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Archive for September, 2007

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New Sidekicks from T-Mobile and a contest

September 26th, 2007, 12:00 am by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

More contests…
T-Mobile’s Sidekick LXT-Mobile Sidekick Slide

People I know with Sidekick cell phones really love their phone. Big QWERTY keyboard. A nice screen… So, good news for you all and anyone who wants to join in on the fun. T-Mobile is offering new models, the Sidekick LX and the Sidekick Slide.

The Sidekick LX ($299 with a 2-year contract) has a screen that uses Sharp Electronics’ high-definition Aquos LCD technology. Plus, it has a 1/3-megapixel camera with flash, mood lights and ships with a 128 MB memory card. Two colors: midnight blue and espresso brown. Available on Oct. 24.

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Posted in: Cell phones | Post a Comment »

What happens when Xtreme athletes visit Irvine

September 25th, 2007, 10:15 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

When Boost Mobile invited me to meet some X Games athletes at its Irvine headquarters, I should have known it wouldn’t be just a meet a greet. I couldn’t make it, but fortunately an OC Register videographer stopped by and shot some great footage.

Check it out:

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Brightcove video.


This is part of the Boost Mobile Freestyle MotoX Tour, a national demo tour that travels the country and features a rotating rider roster. This stop includes Boost team riders - X Games Gold Medalists Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg, Jeff Kargola (aka Ox), Derek Garland and Jeremy Lusk. Sorry I missed it!

Posted in: Cell phones • • • | Post a Comment »

Lots of new laptops from Toshiba

September 25th, 2007, 3:12 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Big day for Irvine’s Toshiba America. New projectors, new music players and now new laptops.

The HD series

Toshiba QosmioQosmio G45, Qosmio F45, Satellite X205, Satellite P205 and Satellite A205 — count them up, five altogether. All have HD DVD drives.

The Qosmio G45-AV680, in particular, will set you back $3,200. But you get and HD DVD recorder, built-in HD TV tuner, 17-inch screen, four high-fidelity Harman Kardon Bass Reflex speakers and subwoofer, plus Intel Centrino Duo processor, WiFi (including the new draft-n technology), 320 GB hard drives and NVIDIA’s new GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB of VRAM graphics. More DETAILS.

Toshiba laptop with AMDAMD computers

  • Satellite P205D-S7479 — A desktop replacement, meaning it’s hefty with a 17-inch screen. Also, a AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core chip, 2 GBs memory, 250 GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, web cam… More DETAILS. Price: $1,350
  • Satellite P205D-S7438 — Also a desktop replacement with a 17-inch screen. Has the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55. More DETAILS.

Toshiba’s new gaming computerGaming machines

  • Satellite X205-SLI: Features dual NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics chips with combined 512MB of dedicated video RAM. To support the launch of this notebook, Toshiba is hosting a Gears of War tournament in New York. Notebook starts at $2,000. More DETAILS.
  • Satellite X205-SLI3: Also has the dual NVIDIA chip plus a external HDTV tuner (connects via USB) and HDMI output. Price: $2,500. More DETAILS.

Posted in: Computers • | Post a Comment »

New gigabeat music players from Toshiba

September 25th, 2007, 2:16 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Toshiba’s gigabeat T400Toshiba unveiled some new music players today that will compete with probably anything that isn’t an iPod.

The gigabeat T400 runs on flash memory so it only has 4 GB of storage (that’s 1,000 songs at 4-megabytes a song). But it does have a 2.4-inch color screen for photo slide shows and videos — up to 5 hours on a single battery, says Toshiba.

And it features H2C, a high-end audio enhancement that improves the quality of compressed digital music. This appears to be a Toshiba technology — I’m waiting for more details on this.

This is a very Microsoft-heavy gadget, playing MP3, WMA, WAV, WMA Lossless and WMV files.

Comes in a dark magnesium case with trim in three colors: blue, pink and orange. Includes matching headphones. Price: $120 and available at toshibadirect.com.

Toshiba’s gigabeat T400

And if you have an old gigabeat, trade up and get cash back from Toshiba’s recycling program. Details HERE.

Posted in: Music • | Post a Comment »

Halo 3 wrap up

September 25th, 2007, 8:18 am by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

More Halo 3 coverage

If you missed today’s paper, here’s what happened last night:

+ Halo 3 goes on sale. See photos of Orange County fans.

+ About 100 people waited in line at the Best Buy in Fullerton. Watch the VIDEO

+ The business story: Halo 3 mission: Save Xbox (and the Earth)

+ Halo 3 review by Matt Degen: The ARTICLE (Halo 3 lives up to the hype) and the VIDEO

+ Earlier coverage on The Gadgetress Blog

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Toshiba adds wide-screen to short-projection projectors

September 25th, 2007, 3:00 am by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Toshiba TDP-EW25U projector

Toshiba just likes to top itself. Its new projector, the TDP-EW25U, can project a 60-inch image on a screen while a mere 2.4 feet away.

Toshiba’s “extreme short projection” technology must have really caught on with customers because it has shown up in other projectors announced this fall.

And ESP isn’t the only spec showing up as a regular feature in the new fall line of projectors. This projector can be connected to the building’s computer network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Plus there’s a USB port to plug in a thumb drive with a presentation. No need to drag along a laptop (this is heavy enough at 9.2 pounds).

New with this model: wide-screen image and compatible with Windows Vista Ultimate’s “Meeting Space,” which lets users share files remotely.

Price: $1,899 and available on Toshiba’s site.

Toshiba TDP-EW25U projector

The Toshiba TDP-EW25U projector specifications:

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Posted in: news • • | 1 Comment »

Stump: Is someone watching your every keystroke?

September 25th, 2007, 12:00 am by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Stump the GadgetressQ: I read somewhere that there is a folder or something or other in my PC that keeps track of all my keystrokes. Is this just an urban myth or is there some truth to this?

Also, when I go into the Windows folder, I see a ton of text documents that date back to around the time I first got my PC. I’m tempted to delete them, but I’m afraid to muck with them, because I don’t want to mess up my computer.

Am I just paranoid or what? ~ Jason Beltran, Garden Grove

Gadgetress: Paranoid is my first response. If Microsoft built something so sneaky into its Windows operating system, the security world would be up in arms. Or at least I hope they would.

You are probably thinking about keylogging software, which can be installed surreptitiously on a computer without the user knowing.

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Who’s in line for Halo 3?

September 24th, 2007, 4:21 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

More Halo 3 coverage
+ OC’s Halo 3 midnight openings
+ Watch Matt Degen’s video review of Halo 3
+ Matt Degen’s Halo 3 review

Halo’s Master ChiefAs of 3 p.m.-ish, there was no one in line at the Best Buy store in Fullerton waiting to be the first to buy Halo 3 at midnight tonight. I haven’t seen other news stories about the lines either.

I know there are hard-core fans out there but maybe they’re pretty confident that Microsoft has supplied enough games to retailers that the game can be had tomorrow. At a decent hour.

Still, there are quite a few stories about retailers who have pre-sold the games and are expecting long lines. And online retailers like Amazon, Costco and others have been taking pre-orders and promising speedy delivery.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow whether the launch of Halo 3 will outdo Halo 2 or whether it’s been over-hyped. Will gamers show up at Best Buy tonight to get a photo op with Master Chief? If anyone plans to stand in line tonight — or already is in line — let me know. Maybe I’ll send a photographer to the store.

Update at 5ish p.m.: Reader “Royce” let me know that about 20 people are waiting in line outside the Wal-Mart in Foothill Ranch. I wonder if they know that the store won’t start selling the games until 7 a.m. Tuesday?

Posted in: news • • | 3 Comments »

Cox cable customers in OC get NBC perks

September 24th, 2007, 2:11 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

More Halo 3 coverage from ocregister.com
Midnight OC openings for Halo 3 sales
=======================

Cox On DemandFlipping to a video-on-demand channel on your cable box still isn’t common for most consumers. But now, NBC Universal and Cox Communications have teamed up in Orange County to add more incentive.

Cox is adding certain NBC TV shows to its Cox On Demand service, which currently offers downloads of movies, some premium-channel shows and cable channel shows.

But the NBC shows are a trial only available to customers in Orange County and Palos Verdes.

Five shows will be available, including “30 Rock,” “Friday Night Lights,” “Las Vegas,” and new series “Life” and “Bionic Woman.”

This means if you miss the season premiere of 30 Rock on Oct. 4, and forgot to set your TiVo to record it, customers can go to Channel 1 and select the “MyPrimetime” category to and watch shows at their convenience.

Each episode will be available on demand the day after the show is broadcast. Viewers won’t be able to fast forward through the show or commercials, at least during the trial.

The on-demand service is available to customers who subscribe to Cox’s digital cable.

Posted in: Video & TV • • | Post a Comment »

Video review of new Halo 3 game

September 24th, 2007, 12:58 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

More Halo 3 coverage
+ OC’s Halo 3 midnight openings

You read Matt Degen’s thoughts on Halo 3, which goes on sale tonight. Now, watch his video review for scenes from the game…

Video review of Halo 3

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Boost Mobile adds its “most feature-rich” cell phone yet

September 24th, 2007, 12:34 pm by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Boost Mobile’s W385More Halo 3 coverage from ocregister.com
Is Boost Mobile becoming more and more of a traditional cell phone provider?

The Irvine company recently added an unlimited service plan, which offers unlimited calls in the home-calling area for $45 to $55 a month.

That’s a big difference from its pay-as-you-go roots. However, unlike the traditional companies, subscribers to Boost’s unlimited plan don’t have to sign any contracts.

People seem to like it. According to Boost, more than 100,000 customers have signed up for the unlimited plan since it debuted three months ago.

Unlimited plans announced yesterday and today… a sleeker phone with lots of tricks. The Motorola W385 has Bluetooth, GPS, 4x digital-zoom camera, Web access, speaker phone and voice recorder. Available in two colors: Cafe Brown and Black Slate.

Get Boost’s unlimited service plan and the new W385 phone for $130 plus activation. First month of service from the home calling area is free.

Here’s a price comparison of Boost’s pay-as-you-go plan vs. Unlimited (click image below for detailed look):

Boost Mobile’s comparison plan

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Halo 3 — first impressions and exclusive pics

September 24th, 2007, 3:00 am by Degen

Matt DegenMore Halo 3 coverage from ocregister.com Less then 24 hours from now, the video game Halo 3 goes on sale (click HERE for midnight openings in OC). But Gadgetress contributor Matt Degen managed to get a copy beforehand and played the game all weekend. Check out his review…

halo-3-limited-edition.jpg

True to Microsoft’s words, my media-review copy of Halo 3 arrived Saturday. I fetched the game from the O.C. Register headquarters, brought it back home and have been playing it for the past two days.

I’ve put in about 4 hours so far on the game, which is releasing Tuesday and is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch in history.

Considering the last version made a then record-breaking $125 million within 24 hours of launch (presales can do wonders) there is little doubt that “Halo 3″ will smash even that record.

Getting into the game

So, first thoughts…

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