Gadget News

• Sonos CR200: now that's control!

  Posted: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:30:00 +0100

  
  Sonos has long been the king of music streamers, but the design, particularly of that fat controller, was starting to look a bit dated. Enter the new Sonos controller, the CR200, which replaces the tired-looking CR100, with a gorgeous touchscreen.

  It’s not often we dedicate a whole news story to a mere controller (in fact it’s almost never), but the Sonos CR200 looks more like some sort of awesome PMP than a remote. For starters, there’s a 3.5-inch touchscreen that’s double the resolution of the iPhone 3G S at 640×480 pixels.

  There are still dedicated buttons for you to control the volume situated at the bottom of the device, plus a removable battery, you know, just in case it dies completely. Of course we’re not saying it will. But it could.

  So, the new Sonos CR200 allows you to control all your music in different rooms with the mere swipe of a finger. The touchscreen’s capacitive, so it’s super responsive, and there’s even access to the likes of Napster and Last.fm. Awesome doesn’t quite come close to describing it.

  To round off the package, Sonos delivers the CR200 with a neat cradle to keep it safe. So, how much for the Sonos CR200? Brace yourselves… £279! That’s more than an iPof Touch! If you buy it in a Sonos BU250 bundle (in which you also get ZP120 and ZP90 zone players) it’ll cost £799. That’s okay then.
  Read Sonos CR200: now that’s control! on FiveFWD

• Denon AH-NC600 are real in-ear beauties

  Posted: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:30:00 +0100

  
  Denon’s AH-NC600 in-ear headphones follow hot on the heels of last week’s Denon AH-S360 earbuds. The difference here is that the AH-NC600s come with noise-cancelling technology to relegate the outside whinges and roaring motors to nothing but whisps in your ears.

  The Denon AH-S360 earbuds are actually Denon’s first pair of noise-cancelling in-ear headphones, minimising outside noise by up to 99 per cent. All you need is a small AAA battery and you’re guaranteed a whopping 0 hours of near complete external noise block-out.

  Tech-wise Denon’s piled in its proprietary Compressed Audio Restorer into the AH-S360 earbuds. It’s effectively an upscaler for your tunes, that restores the music to something like their original glory before they got compressed. Alongside an Acoustic Optimizer, that means you get as dynamic a sound as you could wish for from a set of in-ear buds and bass as deep asa very deep hole.

  Elsewhere, Denon’s kitted the Denon AH-S360 earbuds with an ergonomic design, a newly-developed Hybrid housing for crisper sound, and a Radial Cascade Damper that cuts noise from the hanging cables. All of which makes for a pretty impressive pair of cans. And all for £159.99 from September.

  
  Read Denon AH-NC600 are real in-ear beauties on FiveFWD

• Curve 8520 is a 'Berry good deal!

  Posted: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:00:00 +0100

  
  The BlackBerry Curve 8520, for aspiring Sir (Lord) Alan types with not as much clout, has just been officially announced. The affordo-phone has that distinctive business-flavour that previous BlackBerry handsets have, only this time you won’t be breaking the bank to get your hands on one.

  The Blackberry Curve 8520’s USP doesn’t stop at being cheap, though. It also has a new trackpad, ditching the trackball seen on previous BlackBerrys. It works just like a trackpad on a laptop, says RIM, using optical technology to help you navigate around the Blackberry Curve 8520’s menus.

  Elsewhere, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 has a couple of multimedia buttons on the device so you can access your complete Madonna collection (via a microSD card naturally) in a jiffy. There’s also a two-megapixel camera, a 320×240 TFT display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unfortunately there’s no 3G, but there is Mac compatibility out of the box!

  There’s still no word on pricing as of yet, but the word is that the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will be free on contract (at around £25 a month). Now that’s not bad in anyone’s books. Even Sir Lord Alan. Or whatever he’s called now.
  Read Curve 8520 is a ‘Berry good deal! on FiveFWD

• Apple to sit at the top tablet?

  Posted: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:30:00 +0100

  
  Those Apple tablet rumours just won’t go away. I’m starting to think there’s truth in that old saying… there’s no smoke without an Apple tablet. Or something like that.

  Anyway, the latest set of whispers doing the rounds on the interweb suggest that Steve Jobs and Co. are set to unveil an Apple tablet in time for Christmas, with some reports even claiming that it could be unveiled as soon as September!

  Now, until we hear official confirmation, we always take rumours with a pinch of salt. But these ones just won’t go away. Apparently the Apple tablet will have a ten-inch touchscreen and support Wi-Fi (rumours conflict about whether or not it’ll have 3G). It’s also suggested that any tablet will sport a similar interface to the iPod Touch and not a Mac, and come with a custom-made ARM processor.

  All sounds highly intriguing indeed. Should an Apple tablet get unveiled in the next few months it’d no doubt shoot to the top of the must-haves for Christmas. I’d certainly want to get my mitts on one.

  Having said that, I’d rather Apple took its time over creating a tablet and made sure it was spot on. I find it unbelievably infuriating when an Apple product comes in, dazzles me with its glossy design, only for there to be a couple of niggles that Apple rectifies with an upgraded version six months down the line. Now you mention it, infuriating doesn’t even come close to describing my feelings.

  Still, I’ll probably be the first in the queue at the Apple Store if an Apple tablet does come out. What do you think? Is Apple about to release an Apple tablet and if so, will you be getting one? Have your say below…