Microsoft will take another swipe at the iPod on Wednesday when it launches the latest version of the Zune media player.

After three years and untold millions spent on the line, Microsoft’s hopes of cutting into iPod’s big lead are now on the Zune HD, with its 3.3-inch multitouch screen, streaming-music feature, and the ability to playback video, with the help of an HDTV, in 720p. A 16GB Zune HD is available at retailers for $219.99 and a 32GB will cost $289.99.

But at this point in Zune’s evolution there’s plenty of skepticism that the Zune can close the gap on Apple. A Zune-iPod comparison has for too long resembled a late-round prize fight, the kind where the challenger is cut, swollen-eyed and wobbly legged but refuses to go to the canvas. Zune sales are falling, a top manager has moved on and what’s perhaps most worrisome is that the category is becoming passe.

While Apple also tries to kick-start lackluster iPod sales–upgrading Nanos with such features as a video camera and voice recording–CEO Steve Jobs has steered consumer interest away from straight digital music players and into smartphones. Apple has sold more than 30 million iPhones over the past two years and seen more than 1.8 billion iPhone applications downloaded.

Nonetheless, this is still Microsoft, one of the biggest technology companies in the world and well known for its patience.

“You can make the argument this is Microsoft’s first real shot to getting it right,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “Remember, the bar doesn’t have to be set all that high for them to be successful. Nobody is supposed to unseat iPod…and Microsoft now has a product that they seem to be more confident in.”

That confidence may come in part from an upgrade that some have called the best Zune yet. (For more, see CNET’s full review of the Zune HD.)

Zune HD features a new OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen and will send high-def video to a HDTV using a new Zune AV dock, sold separately.

“Consumers can buy or rent HD content from the Zune Marketplace,” Microsoft said in a statement, “sync that content to a Zune HD and take it with them to play back on a large screen HD TV in the home or on the road.”

The 16GB is available in black and the 32GB is available in “platinum” at retail locations. Customers can purchase Zune in red, green, or blue in both capacities from Zuneoriginals.net.

Zune HD will also play games, HD Radio, and offers music-recommendation software, called Smart DJ.

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Its not all about thin HDTV anymore, check out Sanus’ new Ultra Slim TV mount from the VisionMount series.  Hanging less than an inch from the wall, you won’t even think its a mount but part of the TV itself.

Sanus will be releasing these in two models, the ML11-B1 for 26 to 46 inches, 110 pounds and the L11-B1 for 37 to 65 inches, 165 pounds.

The brackets come with quick-release tabs that can be used to unlock the TV from the wall plate and the ClickStand function that gives the TV an additional clearance space of 3.08 inches for some work room and access to cables and A/V hookups.

They’re priced at $119 for the first and $149 for the later, bigger mount.

[Engadget] via [Twice]

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The new Nike + Sportband, yeah that’s what they call it, is Nike’s armband that will give you real-time performance feedback on distance, pace, time and calories burned.

It’ll come with an upgraded screen with better water resistance so no more excuses for running in the rain…

The best feature is probably its ability to upload data to NikePlus.com (which recently merged with nikerunning.com) which you can personalized and is also a social network to get in touch with other runners.  Theres many features online like Map It that will track your running history or find new routes and have goals and challenges to keep you running even more.

This is a great alternative for those not wanting to use Nike’s specially made shoes that tracks your data.  These comes in black/red, grey/pink, and anthracite/yellow.  They’ll be released July 15, 2009 for $59.

[Examiner]

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The Palm Pre is newly drafted in a line of offerings to take a swipe at the iPhone, available on the Sprint network and running for $199 provided a contract. The Pre adds some terrific features to this hi tech rich gadget. One of the most impressive is the Activity Cards which allow you to switch from application to application quickly and easily, much like you are able to on your home computer system. There is no need to shut downward a software and open one more up.

Combined messaging lets you group conversations in on the same person in an easy to emulate format. So now you can easily track conversations in IM, email or text on one simple screen. You will also be able to see who is available online and can quickly and create up a new conversation properly in the same group.

The Layered Calendar and Linked Contacts pull together your Outlook, Google and Facebook calendars into one cohesive view. And there is no difficulty to worry if your contacts be spread through distinct areas, Pre serves to pull them to one place as well. With the added Intuitive Notifications feature you can see when your appointments are, new and updated email and text messages at the bottom screen notification so it is a reduced number of meddling than great deal more competing products.

Such like the iPhone, applications will be a big part of the Pre, but then it may take time for the Pre to become inhabited with apps like the iPhone. But as time goes more and a greater amount of developers will see the strength of the Pre and strength of the Palm brand and develop on this platform as well.

The Pre is sleek, sexy, and sturdy and comes with a slide out keypad that really adds functionality that isn’t accessible amidst the iPhone. Just fancy the iPhone you can turn the system and view from widescreen or hold it in average view. Quality of pictures are vibrant and really stands out and the camera produces stunning photos.

It’s too early to notify how much competition the Pre will be to the iPhone, but it is a great substitue for Sprint users who want (or have) to continue with the service. But all signs say that amid the power of Palm and the functionality provided in the Pre, the current phone is the newly drafted in a for a long while line of hi tech gadgets available to us.

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“Netbooks” are the hottest gadgets this year.  So why the hype?  Check out the typical laptops at your local BestBuys, they range from $1000-$2000+ and are 5lbs+.  On the other side, netbooks are ultra compact, light, and super cheap.

These little guys runs on Windows XP with built in 3G,  1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB harddrive, and bluetooth.  Internet will come from Verizons highspeed wireless VZ Access.  Weighting at only 2.45lbs  and is 10.3 by 6.6 by 1-in makes it one of the smallest notebook you’ll ever own.

Your main use are for surfing the net anywhere on the fly.  Yeah, we know you’re on Facebook 10 of your 24hr day.  All your basic apps including MS Word, instant messingings,  and Norton are available, but don’t try running some HD video editing or high end power hungry games just yet.  Did I mention it also have a built in webcam?

You can get the HP Mini 1151NR for $199 with a two year contract, Verizon’s data plan range from $39/mo for 250MB to $59 for 5GB.

To wrap it up, these are great to get connected anywhere, a small price tag, exstremely protable and ease of usage.  The keyboard can take a bit of getting used to, battery life isn’t the greatest, and you’re stuck with Verizon’s data plan which isn’t the cheapest on the market.

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Beanzawave can be powered by your laptop at the office or your home desktop if you’re too lazy to walk in the kitchen.  There’s an option for batteries to bring this portable wave to camping trips or the likes.

The device will be using radio frequencies to cook your food and you are to tune it (frequencies) to cook diffent type of food like pie, a burger, a cup of soup or tea.  Isn’t there some kind of study saying cell phones are carcinogeni, and now we’re cooking food with them?

All in all, this microwave’s still a prototype and Heinz said the decision of production or not will be based on public support.

[Dailymail]

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Today iPhone owners get to have what used to be only for Palm owners, a wireless charger.  The iPhone would be in a WildCharge case, you then place the phone on an electrical mat and the phone will charge.

The phone case has four little conductive contact points that automatically sort out positive and negative charges no matter the orientation of the phone on the mat.

Wildcharge also make wireless chargers for Blackberrys available at their website.

All phone cases are priced at $35 and charging mats are $50.

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The Fastest iPhone Ever

“The first thing you’ll notice about iPhone 3GS is how quickly you can launch applications. Web pages render in a fraction of the time, and you can view email attachments faster. Improved performance and updated 3D graphics deliver an incredible gaming experience, too. In fact, everything you do on iPhone 3GS is up to 2x faster and more responsive than iPhone 3G”

The new iPhone will let you capture, record, and edit videos.  Then share your video in an email, post it to your MobileMe gallery, publish it on YouTube, or sync it back to your Mac or PC using iTunes.

Its CPU is boosted to 600MHz from the regular iPhone 3G’s 412MHz CPU and its memory doubled to 256MB, indeed delivers a noticeably zippier user experience compared with the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G.

The camera will also be upgraded to a 3 megapixel.

They are available for $299 (32mb) or $199 (16mb) with a two year contract.

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The new router annouced by Linksys is loaded with a 400MHz processor, 32MB RAM,  8MB flash memory, and also two external antennas.  Share media with anyone around you or yourself.  Best part is it’ll be powered by Linux OS, what that means?  Upload and run all your favorite Linux apps on the router.  Linksys WRT160NL retails at $109.99.

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Fast SSD, GPS, Web cam, sub 700gm weight, great styling, hi-res LED backlit screen, good accessories and a capable platform that’s giving  ‘I don’t really bother to measure it’ battery life. And how much is this going to cost? $599. That’s half the price for way, way more features than even the best devices were offering in 2007 or 2008. I’m looking at a price comparison site right now and the (hard drive equipped) Q1 Ultra (3G) is still selling in Germany for the equivalent of about $1400. Forget the Q1 Ultra folks. It’s time to move on.

We met with Viliv in Computex and talked about their roadmap for 2009, the S5, the S7 (still on the roadmap) and they kindly handed over an X70 EX Premium Air (the 32GB SSD and 3G version) for long term testing. This one is ‘98%’ ready so we’ve effectively got a release candidate in our hands here. All the packaging is final and we’ve also got the car kit and the leather case.

Unboxing was a rather careless affair as I stripped the packaging down for the journey home from Taiwan but it’s all good quality and much the same as with the S5. My first five minutes with the device were spent at altitude while others slept around me but again, there were no show stoppers. I was immediately happy with the speed of the device. Fast boot and fast access to apps without any stalling is a good indication of a fast SSD.

If you’ve followed reports of the Viliv S5 you’ll know that everyone is happy with the build quality. They use strong but stylish plastics, good design and have a high production quality. The same is true of the X70 which is slim and robust. From me it also gets the award for the best ever backside!

Ergonomics and balance are good although I do have to highlight that it suffers a little from Kindle disease. The buttons on the left and right parts of the frame are all too easy to press when you’re holding the device in one hand. Fortunately there’s enough unused frame space to get round the problem but it takes a few days use before you adjust your the holding position.

Viliv have recessed the ports into the side of the device which creates a nice lip for holding it. You’ll find a single USB 2.0 port (that could be an issue for some,) a video breakout port (the same as found on the S5. VGA, component and S-Video out) an SD card slot, reset button, power port and a mini USB port.  On the top you’ve got a headphone output, power and lock slider, indicators for Wi-Fi, disk and power, an antenna (connected to the 3G antenna on the 3G versions) and a an extending stylus.

Across the front fascia (clockwise from top-left) you have a cursor joystick, webcam (1.3mp) A, B and C buttons, on the bottom left there’s an external mic (many people missed this from the S5) the on-screen keyboard button, FN button and Menu button.

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