On the look out for a bargain? Who isn’t these days. Well today we spotted Walmart offering up the HTC Droid Eris candybar cellphone for only $30. At this price the unit still comes with a two year Verizon plan but on the upside the HTC Droid Eris sports the following bells and whistles

* 3.2″ 320 x 480 HVGA resolution 262K Color Touchscreen with Trackball
* Fully rubberized matte black skin
* Google’s Android 1.5 operating system
* 5 Megapixel Camera with Autofocus
* Bluetooth v2.0
* Full HTML Browser with Wi-Fi
* 4.45 x 2.19 x 0.51 in
* 4.2 oz
* Virtual QWERTY keyboard / Touchscreen
* Plays nicely with MIDI / M4A / QCP / AMR / AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+ / WAV / WMA / MP3/ EVRC-B audio formats
* 3.5mm Headset plug
* Plays nicely with MPEG4 / H.263 / H.264 / WMV video formats
* Up to 16 GB Micro SD memory
* Talk Time - up to 214 mins
* Standby Time – up to 373 hrs
* Micro-USB connectivity

We also managed to dig up this hands on video from phonedog, which was made when the Droid Eris was originally released at the beginning of the month for $100.

They generally give the HTC Droid Eris the thumbs up and we agree as it certainly sports a great list of functions and at $30 it has to be a bargain. Well done to Verizon for dropping the price.

Source: Walmart

Featured Tags cellphone, htc, verizon, walmart


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LaCie have launched a new media player, the LaCinema Classic HD, which is an upgraded version of their LaCinema we talked about almost two years ago. Intriguingly the capacity is still the same at 1TB, but of course it now sports HDMI output and supports a large number of formats. Here’s the opening passage from the press release from LaCie

LaCie today introduced the most complete HD multimedia hard drive player, combining Full HD 1080p playback, unsurpassed format compatibility and DLNA media server functionality – LaCinema Classic HD, design by Neil Poulton. Users can browse, play and share HD media collections from anywhere in the home, directly on HDTV.

The plan is you keep the LaCinema Classic unit hooked up to your computer and load media on to it which you can later showoff by hooking it the LaCinema up to your HDTV. The unit also has DNLA functionality allowing it to access media files on computers on your local network. Here are the specs on the LaCie LaCinema Classic HD

* Capacity 1 TB
* Connectivity USB 2.0 (USB 1.1 compatible)
* Maximum Resolution Up to 1920x1080p
* Video Codecs – MPEG-1, MPEG-2 / HD, MPEG-4, DIVX, DIVX HD, XVID, H.264 HD, WMV9 HD, VC-1
* Video Format AVI, MP4, MKV, WMV, DivX, DAT, MOV, MPEG, VOB, ASF, TS, TP, TRP, M2TS, DVR-MS, DVD-Video
* Upscaling to 1080p
* Audio Format MP3, WMA, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AC3, MP4, MKA
* Subtitles SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI, PSB, ASS
* Playlist M3U
* DTS – Multichannel decoding via Optical SPDIF and HDMI to digital home amplifier
* Photo JPEG*, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF/TIF (*excluding progressive jpeg)
* Video Outputs HDMI 1.3, Composite (CVBS)
* Audio Outputs Optical, Stereo
* 234 x 225 x 46 mm
* Weight 1.9 kg

Two years on and we’re still not sure why you’d have one of these suckers rather than a dedicated Media unit. Of course it’s a lot cheaper at US$250 than a PC especially when you think about all the built-in network capability. However we sort of go “nah, not really” when it comes to the LaCie LaCinema Classic HD media player. But of course you may think different.

Source: LaCie

Featured Tags HD-media-player, lacie


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Asus have unleashed the UL30Vt Windows 7 13.3 inch laptop for a mere snip at $799. The Core 2 Duo processor powered unit sports the following specifications

* Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor 1.3GHz
* 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2 slots, 8GB Max
* 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
* NVidia G210M Graphics with 512MB DDR3 + Intel GMA 4500MHD (Switchable VGA)
* Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System
* 13.3-Inch Widescreen HD LED LCD Display
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
* Bluetooth connectivity
* 12.9 x 9.3 x 1 inches
* 3.7 pounds
* 12 hour battery life

Its ultra-low voltage processor helps the UL30Vt achieve that 12 hour battery life and the unit comes with Altec Lansing speakers to listen to your tunes through. All in all not bad for a slimline laptop boasting Windows 7 and a price tag of only $799. If you’re keen check out the Asus UL30Vt at Amazon.

Featured Tags asus, laptop


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Yet another Android unit hits the streets, this time from T-Mobile, who offer you the Samsung Behold II for $230 with their Even More plan. Here’s what the Behold offers

* 3.2 inch 320 x 480 res touch screen with on-screen keyboard
* Text messaging
* Video Messaging
* Instant messaging capable
* 5 Megapixel Camera
* Video capture/playback (MPEG4)
* Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, MIDI)
* 4.6 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches
* 4.2 ounces
* Battery Li-ion (1000mAh)
* Talk time up to 6 hours
* Standby time up to 15 days
* 850 MHz;900 MHz;1800 MHz;1900 MHz;UMTS: Band IV (1700/2100)
* Real Web Browsing with Wi-Fi (802.11b/802.11g)
* E-mail
* Micro SD memory slot
* GPS built-in
* Photo caller ID
* micro USB
* Stereo Bluetooth 2.1
* 3.5 mm headphone jack

Pretty impressive set of specifications but for the $230 price tag and shackle, they should be. The Samsung Behold 2 does sport an AMOLED screen and their TouchWiz interface, but is this enough to persuade you to part with $230. If it is, like us know what you think of the Behold 2.

Featured Tags cellphone, samsung, t-mobile


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If you envious desktop owners have been eyeing up neat little laptop SSDs for a while now, OCZ have produced an answer to your dreams, the Colossus 3.5 inch SATA II SSD specifically for your machine. Unfortunately the Colossus range comes with a series of hefty price tags, but the specs may just sway you to ignore those large figures after the dollar sign

* Maximum Read Speed 260 MBps
* Sustained Write Speed 230 MBps
* Maximum Write Speed 260 MBps
* 128MB Cache
* 3.5-Inch Aluminum Casing
* Operating Temperature 0-70C
* Shock Resistance 1500G
* 4 x 1 x 5.8 inches
* 8 ounces

Still interested? Then check out these suckers over at Amazon in their various capacities

120 GB Colossus $609
250 GB Colossus $1123
500 GB Colossus $1770

Featured Tags OCZ, SSD


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ioSafe, the Californian HDD manufacturer, have added a 2TB unit to their Solo range of USB external HDDs. The Solo range are designed to be waterproof and fireproof, so even if your house burns down you know that your precious zeroes and ones are safe …. assuming you’ve backed them up recently. The 2TB big boy is available for $375 over at Amazon and here’s the technical data about the 1TB Solo HDD, we can only assume the 2TB will be similar in most aspects

* Fireproof up to 1550°F for 1/2 hour per ASTM E119
* Waterproof up to 10′ depth, 72 hours
* USB 2.0 Interface for PCs or Macs
* Warranty: 3 years warranty
* Interface: USB 2.0
* Rotational Speed: 7200
* 5 x 11 x 7.1 inches
* 15 pounds

We’d love to test the first of those stats but the flame-thrower is in for servicing at the moment, so we’ll assume ioSafe aren’t trying to pull the wool over our eyes and the Solo can withstand 1550°F. What we can do is tell you that a house fire reaches temperatures of 1400°F but probably not for a full 30 minutes so the ioSafe Solo should be OK.

So if you’re up for some fire and water proof data storage check out the ioSafe Solo at Amazon in the following capacities and prices.

* ioSafe Solo 500 GB – $142
* ioSafe Solo 1 TB – $216
* ioSafe Solo 1.5 TB – $300
* ioSafe Solo 2TB – $375

Featured Tags extenal-hdd, iosafe


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Having told you recently about the new whizz-bang iMacs from Apple, we’ve now got hold of a neat bit of hardware to turn those fine iMacs into fully touchscreen play things. The guys over at Troll Touch have developed touch sensitive overlays called the SlipCOVER incorporating their PSR-1 (Pressure Sensitive Resistive) touchscreen technology. Slap one of these on your iMac monitor and you have a touchscreen iMac. Here’s a brief video demo from Troll Touch themselves

Pretty impressive eh? As an addon, it’ll set you back $900 for your new shiny 21.5 inch iMac or $1100 for its 27 inch big brother. Troll Touch also have prices for older iMacs too, check them all out on their product page.

Troll Touch seem to know what they are doing too, with their touchscreens being used in museums, colleges and schools. So if you want to get all touchy, feely with your iMac then stroll on over to Troll.

Featured Tags apple, touchscreen, troll


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