Have a love for running and technology? In a press release issued earlier today by Nike, the company announced their latest and greatest piece of exercise tech, the Nike+Sportsband.Slated for an April 10 release date, the armband hopes to make training easier for runners by displaying such information as distance traveled, calories burned, pace, and time. Though it is designed specifically for runners who do not use iPods in their exercise endeavors, it would make an excellent substitute for someone who preferred not to use the Nike+iPod setup.
There’s no word yet on pricing from the corporate shoe giant, and there is no word yet if Nike plans on making a similar device to track the productivity of its child laborers in Vietnam.
You can do more than view the starry skies with Pentax’s new $50,000 150SDP telescope. Who knew a telescope could do so much?
Little information about this telescope is available. It is meant for professional star gazers with its array of advanced optics, which include a 1120mm tube length, 150mm aperture, 960 mm focal length, and four lenses buttered in an apochromatic refractor. At 176 pounds, this hunk of telescopic love isn’t as easy to move around as you would like, but is still portable and is setup for astro-imaging. Americans will be sad to hear that the 150SDP is unavailable in the States, but it can be found on numerous Japanese and English astronomy websites.
In light of a move by Nokia last year to offer unlimited music downloads with the purchase of a phone, Cupertino-based Apple is considering offering unlimited downloads from iTunes with the purchase of select iPod models.
It is currently unknown how much extra an iPod with the unlimited music would cost, or if the music would be DRM-free. Either way, I think it would be an excellent move by Apple to do this. Americans have always been attracted to the idea of unlimited, and it would cut down on P2P downloads. The only potential problems would be if Apple chose to set a time period, say a year like Nokia’s, on the service, or if they only offered in on the more expensive iPods. Many would be willing to pay to renew the service, but it would be a shame if service were unrenewable after a year or if you had to buy a $499 iPhone to get it.
Budget gamers rejoice! NVIDIA has released the first video card of its new 9000-series, the 9600 GT. Priced at only $199, the card is targeted towards those looking for an SLI setup without breaking the bank. NVIDIA’s goal in releasing the card is to give PC gamers something that can play the latest games very well, but at the same time be very affordable.
The 9600 GT is a midrange card. It’s typical for video card companies to release their highest-end video cards first in a new series, but NVIDIA is making a good choice in my opinion. Latest-generation video cards will no longer be for those with deep pockets only, and legacy users will be encouraged to upgrade their hardware.
The 9600 GT features the following specifications:
64 stream processors @ 1625 MHz each
256-bit memory @ 900 MHz
64 nm
DirectX 10
PCI Express 2.0 (backwards compatible with PCI Express 1.0)
The cards are available right now, and some sites have already started postingreviews.
A new update appeared on Apple’s site today. It has lowered the price of its 1 GB iPod Shuffle to only $49, while adding a new 2 GB model for $69.
This sudden price change isn’t as unexpected as it seems. Flash memory prices have been falling for ages, and one can easily pick up a 1 GB or even 2 GB player for $30 or less. The 1 GB Shuffles are available now on Apple’s website, but those wishing to pick up one of the new 2 GB models will have to wait until the end of the month for their release.
So, what does one do with a screenless 1 GB MP3 player? That’s the million dollar question for today. Perhaps they would be useful for someone with a very small music library or for working out, but most people would find themselves more comfortable with the Shuffle’s big brother the Nano, which offers more storage space and a color screen starting at $100.
Those who bought an HD-DVD player recently will be disappointed. The bitter war between the two DVD successors HD-DVD and Blu-ray seems to be coming to an end. Over the last year and a half movie enthusiasts have been split between the two formats, and up until now it seemed as though the war might go on much longer. Recent events, however, have pushed HD-DVD out of the picture and Blu-ray into the forefront. After Netflix and Best Buy announced their support for Blu-ray, HD-DVD was done a severe blow. Now HD-DVD has been given its killing blow, with Wal-Mart and Toshiba saying they will leave the HD-DVD camp and stick with Blu-ray. It looks like things are finally over for HD-DVD.
Many people, myself included, could care less about this development. I see no reason to switch to either of the new formats because I’m still happy with DVD. Hopefully now that HD-DVD is out of the picture Blu-ray will become more adopted and prices will go down.
Bluetooth headset maker Jaw Bone has released a new commercial that can be seen on YouTube. What makes it so wonderful? Two Asian chicks beat up a rude asshole at a dry cleaners. If you can get past the violence, you’ll find the commercial is quite funny. It’s not surprising it has already had more than 25,000 views and a great rating on YouTube.I normally don’t blog about YouTube videos, but this one is too good to pass up.
Admit it. Window’s user interface sucks. It may have been innovate when Windows 95 was released, but now it’s time for a change. Sure, Vista brought along a cool graphics upgrade, but the same inefficient, clunky interface is still there. A new project called Cairo aims to change that.
In an announcement made earlier today, Apple revealed on its site that they now have 16GB iPhones for $499. Also available is a 32GB iPod Touch for the same price. No other changes have been made.
This upgrade has been long expected, but the 32GB Touch was a bit less expected. Many were hoping for a price cut on the 8GB model, but it didn’t happen. It is interesting that Apple chose to include a 32GB drive in the Touch but not the iPhone. This is probably due to short supply of the chips and because Apple wants to test them out before putting them in something as popular as the iPhone.
You can buy the new 16GB iPhone and the new 32GB iPod Touch right now on Apple’s site.
With the launch of the MacBook Air, Apple insider sites like 9 to 5 Mac and Mac Rumors are reporting Cupertino will be rolling out new MacBook Pros based on Intel’s new 45nm Penryn mobile processor technology next week. Below is a brief overview of the expected features:
Same basic design. Might be a bit thinner, but that’s about it.
Keyboard similar to the one found in the MacBook Air.
Larger touch pad with multi-touch technology.
Same pricing.
Possibility of SSD or hybrid configuration.
LED screens on 17″ models.
Those looking for a major overhaul of the MacBook Pro line will have to wait. But for those looking into buying an Apple notebook, wait a week or so and you should get a pleasant surprise. Or even better, why not buy the old MacBooks on sale once the new models come out?
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