Todays & Tomorrows Technology

If the design of Samsung’s HMX-U10 camcorder is a little too outré for your tastes, the company has two more traditionally-shaped offerings today. The Samsung SMX-K40 and SMX-K45 both conform to the standard palmcorder format, but actually they’re not quite as technically capable as the U10; each can record up to 720 x 480 resolution, rather than their upright sibling’s 1080p.

Still, you get a 65x “Intelli-Zoom” (52x optical zoom) and optical image stabilization, together with an HDMI output for direct connection to a TV or display. There’s also Schneider Optics and the same Intelli-Studio onboard editing suite as the U10, that boots up whenever you connect to a PC via USB. From there you can make basic tweaks and upload to YouTube.

The K40 has an SDHC card slot while the K45 has a 32GB SSD, good for up to 20hrs and 40 minutes of recording. Both can shoot 800 x 600 stills and do time-lapse recording, and will hit the market in August 2009. The Samsung SMX-K40 will be priced at $329.99 while the SMX-K45 will be $499.99.

Samsung are preparing to launch a new, 11.6-inch netbook, the N510, and rather than Intel’s Atom Z5xx series of processors they’ve picked the 1.66GHz N280. The N510 will also use NVIDIA’s Ion graphics chipset, paired with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive.

The presence of Ion will make the N510 capable of high-definition video playback, which should make the WXGA 1,366 x 768 more usable. Rival machines such as the Acer Aspire One 751, which have similarly-sized displays but use Atom Z5xx series processors and standard netbook graphics, have proved woefully underpowered for HD content.

Other Samsung N510 specs include WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and wired ethernet, together with an integrated webcam and microphone, multi-format memory card reader, 6-cell Li-Ion battery and Windows XP Home. It’ll apparently be priced at around €570 ($799), which is mighty-expensive for an Atom-based netbook.

Samsung may have managed to get several models from Sharp’s TV and monitor ranges banned from import into the US, after convincing the U.S. International Trade Commission that the products infringe one of its patents. The IP refers to LCD display technology, with sets from Sharp’s Aquos range of HDTVs named as potentially in violation.
While ruling against other Samsung patents the company had accused Sharp of violating, the agency decided that one particular patent, granted in 2004 and titled “Liquid Crystal Display having wide viewing angle”, was indeed infringed. The ITC are now suggesting that Sharp LCD products should be banned from import into the US.

A final ruling in Sharp’s complaint against Samsung is yet to be reached, though an ITC administrative judge actually Sharp’s spokesperson declined to comment on the ongoing process, while Samsung could not be reached for a statement.

Samsung have announced a solid-state drive (SSD) that fits onto a mini-PCIe card, offering up to 64GB capacity in a form-factor nearly 80-percent smaller than a 2.5-inch drive. The SATA 3.0 Gbps drive is not only intended for compact devices, such as MIDs and netbooks, but as a secondary or complementary drive for regular notebooks.

In that way, users would no longer have to choose between the speed of SSD and the low price of traditional hard-drives, but instead have both. The mini-PCIe card weighs up to 8.5g and boasts 200MB/s read rates and 100MB/s write rates.

It also supports full-drive encryption and the usual shock-resistance of an SSD. Samsung are currently sampling the SATA mini-card SSD to its hardware partners, while pushing for standardization on its mechanical form-factor and pin-layout. That’s expected to be completed by Q3 2009; there’s no word on when we could see the drives reach the market.

Samsung have taken the wraps off of their latest pocket-projector, the P410M, and while you’d certainly need reasonably-sized pockets to carry it, it perhaps makes up for things by offering higher than usual specs. The P410M boasts up to 800 x 600 resolution and a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, together with inputs that include VGA, composite and a USB port.

There’s also a full remote control, 170 lumen brightness and an LED lamp rated for up to 30,000 hours usage. Twin 1W speakers handle stereo sound, though probably aren’t something you’d like to listen to a whole feature-film on. Unfortunately there’s no sign of a battery, so it looks like the P410M is mains-only.

While there’s no confirmation at the moment, the P410M looks suspiciously like the Samsung PhlatLight prototype projector we saw back in June 2008. Then, production models were tipped before the end of the year, but its obviously taken a little longer to get this Samsung out of the door.

We’ve been singularly cellularly obsessed here at SlashGear over the past seven days, and it’ll come as no surprise that the run-up to the iPhone 3G S has occupied much of our attention. The new Apple smartphone may not look much different to its predecessor, but if our hands-on first impressions are anything to go by, Cupertino have done their best to make the user-experience as polished as the casing. Still, it’s not just shiny Apple hardware that’s caught our eye this week; Novatel Wireless’ GSM MiFi 2352 piqued our interest when we talked to the company themselves on Monday, and then proceeded to impress us considerably in our full review.

Elsewhere, Nokia’s long-awaited N97 finally reached North American customers’ hands, ours included, and you can find our unboxing and first-impressions here. It’s a decent smartphone, and understandably the flagship of Nokia’s line, but can it hold up in the face of iPhone’s upgraded OS 3.0 software? We’ll have our full review this coming week.

If it’s a QWERTY keyboard you’re after, but you prefer your phones berry-flavored, then the news that both Verizon and Sprint would be offering the BlackBerry Tour 9630 in the near future will probably come as some relief. 3G, GPS, for all the specs check out the official RIM video. Finally, Samsung took the wraps off of the Omnia Pro B7610, complete with a glorious OLED touchscreen display and slide out ‘board.

It’s not all been smartphones, though. SlashGear sat in front of a small screen, in the shape of Fujitsu-Siemen’s Amilo Mini Ui 3520 netbook, and a big screen (albeit a virtual one) with the Q-London 3D 80″ Video Eyewear. Oh, and in the name of extreme destruction, we watched Lenovo’s ThinkPad T400s go head to head with a 26,000lb DOW truck. If you want to see whether a slender ultraportable notebook can cope with getting comfortable between rubber and gravel, check out the video.

Finally, Microsoft confirmed that the Zune HD PMP will use NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset, making us even more keen to see what this potential-iPod-killer (yes, we know, a cliché if ever there was one) brings to the table. And for your high-definition home entertainment, PopcornHour delivered their C200 Blu-ray ready media-streamer. If you’ve ever looked at your media collection and wished there was a set-top box that could handle it all without breaking a sweat, this is the gadget for you.

Samsung released their SMX-C14 camcorder today, following the product’s announcement back in April. This camera sports the Touch of Color style that has been so popular among Samsung products these days.
This camera features a 25-degree angled lens and 16GB of flash memory. However, you can expand this by means of the SDHC memory card slot. It’s capable of HD H.264 format and photos with a 1,600 x 1,200 resolution.

Other features include time-lapsed photography, a 10X optical zoom, edit abilities, an Upload button for transferring files to YouTube, and USB syncing. You can get the SMX-C14 now for the equivalent of $310 in Korea in blue, gray and red color options.

Samsung’s TL320 digital camera has finally begun shipping, after being made official back in February. A 12.2-megapixel point-and-shoot, the TL320 (aka the WB1000) distinguishes itself with a neat pair of retro dials that indicate charge and memory card status, together with using OLED for its 3-inch HVGA resolution preview screen.
The TL320 also has a 5x optical zoom, dual optical and digital image stabilization, face detection and smile-shot. It can also record 720p high-definition video, and has an HDMI output for connecting directly to an HDTV.

The Samsung TL320 is currently available via Amazon, priced from $334.21 courtesy of one third-party retailer. Amazon themselves have it at the MRSP of $379.99.

Samsung announced a brand new LCD monitor not too long ago called the VC240, but this is no ordinary display. In fact, it’s configured to work as a video conferencing tool. Made by an affiliated company called Radvision, this display is 23.6-inches and has a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution.


But this monitor also comes with a noise-canceling microphone and a 5-megapixel camera. 3W speakers are built-in. The camera is capable of a 720p resolution and 30fps live video streaming.

Other features include 300cd/m2 brightness, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 170-degree and 160-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angle, respectively and a 5ms response time. It also features V2oIP, SIP, MCUs and MS. Inputs include VGA and DVI-I. You’ll be able to get your hands on this display sometime in the fall for $1,999.

A new Samsung PMP has been leaked, courtesy of online retailer Play. The Samsung YP-R1 has a 2.7-inch WQVGA (400 x 240) touchscreen and 8GB of onboard storage, and supports not only standard headphones via a 3.5mm jack but Bluetooth cans thanks to the A2DP profile.

Update: The above Play link still works, but a new listing for a 16GB version of the YP-R1 has been added, with an MRSP of £179.99 ($296) and a sales price of £129.99 ($214) – thanks Sebastiano!

Other specifications include an FM radio and ebook reader, together with games support. There’s a fair chunk of codec support in there too, with the YP-R1 coping merrily with MP3, WMA, OGG, ACC, FLAC, WAV and ASF audio files and MPEG-4, WMV, H.264, RMVB, DivX and Xvid video files. It’ll also show JPEG, BMP, PNG and GIF images.

A TV output wraps up the main abilities, and transfers are via USB though there’s no word on whether the YP-R1 uses a proprietary port or a standard mini or microUSB connector. We’ll keep out fingers crossed for the latter. The Samsung YP-R1 8GB is set to arrive on July 30th, with an MRSP of £149.99 ($247); Play are listing it for £109.99 ($181), however.

Samsung announced an update to their S1 Mini external hard drive line today that adds a new 160GB model to the mix. As if that weren’t enough, you’ll now be able to choose from two additional Pop colors.
The 1.8-inch S1 Mini line already comes in Snow White, Piano Black, Wine Red and Chocolate Brown but now you have the additional options of Ocean Blue and Sweet Pink.

About the size of a credit card, the S1 features auto back-up, a capacity gauge, a USB 2.0 connection, 128-bit and 256-bit AES encryption, password security and a standby mode. You can get the updated S1 Mini line in Korea now and will be available elsewhere by the end of the month.

The 11.6-inch netbook/CULV segment continues to look to be the next area of growth in budget ultraportables, as display panel manufacturer Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) are tipped to have secured orders with both Dell and Samsung. The company has been demonstrating the 11.6-inch panel along with a 13.3-inch version intended for CULV machines at the Display Taiwan 2009 expo.

Also on show have been 3D-capable panels and a multitouch display intended for netbooks. No word on whether they have been picked up by manufacturers yet.

The 11.6-inch CPT display, like most of its size, runs at 1366 x 768 resolution. It has a 220 cd/m2 brightness rating and 3.6W power consumption; CPT expect it to go into mass production come July 2009, though there’s no word on when we can expect to see the Samsung and Dell machines using it.

Samsung have officially announced the Omnia Pro B7610 in Korea, alongside their I7500 Android smartphone (aka the Samsung Galaxy), the Omnia B7320 and the 12-megapixel Pixon 12 M8910. Full specifications are still yet to be confirmed, though we’ve previously heard that the Omnia Pro has a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen running at WVGA resolution, HSPA and WiFi connectivity, and a 5.1-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash.

The phone is believed to run Windows Mobile 6.1, with an upgrade for Windows Mobile 6.5 when Microsoft release the new OS, and have Samsung’s own GUI overlay with switchable “Pro” and “Media” modes. There’s also Bluetooth, A-GPS, 1GB of onboard storage and a microSDHC slot content with up to 32GB cards.

Still unclear is availability and pricing, beyond a launch in the second half of 2009. Some rumors have suggested that the Omnia Pro B7610 could drop as early as August, however.

More on Samsung’s upcoming B7610 Louvre this morning, and the suggestion that in fact the handset is set to arrive as the Samsung Omnia Pro. New photos, including a live-shot of the smartphone, have emerged, together with specifications seemingly confirming the 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, HSDPA/HSUPA and WiFi connectivity, and a 5.1-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash.

While the Omnia Pro will run Windows Mobile 6.1 (with an upgrade to 6.5 once that’s released, unless Samsung postpone their launch until the new OS is available) it will also have different UIs to pick from: one “Pro” and one “Media” which presumably offers a more PMP-styled interface. There’ll also be a dedicated button to switch between them.

Other specifications include GPS, DLNA support, a TV-out connection, Bluetooth and FM radio, plus a microSDHC card slot (up to 32GB supported) and 1GB of onboard storage. The battery is tipped as a 1,500mAh pack, while the CPU is an unspecified 800MHz chip. DivX, WMV and H.264 acceleration is supported. There’s talk that the Samsung Omnia Pro will land in August 2009.

We're actually surprised we didn't make the connection earlier, but word on the street today is the the rumored Samsung Omnia Pro will actually be a renamed Louvre B7610, a set's which been popping up a lot lately. Makes sense -- the Louvre's 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED screen, 800MHz processor, and 5.1 megapixel camera match up nicely with the Omnia line. It's running Windows Mobile 6.1 right now, but we wouldn't be too surprised if the rumored August release date is held back to September or October to coincide with WinMo 6.5. One more pic after the break, couple more at the read links.

There's nothing particularly offensive about this DAP, but we can't imagine it changing anyone's life -- and really, is that too much to ask out of a portable audio player? After catching wind of this upcoming YP-R1 from Samsung, the fine folks at DAP Review did a bit of sleuthing to pair up the specs with a photo, and it's all pretty traditional: 8GB of flash storage, a 2.7-inch 400 x 240 touchscreen display, a good amount of video and audio codecs, TV-out, Bluetooth, FM, e-book reader and even some games. Supposedly it'll be out in the UK on July 30th for £109.99 (about $181 US). Like we said, pretty standard stuff, but who knows, maybe Samsung will surprise us all with a new UI theme or something.

It seems a day doesn’t go by without some new technology rumor. But hey, it keeps things exciting. Today, there’s a rumor going around on the Pentax Forums that Samsung will be releasing the GX-30 very soon.

The GX-30 is set to be the successor to the GX-20, a DSLR camera. The suspected launch date is July 7th. Interestingly enough, we heard last month that the GX-30 would be launching in June but nothing has come of that yet.

However, not everyone thinks it’s the GX-30 set to launch. Others are set on the idea that the NX-series will be making it’s debut next month. Of course, nothing official has been revealed by Samsung just yet, so for now all we can do is speculate.

While it's not the first name you think of in digital cameras, Samsung makes a decent piece of kit and its SL820 took the top prize in our recent summer shootout. So we figured you'd want to know that its WB1000 compact with those smokin' analog battery and capacity gauges is now on sale for KRW548,000 or about $418 closer to home. The 12.2 megapixel WB1000 features a 24-mm wide-angle 5x zoom Schneider-KREUZNACH lens and 1/2.33-inch CCD with 720p video record mode in H.264 format, max ISO 3200 sensitivity (at 3 megapixel resolution), and Samsung's Dual IS optical and digital image stabilization to compensate for hand jitter. The viewer won't disappoint either with a full 3-inch 480x260 AMOLED display rocking the backside. Why should you care? Check the video after the break to see how AMOLED compares to the TFT-LCD found on the Canon SD990 IS under different lighting and viewing angles. The winner is clear, no?

So this really doesn't look anything like that Bigfoot we saw a little while ago, but we can sorta see the familial resemblance if we squint really (really, really) hard. According to Boy Genius Report, what we're looking at here is allegedly Samsung's Android-powered Bigfoot for T-Mobile, said to be attacking the high end of the carrier's smartphone line thanks to a 3-inch capacitive AMOLED display, full QWERTY, 3 megapixel camera, and naturally, HSDPA. If we had to guess, this is probably a newer version of the same product concept that we'd seen in that roadmap a few weeks back -- Sammy probably started with its Beat DJ (or an Ocean 2) and worked backwards from there to get to the retail version they wanted to launch. We're told it'll launch "like, really soon," so would-be G1 or myTouch 3G buyers might want to hold on for a hot second.

Samsung have unveiled a new digital camera that rocks its distinctive dual-analog-gage indicators. The Samsung WB1000 has a 12.2-megapixel 1/2.33-inch CCD paired with a 24mm wide-angle Schneider-KREUZNACH lens and 5x optical zoom, together with a 3-inch AMOLED 480 x 260 display around the back.
The two retro gages show battery life and capacity, and are intended to be more intuitively read at-a-glance. Meanwhile the WB1000 is also capable of recording 720p H.264 video, which also takes advantage of the camera’s dual optical and digital image stabilization.

Maximum ISO is 3200, though that scales down the frame resolution to a mere 3.2-megapixels, and the WB1000 stores either to its 76MB of internal capacity or up to 8GB SDHC cards (bigger may be supported, but not officially). No word on official launch dates or pricing, but it’s expected to arrive later this month for around $400.