iPocketWatch..

In the last few months we’ve seen more and more people repurpose their iPad Nano as a watch. This is in large part due to the influx of iPad Nano watch wrist bands that have flooded the market. Adding to the mix of choices is one young designer out of Australia named Edwin Conan.  From what we understand he has designed and built the first iPad Nano pocket watch case, called the iPocketwatch.

Although installation of the Nano isn’t detailed, it looks like you’ll need to unscrew 4 small hex screws.  A small caveat for anyone that regularly likes to use the Nano without a case, such as those that run.  But on the flip side the Nano will be secure, minimizing any chance that it might get lost while swung around from its 30cm included chain.  The casing is crafted from aircraft grade aluminum and comes in a silver or black finish, though the latter will cost you a few extra ducats.  While all the ports (headphone jack, 30-pin dock and volume keys) and clip will remain available , the touch controls that appear in the corner of the Nano won’t be reachable due to the casing, though you might be able to squeeze in a pinkie if you’ve got sticks for fingers.  However, that most certainly won’t possible if you attach the rounded version.  Yes, there are two facades included in the deal; a square one and rounded one.

HP Z1 Workstation..

All-in-one PCs are slowly replacing the desktops, and that’s because we can’t manage to find a suitably powerful laptop to replace our aging PC. HP’s latest Z1 workstation has found its place among professional machines that have all the power needed to run even the most intensive software.

Software

HP offers Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and SUSE Linux Enterprise operating systems but obviously you can install your own OS, obviously, which is the better course to take if you don’t need all the bloatware that the company has no doubt included in the package. The Z1 is a pretty expensive workstation when configured with the Xeon and Quadro, but its base configuration (which uses a Core i3-2120 processor with integrated Intel graphics, 8 GB of RAM and one hard drive) starts at $1899.

Exterior design

The computer looks very similar to all the other AIOPCs on the market, with the display being the housing for all the hardware and a single stand holding it in one place on your table. But the 27 inch display (2560×1440 pixels resolution with white LED backlight) is covered with a sheet of glass, and the back is made out of brushed aluminum. The stand provides a wide degree of freedom – the display can be lifted up and down by 10 cm, tilted backwards and forwards by 25 degrees and folded flat for easy transportation and access to the internal components. Underneath the stand, there’s a standard VESA mount, should you need to hang the display on a wall, for example.

Internal hardware

The most interesting feature is the easy access to the internal hardware and the way it’s all built and arranged. Once you fold the computer flat, you can open the housing by lifting the display just like you would a car’s hood (with a gas spring and all). Inside everything is easily accessible and neatly arranged. HP Z1 features server-class hardware and certifications, although the cheapest configuration has consumer-level hardware, which makes it attractive to home users, as well. The top configuration, however, is a real beast: you get a Xeon E3-1280 quad core processor, 32 GB of ECC DDR3 1600 MHz memory, the NVidia Quadro 4000M graphics adapter and up to three hard drives and/or SSDs, depending on what you prefer (there are 2×2.5 inch slots and 1×3.5 inch hard drive slot). That’s a lot of processing power in there. Other hardware specs include 1 PCI-Express X16 slot, 3 miniPCIe, integrated Bluetooth and LAN, a 1080p HD webcam, Blu-Ray writer, 6 USB ports, 1 Gigabit LAN port, a 6-in-1 card reader, audio out jacks and a Display Port for the second monitor (yes, sadly it doesn’t support two extra monitors).

Lenovo Multimedia Remote..

Over a year ago we cut the cable/dish around here and began using Home Theater PCs, and various extenders and it has worked out much better than I had hoped. My wife and two sons have been delighted with the selection of content available and we’re saving almost $125/month by not having DirecTV.

All went smoothly in the transition, building the HTPCs was easy, putting the Rokus, Popcorn Hour, Microsoft XBox360 and Thecus NAS on the network wasn’t a problem either. The only real issue we had was finding the right remote keyboard. I tried a slew of them and could never find one that was easy to use, small enough to fit in one hand and accomplished all the functions necessary to fully utilize the Windows 7 based PCs that were acting as the heart of our system.


Along came the Lenovo Multimedia Remote, a fan-shaped, gem with a roller-ball and qwerty-keyboard. It was almost perfect except for two things: 1. The keys weren’t back lit so it was very hard to see, and 2. There was no way to easily scroll (wheel) through web pages. Well, it appears my desires are about to met as Lenovo has introduced the Enhanced Lenovo Multimedia Remote Keyboard (N5902). The new model incorporates a scroll bar, touch pad rather than a ball, back-lit keyboard and, it appears, a little nicer overall look. It’s going to sell for $79.99 and should be shipping September 1. I promise a review as soon as I can get my paws on one.

It’s really refreshing to see a company that has listened to its customers and made changes to an already pretty-good product. I’ve included a short video highlight the keyboard and the changes that Lenovo made.

Samsung Galaxy Note Announced..

Along with the Galaxy Tab 7.7, Samsung also unveiled a new phone…err…tablet…umm…something in between, the Galaxy Note.  Samsung calls the Galaxy Note a handset, and this device comes with a gigantic 5.3-inch display! The 5.3-inch Super-AMOLED display has a disappointingly low WVGA (480×800) resolution. With a 5.3-inch display, the Note successfully manages to blur the line between a handset and a tablet.

The Note is powered by a 1.4GHz dual core processor (Exynos SoC), and packs 1GB of RAM. The handset is also pretty thin and light at just 9.65m thick, and weighing in at 178 grams. The usual Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS with A-GPS, HSPA+, microSD card slot, FM radio, 3.5mm audio jack and a bunch of sensors are all present. Being called a ‘handset’ by Sammy, the Note runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 on top of it. The back of the device sports an 8MP camera with an LED flash, and a 2MP camera resides in the front of the phone. A beefy 2500mAh battery powers the Galaxy Note. 

The highlight of the Note is the S-Pen, which comes with the Note. This pressure sensitive stylus will help Note users to easily take down notes on their handset. Samsung will also release the S-Pen SDK to developers, to that more applications can make use of this feature. With the Galaxy Note, Sammy is trying to open a new segment, residing between the handsets and tablets market. The Note will be ideal for businessmen’s and college going students, for taking down quick notes. While some people may like the Note, I highly doubt it’s going to be a major success. Nonetheless, it is still nice to see Sammy innovating, instead of just releasing run-of-the-mill Android handsets and tablets.

Top 5 gadgets you can expect to see at IFA..!!

It’s been a fairly quiet few weeks leading up to the start of September, but most of this is because of IFA, one of the biggest international trade shows for gadgets and tech. We’ve already seen a few announcements from some of the biggest manufacturers, but what else can you expect over the next few days? Join us after the break to find out.

Trade shows are the most exciting few days for new launches and the latest gadgets, and IFA is no different. Expect to see some of the most innovative products launched, along with gadgets that were leaked months ago. We’ve listed some of the top tech below.

Sony S1 and Sony S2 Out of all the tablets that we’re excited about seeing, the Sony S1 and S2 sit at the top of the list. With a choice of stand-out design or innovative dual-screen layout, the S1 and S2 tablets split opinion like no other, but they definitely look interesting. Sony has yet to reveal the full specs, however, and hopefully it will do at IFA this year.

Mango Windows Phone smartphones We’ve been waiting for the latest Mango Windows Phone handsets all year, and IFA is hopefully the location and time that we’ll see the first devices. Expect to see handsets from HTC, Samsung, LG and perhaps even more manufacturers.

HTC Puccini The HTC Puccini was rumoured ages ago, with details of the device first leaking out back in May. It seems like now is the time for the 10-inch tablet to be announced, however, and you can expect it to sport Android Honeycomb and a 1.5GHz processor.

Ultrabooks Although Samsung and Google are hoping that the slimline and cheap Chromebook is the future for laptops, Intel and manufacturers like Acer are pinning their hopes on the Ultrabook design, with higher quality materials and fast components that rival the Apple MacBook Air. Either way, we’re in for a treat, with loads of great products making their way to the marketplace.

Samsung Galaxy Q The Samsung Galaxy Q is another device that’s rumoured for release at IFA this year, and it’s set to fill the hole left by the Dell Streak 5. We’re not entirely sure there’s the need for another 5-inch tablet/smartphone, but it seems that Samsung feels differently. Oh well, if it’s anything like the existing Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S models, at least we know it’ll be a cracker!

Motorola Droid Bionic Gets Shown Off On Video Again..

Last week we saw a brief video of the new Motorola Droid Bionic in action, now another video has been put together which gives us a better look at the Motorola Droid Bionic.

With the Motorola Droid Bionic launch just a few short weeks away on Verizon, the anticipation is mounting. What is the exact release date? What is the official pricing? What are the official specifications? We have theories, but nothing is official yet. And while we have those theories and a ton of evidence to back them up, before today, we hadn’t yet had a clear cut video of the Droid Bionic in action.

Yes, Phandroid has managed to procure a video of the Droid Bionic in action and it shows off a couple of things that are going to get you excited. First, the bootloader. We see that the usual dual-core logo and then we see that red eye that we saw pop up on video awhile back. We also get a quick look at the new version of MotoBlur that will be coming with the 4G LTE smartphone and we also get a taste of Verizon’s next-generation network’s speeds.We’ve already seen how blistering they can be on the Droid Bionic so this is just reaffirmation.

The video shows us another 4G LTE speed test, plus the handsets wallpapers, and boot animations, plus the pre-installed applications that will ship with the Droid Bionic. We are expecting the Motorola Droid Bionic to go on sale next month, after a long wait, and the last date we heard was the 8th of September.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE And Galaxy S II LTE Announced..

Earlier we heard that Samsung may be launching an LTE version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone, Samsung has now officially confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE will debut at IFA in Berlin later this week, along with a  new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE.

Both new galaxy devices will feature a dual core 1.5GHz processor, and the Samsung Galaxy S II will feature a larger 4.5 inch display as we mentioned earlier.

“With the introduction of GALAXY S II LTE and GALAXY Tab 8.9 LTE, we will take the capabilities of these devices to a whole new level. LTE redefines the user experience made possible by these devices and opens entirely new possibilities in terms of content viewing, sharing, quality and connectivity,” said JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business.

We will see both devices, along with their full specifications later this week at IFA Berlin.

Sony S2 Will Be Called The Sony Tablet P..

We have been hearing more and more about Sony’s new Android tablets the S1 and S2, and now the guys over at Engadget have got some more information on the Sony S2 tablet. According to the report the Sony S2 will be called the Sony Tablet P when it launches next month, and it will feature dual 5.5 inch multi-touch displays, and with come with 512mb of RAM, 4GB of storage with a 2GB SD card included, 4G and WiFi connectivity, plus an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor.

Sony Tablet P weighs in at 370 grams – less than the iPad 2′s 601 grams, features 512MB RAM only, 4GB internal storage and 2GB SD card, 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 processor, and a 0.3mp front camera. The tab will come with WiFi or 4G connectivity via AT&T’s HSPA+ network. Other differentiating features include LED-lit TruBlack displays, Qriocity media support, built-in infrared remote for controlling your TV or BluRay player, and a removable battery on Sony Tablet P. Both Honeycomb tablets are PlayStation certified and will include the PlayStation Suite.
 
Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P are expected to release in September. We still don’t have official confirmation on the pricing and release date though we don’t think the price should exceed the going rates. In fact, they might be lower to be competitive. Lots of exciting tablets are expected in September. It’ll be interesting to see their impact (or lack of it) on the market. As yet, the tablet market still belongs to the iPad.