Gadgets Technologies

Harmonix announced that the 1st album will be Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance. Sweet. This is the 1st in hopefully what will be many albums that they release. If you’re into NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal), then you’ll love the choice. IMHO (my opinion only, so no need to argue), this is one of the best Priest albums. Next up, Def Lep’s Pyromania, or Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast? I feel that if Rock Band is to have some sort of lasting future, that this is exactly what they need to continue doing, but of course they also need to release lots and lots of singles, especially current and new ones to add to the variety and excitement. (Read the full post about ‘Rock Band’s first album, Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance’…)

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The folks at Microsoft is prepping the Joy Division edition of its Zune portable media player to coincide with the June 10 release of an eponymous DVD about the band. This special edition Zune will boast an adaptation of the cover art from the band’s 1979 debut called Unknown Pleasures, where artist Peter Saville created using a graph of one hundred pulses from pulsar CP 1919. There is no official images of the Joy Division Zune at this point on time, but what you see above is a semblance of the original pattern. I wonder whether this version will sell well though, after all - it is a Zune. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft readies Joy Division edition of Zune’…)

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Dell has made a second major push into China in an attempt to bolster sales and regain the top spot in worldwide PC shipments.

The company already has an established presence there after starting to sell machines at the Gome chain of stores last year. That commitment saw Dell’s machines sold in 450 stores. With this new push, 900 Gome stores will now stock their machines alongside a new deal with China’s second largest electronics retailer, Suning.

The electronics stores including Gome and Suning are just one half of the PC retail sector in China. The other is PC malls bringing together many retailers in what looks more like a trade show than a marketplace.

(Read the full post about ‘Dell turns to China for sales expansion’…)

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The Chinese video of an RC car playing the theme from Super Mario Bros. on a long row of bottles has been met with countless accolades and much amazement this week; Gadget Lab blogger Charlie Sorrel posted the video earlier today. It was only a matter of time, then, that someone stood up and cried "Fake!" Akihabara News questions the validity of the video, noting out-of-sync audio, and is even running a "Fake or Not?" poll that currently has 67 percent of an undisclosed number of voters proclaiming the performance to be of the Milli Vanilli variety. Take another look at the video (or a first look if you’ve spent the week crawling out of a cave) and let us know what you think. (Read the full post about ‘Is RC Car Playing Mario Theme Song A Hoax?’…)

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Iomega Corporation isn’t just about office devices only, as the company has recently rolled out the Iomega Media Xporter Drive which targets console gamers. This game-oriented portable hard drive offers cross-platform media storage for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, making it a snap to use both popular game consoles of today, along with the capability of hooking up to high definition televisions and other large screen TVs to share photos, videos, and music collections with family and friends. The wallet-sized USB-powered 160GB Media Xporter Drive utilizes the USB 2.0 ports on the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 to give gaming enthusiasts a convenient new way to enjoy music, digital movies, and photos through the family game console, without the need of a PC or digital media adapter. (Read the full post about ‘Iomega Media Xporter Drive’…)

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It may sound like something from the future or the movies, but Japanese company Cyberdyne Inc. has developed a wearable robotic suit to aid those of us with weak limbs or disabilities. The suit is called Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) and has been around in concept and model form for a while, but Cyberdyne is now going into production. Up to 500 of the suits will be manufactured every year in Japan from October with customers ranging from clinics to general consumers. The suit works by detecting the electrical signals sent from the brain when an individual wants to move. Sensors placed on the arms and legs pick up these signals and process them in time to then aid the movement being attempted. (Read the full post about ‘Robotic Suit HAL to aid our movement’…)

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DP Review forums are abuzz of a new Nikon firmware update for its flagship camera, the D3. Inside the code, a forum member found references to a future D3-X model that has 24.4 megapixel for you to play with, which is more than double of what the current one offers at 12.1 megapixels. The v1.10 code had bits of code that features the string “D3X”, and I presume all D3 owners are keeping their fingers crossed that a software hack will be able to see an increase in megapixel count. Nikon is silent on this issue when approached to give a comment, and somehow I am not surprised. Ah well, I guess we will have to wait until the real deal is released. (Read the full post about ‘24.4 Megapixel Replacement for the D3?’…)

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Nokia’s N95 8GB has just received a new firmware update, hitting v20.0.016 this time round while offering a few bug fixes as well as optimizations. Some of the main changes include the inclusion of Automatic Screen Rotation thanks to the built-in accelerometer as well as support for more Bluetooth headsets. The built-in browser and WiFi connectivity also received some bug fixes, so in theory it shouldn’t crash that often any more. I must say Automatic Screen Rotation is a small touch, but a nice one to have after experiencing it on my Canon PowerShot 720iS. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia N95 Automatic Screen Rotation’…)

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File under Straws: clutching at. Not content with trying to make the internet service providers police copyrighted content moving across their networks, NBC Universal now wants iTunes to include anti-piracy tools which would apply not just to music from the iTunes Store but all media in your library, including music you have ripped yourself.

While NBC’s George Kliavkoff didn’t name iTunes or the ipod, do you think the highlighted parts of his statement could refer to anything else?

If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures.

This is part of NBC’s plan to get its TV shows back on iTunes so it can sell more than two or three downloads a month.

(Read the full post about ‘NBC Wants iTunes To Spy On All The Media You Own’…)

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HP’s upcoming iPAQ 900 series smartphones has managed to arrive in the hands of the FCC, and that indicates in all probability a (near) future release of the smartphone in the US. No idea on which carrier will win the favor of offering this handset, but AT&T is a pretty safe bet. I wonder whether all the previous delays of this smartphone’s release will affect sales, since the specifications will surely be less modern compared to a few months’ back. (Read the full post about ‘FCC unveils HP iPAQ 900 Series’…)

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