Any Metal Gear Solid fans in our audience? I bought the first game in the popular stealth action franchise around the same time I got my PlayStation, but I never did finish it. Getting anxiety from sneaking around, and constantly getting spotted (!) probably had something to do with that. I still admire the series from a distance however, and have tried my best to keep up with the multiple, and often twisted story arcs. Next month the next installment, titled “Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker”, arrives on the PSP, and Sony is pulling out all the stops to market it. They’ve created a Limited Edition W-250 series Walkman featuring a camouflage design. They’re also throwing in the game’s soundtrack, and a code that unlocks “hidden characters with special Walkman apparel.” The “Metal Gear Solid Walkman” is available to pre-order at Sony Style for $59.99, the same price as the regular models.
Samsung has a new player on the horizon called the YP-RB. It’s new only in name, as it looks nearly identical to last year’s YP-R0 (aka R’Play). Just about every spec is the same except one. The RB boasts double the battery life of the R0, getting an estimated 60 hours of playback on a single charge. YP-RB Specs
Capacity: 4, 8, and 16GB plus microSD expansion
Display: 3.0″ Touchscreen (400 x 200)
Audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, and FLAC
Video: AVI, Divx, Xvid, WMV, MPEG-4, and H.264
FM Tuner/Voice Recorder/DMB-TV (in Korea)
Battery Life: 60 hours for Audio, 10 hours for Video
Dimensions: 52.4 x 101.2 x 11.4 mm
The YP-RB will hit stores in Korea this Summer. No word on pricing or a worldwide release.
Samsung has a new player on the horizon called the YP-RB. It’s new only in name, as it looks nearly identical to last year’s YP-R0 (aka R’Play). Just about every spec is the same except one. The RB boasts double the battery life of the R0, getting an estimated 60 hours of playback on a single charge. YP-RB Specs
Capacity: 4, 8, and 16GB plus microSD expansion
Display: 3.0″ Touchscreen (400 x 200)
Audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, and FLAC
Video: AVI, Divx, Xvid, WMV, MPEG-4, and H.264
FM Tuner/Voice Recorder/DMB-TV (in Korea)
Battery Life: 60 hours for Audio, 10 hours for Video
Dimensions: 52.4 x 101.2 x 11.4 mm
The YP-RB will hit stores in Korea this Summer. No word on pricing or a worldwide release.
Sony just added a new pair of earbuds to their lineup, and I can safely say, they’re unlike anything I’ve seen before. Called the “Qlasp”, they have a clip-on design that attaches to your earlobe. If that wasn’t “different” enough for you, they also come in some funky color combination. The new pair seems tailor-made for the punk skater boi demographic, though I am curious to try them out myself.
Blink and this deal will probably be gone. Sony Style is selling an 8GB E340 series Walkman (refurbished) for $39.99 and Free Shipping. The player has been coming in and out of stock the least few days, so don’t give up hope if it says it’s sold out. The E340 series has a 2.0″ display, support for MP3, WMA, AAC, H.264, WMV, and MPEG-4, an FM tuner, and an estimated 30 hours of battery life.
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference commences on June 7th. Will that be the day we finally see the rumored 4th generation iPhone? Oh wait, we already saw it. Thanks Gizmodo! In all seriousness, I’m wondering how Steve Jobs will present the phone. So much of his keynote presentation is built upon hype. Jobs talks about every new product like it’s the greatest invention in the world. Line after line, he tells everyone what they’re missing, and what he’s going to do to solve it. The anticipation builds until Steve pulls the device out of his jeans pocket, to a mix of applause and frenzied shutter noises. Everything usually goes his way, but not this time around.
The last time I recall something like this happening was with the Sony PSP Go. Sony accidentally leaked the product weeks before the start of E3, gaming’s biggest expo. It was obviously going to be a major part of their presentation, but because of the leak, the unveiling was rather low-key, and somewhat awkward. The iPhone is a much bigger product launch of course, and Jobs is a master when it comes to keynote deliveries, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he handles the leak on stage.
WWDC isn’t just about the iPhone. It’s a great expo to learn about emerging technology, and software that Apple and others are working on. It’ll take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from June 7th -11th.
Here’s a cool concept that’s bound to become a reality one of these days. Designers from the ”Metatrend Institute” have created a novel way of showing off your musical, as well as personal tastes. The concept, simply called “transparent OLED Headphones”, allows the user to customize the OLED headband with any visualization of their choice. The flexible display can show album art, track info, or any message you want to share with the world. It even has a “rhythm sync” mode allowing the headband to change colors based on the type of music being played.
This headphone concept is just one offshoot of the upcoming flexible OLED trend that we’ll see in the future. The technology is certainly there to create these types of wearable displays, the only hurdle right now is cost. Once prices come down for flexible OLED’s, we can all fulfill our wishes of becoming human touchscreens..err..maybe that’s just my wish.
What are the odds of a missing iPhone 4G prototype landing in the hands of Gizmodo editors? I mean, it’d have to be on par with a missing U.S. nuke falling into Kim Jong Il’s lap no? Not that I’m saying the folks at Gizmodo are fascist dictators who want to take over the world or anything, but it’s certainly an odd coincidence that something so coveted in the tech world would find its way to tech bloggers. However Giz got the device, it is indeed the real thing from the looks of it.
The iPhone receives a long overdue makeover. It’s thinner, has sharper edges,and an aluminum border around the entire phone. New additions include a front-facing camera, improved rear camera with flash, a micro-SIM card slot, dedicated volume buttons, and supposedly a higher resolution display. The internal battery appears to be bigger as well.
Here’s a hands-on from Jason Chen showing off some of the new additions to the rumored Apple iPhone 4G
I’m sure Gizmodo’s inbox is chock full of cease and desist emletters from Apple’s lawyers. Speaking of, does finders keepers, losers weepers hold any weight in our legal system? Anyway, we still have to classify this as a rumor, but I’d put money on this being the iPhone 4G. We’ll update you with any juicy tidbits as they come in.
One look at last year’s W-series, and it was clear Sony designed it with runners in mind, or so you’d think. The wearable Walkman, which packed a DAP into a pair of earphones, had well-documented issues with moisture. Sweat too much, and the device could malfunction on you. Sony’s only option at the time was to put out a voluntary recall for select models, but now they have a more permanent solution. The newly announced W250 series looks nearly identical to the original, but this time they made sure to make it water-resistant. It has a waterproof rating of “IPx5″, which is 4th highest according to a random site I just googled.
Features are just about the same as last time too. It comes with 2GB’s of storage, supports MP3, WMA, and AAC, and will playback for approximately 11 hours on a single charge. It’s already on sale at Sony Style for $59.99
Sony has also refreshed their B-series. The B150 series has a built-in USB plug, supports for MP3, and WMA, an FM tuner and recorder, and provides an has an estimated battery life of 18. It’ll be released in June with meager capacities of 2 and 4GB’s, and a range of colors to choose from. Pricing info has not been announced yet.
Some may have forgotten, but the Creative ZEN was actually the first 32GB flash player released. I thought it was a bold move at the time, considering the financial woes of the Singapore company. Despite their continued struggles, Creative has announced a 64GB model for the ZEN X-Fi2. They’re not the first to reach that capacity this time around, but better late than never I say. The 64GB X-Fi2 is available for S$399 Singapore dollars, or about $287US.
