Last year I reviewed JVC’s pocket camcorder, Picsio, while I liked the overall experience it needed a lot of work. Today JVC has announced two new pocket camcorders, the GC-FM2 and the GC-WP10 (a waterproof version). Both feature Full HD video, improved low-light performance, a three-inch touch screen for easy operation and playback viewing, and compatibility with Eye-Fi cards for Wi-Fi connectivity. Let’s hope they didn’t recess the Power Button again and include a weird HDMI port. Based solely on the Press Release, I’m optimistic about this new camera. Check out the full press release after the break.
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Tags:
Camcorders,
Cool Tech,
JVC
HP is changing it’s public image, they want to move away from being known as a maker of staid, boring laptops to creating the new hotness that laptop buyers are looking for. In May the company updated their entire laptop design to be leaner, meaner, sleeker and affordable. Last week they sent me one of their newly designed Pavilion lappies and I have to say, on first blush the machine is impressive and comes at a very reasonable price. The configuration they sent for testing retails for under $800 and features a hefty AMD Quad Core Processor.
I’m one of the people AMD is targeting with their new marketing message of “What can a laptop do vs. the Specs.” I’m through with the processor race, who can tell the benefits of one of Intel’s many chips Vs. AMD? All I want to know is can the PC Laptop I buy handle video production, be thin, light, have a large hard drive and do more than 4 hours battery powered of computing. In my initial testing the new HP DV6 is more than capable of meeting my needs, although it fails in two critical areas – pitiful Hard Drive size (320) and battery life (under 3 1/2 hours). This of course is the stock model, you can configure it just about however you want for an additional cost. “It is designed for families and students. Someone who wants performance and capabilities, we’re able to give you a nice quad core processor. AMD keeps on working on improving their processors; they have better power management and enabled us to put multi-core processors into mainstream notebooks” said Kevin Wentzel, HP Product Manager.
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Grade: B
Tags:
Cool Tech,
HP,
Laptops
A few weeks ago EA Games slashed the prices on a bunch of their classic games including The Game of Life, Clue and Battleship to .99. Battleship is a blast to play (bad pun intended). It’s addictive fun; one minute turns into an hour. The game matches last quite awhile, an average of 10 minutes or more (with the cut scenes) and it doesn’t remember the last position when you quit, so you are forced to play until the match is over. On the one hand it’s a flawless mobile game experience, but the match length means you have to be in a place where you can devote the time to finish a round. There are neat little RPG elements that let you level up your character and rank, doing this unlock new weapons you can use in the Super Weapon mode.
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Grade: B
Tags:
Apple,
Cool Tech,
iPhone,
iPhone Games
Ok, it’s official I DESPISE Apple. I just landed this interesting new gig reviewing iPhone games for another news organization and think I can be impartial because hey, I do love my iPod Touch, I’ve never had a problem with that device, but every other Apple Product gives me FITS. My iPad will not stay connected to my home network so I cannot use it to surf the net while in bed defeating the whole point of having it. I keep holding out hope for the promised fix, but it’s been 3 months already! Last week I updated all of my devices to iOS and nothing but issues. My iPhone 3G now crashes apps a lot, drops calls, is slow as heck and Safari doesn’t seem to work on a lot of different web pages now.
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Tags:
Apple,
Cool Tech
Is it just me? I can’t seem to get excited about the new iPhone. ATT’s recent moves have killed the ability to actually get full use out of the rumored new features – like video chat, tethering, and multitasking to those who buy into ATT’s company line about how you’ll never reach 2GB – imagine driving to and from New York (8 hrs total), with a GPS App running and Pandora playing in the background that will eat up most of your 2GB cap. About the only thing we don’t know about the new iPhone is the price. I’m sure the version I would want would be $499 ON CONTRACT, which is why I didn’t get the 32 GB 3GS because AT&T charged current customers MORE to upgrade to the new phone than non customers. My iPhone 3G won’t even qualify for the 4.0 software update and lately I’ve been forced to use my iPhone as a phone and it’s horrible, I’m ready to cancel my ATT account and be happy with my iPod Touch. ATT is just such a scummy company. T-Mobile is the only Cell Phone company that I like, but they don’t have any good phones – the HD2 looks awesome, but you can’t upgrade to Win Phone 7 in the fall. Anyway, Steve Jobs is giving his WWDC Keynote today at 1pm EST. I recommend Engadget.com for your live, breathless, “oh my god this is awesome!” coverage. I’ll post a recap of the announcements this afternoon.
Tags:
Apple,
Cool Tech,
Steve Jobs
Many reported issues with their iPad 3Gs over the weekend. Everything from slow and spotty connections to not being able to play some plugins that use video – the ABC App won’t play at all, YouTube and Netflix being downsampled into oblivion. I don’t know why I expected anything different from AT&T. I know my iPhone is unusable outside of DC and in DC about the only thing I can do with AT&T slow 3G service is check my email, I hate using the iPhone’s web browser, so I rarely do. So now I’m torn as to whether or not to even get the 3G Version. I really want to launch a new iPad site, but to do it I have to get a device I simply don’t like. I rediscovered the joy of using my Macbook in bed this weekend.
Tags:
Apple,
AT&T,
Cool Tech,
iPad
Adobe started shipping their latest and greatest collection of way overpriced apps today, Adobe CS5. I’ve been playing with an early release of this the last few days and will hopefully have a full review next week. I’m particularly interested in playing with the Flash to Apple Tool and seeing if I can get an app approved in the App store to see how strict Apple’s new ban will be. I’m also interested in playing with the new eBook tools. The Creative Suite 5 line-up includes five new versions: Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5 Web Premium, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium, Creative Suite 5 Design Standard, as well as 15 point products and associated technologies. Creative Suite now includes a brand-new component, Adobe Flash® Catalyst™, a professional interaction design tool that allows designers to rapidly create expressive Web application interfaces and design interaction without writing code. The full press release is after the break.
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Tags:
Adobe,
Cool Tech
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