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    RedFox Teams Up With AMD

    Gadgets Team
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    RedFox Teams Up With AMD

    Redfox is primed and ready to redefine innovation, as they reiterate their collaboration with AMD, with products aimed at gamers and the power PC user.

    One of the highlighted benefits was utilizing AMD Dual Graphics, which harnesses the far superior quality of DirectX11. Furthermore, you can get a significant graphics performance boost, for example, by adding an AMD Radeon HD6570 discrete GPU to an AMD A6 APU-based system, which can up performance by 144%.

    We also got a peek at Redfox’s gaming room, which hosted some of their products, including Intense (pictured above). It features 3 22-inch LCD’s partnered with a desktop powered by the AMD Phenom II X61055T and an ATI Radeon HD5770.

    We also saw some featured motherbaords from Gigabyte and the G.I. Sniper 2, as well as the Wizpad, which were great teasers for Redfox’s upcoming products, so stay tuned for later updates.

     

    Planning to join a class action lawsuit against Sony? Then don’t accept that mandatory update.

    Gadgets Team
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    Planning to join a class action lawsuit against Sony? Then don’t accept that mandatory update.

    The aftermath of the massive security breach of Sony’s PSN is still being felt today by the Japanese electronics giant, and there’s plenty of people lining up to take a bite out of Sony via lawsuits. In a move that’s definitely not going to endear them to gamers, Sony’s updated their TOS that basically says that they waive the right to collectively sue it over future security breaches. If you’re the sort who doesn’t want to waive that right, you’ll need to write a letter on paper (yes, those old things) and send them to Sony’s legal department. This doesn’t mean you can’t sue Sony – you still can – it just means that you’ll need to seek binding arbitration with an arbitrator of the company’s choosing instead of exercising their right to have a judge or jury hear their case, as an individual. The statement goes (taken from The Register):

    ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY LEGAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE SONY ENTITY WITH WHICH YOU HAVE A DISPUTE SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION.

    Look Sony, we understand that what happened a few months ago when the PSN was hacked was unfortunate, and we know you’re trying your hardest to make amends (we hope). But this sort of thing isn’t going to win you points with the gaming community at large, especially since the notice is tacked on at the end of a TOS, which is usually glossed over by most people. And if you don’t agree to the new TOS, you’re basically locked out of online services (and everything that that entails). Granted, it’s a completely legal move, but it’s also kind of sneaky.

    Source: The Register

     

    Shaking you awake with Wake N Shake

    Gadgets Team
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    Shaking you awake with Wake N Shake

    I usually give myself an hour’s worth of snooze-time before I wear myself out enough to finally want to get up out of bed. But if you’re anything like me, you realize that you usually end up more lethargic with all of those 5-minute catnaps in between each alarm. Now, wake up with a jolt and a bit of exercise too with the Wake N Shake Alarm app.

    iPhone users can install this new app to literally shake themselves silly out of any deep REM sleep. The Wake N Shake works like your usual alarm clock but instead of one press of a button to stop the merciless ringing, you have to shake your phone vigorously until the shake-scale is complete.

    Just make sure you don’t accidently throw your phone across the room so hold on tight and shake away.

     

    Source: iTunes

     

    Gameloft gives you the chance to win a brand new LG Optimus 3D

    Gadgets Team
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    Gameloft gives you the chance to win a brand new LG Optimus 3D

    Can’t wait for LG’s Optimus 3D? Neither can we, but alas, it’s still not here. But if you’re the type who likes to go against impossible odds and doesn’t take no for an answer, you can try your luck and join Gameloft’s Facebook contest, where they’ll be giving away three Optimus 3D phones to lucky fans. The contest started September 7 and goes on through till September 28, so there’s still a chance to win. The mechanics are ridiculously easy, and involves watching a nifty trailer that LG made for the Optimus 3D. Want in? Go here and like Gameloft’s page and join now!

    Déjà vu: is RIM ramping up for a fire sale of their own?

    Gadgets Team
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    2
    Déjà vu: is RIM ramping up for a fire sale of their own?

    There’s been grumblings and rumors on the web recently that RIM is gearing up for their own HP-esque fire sale of their Blackberry Playbooks. According to Boy Genius Report, Rogers Communications have launched an internal sale (meaning the sale is available to Rogers employees only) of RIM’s three Playbook models, with discounts up to 50% off of the price of the device. This comes after RIM’s dismal earnings call in which they admitted that the Playbook failed to live up to expectations, shipping only 200,000 units from the expected 400,000 to 600,000 that they were projecting (take note, shipping is not the same as selling). If the fire sale does materialize, it’ll create a unique issue for RIM locally, as the Playbook is currently being sold by two telcos: Globe and Smart, unlike HP’s massive sell-off of the TouchPad (wherein no units were officially sold locally). It’d be interesting to see how both telcos would handle a refund, if ever the rumors are true.

    Source: Arstechnica, Boy Genius Report, Business Insider

     

    Lenovo officially launches IdeaPad K1 tablet locally

    Gadgets Team
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    Lenovo officially launches IdeaPad K1 tablet locally

    First it was Asus, then Acer, Samsung and now Lenovo. Seems that the local tablet market is getting kinda crowded, yeah? Lenovo’s entry into the local Honeycomb tablet scene is a nice breath of fresh air, even though it doesn’t bring anything new hardware-wise that we haven’t seen before.

    The IdeaPad K1 is your typical Honeycomb tablet – dual-core Tegra 2 1GHz processor, 10-inch capacitive multitouch screen, etc., though Lenovo has crammed a couple of software goodies into the K1 to try and set it apart from the crowd. This includes their own take on the social network aggregator which they’ve dubbed SocialTouch, their own take on the Android market called Lenovo App Shop and a slew of productivity tools and games that come pre-installed with the device.

    One thing we did like was the fact that the K1 had a hardware orientation lock on the side of the device, which we imagine would help immensely when you started reading with it. The IdeaPad K1 is now available locally and will retail for Php 24,900, which we assume is for the 32GB 16GB version. We’ll have our review up next week so keep watching this space.

    Edit: We stand corrected. The price posted is for the 32GB version which makes the Lenovo K1 all the more enticing.

    Canon treats 300 loyal EOS users to free advanced photography lessons

    Gadgets Team
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    Canon treats 300 loyal EOS users to free advanced photography lessons

    It’s nice to see that Canon always keeps its loyal user base near to its heart, as evidenced by the recently concluded PhotoSkwela Pro at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall in Mandaluyong. 300 loyal EOS users were given advanced workshops on different aspects of photography, including sports, food, travel, landscape, bird, wedding photography, portraiture, photojournalism and even lectures on the business side of photography.

    “This event is an advanced version of PhotoSkwela designed to further improve the skills of our loyal Canon EOS users,” said Bong Serevo, Vice-President and Director of the Image Communications Products division of Canon Marketing Philippines, Inc. (CMPI).

    Various sessions were conducted by Canon brand ambassadors. Among them were veteran advertising photographer John Chua with wife Harvey, photojournalists Ernie Sarmiento and Val Rodriguez, landscape photographers Jay Jallorina and Edwin Martinez, wedding photographers Dino Lara and Pilar Tuason, travel photographer Per Andre Hoffman, food photographer Mark Floro, bird photographer Ely Teehankee and photography lecturer Jo Avila.

    Want to know when Canon does events like these in the future? Well, you can point your browsers to www.canon.com.ph/imagenation and sign up to get updates.

    Review: HTC Wildfire S

    Gadgets Team
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    Review: HTC Wildfire S

    The first Wildfire was HTC’s first, real attempt to bring their Android sensibilities to the mid-market. Up until then, the company was creating high-spec Android devices that were firmly out of reach of most consumers (locally anyway). The Wildfire was their answer to the demands of the middle market, and while it was a good showpiece of what the company could do in that particular segment, the device was a bit under-powered for some. Today we’ll be taking a look at its direct successor, the Wildfire S, to see if the line has improved after its first outing.

    One of the first things you’ll notice about the Wildfire S is that it’s absolutely tiny, especially when compared to its other siblings. It sports a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen and has an overall size of 101.3 x 59.4 x 12.4 mm. When you put it beside its bigger and badder siblings, like the 4.3-inch HTC Sensation it looks positively dainty. The Wildfire S packs a 600MHz Snapdragon MSM7227 CPU with 512 MB ROM and 512 MB RAM, which, in our opinion, is a bit lacking. Other hardware specs include a 5-megapixel camera (with geo-tagging and face detection) and a FM radio. Like many new Android devices, the Wildfire S comes with Gingerbread and naturally, the Sense UI layer that HTC’s famous for.

    The overall build quality of the Wildfire S is good. Its very solidly made, with no creaks whatsoever on the body. Like its bigger brothers, there are four capacitive keys on the lower part of the phone’s bezel to facilitate navigation.

    Navigating the Wildfire S was a breeze, thanks mainly to the Sense UI overlay on top of Gingerbread.

    You get 7 customizable screens right off the bat, FriendStream (a social network aggregator) and other widgets and tweaks that can only be had with HTC devices.

    Using the device wasn’t quite a chore as I originally imagined it was, but if you have big digits take heed: this device will punish you for your genetic predispositions. I have bigger than normal digits, which means I’m most at home with smartphones that have screens of 4-inches or more. Using the 3.2-inch screen of the Wildfire S was, frankly, a battle of wits, especially when trying to text with the cramped on-screen keyboard. Of course, your mileage will vary and if you’re a woman or have dainty fingers you won’t have issues with the screen or the keyboard.

    Battery life is good. In a media loop test (where we basically just ran a looped video until the batteries gave out) the Wildfire S managed to stay on for about five hours before the battery gave up the ghost. The Wildfire S uses a 1230 mAh battery (more mAh = longer battery life) and with standard use (meaning a few texts, calls, and browsing) the device lasted through a whole workday with a little bit of charge left when we found it the next morning.

    Like we mentioned earlier, the Wildfire S doesn’t have the speediest of processors. It gets by with a  600MHz Snapdragon MSM7227 CPU, so it was interesting to see where the Wildfire S landed when we ran it through our benchmarks. The Wildfire S managed to bag a score of 764 in the Quadrant benchmark that we ran, which is admittedly pretty good, just slightly behind the first Samsung Galaxy S. Unfortunately, that doesn’t translate completely to real time performance, and we did experience a bit of slowdown when visiting media-rich websites with a lot of flash content.

    Is the Wildfire S worth it? With a price tag of Php 15,500, the Wildfire S is ione of HTC’s most affordable phones. If you don’t mind the small-ish screen, and aren’t much of a power user, then the Wildfire S might be your next Android device. If you are, then it’d be best if you look at its bigger brothers and other devices along those lines.

    What’s Hot:

    Relatively affordable

    Easy to use

    Great build quality

     

    What’s Not:

    Small screen is hard to type on, especially if you have big hands

    A tad underpowered

     

    Bottomline:

    If you’re the sort that just needs a stylish, Android powered smartphone, then the Wildfire S is something you might want to consider.

     

    Buymeter: 7.8

     

    TECH SPECS

    • Operating System: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), Sense UI 2.1 Overlay
    • CPU: 600MHz Snapdragon MSM7227 CPU
    • LCD size: 3.2-inch capacitive screen
    • Physical Dimensions: 101.3 x 59.4 x 12.4 mm
    • Weight: 105 g
    • Band: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, HSDPA 900 / 2100

     

     


    Get your fitness on with the UltraFit3000

    Gadgets Team
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    0
    Get your fitness on with the UltraFit3000

    I recently purchased a 1-year gym membership (for the first time in my life) in hopes of achieving the ultimate bridal body come my wedding next year (and hopefully fitting into that tinny tiny little wedding dress I plan on wearing.) Of course, for something as utterly tedious as exercise, I enjoy the accompaniment of my “workout” tunes, especially when I’m on the treadmill. But alas, my iPod earphones tend to fall right out in the middle of my run and it can be so distracting, I end up almost tripping right off the machine.

    But with Polk UltraFit3000 Headphones, you’re sure it stays secure and snug right where it belongs. The over-ear hook design keeps it attached to your ears while the in-ear canal design cancels out background noise so you can keep out all the painful grunting and groaning of your fellow gym-goers. Three different cable lengths options are available with volume control and a built-in mic compatible with smartphones.

     

    Source: Polkaudio

     

    Samsung unleashes Mirror Pop MV800, makes self-portrait shots a no brainer

    Gadgets Team
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    Samsung unleashes Mirror Pop MV800, makes self-portrait shots a no brainer

    We’re not a big fan of self shot, duckface shots, but we know some of you are. That’s the main point behind Samsung’s 2View series of cameras which featured a small, secondary LCD screen in the front of the device. Now the Korean manufacturer has taken the idea to the next logical step and just made the primary LCD swivel 180 degrees in the newly announced Mirror Pop MV800.  Self-shooting connoisseurs will also appreciate the myriad of enhancement modes built into the camera, which includes their Smart Filter 3.0 software suite. Spec-wise, the Mirror Pop MV800 hits the sweet spot: it  features a 16.2-megapixel CCD, a 26mm Schneider 5x optical zoom lens, and an ISO 3200 light sensitivity range.
    The Mirror Pop MV800 will hit our shores this October and will retail for Php 14,990 this October.

    Qualcomm collaborates with Microsoft to deliver prototype Windows 8 devices at BUILD

    Gadgets Team
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    Qualcomm collaborates with Microsoft to deliver prototype Windows 8 devices at BUILD

    It stands to reason that Microsoft has already forged partnerships and alliances with different chip manufacturers for Windows 8. So it’s not really surprising that Qualcomm has partnered up with the Redmond firm to deliver their famed Gobi solution that powered 3G/4G LTE connectivity for prototype Windows 8 devices during the unveiling of the OS at the BUILD conference earlier this week.

    “We are excited to be at BUILD to show the Windows ecosystem and how we are working together towards commercialization of apps and hardware that will run Windows 8,” said Luis Pineda, senior vice president of product management, computing and consumer products at Qualcomm. “It is a priority for Qualcomm to work with the developer community to optimize the Snapdragon and Gobi-powered platform for Windows 8 to provide an unparalleled mobile user experience.”

    This also means that there’ll be two ARM-based chipmakers that will power Windows 8 machines in the future: NVIDIA and Qualcomm.

    Source: Qualcomm

    Intel goes full speed ahead with Ultrabooks, wants to re-invent personal computing

    Gadgets Team
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    Intel goes full speed ahead with Ultrabooks, wants to re-invent personal computing

    With all the talk about entering the post-PC world, it’s not surprising that Intel, one of the biggest chip manufacturers in the world, disagrees with the whole concept. Speaking today at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group, said the personal computing experience is undergoing another fundamental transformation as the company leads the creation of Ultrabook, a new category of mobile devices.

    “Not since the introduction of Intel Centrino technology more than 8 years ago have we witnessed such a fundamental transformation of personal computing,” said Eden. “Today’s devices powered by our 2nd generation Intel Core processors are giving people a personal computing experience that they’ve never had before and we won’t stop there. We know people desire and demand more from their computers — to create, consume and share — which is why we have challenged ourselves and the industry to make Ultrabook the most adaptable, complete and satisfying device.”

    Intel has high hopes and big plans for the platform, as evidenced by the preview of their 3rd generation Intel Core processor (codenamed “Ivy Bridge”) during IDF. Expected to be available in systems in the first half of 2012, it will deliver greater performance and energy efficiency. Intel also redesigned the processor graphics to provide better video and gaming experiences.

     

    Razer wants you to help in building their XBOX 360 arcade stick, deets inside

    Gadgets Team
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    Razer wants you to help in building their XBOX 360 arcade stick, deets inside

    Razer’s always taken feedback from the gaming community in designing their products, but this time the prolific peripheral maker is taking it a step beyond by announcing a new initiative to directly get feedback from arcade stick enthusiasts. Razer’s opening up their doors and will be giving away 200+ prototype arcade sticks to members of the community to test and get feedback to help refine the design. If you’re someone who loves the community and goes toe-to-toe with other players on a regular basis and have what it takes to win, you can sign up at www.razerzone.com/bredtofight to participate.

     

    Save time, money, and energy by driving smoothly

    Gadgets Team
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    Save time, money, and energy by driving smoothly

    Gary Lauder, managing partner of Lauder Partners and the co-creator of the Socrates at the Aspen Institute gives a talk on how road design can make a difference in saving us both time and money while saving the planet. He rethinks the need for standard signalized and un-signalized traffic intersections, particularly the roundabout as opposed to stoplights and four-way stop signs. Less braking and acceleration means more time, money, and fuel saved by the drivers as well as more safety. And as Gary Lauder points out, “They’re expensive to install, but more expensive not to.”

     

    Source: TED

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