Engadget have just posted details of the Samsung SGH-i760, and it looks very nice indeed.
It’s a QWERTY slider Windows Mobile device weighing only 119g, complete with HSDPA and and WiFi. Basically it has all the features of the HTC TYTN, but at only 2/3 of the weight.
I still think I’ll be going for a Nokia N95, combined with my existing Dell Axim X50v, but currently this new Samsung would be my second choice for a new phone.
A few weeks ago I took the plunge and purchased a 250Gb Topfield PVR. I already have SKY+, but I wanted a Topfield for the following reasons:
Having lived with Topfield for a few weeks, here are my initial impressions. First the negative points:
Positive points:
Overall, I’m very happy with my Topfield. If you’re willing to spend some time customising it with downloaded TAPs, it’s probably the best Freeview PVR available (I’ve used a DigiFusion FVRT200 and Humax PVR-9200T in the past, by way of comparison).
Cheaper than I expected, and it includes a remote and a copy of King Kong. I had no plans to buy an HD DVD player, but this is pretty tempting. Pity there’s no HDMI connection though.
Microsoft aren’t pulling any punches with Sony, who really better their act together. So many Xbox 360 games are turning out to really rather good. For example: Test Drive Unlimited is pretty much my favourite racing game since the original PS1 Gran Turismo and the original Need for Speed.
Compare this to Sony’s recent announcement of Gran Turismo HD, where Sony seem to want to charge hundreds of pounds if you want all the cars and tracks. If they go that route, I’ll stick with the Test Drive, Project Gotham, and Forza series on the Xbox 360 thank you very much.
I’m serious impressed with the new Nokia N95 that’s going to be announced later today.
It’s a little on the wide side for me (53mm), but I love almost everything else about it:
I want this phone very badly indeed, but unfortunately I’m going to have to wait until Q1 2007 when it will be released.
Tom’s Hardware have benchmarks for Kentsfield, Intel’s new four core processor due later this year. Most applications don’t seem to be able to properly use four cores, but heavy multitasking and media encoding seem to really benefit. At the same time as Intel release Kentsfield, they’re also going to release Clovertown, a multiprocessor version for servers. Fingers crossed that these are available at a reasonable price by next Spring, and that Apple choose to offer them in the next update to the Mac Pro.
Coming back down to Earth for a moment, while I really like the idea of an 8 core Mac Pro, I do struggle to think of how I’d fully use 8 cores on a regular basis, and the chip does seem to be on the hot side. Just as important to me as power is having a quiet system, and two 100W+ processors are going to take a lot of cooling…
I’ve just read details of the new iMac updates
I’m pretty impressed with the new 24 inch model. If I didn’t have my heart set on a 2nd generation Mac Pro running Leopard with virtualised Windows Vista and Ubuntu installs, on a 30 inch monitor, I’d be placing my order right now. Depending on the state of my finances next year, a speed bumped 24 inch iMac running Leopard would be a nice upgrade if I can’t justify or afford my dream Mac Pro set up.
Following on from my post last week about my next mobile phone, details are appearing around another strong contender:
Basically this has all the good things I like about the HTC TyTN, minus the keyboard (not that big a deal for me), but with miniSD instead of microSD. miniSD only tops out at 2Gb at the moment, but you can already get 2Gb microSD cards, so surely a 4Gb miniSD can’t be too far away?
If I could get one of these on T-Mobile (UK), who seem to have the best 3G data tariffs at the moment, I’d be very tempted to lose the Dell Axim and go back to a single converged device.
Now that all the major manufacturers have announced or released their major new mobile phones for this year, I’ve been having a look around to see what I should buy when my contract comes up for renewal at the start of November.
First, some details of my past few phones:
Treo 600
iMate Jam
Samsung D600 (with a Dell Axim X50v as a PDA), my current solution
Positives:
Negatives:
With 3G data finally becoming reasonably affordable here in the UK, I want my next phone/PDA combo to be 3G (which the D600 isn’t), and preferably have some more Smartphone functionality. I’ve been looking around, and unfortunately it appears that all the possible devices have some pretty major flaws as far as I am concerned.
One problem a lot of them have, is that I hate small 5-way joysticks with a passion. I briefly owned a Sony Ericsson W800 and found it horrible to use.
The Current Contenders
Unfortunately none of the above devices quite work for me. An N73 with a joypad, a slightly smaller N80, or a TyTN with SD (not microSD) card support would probably be good enough to swing the decision, but alas, those products don’t exist.
When I finally make my decision, I’ll write a post explaining my decision. If any mobile phone manufacturers read this – please bring back joypads and SD card support, as your current joysticks and microSD cards are just too small.
I mostly bought my Mac mini for Front Row, and while that hasn’t disappointed me (especially since Apple added the ability to shuffle music by playlist), the real killer app has turned out to be something different:
The ability to play almost any music video, movie trailer, comedy clip etc through my TV has proved to be a really great feature. If friends are round and something comes up in conversation, such as the new Portal Trailer, I can have it playing on the big screen within about 30 seconds, with no need to hand round a laptop, or get anybody off the sofa.
Managed to see SKY HD in the flesh today. John Lewis in Newcastle had it running on a 40 inch Sony Bravia LCD (1366 x 768). Cricket was showing, and despite being downsampled from the native 1080i of the feed to the lower resolution of the Sony panel, the picture did look very good.
Looking at in isolation, I would have said that it was like a very very good DVD. But then I looked at the other TVs running standard definition feeds, and they were terrible in comparison. Really pixellated. So if you’re into sport and movies, and can afford a good HD TV, it looks like it’s worth the extra £10 a month that SKY are charging.
There’s not enough content for me at the moment, but if that situation improves (especially the BBC), I could be tempted by a 1080p LCD panel and Sky HD around the year end.