which target the music, youth, and fashion segments of the mobile phone market. Called the LB4400, the handset will come out with a 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen, a 3MP camera, and supporting DMB-TV tuner for watching Live TV programs. Besides that, the LB4400 also support to playback a variety of audio files, including MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, APE, FLAC, AAC, AAC+. Even it has Dolby Surround Mobile sound enhancement to deliver an exhilarating surround sound.

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Want a speedy, drop-proof SSD in your laptop? In all but the largest of ‘em, you’ve got just two choices: pay through the nose for a reasonable amount of storage, or settle for a cheaper boot drive at the expense of capacity. Hitachi and LG are pulling a Monty Hall by opening door number three — an optical drive with a built-in 32GB or 64GB SSD. Dubbed the HyDrive and currently being showcased at mysterydrive.net, the product is presently being labeled a “concept,” but a set of impressive demo videos already show the ODD / SSD combo booting, multitasking and error-correcting Keanu Reeves like a trained pro. We’ll have more details at Computex, at which point we’ll let you know whether to be hesitantly expectant or gravely disappointed. Personally, hybrid HDDs be damned — we want one of these suckers yesterday. Videos after the break. Read more »

The government is just about the last place we’d look for helpful pointers on much of anything, much less when shopping for a new phone — but that didn’t stop the FCC’s Consumer Task Force from whipping up a PDF of things you can to do prevent yourself from getting burned with a multi-hundred dollar early termination fee when buying the handset of your wildest dreams. There’s nothing in here that isn’t obvious to a seasoned phone buyer — buy the phone at full price instead, ask about a trial period, look into proration, and so on — but it goes without saying that these are the kinds of tidbits average consumers should know before setting foot in the store. Perhaps the more interesting thing about this effort on the FCC’s part is that it indicates the feds haven’t forgotten about the stink it made about rising ETFs not long ago — and AT&T’s move to hop on the bandwagon can’t be helping to smooth things over in Washington. Anyhow, go get your learn on before some seedy carrier sales rep takes advantage of you, won’t you? Read more »

AT&T introduced the Samsung Rugby II rugged phone to accompany the old Rugby which is already introduced a couple years ago. The Rugby II is a clam phone designed to meet military specification 810 G for resistance to shocks and vibration. The handset also features HSPA (7.2 Mbps), A-GPS, AT&T Navigator, TeleNav Track, Xora GPS Timetrack, noise suppression technology, Bluetooth, Music player, Web browser, 2MP camera with video recording, large external speakers, and MicroSD card support. The Rugby II will be available from June 6, where it will cost $129.99 with two-years services agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

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You’ve been biding your time, enduring the evils of Firefox, Safari, Opera and perhaps even Internet Explorer (dare we speak its name), slowly summoning your courage to give Google’s alternative a try. Well, kiddo, we’ve got good news and bad. The good news is that if your box lovingly depicts fruit or a well-dressed penguin, you’ll no longer get short shrift: Chrome 5 is out of beta and stable across Mac and Linux for the first time, with browser sync and a host of new HTML5 functionality to boot. The bad news is that Chrome has some quirks of its own… but hey, let’s not spoil the experience — no matter what platform you try it on, the WebKit browser is definitely speedy. Those flyin’ french fries aren’t just for show. Read more »

Goldstriker and Stuart Hughes now present a luxury phone, the Diamond BlackBerry 9700 Bold II Precious Stone & Python Editions, which used the genuine Snakeskin from the Python originating from Indonesia. The Python Skin was import from Indonesia which is import using the appropriate documents issued by authorities designated by the Washington Convention. The Phone is available only in a limited edition (10 unit to be exact) from Stuart Hughes Exclusive Elite Gadgets for a price of 4,495.

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Okay, now this is just getting ridiculous. We know Onkyo has a long history of building iPod docks, but to see the company build an entire all-in-one PC around the feature is a little much, especially when — once again — the iPhone isn’t invited to the party. No, when the E713 series ships in Japan next month at or around the ¥99,880 (about $1100) price point, it will include up to a Core i5-650 processor, 4GB of RAM, a digital TV tuner, Blu-ray drive, 1TB hard drive and loads of ports behind that 23-inch, 1920 x 1080 LCD screen, but a slide-out iPod classic / nano / touch dock that apparently can’t accommodate the iPhone’s portly frame. That’s discrimination, right there — or at least we’ll keep on telling ourselves that, since we’re all out of sour grapes. Read more »