Here’s a summary of the last week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.
Last week’s coverage on last100 was dominated by a back log of reports and video from the UK’s The Gadget Show Live expo.
Steve at The Gadget Show Live
The Gadget Show Live: Flip Mino HD ‘point and shoot’ camcorder
One of the first products that I got to check out at The Gadget Show Live last week was the Mino HD from Flip. The updated version of their popular ‘point and shoot’ camcorder – a product category that the company practically invented – supports 720p HD video (H.264) and has 4GB of on-board memory (non-expandable), which provides enough storage to shoot about an hour’s worth of footage.
The Gadget Show Live: mobile phone watches
This is a product category that has me far from convinced but it’s intriguing nonetheless. I’m talking about mobile phone watches, which are about as Star Trek or Knight Rider as they come. I got to see two such devices up close (to varying degrees) at The Gadget Show Live.
The Gadget Show Live: Sony Vaio P series – don’t call it a Netbook
One of the coolest products I got to check out at The Gadget Show Live was Sony’s latest ultra portable notebook, the Vaio P series. The device features an 8 inch widescreen and compact full QWERTY keyboard, and is powered by Intel’s Atom chip. It’s main purpose is accessing the web on-the-go, and other mobile computing, such as email, Skype, IM etc.
The Gadget Show Live: BeBook eBook reader
With Amazon’s Kindle winning the most mind share (thanks to Oprah) and Sony publishing healthy numbers for sales of its Sony Reader, it’s easy to forget that the eBook market isn’t purely a two horse race. Enter the BeBook from Dutch company Endless Ideas who were touting the device at last week’s The Gadget Show Live.
The Gadget Show Live: LG Arena – not just another iPhone wannabe
I’ve got to hand it to the guy from LG’s stand at The Gadget Show Live, if it wasn’t for his genuinely enthusiastic pitch for the company’s new ‘Arena’ KM900 touch screen phone, I might too easily have dismissed it as just the latest iPhone wannabe.
Other news
Forget iPhone, Adobe wants to put Flash on the telly
Just like everybody else these days, Adobe has its sights set on the living room. This week the company announced a version of its Adobe Flash Platform designed to run on Internet-connected televisions, set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players, with the aim of making it easier to deliver online video and other web-based content – think widgets – to the TV.
BlackBerry address book integrates Facebook, apes Palm Pre’s “Synergy” and INQ1
A new version of the Facebook for BlackBerry application has been released that offers better integration with the social networking site. Two standout features: a user’s friends list is kept in sync with the handset’s built-in address book – Facebook avatars show up as called ID, for example – and notifications from the social networking site are “pushed” to the phone’s home screen.
Why has Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ been a flop in the UK?
Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music offering “Comes With Music” (CWM) hasn’t exactly caught on in the UK, according to Music Ally, with the service attracting just over 23,000 active users. “Given the high-profile marketing campaign around its launch with retailer Carphone Warehouse, that’s a sluggish start”, notes the site. So why has CWM been a flop here in the UK?
Joost up for sale? Old media to the rescue
We already knew that sometime in 2009 Joost would run low on cash – CEO Mike Volpi said as much last December – and now five months on the Internet TV service is shopping around for a buyer, reports CNet.
That’s a wrap. Thanks for reading.
– Steve
