Well, my colleague informed me that her phone, purchased from the O2 shop in Bluewater included these headsets, because the radio didn't work without them, as they acted as the antenna.  She confirmed this when she later returned to O2 to find the apostrophe key.  BTW, the gentleman serving her at that particular shop didn't know what an apostrophe was, eventually referring to it as a "curly thing at the top". 

What pisses me off is, despite going to the Samsung Mobile Shop, they do not have this particular headset - its white and comes in two pieces: the earpieces and cord; and the extension to attach to the phone which clips in.  The only headphones they have are over £40 and are too bulky to carry around.  Even so, they don't have them in stock.  Despite emailing the Samsung Mobile Shop, I've had no reply to my queries on why my phone was missing this particular item.

I am going to go back to the Carphone Warehouse tomorrow and see if I can make any headway.   I've had this mobile phone since April, I am more than a little miffed.

Here's a little background info: several years ago, Raymond bought a fully loaded Alienware gaming laptop.  It was working well for a while, but started giving him problems lately - a few blue screens of death, odd messages at bootup, that sort of thing. A few days ago he gave me a call saying it wouldn't boot, and that it gave him a weird message and the hard drive made "funny clicking noises". Basically, his drive was shot. We went onto newegg.com to order a replacement drive, and next thing I know we're ordering him $2500 of computer parts! Frankly, I couldn't be happier, because I've been wanted to try a full build for a while, but never had the funds available to do so. I still don't have the money, but at least now I can put a gaming rig together and get that experience under my belt. I've got a lifeline in case I screw anything up; my friend Josh works in IT and agreed to bail me out if I get stuck. The parts have started to arrive (one of his monitors came in yesterday, and most of the parts arrived this morning), and the rest should be delivered shortly. The following is a list of the components I'm using for this build:

Case: Antec P182 ATX Mid Tower

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Watt

Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-DS3R

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700 LED

Memory: Corsair Dominator 4 GB (2x2) DDR2-1066 MHz

Hard Drives: WD VelociRaptor 300 GB 10k RPM, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB 7200 RPM

CD/DVD/Blu-ray Drive: Pioneer BDC-202BK Blu-ray Combo Model

Flash Reader: Sabrent CRW-UINB USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader

Video Card: PowerColor HD 4870

Monitors: Dell E248WFP 24" widescreen, HannsG JC-199APB 19" full screen

More to come later. I'm still missing the Blu-ray drive and his copy of Vista Home Premium. Hopefully they will arrive later today; I'd like to get started on this over the weekend. I would have included prices, but most of them have since changed. Click on the links to check out each product over at Newegg (exception: the Dell monitor was purchased at a Best Buy brick and mortar location). The building process will probably be spread out over four or five more entries, so check back periodically for further updates!

Además de muchos televisores, el IFA también nos trae bastantes productos relacionados con la música. En el caso de Samsung muestran su ya presentado U4 y un nuevo modelo, el Samsung YP-Q1, que quiere ofrecer una gran calidad de sonido.

Para ello, incluye la tecnología DNSe 3.0 (Digital Natural Sound), muy similar al X-Fi de Creative, y que también incorpora funciones como el 3D Speaker, para mejorar la percepción estéreo de la música, y Street Mode, que mantiene el volumen de acuerdo al nivel general de la música, para captar mejor pequeños detalles.

Adicionalmente, incorpora un ecualizador automático, que propone los ajustes adecuados dependiendo del tipo de música que estemos escuchando.

El Samsung YP-Q1 dispone de una pantalla LCD de 2.4 pulgadas, con resolución de 320 x 240 píxeles, en la que podremos visualizar vídeo, y estará disponible con capacidades de 4, 8 y 16 GB, con modelos de color negro, blanco y plateado.

Samsung ha lanzado en el IFA 2008 el Samsung X360. Yo no lo metería como un ultraportátil con sus 13.3 pulgadas, sino que es un portátil de pequeñas dimensiones. Su peso es bastante bajo, sobre los 1.3 kilogramos, con una altura de entre 1.67 y 3 centímetros, realmente bajo y fino. Por dentro también es muy interesante.

En procesador encontramos un Core 2 Duo ULV, ultra low voltage de última generación, Montevina. La gráfica es integrada, una Intel GMA X4500, y en disco encontramos un SSD de 64 o 128 GB o un disco duro convencional de 120 GB. luego completo en cuanto a conectividad: lector de tarjetas, tres puertos USB, XpressCard, , HDMI y salida de vídeo VGA. Ah, y por supuesto, una salida de red para RJ45, WiFi y bluetooh, y Samsung tiene la idea de integrar HSPA en el dispositivo en el 2009, aunque por ahora no está disponible. Difícil que sea más completo.

En parte, el Samsung X360 sigue la estela del MacBook Air, ya que no incluye un lector de discos y las dimensiones son las mismas (13.3 pulgadas y en ‘formato fino’). Mejora al ordenador de Apple en el procesador (éste es un ULV de menor consumo que los Core 2 Duo del MBAir, aunque no se haya especificado exáctamente el modelo), en la gráfica (una X4500 frente a una X3100) y en disco (80/64 GB en el Air, hasta 120 en el Samsung X360) y en las conexiones. Muy interesante la posibilidad de integrar HSPA en un futuro, cosa que parece que empieza a llegar a los ultraportátiles, como por ejemplo en el LG X110.

Por ahora no se han publicado los precios finales de cada cambio de configuración, aunque sí se sabe que el Samsung X360 empezará en unos 1400 euros el más básico. Estará disponible en octubre y en al menos dos colores diferentes, rojo y negro.

Here is today's slimmest subscription-enabled MP3 player. It plays MP3 and WMA songs and includes a built-in FM tuner for even more stereo music. 2 GB capacity lets you store up to 1000 CD-quality WMA songs (four-minute average songs recorded at 64 Kbps). This innovative model also features a 1.8-inch, full-color OLED screen that can display JPEG images for slideshows, as well as screen savers and visualizers.

• UPS$199 S$149
• 2 GB flash memory
  Stores up to 660 songs recorded in the MP3 format at 128 kbps
• 1.8-inch color OLED touch-screen, 160 x 128
  Shows what's playing, what's available and other information
• File compatibility
  Plays MP3, WMA, ASF and JPEG files and is compatible with music subscription services
• FM tuner
  Offers 30 station presets and automatic scanning
• Built-in graphic equalizer
  Lets you customize the tone for your favorite music with five presets
• Interface
  Provides a high-speed USB 2.0 connection for your computer
• Rechargeable lithium polymer battery
  Plays up to 20 hours of music on a single charge

The Olympics are not the only thing rocking Asia this past few weeks.

In South Korea, Samsung is set to reveal their latest entry in the field of environmentally conscious mobile phones, known throughout the industry as "eco-phones".

The Samsung E200 Eco contains parts that are made from bioplastics, that is, materials extracted from corn. Amazingly, it is not the first mobile phone to contain such materials. It is the first, however, in which the entire phone casing is made from bioplastic materials. (Source: reghardware.co.uk) But what features does a phone made from corn have to offer?

In addition to being an environmentally friendly product, the E200 Eco contains a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, video messaging capabilities and an MP3 player.

The E200 Eco comes off the heels of two other "green" handsets recently released by Samsung. Both the W510 and F268 are manufactured using techniques that eliminate the need for harmful materials like lead, cadmium and mercury.

Samsung has not stopped with the phones themselves. The battery chargers for both the F268 and the new E200 Eco are now free of a common flame retardant that has long been feared to be harming the environment, while the F268 has a built-in alarm system in its battery charger that emits a loud sound when the phone is fully charged.

Even the packaging for all Samsung "eco-phones" are made from recycled materials.

Samsung is not the only company hoping to develop environmentally friendly mobile phones. NEC Corp. has been using bioplastic materials in most of their phone models since 2006. Nokia is also jumping on board with the crusade, recently announcing that they will introduce 40 new biodegradable models to the market by the end of 2008. (Source: nytimes.com)

Although nobody can doubt that the drive towards eco-friendly innovations is a step in the right direction, some analysts are accusing companies who commit to the "green revolution" of carrying a hidden agenda. While these companies create a wholesome image for their products, many fear that costs will soar, and worse, people will be willing to pay these inflated prices for the simple peace of mind that they are helping to protect the environment.

The Samsung E200 Eco will be released in Europe next month, though the North American release date has yet to be confirmed. ]]> http://technologizer.wordpress.com/?p=1315 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:46:07 +0000 Harry McCracken http://technologizer.wordpress.com/?p=1315 I've been spending the day at IFA, the giant consumer electronics show in Berlin that's Europe's equivalent of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I'm having a good time, but one conclusion I've drawn so far is that CES has the edge when it comes to major announcements about flashy new technologies and jaw-dropping specs. CES isn't CES without stuff like the world's first OLED TV or world's thinnest LCD or the world's largest plasma. IFA, however, seems to be dominated by more mainstream products and technologies that are cool, but not cutting-edge. You could argue that that's a good thing, since very few of us will buy the first OLED TV or biggest LCD or thinnest plasma. But it does make for a somewhat more subdued show.

One exception: There's plenty of hoopla about the first 200-Hz LCD TVs, which run at a faster frame rate to provide smoother action with less motion blur. The company that's first to market with this breakthrough is justly proud about it. Here's a snapshot I took in Sony's booth:

..and here's one from Samsung's booth:

Yup--both companies are claiming credit for being the first. (Sony and Samsung share some LCD production, which might explain the synchronicity here.) The dualing firsts kind of point out the silliness of specsmanship in general: Ultimately, it doesn't matter much which company was first and which one was second. Unless, of course, you're talking about marketing campaigns. ("The World's Second 200-Hz TV" just doesn't have the same ring.)

Is 200-Hz worth getting excited about? The jury's still out. Samsung has a demo that showed 50-Hz vs. 200-Hz, but it was so obviously rigged that it wasn't a useful data point: The 50-Hz video was more flickery than a Charlie Chaplin film. I didn't see any similar comparison at Sony's both. Both 50-Hz TVs did, indeed, display extremely smooth imagery, but I learned a long time ago not to pay much attention to TV demos at trade shows, since they almost always look gorgeous. What will matter is how much better 200-Hz looks with real-world data sources like cable and satellite TV and standard-def DVDs and Blu-Ray discs almost nobody ever uses those sources when showing off sexy new technologies.

More IFA tidbits to come, and full disclosure: I'm attending the show as a paid speaker at several panels.

Tom's Hardware compared performance notebook drives from Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung and WD with the depth and precision that only Tom's can.  The value-add here is their understanding of the complex mix of factors that interact in real-life notebook use: performance, power, durability, security. 

Note that "performance" class 7200 rpm drives are on their way to becoming "mainstream" class, since more people are replacing desktops and expect desktop performance. 

Conclusions from the review:

Seagate sees the importance of 7200 rpm for notebook and Tom's sees the results in Momentus.  Expect to see more of the good stuff in future versions of this winner.

Penjualan Motorola memang sedang tersengal-sengal. Mereka sudah menjejaki semua lorong segmen pasar ponsel, tapi hasilnya jauh dari harapan. Kepanikan itu pun membuat mereka membajak eksekutif produsen chip ponsel Qualcomm, Sanjay Jha. Kepada dialah Motorola berharap ada sedikit “keajaiban”.

Wajah-wajah harap-harap cemas menanti terobosan baru Jha. Mereka khawatir divisi ponsel Motorola mendatangkan kerugian besar dan posisi Motorola bisa disalip LG, pemain di industri ponsel nomor 4 dunia.

Situasi itu sungguh kontras dengan dua-tiga tahun lalu. Motorola merajai penjualan dengan ponsel tipisnya, Razr. Ponsel itulah yang menyulap laporan keuangan Motorola dari merah menjadi biru.

Kini kejayaan telah berlalu. Motorola memang telah melahirkan varian-varian Razr baru. Ada yang untuk kelas bawah, menengah, ada pula yang ditujukan untuk segmen kelas atas, dengan menggandeng butik-butik ternama, seperti Dolce & Gabbana. Toh, Motorola tetap kewalahan menghadapi serbuan para pemain Korea, yakni Samsung & LG.

Di pasar Amerika Serikat, Motorola boleh melupakan rival berat, yakni Nokia, tapi serbuan Samsung dan LG yang terus menusuk ke berbagai sudut Amerika sungguh sebuah pukulan hook yang telak.

Raja-raja ponsel Korea ini memang tak bisa dianggap remeh. Dulu mereka cuma sebuah noktah tipis, nyaris tak tampak di layar radar industri ponsel raksasa seperti Nokia dan Motorola, juga Ericsson (yang kini bersalin rupa menjadi Sony Ericsson). Kini, serangan mereka benar-benar membuat jantungan para petinggi Motorola.

“Tahun 2007 adalah milik pabrikan Eropa, 2008 adalah milik chaebol (konglomerat) Korea,” kata seorang analis dari Strategy Analytics seperti dikutip BusinessWeek.

Lihat saja, tahun ini, saat industri ponsel cuma tumbuh 14 persen, penjualan LG tumbuh 54 persen dengan mengapalkan 24,4 juta ponsel. Sedangkan Samsung tumbuh 33 persen dengan menjual 46,3 juta ponsel. Sebaliknya, penjualan Motorola tergelincir atau turun 40 persen menjadi 27,4 juta.

Di pasar, para pembeli seperti berbaris untuk membeli ponsel-ponsel LG dan Samsung. Amunisi para macan Korea itu adalah desain cantik dan menu yang inspiratif serta, tentu saja, harga yang murah. Tengoklah siapa yang pertama kali membenamkan kamera 5 megapiksel dalam ponsel? Siapa pula yang pertama kali memakai serat karbon dan tombol sentuh pada ponsel? Macan Korea!

Padahal 10-15 tahun lalu produsen-produsen ponsel Korea itu bukan apa-apa. Bahkan, mungkin, teknologi yang mereka kuasai saat itu tak jauh berbeda dengan PT Inti, perusahaan negara yang dulu terkenal sebagai pembuat ponsel.
Sepuluh tahun telah mengubah mereka. Sepuluh tahun bagi insinyur-insinyur Korea Selatan bisa berarti ribuan teknologi baru yang dapat dipatenkan. Mereka bukan lagi titik-titik yang bisa diabaikan oleh raksasa ponsel Swedia, Ericsson, atau si raja ponsel dunia, Nokia.

Sementara orang-orang Indonesia sibuk bertengkar tentang siapa yang menjadi wali kota, siapa menjadi presiden, partai anu dapat jatah menteri apa atau amplop berapa, insinyur-insinyur Korea bekerja memburu waktu. (published in koran tempo)

في صباح ال 28 من شهر أوت، شاركت كل من (هان جا إين) Han Ga In ، (لي دا هاي) Lee Da Hae و (يون أون هي) Yoon Eun Hye في "حفلة منتجات سامسونج الجديدة للنصف الثاني من سنة 2008 " "Samsung Second Half 2008 New Product Conference" و التي كانت في المبني الرئيسي لشركة سامسونج في سيول

و يبدو أن سامسونج أحسنت الإختيار في ما يتعلق بالعارضات حيث جمعن أجمل و أنجح الممثلاث الكوريات في الوقت الحالي، كما أن Yoon Eun Hye بدت في حالة جيدة مقارنة بأخر مرة رأيناها فيها في عند وفاة Lee Eon

و في ما يلي صور من الإحتفال

المصدر: Han Fever بتصرف

When awaited 'Age of Conan' came out, people were super excited that it might 'replace' World of Warcraft, which is a game everyone loved to hate. It was unfair, it was time-consuming, it felt like it had sub-par graphics if you look at all the other games out there that challenge real life imagery.

The above image (well, screenshot) was taken about two and a half years ago when Blizzard released Naxxramas, whenever that was, and we were slapping ourselves awake at 2.30 in the morning to kill the huge fat blob pictured for some, you know, internet recognition. Yes it was an old screenshot, I had disabled every other addon I had on my PC to make it run properly in order to achieve whatever it was, just kinda pushing everything to the max basically to kill the bastard. For what? I don't know really, the only things I got from that period were two very good friends whom I still speak to after about 4-5 years. Frankly, it's pretty strange but it works.

Anyway, considering I'd spend evenings playing the same thing over and over it meant I'd be pretty frustrated and unimpressed when someone who had recently started playing got all excited about something I had done, "like, ages ago, man!" Like when you see someone excited about starting in a new work place and the people working there greet you with a 'Don't worry, it'll die soon.'

So yeah, anyway, you got your first purple item..yeah, well, I got three of those while levelling up. Whatever!

You've exploited some design/programming weakness in a battleground and won numerous games in an unfair manner...well don't be a twat about it and post it on YouTube! Sheesh.

What I'm getting to is this:

• EA's Tiger Woods video (He's just THAT good) - Their game did not have a glitch of Tiger Woods walking on water as some dude reported on YouTube.

• Samsung Omnia unboxing viral - Yes, thousands of people have tiny joygasms when they unbox their favourite gadgets, I thought I was shaking a bit when I opened up my iPhone box as well. Some of them post videos of how happy they are when they do and others how unimpressed they are with what their stuff performs and the features it offers. Marching band? Yeah, interesting...just skip to the end, will you?

Why the World of Warcraft intro then? Because people tried to woo us with in-game Toyotas. Seriously, come on. This is World of Warcraft, not the video for 'Californication'. If you're going to dabble into what we do then actually do it properly. We do spend most of our time on the internet and lolcats are cute but they're last year's news, we're not your colleague sat in the cubicle next to you that just discovered I can has cheeseburger on his favourite car forum.

Average Rating: 4.75 / 5 (across 30+ reviews)

The good: Highly accurate primary colors and color temperature; above-average video processing with effective noise reduction; oodles of picture controls and settings; friendly, intuitive menu design; handsome look.

The bad: Subpar antireflective screen; black levels not quite as deep as those of the best plasmas; confusing picture mode arrangement.

The bottom line: Accurate color helps set apart the excellent picture quality of the Samsung PN50A550 50-inch plasma HDTV.

In recent calibration tests and in-depth analysis it showed to have some of the best black levels (major factor in picture quality, clarity and realism) of any of the 55+ inch plasmas, trailing only to much much more expensive units such as the ultra-high-end bank breaking Pioneer elite plasmas. It isn’t the best 58inch plasma money can buy by any means, but with a price of $2750-$2850 in august, it is easily one of the better value, high end 58inch+ Plasmas money can buy, the major reason for its vast popularity despite its rather large price tag. The Samsung PN58A550 HDTV only starting selling a couple of months ago, but already there has been an impressive array of PN58A550 reviews, reports, and feedback coming in for this rock solid and monster of a display.

Samsung PN58A550 Reviews @ Amazon

Amazon has the largest collections of customer Samsung pn58a550 reviews under their belt, as is usually the case seeing has how they are the most popular and recommended place to buy such large ticket consumer electronics and televisions online within the United States. They offer the best shipping, lowest prices (95% of the time at least) and the very important return/refund/customer protection policies that make them the obvious choice for buying the Samsung PN58A550 Plasma TV, or any similar large purchase for that matter. At the time of writing there were 26+ Samsung PN58A550 Reviews at Amazon.com, and look for more feedback, discussions and review content to build up on Amazon’s pn58a550 page more quickly now that shoppers are starting to realize the quality value of this 58 inch plasma offers over its competing hdtv, visit the Samsung PN58A550 Amazon homepage through the picture link below:

PN58A550 Reviews @ CNET

CNET has rated the PN A550 Plasmas very highly, and that means a lot with CNETs dedication to being very tough and stringent in their reviews of consumer electronics. They have not yet directly reviewed the Samsung PN58A550, but have the PN50A550, which only differs in size (50” vs. 58”)

There are some visitor reviews of the Samsung pn58a550 and along with some discussion, as well as a true in-depth review and analysis of the 58” variation to come, visit the Samsung PN58A550 CNET homepage through the picture link below:

Specs and features:

• Quad-band GSM
• 2.8-inch QVGA display
• 16 million colours
• Resolution of 240 x 320 pixels
• Accelerometer for automatically adjusting screen orientation
• 16 GB and 8 GB of onboard memory
• External memory via microSD
• TV out
• DivX playback
• FM radio with RDS
• 128MB of RAM
• 3D graphics accelerator for a superb gaming experience
• Inbuilt GPS (A-GPS support also) capabilities
• Wi-fi
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• USB 2.0 connectivity
• 3G with HSDPA support
• Geotagging
• 8MP auto focus camera with LED flash (Sadly, no Xenon!)
• Face and smile recognition
• Auto panorama mode
• Stereo speakers
• 3D surround sound effect
• DNSe 2.0
• 3.5mm audio jack

Launch:

The handset will hit Europe first.

Price:

780 Euros (approximately Rs. 51,000)