Samsung will be launching a new version of the L870 Symbian smartphone next month at Communic Asia in Singapore. The L870 has been given a bit of ‘Soul‘ and will sport the following specs

* Tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900), 2100 UMTS
* 3.6Mbs HSDPA connectivity
* Symbian 9.3 S60 3.2 OS
* 2.3 inch QVGA 240×320 res display
* 3 MP camera
* USB 2.0 connectivity
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* microSD slot
* 102 x 50 x 13.55 mm

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the Soul, so hopefully the price tag will reflect this. One thing it does have in common with the Soul though, is that it won’t be available in the US – not sure what Samsung are playing at. Anyway if you live outside the US it may be worth you giving the L870 the once over especially if that price tag rocks in at a user-friendly size.

Source: Mobile.cz

Featured Tags cellphone, l870, samsung


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Combining your phone and mp3 player seems to be a very popular option at the moment. Samsung have just launched their latest offering in this market, the F400, which according to Samsung is

Fully equipped with ICEpower® technology by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower

So with the help of B&O, Samsung have cranked out a not too shabby dual slider phone/music player with the following bits and bobs

* stereo speakers
* 3 MP AF camera
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* 1GB micro SD card with appropriate slot (up to 8GB expansion)
* 3.5mm output jack
* FM radio
* HSDPA Tri-band 3.6 Mbps
* 2.2 inch display
* USB 2.0 connectivity to allow the unit to be used as a mass storage device
* 103.2 x 48.2 x 16.9 mm

Strangely there’s no joy for US Samsung fans as France will be the first to see the F400 in May, later followed by Europe, Asia and the Middle East. May be Samsung feel it lacks the features to make it in the US market? Whatever the reason is, the associated price tag should be low as there’s nothing really special on the unit other than a rather sexy design. All in all a bit of a sad phone really.

Featured Tags bang-&-olufsen, F400, samsung


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iPhone look alikes are all the rage right now, in fact have been since the iPhone was unleashed. Not wanting to miss out on the craze, Philips have announced the X800 a full-touch mobile phone sporting the following unimpressive specs

* full touch-screen
* tri-band GSM/GPRS handset
* 2.9 inch 240 x 400 262K color TFT display
* handwriting recognition
* 2 MP AF camera
* microSD slot
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* 850 hours standby
* 8 hours talk-time
* plays mp3/mpeg4/wav/aac files

We must admit that the X800 does look pretty sexy despite the similarity to the ‘other’ phone but the specs are a bit disappointing. The exception is the battery times which are impressive to say the least. So we’re hoping the price tag will match the low specs – unfortunately there’s no official word on that particular specification from Philips as of yet.

Featured Tags cellphone, philips, x800


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Want to stretch your 17 inch MacBook to the storage max? If so, MCE have the answer for you with their 1TB Internal Hard Drive Solution. This package consists of the OptiBay SATA 500GB Optical Bay Hard Drive and the MobileStor 500GB Internal SATA Hard Drive which respectively replace the internal SuperDrive and internal hard drive of your MacBook Pro. Conveniently there’s also two USB 2.0 external enclosures for the displaced hardware. Here’s a run down on the bits and pieces on offer

* 500GB standard internal hard drive, 500GB OptiBay hard drive
* Both spin at 5,400 rpm
* single volume, partitioned, or RAID array set up options
* USB 2.0 external enclosure for the original internal hard drive
* USB 2.0 external enclosure for the extracted SuperDrive compatible with iDVD, DVD Studio Pro, iTunes, iPhoto, and Finder Burning

The downside on this handy little MCE offer is the price tag rocking in at US$800. MCE also offer installation if you can send your MacBook to them starting at US$100. So this is only really an option if you are desperate for a 1TB’s worth of zeroes and ones on your MacBook.

Source: MCE

Featured Tags hdd, laptop, macbook, mce


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This gorgeous audio centre, the R4, will be released in early June by Vita Audio, a British firm who design and build exquisite audio products. The R4 certainly has the looks but does it have the sound to match? Since Vita Audio produce the award winning Ruark loudspeaker systems, we are betting that it does! Here are a few features and specs of this sumptuous piece of audio gear

* 80 W output
* Slot loading CD player plays CD-Audio, MP3 and WMA music disks
* USB port for playback of MP3 and WMA music files
* Integrated iPod Dock for most models/versions
* their very own funky-looking Rotodial docking remote control
* a couple of other inputs in case you have other toys you’d like to hook up
* 145 x 450 x 255 mm
* 8 kg

Needless to say the price tag matches the quality and elegance of the unit with a walnut version rocking in at 500 GBP (US$976) and a ‘Dream White’ version sporting a 550 GBP (US$1074) label. Not cheap, but then we suspect you get what you pay for with the R4 and that’ll be high quality audio reproduction.

Source: Vita Audio

Featured Tags audio-system, r4, vita-audio


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With the format war now well and truly over, you would think manufacturers would be rushing out new Blu-Ray players for the new and previously untapped undecided HD consumer. However we haven’t seen much evidence of this product onslaught, but Pioneer have leapt in with two new Blu-Ray players to complement their Kuro range of plasmas, the Elite BDP-05FD and BDP-51FD. Feast your eyes on these specs

* BonusView extra disc content support
* 1080p 24fps output
* HDMI 1.3a ports
* PureCinema Deinterlacer for upscaling standard definition DVDs
* 7.1 surround sound
* Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD and DTS HD Master support
* BDP-05FD has gold-plated connections and a faster 297 MHz video encoder as opposed to standard connections and 108 MHz on the BDP-51FD

These suckers talk ever so nicely with Pioneer’s Kuro HDTV range with both players featuring auto-setup when detecting a Kuro HDTV hanging off of it. The settings have been entered by Pioneer engineers to

ensure subtle details, vivid colors and deep shadows are accurately reproduced when shown on KURO displays

according to the marketing blurb. The price tags are US$600 for the BDP-51FD and US$800 for BDP-05FD, not cheap but then these units are not the run of the mill Blu-Ray players.

Pioneer are obviously aiming these at the home theatre enthusiast with a large-ish wallet believing that it was these consumers playing neutral during the war. If they are right then these puppies will sell like the proverbial hot cakes!

Featured Tags bdp-51fd, blu-ray-player, elite-bdp-05fd, pioneer


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The snazzy looking Blackberry Curve 8830 is now available with a two year plan over at Verizon with a price tag of US$220 after a $100 online discount. Accordingly to the spiel

The BlackBerry® Curve 8330 smartphone delivers on the BlackBerry promise with no compromises. BlackBerry push technology is designed to deliver emails to your smartphone as they arrive so you read and respond to them.

Ooooo! Here’s some more bits and pieces on the latest offering from the world of RIM.

* Dual–band 800/1900 Mhz
* 96 MB memory
* BlackBerry® 4.3 Desktop Software
* 2.5 inch 320×240 res display
* BroadbandAccess connect capable
* Mobile IM for BlackBerry
* 2.0 MP Camera
* Media Player
* Bluetooth® Wireless Technology
* microSD memory expansion slot (up to 8GB)
* 107.1 x 62.1 x 16.1 mm
* 119g
* Battery – 260 minutes of talk time or up to 264 hours on standby

Personally I’m not too excited by the Curve, it’s offering nothing special from the guys at RIM whilst shackling you to Verizon. The SMT 5700 over at AT&T offers similar bells and whistles yet boasts a smaller price tag. RIM’s school report reads ‘Must try harder’.

Featured Tags 8830, blackberry, curve, rim, verizon


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