When we last saw the AirStash, it was keeping its mystique about it and refusing to disclose any salient details beyond the fact that it'll function as a wireless SD/SDHC card reader. Today, the fog of war is lifted with the news that the AirStash is now officially on sale for $99.99, and will come with a battery good for five hours of continuous data streaming. Marketed primarily at iPhone OS devices, it creates a wireless network that allows any WiFi and browser-equipped computer to access the storage cards within it. The UI is built around HTML5 and recharging is done via a USB connection, which also turns the AirStash into a simple SDHC card adapter when plugged in. Check out our hands-on with it from CES over here and look for a full review coming up shortly. We do care so very deeply our portable storage.

AirStash brings the WiFi, neglects the storage, for a cent under $100 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The job of a high-spec PC manufacturer is never done; just when you think your crazy gaming desktop is done and dusted, there are new processors to be slotted inside.  MAINGEAR have announced an update to their SHIFT “everyday super computer”, using Intel’s new Core i7-980X 3.33GHz hexacore CPU.  That goes into the mixture with Crucial’s RealSSD C300 – hooked up to a SATA 6G connection, naturally – and USB 3.0.

There’s also special acoustic shielding so that the noise from fans doesn’t drive you screaming out of the house, and a list of video card options as long as your arm (assuming you don’t have bizarrely long arms).  Various options from ATI and NVIDIA are on offer, including dual ATI Radeon HD 5970 4GB cards in CrossFireX configuration.

Up to four internal hard-drives (or SSDs) can be picked, in various RAID configs, together with Blu-ray and more.  The Intel X58 chipset based SHIFT range kicks off at $2,299 but expect significantly more if you want the new Core i7-980X.

Press Release:

MAINGEAR Updates SHIFT Everday Super Computer to Include Core i7 980X and More

SHIFT now configurable with Intel’s 6 core Core i7 980X processor, SATA 6Gb, and USB 3.0, winning PC Mag’s Editors’ Choice Award

Union, New Jersey – March 16, 2010 – MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning builders of custom computers for PC gamers and enthusiasts, announces a hardware refresh for the SHIFT everyday supercomputer. The revamped hardware is highlighted by Intel’s Core i7 980X 6 core, hyperthreaded 3.33GHz processor, giving enthusiasts the ability to run up to an astonishing 12 threads in parallel enabling your PC to execute multiple CPU intensive tasks at once. SHIFT also now boasts scorching fast SATA 6G that enables Crucial’s new RealSSD C300 to reach speeds of 335 MB/s on sustained reads, which is now also available on the SHIFT.

MAINGEAR’s implementation of USB 3.0 further solidifies SHIFT’s high performance prowess allowing newer flash drives and external SSDs to really fly at speeds up to 5Gbps. To ensure the new state-of-the-art hardware doesn’t come at the cost of added decibels, MAINGEAR integrated AcoustiPack sound dampening that keeps the system whisper quiet no matter what’s going on under the hood. In their review on March 11th, PC Mag awarded this new SHIFT their coveted Editors’ Choice award.

“The new Intel Core i7 980X is the fastest, smartest Desktop PC microprocessor on the planet, and it only makes sense that it’s prominently featured in the masterfully hand crafted MAINGEAR SHIFT,” said CJ Bruno, VP, GM Intel Americas. “The MAINGEAR SHIFT, featuring an overclocked Intel Core i7 980X, was recognized by PC Magazine as one of the fastest gaming PCs on the market today and awarded their Editors Choice.”

“Our all new 2010 SHIFT is taking the pole position in the high performance consumer desktop market,” said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of MAINGEAR. “By intelligently integrating best-of-breed hardware and supporting it with top-tier, in-house technical support by the same guys who built your system, we’re delivering the best PC experience money can buy.”

MAINGEAR’s SHIFT rethinks the status quo of the high end PC industry with rigs that often feature an array of plastic, bling, and commoditized components and offers every day supercomputing in a sophisticated design with sublime, elegant lines, unmatched performance, optimal airflow, and limitless upgradeability. By harnessing the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU), the SHIFT can speed up everyday tasks like photo and video editing, transcoding videos for portable media devices, and upscaling standard definition video.

Consumers can purchase the Shift at MAINGEAR’s Web site www.maingear.com or order by phone at (888-MAINGEAR). The base price for the Shift is $1,799 and comes with MAINGEAR’s premium Lifetime Labor and Phone Support with 2 year hardware warranty and is backed by the best in-house support team in the country.

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How much would you pay for NVIDIA’s stonking Fermi-based GeForce GTX 480 video card?  Early estimates pegged the high-performing cards at around €600 or $600 for the single-GPU 480 model, but new figures leaked to Fudzilla suggest a somewhat more reasonable figure: they’ve heard €450 including tax when the cards come to Europe.

Considering the usual conversion in hardware like this involves simply flipping the €-sign for a $-sign, that would mean a GeForce GTX 480 for $450.  That’s the recommended price from NVIDIA, of course; strong demand could see retailers inflate that a little, and there’s room for a more expensive version with dual-cores launching in the next few months.

Meanwhile, while we’ve previously heard talk of card shortages at launch, Fudzilla’s sources reckon NVIDIA will have plenty of Fermi-based video cards to out come March 27th.  $450 would make the GTX 480 more expensive than the ATI Radeon HD 5870, but by nowhere near the factor some predictions initially suggested.

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NEW YORK, USA (AVING) -- Intel Corporation announced today a new addition to its award-winning lineup of high-performance solid-state drives, X25-V Value SATA SSD.

Priced at $125, the 40 gigabyte (GB) drive is aimed at value segment netbooks and dual-drive/boot drive desktop set-ups to offer users the performance and reliability advantages of solid-state computing at an affordable, entry-level price.

The Intel X25-V features 40GB of 34nm NAND flash memory. This non-volatile memory retains data, even when the power is turned off, and is used in applications such as smartphones, personal music players, memory cards or SSDs for fast and reliable storage of data. SSD benefits over a traditional HDD include higher performance, battery saving and ru...

This cousin of the Cliq replaces a physical keyboard with Swype text entry, making it thinner and lighter, while adding a touch pad and FM radio. Other features are similar, including 5-megapixel camera with video capture, 3.5mm headset jack, 3G data, capacitive touch screen, WiFi, and a memory card slot. A compass and dual-mic noise cancellation round out the features.

It’s been a while since Shuttle outed their XPC X50 Barebones all-in-one, and so it’s about time that they updated it.  Rather than rework the case and change the color, the new Shuttle X50V2 Barebone has Intel’s latest Atom D510 processor, paired with the NM10 Express Chipset, but also gets completely passive cooling and halved power consumption.

That should make for a cheaper, quieter system, and thanks to some new ports the X50V2 is a more flexible one too.  Shuttle have added one parallel and two serial interfaces on the back, perhaps not much interest to mainstream consumers but helpful if you’re looking to use the all-in-one for installations.

Otherwise there’s still a 15.6-inch touchscreen – running at 1366 x 768 resolution – and room for a 2.5-inch HDD/SDD; they’ve increased the maximum supported RAM to 4GB, too.  Ports include audio in/out, 10/100 ethernet, VGA, four USB 2.0 and an internal mini PCIe slot for a WiFi card.  Shuttle are selling the XPC X50V2 Barebone now, in black or white, for €353 pre-tax ($484), and will offer pre-configured versions at some point in the near future.

Press Release:

Version 2.0: All-in-One-PC from Shuttle gets a huge makeover

Power consumption reduced by almost 50% / fanless design means low
maintenance

Shuttle Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of
multi-form-factor solutions such as the world-famous XPC Mini-PC
Barebones, is announcing the sales launch of a new All-in-One-PC. The
second version of the X50 promises impressive, improved features and
additional functions.

Almost one year after its successful introduction, the X50V2 Barebone
is now being launched and will also be offered in future as a complete
system, with a choice of Windows 7 or Linux.

Lower energy consumption is just one of the many advantages of the
successor to the original. For the X50V2 Barebone, Shuttle has chosen
the new Intel Atom platform with D510 Dual Core Processor (2x 1.66
GHz) and NM10 Express Chipset. The new version of the X50V2 is, for
the first time, completely passively cooled and therefore extremely
quiet. The energy consumption of the only 3.6 cm wide PC has also been
reduced by around 50 % at the same time. The size of the supported RAM
has been increased to 4 GB. New features include one parallel and two
serial interfaces on the back of the X50V2, which make it considerably
more attractive for special applications. The practical webcam,
integrated stereo loudspeakers, WLAN (N), card reader and stand, which
can be turned into a carrying handle, are also available with it. The
standardised VESA mounting interface allows it to be fitted to monitor
arms and wall mounts for freely suspended use of the device.

The new Shuttle X50V2 Barebone is available in black or white and is
on sale now. Shuttle’s recommended retail price is 353 euros (without
VAT).

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SEOUL, Korea (AVING) -- LG Electronics announced a strategic partnership with Britain`s largest pay-television provider, British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (Sky), to supply TVs for Sky's live 3D broadcasts.

The deal to supply the broadcaster with 15,000 3D TVs is the largest deal of its kind. Sky plans to install the TVs in public venues across the UK in advance of plans to broadcast weekly Premier League matches in 3D beginning this spring.

Sky has been developing its 3D system for the launch of Sky 3D, Europe's first dedicated 3D TV channel this April. For the preview event in January, the broadcaster installed LG 3D TVs in nine selected pubs throughout the UK for the screening of the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Manche...

Any person who really likes something be it computers or cars or anything else wants them to perform their best. In the computer world, better performance often boils down to faster clock speeds for memory and other components inside a computer.

Kingston has unveiled a new RAM kit in its HyperX line today called the HyperX dual-channel DDR3 memory kit (Kingston part#: KHX2400C9D3T1K2/4GX). The RAM has received Intel XMP certification on the Core i7 platform when operating at 2400MHz.

Timings for the RAM are 9-11-9-27-2 at 1.65V. The new RAM kits will be available to purchase in Q2 at an undisclosed price. You can bet the blazing fast memory won’t be cheap.

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Google’s Nexus One has been something of a hit here at SlashGear – check out Ewdi’s editorial on why he gave up his iPhone 3GS for the Android 2.1 smartphone – but ongoing sales analytics seem to suggest that the handset’s appeal hasn’t been felt by the public at large.  According to Flurry – who initially told us that Google had sold 20k Nexus One devices in the first week of sales – only 135,000 have been sold in the 74 days since the Nexus One launched.

Contrast that with the Motorola DROID, another Android handset, of which 1.05m were sold in its first 74 days of availability, or the first-gen iPhone which, in its first 74 days, sold 1m.  Flurry’s stats aren’t perfect – they track usage figures through partnerships with mobile app developers rather than counting actual devices in-the-wild – but even with flexibility either way the numbers aren’t looking hot for the Nexus One.

Of course, Google haven’t helped themselves by making the Nexus One an online-only device, rather than pushing it into retail stores as with the iPhone and DROID, and nor will its T-Mobile USA-only official carrier support have helped it much.  Still, as an experiment to see whether it’s possible to marginalize the carriers and push the device to the fore, it looks like the US market isn’t quite ready; we’ll have to see how imminent CDMA availability on Verizon changes things.

[via Android Community]

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We have already seen the Pentax 645D medium format DSLR camera before. In fact, we talked about it almost exactly a year ago. The camera, presumably updated, was on display again at the Camera and Photo Imaging show in Yokohama City, Japan March 11 through the 14.

TechOn spent some time talking to the folks from Hoya behind the camera on how they were positioning the device. The camera uses an Eastman Kodak CCD with an imaging area 44 x 33mm. The camera will be released in Japan in May with a price equating to nearly $8900 here in the US.

The camera is designed specifically for talking high quality shots of scenery. The camera doesn’t use a lowpass filter and the question was posed during the interview of wouldn’t the lack of a filter cause moire. The reason for the lack of a filter according to the manufacturer is because the filter lowers resolution and the Moire can be removed using software.

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