Isaiah's Tech

The Kindle 2 was officially announced by Amazon today. The rumoured pricing and availability was correct. It will be released on February 24 for $359 USD. "The new model has a much more iPod-like aesthetic with an aluminum back, rounded curves and a much thinner design." Along with the new looks, the Kindle 2 has a 20% faster e-paper screen, 25% longer battery life and 2GB of storage. "It also has a new text-to-speech feature that reads books aloud through built-in stereo speakers." You will still be able to read your newspaper on this device for $6 USD - $15 USD a month and you can get blogs pre-formatted for your Kindle 2 for 99 cents each. Maybe my librarian will be able to purchase one this time around. People are also saying that the Kindle 3 should be an iPhone app. I don't this would be a good idea because not everyone wants an iPhone. Restricting the Kindle 3 to just iPhone users would be dumb. Kindle fans would also complain about how small the screen is.

Look at that sexy Blackberry 9300 Gemini. Barack Obama would sure love to get his hands on that. The Gemini looks like it will be one sexy Blackberry. Ever since the Bold came out, it has had the rights to that title. Anyways, this Blackberry will have a bigger screen, beefier processor, "a slightly more 'rounded' keyboard, and most importantly, quadband EDGE plus triband HSDPA." There is no word on the availability of this gem[ini], but i don't think that it will be available in the first half of this year.

If you use your laptop for dual-monitor purposes, this could be for you. These Lapfit monitors from Samsung will be beneficial to you. If you use your laptop as your primary monitor and a traditional LCD monitor for your secondary monitor, you may get frustrated, since your monitors don't line up exactly the way you want them too. You can use these Lapfit monitors to line up those dual-monitors together. These displays will sit at the same height as your laptop's display. The Lapfit monitors will come in 19 and 22 inch variations and will have a 10-30 degree tilt, a 1,360 x 768 resolution, 4ms response time and a 20,000:1 "dynamic contrast."

Samsung looks like it's a hungry contender for that top spot on the mobile list. Nokia has to watch out for Samsung this year because they've been stirring up all of the news lately. It looks like Samsung will start off by improving the TouchWiz UI to make it more "finger-friendly." This new TouchWiz UI was located on the S8300 slider, which i will talk much more about later. They will probably show the TouchWiz's latest version at MWC.

The M7600 and the i8910 will be what i talk about next. The DJ / rapper phone will come with Bang & Olufsen audio, which i know nothing about. Along with a microSD card slot, it will also include a: "2.8 inch AMOLED touchscreen, 3 megapixel snapper with LED flash, HSDPA, GPS capabilities as well as DivX support." Up next is the Acme i8910, also from Samsung. This will run on S60 5th Edition and will have 780p HD video recording. It has an 8MP camera (with only a disappointing LED flash), "GPS, Wi-Fi and DivX support." It also has an HDMI port somewhere. Look for them both at MWC.

I've saved you the best phone for last. Samsung's 'flagship' phone. Behold the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH. Besides being uber for having caps in its name, the S8300 has features that will disappoint only a few. The S8300 has a 2.8-inch OLED touchscreen, 80MB of storage with a 2GB card supplied (expandable to 16GB, thanks to microSD), an 8MP camera with dual LED flash (I was looking forward to xenon), GPS, Bluetooth, the latest TouchWiz UI and an accelerometer. There is no claims of this phone having Wi-Fi on GSM Arena, but it must have it somewhere. Oh man. Wait for the big news about this at MWC and then i'll have a real story for you. This phone may be competing with the N97, but i still think it would lose.

Kindle 2 Officially Announced (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/09/amazon.kindle.2/
Blackberry 9300 Gemini (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/rumored-blackberry-9300-gemini-appears-bold-gulps/
Samsung Lapfit Monitors (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/samsung-introduces-lapfit-monitors-in-a-fit-of-insanity/
Samsung TouchWiz UI (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/samsungs-touchwiz-ui-getting-a-mwc-makeover/
Samsung M7600 and i8910 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_m7600_appears_i8910_conifrms_hd_video-news-781.php
Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_s8300_ultratouch-review-314.php

Recently, i talked about Intel winning the bid to work on the PS4's GPU and possibly even its CPU. Well, leave it up to Sony to dismiss all of these rumours. The Sony rep said that, "It's nonsense and quite possibly the best work of fiction I've read, since Lord of the Rings."

I feel that Square Enix needs to make this Final Fantasy VII remake for the Playstation 3. Apparently, it may be worked on after the completion of Final Fantasy 13, which will probably be by early next year, since some of us are getting it next year. The next question this articles mentions is when. When will the Final Fantasy VII remake be scheduled to release? Obviously, no one knows for sure. I'm sure that Square Enix doesn't even know themselves, unless they are hiding something from us. Anyways, looking at numerous statistics, we can see that Final Fantasy III's remake sold over 2 million copies. This is a key statistic because the original Final Fantasy III sold less than half of what the original Final Fantasy VII sold. This leaves one to question, how much copies of a Final Fantasy VII remake sell? A lot. In fact, many Final Fantasy fans say that Final Fantasy VII is the best Final Fantasy game to ever be released and i am one of those perople. Final Fantasy VII was an amazing game. I remember beating Emerald (without Underwater materia) and Ruby. I remember getting scared of Jenova, since i was only 11 years old when i played that game. But, that's what got my adrenaline rushing. Final Fantasy VII is an amazing game in all aspects.

On the 'wtf' news of the day, a car with a mp3-enabled car horn. You will be able to customize the sound of your horn to whatever song you want. Imagine all of the Lil Wayne songs that would be playing if everyone could do this. But, seeing how the DiMora Natalia SLS2 concept will cost about $2 million USD, i don't think we'll be seeing much of this car. That is, if it was ever actually released. This car is just a concept, although the company is very serious about the specs. No one knows for sure if this car will "ever see the light of day."

Google has introduced yet another service, called Google Sync for iPhones and Windows Mobile phones. This looks like it will be in competition with Microsoft's MyPhone service. "The new Google Sync offering, launched in beta, will let phone users sync the calendar and contacts lists on their phones with their Gmail contacts lists and Google Calendar." Google is really taking their shots against Microsoft. Google Sync (vs MyPhone), Android (vs WinMo) and a Google OS[?] (vs Microsoft's OS). Google taking over the internet, at its finest. Going after the big dogs.

Is Archos on the hush, hush? Well, someone think so. Apparently, Archos is working on a new MID (Mobile Internet Device) or smartphone. It's not confirmed yet, but the said device will have phone functionality, support HD, a 5 inch screen (hopefully touch), have a 10mm thickness and will support Flash. The Archos device will run on Android and will have the same TI OMAP 3 processor that the Palm Pre has. Interesting news. But, it could be a flopper. I hope not.

The Sony Ericsson Hikaru looks like it will making its way to MWC. This phone has been rumoured to be around for a while now. It will be announced on February 15, right before MWC 2009 kicks off. So exciting. I might as well give you some background information about this phone, so that you'll be prepared. First off, it's going to be Walkman-branded. It will have an 8MP camera with LED flash, a 2.6 inch screen, 8GB of storage, Wi-Fi and GPS. "Additionally, it should be noted that it runs on the regular Sony Ericsson feature phone interface, and IT IS NOT a smartphone." Don't get them mixed up, Sony might get mad at you. Anyways, the 'Hikaru' will also have a kickstand at the back, kind of like the one the Nokia N96 has "but cooler."

Larabee in the PS4: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Intel_Larrabee_in_PS4_No_Says_Sony/551-98718-581.html
Final Fantasy Remake (and chart): http://www.finalfantasyunion.com/news/final-fantasy-vii-remake-coming-to-ps3-when-not-if--337.html
MP3-Enabled Car Horn (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5149763/2-million-dimora-natalia-sls-2-features-worlds-first-mp3+enabled-car-horn
Google Sync: http://www.pcworld.com/article/159192/google_comes_out_with_mobile_sync_service.html?tk=rss_news
Archos Working on Android MID / Smartphone (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5149903/texas-instruments-spills-the-beans-archos-working-on-an-android-midsmartphone
Sony Ericsson Hikaru (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_hikaru_shows_its_face_to_the_world-news-782.php