Isaiah's Tech

On the Final Fantasy XIII website, there is a new countdown that is on the front page. In under 7 days, they will be releasing a "new vision" to the world. That is all. More on what they reveal, well, when they reveal it.

The sexy, and still shiny, Dell Adamo will be released in the second half of 2009. That's according to Foxconn, at least. If the Adamo is released in the second half of this year, that would mean that Dell's spokesperson at CES was lying. The Dell spokesperson at CES told consumers that this laptop would be available for purchase in the first half of 2009. We'll see if Dell clears up this rumour with some facts but, as of right now, don't expect the Adamo in the first half of 2009. If the price stays the same as before, you are looking at a base price of $1500 USD for this baby.



Google. Oh yes, Google. Recently, there were 2 leaked pictures of what the T-Mobile G2 will look like. It appears to be thinner than the T-Mobile G1 because they decided to remove the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The phone's design will be made, again, by HTC. I talked briefly about HTC's 2009 phone line-up being leaked just over a week ago (here). Judging from the 2009 HTC phone line-up, this phone looks to be the HTC "Sapphire." Personally, i think this new Google phone is ugly and that some consumers are going to miss the physical keyboard because that's what set it apart from the iPhone. The phone's round shape reminds me of a Helio, which i don't like too much. The buttons are also small pop-out rectangles, which i also do not like. This phone is not much of an upgrade when being compared to the G1. It has the same 3.2MP camera and just about the same display. "The rumors point May 2009 as the launch time." Personally, i think this looks worse than the G1. Meh, maybe their next phone will be better. On to more interesting Google news, we have the Google Gdrive. Basically, Gdrive is an online storage, "where Google servers have enough capacity to hold the entire contents of your hard drive." It will be an online storage, but it will also have a bunch of other features. There are rumours circulating that this service will be available this year. TG Daily mentions that, "it will likely also come with enough brains to do cool tricks now with bigger things down the road - like booting your computer from online drive to load the Google operating system." Wait! Did i just read that correctly? Google's operating system, you say? Interesting. There are a number of online storage services already, including Microsoft's SkyDrive. SkyDrive currently offers users 25GB of online storage, but also restricting them to only 50MB per file. It will be interesting to see how much storage Google will allow you to have for free. But, fitting your whole hard drive on an online storage, sounds like a pretty good benchmark to me. Privacy may be an issue here, since Google will [most likely] scan and go through all of your stuff, just like they do in Gmail, but there is a solution to that. Don't put naughty things on your Gdrive. There are actually hints that the Gdrive will be available, such as the option on Google's Picasa beta for the Mac, which gives users the option to "Move to Collection... Google Web Drive." I can't wait to read up on more information about this. Google will just be that much closer to taking over the Internet.

Windows Mobile 6.5 may be hitting phones sometime next month. As we all should know MWC 2009 (Mobile World Congress) is coming up in Barcelona next month. This may be when Microsoft announces the new Windows Mobile. As of right now, there is "no word on the OS improvements yet, however the SkyBox, SkyLine and SkyMarket services may return Microsoft back to the game." SkyBox gives people, using WinMo, wireless syncing. "Skyline is aimed at the business clients" and SkyMarket is the answer to Apple's AppStore. Windows Mobile 6.5 should be a big upgrade, seeing how WinMo 6.1 is still pretty choppy. I'll have more news on WinMo 6.5 at MWC, which i can't wait for.

Albatron is going to be releasing a 21.5-inch HD multi-touchscreen LCD monitor. I should note that Windows 7 does have touchscreen support and i talked a bit about it in my blog post (here) on Microsoft's press conference. This Albatron monitor's touchscreen does not use the same technology as other touchscreen devices. This OTM (Optical Touch Monitor) "works by employing sensors embedded into the display's bezel rather than relying on captive/resistance type sensing housed in the screen itself.È Albatron went on saying that it has numerous advantages over traditional touchscreens. They mentioned that OTM is more cost-effective, more durable, has multi-touch capabilities and is also "more brilliant." Oh wait, there's another advantage, it can also grow to unlimited sizes... All jokes aside, that was a serious point because traditional touchscreen monitors are, generally, under 15 inches.

Kaz Hirai is the Sony chairman and he had some fighting words. He felt that Nintendo is not their competitor because they're in a different world. I agree with that but, sometimes, i feel that Sony has the tendency to just make stuff up, in order to defend their case. I don't agree with some of the stuff Sony says, but everyone does it, so it's okay. Although, i do agree that the Nintendo Wii is not in the same ballpark as the PS3 or the Xbox 360. Anyways, he goes on saying, "Last time i checked, they've never had a console that's been on the market for more than four or five years and we've committed to a ten year life cycle, so you do the math." Again, he talks about Xbox 360's longevity, saying that it's nothing compared to the Playstation 3's. I do believe that the Playstation 3 can last at least 10 years, seeing how the Playstation 2 is still selling quite well. I hope that the Playstation 3 doesn't get absolutely crushed, before their 10 year mark.

First up for LG news are their plasma TVs. These LG Xcanvas 50PQ60D and 42PQ60D plasmas will be hitting the market overseas in 3 weeks for $1,460 and $1,022 USD, respectively. Judging from the model numbers, there will be 2 sizes: a 50 and a 42-inch plasma. For us, on this side of the planet, we could be expecting these by the end of December. These plasmas are ultra-thin and ultra-bright, but the contrast ratio is actually not mentioned in the article, so i'm not sure what it is. Next up on LG's news is that they have passed Motorola for third place in global handset shipments. LG sold just over 100 million handsets in 2008, while Motorola comes in a close 4th place, selling 99.9 million handsets. The list is now: Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, in terms of handsets being sold globally. I expect Apple to be on this list soon, possibly passing Sony Ericsson [please!], thanks to their iPhone and their future products.

One last paragraph on Google. Google has just released a new Google Calendar Gadget for Google Desktop. It's a good replacement for their last calendar and i'm testing it out right now. It seems to work perfectly fine for me. So, if you use Google Desktop, here's something new you can put on your desktop / sidebar.

Windows Mobile 6.5 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/microsoft_supposed_to_push_windows_mobile_65_next_month-news-742.php
Albatron Multi-touchscreen Monitor (and picture): http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/01/20/albatron-multi-touch-touchscreen-lcd-targets-windows-7-optical-touch-monitor/
Kaz Hirai Talks About the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii (and picture): http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/692534/Hirai-Xbox-360-Lacks-Longevity.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed
LG Plasma TVs (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/20/lg-gets-official-with-50pq60d-and-42pq60d-xcanvas-plasmas-in-kor/
LG Passing Motorola on Global Handset Shipment List: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/20/lg-overtakes-motorola-for-third-place-in-global-handset-shipment/
Google Calendar for Google Desktop: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/get-calendar-on-your-google-desktop.html