Panasonic announced three HD camcorders back at CES, and now the HDC-HS700 and -TM700 round out the family. With 3MOS sensors that offer high-quality HD image in low-light situations, they won’t be cheap but you’ll get what you pay for.
Back in December, we deemed the HDC-TM300, the predecessor to the TM700, the best camcorder you could buy over $1000. The TM700 retains the 32GB solid state drive, the 3″ touchscreen LCD, the SD card capability, and the full 1080/60p recording HD recording of the TM300 while including some distinct improvements: increased zoom (12x optical and 18x Intelligent Zoom); wider-angle recording with 33mm capability; and more advanced image stabilization.
The HDC-HS700 largely sports the same specs, except it boasts a beefy 240GB HDD and adds a little extra bulk in which to house it.
It’s already been available in Japan for a little while now, but it looks like folks in the US will soon finally be able to get their hands on Canon’s new VIXIA HF S11 HD camcorder as well.
One of the biggest advantages this one has over the previous S10 model is 64GB of internal storage (or twice as much as before), which Canon assures us will let you record a full 24 hours of high definition video — or more if you toss a few SDHC cards in your bag.
You’ll also be able to record full HD video in your choice of a 24p Cinema or 30p Progressive modes, capture some 8-megapixel still images, take advantage of features like face detection and a full range of manual controls, and make use of an all new RA-V1 Remote Control Adapter to pair it with various third-party remote controllers. Read the rest of this entry »
The iriver NV — as in NaVigation, initially outed as the M10 — is now up and official. Chances are, if you’re in the market for a PMP, the NV’s got your needs covered. The 7-inch, 840 x 480 LED backlit LCD packs T-DMB television; SiRF III GPS; 2 SD slots (1 reserved for navigation maps presumably); a USB 2.0 host jack; FM transmitter; a “GPS Camera” which presumably GPS tags its 1.3 megapixel photos; and plenty of media support including OGG audio and DivX video among the usuals. All that in a sleek slab of kit which will more than likely never leave the S.Korean market in its current form.
[Via Akihabara News]
Archos has just announced their Generation 5, their new line of multimedia players. We will get a hands-on later today, but the 605 Wi-Fi has been posted on their site. Although it looks very similar to the previous model, it has been improved all around.
First, the 4.3-inch screen is now 800 x 480 pixels. It comes with different hard drives: 30GB, 80GB and 160GB. Archos says the top model stores up to 200 1.5-hour clips with 1,000kbit/s MPEG-4 encoding. The 605 WiFi will also stream videos from your PC and record TV shows using the optional DVR Station, DVR Travel Adapter or Mini Dock. This feature also includes a new TV Program Guide.
The most important thing, according to Archos, is that you can download movies and music using their Archos Content Portal. You are not limited to this, though: It can also surf the Web and download or watch other content as well. Strangely enough, it requires you to download a Flash plug-in to see YouTube or other Flash-based video sites.
One nice touch: it reads PDF files. You know, for <em>books</em>. <span class=”byline”>– Jesus Diaz</span>
[via gizmodo]
If you’d been wondering when you’d ever hear anything more about Meizu’s M6 Second Edition PMP, today’s your lucky day. Looks like it’ll officially sport a seven-millimeter thick enclosure, support MPEG4, MPEG2, WMV9, H.263/264, and RM(VB) movies at 720 x 480 resolution (30fps, too), and include TV out for piping multimedia to your tube.
Additionally, the viewing angles have been improved and the screen size was bumped up a mere 0.01-inches (huzzah?), and we’re told that it can purportedly last 30 solid hours playing back music or between 3 to 5 hours when watching videos. The bad news, however, is that the August ship date has slipped to Q4, and we’re warned that even that may end up falling through. Way to test our patience, Meizu.
[Via MeizuMe]
Not too long after Belkin threw its name in the iPhone accessory hat, the company has now introduced a number of replacement iPod docks and charging kits. The $49.99 F8Z126 Power Dock AV is essentially a basic silver iPod dock that sports USB connectivity and AV output in order to pipe multimedia to your television set, while the vanilla $34.99 F8Z122 Power Dock strips itself of any video exporting abilities.
On the charging side, the $34.99 F8Z152 Charging Kit for iPod consists of an AC outlet to dock connector cable, USB cable, and a cigarette adapter for road trippin’, while the $24.99 F8Z121 Power Adapter for iPod offers up just the AC adapter for those strange moments when you can’t seem to locate a spare USB port. All four units should be available any moment here in the US, while launches in Asia, Europe, and Australia will be following soon.
[via engadget]
Just got official word from SanDisk that they’re putting the Sansa View on ice, at least for the time being. A rep we spoke with told us that SanDisk has, “decided to re-scope the product, so we’ll not be bringing it to market this year.” Apparently they’re still committed to the portable media player market, but that, “the market is changing fast and furious and we want to shift our efforts to develop a PMP that will meet the needs of the market versus pushing out the wrong product. So we’re taking another look.”
It’s disappointing that we won’t be seeing their take on a widescreen flash-based portable video player, but we’ll give ‘em points for at least being upfront about the sitch — and for realizing that it’s better not to release a product at all than to release one that offers a sub-standard experience. Usually when an electronics company kills a product before launch like this they just try and pretend like it never existed in the first place and hope that nobody notices that it never came out.
[via engadget]
Korea sure loves ‘em some convergence, and few homegrowns can top Cowon when it comes to packing audio, video, SatNav, and mobile TV into a single sleek device. No suprise then to find Cowon’s L2 packing enough acronyms to choke a middle-manager: FM radio, DMB TV, 7-inch TFT LCD with PIP, SiRF Star III GPS, and support for JPG, BMP, PNG, MP3, WAV, ASF, WMA, MPEG-4 media stored in the 2GB of built-in storage or SD card expansion.
Unfortunately, it’s only capable of a weak sauce 432 × 240 pixel resolution scattered across that big 7-inch display. Hey, what were you expecting, 1080p — oh, right. Fully configured for 299,000 or about $322 when these hit K-town on June 5th.
[Via Akihabara News]
It may not seem like all that much given Apple’s recent announcement that it’s sold 100 million iPods, but Microsoft seems to be content with the one million Zunes it has sold so far (or will have sold by the end of June), which meets the sales target set at the Zune’s launch.
That tidbit of information comes from Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, who told the San Francisco Chronicle that the company has sold "a little over a million Zunes," reportedly giving it a 10% share in the hard disk-based player category.
While Bach sees that as a "good start" he admits that the Zune hasn’t quite gotten as social as the company would like, saying that "when your installed base is a million, the benefits of sharing, frankly, aren’t as wide as we hope to see in the future." Unfortunately, Bach didn’t get very specific about any future Zune plans, choosing instead to talk up the pink and watermelon-colored Zunes, which’ll surely make all the difference.
[Via Zune-Online.com, thanks Nate W]
Meizu CEO revealed today in a forum post that the Meizu M6 Mini Player SE announced late 2006 is finally in progress. The M6 SE is identical to the M6 in everything except thickness, it’s expected to be a mere 7mm thin – the same thickness as Meizu’s most recent offering, the Music Card.
Currently, it looks as if only a 8GB version will be produced and sold at 999 CNY (approx. $130 USD) August this year.
While we’re still trying to figure out whether the SE stands for Special Edition or Second Edition, Chinese Meizu fans have been speculating about the M6 SE, predicting that the SE will use the same firmware as vanilla M6, that the current 700mAh battery will be swapped for a smaller 500mAh battery and that internal wirings will need reworking.
Thanks to member xx-c for the find.
[Via Meizu BBS]
