SlashGear Week In Review – Week 36 2009

Did't I just finish writing a week in review? That time again already? Ok, so here we go! Asus' Eee netbook roadmap leaked this week showing us some of the new machines Asus has up its sleeves and tipping us off on the netbooks already on the market that will be going extinct soon. SanDisk got all official and stuff with a new low-end MP3 player called the Sansa Clip+. The thing gains a microSD card slot to accommodate that big bag of fail known as slotMusic.

We announced Monday that we would be at the September 9 Apple press event and live blogging the whole works. We expect to see the iPods with cameras that go along with all those cases we have been seeing. Olympus whipped out a new entry level DSLR camera called the E-600 selling for a bit under $600 with a kit lens. If a new DSLR is on your holiday shopping list, it is worth a look.

Sprint has announced that it will be getting that sweet HTC Touch Pro 2 on September 8. The catch is that the phone is outright expensive at $349.99 after a $100 rebate. Remember that cool black Nintendo Wii that tipped up overseas and gamers in America were denied? Well you can't get the black Wii, but you can get a black remote, nunchuk, and Motion Plus accessory soon.

I like me some Rock Band, but I won't sing. We found out this week that Rock Band is making a push to replace karaoke in bars and hopefully Mexican restaurants. Parrot unveiled a new RKi8400 car radio this week that offers full support for the iPhone and even has a storage cubby for the phone behind the faceplate. The only rub is there is no CD player, and the fact that it is a single DIN design. Every car I have owned for the last 5 or 6 years has a double DIN stereo.

Canon officially debuted its feature packed EOS 7D DSLR this week and priced the beast at $1700 for the body only. That much loot gets you tons of EOS firsts though. Google announced this week that it had worked out a deal with Sony to include its Chrome browser on Vaio notebooks. I would have been more interested if it was Firefox being bundled.

Samsung announced a new point-and-shoot camera called the WB5000 that has a whopping 24x zoom and the ability to record 720p video. This may be the perfect point-and-shoot for stalker types trying to avoid that 100-foot restraining order limitation. Twas week of the camera this week and Panasonic unveiled its latest Lumix GF1 camera with interchangeable lenses and such. The cam uses the micro four-thirds system and is sort of like a DSLR but not.

SMK-Link unveiled a universal remote this week that will work the PS3 and your other components. Unlike the Harmony work around that needs a separate device to work the PS3, the SMK-Link remote appears to have Bluetooth built-in. Nintendo announced this week that it was making the Internet Channel free and offering a free game download to those that previously paid for it.

Nokia priced its Booklet 3G netbook this week and the thing is expected to cost around $799 before any subsidies. I'm not sure what Nokia is thinking with that price, there are very similar machines for much less than that amount and I expect people to stay away in droves. We were at Nokia World this week wading through the throngs of Nokia devices and fondling many of them for your amusement.

I really like 3D movies at the theater and if we can get them at home with the same quality, I will be all over it. The Blu-ray Disc Association talked a bit about 3D Blu-ray this week promising it would deliver 1080p to each eye and ensure the 3D discs had the 2D version of the film as well. Palm is set to offer its Q1 fiscal 2010 earnings on September 17. Perhaps it will finally tell us how well it is doing with the Pre, I expect things to get a positive spin, but be bad at the core.

We found out this week that once the Zune HD hits the market all other Zune models will be discontinued. That will mean only one Zune model will be offered. Those not wanting a touch screen PMP will not be buying Microsoft products going forward. Sony Ericsson announced a new mobile phone called the Aino due on October that promises to be able to control your PS3. I guess that makes sense considering the Aino looks a lot like a remote control to me anyway.

Logitech debuted a new lower cost universal remote called the Harmony 700 Thursday. The remote sells for $149.99 and lacks the touchscreen that makes the other Harmony remotes like the Harmony One cost more. T-Mobile in the UK announced that it would be getting a Huawei Pulse Android smartphone for pre-pay customers. UK Android fans not wanting a contract should be very excited.

The Nokia N900 handset went up for preorder for $700. Ouch! The good news is that you get a free Bluetooth headset with it for that much coin. A study was released this week that found the incidence of the infamous RROD failure for the Xbox 360 was dropping significantly. The console has a failure rate of over 50%.

Fujitsu announced a new SFF computer this week called the Esprimo Q1500 that looked like a plain nettop until you read the spec sheet. The tiny PC was crammed with real desktop hardware and still sipped power. You have probably heard that Toshiba is jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon after wallowing in its HD DVD defeate for a long time. The company showed us some pics of its Blu-ray player and says it is coming to market soon.

Samsung announced that it plans to have OLED screens in laptops by the end of 2010. I can only hope by that point it is cheap enough to make OLED panels that the screen alone doesn't add $1000 to the price of the notebook. Friday we found out that Sony plans to enable 3D mode in the PS3 for all existing PS3 games in 2010. That will be awesome, assuming the games actually look good. Friday market the wrap up to our coverage of Nokia World 2009. Hit this link for the low down on what we saw at the show.