Category: CES

Palm Announces the Palm Pre

Palm Pre

Not only did Palm announce a new device but the device has a completely new OS called Palm WebOS. The new OS has some amazing new UI concepts including a gesture area and a new way to think about switching between apps on a mobile phone.

I have the specs listed below but remember that it is difficult to talk about this device with just a spec sheet, it really is something you have to look at to understand.

  • High-speed wireless (EV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA, depending on version)
  • 802.11b / g WiFi
  • Integrated GPS
  • 3.1-inch 24-bit color 480 x 320 display
  • Dedicated gesture area below display
  • Slide-out portrait QWERTY keyboard
  • Exchange email support in addition to POP and IMAP
  • IM, MMS, and SMS messaging
  • High-performance browser
  • 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and “extended depth of field”
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP
  • 8GB of internal storage
  • USB mass storage mode
  • MicroUSB connectivity with USB 2.0
  • Proximity sensor for detecting when phone is near face
  • Light sensor to automatically dim display
  • Ringer mute switch
  • Removable rechargeable battery
  • 59.57 x 100.53 x 16.95mm closed
  • 4.76 ounces

The link below has a whole bunch of images of the device along with a couple of first impression videos.

Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery – Engadget.

One last thing to think about is that each of the 4 major carriers in the US will now have exclusives with brand new incredibly innovative phones, AT&T has the iPhone 3G, T-Mobile has the G1, Verizon has the Blackberry Storm, and now Sprint will have the Palm Pre.

Palm Nova OS is “Amazing”

Palm Nova Hardware Mockup

CrunchGear received some information regarding Palms CES announcements. The announcements will include the new OS, “Nova,” which is said to be “amazing” and will have many applications ready for it when the first Nova phones ship. The operating system is said to be linux based and will have the standard calendar, contacts, and e-mail applications along with a media playback suite.

The phone that will be accompanying the release of Palm Nova will have a touchscreen and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. The image above is just a mockup of what the new hardware could look like.

Palms announcement should happen this Thursday at CES.

Exclusive: New Palm phone to have slide-down keyboard, large touchscreen.

Ballmer CES Keynote Announcements Leak

TechCrunch has a run down of what Ballmer will (supposedly) be announcing at this years CES keynote.

  • Windows 7, the successor to Vista, will officially enter public beta.
  • Windows Mobile will support Flash by the end of the first quarter. (This was demoed at an Adobe conference in November).
  • Two new Halo titles will be released for the xBox in 2009 (something else we know already).
  • Home networking made easy!

Overall not a very interesting keynote but then again I’m not sure if Microsoft has announced anything “exciting” since Windows 95 (in my opinion at least, and I was only 7 years old in 1995!).

Ballmer’s CES Keynote Promises To Be A Snoozer Non-Announcements Revealed.

Blu-Ray Winning Everyone Over

“It should be consumer choice; and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider,” this is what Albert Penello group marketing manager of Xbox hardware said when asked whether Microsoft would support a Blu-ray DVD accessory in the event that HD-DVD failed. –source

This single quote has made the blogsphere set fire yesterday. It seems that Blu-ray may be winning everyone over lately, this doesn’t mean that HD-DVD is dead but things are looking pretty glum for them.

Today we also got news from PaidContent that Universal is going to be ending their HD-DVD exclusivity soon. The reason that Universal has not yet made an official statement about this is that contracts keep them from doing so, Universal is still committed to a series of promotions for HD-DVD in the coming months.

Paramount also may be leaving the HD-DVD camp, from all of the rumors going around it seems that Paramount has a clause in their HD-DVD contract allowing them to switch camps if Warner Bros. goes with Blu-ray (which they already have).

New Line Cinema (a sister company of Warner Bros.) has confirmed that they will follow Warner’s move to go exclusive with Blu-ray. Ron Sanders, Warner Home Video president, said that although Warner Bros. decided to go exclusive with Blu-ray other Time Warner entertainment companies would be making their own decisions. New Line Cinemas decision to stop making HD-DVD titles is effective immediately. –source

With the news of Microsoft’s willingness to come out with a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 alongside these news stories about studios leaving HD-DVD, it looks like HD-DVD isn’t looking too good right now. I can’t really see HD-DVD coming back and winning this war but I’m not going to come out and say that it is dead either. Although the fact that HD-DVD decided to cancel their press conference at CES says to me, and many others, that the HD-DVD camp is also starting to think that they may lose this war.

Motorola Rokr E8 Shown Off By PC Mags Sascha Segan

This new cell phone by Motorola is a pretty interesting idea. The keypad on the phone changes depending on what “mode” you have the phone in. When the phone is in phone mode it displays a keypad, when it is in music mode it shows media controls, and when it is in camera mode it shows camera functions.

The keypad is actually a display that uses haptic feedback to let you know that you hit the button.

I haven’t seen any hard numbers when it comes to pricing but the phone has a 2 megapixel camera, 2GB of built in memory, a micro SD slot for memory expansion, and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

Alienware Shows Off Cool 2880×900 Curved Display

This is only a prototype but the display is said to be released in the second half of 2008. The curvature of the display mimics peripheral vision and from what I’ve read, looks gorgeous.

Official specs report less than .02-millisecond response time. Engadget said they noticed three faint vertical dividing lines which seem to indicate that the display are made out of four sub-panels. The display is about the same size as two 24″ displays.

Here is a video showing off the display:

The display looks pretty cool but, I don’t really see much of a point in having more than 20″ or so of screen real estate, I do just fine with the 13″ display on my MacBook. The display is using rear projection technology but it’s still pretty cool.

via Engadget

AMD Announces TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner

AMD announced a cable card capable TV tuner. This is big because this means that now, people can get their nice digital cable TV through their computer. I’m personally excited about this because I have a computer in my living room and now I plan to buy this, with a copy of Vista, and a Media Center Remote control. Anyway you can check out more about the device here.

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Categorized as AMD, CES

The Calm Before the Storm

CES and MacWorld are both next week and everything seems to be very quiet. There are not very many stories out today for me to tell you about. Just a couple of leaks about what someone is going to do at CES, namely that HP won’t be showing DLP TV’s there. I think this has to be the calm before the storm so to speak. Next week will undoubtedly be big Apple most likely has some big announcements and I’m sure there will be some really cool new gadgets out there for everyone to play with throughout the year.

If you are bored and need something to read though, head over to the Inquirer where Charlie Demerjian has an article up regarding the whole Microsoft Acer Ferrari blogger thingy. Its a pretty good article and makes great points that I wish people would realize. This happens all the time with companies who release new products, its not them being evil its Microsoft realizing that there is next to no laptops available that will run Vista with Aero Glass effects turned on.

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Categorized as CES, MacWorld