Gizmo Lovers Blog | TiVo, Slingbox, Android, Blu-ray Disc, and whatever other tech I feel like blogging about…

A Quick Look at The Insignia Connected TV with TiVo Design

Posted on Monday, September 19, 2011 by MegaZone

Dave Zatz from Zatz Not Funny got a loaner unit of the new Insignia Connected TV with TiVo Design to review and he shot the following video as a quick first look at the unit. The new Netflix and YouTube clients look pretty good, and I hope they come to the standalone TiVo units soon. I expect they’ll only come to the Premiere though as it looks like they’re Flash based. It’d also be great if TiVo picked up Chumby like Insignia did, but that deal with with Best Buy and not TiVo so I wouldn’t count on it.

Posted in Blogs, DVR, TiVo | Tagged Blogs, TiVo, Video, YouTube, Zatz Not Funny | Leave a comment

Is the TiVo Premiere Elite Coming October 7th?

Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2011 by MegaZone

TiVo reseller WeaKnees has the TiVo Premiere Elite listed on their site with an expected ship date of 10/7/2011, click on the image for a larger version. They don’t quite have it up for pre-order yet. It is listed, but the listing says“CHECK BACK SOON FOR PRE-ORDER INFO”. That date jibes with earlier expectations of a mid-September ship from TiVo to the channel for a mid-October availability to consumers. If the date is true we’re less than three weeks from availability.

There’s also a video of a demo of the TiVo Premiere Elite being given at the CEDIA show a week ago, shot by Digital Trends.

Via InvestorVillage.

Posted in Blogs, DVR, TiVo | Tagged Blogs, Digital Trends, InvestorVillage, Premiere Elite, TiVo, Video, WeaKnees, YouTube | 5 Comments

Sellout.Woot! – ViewSonic gTablet 10.1″ Android Tablet Just $239.99

Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2011 by MegaZone

So the 5″ Samsung Galaxy S tablet is too small for you, and something in the 10″ range seems more your speed, but the Honeycomb tablets like the Xoom, Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Transformer are too rich for your blood? Then this may be the tablet for you.

The ViewSonic gTablet 10.1″ Android Tablet, selling for $239.99 + $5 S&H, has the same Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core CPU that pretty much all of the 10.1″ Android tablets are using, 16GB of internal storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a microSD slot supporting up to 32GB of additional storage, etc. The main difference is that this 10.1″ screen is 1024×600 resolution, while most of the other tablets are 1280×800, and it runs Android 2.2 Froyo instead of Android 3.x Honeycomb. One feature this tablet has that many others lack is a full-size USB 2.0 host port, which makes it easy to connect other devices to the tablet.

These are new tablets, not refurbs, with an MSRP of $499.99 and an Amazon price of $269.97. This is $30 cheaper than even Amazon.

Posted in Android, Mobile Devices | Tagged android, Gifts, Sellout.Woot, tablet, ViewSonic | Leave a comment

Woot! – Samsung Galaxy S 8GB 5” Wi-Fi Just $169.99

Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2011 by MegaZone

Today is Android Day at Woot! it seems. The main Woot! deal is the Samsung Galaxy S 8GB WiFi for $169.99 + $5 S&H. Note that this is not a phone. Yes, there is a line of Galaxy S phones, but this is to those what the iPod Touch is to the iPhone. This is a non-phone 5″ tablet running Android 2.2, designed to be a pocketable media player. It has all of the standard Android features, and supports a number of file formats and codecs:
Audio Codec: AAC LC (8 ~ 48KHz, Up to 128Kbps), AAC+ (8 ~ 48KHz, Up to 128Kbps), eAAC+ (8 ~ 48KHz, Up to 64Kbps)) MP3, AAC, AC3 MPEG 1 / 2 / 2.5 Layer3 (8 ~ 48KHz, Up to 320Kbps), WAV (8 ~ 48KHz), WMA9 Std. (8 ~ 48KHz, Up to 320Kbps)
Video Codec: MPEG4, H.264: 720p (1280 x 720)
Image File: JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG
Document File: Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF
Video File: 3GP, ASF, AVI, FLV, MP4, WMV

It has 8GB of on-board storage and accepts a microSD card for up to 32GB of additional storage – unlike an iPod Touch. Also unlike an iPod Touch, it has a built in FM tuner. The WiFi is 802.11b/g/n for high speeds. The 5″ screen is WVGA 800×480, and it has a front facing VGA camera and rear facing 3.2MP camera with auto-focus and flash.

An 8GB iPod Touch is $204.99 at Amazon, if you’ve been thinking of getting one you might consider saving $35 and getting this instead, and putting the savings toward a microSD card to have more storage for your music. And you get an FM tuner in the bargain. You also get up to 60 hours of music playback or 8 hours of video playback on a single charge, better than the iPod Touch’s 40 hours of music and 7 hours of video. Oh yeah, and it’ll run Flash too if you want.

UPDATE 9/28/2011: Well, now we know how much of a deal this was – and the answer is $100 savings. Amazon is now listing both the Samsung Galaxy 4.0 and Samsung Galaxy 5.0 for pre-order, shipping October 16, 2011. Pricing is $229.99 and $269.99, respectively.

Posted in Android, Mobile Devices | Tagged android, Galaxy S, Gifts, samsung, Woot | 2 Comments

Woot! – Toshiba 24″ 1080p LED-LCD HDTV with Built-In DVD Player Just $249.99

Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2011 by MegaZone

From a monitor to an HDTV, Woot! is offering a new, not refurbished, Toshiba 24″ 1080p LED-LCD HDTV with Built-In DVD Player for only $249.99 + $5 S&H. This 1080p Full HD set has a built-in upscaling DVD player and an internal NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner for antenna, analog cable, and clear QAM digital cable (no CableCARD), as well as two HDMI ports, a VGA port, component video, composite video, and stereo audio inputs for external sources. It also has an optical digital audio output.

Remember these are new, not refurbished, for just $249.99. The MSRP is $349.99 and Amazon sells them new for $279.98, so this is $100 off MSRP and even $30 off Amazon’s discounted price.