Category: Gadgetry

PalmInfocenter is reporting that a new version of the low-end Palm Zire is rumored to be on its way to store shelves. The “Zire 71” reportedly runs Palm OS 5, the same as the Tungsten T models, and will have a hi-res color screen and included 640×480 camera. Price is expected to be between $250 and $300. Check out PalmInfocenter for pics and more specs.

According to Reuters, Sonicblue is filing for bankruptcy. They’ll be selling their RIO and ReplayTV assets to a Japanese holding company, and their GoVideo line to another.

Expect clearance prices on nifty gadgets soon. They plan to have finished the sales by the end of April.

(via Slashdot)

Confiscated pocket tools on Ebay.

A new PDA is on the way from Toshiba that is reportedly going to be priced around $200. The e350 (pictured right) follows the e310 and e330 line, and retains the super-thin form factor at less than .5 inches. With 64 megs of RAM, SD expansion slot, 3.5″ transflective TFT screen, and 300 MHz processor (with 200 MHz bus), it puts it squarely in competition with the Dell Axim line and HP 1910. Also introduced at the same time is the Toshiba e750, which replaces the e740. It will have dual expansion slots, 400 MHz processor, 96 megs of RAM, 3.8″ screen and on-board WiFi. Price for the e750 is expected to be around $600. Visit InfoSync for bigger pics.

Update: According to Brighthand the e350 is already selling in europe for around $300. The $200 price was based on rumors that Toshiba was going to try to have a model in that price range, but it now seems unlikely. My guess is that the e350 will be introduced at $300, with a $50 rebate immediately or soon available.

Let’s hope phones don’t get any smaller than this — I’ve already swallowed my current phone twice accidently, and this thing is literally half the size! The Panasonic GD-55 is about the same size as a zippo lighter, and could easily be mistaken for one of those fake toy phones sold to kids. I just played with one at a local electronics store, and I have to say I am incredibly impressed — this thing could be a keyfob! It operates on tri-band GSM signals, which means that it works wordwide. It comes in silver, pink, or red, and has limited organizer functions. It can also handle SMS or EMS messaging, and has T9 predictive text input. The downside is its limited talk-time of “1.6-7 hours” depending on backlight usage etc. Street price is around $250 available in the US right now.

Samsung has announced a new phone at CeBIT — the SGH-i500. It’s a Palm OS 5 based smart phone/PDA with 300 MHz processor, a whopping 32 megs of RAM (that’s huge for a Palm) SD slot for expansion, dual color screens (inside and out) and an integrated 640×480 camera. The inside screen is also high-res by Palm standards at 324×352. More specs and pics at Brighthand.
Price is unknown, but I’d guess around $700.

The Pretec DV-4200 is a solid-state video camcorder that records to Secure Digital cards rather than videotape. It’s also a 2.1 megapixel digital still camera with a 1.8″ preview screen. The DV4200 records direct to MPEG4 compression at 30 frames per second, with audio in AAC. It can also handle other video input sources, such as “home movies” and record direct to the SD card. While this sounds pretty cool, limitations in the size and price of the SD cards make them a questionable choice for video cameras, though Pretec claims that up to 20 minutes of video can fit on a 64 meg card.

Two new phones are on the way to the US from Sony Ericsson. The T606 and T608 feature 128×128 16-bit color screens, J2ME (for downloading Java based games and programs), polyphonic ringtones, integrated PIM features and, in the case of the T608, Bluetooth. Both phones will be for CDMA networks.

A German company, Invair, has announced the introduction of a Linux-based smart-phone. It’s one of the uglie…most utilitarian looking phones I’ve ever seen, but certainly has its upside; Tri-band GSM and GPRS for worldwide phone and high-speed wireless data access, an integrated GPS module for figuring out just where in the world you are, infrared and bluetooth connectivity, USB/RS232 i/o, 64 megs of RAM (32 ROM) and an SD/MMC slot for memory expansion. The Linux-based OS includes all the basic PIM functions and email and web browsing (on the “optimised” [sic] 160×240 16-shade grayscale screen). Price is expected to be around $700, US release date unknown. The company already sells a similar PDA (no phone function) from their website.

If you have a T39m, R520m, T68 or T68i cell phone and a Macintosh with Bluetooth, you can now use some software to make your phone act as a remote control for your Mac. You can control Powerpoint, Keynote, iTunes, or any other software that can respond to applescript events. It also has a proximity sensor so that things can happen automatically when you walk away from your computer (like pause iTunes or turn on a security webcam).

Courtesy of MacSlash.