Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Yeah, we know pixel count doesn't equal picture quality -- but like it or not, it looks like 8 megapixels are poised to become the new 5 megapixels in the upper echelon of the cameraphone world this year. Samsung's never a company to shy away from a challenge like that, and sure enough, details are emerging on a so-called i8510 smartphone that features S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, FM radio, GPS, WiFi, and a whopping 16GB of internal storage -- not to mention a microSD slot that can take you up to 24GB. Oh, and there's the little matter of that camera, which features an dual LED flash and 120fps video capture at QVGA resolution. Add in DivX and DLNA certification, and we're kind of at a loss to figure out what's missing here. Boundless, unchecked hype, maybe? No word on a release date here just yet.

[Via mobil.cz]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Looks like Movie Gallery finally got something for the assortment of PBS bandwidth and spare parts remaining from the now-defunct MovieBeam service. The new owner is Indian conglomerate The Valuable Group, headed by Sanjay Gaikwad who apparently thinks serving up a remarkably limited assortment of heavily compressed HD and SD movies on demand is an idea that deserves to fail all over the world, instead of just in the U.S. Since $100 million burned up by Disney and others wasn't enough to make things work, he plans to invest a similar amount over the next two years to relaunch the service in North America, the U.K. and "other overseas markets". Variety notes The Valuable Group already delivers movies digitally to India and South Asian theaters via satellite so maybe they know something we don't about this business model, and with plans to roll out service in three markets with "new, cutting edge features" by year end we'll get to find out soon.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Hey you -- you looking for a quarter of the iPod touch experience for a little less than a quarter of the price? Yeah? Well, how does dropping $73 on the depressingly derivative Teclast M26 grab you? Seriously, this thing looked like it had a glimmer of potential when it was first announced, so it's kind of sad to see it getting priced like the throwaway crap it turned out to be -- we should definitely know better by now.

[Via PMP Today]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

We're not certain why Kodak is trickling out these middle-of-the-road digicams instead of announcing them all at once, but here we are. Joining the M1093 IS are the new M1073 IS (pictured) and M1063, while the C813 get a new friend in the C913. As you'd expect, almost nothing about these is all that spectacular: the $179 M1063 and M1073 IS are both 10 megapixel units with ISO1000 sensitivity and face detection, while the $120 C913 is a 9.2 megapixel unit with a 2.4-inch display and digital image stabilization. Expect to see these all in October, and check out the C913 after the break.

Read - M1073 IS
Read - M1063
Read - C913

Continue reading Kodak intros the C913, M1073 IS and M1063 cheapcams

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With yesterday's bumps mostly smoothed out, and MobileMe live for a straight day, Apple is apparently comfortable enough to push the MobileMe OS X update back out. (It was pulled after going up briefly on Wednesday.) Interestingly, it's version 1.1. Hit Software Update to get the party started, and let us know how it goes. [Apple]

Looks like the day when we all hang out with robots that smoke cigars, throw back drinks and win all our money in poker is edging closer, now that programmers at the University of Alberta have created a Hold 'Em-playing software that can beat poker professionals. The Polaris software was pitted against Poker pros like Nick Grudzien and Ijay Palansky in six games of limit Texas Hold 'Em—it tied on one, lost two and won three.

Each match consisted of 500 hands, with Polaris receiving the same cards in one room that the professionals received in another room. The duplicate system was used so that luck would be less of a factor and the game could be played as much on skill as possible.

Historically, computers have been better at playing games where all information is already on the board, such as chess. With poker, players have to make judgments based on incomplete information. Getting artificial intelligence to do that well is a big step, since real life problems are generally more like poker than like chess. [MSN Cosmic Log]

Duct tape is really an amazing thing. It’s capable of doing, creating, or fixing just about anything. Don’t believe me? Ask all the ladies out there with duct tape engagement rings, or all of the business men wearing duct tape suits. They’ll tell you how it is.

A man must always have some duct tape at hand. People! Listen to me! Duct tape is a miracle of innovation. There’s even books published about the magic you can create with the household object. That’s why this Duct Tape Dispensing Belt Clip is so damn cool.

This heavy-duty dispenser is sure to save as many projects you have that are in need of a good fixing. The Tape Wrangler fits any standard role of tape, you’ll always have a role of duct tape at hand for all of your taping needs.

Amazon is selling the Tape Wrangler for $18, quite a steal for the duct tape extraordinaire. The Tape Wrangler works one handed, right from the belt, or can be easily detached for more of an on-hand approach. So lets fix some of those leaky pipes, with duct tape of course.

Product Page via bookofjoe
[ Belt Clip Duct Tape Dispensor copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
<hr noshade /Cool Gift Idea: Digital Picture Frames, check out our reviews.

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