iPod nano is now a Camcorder... and a TiVo-style FM Radio
It's clearly there's still room for improvements in the iPod nano as Apple has again refreshed the wafer-thin DAP for the fourth time. Now in its fifth generation, the iPod nano has received quite a few hardware changes, including the addition of a video camera, a bigger screen (albeit only 0.2" larger), a microphone, a pedometer, a speaker, and surprisingly, a FM radio.
The video camera lets you capture in standard def (640 x 480 at 30fps in H.264) with quality that even surpasses iPhone 3GS according to PCMag. It doesn't take still pictures, however. The camcorder function also puts the nano's accelerometer to good use so you can switch between portrait and landscape mode effortlessly. The lens placement, however, makes it too easy for fingers to get in the way; you will need to practice the handling a little more. 15 special effects are available even while you are recording.
The FM radio gets iTunes tagging and Live Pause, the former of which allows you to tag the song you heard on the radio and let iTunes finds it for you for purchase next time you sync. Live Pause basically is like TiVo for FM radio on your nano so you can pause live radio broadcast and return to it as far back as 15 minutes. The nano's integrated pedometer reports back how many steps you've taken and how many calories you've burned after you enter your weight start walking. Last but not least is the VoiceOver reads out the song name and the performer. This feature was introduced in iPod shuffle 3G and has since made it to iPhone and now nano. While there are numerous changes to the hardware department, iPod nano is still offered in 8GB and 16GB and Apple has slashed the price by $20 to $149 and $179 respectively... talking about a big discount taken account into all the upgrades.
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WD My Passport USB Drive Gets Native USB Interface Also
Following the footsteps of hassle-free backup options such as the Apple Time Machine and Seagate Replica, Western Digital has debuted a new line of My Passport external drives shipping with its SmartWare and 256-bit hardware encryption as standard feature. The SmartWare while not particularly exciting is essentially a software suite that not only does incremental backup but also presents a visual display of your backup in categories so you know what kind of files is taking up all the precious drive space.
What is newsworthy about the My Passport is the direct integration of USB interface to the 2.5" drive. This bypasses the USB-to-SATA bridge like the Samsung S2 so you can expect performance bump, and the removal of the bridge makes the drive even more compact (a mere 0.6" in thickness). The new My Passport SE offers capacities in 750GB and 1TB with 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, and 640GB in the Essential series. It's pity that Western Digital only gives us 2 years of warranty for the My Passport while the competitors are stepping up with 5 years of warranty.
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Creative Redefines Overkill with New Sound Blaster Gaming Headset
Continuing on the Creative's winning style first seen in the Falal1ty line, the Sound Blaster Arena arrives in royal fashion to take the title as company's top-of-the-line headset. Packed with all the power of an elite sound card into a pair of headphones, the Arena USB headset is made for intense gaming action. Creative paired their X-Fi sound audio enhancing technology with their EAX 3D soundscaping system to come up with a headset that is great for gaming and music. A detachable noise-canceling microphone allows the lucky user to use voice chat features for in-game cooperation.
The software that enables Creative's hardware provides several other key features. For starter, you can change your voice across the whole spectrum from Vader to Madonna. Intelligent filtering will also help eliminate background noise which could interfere with speech transmissions. Lastly, ALchemy repairs games that lost 3D sound function due to a Microsoft patch to Vista. The Arena USB gaming headset will start out at $159 when it reaches shelves as early as next week.
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