By Evan Ackerman

At their press conference this morning, Casio showed off some new additions to their line of high speed digital cameras. The flagship model is still the EX-F1, a beefy prosumer camera that can take stills at 60 frames per second and video at up to 1200 frames per second… We posted some sample movies when we covered it back in April. The new Exilim models that Casio released today feature a comparable high speed engine capable of 30 fps burst shooting for stills and up to 1000 fps for movies, in a much more compact size. Normal pictures are captured at 9 mpx, burst mode cuts that down to 6 mpx, and it’ll also take standard video in 720p.

Features include the ability to extract the perfect frame from long high fps bursts, and somehow the camera is able to combine multiple blurry shots in a burst into a single image that’s in focus. There’s also a novelty mode that will take a video of you moving, clip you out of the background, and transpose you onto a different background, which is something that you’ve been able to do with webcams for years. Basically, if you’re going to buy one of these, you’ll do it for the high speed, and that’s a pretty good reason if you ask me. Look for these in April for $400 with a 5x optical zoom and 2.7″ LCD, or $350 for a 3x optical zoom and 2.5″ LCD.

Thanks to Brian Westbrook and his D90 for the picture.

David Ponce

I’m here in Vegas, liveblogging the samsung press conference. keep refreshing this article throughout the next hour to get live updates.

2:42pm Launching the HMX-H106 SSD camcorders. 64GB with solid state drive. 12 hours of HD footage. Getting out of here.

2:37pm God damn connection. Launching a new slim wall mount, that reduces the TV to wall gap from 2 inches to 0.6 inches.

The LED 8000 delivers 240Hz refresh rate. Chrome accented design.

The PDP 850 plasma TV is only 1 inch thick.

Launching the 2233RZ 3D monitor.

2:29pm Finally talking about new products. I’m getting some connectivity problems. Strategic products:

- LUXIA LED TV line. Redefines energy efficiency, creating a new TV category. Crazy ass contrast ratios, super slim, 40% less power consumption than conventional LCD TVs. Mercury and lead free.
- Samsung LUXIA LED 7000, with Medi@ 2.0 multimedia experience. Internet TV.

2:24pm Talking green. Their LED TVs and washing machines have contributed to Samsung being awarded 1,858 eco-friendly certifications.

2:21pm Talking about Intuitive Emotional UI. Being able to customize your menu screens in various Samsung devices, like cameras, video enabled MP3 players. Like the P3. Demo of the interface does indeed show improvement.

2:18pm Launching Samsung LUXIA LED TV, slim TVs with built in tuners, up to 55 inch. Unsurpassed brightness and clarity. Using the unified UI mentioned earlier, to strengthen the brand.

2:15pmWireless Connectivity Solution. Sharing of media between devices. Wireless full HD content transmission. Mobile WiMax. WiMax?

2:14pmYahoo! launching Widget Engine, a developer platform to allow third parties to develop applications that will work with Samsung products. Widgets for the TV. Neat idea if deployed right.

2:13pm Yahoo! talking now about their vision of TV and Internet integration. Working with Ebay, MySpace, CBS to develop TV widgets for cinematic Internet. Being able to interact with web using only remote control.

2:10pmLaunching Samsung Internet TV, integrated with Samsung products, with collaboration with Yahoo! Good stuff.

2:08pmTalking about unified UI. Good thing they thought about this.

2:05pmSamsung’s approach, they’re calling “Seamless Experience”. Explaining their competitive advantage from other companies doing Seamless Experience.

2:00pm Just managed to find a seat middle right of the room. Nice large LCDs and loud music. We’re about to start.

By Andrew Liszewski

While the new ETX-LS telescope from Meade looks suited for a rooftop observatory and experienced astronomers probing the depths of the cosmos, it’s actually very easy to use, even for amateurs trying to find the Big Dipper. It features a new technology that the company calls ‘LightSwitch’ which is a self-alignment system that works at the touch of a button. At startup, the telescope’s integrated sensor module and ECLIPS CCD (Electronically Controlled Locate Identify Position System) basically looks at the sky and uses the available celestial objects to not only determine where you’re located, but how to find other constellations you might be interested in. All with no input from the user at all.

It also features the Meade Autostar III controller which allows you to select from a database of over 100,000 celestial objects at the push of a button. (Complete with a night-vision friendly orange backlight.) You just find the constellation/star/planet you want to see, hit the ‘GoTo’ button and the telescope will automatically orient itself so the object appears in the center of the eyepiece. The best part is that you can get a 6-inch model for just $1,299. Obviously larger telescopes like the one they had on display at the CES Unveiled event won’t be as affordable, but if you’re starting out, it’s definitely a cheaper way to ease into it.

[ Meade ETX-LS ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I reviewed Corsair’s Flash Survivor USB Drive a while back, and of all the tests I did, I never thought to (or had the motivation to) encase it in a giant block of ice emblazoned with the Corsair logo. And it’s too bad too, since it probably would have made for an eye-catching center piece like this one.

And even though the drive was encased in ice, it was still being used to run a Corsair demo on a nearby laptop. Now something tells me a lot of flash-based memory devices would be capable of surviving a similar scenario, but at least Corsair is putting their money where their mouth is. And it makes for an eye-catching demo.

By Evan Ackerman

Last year we saw a couple different stabs at wireless power, including WildCharge, PowerCast, and eCoupled. Power cords suck, and with the potentially beneficial establishment of a Wireless Power Consortium, we’re all hoping that we can do away with those horrible betanglements behind our desks sooner rather than later. Powermat has a consumer solution ready to go, with the familiar hardware combination of a non-conductive charging mat and adapters for various devices. You can either plug (!) your gadget into a Powermat enabled dock, plug (!) it into an adapter which gets placed on a Powermat, or equip it with a case with an integrated Powermat receiver:

Powermat is also apparently able to transmit data through the same system, allowing the transfer of audio and video at unspecified rates, which could be neat. But, the big question is when will wireless charging capability be integrated into the devices themselves, and Powermat’s obligatory answer is that they’re “working on it.” I dunno, guys… I’m a little bit worried that until that actually happens, the rest of us (i.e. the consumer base) are just going to suck it up and keep plugging stuff in rather than have to buy a bunch of expensive adapters.

The mat part of the Powermat system will hit retail in Q4 for about $100, and the adapters will go for between $25 and $35 each.

[ Powermat ]

By Evan Ackerman

Fuji EnviroMAX batteries are just like any other disposable batteries, except that they are actually disposable. Like, you can throw them out in the trash. Not that you should necessarily DO that, but the point is that (unlike other batteries) they don’t have any toxic elements in them. So you can feel less guilty or something. You’ll be able to buy EnviroMAX batteries in AA, AAA, C, D, etc. at hardware stores and other major retailers (like Target and CVS) by the end of March, and here’s the important bit: they’ll cost the same as traditional non-reusable batteries that are made from pure unfiltered evil. Oh, and independent testing apparently shows that the environmentally friendly ones last about 15% longer. So why not buy them, right?

Incidentally, the Fuji rep and I had a bit of an argument about whether it’s better to buy these and toss them in the trash or buy rechargeables (which have all kinds of nasty heavy metals in them) and use far, far less of them… And let’s just say we didn’t exactly reach a consensus. Oh well.

[ GreenFuji ]

By Evan Ackerman

It’s entirely possible to play Wii while sedentary just by swingin’ your arms around. And it’s great. You still get that sense of accomplishment like there was some exercise involved somewhere while in reality embracing your inherent laziness. The jOG aims to destroy all that by forcing you to actually get up and, well, jog. You attach the jOG to your controller via a cable and clip the jOG unit to your pants, and the jOG takes over the joystick input on your Wii (or PS2). If you want your character to move, you need to physically start to jog. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? It’s coming stateside soon (from the UK) for something like $25.

If you’re confused as to how it works, there’s a vid after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

The first thing I learned at the Asus press conference is that it’s pronounced “Ay-zoose,” not “Ay-zuss.” Oops. Moving on, we were introduced to the S121 notebook, which has a 512 gig SSD (!) inside. You wouldn’t think a drive that size would fit inside the 1 inch thick 3 pound chassis, but it also manages to incorporate an 8 hour battery. The S121 is Atom based, but uses a proprietary Asus HD controller that gives a 20% performance boost. The drive itself is also 2x faster than other SSDs, and 3x faster than HDs. The Asus S121 should be available at the end of this month for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1649.

Also in the 1 inch thick category is the Eee PC T91, an updated version of the first netbook ever. Weighing in at 2 pounds, it’s Atom based, and has an 8.9″ LED backlit touch panel that swivels around to turn the computer into a tablet. If that’s not cool enough, it also has an integrated TV tuner and GPS. No price or release date as of yet, but it’s expected to be competitive with other netbooks.

See what this is (and more cool stuff) after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Luke Anderson

Have you ever been at the store and decided to buy a few bananas, only to find them rotten by the time you finally decide to eat them? Well if that’s the case, you need a better way to store them. I’ve heard of a few different ways to keep them fresh longer, but I doubt that any is better than just leaving them to be picked whenever you’re ready. That’s right, just grow them yourself with a Banana Bonanza kit.

The thought of growing bananas had honestly never crossed my mind. If this sounds like a perfect plan to you, and you don’t mind having a 20-25-foot tall plant growing in your backyard. Also, I’m sure that you’ll need to take into consideration the conditions under which banana plants thrive. If you meet these two requirements, then you’ll be pleased to know that for just $10 you can get started. If bananas aren’t your thing, they also sell a similar kit for peanuts.

[ Lighter Side ] VIA [ RGS ]