Epson adds tethering, remote shutter release to P-6000 and P-7000 photo viewers

Epson's P-6000 ($599.99) and P-7000 ($799.99) Multimedia Viewers were always a bit too rich for our blood, but those hemming and hawing might just have the final bit of motivation they need to pull the trigger. A forthcoming firmware update for the 80GB and 160GB (respectively) photo viewers brings along a hotly-anticipated new feature: tethering. Put simply, pro shooters (and novices, we guess) can now connect select Nikon and Canon DSLRs to their photo viewer via USB, and in real time shots will be simultaneously captured to the camera's memory card and the viewer's hard drive. Moreover, the update includes a remote shutter release function for added convenience, though we're sad to say that the retail pricing of these buggers hasn't budged. If you're a proud owner already, keep your eyes glued to Epson's support site -- the download should go live in "late-October."

ASUS introduces ROG OC Station for all your on-the-fly overclocking needs

ASUS is doing what it can to bump up its gaming cred a few notches with its Republic of Gamers (ROG) OC Station.The bay-mounted overclock assistant lets you tweak parameters on the fly, even in the middle of a game,without ever having to dive into the BIOS.It's got a 3-inch LCD display, too, for keeping an eye on things or, apparently, showing your pictures in a slideshow. All this power comes at a cost,and not just financially: you're gonna have to give up two 5.25-inch bays to install this bad boy.It also looks like it only works with ROG motherboards, which is gonna limit the market even further. If you are, however, an anxious and willing member of that demographic,we hate to say you're gonna have to wait an undisclosed time before you can pick one up for an undisclosed number of Benjamins.

Palm opens webOS SDK to select developers

With the Pre smartphone in line for release this summer, Palm is giving away more details the upcoming webOS platform that will power the device – and all future Palm models for that matter. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo yesterday, Palm’s Michael Abbott announced that the company is ready to let a “broad group of developers” start playing with its Mojo SDK and showed off how they can tap into the phone’s core functionality such as linked contacts, layered calendars, multitasking and push notifications.



Developers can currently pre-register to download the SDK for no charge at developer.palm.com, though Palm won’t be releasing the software toolset to the general public just yet. Instead, the company will screen the application ideas submitted on its website, letting in a few testers at first and scaling up over time as the tools mature with feedback and requests from the development community. They obviously hope to attract loads of developers to create a broad selection of applications like that available to iPhone users.
The company also announced webOS will include an emulator for running legacy Palm OS apps, instantly giving Pre users a library of more than 20,000 applications to choose from. No pricing or availability for the smartphone information was revealed, but they did release another demo video of the Pre in action.

Samsung launches three platter 1.5 TB HDD !

Samsung Electronics has launched its new EcoGreen F2EG line of hard disk drives with capacities of up to 1.5 terabytes. While not as capacious as Western Digital and Seagate’s 2TB offerings, the new drive also sports a 500GB per platter design and reportedly consumes around 40 percent less power than most comparably priced HDDs thanks to its EcoTriangle technology.

To put that into perspective, the 1.5TB F2EG uses 6.3 watts during read/writes and 5.1 watts when idle whereas Western Digital’s 1TB RE2-GP energy efficient hard drive has an average operational power consumption of 7.4 watts and Seagate’s 7200.11 1.5TB drive idles at 8.0 watts. Also available in 500GB and 1TB capacities, the new F2EG uses a 3Gbps SATA interface and comes with either 16MB or 32MB of buffer memory .

Intel reveals 32nm Westmere processor roadmap

Intel has announced an update to its 32nm next-generation processor plans,revealing that it is accelerating the process shrink by skipping some CPUs that were going to arrive later this yearand said it will spend $7 billion to build “advanced manufacturing facilities” in the United Statesover the next couple of years.Specifically, the company scrapped plans for 45nm dual-core Nehalem variants for desktopsand notebooks to increase production of 32nm desktop and notebook chips.


The first Intel processors to be built using 32nm technology are codenamed Westmereand will be a die-shrink of the current Nehalem architecture,but the smaller process technology will also free up room on the package to integrate a 45nm graphics and memory controller on a separate die.The initial chips will target mainstream mobile and desktop systems,and were demonstrated by Intel at an event in San Francisco today.
The chipmaker also said that its 32nm process will be split into two versions,one optimized for mainstream chips and one for system-on-a-chip ( SoC ) processors aimed at netbooks and other mobile devices.All of this, however, will be preceded by 45nm quad-core Nehalem parts codenamed Lynnfieldand Clarksfield that target mainstream desktop and laptops respectively.

Samsung kicks out new touchscreen LCDs for your public smudging

See that. No, not that, that, the new touchscreen from Samsung. It's part of its new TS series of Magicinfo LCDs targeting businesses and digital advertising markets. The LCD panels measure 32-, 40-, 46-, 70-, and 82-inches and can be linked together to form a massive touch experience. Just don't forget your hand sanitizer and bus glove, Mr. Pantywaist.

iriver's E100 reaches Season 2 on the Who Cares channel

Really? Was it just the choice of color holding you back from purchasing iriver's respectable, monument to plastic? If so, you're in luck, the E100 just reached "Season 2" which includes a re-run of all the same specs (up to 8GB storage, 2.4-inch display, audio/video playback) dipped in a few new color combinations. Better, yes, but it's still just the E100. We'll wait and see if they blow-out CES again like they did in January 2008 -- that's something worth caring about.