Gadget Reviews

Ainol’s V6000 series had great specs, but sadly rocked a GPS-worthy aesthetic. The V8000 players went for something a little more stylish, but also a lot more vanilla. Now we’re up to the V9000 series and we finally have a look that’s sophisticated and distinctive — and a little creepy with that “please help I’m frozen over here” wallpaper. It’s displayed on a 4.8-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, though the device is capable of rendering 1080p video out its HDMI port for display onto something a little bigger. The UI seems a little busy but very functional, and with 16GB of storage, an FM tuner, and a 2450mAh battery it should keep you entertained even on the longest of commutes. Price and availability here in the States was not mentioned, but you weren’t really expecting it would be, were ya?

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Ainol’s V9000HDX ‘Megatron’ PMP looks lovely, does 1080p, freezes its enemies in blocks of ice originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading GoPro HD Hero review and helmet cam face-off

Filed under: Digital Cameras

GoPro HD Hero review and helmet cam face-off originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We haven’t even seen the Zii EGG make its long-anticipated consumer debut yet, but Creative is already building up steam for its next Zii venture. ZiiLABS’ ZMS-08 is a third generation mobile media accelerator / system-on-a-chip that boasts its predecessor’s 1080p playback and 24fps encoding, and HD video conferencing via simultaneous 720p encoding and decoding, while adding all-new OpenGL ES 2.0 support, an integrated HDMI controller, X-Fi audio and Flash acceleration. Paired to a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8, and running a custom flavor of Android alongside Plaszma OS, the new Zii chip will look for homes in “web tablets, netbooks, connected TVs” and the like, but seemingly not smartphones. ZiiLABS has already signed up a number of clients, who’ll start receiving shipments in Q1 of 2010. Full PR and an architectural diagram after the break.

Continue reading ZiiLABS ZMS-08 offers Cortex A8-powered Full HD and Flash acceleration for netbooks

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

ZiiLABS ZMS-08 offers Cortex A8-powered Full HD and Flash acceleration for netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We always suspected the iPhone 3GS was capable of 1080p HD video playback, and now we’ve got proof. Although Apple lists the iPhone 3Gs’s max video playback res at just 640×480, iLounge linked to Chinese forum post claiming that the 3GS could do 30Mbps 1080p playback earlier today — and when we saw that the only thing we needed to do to test it out was download the free FileAid app, well, you know how we’ve just spent the last 20 minutes. We tested out a bunch of HD trailers from Apple’s QuickTime trailer site, some videos we shot with a Lumix DMC-GH1 and some other random videos with general success, but there were some major hiccups: high bitrate 720p video off the GH1 stuttered during playback, and loading the Avatar trailer consistently crashed the phone’s audio driver until we restarted. We tried the same thing on an iPhone 3G and just got error messages at almost every resolution, so it seems like it’s a combination of the 3GS’s extra horsepower and different built-in software at work here — software that’s clearly not ready for prime-time, as evidenced by the bugs. We’re hoping Apple is polishing that up and getting ready to unlock this functionality, since it’d be sweet to just plug into an HDTV and play video — anyone listening out there in Cupertino? Video after the break.

Read – Apple iPhone specs
Read – Chinese forum posts claiming 30Mbps 1080p playback

Continue reading iPhone 3GS totally capable of 1080p video playback

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone 3GS totally capable of 1080p video playback originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lookie here — time for yet another HD camcorder in the quickly expanding Everio family. Launched today in the Land of the Rising Sun, the JVC Everio GZ-HM400 is a Full HD shooter with a 10.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, 2.8-inch flip-out LCD, 32GB of built-in storage, an SD / SDHC expansion slot, HDMI output, a 10x optical zoom and a fairly preposterous (in a good way) 600fps slo-mo mode, just like that ultra-sleek GZ-X900 we peeked back in March. The unit can also snap 9 megapixel still shots and hold nearly three hours of Full HD content before needing a USB-led cleansing. Indeed, this here camcorder mimics the aforesaid GZ-X900 in pretty much every way save for design, and it’s expected on Japanese store shelves early next month for ¥110,000 ($1,157).

[Via Akihabara News]

Read – JVC press release
Read – Hands-on shots

Continue reading JVC issues Everio GZ-HM400 Full HD camcorder in Japan

Filed under: Digital Cameras

JVC issues Everio GZ-HM400 Full HD camcorder in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Zi6 is still fairly fresh in our memory banks, but Kodak’s already looking ahead with its newly unveiled Zi8 pocket camcorder. The Flip Ultra HD competitor boasts 1080p recording this time around, in addition to usual features like face tracking, image stabilization, a 2.5-inch LCD display, and SD card slot. YouTube uploading is back, and joining it Facebook support, too. It’ll be out in September in blue, red, and black colors for just a hair under $180.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV, Portable Video

Kodak’s Zi8 HD pocket camcorder hits the 1080p mark, adds Facebook uploading originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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