Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Quite possibly the best thing i’ve heard this year and if it’s true i may actually wet myself. The Zune is Microsoft’s answer to the iPod. Despite the Americans getting every version we here in the UK seem to keep missing out on the PMP. Now it’s rumoured(quite strongly) that Microsoft will be bringing out a phone equivalent and hopefully this will be revealed at Mobile World Congress in a fortnight.

NVIDIA have supposedly confirmed that they will be attending the the Congress with Microsoft (reports come from MuyComputer). Now NVIDIA make the TEGRA chip which powers the latest Zune HD. Also it is believed that Windows Mobile 7 will be launched at the congress too so it certainly looks promising.

Taking into account what the Zune HD does you’ll be looking at a very good phone, depending on Windows Mobile 7 software being good, but should pack a lot of features better than what any current iPhone could achieve. The UI of the Zune HD is easy to use and will look great on the low power, sharp OLED capacitive touchscreen (Multitouch oooo yeah!). Powered by the TEGRA chip HD content and multitasking will be done effortlessly and can be shipped to your TV via its HDMI out. If it’s planning on going into the gaming world like the iPhone, Zune is already a part of Xbox Live and that would mean a very large market of gaming enthusiasts with access to content and massive multiplayer functions.

Will keep you all updated if and when i learn more.

With the PMA(Photo Marketing Association) tradeshow a month away in Vegas we’re sure to see a lot more coming from the camera genre then but Olympus has stunned the world with its the next ultra-zoom compact camera the SP-800UZ.

Firstly its a 14MP camera but what really really grabs your attention is the massive 30x optical zoom. Now obviously despite the fact its a compact it needs the room to house the lens which makes a little bigger than your average compact but still smaller than your SLR's. With 2GB of internal memory and SD expansion you can also video 720p and then output it to your telly via its HDMI out.

It also comes with the usual face detection, image stabilisation and has a 3” LCD panel on the back to view your shots. You can even plug it in and charge via USB, handy if you don’t carry your charger around and have access to someone’s computer.

Also a smaller 12MP 15x optical zoom camera, the SP-600UZ is coming out alongside it.Both are out in March and will be priced at £369.99 and £259.99.

The Galaxy 2 is an up and coming phone from Samsung to battle against Google’s Nexus One for the top Android phone.

Like the Nexus One this baby is powered by the 1GHz Snapdragon and will deliver the goods through a 3.7” AMOLED screen and then alongside this will pack a pretty modest 5MP camera, a whopping 32GB of storage space and will all be run with Android 2.1 . This could be seen as a bit of a breakthrough with Android phones as up to now they generally sport the microSD memory expansion rather than hard storage.

Like most Samsung phones it’s easy on the eye not too fancy. One downer is the headphone jack on the side of the phone but unless you’re using it as an mp3 player or your bus faring “boom-box” this won’t pose too much of a problem.

The phone is due in Q2 and no doubt we’ll get more info probably at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2 weeks.

Apple iPad maybe stealing all the headlines as usual but let us just remember there are other tablets out there worthy of getting a shout, Apple isn’t the be all and end all when it comes to tech. I’ve had an Archos 605 for the past 18 months and it still gets used regularly, they make a mean gadget.

Anyway last week the specs on the soon-to-be Archos 7 Android tablet got the leak. If the recent Archos 5 wasn’t quite enough for you then the 7 is it’s big brother. With a 7” 800 x 480 screen what makes Archos greater than an iPod touch or maybe the new iPad is the sheer amount of filetypes it plays is much greater. MP4, WMV, AVI, and FLAC. Plus one up already is the ability to download FLV(thats flash to you and me) files and playback those too.(see image for Full Specs)

The Date has been set for the end of March(iPad release ouch!!!)  but should be priced at a very reasonable £150.

click on for the full specs!!

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Unveiled at CES last week Sharp are coming out with a new line of 1.6”deep AQUOS LED TVs and boy do they look good. As you all know we all love a good TV at Mighty Gadget and these do indeed look the bee’s knees as most LED’s do. What makes them different you might ask? Standard screens work as we all know with a red green and blue pixel. These add a fourth pixel, a yellow one, which improves the colours one can see on a screen.

The LC-LE810E will come in 3 sizes, 32”, 40” and 46” and will support 1080p output. The next model up is the LC-LE820 which is pretty much the same only coming in the larger 40”, 46” and 60”. The daddy of the series is the LC-LE920E. Again this comes in 40”,46” and 60” but has extras!! It has Aquos Motion 240Hz to reduce on motion blur and has the latest version of AQUOS Net(that means if you live in the US you get Netflix and and Twitter working on your box)

The TV’s should be out in March over here but we don’t have any prices as yet

“Given the exceptional response to DEXT and Milestone to date, we look forward to adding Backflip to our smartphone range in EMEA…We will be making further announcements on availability and pricing of Backflip in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia beginning in Q1 2010,”

The above is a quote from Motorola about the Backflip phone it showed at CES heading our way to European shores in the next few months. The phone itself isn’t much different from Motorola’s other smartphone the DEXT(Wi–Fi, HSDPA, 3MP Camera, MotoBlur UI) The Backflip again is powered by Android and shows it on a 3.1” screen. However what sets this apart is that the QWERTY keyboard flips out a bit like the N97’s(which was the best part of the Nokia).

Just the rough date of Q1 and no pricing details expect it soon and I can’t really see it being too expensive in comparision to the other better equipped “droid” phones but a reasonable looker none the less.

The Muse is Philips fairly decent but average current PMP doing what your average PMPs do, but it looks like it’s getting an upgrade to try and make it a little less average and to compete with the Zune HD(obviously STILL not out in the UK so there’s a market hole that needs filling)

The new and improved Muse will certainly look nicer with its polished silver finish and lack of frame that the current model has. Housed in the Muse is a nice and bright 3.2” touchscreen with all your general options of MP3/MP4 playback etc. What makes it a Zune competitor is the fact it has HDMI out to offer playback on your telly. It comes with 16GB of storage and also houses an SD slot.

Launch date should be soon(I’ve read April) and will retail at around £90 - £100.

We here at Mighty Gadget cant wait to embrace the 3D revolution and all these wonderful AV gadgets that one will need. We’ve talked about the TVs and the supply from Sky/Freeview etc. Today we have a projector. The Acer H5360 has just come out and is one of the first of its kind to be on shelves for us to buy.

The H5360 is compatible with NVIDIA’s 3D vision(what it uses in its graphics chips) which dispalys two images at 120Hz for each eye. What this means is when you slap on the glasses, the images converge into one a 3D image that runs at 60Hz. The projector itself projects(obviously) a 2500 ANSI Lumens image which has a contrast ratio of 3200:1. As for resolution, 720p.

The projector is on sale now for a measly £549.99. Not bad for a brand new piece of kit so if you’re thinking ahead its not too bad an investment. If you want use out of it now however, you’ll need an NVIDIA 3D vision powered PC to use it.