Not content with releasing two new players, Sammy gets in on the digital download act…

Declaring its intentions as a digital music big-hitter Samsung’s blessing us not only with its two new MP3 players but also the imminent launch of its own application-based download service.

Dubbed the Samsung Media Studio (SMS), it will open its online doors next month to any Windows-based MP3 players.

Sammy has struck deals with all of the major record labels and over 40,000 independents to take part in the service, ensuring that punters can fill up the new super-slim K3′s (pictured) 8GB storage and the  Bluetooth-equipped T9′s 4GB capacity. In fact, a healthy 2.6 million songs will be online from launch – watch your back, iTunes…

Customers at ASDA will be able to pick up Britain’s lowest priced DVD player when it lands in stores on Thursday (25^th January 2007) and still get change from a tenner.

The price of the Durabrand DVD player, previously on sale at £17.84, will drop to a staggering £9 from 6am tomorrow morning meaning customers will, for the first time, be able to buy a DVD player for less than the average price of a new release DVD.

There will be more than 80,000 of the DVD players hitting shelves and it will be on sale at every one of ASDA’s 316 stores and seven ASDA Living stores throughout the UK and Northern Ireland.

The supermarket anticipates the product will prove such a hit with customers that it will sell out within two days.

This move is the latest in a series of market-leading price promotions from ASDA and once again delivers unbeatable value on everyday electronics for the supermarket’s 13 million customers.

In a pre-Christmas roll back, ASDA cut the price of its own brand ONN 15” LCD TV from £148 to £99 – the first time any retailer had broken the £100 barrier.

Peter Pritchard, ASDA’s general merchandise trading director, said: “This is such a jaw-droppingly low price that customers might struggle to believe it, but we really are selling a DVD player for under a tenner.

“This is truly unbeatable value and puts our competitors in the shade – our message to customers is why pay more, when you don’t have to. And we can promise them much more to come in the months ahead.”

This week saw the launch of the new Argos catalogue with DVD players available from £17.79. A Tesco Value DVD player is available at £17.84.

Having now released a three-button keyboard, Artemy Lebedev, the company behind the much talked-about Optimus keyboard, is announcing yet another partial keyboard before the real deal goes gold early next year.

Named the Optimus Upravlator, this next widget is apparently a “completely new kind of input device.”

From the information available, it appears to consist of nine large (~5cm square) buttons, each featuring a customisable, colour display. There will also be an optional stand on which it can be mounted.

Intriguingly, the Upravlator input device will receive its display information directly from your video card rather than via USB. It plugs directly into “your second monitor port,” apparently to reduce the display lag down to that of a standard LCD monitor.

Aimed at the media professional, the Upravlator will be the “single best friend of any music engineer or video editor,” says ‘tema’ on Artemy Lebedev’s new Optimus blog. “Graphic designers should be happy as well.”

If you’re unaware of the full-sized Optimus keyboard, it’s quite out of the ordinary. Each key’s face contains a miniature monitor that displays either what the key does or, in fact, whatever the user desires.

Not only can you assign certain actions to the keys in applications, as with an ordinary keyboard, but you can finally display a relevant image, or even an animation, on the key itself.

Much like an opposing number pad, the Optimus will also sport an additional ten programmable buttons on the left.

Concern still surrounds the price of the Optimus, however. It will apparently “cost less than a good mobile phone.” Hopefully not one of those diamond-encrusted ones.

The Optimus Mini Three — the keyboard with only three buttons — is selling for a pretty steep US$159.96. For that price you get to do things such as play pong at three frames per second on three 96 x 96 pixel OLED displays.

Interestingly, it has been announced that the Optimus keyboard’s replaceable keys will no longer feature OLEDs, opting instead to use something else for the myriad 32 x 32 pixel resolution displays. Cost-cutting, perhaps?

With the Optimus now said to be in production, pre-orders from the eager are slated to be taken sometime in December.

It just might transform your wallet into a black hole…

source: www.apcstart.com

Japanese telco giant, NTT DoCoMo is releasing a scented mobile phone in the shape of the SO703i from Sony Ericsson.

Why? I don’t know but apparently the phone takes scented sheets that smell when you open the phone. Something to do with relaxing odours and there’s 11 to choose from. NTT has already tested smells in the cinema so that the fragrance released matches what’s on the screen. A load of crap, I know.

The company has named its offering the D8000iDS, which boasts a double-screen: a normal TFT on one half and a touch-screen on the other. Do not expect to ever see this over here where phone makers think car exhaust fumes, rotting rubbish and under-arm sweat are all the odours we deserve.-Martin Lynch

That’s the day when the PS3 finally goes on sale in Europe. It’s also the day you won’t stand chance of getting one, unless you’ve been smart and pre-ordered one already or, start dusting off that sleeping bag now.

What’s more, only the 60GB version will be available at launch for £425 so, if you’ve been saving for the 20GB version, it’s time to double that paper route or mug more grannies. Interestingly, the rest of Europe will only be paying £395. The 20GB version will come later.

There will be one million PS3 units going on sale on March 23, with around 250,000-300,000 expected to come to the UK. Sony said there will also be an update of the system software to ‘enhance the entertainment potential’ of PS3 but no details on just what means. Will keep you updated.

Anyone upset by the lack of a 20GB version at launch?-Martin Lynch

If you can’t bother waiting for iPhone, you could always opt for LG’s Prada phone, being touted as the first fully-touchscreen phone. Expect some controversy with that claim from the fat, PDA/phone quarter.

The Prada KE850 weighs 85g, is 12mm thick [a weenie bit thicker than the iPhone] and boasts an extra wide LCD for all that touchy-feely goodness. The screen offers a decent resolution of 400 x 240 pixels widescreen and the in-built 2MP camera can record video at 30fps. There’s no doubt it’s pretty but it’s not 3G and has no Internet capabilities which is fine for those that don’t want the world crammed into a single device.

Features

• Capacitive Touch Screen
• Music Player (MP3, ACC, ACC+, WMA, RA)
• Music Multitasking (Messaging)
• Video Player (MPEG4, H.263, H.264)
• Macromedia Flash UI
• Document Viewer (ppt, doc, xls, pdf, txt )

Specifications

• EDGE Tri-Band (900/1800/1900)
• 98.8 × 54 × 12 mm
• 2M CMOS Camera / LED Flash
• External Memory Slot (Micro SD)
• Innerpack Battery 800mAh
• Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, USB Mass storage

Urwerk make expensive watches. In fact, expensive is almost too cheap a word to describe the kind of tags this company slaps on its luxury timepieces.

Thankfully, Urwerk tend to rely on engineering for its exclusive status, unlike others that think if you throw enough Swarovski crystals at something it will pass for style. Still, would you pay up to £25,000 for this watch?

This is the Hammerhead 201, which boasts telescopic minute hands that move in and out of the three, rotating cubic hour satellites. Each cube has four numbers on it and rotate in time to match the telescopic pointers on the minute hands. Other features include:

A 5 day Power Reserve indicator (left) and Day/Night indicator (right) complete the dial. The Control Board on the back of the 201 features: an Oil Change indicator notifying the owner a service is due; a 100 year plus indicator, the worlds first horological odometer, keeping track of the total time of use for over a 100 years; and Urwerk’s signature Fine Tuning screw allowing the wear to adjust the rate to suit their life style