HDMI

Given his recent health-related leave of absence, it was refreshing to see that Steve Jobs took the stage at today's Apple event to announce the forthcoming arrival of the iPad 2. It's lighter and thinner than the original, but packs in more features and more processing power. New additions include rear and front-facing cameras, an iOS update, smart covers, and a built-in gyroscope. Sadly, the only advancement on the connectivity front was the addition of HDMI via an optional adapter, and the carbon-fiber housing rumor looks to have been just that, a rumor.  Read More

The rumors of a tablet from Research In Motion (RIM) have turned out to be true with CEO Mike Lazardis announcing the company’s PlayBook tablet at its annual BlackBerry Developer Conference. Described by RIM as a “professional-grade” tablet, the 7-inch device will be running the new BlackBerry Tablet OS created by the recently acquired QNX. It boasts BlackBerry integration, out-of-the-box BlackBerry Enterprise Server compatibility and security features designed to appeal to businesses as well as true multitasking, gaming and multimedia capabilities.  Read More

Nikon has announced a feature-rich addition to its digital SLR camera family, the 16.2 megapixel D7000. In addition to a new image processing engine and 3D Matrix metering system, the camera also offers full HD video recording with autofocus, twin media card slots, over a thousand shots between battery charges and up to six frames per second burst shooting. Its low-light-friendly too - with sensitivity expansion to ISO25600, noise reduction and shake reduction all promising to help grab the best shot in the most testing conditions. The D7000 is among the many photographic treats we're checking out at Photokina in Cologne this week.  Read More

Canon has given a couple of its PowerShot digital compacts a feature upgrade. Its 10 megapixel G12 receives 720p high definition video capability with stereo sound, high dynamic range and multiple aspect ratios and a front control dial. The 14.1 megapixel SX30 IS point-and-shoot gets a 35x wide-angle optical zoom lens with optical image stabilization, a bigger vari-angle LCD display and zoom framing assist.  Read More

Sanyo's new pocket camera clearly takes aim at the Flip, while at the same time liberally borrowing inspiration from its success. The design moves away from previous Xacti gun-shaped designs and adopts a more Flip-like form factor, even including the signature pop-out USB connector from which Flip takes its name. Assuming that Sanyo didn't infringe on any patents here, we're excited that the company sees the value and marketability of simple cameras with few buttons. That was the common appeal of the Flip, and that same simplicity might help Sanyo take a bite out of the pocket-camera/camcorder market.  Read More

Western Digital (WD) has announced that its WD TV Live HD media player is the first network media player compatible with Windows 7. Thanks to a firmware upgrade users can now initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network.  Read More

The TruLink 1-Port 60GHz WirelessHD Kit lets you say goodbye to the clutter of (expensive) HDMI cables and still retain a 1080p signal via a wireless transmission between your television and your HDMI components, Blu-ray player, set-top box, gaming console, etc. Good up to 30ft line-of-sight, the 60GHz transmission capability delivers wireless flexibility in your home theater setup.  Read More

It's one thing to build a 4G network, but it's another thing entirely to offer a drool-worthy 4G handset that can make the most of it - and Sprint has delivered a real doozy with the HTC EVO 4G.  Read More

Canon recently announced some new additions to its popular Powershot line of compact cameras. One of them boasts a respectable 12 megapixel sensor while the other three have been boosted to 14 megapixels. Optical zoom runs from 4x on the cheaper SD1300 IS and SD1400 IS models up to 14x on the SX210 IS and the SD3500 IS features a 3.5in 460,000 dot touchscreen LCD display.  Read More