SlashGear Week In Review - Week 38 2010
Welcome to this week's edition of the Week in Review! Early in the week Fujifilm unveiled a cool new hybrid viewfinder digital camera called the X100. The little digital camera has a 13.2-megapixel sensor and retro style that looks really nice. Some details on HTC's Android tablet surfaced early in the week. Those details point to a price of $790 and Tegra 2 for the brains of the device. That tablet will be a hard sale at that price I think.
The geeks at iFixit have taken the new PlayStation Move controllers and torn them down. Inside the black case are some parts that can be replaced easily like the battery and vibration motor while others are permanently attached to the board inside. A sweet gaming mod turned up early in the week that has 11 different consoles, a projector and other gear crammed inside a replica of R2D2. The thing has a GameCube, N64, NES, SNES, Atari 7800, PSP, DreamCast and other consoles inside.
We reviewed the Clearwire Rover Puck Monday and while it is cool in a 4G area, travel outside that area and you get squat. The thing doesn't support 3G networks as a way to cut the price of the device. A report from an analyst surfaced that points to a new iPad coming in 2011 with a smaller 7-inch screen and a pair of cameras. Presumably, those cameras would be for FaceTime and shooting photos.
Rumors surfaced that ARM might be acquired by Apple. ARM came back and called those rumors "complete nonsensical" though it wouldn't be the first time something was denied outright and then turned out to be true. Leica unveiled its sweet M9 limited edition Titanium digital camera. The thing gets a titanium case and a few other new features.
Headcase unveiled the coolest case ever for the iPad called the Etch A Sketch Case. The case makes your iPad look just like an Etch A Sketch; all it needs is an app for actually drawing and a couple white knobs that actually work. Panasonic unveiled a 3D lens that will be launching soon that allows any micro four-thirds G-series camera to shoot 3D images.
Sony officially launched the 3.50 firmware update for the PS3 that brings support for Blu-ray 3D flicks. The update adds little else to the mix. Scosche freedomMIC for the Flip line of camcorders. The mic has a wireless section that attaches to your lapel.
We reviewed the Mac Pro for 2010 and the unit we got hands on with is a mid-range machine. We liked the machine and it did well running Windows 7 in Boot Camp as well. AT&T has said that it isn't worried about losing customers if the iPhone goes to Verizon. I still say they might not loose current customers because of contracts, but new iPhone customers may migrate to Verizon instead.
Quirky unveiled a cool new backpack that charges your gadgets with its own internal battery called the Trek Support. It can charge three gadgets at one time that use USB ports and is up for pre-order for $130. ThinkGeek unveiled a new pizza cutter that looks like the Enterprise NCC-1701 from Star Trek. It's the geekiest and coolest pizza cutter in the history of pizza.
An analyst has cited sources that claim the iPhone 4 for Verizon will go into production in December. This is great news for Verizon fans and hopefully it proves to be true. Kensington unveiled a cool new iPad case called the KeyFolio that has a keyboard inside. The keyboard connects to the iPad using Bluetooth and has rubber keys to keep from scratching the screen of the iPad.
A tip points to a couple new INQ Mobile Facebook phones in 2011. The phones could potentially be on AT&T in the July or August time frame of 2011.
ThinkGeek pulled the wraps off a new iPhone case that adds a keyboard to your iPhone called the TK-421. The Bluetooth keyboard lets you type all you want with real keys and versions are available for the 3GS and iPhone 4. Marvell has unveiled a cool tri-core processor for smartphones and tablets. The processor is the Armada 628 and has a single low power 624MHz core for the functions of the smartphone or tablet and two faster 1.5GHz cores for other tasks.
The WeTab tablet has gone on sale and landed in its own video unboxing. The thing sells for €449 for a 16GB version and has some nice specs. SteelSeries has unveiled a new keyboard called the Shift that has interchangeable key sets. This is the latest version of that old Ideazon Zboard that SteelSeries snapped up a while back.
The iPhone, iPad, and iPod were all turned into cool DIY walking robots. The bots are complete with an animated screen with eyes that flick back and forth. A geek has created the most awesome costume in the history of Halloween. The costume is a full size version of the power loader from the Aliens flick.
A concept mobile phone from Mozilla called the Seabird surfaced late in the week. The coolest feature is the multi-angle pico projectors inside the thing. The Notion Ink Adam tablet may launch in several colors when it hits the market. The thing has a camera with extra swivel range for easier photo taking among other nice features.
The iPhone 4 may well be on the way to the Verizon network, but will Verizon accept Apple's contract terms? The thought is that the iPhone on Verizon may risk the Android market it has carved out for itself. Thanks for reading this week's edition! See you next week!