Soulra Solar-powered Sound System for the iPhone/iPod, also in XL form

We have reported on the Soulra from Eton Corp before, and I got a chance to try it out for myself over the weekend.

I decided to test it out on my iPhone with a dead battery. The moment the Soulra’s flip-out panel was in the sun, the iPhone began to charge. It took a lot more juice before I could get it playing stereo sound, but it did play, and it played it loud.

What you might not be able to see in this image is that the Soulra comes with a plastic cover to make certain the iDevice is safe. This is good for protecting against splashes, and it is IPX-4 Splash proof from all angles.

Of course, if the sun is not out, you can always plug in the AC cord. You had better believe that the remote control comes in handy too.

All in all, the Soulra is a good for a day at the beach with your iDevice. Hopefully, you can get a crowd to join in your party. You should be able to get the Soulra for about $150.00 on the Eton Corp site.

Also available is the soulra XL, which has a larger solar panel, more speakers, and a place to store the remote control. This model costs about $250.00 and is available here.

T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide finally announced

T-Mobile has at long last, announced their latest myTouch 4G Slide smartphone which will be part of T-Mobile’s exclusive line of myTouch devices. The myTouch 4G Slide is said to deliver the most advanced camera of any smartphone with zero shutter lag – now this is something that is surprising since Android-powered smartphones tend to fall behind the iPhone when it comes to camera technology.

Having said that, you can’t just waltz into any T-Mobile store at the moment to bring home a myTouch 4G Slide since it is expected to be available only in July – now, now, that isn’t too far away, is it? It is already the end of June, and you can sniff July out around the corner. The naming convention of the myTouch 4G Slide also gives the game away when it comes to 4G connectivity support, so you know what you’re getting with this smartphone right from the get go.

It is said that the myTouch 4G Slide will be accompanied by an 8-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, coupled with a bunch of other advanced digital camera features such as improved low-light performance, zero shutter lag, SweepShot that lets you capture panoramic shots by sweeping across an entire scene in a single motion, ClearShot HDR to shoot objects in bright settings without being affected by high-contrast lighting, BurstShot to capture multiple photos in a quick burst, support for America’s largest 4G network, and a dedicated dedicated camera button and one-touch access amongst others.

Heck, you can even shoot full HD video if you want to, while all your videos can be edited straight from the device without having to hook up to a computer prior to that. This is a device that will roll off HTC’s production lines, sporting a 3.7″ WVGA super LCD touch-screen display, a slide-out full-QWERTY keyboard if a Swype-enhanced virtual keyboard is not your cup of tea, Android 2.3 Gingerbread and HTC Sense 3.0. A 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor will run proceedings from within in the myTouch 4G Slide.

You can choose from black and khaki colors for the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide when it finally arrives. Any takers?

Veebeam HD brings Internet to your TV

Smart TVs have been around for some years now, but it is safe to say that they haven’t really caught on just yet in the mass market. Well, for those who are sick and tired of watching videos as well as playing catchup on your TV programmes on a much smaller notebook display, here is the Veebeam HD to solve your woes. With this little puppy, you are able to effortlessly stream just about any content from your notebook to your home TV. You name it – live sports, streaming music, movie websites, home videos from your hard drive, the possibilities are more or less endless as long as you can view it on your computer.

Since the Veebeam HD works over the wireless spectrum, you have one less cable to worry about when it comes to keeping your home clutter-free and neat. All you need to do is plug in the USB receiver into the funky-looking £139.99 Veebeam HD unit, hook it up to your TV while plugging the separate USB antenna into your computer or notebook – it doesn’t matter whether it runs on the Mac OS X platform or Windows.

Archos tablets offer the best of both worlds

French-based Archos has just announced their latest entries in the ever growing tablet market, where they intend to merge both speed and storage in the latest range of its tablets, carrying along with them an OMAP 4 processor with an ARM Cortex dual-core 1.5GHz A9 processor, in addition to Seagate’s 250GB hard drive to get you started right out of the box. There will be several screen sizes to choose from, where among them would be the 8” Archos 80 G9 and 10” Archos 101 G9.

Both models will run on the latest Android 3.1 Honeycomb operating system so that you can enjoy the latest version the moment you unwrap the packaging with your excited, bare hands. This sure as heck beats waiting for a new update to arrive Over The Air (OTA), as that might just take months after a device’s release to see that happen. Don’t believe us? Ask those who use Android-powered Sony Ericsson handsets…

The Archos G9 tablets will sihp with Google’s full suite of mobile applications and Android Market, instantly opening up the doorway for you to enjoy more than 200,000 applications including games, books, social media and news. The latest version of Honeycomb that is thrown into the mix will also see G9 tablets deliver a full web experience alongside Adobe Flash support for on-the-go web browsing, communication and applications.

Want to remain connected to the Internet? That’s a snap with its built-in 3G connectivity, doing away with the need for you to choose between a Wi-Fi and 3G model. Interestingly enough, the Archos G9 tablets too can decode 1080p H264 High Profile videos, which is superior to most of the other standard tablets in the market that lack even the processing firepower to play 720p videos smoothly.

Archos knows that times are hard as well, which is why they are offering an 8″ tablet from $279 and the 10.1″ model wil

Replicating Reality at the E3 2011: I feel dizzy

Just to let you know, that guy sitting in the driver’s seat isn’t me, but I did get to go after him. Man, I am glad that I did.

This was the Fourth Dimensions Displays (ForthDD) booth at E3, and it took me for a ride. I would say literally for a ride, but it was only virtually. In my little Matrix, I was a race car driver. My viewer was in 3D, so objects in the virtual space like my steering wheel and the other cars seemed to be distant. I could turn my head, and it was like I was turning my head in actual reality.

What really sells it is I really felt like I was in motion. In the game, I kept crashing into the other cars, which thankfully resulted in undamaged nudges off the track. I kept going out of control, and I think I know why. Other cars were hitting me from behind. Too bad that I didn’t have any side or rear-view mirrors. That was my only limitation, but otherwise, I felt motion-sick afterward (this is a good thing).

In all honesty, I don’t really understand why we don’t have this type of technology in every home. Part of it has to do with the high cost of the equipment, as that headgear I am wearing costs a whopping $5,000. Still, I seem to recall the early nineties, and I felt like we were promised this virtual reality world that never did come to being. Instead, we got MMO games and social networking.

If you want to know more about Fourth Dimension Displays, check out their official website.

Defiance is an MMO and a TV show

One of the challenges of franchises these days is to create a storyline that exists on multilple media. Some of you might remember how the Enter the Matrix game ties the last two Matrix movies together, but what if there was a game that worked with it’s related TV show.

This is the concept behind Syfy’s Defiance, which is both a game by Trion Worlds that will also be a TV show. As players play the game, their actions actually change the way the show will progress. The game itself is both an MMO and an FPS, which are two game genres that don’t really mix well.

I’m not certain how well Defiance will play out, but I will say that I am relieved. After all, most MMO games are all about characters going through missions to earn personal points, but most of the world that they can freely explore is completely immutable. For example, if there was a giant rock in front of them, and the player had some dynamite, they could not put a crack in the rock unless the game allowed it. Today’s games, especailly MMOs, are pretty expansive, but they have limits.

However, to have a player’s actions affect the show might give a good feeling to the gamer when they watch the Defiance television show. I can just see a scene where the characters are explaining that “such and such battle was a complete victory”. Then one of the players watching will turn to his friends and say, “hey, we were in that battle”.

And so the players can feel more immersed in their vicarious existence, more involved in a community, and all make a difference together. I’m looking forward to seeing both the Defiance game and TV show, but I hope it isn’t the nextCaptain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Go ahead and enter a comment if you know what that is a reference to.

By the way, I am at E3 in LA for the next few days. Expect a lot of video game related posts.

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