The Iphone slayer

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...

Sony NWZ-X1000 Hands on

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?

Cowon S9 Striptease

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.

Cowon S9 - A closer look

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.

Cant wait for this one to surface.

The Iphone's evil twin

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.

The Mintpad

The Mintpad. A promising little Korean pocket monster for those who appreciate the fine arts of drawing, blogging, taking pictures (and blogging), listening music, watching videos, making post-its (and blogging them). Yup, and i havent even beging to mention the different social features like personal calendar, chat and what not.

The Mintpad is a creation by Korean Mintpass, a newcomer on the market founded and run by fugitives of Irivers innovation department, lead by concept excentric Duk-Jun Yang, a former Ceo of Korean Reigncom/Iriver. Mintpass whom with the Mintpad now have good physical proof that they have no intention of being a company not doing things right from the beginning.



To sum up the full potential of the cuddly Mintpad. Well, besides its miniature form factor - the crossbreed size of a creditcard and post-it, it has a good quality 1.3 Megapixel integrated camera (descent for blogging and fun), Wi-fi (802.11 b/g), integrated speaker and microphone, a full 2.9" touch screen (for both fingers and pens), 4gb internal memory (backed up by a microSd slot, supporting up to 8gb cards), removable battery, built in accelerometer and a 3,5 mm standard headphonejack. Codec supports and tricks for music include Mp3, Wma, Ogg, Ape and Flac (which is damn impressive) along a customizable equalizer and intelligent playlist features. Videowise it does Avi (pressumably Divx/Xvid), Wmv and Mpeg (which is equally impressive).

Features include Etch'a'sketch like gesture support for both drawing and blogging. So that when you fx take a picture, wrote some text, made a note or a drawing. Just give the Mintpad a little shake and it goes straight to your blog (or other web destination). Yes, weve seen the shake gestures before, but to be honest, it actually makes alot of sense when you have the internet involved. Check it out.

Draw/write and take pictures. Shake it and blog it!.


Writing/drawing, speedy and natural.


Another really neat and exclusive feature (if you notice on the videos) is that when you make a drawing or a note, it actually blends in a paper texture (optional) so that it looks like a real drawing/post-it instead of straight up generic graphics. That combined with the fact that the Mintpad posseses a very capable tabletminded atypically responsive touchscreen (and nice user interface), makes it all pretty pitchable to the public and worth the fact that this could go and become an actual intelligent little trendsetting device.

So all in all, if youre a whore for simple clean cut design in a tiny package, you love blogging (and lofi photgraphy), you need a home for your handdrawn post-it style critters and doodles. Last but not least, wouldnt mind carrying your music/video along with all of that. Hell, your train has almost arrived. All you gotta do is, Hold your breath for a while and let Mintpass do their thing. They wont let this one miss out on a good old European fondle.

If you wanna see more of the Mintpad, please check out these pages on the Mintpass website. Mintpad design and press photos, The concept and features and How to use. All pages are unfortunantly in Korean, but theres loads of good product shots and details to be excited about.