You could try all day and not guess what a Blog Tang A+ is. I won’t leave you hanging, because I am such a nice guy, but it is a PMP (portable media player). Doesn’t have such a bad feature set either.
Being a Chinese brand audio/video player, it is great value for money, with 4 sizes all coming in under the $US300 mark. It features a 4.3-inch 16.7 million colours LCD, and can output to your regular TV at a decent 30FPS. It can playback MP4, AVI, VOB, DAT for video, MP3, WMA and OGG for audio and JPEG, BMP and TXT for images. Other niceties include the line-in and USB 2.0 (not sure if it is Hi-Speed or not) support.
The prices are, 1,299 yuan for 40GB (US$173), 1,599 yuan for 80GB ($US213), 120GB for 1,899 yuan ($US253) and finally 2,199 yuan for 160GB ($US293). Release date isn’t set, but what do you care? There is little chance that where you live will ever see this player (unless you get it off ebay or live in China).
For more info, jingle over to the PMP Today Blog.
For the lucky people old there who are in the market for a new car (which means they at least have a little money), then if you wait a few extra months (early 2008 for the lucky people in the US) the new BMW 1-series convertible could be a nice little weekender. The new convertibles from BMW will come in 2 flavours, the first being a 215 HP 128i and the second being the 306 HP 135i. I could go further into how hawt they are, and how many little features they have added, but the Autoblog article has the original press release.
For more info, drive over to the Autoblog Blog.
Rumour has it that those insane Wii hackers have gotten around that incredible security that Nintendo had placed on the D2C series of Wii. Actel have even made a Modchip that gives you the ability to play GameCube games, Wii backups and may even be compatible with the WiiKey.
Currently the Modchip is compatible with around 80% of region protected games, without any problems, but there is an issue. The issue is, that this install isn’t for the light hearted, with micro-soldering of 30 wires to the Wii system board, meaning things are going to be messy (imagine dismantling a bomb, but with more then lives at stake).
The chip will be available very soon and will sell for a price of $US53.
For more info, swim over to the QJ.Net Wii Site.
Target, one of the biggest retail chains in the world, have announced the unique Apple Shuffle pink. It is the same as the other Shuffles, except it is pink and comes with an iTunes gift card at no extra cost. Why are they doing this? Target are raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, saying they will give up to $25,000 to help the cause. Thank you Apple and Target for saving breasts everywhere.
For more info, shuffle over to the Crave Blog.
JVC Australia announced on the 24Th of this month (September for people who don’t get out much) 2 brand spanking new True HD LCD’s. The 2 flavours are LT-46FZD7 which is a 46-inch and the smaller LT-42FZD7 being a 42-inch.
Both screen include a DVB-T Tuner, with the best part being their resolutions of 1920 x1080. Other features include a response of 10ms, viewing angle of 178/178 (degrees), brightness of 500cd/m2, Picture-In-Picture (PIP), 2 x 10w inbuilt speakers and 2 HDMI inputs. One thing I question, that hopefully one of my faithful readers (sorry I should have said my 1 faithful reader) can answer is why only a contrast ratio of 1:1500? Doesn’t the new ViewSonic’s have a 1:2000?
They are set for an October release and priced at $AU4399 for the LT-46FZD7 and $AU3599 for the LT-42FZD7. If the nice people at JVC get this and feel like sending me a free one (either is good), I will accept willingly.
For more info, click over to the JVC Australia Website.
Hot on the heals of the new of the Dell XPS SLi notebook, we have the news of the two new Toshiba X205 notebooks. There are 2 models on the table currently, with X205-SLI1 and X205-SLI3 both running dual Nvidia 8600M GT’s (a little less powerful then the 8700’s in the Dell).
As well as the dual video card goodness you also get a Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (SLi1) to T7500 (SLi3), 2GB DDR2 RAM, 17-inch WXGA+ (SLi1) or WSXGA+ (SLi3), 240GB to 320GB, HD DVD-ROM/DVD SuperMulti, Bluetooth® V2.0 + EDR, wireless 802.11a/g/n and HDMI output port. All this can be your for between $US1999 and $US2499, making it cheaper then the Dell as well.
This is a definate desktop replacement, weighing in at a heavy 9.37 lbs. You won’t be carrying this guy very far, unless you are Heman. Unfortunately they still have that stupid numpad that makes the keyboard tiny. If you are still interested, then you can already order it from the Toshiba website.
For direct links to the notebooks, click here for the SL1 and here for the SL3.
In relation to the last short article, the funny guys at Gizmodo have done a quick review of the iPhone with the 1.1.1 firmware upgrade. It is funny to see that Apple have added 1 feature and a bunch of little fixes, but have taken away 13+ great features such as ebook support and instant messenger.
For more info, dive over to the Gizmodo Blog.
Well it looks like they did it. First Sony did it with the PSP with the constant firmware upgrades to fight Hax0rs (hackers), and now Apple have released firmware which takes away a lot of features and adds very little, in the hope that it will be enough to get people to upgrade. The problem is, is they added a feature that most hackers wouldn’t want anyway. The 1.1.1 firmware adds the wireless Apple music store, which lets people buy music on the go. If you are a hacker you would probably just torrent all your music anyway, so who cares about that feature. Give them something they want Apple!
For more info, well you can look at any tech blog on the tech, but I recommend Gizmodo’s Blog.
We all knew it was going to happen soon enough, but what exactly is going to change? Well rumor has it that it is simply a smaller drive size of 40GB instead of the better 80GB. Another rumor says that this could be the model to compete with Xbox 360 and the Wii, aimed at the lower price and may even do away with the Blu-ray. I don’t see this as a reality. Consider the price drops of HDDs that constantly happen, and consider the fact that Sony loves their Blu-ray. There is definitely a new model coming and I will give you an update when I get a rumor that makes sense.
For more rumors, criss cross over to the The Register Website.
The current internet tablet from Nokia, the N800, is actually a pretty cool device. If it was a little smaller and a little cheaper it could quite possibly compete with the iPhone. Well it seems Nokia have found a different way to compete, and that is to add features. New features will include WiMAX and GPS. Hopefully it will get a sweet price point as well, because god only knows I need a new gadget.
Click over to the NaviGadget Blog for more info.