There it was, that tiny unexpected thing that made apple shake their panties (and probably gotten them working overtime)..... Yup, This years CES (consumer electronics show) in Las Vegas was all about Palm and them getting back their fair share, of what once was their game aswell. without further ado. This is Multitaskin', cardthrowin' (explained in video), ever so neat and oh so cute- Palm Pre and it's built from scratch WebOs user interface.
walk thru-
walk thru-
(including danish band The Fashion amongst the albums playing.)
The videos say it all. Unlike every other phone set to try and compete with the iphone, you can look up the Palm Pre on youtube, every video of it's performance being truthfully fast, smooth and simply impeccable in every single hands on.
Hardware wise we're looking at a 3.1" capacitive touchscreen on top of an 800mhz Texas Instruments processor. It carries Bluetooth, Wifi (b/g), 8gb storage, 3.5mm jackplug and last but not least wireless charging thru the touchstone accessory.
The Touchstone charging dock-
Wauv.... definently gonna write more about this wonder....... soon...
There you have it, sizzling hot news- Sony is officially joining the touchscreen game with their X series web-capable mediaplayers. (announced at CES in Las Vegas today). In the case of the NWZ-X1000 Walkman, Specifications scream a razor sharp 3" OLED screen based devices, Wifi capabilities backing boasty flavours of 16 and 32gb capacities. More details are bound to hit public antennas any minute now.... but in the meanwhile.... feast yourself on this glorius first hands on video. Sweet eh?
Check out tons more neat Olydig stuff over at www.olydig.se. Theres even a sale going on as we speak, so some of it might come even cheaper if you care for some leftovers.
So it seems.... The shimmering Cowon S9 makes it to shops and stores (pretty much globally) just before christmas. It is officially out in Germany, Uk, Sweden, Norway, France, U.S etc. 8gb goes for 180 euro and 16gb for approx 215 euro. 32gb? Unfortunantly not up for grabs untill next year. Anywaa, for specs along my initial S9 post, go here.
For those interested in some serious gadgetporn, here you go. The two very first Cowon S9 unboxings. First one by Engadget, second one by Boy Genius Report.
Visit the Engadget Cowon S9 unboxing gallery here.
Visit the Boy Genius Report Cowon S9 unboxing gallery here.
Or check out some neat amateur hands-on footage on youtube, click here.
Last month i posted about the diverse (but amazing) Korean consumer electronics company- Mintpass and their super fabulous Mintpad mediatablet. As it seems, Mintpass has alot more neat design stuff cooking in the lab. So i figured i would let you have a look at this- A fascinating concept design entitled "Used As Read".
Click images for larger sizes. (opens in a new window). All images courtesy of Mintpass.co.kr.
Disturbing cables on the back, clashing with the cleanliness across. Classic and retro.
Brilliant, to say the least.
The whole concept stacked.
It really looks as though Mintpass is a company all about doing things right from the start. Wonderfully refreshng and ambitious, i must say.
Around 3 months ago Korean Cowon announced a somewhat handful of new devices, set for public arrival around the new year (before and after). One of these, is the extremely talked about- Cowon S9, also known as the Curve. Not only is it sweet sweet eyecandy out of the ordinary, it also plays every living audio and video format out there.
This just oozes beautiful build quality from top to bottom.
Just to sum up the specs before taking a closer look at the amazing design. The S9 revolves around a 500mhz dual core processor (yup, dual core), a razor sharp 3.3" iamoled touchscreen, (480 x 272 pixels, ), Flash storage capacities in 4, 8, 16 and 32gb, Bluetooth 2.0 support, DMB tv (probably asia only, since europe isnt prepped for that), Audio playback support for: MP3/2/1, WMA, FLAC, OGG, APE, WAV, Video playback support for: Xvid SP/ASP, Avi, Divx, WMV9 SP/MP at 30 frames pr. second, and best of all, it promises 40 hours of audio playback. It will be available in Korea from the 16th and prices announced so far range 150-220$ with 4-16gb. (No price on 32gb yet).
And here they are, the rest of the latest S9 press shots. Courtesy of Cowonglobal Korea.
Clean backside in gunmetal black.
It looks as though the S9 will be the first touchscreen player, to have nice tucked away controls, allowing you to function when not looking at the screen (fx.in your pocket.) play/pause in the middle, skip buttons on the right and volume on the left. Very slick details.
Looks to be the sleakest of Ui's Cowon has yet to launch.
Clean and neat UI, aesthetically in the middle of Samsung and Apple. Very promising stuff.
Chinese company - Meizu, usually known for making cheap/ugly (but quality built) ipod looking mp3players. Have finally finished and launched samples of what has been a painful 2 year struggle, of yet another somewhat familiar looking device. Yes, the Meizu M8, the "iphone clone".... the evil twin.... have finally found its way out of the production line and into the open arms of reviewers and fondlers everywhere.
Meizu's goal was clear from the start: To sincerely live up to the quality of the iphone, while still surpassing it on the specifications. Frightening about this, is that after almost going out of business, it looks as if they actually pulled something good off.
So what is really so interesting about this that i wanna go post about it? Well, multiple reasons actually. Two of them being intellectual properties (rights to designs/thoughts etc.) and format support. Does apple really hold the right to squares with rounded corners? Does everything have to be closed up in a box of itunes in order for you to play with it? Well.... Apparently not.
Again i find parts of the basic iphone concepts intrigueing, though i have some general dislikings for it. Some of them very solveable, but proven difficult for many phone manufacturers. One being that, i cannot see what i would use a video playing device for, when companies like apple does not deliver video downloads/purchases in Scandinavia and along it, offer no alternative. Conversion sucks, it is time consuming and dumb. Second is the actual codec supports for audio/video. Why should i settle for measly couple of codecs (apple and mp3)? Third: battery. Battery time is freaking vital when you have a phone that wants to double as your media tablet. So an internal battery that only last a bit over a day, such as in the iphone, is just not acceptable in my opinion. Wrapping those failures in a nasty 90's chrome front, just makes me wanna run for the hills.
So, why shouldnt a Meizu M8 be a fair choice above all the other companies like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Lg and Htc? All of them companies that dont wanna look towards the consumer, because theyre too busy to put out 60 identical devices a year.
The specifications of the Meizu M8 speak for them self. It will be cheaper, not locked to a carrier, it is smaller than the iphone (with the looks of an ipod touch), it has a 480x720 resolution which is double than most phones/mediaplayers (iphone included), it has a better camera at 3.2 megapixels (iphone at 2.0 mp), it has a removable battery, the new Opera browser and last but least, a massive list of codec supports. Audio being- mp3, wma, ogg, flac, ape, aac, and wav. Video doing- Wmv, Avi, Divx, Xvid, Mpeg and even Flv. That is to me all in all, freakishly impressive. Best of all, it comes in colors all black or all white, simple and clean (no chrome).
Heres a closer at what were dealing with.
The M8 browsing with Opera. Notice how responsive the screen is. Am actually quite impressed by this.
Playing music. Notice the swipe functions between play and visualizer. Wonder if one could add extensive cover art for individual albums?.
Keyboard and typing.
So to sum up. I really do stay impressed and hope to see this fair little bastard up for grabs very soon. Ofcourse it needs to withstand a boatload more trials before ending up in true consumer hands. But, overall, it states pretty clear- Its not a piece of junk. Today, that in itself is some sign of quality.
PS: Heres a translated i depth review of the M8 with loads of details and pictures from it168.com.
One of my most favourite people on this planet of ours, is norwegian artist Are Mokkelbost. Not only is his work intelligent, beautiful, weird, sofisticated (at times even simple) and versatile as hell, but to me deeply original in soo many ways, that i cannot help being anything but blown away by all his wonderful directions.
His work spans from mostly graphics, collages, prints, music, sound, and beyond. Musically his engagement stretches from his own private project "Single Unit" (jester records/synesthetic), the electronic trio "Arm" with Alexander Rishaug and Arne Borgan, to "KILLL" which he founded together with his brother Erlend Mokkelbost (whom also played in posthardcore band Jr Ewing), Martin Horntveth of Jaga Jazzist and Espen Hangaard. Designwise his excellence range from a wide span of styles and situations. Amongst these, album artwork for fellow countrymen Jaga Jazzist 4th album The Stix (2002).
Jaga Jazzist - The Stix
While stylish simplicity and calm aesthetics works for Jaga Jazzist, Mokkelbosts own "Single Unit" project radiates glorius technocracy. His Family Of Forces (2001) album is to me probably one of the most interesting and important pieces of art in human audio-technological history. Both artwork and "music" is by Are Mokkelbost.
Listen a couple of tracks from the album. (Can be downloaded in high quality for free over at Are's own website - B-O-R-G.org). You will even be able to find some good quality Single Unit live videos there too.
Yes, already by now you should be able to agree that he might be worth investigating for your own personal benefit. I definently recommend you to check out every little nook of his site. There is soooo much to see and so much to take in and admire. May it be him teaching the young ones the true ways of noise music, showing of installations for his next exhibit or touring with Killl. Hell.... visit his site, and follow your ears and eyes.
To topit off, heres some more snapshots from the wonderful world of Mr. Mokkelbost, courtesy of his site B-O-R-G.org).-
First paper collage test, 2001.
Stenersen Museum, Oslo, 2002.Paper collage, acrylic spray, foil and stickers on plywood.
Blogging is way too fancy a word for what i wanna do on this basic page. I promised myself i wouldn't take it too seriously, but at the same time also swore that i wouldn't just do a dumb blog. So here's the deal. I like wasting/spending my time on surfing, i like searching for things.... i like to discover things. May they be musical, visual, verbal or none of the above. I would love to think that i am good at finding, showing and stating interesting things. I would also love to think that i could make it a better habbit, trying to document that assumption.
That being said, with me being brutally honest- Only time can tell what might be posted for you to love or dislike in here. I wont take it too serious, and i will try not being to uninteresting. Plus, minus, whatever, whenever. This is it. Welcome on over.
A bleeding mess, a pile of words, some downloads, fuzzy images, reviews, recommendations, observations and Scandinavian shit-talk, twisted and turned in a love for music, design and weird scandalous/fabulous behaviour. Like vegetarian food at Mcdonalds, intriguing, yet fascinatingly questionable. Superantonym.
Posts
