Filed under: Laptops

What better to control a ginormous army of robot overlords than a notebook ripped straight from the confines of a science fiction control lab? To get those ‘bots a-marchin’, just boot up the NEC TYPE-NO1, load the commands (stored on your USB Pocket Rocket, of course), and unleash your best impression of an evil dictator’s laugh. NEC has teamed up with Takara to create the presumably mad scientist-approved machine, which sports all the token stickers, labels, and even wallpapers that make this device so similar to those seen laying around Duke Nukem laboratories. Beneath the facade is a LaVie G type L laptop, sporting a 15.4-inch WXGA display, 1.6GHz AMD Mobile Sempron 3200+ processor (Turion 64 X2 TL-50), 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 80-100GB hard drive, dual-layer DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g, and the likely dangerous “FeliCa” port. Flanked on the side is the very necessary “Emergency Button,” which apparently shuts down the machine in case of unexpected intruders. The highly secretive TYPE-NO1 can be reserved starting today, and considering that they’ll be limited to 300 units, you should probably make haste if you plan on throwing down your ¥145,530 ($1,231) to ¥174,510 ($1,476).

[Via Akihabara News]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Displays

Taking a step back from its MultiSync LCD20WGX (and right into Dell’s forthcoming lair), NEC is busting out a new 19-inch widescreen display. The MultiSync 1940WCXM boasts a 1,440 x 900 resolution, 700:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness, VGA / DVI inputs, lightning quick 5-millisecond response time, and a pair of 1-watt integrated speakers along the bottom of the bezel. The monitor also sports a headphone jack, “NoTouch auto adjust” color correction, and a built-in power supply. If you’re looking for a well spec’d LCD with a mighty respectable $269.99 pricetag, you can pick this bad boy up right now.

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Displays

The leapfrog game played by manufacturers wanting to hold that oh-so-coveted “world’s largest” claim has spread from megapixels to HDTVs, and now onto resolution. This time around, however, NEC is simply outdoing itself, as its latest 21.3-inch a-Si (amorphous silicon) LCD rocks an astounding 2,800 x 2,100 resolution. The previous “record” holder was NEC’s NL256204AM15-01/01A, whose sesquipedalian model number was only trumped by its prodigious 2,560 x 2,048 pixel count. The panel also sports the company’s own “super-fine TFT (SA-SFT)” technology, which enables a brightness of 1000 cd/m2 and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. If you’re mulling over picking one of these up to really show off that kilowatt-burning quad SLI setup, you should probably know that this uber-fine monitor comes in monochrome only, as its sole purpose (for now) is to examine detailed medical imagery such as digitized X-rays. It’s probably for the best, though, as we don’t envision these black and white bad boys coming in cheap at any rate.

[Via TGDaily]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Storage

The optical drive industry has been dominated by joint ventures lately, ranging from the Hitachi-LG partnership to the Toshiba-Samsung mashup, so both Sony and NEC knew that they’d better get in bed together if each wanted to remain competitive in the marketplace. The first product resulting from the new Sony NEC Optiarc, an 18x DVD burner called the AD-7170A, is set to hit the market next month — but competition will still be fierce, as 20x burners are just beginning to see the light of day. Sources quoted by DigiTimes indicate that soon the actual drive manufacturing will be outsourced to Lite-On IT, whose prowess in volume production should complement Sony’s skill at developing optical pick-up heads and NEC’s chipset design capabilities to allow the JV to produce attractive products at higher margins. Or something like that — either way, we’ll bring you more on this inaugural product (including pics) when it becomes available.

[Via TG Daily]

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Filed under: Displays

So NEC's got another pair of monitors, submitted here for your approval: the LCD1990FX, and its black counterpart, the LCD1990FXp. Oh, you know, they're just your usual overpriced ultrathin-bezeled (7mm) EIZO-like professional studio monitors with the usual features; 178° viewing angles, 250cd/m2 brightness, 1500:1 contrast ratio, 20ms response time, DVI, VGA, and 19-inch 1280 x 1024 resolutions. In otherwords , probably not enough to justify that ¥102,900 ($880 US) price tag, but that bezel man, that bezel. If you ever wanted to build that grid of LCDs, this screen's is your obvious choice.

[Via Far East Gizmos]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Others, Panasonic, NEC, Sharp, NTT DoCoMo, UMTS

NTT DoCoMo – in an apparent bid to not just out-do, but humiliate the rest of the world’s carriers – has dropped yet another six 3G flips on its home crowd.  The new handsets are part of NTT’s “7 Series” of fashion-oriented phones, and include entries from Mitsubishi, Panasonic, NEC, Motorola, and Sharp. Moto has actually contributed two models here, one in the V3x vein and the other apparently a let’s-see-how-long-we-can-milk-this port of the original V3. All six of the phones support the typical i-mode goodness, FOMA, video calling, and an array of functions that sound like science fiction to the non-Japanese among us.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Some of our older readers may remember using Packard Bell gear all the way back when the consumer electronics industry consisted of just radios and TV sets, and even the younger crowd probably played on a PB or two after the name was sold to a budget computer manufacturer in the mid-80's. Well even though the company withdrew from the US market back in 2000 after being plagued with quality and compatibility issues, it has actually been quite successful overseas under the guidance of NEC as Packard Bell Europe, where it's consistently been one of the top-selling PC manufacturers and even begun branching out to other product lines. Still, NEC seems to think that the tide has turned on old Packard Bell once again, as sources in Asia indicate that the Japanese corporation is looking to sell the Dutch Packard Bell BV PC subsidiary, and that eMachines founder Lap Shun Hui is looking to buy. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun is claiming that Hui offered around $87 million for the division, probably hoping that he can use his skills to transform the 'Bell into the same type of property that convinced Gateway to shell out over $200 million worth of cash and stock for eMachines a few years back.

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Filed under: Storage

Looks like Intel and Texas Instruments aren’t the only ones with some chip bragging to do, since Toshiba and friends are joining forces to standardise a 45nm manufacturing method, and possibly even share manufacturing plants in the future. The deal marks the end of a plan by Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC, Renesas to build an independent microchip foundry. The Japanese chip makers scrapped the plan because it supposedly wouldn’t have made any money in the ultra-competitive space, but analysts aren’t so sure this recent cooperative plan will help these smaller manufacturers compete against the big boys like Samsung, Intel and TI. Sony has agreed to team up in 45nm development with the four manufacturers, in continuation of a deal with Toshiba and NEC, but there’s no word if any of these smaller outfits have made similar process breakthroughs to those that Intel and Texas Instruments were bragging about on Monday.

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Filed under: Laptops

Maybe you’ve noticed that we likes our laptops small, powerful, and foxy ’round here. NEC looks set to indulge our whims with their new VERSA L1100 series of ultra-portables. Weighing in at 4.4-pounds, these widescreen 13.1-inch (1280 x 768) laptops feature dual-layer DVD writers, 802.11b/g WiFi, up to 2GB DDR2 memory (256MB shared with graphics), 100GB disk, a 5-in-1 card reader, and scads of expansion and multimedia outs. Systems can be configured with either Intel Celeron or Pentium M processors — by the latter we assume NEC means the Intel Core, be that Single or better yet, Duo processors which are based on the Pentium M micro-architecture. If not, then we’ll just have to pass when these drop in mid-June.

[Via MobileWhack]

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Filed under: Handsets, NEC, GSM, UMTS

As we all know, FCC approval means virtually nothing for a phone’s chances of seeing a US release, but we can dare to dream. The 900/1800/1900 tri-band NEC e373, just released on Italian carrier TIM, treads some moderately uncharted territory as a truly low-end UMTS clamshell, lacking an external display and expansion slot. To boot, the useless-for-anything-but-video-calling VGA camera and 32MB of internal memory make the phone all but useless as a multimedia device, but yeah, we have a soft spot in our hearts for hot-looking 3G clamshells, so we’re going to give the e373 a mulligan this time.

[Via Mobile Magazine]

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Filed under: Displays

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Filed under: Laptops, Transportation

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Media PCs

Meanwhile, the slimline, detached CPU L series comes in seven different varieties (VL970/FG, VL700/FG, VL590/FG, VL570/FG, VL500/FG, VL370/FD, and VL300/FD), with 17 or 20-inch monitors, 2.8GHz Pentium D, 3.06GHz Celeron R, or hyper-threaded 2.93GHz Pentium processors, 512MB or 768MB of RAM, and hard drives ranging from 250GB to 400GB.
Finally, at least as far as the desktops are concerned, the three members of the R series ( VR570/FG, VR500/FG, VR300/FG) seem like younger siblings to the W/X models, as they all sport just a 17-inch screen, but still pack some good processing power with either those Celeron D's or HT Pentium 4's from the L series, and also rock just 512MB of RAM and a maximum hard-drive capacity of 400GB. Many of these all-in-ones, as well as most of the new laptops, come with TV tuners, remote controls, DVD burners, and the always-important VIIV certification. Incidentally, NEC also announced that PC's with built-in HD-DVD drives will begin shipping in the fall.
On the portable side, the LaVie L series consists of eight models (LL990/FD, LL900/FD, LL790/FD, LL770/FG, LL750/FD, LL700/FD, LL570/FD, LL370/FD), with either a 1.60GHz Celeron M, 1.73GHz Pentium M, Mobile Sempron 3100 , or Turion 64 Mobile processor, 80GB, 100GB, or 160GB hard drives, and 256MB to 1GB of RAM. Like the all-in-one models, gamers will find nothing worth their time, as the video here is also powered by rather unexciting integrated graphics.

To round things out, the LaVie T comes in 1.6GHz Celeron M (LT900/FD) or 1.73GHz Pentium M (LT700/FD) flavors, sport 100GB or 160GB hard drives, and both come standard with with 512MB, upgradable to 2GB (as with most of the other new models). The sole member of the A family, the LA500/FD, can only muster a pokey 1GHz Celeron M chip, 80GB hard drive, and 512MB of RAM, but its claimed 5-hour battery life completely schools the rest of today's announced lappies, with one even advertising less than an hour of juice.

All of the new machines will be available by the end of the month (released on either the 14th or 21st, specifically), in Japan only. Oh, and if you want prices on all twenty-six of these, well, you're gonna have to do the conversions yourself -- so maybe our dedication to you isn't as complete as we originally claimed.

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Filed under: Handsets, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, GSM, UMTS, Misc

We have a hard enough time holding it between bathroom breaks as it is without being taunted by sloshing water on our phones, but we have to admit, it’s pretty darn nifty nonetheless. It seems NEC’s N702iS for NTT DoCoMo has a motion sensor that detects tilt, affecting the “liquid” inside the display appropriately. As battery level drops, so does the level of the liquid. Whimsical, yes, but when you’re technologically dominating every other carrier in the world, we think you’re afforded that luxury.

[Via SlashPhone]

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Filed under: NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Misc

3.6Mbps downstream data is all well and good, but we’ve gotta keep looking forward to the next big thing, right? Don’t worry, the good folks at NTT DoCoMo have you covered (surprise, surprise). The Japanese powerhouse carrier has teamed up with NEC to deliver so-called “Super 3G” handsets, operating as high as 100Mbps down and 30-50Mbps up, in 2010. It’s not quite the 2.5Gbps NTT DoCoMo mustered earlier this year, but hey, we’re all about stop-gap solutions if it means downloading YouTube vids just a smidge faster.

 

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