Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

We just have to trust Sony when it says that its new KDL-40ZX1 LCD TV is the world’s thinnest so far. Measuring a mere 9.9mm, this 40-inch LCD beauty weighs 12.2kg. Makes you wonder where it puts all that weight considering that it is so thin?

Anyway, the KDL-40ZX1 is said to feature wireless video reception which Sony has dubbed the Bravia 1080 Wireless. In addition, this LCD panel also features a 3000:1 contrast ratio, a full 1080p HD resolution, three HDMI ports, both a digital and analog tuner, as well as LAN and USB ports. 

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There have been a lot of great Scarlets in the last one hundred years.  Scarlet O’Hara, Scarlet Johansson, Miss Scarlet from Clue.  The new Scarlet from LG is the latest of fine looking Scarlets to burst onto the scene. 

LG has recently unveiled two more great Scarlets with the LG70 and LG80 LCD televisions.  I imagine that these televisions take their namesake from their red frames, and each one has full HD resolution of 1080p, as well as USB connectivity.  The LG70 has a contrast ratio of 50,000:1, while the LG80 has a 30,000:1. 

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Trying to lure in customers to replace their DVDs or HD DVDs with Blu-rays, Paramount is offering ten bucks per title to do just that. Although Paramount and Dreamwork titles are involved in the offer, it isn’t good for just any Paramount movie.

According to HighDefDigest, the promotion will start with the release of Transformers on Blu-ray coming in just a few days on September 2nd. Hopefully you won’t mind messing up those boxes a bit though, since you need to include the proof-of-purchase tabs from both the DVD and the Blu-ray disk, along with the promotional certificate from inside eligible Blu-ray movies.  You also have to buy your Blu-rays before December 31, 2009 and have your rebate envelope postmarked before January 31, 2010.

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Panasonic has really been pulling out all the stops on their HDTV department, releasing 8 new models of plasma and LCD TVs with the ZR900 and PZ800 series. 

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You’ve got to like the look of the Nurian Avatar F1.  Of course, looks are not everything from this piece of South Korean technology.  The Avatar F1 is kind of a PMP, MID, and UMPC all in one. 

This Avatar comes packed with an Alchemy AU1250 600MHz processor, is powered by a Windows CE 5.0 Core, and has a 30GB hard drive.  The Avatar F1 can play back many file formats to include MPEG1/2/4, DivX, Xvid, WMV, OGG and of course MP3’s.  It also allows the user to tune into mobile TV broadcasts and has output video with a TV out component dongle. 

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In efforts to showcase the best looking portable media player’s and digital audio player’s at IFA, iriver has announced a new PMP and a GPS with media capabilities.

The first device announced is the iriver P20, which was originally shown off at the past CES in January 2008. It sports a 4.1-inch AMOLED touch screen, which is a bigger screen than most PMP’s these days. In addition, the battery life is pretty good, 12 hours for music, 9 hours for video, and up to 8 hours with DMB TV. Although, I do think the battery life when just playing music should be a bit higher, but for video and DMB TV, it’s good. It is expected to come with either an 80GB or 120GB hard drive. 

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Cowon has announced three new portable media players to its line-up, the S9 Curve, O2 and L3. All three portable media player’s sport a touchscreen feature but each have their distinct individual features to distinguish one from another. Here’s a quick rundown of what we can expect from each of these PMP’s.

First we have the S9 Curve which is said to be Cowon’s first narrow-format touchscreen player. It also boasts of being the first Cowon PMP that uses the active matrix OLED or AMOLED touchscreen display. The S9 Curve plays both audio and video files and also acts as a T-DMB tuner for live digital TV plus it also comes with an FM Radio tuner. Other features of the S9 Curve include a 3.3-inch display, accelerometer and a dual-core processor. It can also max out up to 40 hours of usage time when listening to music.

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Vudu seems to be doing a fairly decent job of keeping their name out in the news lately, it was not that long ago that they announced their ”99 for 99” and we cannot forget the recent move into additional Best Buy retail locations. Now they have come back promising a total of 1,000 HD quality movies to choose from, as well as a lifetime content warranty.

Of course they were not able to give a specific availability date for these new titles, stating that “in a very short time we’ll have 1,000 HD titles.” They also seemingly proudly pointed out that they will have “more than Blu-ray” and that they also “have some huge deals.” I guess it pays to be proud of what you are offering, however it almost seems like the proud parent bragging about how good their son or daughter is.

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Remember the new Archos Internet Media Tablets, the 5, 5g, and 7? Well, it looks like the 5 and 7 are already on sale at Archos retailer, Amazon. At this time, the 5g is not currently on sale.

The 60GB Archos 5 is set to cost $349.99, the same model with 120GB capacity will cost $50 more priced at $399.99, and the 250GB Archos 5 will cost $449.99. Next, we have the Archos 7 and the base unit, the 160GB model will cost $449.99. One of the main differences between the Archos 7 and 5 is the screen size, the Archos 7 boasts a 7-inch TFT LCD screen, meanwhile the Archos 5 comes with a slightly smaller 4.8-inch display. Finally, the whopping 320GB model will cost $549.99. As previously mentioned, the Archos 5g is not on sale yet, but hopefully it will be soon.

If you wish to purchase one of these devices, expect to receive it within 2-4 weeks.

Read [Archos] Product [Amazon] Via [I4U]

12seconds just today launched their application programming interface (API) as well as announced it’s first three partners: Tweetdeck, Blippr, and Phreadz. With the goal of 12seconds being to be the go-to platform for video status updates, they needed this step forward of a strong API.

The company is happy with their first three partners, although they are still encouraging others to hop in and play around with the code. Of their newest partners, Tweetdeck, an Adobe Air client, probably holds the crown for being known for it’s Twitter service. Blippr is a site that does short-form reviews, and Phreadz is a startup company that does threaded video conversations.

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