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

Quite possibly the best sounding Blu-Ray player at the moment, and you’ll think so too after reading about this “blighty”-fied masterpiece.

The Samsung BD-C8500M is a 3D Blu-Ray player with everything and I mean everything you could possibly want or need in a media playing marvel. Not only will it play your Blu-Rays but inside it has a DVB-T2 tuner, yes thats right a “FREEVIEW HD READY TUNER.” Not only that it’s also packing a 500MB HDD to record it all onto and with the World Cup coming soon there’s no better way to get yourself ready for it with this.

Wait there’s more!! It also can connect to the Internet@TV platform. This allows the user to use an on-demand service including BBC iPlayer and that lovely LoveFilm movie streaming service. One can also stream media straight from your desktop,laptop or server(whichever you have) as it has Wi-Fi and is DLNA certified.

Coming Soon, around April/May time we don’t have a price on it yet but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this despite the fact it should have a hefty price tag to match the weight of spec.

The 3D revolution is now in full swing with companies such as Sony future-proofing and readying its new AV tech ready for our 3D future. We’ve seen the up-coming Bravia TV’s that Sony are coming our way, well now we have some Blu-Ray players to match them.

The BDP-S470 and BDP-S570 will both be 3D compatible the first requiring a future software update and the latter will be compatible straight out the box. Both will achieve this with Active Shutter 3D technology delivering full 1080P HD quality 3D images to your peepers.

Also designed much like its new line of Bravia TVs, these black beauties will be internet enabled. The S470, the obvious entry-level one, will connect via ethernet or can go Wi-Fi with the help of a Sony wireless dongle. The S-570 will do this all by itself. Once connected they can hook up to the Bravia Internet Video service we’ve spoke of before, allowing catch-up TV playback like BBC iPlayer, YouTube  or stream from LoveFilm’s new service. Both can play media from USB but S-570 is DLNA compatible for home network streaming.

Both are arriving sometime this month the BDP-S470 is currently on the US Sony store for $199.99 and the S570 for $249.99.

Although officially not released by Sony yet, Tesco had put up a new Sony Vaio M Netbook for sale for just under £300 but now it appears to have been removed from the site probably due to the fact Sony are keeping quiet about its official release, oops.

A nice little black number the Sony Vaio M if pricing is true will be the cheapest Vaio we’ve seen to date and if you’re looking for a netbook this offers some pretty decent spec and the obvious recognition of quality Sony craftmanship. Inside the 10.1” Netbook will be Intel’s latest Atom chipset the N450(an improvement in speed and power consumption) powering a 250GB HDD, 1GB RAM and Windows 7 Starter Edition.

As said Sony haven’t confirmed it for sure and are still staying coy about it and although it appeared on Tesco the other day, I’m struggling to find it now but surely it won’t be long till it’s in officialdom.

I’ve currently got the LG GW620 to review for the next couple of weeks(watch this space for the review) and it’s the first time I’ve proper got to grips with an Android phone. I LOVE ANDROID. So after getting the info on this Motorola home phone with Android, i had to have a nosy.

Although the landline phone probably doesn’t get used as much as it used to(mine never gets used) anybody buying this phone will surely use it. This is a Binatone made phone stamped with Motorola to give it more recognition, uses DECT 6.0(standard cordless phone connection) and uses Wi-Fi for the software. Unfortunately one of the main reasons i love Android is the third party apps MArket which sadly isn’t available on this phone, but it’s still great for web browsing and emailing.

Now being a “home” phone, most people have a computer at home or a mobile capable of what this can do so really it will only attract those with a lust for gadgetry and what a landline phone better than your neighbours, or those with old mobiles and ancient computers who want basic net capabilities etc.

No pricing yet but its due out in the latter part of Summer

The D241H Display+ is a new monitor with what i can only describe as bizarre features for a monitor. I’m not saying their bad features by any means just strange. In a world where most people own mobile phones or PMPs which can do your social networking, emails and photos, why not have a monitor that can do it independently of your desktop PC.

This 1080P Full HD panel with a 2ms response time, HDMI and DVI port, it’s your standard fairly decent LCD monitor for your desktop, What makes it stand out though is its ability to connect via Wi-Fi(or ethernet) to the net when your desktop is powered off. Once connected it’s widgets can check your email(Gmail and Yahoo! mail) collect RSS feeds from your favourite MightyGadget blog, and other assorted web feeds.

You can also plug in an SD card or USB dongle and playback your pictures turning the monitor into an oversized picture frame. What’s cool is you can have three widgets working at once too. It also comes with a remote with a slide out QWERTY keyboard making it easy to write your emails or messages from a comfortable distance.

No pictures of the screen yet but it’s believed to be available in May and pricing is still TBC.

Taiwanese giants Asus have recently announced this monstrous new 27” monitor with 3D support. Asus seem to be embracing the new future of 3D tech already with a 3D supported laptop out on the market and it seems to continue here with this super monitor.

Design wise it’s not the best looking monitor in the world but Asus can please aesthetically if they want. Quality is the name of the game here though, 27” screen with NVIDIA 3D vision support, will also be available in a smaller 23”(MG236 and VG236H) and 23.6”(PG246)(but why would you want that when you can get 27?). It has dual link DVI allows for full 1080p HD quality images at a staggering 60fps so when you slap on your 3D specs, the image is smooth and jerk free.

Due out later in the year, we don’t have any price available as of yet so keep your eye out for that. It is believed however that the smaller model will be available before the gargantuan one.

The world of the SatNav has come in leaps and bounds over the past few years and its hard not to know a car owner who hasn’t got one and now with the increase in well “smartness” of smartphones (most now have free GPS Navigation software) where next for the SatNav. Well it appears this is it.

The Mio Moov V780 is a massive 7” in size and has a capacitive WVGA display. A little excessive you might say for a SatNav but this is also disguising itself as a PMP/netbook. Packing Wi-Fi and optional HSPDA and WiMax for online use, it also has an external TV aerial to catch TV on the move. It also has DivX, MP4 and H.263/264 support allowing video playback obviously for when the SatNav is not needed and the kids are restless in the back of the car. What is odd id the HDMI out which can playback its stored video content at 720p on a flatscreen. Unless you’ve recently been on “Pimp My Ride” i can’t see most average folk having a HDTV in their car.

Going back to its connectivity, the Mio Moov will also have a keyboard dock and as it runs Windows CE, you can access Exchange and GMail to get your email on the move, not recommended whilst driving but I’m sure your passenger can or if you’ve stopped at the services. Expected to debut at CeBit this week, more news on release and price will be available then.

I never found TV tuner cards for your PC that appealing and never heard any that were really outstanding from anyone i knew, but this little number caught my attention and seems to do away with the need for a card in your PC at all. Basically a networked Tuner card. Plug your external or i guess internal aerial (if you’ve got one of those good ones) into the back and it can send out the Freeview love to any PC or Mac on your network.

“Well what else does it do?” you might ask. Once connected to your aerial, connect it to your router whether it be a standard ethernet router or wireless (Elgato recommend a standard N Router for efficient usage) then the TV signal can be picked up on any computer hooked up to it. Then like Sky+, you can pause it as you watch or record onto the computers HDD and watched at a later date all whilst someone else can watch a different channel in a different location on the network.

Available this week in the UK it’s priced at £229.95