We won’t be seeing it, but the folks in Japan will. Not until the second half of the year, though, but it’s nice to know they’re preparing themselves. Read all about it over at MobileCrunch.

ShareThis

Good news for Ubuntu lovers across the pond, Dell is now offering 7.10 on its line of XPS M1330 notebooks in the UK, France, Germany, and Spain.

The program, initially launched last May, has been successful enough and people have requested the option enough that Dell decided to offer the open source operating system on more computer models.

Dell’s UK site has the M1330 priced from £599, with the Inspiron 6400 laptop and the Inspiron 530 desktop priced from £329 to £449, respectively.

Dell UK website [euro.dell.com] via ITPro

ShareThis

Photo courtesy of Akihabara.

In the never ending race to produce the TV, Sharp has taken a slight edge over its Japanese and Korean counterparts. The AQUOS X-series, announced today, comes in 37-, 42- and 46-inch models that are 1.35-inches thin. The LCDs are of the 120Hz, 1080p blend with a contrast ratio of 15,000:1 with 12-bit BDE color. They also include a 3-way 8-speaker system with 1-bit digital amp. No word on price, but they hit the Japanese market March 1.

Press Release

ShareThis

Forget the MacBook Air, I’m getting myself a Linux-free Eee PC. I love Windows XP and I’m a big fan of the little guy from Asus. The 4G-X, as it’s being called in the land of the rising sun, is really the 4G and nothing other than the OS is different then what we have here. I’m still jealous and I want one. It goes on sale this Friday for about $470.

Product Page

ShareThis

We’ve covered Vudu extensively at CG so I don’t need to go into details on what it is and what it does. All you need to know is that Vudu is scared of Apple and the Apple TV so they dropped the price of the VOD box to $295. If you purchased one within the last 30 days you get a $100 credit towards movies. So dig up that receipt and call CS at 888-554-VUDU.

Press Release

ShareThis

You guys remember Gizmondo, right? Well, it appears the fabled handheld is making a comeback thanks to Plextek who rescued it from the hands of liquidators. Don’t worry, Stefan Eriksson is not involved, but Carl Freer is, even though his actions were somewhat questionable. No word on when Gizmondo will make its market debut, but it is, in fact, coming back.

Gizmondo is coming back - it’s official [Euro Gamer]

ShareThis

This is a cruel trick you play on your ex just to mess with them. Giving them a false sense of hope is a bastardly thing to do. A few weeks back WB announced that they would exclusively release titles on Blu-ray and this was to take effect in May, but it seems they’ve extended support for HD DVD until June. Why not make a little money on both formats considering blockbuster titles like I Am Legend, August Rush and Twister are in the pipe? Heh. We’ll see what happens.

Warner extends HD DVD support [TG Daily]

ShareThis

Well today’s the big day.

Here’s are some quick facts and figures about the auction, should you find yourself in the position of having to regale the guests at your next dinner party with tales of the FCC’s invisible goldmine.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle,

1. The spectrum being auctioned is in the 700Mhz airspace. It’s the current spectrum that over-the-air television signals currently use, so it’s relatively high-speed and can work through walls and all that good stuff. The TV signals will be removed in February of next year, when television goes all-digital. It’s expected that there won’t be another big auction like this for quite some time.

2. The FCC expects the entire spectrum to go for about $10 billion, divvied up into five blocks of 1,099 total licenses. The largest block is the C-block, the one that Google and Verizon and everyone else will be bidding on. It contains 12 large regional licenses.

3. Google has pledged $4.6 billion toward the C-block but isn’t expected to win. Analysts think that it just wanted to make sure that whoever wins pays at least $4.6 billion. Upon agreeing to pay the $4.6 billion reserve price, “Google successfully lobbied the FCC to add open requirements for the C-block that would require the owner to keep the network open to any application or device.” Potential bidders besides Google include Verizon, AT&T, Cox, EchoStar, and Alltel.

4. “Auction participants are prohibited from making public statements after filing their intent to participate. The spectrum auction will be conducted electronically over the coming weeks and will extend possibly into March.”

5. “Carlyn Taylor, a senior managing director with consultancy FTI and national leader of its communications and media practice, said she expects big players like Verizon and AT&T to scoop up most of the spectrum licenses, potentially as a defensive maneuver against competitors. But she said there is still an outside chance that Google could win the spectrum and team with a company like WiMax provider Clearwire to build a national network.” The big question is whether or not Google wants to become a wireless provider. And what happens if Google wins but doesn’t want to be a provider?

FCC broadband spectrum auction starts today [SFGate.com]

ShareThis

For the fun, zany, quirky folks comes the FinePix Z20fd. The 10-megapixel shooter comes in a variety of colors and features a Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens, 2.5-inch LCD, 45MB of internal storage and a new feature dubbed Dual Blog Mode. What DBM does is quite simple, really. It automagically resizes any image or movie for easier and faster uploading to e-mails or YouTube. Other features like face detection, IrSimple (lets you beam photos to others) and red eye reduction are also included. The latest fashionista is rather sensitive and has an ISO up to 1600 and does MPEG4 video.

There’s a gaggle of other features like dual shot mode that snaps two pics, one with flash and one without. The Dual shutter release takes care of stills and movies. The Z20 is compatible with xD and SD/SDHC cards. It will debut in March for $199.95.

ShareThis

First up in a long list of Fuji point-and-shoots for the day is the F100fd, The latest F-series digi is equipped with a 12-megapixel, 8th generation Super CCD sensor and it has a Fujinon 5x wide angle optical zoom on top of a 2.7-inch LCD. Other features include a wide dynamic range, dual image stabilization, face detection 3.0 (more details in the press release), automatic red eye removal and an ISO of up to 12800. Seriously? Yeah. It comes in black and silver. Look for it this March for $379.95. Full press release after the jump.

Valhalla, N.Y., January 24, 2008 – Following the long line of award-winning F-Series models, FUJIFILM U.S.A., Inc., today announced its latest and greatest, the FinePix F100fd digital camera.

Combining a 12-MegaPixel, 8th Generation Super CCD with a powerful Fujinon 5.0x wide angle optical zoom lens and a 2.7” high-resolution 230,000 pixel wide angle view LCD, the FinePix F100fd is among Fujifilm’s finest compact digital cameras. As with previous F-Series models such as the FinePix F31, F40fd and F50fd, the F100fd is a powerful, feature-packed compact digital camera aimed at consumers looking for something well above the average model. It offers the most advanced technologies available, including Wide Dynamic Range, Dual Image Stabilization, Face Detection 3.0 Technology with an Automatic Red Eye Removal function and ISO settings of up to an unprecedented ISO 12800 - so missing great shots is not an option.

”The FinePix F100fd demonstrates how consumers can ultimately benefit from Fujifilm’s investment in professional photography,” said David Troy, senior product manager, Consumer Digital Cameras, Electronic Imaging Division, FUJIFILM U.S.A., Inc. “The features packed in to this camera like ISO ranges and wide dynamic ranges are unprecedented for a compact consumer model – they first appeared in our Professional line. Combine these advances with our new Face Detection 3.0’s faster, 360 degree detection ranges and Dual Image Stabilization and you have the ultimate consumer digital photography experience.”

Wide Dynamic Range
Dynamic Range, or the gradations of light that exist between bright and dark in any setting, can be easily detected by the human eye, but not by most cameras. Fujifilm expanded dynamic range capture functionality on the professional imaging side with its FinePix S3 Pro digital camera. The technology, now perfected in the FinePix S5 Pro camera, has been brought to the consumer in the FinePix F100fd. Through a combination of advances in Fujifilm’s new Super CCD HR VIII and RP (Real Photo) Processor III, this wide dynamic range dramatically broadens tonal capability and guarantees exceptional rendition of photos with both bright highlights and dark shadows. This expansion of sensitivity captures greater detail, and subtle nuances of brightness and tonality that bring the photo closer to what the human eye actually sees.

Faster Face Detection 3.0
The FinePix F100fd is also equipped with Fujifilm’s proprietary Face Detection 3.0 Technology featuring Automatic Red Eye Removal. As with the original version of Face Detection, it can detect up to 10 human faces in a scene in as little as .036 seconds, automatically correcting focus, exposure, and white balance, regardless of where subjects are located within the frame. Now, however, the FinePix F100fd is able to identify faces at much more extreme camera angles than before. The camera can register faces with up to 90O movement in either direction for profiles, and up to 360O. After the shot is taken, it instantly corrects red eye and then saves both the original and the corrected image file…automatically

The FinePix F100fd features Fujifilm’s Dual Image Stabilization mode which combines a mechanically stabilized Super CCD sensor with high ISO sensitivities for total anti-blur protection. The combination of these technologies reduces the “blur” effect from the photographer’s hand-shake and subject movement even further to provide the highest quality digital pictures yet, with sharp, clean and clear results. Thanks to the 8th generation FinePix Super CCD-HR chip and the RP Processor III, the Finepix F100fd can utilize ISO settings of up to ISO 3200 at full resolution and an amazing ISO 12800 at reduced resolution1, capturing stunning images even in low light while preserving the natural color and clarity of the shot.

In addition to these advances, the FinePix F100fd possesses a number of other impressive features:
Dual Image Stabilization: Combine mechanical image stabilization with the effects produced with higher ISO.
Continuous Shooting: Top/Final 3 at 1.7 frames per second at full resolution and Top/Final 12 at 5 frames per second at 3-MegaPixels.
High Speed Playback: No waiting for high resolution images to load during play back. The FinePix F100fd can display images at full resolution at 10 frames per second.
Portrait Enhancer Mode: Mimicking a professional photo studio setting, by using Face Detection and preset camera settings, Portrait Enhancer minimizes fine lines and small skin blemishes for smooth, natural looking portraits.
Dual Shot Mode: In this selectable mode, the FinePix F100fd quickly shoots two images in rapid succession – one with the flash and one without – and saves both. This convenient function lets users perform a comparison at their convenience and select the most pleasing image.
Special Scene: The FinePix F100fd has 16 pre-programmed scenes, including a special underwater scene mode for use with a special underwater casing. Also, a Blog mode that automatically reduces the size of copied images for easy posting to a blog, Web page or email attachment.
Micro Thumbnail: A playback feature that allows for viewing an index-style print on the LCD. The FinePix F100fd will show up to 100 images in micro form, then the control buttons are used to select specific images. An innovative wheel navigation dial makes it easy to quickly find a single image by being able to jump to particular segments of images in the time sequence.
IrSimple™: Infrared communication via IrSimple™ technology for fast, easy wireless image transfer to a compatible device.
xD / SD / SD-HC Compatible slot: The FinePix F100fd features a “xD/SD Compatible slot” which accepts not only Fujifilm’s traditional xD-Picture Cards but also Secure Digital (SD) and SD-High Capacity/SD-HC cards too.

The FinePix F100fd will debut in March 2008 at a retail price of $379.95.

ShareThis