Gadget Roundup
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009There are some new toys being released and one of them isn’t new at all but I only just discovered it as I was perusing play.com. Since I am feeling lethargic, I shall bundle all these into one post.
Media Players
I posted awhile back about my potential purchase of the TViX HD M-6500A media player. I was very close to purchasing one a week ago, except now I am finding alternatives that include MKV playback (yes amazing I know).
OPPO BDP-83
This is a Blu-ray/DVD player so technically it does not fall under the media player type category as I see it. However, one thing to note is the plethora of media type support this machine brings to the table. I currently own an OPPO DivX DVD player OPDV971H, and I did consider upgrading. In my opinion, OPPO manufacture one of the best if not the best Blu-ray/DVD players on the market. Unfortunately, you cannot buy this very easily; mine was from a specialist supplier and there aren’t that many that stock them in the UK. However, the specifications for the BDP-83 are fully loaded and the firmware is upgradeable. For some reason, the specs on their website neglected to list the file formats it should support, on Amazon it does list them and does have my beloved MKV on there. Reading user feedback from the early adoption program, it looks like a stable release. The only downside is that I would need to burn all my media onto DVD to playback my movie files, not as convenient as streaming them directly from a media center.
Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player
Going from £350 or so to £89.99 is quite a come down. But this little gem looks very simple to use, connect it to your TV and then hook up a hard drive to it where it can stream from. Of course, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of say the TViX but you can’t argue with the price. Connectivity is also good, with a choice of HDMI, composite and optical out, which for me is very useful if I connected this to the amp/surround sound system. Downside, I am a fussy soul and this does not have Ethernet connectivity and considering all my media is on a NAS this is going to be troublesome. Unless I wanted to copy the movie files onto a USB drive and then connect it, a bit counter-intuitive.
Touchscreen Mobile Phones
There’s two here I am interested in, and in my eyes they are direct competitors against each other all vying for your hard earned cash.
HTC Hero
An Android phone and a step up from the G1, this looks very nice indeed. Buttons wise, it uses the “nipple” trackball that is reminiscent of Blackberrys and has a 5MP camera with all the usual music playback function, microSD card slot, HSDPA connectivity etc. I have seen some YouTube videos of this in action and it looks very, very slick. The interface is what will sell this phone, and this will pit directly against the iPhone 3GS. If it is as good as they say it is, it may even tear me away from my Touch HD. However, I have a gripe! That is the bottom of the phone is curved, so the unit is not completely flat. Negligible aesthetically I know, but I can just see me getting frustrated with it when it is in my pocket. I will look forward to it’s official release so I can get my hands on it. P.S: The Hero monicker needs to be changed to something else I think.
iPhone 3GS
3rd time lucky I suppose, this is what it should have been. I still find it humourous that they list Cut, Copy & Paste as a key feature for this. At least it has this fundamental feature now, to the happiness of many iPhone users I’m sure. I am wondering if they could have put a 5MP camera on there and a microSD card slot. Also new is the digital compass but unless I am going to go rambling somewhere, I am more likely to use the Google Maps/GPS combo like I do on the Touch HD… which by the way was extremely handy when I was in Chicago and I got slightly lost along Michigan Avenue. Apple didn’t re-invent the wheel, but they shouldn’t need to. Users will be happy about the 2x increase in speed, but they have to buy another iteration. Apple must feel their user base have a lot of money to burn on their products; such is the price of progress.
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