Article courtesy of John Beck, from The Processor.

Have you ever wished your phone was a little more environmentally friendly? I haven’t because I’m a thoughtless oaf, but for tech-savvy eco warriors who have, Samsung has launched the Blue Earth handset.

The touch screen eco-phone is made from material extracted from water bottles, and is free from nastiness like bromine-based flame retardants, PVC and phthalate esters. It also sports a built in solar panel to take advantage of what Samsung helpfully points out, is one of the most eco-friendly energy sources.

The Blue Earth ships with a “unique user interface designed to draw attention to preserving our fragile environment.” Less impressive than it sounds, this basically amounts to the option of switching to energy efficient settings for screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth at the touch of a button. For the environmentally conscious app-addict, there’s even a built in pedometer, which allows users to smugly calculate the number of trees they’ve saved from an untimely death by walking instead of driving.

The green theme extends to the packaging, which is easy to recycle and printed with tasty soy ink. It is also adorned with what Samsung describes as “a simple DIY idea” and I’d describe as “clutching at straws” – reusing the box as a photo frame or a pencil holder.

Of course all this of this is for naught if the phone is horrible to use, something which no one seems to be in a position to confirm or deny at the moment. Specs look fairly average (3 inch capacitive screen, up to 16GB of external memory, 3.2 Megapixel camera), and given that its eco-friendly credentials will likely add a premium, it may struggle to find customers away from dedicated environmentalists.

The Blue Earth is set to launch in Sweden this month followed by rollout across other European and Asian countries.

[ Press Release ]

By David Ponce

You see what all the cool kids are doing these days? Getting drunk and taking regrettable pictures of themselves is what. And Samsung just made the task a little easier with the release of the TL225 and TL220, both of which feature a smaller LCD in front for those times you got no one but yourself to hold the cameras. That’s really the only innovative feature here, although the other specs and features are pretty decent too.

For instance, to turn the camera on you simply touch the LCD at the back, and to delete pictures you swipe an X over them during playback (you have to confirm, so no accidents). There a 3.5 inch LCD for the TL225, and 3.0 for the TL 220. Along with that, you’re looking at a 12.2-megapixel resolution, HDMI output and 4.6x optical zoom, though the lower priced TL 220 loses the HDMI output.

Prices are $350 for TL225 and $250 for TL220.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Shane McGlaun

Before the global economy went into the crapper, many businesses held quarterly or more frequent meetings to talk strategy and other items. Many firms flew employees in from all around the country to attend these meetings. With the poor economy today, flying people in has become too expensive and many businesses are going to video conferencing instead.

Samsung has announced a new video conferencing LCD called the VC240 that integrates all of the components needed for HD desktop video conferencing into a 24-inch LCD that works as a computer monitor as well.

The VC240 uses V2oIP for communications and is compatible with all other VoIP systems and SIP control units. Video is compressed with the H.264 codec and the camera is a 5-megapixel unit with a noise-canceling microphone. Contrast ratio on the LCD is 1000:1 and the VC240 will ship this fall for $1,999.

Samsung

By Shane McGlaun

I loathe the camera in my first gen iPhone. I have tried to use it on several occasions and it simply isn’t worth the time it takes to try and use the camera. If you want to take a picture of something that doesn’t move it works most of the time, but try and shoot a pic in a dim room or of something moving and you are out of luck.

Samsung has officially announced its new Pixon 12 camera phone and it sounds like they started with a camera and added the phone as an accessory rather than the other way around. The Pixon 12 has 12-megapixels and a full AMOLED touchscreen. The camera also has a Xenon power LED flash and a wide-angle 28mm lens.

Users can touch the 3.1-inch touchscreen in camera mode to tell the autofocus where to focus in framed shots. The camera phone can also record full motion video at 30fps at a resolution of 720 x 480. The device operates on HSPA 900/2100MHz and GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz networks. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an FM tuner are built-in as well.

[ Samsung ]

By Shane McGlaun

There are tons of phones on the market. Despite the economy the high-end segment of the mobile phone market including smartphones are selling quite well. Sales in the middle of the market are dropping though.

Samsung has announced that US Cellular is getting the new Samsung Gloss handset that looks like something a woman would keep in her purse. The Gloss is a square phone that measures 2.55-inches x 2.94-inches x 0.82-inches and has a 2.2-inch LCD.

Under the square clamshell lid hides a full QWERTY keyboard for texting and the phone supports music player functionality. Music, video, and photos are stored on up to 16GB of external memory (presumably microSD cards) and the device supports the US Cellular easyedge navigation service. The integrated digital camera has 1.3-megapixels.

[ Samsung ]

By Shane McGlaun

Digital photo frames may seem boring, but anyone who takes lots of digital pictures will find that the gadgets are a great way to do something with all those pictures other than letting them sit on your computer or memory card. The price of digital photo frames are coming down as well making them more affordable.

Samsung has announced a new digital frame that is under an inch thick and sports an 8-inch screen. The screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 and a contrast ratio of 500:1. Despite the small size of the frame, it packs 1GB of memory inside.

Samsung claims that is enough storage for 3,000 photos, assuming they are suitably low resolution. An SD card slot is offered for loading photos into the frames memory and the little frame gets all the juice it needs right form a PCs USB port. That means you can place the frame on a desk and power it totally from your computer. The SPF-87H digital photo frame is available now for $129 at Fry’s and on Amazon.com.

[ Samsung ]

By Ian Chiu

Samsung’s P2 from 2007 has been universally praised as the most successful MP3 player in the history of the Yepp series. One can only expect a follow up to the formidable flagship touch-screen player. Well, the wait is over. The YP P3 has arrived with a number of improvements over its predecessor. The most notable addition is the Immersion’s TouchSense haptic technology (a.k.a. rumble vibration). When you touch the screen, the P3 will rumble a faux “click” as if you’re actually depressing the button and feeling it spring back. The P3, however, isn’t multi-touch so it won’t let you pinch to zoom in and out. It will detect single finger gestures like circle and flick. Missing from the P3 are built-in Wi-Fi and accelerometer, which were probably taken out by Samsung for the rumble feature.

Everything USB has taken an in-depth look into the P3 with mostly good things to say. The reviewer really likes the sound quality (praises to DNSe), audio format support (FLAC lossless, OGG Vorbis), intuitive UI (custom themes, widgets), native DivX / MP4 support, haptic technology, and the metal body as well as Bluetooth stereo streaming. Last but not least, the P3 also got a Recommended badge from the USB fan site.

[Samsung YP P3 Review @ Everything USB]

By Shane McGlaun

Ever wonder why computer monitors are typically black, silver, or beige? No? Well I have wondered why most computer gear is the same color before, I guess no one likes to rock the boat or maybe those colors are cheaper to produce. I’d like to have a nice Ferrari red LCD, but alas I have a silver and black Dell.

Samsung has announced new LCDs for computer users that feature the firm’s Touch of Color design. The monitors have a clear acrylic neck to make them seem to be floating says Samsung. The three models include the P2070, P2370, and P2370HD.

The P2370 and P2370HD both offer 1920 x 1080 resolution for viewing HD content. The difference between the two is that the P2370HD adds an integrated HDTV tuner. The P2070 has a screen resolution of 1600 x 900. All three LCDs offer the same 50,000:1 contrast ratio.

[ Samsung ]

By Shane McGlaun

I for one am glad that the majority of consumer video cameras available today have left tapes behind and moved to digital storage formats. That means instead of having boxes of cassette tapes sitting around the house gathering dust I can put all my home movies onto my computer or burn the easily to DVD.

Samsung has announced a pair of new ergonomic camcorders called the SMX-C14 and the SMX-C10. The two camcorders have the Touch of Color design that Samsung pioneered with its TVs. Both of the camcorders utilize Samsungs Active Angle Lens to make shooting video more comfortable.

Other features include a 2.7-inch LCD that tilts, H.264 video compression, and a 10x optical zoom lens. Both cameras also feature Samsung video and photo editing software built-in to let users edit video on a PC without needing software. The difference between the two cameras is that the C14 has 16GB of internal storage with expansion via SD/SDHC cards while the C10 only has SD/SDHC storage. The cameras will ship in July at undisclosed pricing.

[ Samsung ]

By Shane McGlaun

Most of us own a cell phone today and we can all agree that one of the worst parts about mobile phone service is that we are tied to contracts. With a contract, the mobile provider has you by the kiwis even if their network sucks, assuming you don’t want to pay the early termination fee.

The dislike of contracts has been a good thing for the variety of no-contract pay-as-you go providers like MetroPCS. MetroPCS is one of the few no contract providers that gets a number of new handsets. The latest new handset for the network is the Samsung Tint.

The big feature of the mostly plain vanilla phone is that it comes with two faceplates that can be changed to suit your tastes. The faceplates are in gray and pink colors and additional colors will be offered as well. Features of the phone include push-to-talk, Bluetooth, SMS, MMS, email, IM and voice recognition. Pricing and availability details are unknown at this time.

[ Samsung ]