SlashGear Week In Review - Week 49 2009
It's been a long week here at SlashGear with the build up to Christmas and Cyber Monday shopping and deals. We learned this week that the DoD had ordered 2,200 PS3 consoles to beef up their PS3 powered super computer. The PS3's are cheaper than buying the Cell processors themselves it seems.
The AT&T LG eXpo with a detachable pico projector turned up early in the week. The projector adds considerably to the bulk of the phone but we really like the idea. The Blackberry Pearl 9100 has shown up in a video demo. The device hasn't been launched yet so exactly how the guy making the vid got hands on the phone is unknown.
Bad news for fans of the CrunchPad was announced this week with the device getting axed amid threats of lawsuits. The team behind the CrunchPad is at odds with each other and apparently the slick little tablet won't see the light of day. The Zii Trinity 3.5G smartphone platform was unveiled. The platform can use Android or Plaszma OS' and is packed with cool features.
The Barnes & Noble Nook eReader is having a growing issue with supply. Orders for the device have now been delayed until January 11. It seems few people will actually find one of these under their Christmas tree this year. If you are a fan of Steampunk you will get a kick at of the Chumbophone. The gadget is a mix of some Chumby guts crammed into an old school looking phone case.
Psystar and Apple have come to a bit of a legal agreement over the copyright issues. Psystar and Apple put a legal deal in place that will have Psystar stopping the sales of Mac clones. The catch is the agreement only goes into play if Psystar'sappeals are denied. Nokia filed suit against several of the world's largest LCD makers this week alleging price fixing in the industry. Several of the firms named in the suit pled guilty to price fixing in the PC LCD industry so this suit may have legs.
A new Android 2.1 ROM with HTC Sense UI leaked this week. The ROM is available online and is the Hero 2.1 Eclair ROM over at xda-developers. Some shots of the HTC Rome handset leaked this week and the device looks nice. No real details came along with the leaked photos but it does have the ExtUSB connector suggesting it may be older tech.
I really liked the Bioshock video game and thought the creepiest of all the characters were the Big Daddy things that roamed with the little creepy girls. If you want the coolest costume ever for Halloween next year a Big Daddy costume was up for sale on eBay this week for $840 last we checked. The cool Asus ROG Maximus III Extreme mainboard offers remote overclocking. The cool part is that the remote overclocking can be done via a Bluetooth mobile phone.
A video hands on with the Entourage eDGe dual-screen eReader turned up this week. The thing runs Android for the OS and looks big, but pretty cool. Acer is set to launch a Google Chrome OS netbook for later in 2010 according to reports. The machine is rumored to be coming in H2 2010.
Intel released a new firmware for its X25-M and X18-M SSDs this week that fixes TRIM support for Windows 7. Now you can upgrade without killing the Windows 7 OS on your computer. The courts ruled that the sales injunction of the Barnes & Noble Nook that is in such short supply would not be granted as requested by Spring Design. However, B&N may need to worry because the courts recognized there is a "genuine dispute" over design theft.
Nintendo has slashed production of its Wii console in the face of softening demand. I wonder how much of the decrease in demand is thanks to the lower price of the PS3 and Xbox 360. The Motorola Sholes smartphone has been one of the devices that have been rumored for months now. Things have been quiet on the rumor front for the device until new pics of the handset turned up showing it has HDMI out. Still no word on when we will actually see the handset hit market.
A very interesting rumor turned up that has Logitech making a UMD drive add-on for the PSP Go. That would be one fantastic accessory for the device if the rumor proves to be true. Details of the coming Intel Atom processor set to hit in Q1 2010 surfaced. The new chips will reportedly have a 20% reduction in power consumption, which should mean much better battery life.
The Sony PlayStation turned 15 this week, it seems like the consoles have been around forever. The PlayStation certainly helped usher in the new generation of gaming consoles. That cool and sci-fi looking Emotiv Epoc brain-reading game controller tipped up with a ship date of December 21 for $299. I would certainly want to read some reviews of the thing before I spent that kind of money.
The camera woes of the DROID have been well publicized. We learned that an OTA fix is coming late this week that will address the issue. MSI, Asus, Acer, and Lenovo all have netbooks set to launch in January running the new Atom N450 processor. The machines will all be based on the Intel Pinetrail platform.
The Asus Eee 1201N Seashell netbook has landed on Amazon for pre-order. The actual ship date for the 12.1-inch netbook is set for January 15. The Android-powered WebStation had a bit of a rough start, but the device is now available for preorder. The 7-inch touchscreen device will sell for $399 with free shipping.
Apple announced that the Mac Pro now has the option of 2TB storage and a speedy Intel 3.33GHz Xeon processor. That beastly CPU option adds $1,200 to the price of the machine alone. Late this week we learned that the CrunchPad partner Fusion Garage wants to tell its side of the story on the failed CrunchPad. This should make for an interesting read.
That's it for this week, thanks for reading!