Planar have announced two new top-end projectors to be launched in March, the PD8150 and it’s little brother the PD8130. Despite looking like some sort of alien probe from a sci-fi movie (and to be honest what central-lens projector doesn’t) these suckers appear to be the real deal with Planar putting in a lot of effort to make them user friendly including an LED light over the various inputs for when your cables fall out mid movie and you don’t want to blind the audience by switching on the lights, a centrally mounted lens to help alignment during setup.

* 1080p DLP
* 1,000 lumens
* 15,000:1 contrast ratio
* HDMI, DVI, component, composite, and s-video inputs
* 1920 x 1080 res display

Unfortunately the PD8150 will set you back a staggering US$8,000, however the PD8130 will save you US$2,000 by lowering the contrast ratio down to 10,000:1 with a price tag of US$6,000.

This kit is obviously not for the financially faint-hearted but if HD quality is of higher importance to you than your bank manager’s blood pressure then one of these suckers is just right for you!

Source: Broadcast Newsroom

Featured Tags planar, projector


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Looking for a touch screen tablet PC, well the boys over at Toshiba have just launched the latest addition to their Portege table PC range with the M700. The M700 comes equipped with a digitised pen plus a touch sensitive screen allowing your fingers to do the walking as it were. Extras include finger print recognition, shock protected HDD chassis and a spill resistant keyboard. Here are some hard figures for you to get your teeth into

* Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7250
* Windows Vista Business
* 12.1-inch, 1,280 x 800 res display
* 120GB SATA HDD spinning at 5400rpm
* 2 GB memory
* DVD Dual Layer drive
* Gigabit Ethernet LAN
* Wireless 802.11a/b/g + a/b/g/Draft-N connectivity
* 305 x 239 x 39.4 mm
* 2.0kg
* 4.5 hours of battery life

This little sucker is available at Toshiba for US$1,700.

Source: Pocket-Lint

Featured Tags portege-m700, tablet-pc, toshiba


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Taking on Yamaha’s surround bar the YSP-500, Denon have launched their very own version, the DHT-FS5. The specs are minimal in both themselves and actual figures but here they are anyway.

* 4 x 25 to 50W speakers
* 4 channel X-Space surround
* Audio input, 2 optical audio inputs, coaxial input, analog audio
* 750 x 138 x 118 mm
* 5.1 kg

I’m still not convinced that these suckers produce a ‘true’ surround sound experience and being priced at 65,000 Yen (US$600) it would be an expensive test to run. However if you are short of space and/or don’t like cables lying around your lounge floor than a surround bar could just be what you are looking for.

Featured Tags denon, dht-fs5, surround-bar


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With all the hullabaloo going on over the MacBook Air, Fujitsu have launched an even lighter UMPC, the LifeBook P1620. Weighing in at 1 kg it beats the Air by 360g and the basic model costs roughly the same at US$1,749. Here are a few more details for you to check out

* 1.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
* 512 MB RAM
* 60 GB 1.8 inch HDD
* 8.9 inch touch screen display
* 802.11a/g/b connectivity
* Windows XP Tablet Edition
* Fingerprint sensor
* Two USB 2.0 ports
* PCMCIA slot
* 3 cell Lithium ion battery

An extra US$350 or so gets you a 6 cell battery and a 1 GB of RAM but adds an extra 150g to the weight. I must admit that the LifeBook doesn’t appeal, the HTC Shift seems to offer a very similar unit for considerably less wallet liner and even that didn’t really get me too excited. So I get the impression that with the MacBook Air creating so much (unjustified?) buzz at the moment that other notebook manufacturers are desperately shoving out new product just to compete with Apple.

Source: Fujitsu

Featured Tags fujitsu, lifebook, umpc


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If you’re looking for some storage space then look no further then Buffalo’s latest offering the QSIBSU2 – unless of course you live outside Japan. Hopefully Buffalo will release these suckers elsewhere soon, meanwhile Japanese storage space consumers can drool over them.

Both flavours offer the following bits and pieces

* eSATA connection
* USB 2.0 connectivity
* RAID 0
* FireWire 400/800
* 4 3.5 inch drives of appropriate size spinning at 7,200 rpm
* 165 x 203 x 242 mm
* 6.0 kg

Both units weigh in at a hefty 6.0 kgs and have a hefty price tag too, 74,300 Yen (US$695) for the 1 TB or 106,300 Yen ($995) for the 2 TB ‘big boy’. Not cheap but sure to solve all your storage issues.

Featured Tags buffalo, HDD-storage, QSIBSU2


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With the Macworld Expo in full swing, Apple have unleashed their latest notebook, the MacBook Air, on an unexpecting world. The ultra slimline notebook measures a mere 0.76 inches thick or a unbelievable 19.4 mm for the metrically minded. The unit sports a 13.3 inch display as well as a multi-touch trackpad enabling similar two finger action as on your iPhone. Other specs include

* 1.8 inch 80 GB HDD (64 GB of SSD storage is available at what we shall call a significant extra cost)
* 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 1280 x 800 res display
* mono sound output
* Micro DVI to DVI and micro DVI to VGA adapters (S-Video and composite will cost extra)
* 19.4 x 325 x 227 mm
* 1.36 kg
* 5 hr battery
* Optical Drive? Yeah that’s right an extra US$99 will get you a DVD drive, yes, really

In fact we not sure what you get if you don’t choose any optional extras? Seriously though Apple have obviously stripped all the bells and whistles off the unit to slim it down and thereby create a selling point. Quite good marketing really. Anyway I’m sure these suckers will sell like iPhones hot cakes and every Mac FanBoy will be queuing up for one. The basic model will set you back US$1,799 when it’s out and about in two weeks time.

Featured Tags apple, laptop, macbook-air


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I’m not sure where they are going with the ‘Little Big’ thing, but the latest addition to LaCie’s external drive range looks like a winner to me. The Little Big Disk Quadra comes in two flavours, a 400 GB option with a 500 GB version available bizarrely priced at US$500 just like it’s smaller sibling. Anyway here are some details on this sucker

* eSATA 3Gbps, 2 x FireWire 800, USB 2.0 ports
* 7,200 rpm
* 16 MB cache
* 40 x 85 x 140 mm
* 650 g
* Talks nicely with Win 2k and above, Mac OS X 10.3 upwards

It may seem a bit pricey at $1 per GB but with its Neil Poulton styling and RAID 0 capability it certainly looks the part.

Source: LaCie

Featured Tags external-hdd, lacie, little-big-disk-quadra


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