Samsung’s UN65C8000 65-inch 3D LED TV Costs $6,000

We all know that while 3D is making a major push for our living rooms, it’s still not as inexpensive as many would like. In fact, in most cases, 3D is basically expensive. In the case of Samsung’s brand new 65-inch 3D LED HDTV, there’s no doubt that the price tag will match the features. So if you’re not into the whole “portable” thing, and you’d much rather be firmly planted on your couch watching a TV that’s way too big for your living room, here’s one fantastic option.

The UN65C8000 features all of the great things that other 8000 series Samsung LED sets have. It has a 240Hz refresh rate, integrated WiFi, Skype, and a bevy of other Samsung Apps. It has a contrast ratio of 8,000,000:1, which is dynamic. It has a built-in 3D processor, which will help in that whole fully supported 3D HD playback. It also has 4 HDMI/USB/Ethernet ports, just to make sure that you’ve got enough ports for everything you may need. But, here’s the kicker: You’ll need $6,000 to make this behemoth yours.

ASUS prices Eee Pad range: $399 Android EP101TC, $1k EP121

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen has confirmed pricing for the company’s upcoming tablet range, with their Android-based model slipping in beneath the iPad’s base price.  According to PCWorld, the ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC will cost under $399 when it arrives in March 2011, and will be the third in the company’s new line-up; first will be the ASUS Eee Pad EP121, announced back at Computex and set to cost around $1,000.

That’s significantly higher than the iPad, but ASUS’s machine will offer full PC functionality since it’s based on an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor running Windows 7 Home Premium.  It also comes with a keyboard docking station for speedier text-entry, and has a 12-inch display.
Interestingly, while the EP101TC ditched Windows 7 Embedded Compact in favor of Android 3.0, according to Shen there will be a third model in January 2011 which will in fact use the Microsoft OS.  That will have a 10-inch touchscreen, ARM processors and a price tag between $399 and $499, but lack the EP121′s docking station.
Finally, the ASUS Eee Tablet – a monochrome LCD slate intended for reading and annotating documents – will drop globally in October priced at around $300, considerably cheaper than the $500 tipped recently.  It will run a homegrown Linux OS rather than Android, have WiFi, 2 -megapixel camera, touchscreen and audio recording, together with a browser, microSD card (augmenting the 2GB of onboard storage) and a battery good for 10hrs runtime.  ASUS are considering renaming it to the Eee Note, so as to avoid direct tablet comparisons.

HP StorageWorks X300 Data Vault Review

HP continues to push ahead with Windows Home Server, offering domestic and small business users a central storage point for backups and media server duties, together with drive redundancy and more. Latest to the SlashGear test bench is the HP StorageWorks X300, a new Data Vault product that offers up to 7TB of internal storage shared between up to ten users. Check out the full review after the cut.

This isn’t the first time we’ve looked at one of HP’s Data Vaults; back in November 2009 we reviewed the X510, a business-centric version of the MediaSmart EX487. The biggest changes are inside, with the StorageWorks X300 throwing out the Celeron and Pentium processors of its siblings and replacing it with a frugal dual-core Intel Atom CPU running at 1.6GHz. That’s paired with 2GB of RAM and four 3.5-inch SATA drive bays, all in a short tower case. Along the bottom front edge are the clear status lights, showing drive health for each HDD, power and network status, and overall Home Server health.
OS is Microsoft’s Windows Home Server, a straightforward system for sharing files, managing various user accounts – with differing degrees of access – and handling media streaming for iTunes libraries and via Windows Media Connector. The 1TB version of the StorageWorks X300, the X310 (using a single 1TB hard-drive) has a street price of $349.99, around $240 less than their X510. Connectivity includes four USB 2.0 ports and a single eSATA port, all of which can be used to attach external drives; altogether, a single X300/X310 system can offer 17TB.

That’s plenty, considering you can have up to ten PC users (and unlimited Mac clients); after all, those with more ambitious demands are expected to look to the more expensive units. HP’s focus is data protection and disaster recovery (with the X300 paired with their KeepVault online backup service); they provide their own HP Control Center app which, when installed onto each client machine, can be used to perform automated backups, folder duplications and online synchronisation. The X300 will also work with Apple’s Time Machine backup system.
Also bundled is a year’s subscription to an online file access system, which offers a custom domain for logging in and checking your files wherever there’s an internet connection and browser. Unlike a regular RAID array, Windows Home Server uses Microsoft’s own “Drive Extender” technology: that’s not standardized, but it it does allow for non-identical HDDs to be used, plus external drives being included in the overall array. Setup is straightforward, with WHS automatically establishing the data pool, and you can selectively pick which files or folders are duplicated across multiple HDDs or designate an entire drive as an automatic backup mirror.
Unlike some servers, the X300 only has a single gigabit ethernet port for network connectivity; still, with normal backup use and media streaming we found other network bottlenecks were generally more of an impediment to speed than the StorageWorks’ one port. We were able to quickly set up user accounts with varying degrees of access privileges: anything from full read/write through read-only to no-access, individually selectable to different folders if necessary.
As with previous HP WHS products we’ve tested, there’s a reasonable range of online and local media sharing options, including the ability to automatically publish photos to an online gallery, and serve up images, video and music to consoles like the Xbox 360 or PS3. However, the automatic media collector and video convertor we used on the X510 has been removed, as has the Twonky DLNA Media Server functionality, and it’s now no longer possible to easily stream content to web or iPhone clients. That’s part of HP’s focus on backup, it seems, though you can add in third-party plugins to introduce alternative functionality.
In practice, the StorageWorks X300 kept up with the several simultaneous backup jobs we asked of it, shuffling across files from a number of PCs and Macs at the same time. However Windows Media Connector is only really of use if you have a PC, and we missed broader DLNA support for streaming content simply to our Mac. At HP’s $520 MRSP we perhaps wouldn’t be convinced, but with the street price being $170 less than that it pushes the StorageWorks X300 into regular NAS territory. In that sort of arena, Windows Home Server holds its own as a capable piece of software, and with some careful add-in planning it’s possible to easily tailor the X300 into an affordable and flexible backup and media server system.

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Genius MousePen M508 & M508W Tablets Unveiled, Shipping in September for $149 and $199

September is turning out to be an expensive month for tech enthusiasts. Well, that is if you like buying all of the new toys that come out. Genius has just unveiled two new tablets in their MousePen series. The M508 and M508W share plenty of features, the majority of them all dedicated for the tablet features, but obviously you’ll have to pay a premium for that whole “wireless” thing.

Both tablets feature a 5×8-inch area for you to get some work done, which can be switched from a widescreen view, to a 4:3 aspect ratio, all depending on what you need to get done at the time. If you do end up buying the MousePen tablets, you will be able to program 13 keys on the tablet’s surface, while also being able to program the four hardware keys above the working area as well. There are already dedicated controls for controlling brush attributes, zooming, and scrolling.
Both models also 1024-level pressure sensitivity with the included Bluetooth-connected pen, and 4,000 LPI resolution. The difference in the models come in the wired and wireless variety. The MousePen M508 is wired, and will cost $149. However, the wireless M508W touchpad will cost you a cool $199, when they both ship some time this September.

Token Multitouch Pedestal Shoves DJing Into the Future [Video]

DJs all around the world are still doing their thing, any way that they can. And that usually means mixers they can physically touch. But obviously they need to get ready for the future just like everyone else, and what’s more futuristic than a touchscreen? A multitouch touchscreen, no less. Well, that’s exactly what the Token multitouch pedestal is, and it’s amazing.

All of the details about how designer Rodrigo (who lives in Chile) got this to work are scarce at this point, but for now we know that it’s built around a rear-projector. Other than that, we don’t know how he’s doing it. From what we can tell, that’s just a clear sheet of glass, and it’s showcasing the fact that it can beam out video that will respond to the touch of a finger.
The video below is worth all of the text above, we assure you. And, if you find any pleasure in being a DJ, then you should be pretty ecstatic that this is what your art is going to turn into, some day. Then again, we could go into an alternate reality, and this is what you may get.

Windows 7 takes on iPad… and holds its own?

Plenty gets said about Windows 7 and its suitability for tablets, and despite Steve Ballmer’s best efforts not much of it is positive.  But have we all been too harsh on the Microsoft OS?  A side-by-side comparison video pitting a Hanvon slate running Windows 7 agains the iPad running iOS goes some way to suggesting that the desktop OS can hold its own against its Apple counterpart.

Video comparison after the cut
The demo runs through browsing, text entry using on-screen keyboards, YouTube access (either via the full site, on the Hanvon slate, or the iPad’s dedicated YouTube app), messaging and Google Earth, as well as a few other tasks.  While at first glance you might assume the mobile-centric iPad would easily overshadow its rival, the Hanvon puts in a surprisingly good showing.
Running desktop apps has an impact on usability in some places – Google Earth being one of them, with the iPad version obviously suited to the Apple slate’s screen – and the video doesn’t drill down into some of the smaller, trickier controls within Windows 7 which might still be better suited to a mouse than a fingertip, but we’re still left reasonably impressed.  The Hanvon slate, incidentally, appears to be the BC10C.

V-MODA Crossfade LP Adds Red and Purple Colors to Line-Up

When a product launches, no matter how cool it may look or sound, sometimes it just doesn’t come in a color you want. We’re sure a lot of folks out there who wanted the iPhone 4 in white know all about that. That’s why we’re always glad to see companies and manufacturers bolster their current product line-up with more colors and options. When V-MODA launched the Crossfade LP headphones (see our review right here), they came in Gunmetal Black, White Pearl, and Phantom Chrome. Now you can welcome Rouge and Nero into the family.

While the colors are changing, the headphones themselves are not. V-MODA is still concentrating on dual-diaphragm drivers, which they still say are just as good as single drivers, but that their models have more of a distinct range to them. You also get a detachable cable, with a three-button remote control. It comes with a mic, and the controls will allow you to adjust the volume whenever you need. You can use the headphones to listen to music, or take phone calls. And, as usual, the construction of the headphones is top-notch, with a steel framed memory headband that goes atop your skull. The high price didn’t change either, still sitting pretty at $250.