Review of the week was ASUS’ Eee Top ET1602 touchscreen nettop, which proved itself quite capable of taking on any doubts over an Atom-based PC and throwing them out. It’s certainly left us excited about next-year’s models, which are meant to have bigger displays and improved media capabilities. Meanwhile we’re still playing with Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic Tube; check out our first impressions.
It’s been a shorter working week what with Thanksgiving on Thursday, and much of the gadget news has been around what offers, bargains and discounts were on offer at cash-strapped retailers. SlashGear has done its bit to ease your present picking pickle, with the 2008 Holiday Gift Guide. We’ve also had reviews of Sony’s VAIO LV and VAIO RT all-in-one PCs; will you be lucky enough to find one of these monster media machines under your tree next month?
After our earpiphony back in October with Sleek Audio’s SA6 customizable earphones, we’ve been waiting eagerly for their wireless adapter. Created using Kleer lossless technology, unlike the Bluetooth A2DP profile there’s no unwanted compression involved; the range is meant to be better, too. Can the Sleek Audio Wireless W-1 setup live up to our great expectations?
Most anticipated news this week was the launch of the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon Wireless, RIM’s first touchscreen handset. If you’re at all considering the Storm then make sure to check out our two part super-review: part one is here, part two is here.
Meanwhile, Apple released firmware 2.2 for the iPhone, bringing with it Street View and over-the-air podcast downloads among other things. Check out the full details of the upgrade here. That release was followed in short order by QuickPwn for v2.2. What the new firmware didn’t include was MMS messaging, but that might be arriving sooner rather than later if Mobispine have their way.
When we tested Sleek Audio’s SA6 headphones back in October the one significant improvement we wished for was a wireless option. Of course, at the time we knew that Sleek had been working with Kleer on just such a solution; the Sleek Audio Wireless adapter arrived at SlashGear today, promising CD-quality audio, and while it’s too soon for a full review we wanted to share the unboxing video with you.
Unboxing video and gallery of the Sleek Audio Wireless adapter after the cut
Laptops big and small have monopolized the headlines this week, with the most anticipation being Apple’s upcoming MacBook event on Tuesday October 14th. SlashGear will be live-blogging the whole thing, so join us at http://Live.SlashGear.com at 10am PST. Meanwhile the ‘Brick’ rumors of what Steve Jobs might be announcing keep on coming: we’ve seen water-jet cutting systems, $800 price-points and several purported photo leaks. Of course, Apple are saying nothing until Tuesday; they’re too busy blaming NVIDIA for a spate of MacBook graphics failures.
If you didn’t read our interview with the Sleek Audio founders last week, or our review of the Sleek Audio SA6 in-ear monitor earphones on Monday, you might not know that the company’s wireless music adapter went up for pre-order last week. Sleek Audio have officially announced the adapter, which uses Kleer’s lossless wireless technology to transmit CD-quality audio.
If you read our interview article with the Sleek Audio founders last week, you’ll know that we’re excited about the upcoming wireless system based on Kleer’s lossless technology. At the root of it all, though, are the SA6 earphones, promising flexibility in sound reproduction at the earbud itself, rather than relying on artificial equalizer tweaks. SlashGear has been testing out the Sleek Audio SA6 earphones for the past few weeks, and we’ve hit pause just long enough for the full review.
Biggest news this week has been in gaming, with Nintendo announcing the latest iteration of their DS handheld. The DSi introduces new multimedia features – for instance a 3-megapixel camera – and an even thinner body, at the expense of battery life. Don’t get too excited, though; the US won’t see the DSi until “well into” 2009.
In netbooks, ASUS slipped in a few new models at both the low and high-end of the market, with the Eee PC 900HA and 904HA offering bargain 160GB storage while the S101 corners the more-fashionable (and expensive) end. That’s a niche the ASUS N10 already occupies; that netbook ran the review gauntlet this week, proving “technologically clever” but simply too expensive. ASUS – and MSI, whose Wind U90 was panned too – must be looking enviably at Gigabyte’s M912M convertible touchscreen netbook, which was good enough to pull a credit card from the wallet of one reviewer.
Sleek Audio stormed the high-end personal audio market with their SA6 in-ear monitor earphones, and now the company is preparing to cut the cord with their imminent Kleer wireless adapter. In an exclusive interview with Mark and Jason Krywko, the father & son team behind Sleek Audio, we discussed the upcoming launch, why Bluetooth just isn’t good enough, and some as-yet-unannounced products.
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