Research in Motion (RIM), now freed from the shackles of lawsuit hell, announced the Blackberry 7130g, a slimmed-down smartphone that weighs four ounces and is a mere three-quarters of an inch thick. There’s no QWERTY keyboard due to its smaller 4.5-inch candy bar form factor, but that’s okay, the 7130g uses the SureType keyboard layout which combines phone dialing and QWERTY with its clever software to make things easy. A little screen size is sacrificed, too, where the display is 240×260 rather than the larger 320×240 of its older and larger brother, the Blackberry 8700g.

The 7130g is a cellphone as well as a PDA with text messenging, email and web browsing capabilities. It also has an innovative autosensing function that adjusts brightness of screen and keyboard according to ambient light. It’s fast, too, with a Intel XScale 312MHz processor on board. Of course, it has Bluetooth connectivity and quad-band network support, and surprisingly, will be available first in the UK, shipping elsewhere later. – Charlie White

Press release [RIM, via Trusted Reviews]
from gizmodo

CNet got their hands on Toshiba’s GigaBeat S, the first digital media player to give the iPod a run for its money. The S30 (30GB) and S60 (60GB) were first announced during Bill Gate’s keynote presentation at CES 2006 — powered by Windows Portable Media Center. Boasting a 240 x 320 resolution 2.4″ QVGA display, the new “S” series makes everything from pictures to your favorite movies look bright and crisp. Also included are an FM tuner, AV output, and compatibility with Vongo’s new digital video subscription/download service. The players will support WMV, DivX, MPEG-2, MP3, WMA/WMA Lossless, and JPEG formats. .This is what they had to say:

Many prospective MP3/PVP buyers have been waiting patiently for this compact, easy-to-use, one-stop shop for media files–looks like the Toshiba Gigabeat S was worth the wait.

[via engadget]
from techeblog

 

The Blufin is Tinno’s first portable media player entry, and it’s definitely no slouch, with a 2.0-megapixel camera, 30GB hard drive, 128MB RAM, USB connectivity, SD card slot, and a 4.3-inch LCD display. That’s not all, it’s powered by an AMD Au1200 processor. It goes on sale in July at the price of $700.

[via AVing]
from techeblog