Samsung have unleashed their potential iPhone killer in the F490 this week at CES. Looking very sleek and dare I say sexier than the iPhone, the F490 will appear in Europe initially with a price tag of 530 Euros (US$780) in February of this year. Here are some more bits and pieces on the F490

* GSM (900/1800/1900), UMTS 2100, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
* 3.2 inch display (16:9)
* 5 MP camera
* microSD slot
* Bluetooth and USB connectivity
* 115 x 53.5 x 11.8 mm
* 102 g

To be honest I’m not sure this really is an iPhone killer despite its sleek looks which had me reaching for my wallet almost immediately. On closer inspection the specs and price tag don’t really add up and I think Samsung are trying to pull a fast one here with a sexy looking touch screen phone. For US$800, I don’t think it quite makes the grade.

Source: Unwired

Over at BGR they’re eagerly anticipating the launch of the Verizon SMT5800 smartphone on the 7th of this month. The SMT5800, aka HTC Vox (S710), sports an external number pad with a slider QWERTY underneath. For those of us traditionalists, we’ll have to wait until the 21st to see it on real store shelves.

Here are a few bits and pieces about the unit

* Windows Mobile 6 Standard
* 128 MB ROM
* 64 MB RAM
* microSD slot
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* 101.5 x 50 x 18.6 mm
* 140 g
* 2.4 inch display

This little sucker will set you back US$315 with a two year plan whilst an unshackled version will remove US$470 from your wallet - however BGR were a little unsure if this was average Joe pricing or pricing for corporate Charlie.

Source: BGR

LaCie have a snazzy multimedia 1 TB GB HDD out there at the moment.

Simply connect the LaCinema Premier to your PC or Mac via USB to transfer your digital media files; then plug it into your TV for instant playback.

What could be more straight forward than that to give you up to 1080i res video on your HDTV? It does come in smaller flavours at 500 and 750 GB but here are the specs for the 1 TB big boy model

* Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity
* Drive speeds of 7,200 rpm
* 8 MB cache
* MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VOB video support
* MP3, WMA, AC3, OGG audio support
* Composite video, S-Video, HD Component video (up to 1080i upscaling) output
* Analog stereo, SPDIF optical and coaxial audio output
* 68 x 170 x 125 mm
* 1050 g

The unit will play nicely with Windows 2000 upwards, Mac OS X and Linux systems that have support for USB hard drives. Prices range from US$300 for the 500 GB version up to US$650 for the 1 TB model. For some reason, I’d rather stick a 1 TB HDD in an old PC and use that with decent video and audio cards but that’s just me I guess.

Source: LaCie

I’ve scoured over the specs for this puppy a few times now and there really is nothing to write home about, so I’m not too sure what Epoq are trying to pull with this release. Their latest PMP, the Nextgen 4 GB, will be unleashed at CES 2008 and sports the following features and specs

* 3 inch, 320 x 240 res display
* 4 GB internal storage
* Video support for AVI, DAT and FLV files
* Audio support for MP3 and WMA files
* USB connectivity
* SD expansion slot
* FM radio
* 90g
* 98mm x 60mm x 12mm

With an uncomfortably high price tag of US$250, I can’t imagine there’ll be a stampede towards the Epoq stand to catch a glimpse of this puppy when it is launched at CES. In fact with a 4 GB offering from MPIO at almost half the price (assuming it’s priced in the US as it is Japan) plus DIVX, MPEG4 and APE support, is anyone actually going to buy one of these?

Source: engadget