Whilst the latest projector range, LB80, from Panasonic is squarely aimed at schools and offices, if you’re looking for portability from your projector then one of these suckers may be just what you are looking for. The range includes the PT-LB80NTU, PT-LB80U, PT-LB75NTU, PT-LB75U and a widescreen version the PT-LW80NTU and all of them weigh in at under seven pounds.

The NTU dubbed units also feature wireless connectivity which enables them to be located just about anywhere in your school, office or home. And for some reason they allow up to 128 PCs to be connected to them simultaneously. If you’re still keen read on for further details

* 802.11g connectivity for NTU units
* 1280 x 800 res for the PT-LW80NTU
* 1024 x 768 res for the others
* 3,200 lumens for the PT-LB80NTU and PT-LB80U
* 2,600 lumens for the rest

Here are the key stats though PT-LW80NTU - US$3,499, PT-LB80NTU - $3,299, PT-LB80U - $2,999, PT-LB75NTU - $2,299, PT-LB75U - $1,999.

Whilst the units are nothing flash in the display quality department, the portability and wireless connectivity may appeal to some-one out there.

Source: BusinessWire

Featured tags: lb80 panasonic projector

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Whilst Hitachi’s latest CinemaStar HDD offerings, the 2.5 inch C5K320 and 3.5 inch 5K500, are primarily for use in DVRs they can of course be slotted into existing PCs and laptops. According to Hitachi the 5K500’s main feature is

Cool, quiet, power-efficient storage for digital video applications

which the 5K500 achieves using Hitachi’s CoolSpin motor design.

CoolSpin technology is a low-power motor design that requires less power to spin up the drive than most 3.5-inch hard drives

As well as CoolSpin the 5K500 offers the following bells and whistles

* 3.5 inch form factor
* 500 GB storage
* SATA 3Gbps interface
* 3.2 W idle power
* 4 data heads and 2 data disks
* 8 MB buffer
* 929 Mbps media transfer rate
* 101.6 x 147 x 26.1 mm

As for the C5K320, which comes in a handy range of capacities from 120 GB up to 320 GB, it sports Hitachi’s SmoothStream technology

supports the ATA-7 streaming command set, and SCT provides time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities. CinemaStar C5K320 is offered with silent-seek acoustics for ultra-quiet operation.

Here are the rest of the specs

* 1.5 Gbps SATA interface
* 120, 160, 250, 320 GB capacities
* 8 MB data buffer
* 5,400 rpm
* 729 Mbps media transfer rate
* 70 x 100 x 9.5 mm
* 102 g

Unfortunately no news on the price tag, but at least it’s good to see HDD manufacturers trying to enhance our media storage options. These suckers will be available in June.

Source: Hitachi

Featured tags: 2.5 inch HDD 3.5 inch HDD DVR hdd hitachi

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LaCie have just released a new Blu-Ray burner, the d2 which slaps down the zeroes and ones at 4x speeds via USB 2.0 and FireWire 400. The unit also boasts whisper quiet performance and a durable design just in case you want to, err, bash it occasionally. Here are a few more numbers on this puppy for you

* writing speeds - BD-R (single or dual layer) 4x; BD-RE (single or dual layer) 2x
* DVD±R 16x; DVD±RW 6x; DVD±R DL 4x
* CD-R 40x; CD-RW 32x
* 172.8 x 44.8 x 251.1 mm
* 1400 g
* talks nicely with Windows XP with the latest service pack, Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher

The d2 will be shipped out with a US$690 price tag, not cheap, but now the fomat war is over there’s one less excuse not to take the plunge.

Source: LaCie

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The spec details are going to be a little thin for the latest offering from Hop-On, the HOP1800, but fortunately the price tag matches. The HOP1800 is aimed at people who may want a cheap second phone or don’t want to pay ridiculously high roaming charges when overseas and would love a second unit to slip a local SIM card into. At US$10 who can really say ‘No thanks’? Those of you who like bells and whistles with your toys look away now

* 850/1900 MHz or 900/1800 MHz
* 16 Midi polyphonic ringtones and vibrate mode
* SIM and keypad locking
* 150 hours on standby
* 4 hours talk time
* 96.6 x 41.6 x 14 mm
* 77g

So there you have it, hope you didn’t blink. The HOP1800 falls into the cellphone niche of units that are used just to make, err, phone calls - no display, no mp3 playback, no camera, just a phone. Well what did you expect for ten bucks.

Source: Hop-On

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Living in the US? Wanna HTC Touch Dual smartphone? Then pop down to your local Best Buy pronto like as they have just started selling an unlocked version of the Touch Dual for US$550. For those of you who have lived under a rock for a while, here’s the low-down on the Touch Dual

* utilises TouchFlo technology to allow finger-touch scrolling, panning and image zooming
* slider 20 key keypad
* HSDPA, 3G and GPRS/EDGE/GSM connectivity
* Qualcomm MSM7200 400MHz processor
* Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro OS
* Direct Push Outlook emails
* 2 MP camera for pics and vid, plus a second cam for video calls
* 107 x 55 x 15.8 mm
* 120g
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* microSD expansion slot
* up to 250 hours standby and 3 hours talk time - UMTS
* up to 180 hours standby and 5 hours talk time - GSM

At US$550 it may not be a bargain, but an unlocked smartphone at that price seems like a good deal to us. So if you’re keen rush out/browse to Best Buy and secure one of these suckers.

Source: HTC

Featured tags: best buy cellphone dual touch htc

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What happens when you overclock a 3.2GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 to 4.0GHz? You get the re-vamped Alienware Area-51 ALX, that’s what. The backroom boys at Alienware have ramped up the ALX to a stunning 4.0 GHz of processing gaming speed. 4.0 GHz is described as the processor’s “maximum stable output” and just to prove how extreme 4.0 really is, the unit comes with a liquid-cooling system to prevent meltdown mid-gaming session. Needless to say its other specs are just as exciting

* choice of twin NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GPUs or an ATI CrossFireX configuration with dual ATI Radeon 3870 X2 cards
* up to 4GB of 1,600 MHz Corsair Dominator DDR3 memory
* two 500GB HDDs in RAID-0
* dual-layer DVD burner
* dual ethernet ports
* optional Blu-Ray burner

Now for the downside, the basic model with one video card, 1GB of RAM and obviously without Blu-Ray burner will set you back over US$5,500. Ouch! Of course tacking on a few more bells and whistles will sky-rocket that tag up over the US$7,000 mark and that’s before you start looking at monitors and speakers. Not for the financially faint-hearted. However we’re sure that the package matches its price tag in performance so once you’ve fragged your way through your first session, the dent in your wallet will just be a distant memory.

Anyone for a game of Pac-Man?

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We have been waiting almost half a year for the final details on Panasonic’s latest range of Viera plasma HDTVs, the PZ850 series, and here they are at last. The 46, 50, 58 and 65 inch units sport built-in internet access for Youtube video and Picasa pics plus other sites to be announced in the future. Here are a few more specs for you to drool over

* four HDMI ports
* PC input
* native contrast ratio of 30,000:1
* dynamic contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1
* H.264 decoding
* SD slots so camcorder video can be watched without conversion
* 24p native playback
* 1080p resolution

The 46 and 50 inch versions will be out this summer, whilst the big boys will appear in the autumn. Price tags are as follows, 46 - US$3100, 50 - US$3500, 58 - US$4300 and finally 65 - US$8000. These suckers, despite the cost, seem to have a nice number of bells and whistles and if their performance matches the outstanding specs, one of them should really be gracing your viewing room sooner rather than later.

As an aside, nice shot from the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair.

Source: Panasonic

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