The Zone

HTC has formally introduced themselves this morning at the luanch of their latest device (which would be called a Dopod if they had not reabsorbed the brand) simply named the HTC Touch. Surprisingly, we did not anticipate the Touch to be launched on the same date as the iPhone introduction (-6 GMT) and it does resemble Apple's first foray. Both are based on the GSM/GPRS/EDGE circuit with wireless connectivity, eschewing 3G and GPS navigation, both have media capabilities, and both have touch-senstitive input capabilities, with the iPhone giving it all on the multi-touch screen and the Touch, well, gives you the added accuracy of a stylus which the iPhone doesn't have.

We would take this ofer the iPhone, though, and the reasoning is simple - you can't send your iPhone back for warranty if it breaks as you'll only get it with that 2-year Cingular plan. So much for the grey imports. The Touch retails for RM2099 and will be released to the public tomorrow! More pics after the break!

For all your Xbox 360 owners, you're probably aware that the new Forza 2 Motorsports racing game supports multiscreen display. You can play play up to 4 screens simultaneously but the only problem though is that you'll need 4 Xbox 360 and 4 copies of the game.

If anyone of you just inherited a large fortune recently, here's a quick and dirty option to get the ultimate Forza 2 rig. Feast your eyes on the VRX Triple Screen "Limited Edition 001". This baby is beyond words. Made up largely of aluminum and polished chrome, it's every couch racer's wet dream.

Plomp your overweight behind in the Sparco seat (two colors available!) and you'll be greeted with triple 37" LC-D62U Sharp Aquos 1080p displays and a nice 4" LCD for the rear view display. Don't be thinking that they'll be skimping on the audio now coz this rig is powered by a Bose Acoustimass 10 Seris surround setup driven by a Harmon Kardon AVR-144 Surround Sound receiver.  

In case you can't see in the pictures, all the 4 Xbox 360 are the Elite version too. Other goodies thrown into this package listed on the manufacturer's website include a HD DVD player, Zune, wireless headset, Live Vision, wireless wheel (duh!) and of course how can you not forget - a beverage holder.

Allright now. Enough with the talking already. Just go the VRX website here and daydream how you'll never be able to own this masterpiece of a toy for geeks and gamers.

Sigh.

PS: If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

This is another one of those non-tech posts but this one is a good one, I promise. Just watch the video and guess how did he change the color of the cards. :P

If you keep track of gadgets, you might have heard about this Optimus Maximus Keyboard.  It's not related to Transformers in anyway, but it sounds like what happens when Optimus Prime fights in a Gladiator Arena.

The Optimus Keyboard is aimed at solving a common need amongst tech users - customisable keyboards.  Especially welcomed by gamers, customised keyboards could do away with profile loading and just change the keys itself!

Since the Optimus Keyboardhas a tiny OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) screen behind each key, you can easily change the display of each key to reflect what you want the key to do.  In other words, you could have the keyboard display standard QWERTY keys during work, but switch the AWSD keys after work to Up, Down, Left, and Right.

Want one? You can't buy them here, but you can order them online from the site.

Pretec's novelty USB flash drives engineering samples look yummy enough to gobble up. More pictures of the 3rd and final day of our trip to Computex 2007 after the jump.

Ahoy thar ye landlubbers! I've been trollin' t' waters off Sao Feng's hideout t' garner ye an insight into t' sights at CommunicAsia 2007, t' gatherin' for all thin's that power your mobile life, from broadcast stations and antennas t' mobile phones and their accessories. We brin' you t' first part o' this two-post special which brin's you t' phones from NTT DoCoMo, LG, Samsung and Eten.

Pics after t' break!"

(and in plain, proper, prim, legal English),

Ahoy there ye landlubbers!  I've been trolling the waters off Singapore to garner you an insight into the sights at CommunicAsia 2007, the gathering for all things that power your mobile life, from broadcast stations and antennas to mobile phones and their accessories. We bring you the first part of this two-post special which brings you the phones from NTT DoCoMo, LG, Samsung and Eten.

Pics after the break!

Now, returning to the regular CommunicAsia schedule, we bring you the phones from Sony Ericsson and other cool stuff sighted at the fair which ended last weekend.

More pics after the break!

Where do robots go if they're naughty? To the Robotarium of course! This art installation was built by artist Leonel Moura, and it's creepy enough for us; remember how robots came to rebel when they were mocked at for centuries in the Matrix?

In other news, the iPhone will not have MP3s as its ringtones, stereo Bluetooth (no A2DP) video recording, MMS, voice recognition, games, no IM (meaning no Adium) and best part - no flash games. Making it worse is that there might be firmware upgrades that will unlock phone features - at a price. Apple, what gives? 

We found this lonely battery wandering the streets yesterday - could you help us guess what is it so that we could lead him home or at least use it! ?

Thanks to English Russia, we now get to see how GPS devices in the wild wilderness of the Siberian plains look - like blocks of armor that fell from a tank while navigating the battlefield!

A face only a mother could love..... 

(Read) 

Ever dreamed of being the most bad@$$ character in film history? (At least we geeks think so) You have a credit card balance of more than $860 dollars? Still have a slim waist even if you're in your 40s?  This is the one for you =

Totally awesomely cool! Too bad I can't fit in it due to my ever expanding waistline, but hey, probably XXL would suffice :) It comes with a free lightsabre/saber, too! 

Logitech made one of our wildest dreams a reality with the introduction of the MX Air, which is a gyration based, air-capable mouse which is able to work without you needing a surface. lt is a beautiful thing to behold, and unlike those regular mice that you've been accustomed to, it's apparently comfier too, which of course, depends on the individual.

This morning the media was invited to a special Media Machinimasia workshop organized by Intel and Machinimasia, where we were briefed on some tips on making our own short movies through captured footage from games and basic film-making techniques. It was kinda interesting, though I wished they had prepared the presentation earlier so we could have more time to play around with the game and movie-making application. 

The good news is that the workshop is also open to the general public but only for today (Friday) at 5 p.m. and tomorrow (Saturday) at 10 a.m. So if you have an interest in making your own short movie clip of your favorite video game, go check it out! It's totally free of charge, and you might pick up some useful tips in the meantime.

Venue:
Horus Surfer iCafé
No.4, Jalan SS 2/61,
47300, Petaling Jaya.

Time:
Fri, 13 Jul, 5pm to 7.30pm
Sat, 14 Jul, 10am to 12.30pm

For the August issue of HWM, we'll be reviewing two polar opposites of the standard notebook. One is the Toshiba Qosmio G40, a desktop replacement notebook that's absolutely ginormous in multimedia entertainment. The other is the petite Fujitsu U1010 UMPC, which is the smallest tablet PC we've ever reviewed. Click the jump for a preview of the two notebooks that we'll writing about next month!

Remember the HP Dragon? the 22" notebook errr desktop replacement? Samsung has crammed a 19" in its new, aptly named Desknote G25 where it seems huge compared to the petite (and cute) model in the picture below. Like its production standalone monitors, Samsung has endowed the G25 with a 1000:1 contrast ratio screen, boasts SATA hard drives, and comes with a pricetag of 1 million Won. Which is not that expensive considering its only USD1100 or RM6000......[Gizmodo]