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It seems that now the Zune HD seal has been broken, the hands-on video and photos won’t stop coming. After two sets of photos, plus a leaked UI video, now we have some more official footage of the OLED touchscreen PMP in action courtesy of PC Mag and Engadget.

Engadget seem quite taken with this latest pre-production model, admiring the “wild transitions, fun motion graphics and plenty of beautiful media to show it all off with,” though they couldn’t find a landscape-orientation keyboard. Meanwhile PC Mag get carried away by the Zune HD’s 480 x 272 OLED display, suggesting it “more than holds its own ground” against the iPod touch.

Unfortunately feedback on the browser is in short supply, with Engadget unable to get a connection and PC Mag saying nothing more than page navigation is speedy. Still, moving pictures often say it better than words, so check out the two hands-on videos with the Zune HD below. We’re expecting to see the new Microsoft PMP land on September 15th priced at $219.99 for the 16GB and $289.99 for the 32GB.

The great thing about only spotting a new device when it launches is that you don’t have to wait too long until you can see if unboxed and in action. Gigabyte’s TouchNote T1028X convertible touchscreen netbook only crossed our paths yesterday, but already Liliputing have their review unit in to play with.
While the T1028X may look ostensibly the same as its T1028M predecessor, there are a couple of key changes. The Intel Atom N270 of the M-variant gets thrown out, to be replaced by the slightly faster 1.66GHz Atom N280 chip; more obviously (once you turn it on, anyway) the display has had an update to a 10.1-inch 1,366 x 768 panel.

A 7,650mAh battery is also on the capacious side of what we’ve seen for netbooks, so hopefully the T1028X will last longer than, say, ASUS’ Eee PC T91. It’ll have to be good, though; early pricing suggests you’re looking at $679 from Amazon. There’s also a first-look video over at Liliputing, to help you decide if it’s worth it.

If we had an “utterly awesome” tag here on SlashGear, you can bet I’d be using it for this. Pocket Lucho has a history of making incredible miniature arcade cabinets, and his latest fully-operational model is a Neo Geo cabinet complete with illuminated marquee and false coin slot.

The screen is courtesy of a PSone clip-on LCD attachment, which is held into place via magnets so as to make internal access more straightforward. A magnetically-latched door on the side gives access to the cartridge slot and more, while there’s also a port for attaching a second controller and a video output.

In the videos below he explains first how he made the cabinet, and then runs through a demo of it in action. No word on what sort of money he spent, but I bet he could find plenty of takers if he made these to order.

MSI’s X-Slim range is about to get a new screen option, in the shape of the 15.6-inch X600. Notebook Italia have unboxed the biggest X-Slim in advance of its late-June European launch, finding a laptop that may not be as portable as its smaller siblings, but which is perhaps all the more usable.The X600 might have a full keyboard and separate numeric keypad, but it also comes in at just 25mm thick. Inside there’s up to 4GB of RAM, up to 500GB hard-drive, a choice of processors from Intel’s CULV range (topping out at the 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500) and ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4330 graphics with 512MB video memory.

There’s also a 6-cell battery, four speakers, VGA, HDMI, three USB, ethernet and audio in/out connectivity, WiFi a/b/g/n and, model depending, Bluetooth. The 720p-capable display runs at 1366 x 768. When it arrives in Italy later this month, the MSI X-Slim X600 will be priced between €799 ($1,123) and €949 ($1,334). Full details of the four models available at launch after the unboxing video.

It may look odd, but this ergonomic keyboard promises to free up your desk from the tyranny of your mouse. Well, from the tyranny of a separate mouse, anyway; the handiwork of an Australian inventor, the Combimouse turns the right-side of the keyboard into the mouse itself, using cleverly placed contacts to figure out when you’re trying to use it to to control your cursor.In mouse mode, the I, O, J, K, L and < buttons all become mouse buttons, while there’s a scroll-wheel on the bottom right-hand corner of the left keyboard half. There are also multimedia keys and a numeric keypad accessed with a num-lock button.

According to the inventor, the Combimouse makes spreadsheet data entry, FPS gaming and general computing more straightforward; you can also use just the right-hand mouse portion with a laptop keyboard, as shown in this photo. Unfortunately they’re still looking for hardware and manufacturing partners, so right now the Combimouse isn’t available to buy.

You’d think we’d seen every form factor and possible processor combination from Computex already, but III have still managed to surprise us. Their hybrid system combines the base of an HP Mini 1000-series netbook, from which the Intel Atom processor has been junked and replaced with a 1.6GHz VIA C7-M CPU. Meanwhile the display has been replaced with a detachable touchscreen slate, with its own processor, and running Android. The two can be used separately.


The slate functions as a full standalone touchscreen device, running on a 533MHz Samsung ARM-based CPU, and allows for full wireless connectivity and all the usual Android apps. The base section uses the slate as a display, and runs Windows XP - that means the usual range of productivity and office apps will work fine.

Right now it’s a prototype, with III (the Institute for Information Industry in Taiwan) looking for partners to commercialize the idea. It reminds us of the Always Innovating Touch Book, though of course that only has computing components in the slate-screen section.

ITG’s xpPhone was one of the more curious prospects for Computex - something with the form-factor of a MID but resolutely intended to be used as a cellphone - and jkkmobile stopped by to check it out. The xpPhone certainly tries to fit in as much as possible: SSD up to 64GB in size, multiple wireless options including Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G and WiMAX, and an AMD mobile processor.

Contrary to our initial expectations, ITG didn’t cut down the number of buttons on the xpPhone’s keyboard; that’s perhaps because the device is considerably larger than we first envisaged. The 4.8-inch touchscreen is swaddled by a thick bezel, and as you can see in the video it’s a chunky device.

We can’t imagine holding the xpPhone to our head and using it as a traditional smartphone, but with a Bluetooth headset it might be more practical. An estimated five hours of battery life is always welcome, but we’re unconvinced overall; this seems a little too much like the jarring mash of device-types that has led MID sales overall to be disappointing.

If you regularly miss phonecalls because your TV or music is turned up too loud, or you want to avoid that desperate hunt-for-the-remote before the answerphone picks up, the TV Silencer may be for you. It may not be pretty, but it can automatically mute your TV or stereo, or even pause your DVD, whenever a call comes in.


Basically, it’s a very specific programmable remote, which you teach how to hit the mute buttons on your TV and stereo together with the play button on your DVD player. It’s of no use to cellphone users, though, only landlines, but if you’ve got an elderly relative who turns their TV up so high they drown everything else out, it could be a useful gadget.

Neatly, the TV Silencer draws its power from the phoneline, rather than from a separate power cable, so in effect the phone company are paying for you to use it. If that’s not a bargain, I don’t know what is. The TV Silencer is available now, priced at $44.95.

MIDs a failure? No no no, how could that be when this little beauty is headed to the market? Known here as the Compal KAX15 MID, but likely to find itself a variety of alternative brands including Gigabyte and Aigo, it’s based on Intel’s existing Menlow platform and packs an 800MHz Atom Z515 processor, a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard.



That processor is actually quite clever, because despite the relatively low billed clock speed it also supports 1.2GHz bursting. While running at 1.2GHz would generally produce too much heat and have too great an impact on battery life, bursting-compatible applications will be able to poke the Z515 into running at the faster speed until the CPU’s controller decides things are getting too hot.

There are also dual cameras, front and back. Squinting at the product spec in the video below (courtesy jkkmobile), it looks like the KAX15 has 512MB of RAM, runs Windows XP (though the press shots have an Android-esque status bar across the top) and have WiFi and Bluetooth. No word on specific launch dates or pricing, but at least the Compal KAX15 will land before Moorestown.

All alone in a darkened room: what better to do than run through the GUI of iriver’s quietly-announced B30 PMP. A discrete appearance on the iriver site back in late May, the B30 distinguishes itself with a T-DMB mobile TV tuner and DAB radio, paired with a 2.8-inch QVGA display. Now we’ve a full video run-through of the UI and, as is generally the case with iriver’s products, it’s a beautifully put together system.
As well as the digital TV and radio broadcasts, the B30 has either 4, 8 or 16GB of flash storage, together with a microSD card slot and a USB 2.0 connection to fill it all up. The battery is good for up to 40hrs of audio or 5.5hrs of video, plus there’s a user-selectable equalizer for tweaking audio quality.

As the video shows, all navigation is done via the touch-sensitive buttons on the front panel, since the B30 lacks a touchscreen. Nonetheless it’s a slick arrangement. Unfortunately there’s no sign of the B30 - which ranges from $151 to $231 in Korea - crossing over to Europe or the US.

New renders of what’s said to be the final design for Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad internet and media tablet have been released, and its taken a big step forward from the last devices we saw. Now crafted from aluminum, not plastic, so as to cut thickness down to 18mm, the CrunchPad still has a 12-inch touchscreen, WiFi internet access and a media player app.

The device has minimal hardware controls, but offers a USB port for plugging in an external keyboard or other devices. That way it could be used as a netbook-style portable computer, ideal for blogging and messaging as well as more passive internet browsing.

According to Arrington, the first hardware prototypes of this new design will reach their office in a few weeks time; they’re still talking about a roughly $300 price tag. Below you can see the latest video demo of the CrunchPad, running on the previous-gen prototype; the final CrunchPad design will boot straight into the Webkit-based browser.

ASUS have officially launched the Eee PC T91 convertible touchscreen netbook, and already the first reviews are surfacing. Based around an 8.9-inch display which can rotate flat onto the keyboard for slate use, the T91 runs Intel’s Atom Z520 CPU with 1GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. According to Pocket-lint, it’s a useful compromise between traditional Tablet PC functionality and netbook scale.

They praise the sturdy hinge, which apparently resisted their best efforts to twist it into submission, and the three user-modes on offer. As well as standard Windows XP Home, the T91 offers a quick-boot Eee Mode which allows for internet and Skype access within seconds, and a custom touchscreen-only GUI intended for finger use.

You can see the T91’s GUI in action in the video below [via AsusTablet]. Overall, they’re impressed, describing the T91 as a “welcomed diversion in design”. No word on performance from the Z520 CPU - which has proved disappointing in the Acer Aspire One 751 - but perhaps the touch focus of the T91 eclipses any interest in the 720p playback which so stresses the Atom chip.

The ASUS Eee PC T91 is apparently available in select markets now, priced at around £449 ($684).

Intel have been talking about their upcoming Moorestown platform, and demonstrating it with this Inventec MediaPhone. The device - a voice-enabled MID with touchscreen interface - runs a customized version of Moblin v.2; the bad news is this won’t be appearing on shelves any time soon.



Full specifications of the device are unclear, but according to Intel’s launch (which you can see in the video below) there’ll be pinch-zoom functionality, which suggests a capacitive rather than resistive touchscreen. There’s also a camera on the back, which looks to have a flash.

Much of Moorestown’s hardware will be the same as is used in netbooks; what will differentiate the two will be the UI, and Intel are working on a “ground up” new design. Moorestown is expected in 2010, so don’t expect to see a MID-phone like this until well into next year.

Sony Ericsson handsets are still relatively rare in the US market, and so Sony Electronics are stepping in as the official unlocked handset reseller for their cellular cousins. One of the first offerings is the W995a, a SIM-unlocked multimedia phone featuring an 8.1-megapixel camera and Walkman mediaplayer; it’s available for pre-order starting today at SonyStyle.com and will be available in stores on July 6 for around $600. Sony sent one over for SlashGear to check out.


The W995a is a 3G-enabled phone (850/1900/2100MHz UMTS/HSPA) that’s geared towards folks seeking a premium multimedia experience. Primary functionality includes snapping photos and video, playing music and videos, or accessing the internet, and our first-impressions of the W995a is that it’s a high-quality, compact way of doing all that.

The W995a is also equipped for WiFi access, and includes stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) support for use with wireless headphones. Bundled with the W995a there’s a set of “premium” 3.5mm headphones, an 8GB Memory Stick Micro card (which wasn’t provided in our review unit) and a USB connector cable.

The 2.6-inch QVGA display is gorgeous, even though it’s LCD and not AMOLED like Sony’s recent Walkman PMP, and there’s plenty of sturdy and tactile metal used in building the casing and the buttons.

Sony Ericsson created the W995a for those who are up on the latest in mobile phone design, technology and feature sets and typically purchase unlocked phones for their added features and flexibility to switch phones whenever the latest and greatest is available. Doing so through Sony themselves mean you’re also getting a warranty and access to their Sony Ericsson partner network, just in case something goes wrong with the handset.

Hot from the “hang on, why haven’t I seen that before?” department comes ARM’s video demo of what a Mobile Computer Concept should be. Based on ARM’s Cortex A9 processor with the ARM Mali 400 chipset providing graphics, the most obviously unfeasible part of the concept is the pull-out, flexible touchscreen.

The demo has become topical (again) what with the ARM-powered Qualcomm Smartbook platform, officially launched at Computex 2009 this week. Intended to slot in-between smartphones and netbooks, but offering various degrees of functionality from each, Smartbooks would package 3G WWAN connectivity, GPS and other wireless technologies with a usably-large display, all-day battery life and HD playback.

At the company’s Computex keynote this morning, ARM CEO Warren East described the current iteration of netbooks as actually offering too much power for what most users demand of them. Instead, Smartbooks would offer tailored power - suited to HD media playback and internet access - with lengthy battery life.