Compz, hardware, tips&tricks

Dell upped the ante in the big-screen LCD monitor space with the latest
upgrade to their 3007WFP. The new monitor, dubbed the Dell UltraShart
3007WFP-HC now has deeper color depth (92% of the NTSC color space) using
a Wide Cold-Cathode Flourescent Lighting (W-CCFL) backlight. While still
sporting a 2560×1600 resolution, the new panel cuts down the response
time from 14ms to 8ms. You get to decide whether it’s worth $400 more
than the 3000WFP - priced at $1,699 it’s quite a pricy monitor. It will
be available from Dell by the end of the year. Via

The latest Star Wars mimobot from mimoco launched this morning in the
form of R2-D2. I love the loose representation of the characters in this
series, rendering them a bit like cartoons from from my childhood–say,
Hanna Barbara circa late-’70s. It comes off as a bit of funky take on
Star Wars, which, in my humble opinion, injects some life into the classic
imagery. Like the others in the set, R2-D2 comes in 1GB/2GB/4GB capacities
and is currently available for preorder at the mimoco site. The brand
has had the insight to base its whole mimobot line on the synthesis between
toys and tech (with a little art thrown in for good measure), and pieces
like this keep the idea fresh. Via

Sprint said the Moto Q will be ready for pickup Jan. ‘07. It’ll be
same price as the smartphone and blackberry out.

We were a bit skeptical when we first heard of the possibility of a
"premium Wii" with DVD playback coming to Japan next year —
why would Nintendo announce such a console now and risk cannibalizing
their sales? Well, Nintendo, who just confirmed just such a console for
both Japan and North America in 2007, is spinning it exactly so: "If
DVD movie playback is so important, people can wait for the later model
next year. For most consumers it’ll be about the games, so they’ll likely
not want to wait to purchase the new system." That way nobody is
bitter about a 3x sexy console mere months after the original… not like
that ever happens. As much as we’d love to gripe about the current absence
of this fairly common-sensical feature, and though we still can’t figure
out why Nintendo didn’t at least figure this out as a firmware-update
(they’re still citing cost concerns for the current exclusion), we can’t
really see this standing in the way of most Nintendo fanboys and their
unabated Wii lust. We suppose we’ll find out soon enough. Via

What a great looking iPod dock, and what a shame that it’s nowhere
near the US. This Trinity Diosonic [Japanese product page] iPod dock runs
on four AA batteries and features two 3W detachable speakers. The speakers
attach to the dock’s sides and can be detached and placed–speaker up–on
a surface next to the unit. Great looking as one piece, the device is
perfectly suited to desktop use with the speakers extended, recharging
your player when docked. The unit is available in black or white–in Japan.
Keep your fingers crossed, though; this player looks good enough to find
some US demand. Via

www.muveeMix.com is a brand new site
where you can simply upload your photos and videos and set them to music
online without having to do any video editing. muveeMix automatically
cuts highlights of videos and pictures to the beat of music from your
own collection, and adds in other themed artistic elements based on the
video creation style that the you choose. You can choose whatever song
you like from your mp3 collection on your computer to set the mood for
the muvee. So, you can have Jimmy Buffet as the background for a tropical
vacation muvee, or Tim McGraw for a ranch vacation muvee!

Only an email address is needed to sign up for a free basic muveeMix
account, which gives you five unique muvee styles from which to choose,
as well as online storage for 10 muvees. "Bumper" accounts are
available at only $60 per year, and give five extra styles (for a total
of 10), as well as storage space for 50 muvees. After they’re made, muvees
are hosted on the gallery page of a user’s muveeMix.com account to direct
friends and family to view. You are also given the source code for embedding
a muveeMix player on your blog or website, as well as a unique link to
their muvees that you can forward to others.

Dell has just launched a laptop that starts at the nice price of $549:
the Inspirion 1501 [product page]. It runs on Windows XP and features
a 60GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, a 15.4" widescreen display, a Dell
wireless 802.11 g Mini card, and a CD-RW/DVD optical drive combo. Not
bad at all, huh? The laptop weighs a respectable 6.19 lbs, runs on an
AMD Sempron processor, and you may or may not want to exercise your option
to upgrade to an AMD Turion processor if you are familiar with either.
Regardless, this is a remarkably priced laptop–from a name you can trust,
no less. Customize yours right here (and mind the instant rebates while
you’re at it). Via