Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

It’s one thing to witness an HDTV under the watchful eye of the company that made it, but it’s an entirely different experience to get out on your own, with your own hand-picked sources, your own food stash and the freedom to really speak your mind. From what we’ve seen under Mitsu’s own conditions, the 65-inch LaserVue is truly a sight to behold, and even when the gurus over at TheTechLounge managed to see this thing in their own element, they were equally amazed. They wouldn’t go so far as to call it the best HDTV ever, but even when compared side-by-side with Pioneer’s heralded PRO-151FD KURO plasma, they found the laser-packed set to be superior in a few instances. The test subjects underwent a few grueling hours of Iron Man and Ice Age: Meltdown on Blu-ray, and at the end of the night, critics didn’t hesitate to recommend the set for anyone with loads of cash.

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’ve long since known that RIM’s BlackBerry Bold was AT&T bound, but in case you haven’t noticed, the rumored October 2nd release date has come and went, and there’s nary a Bold on any of AT&T’s store shelves. According to RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, the handset is still undergoing testing at AT&T, suggesting that it wanted to avoid the complaints that arose when the newest iPhone hit in July. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel remained mum on the subject when asked, only affirming that the handset would eventually be available this year. Ah well, you’ve been looking for a reason to vacation in Chile, haven’t you?

[Via phonescoop]

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Mitsubishi’s i MiEV electric car has spent some serious time on the streets of Japan, but before long, the fuel-shunning vehicle will be roughin’ it here in the US of A. The auto maker is teaming up with Southern California Edison and PG&E in order to see how it fares in LA traffic and how to best integrate it with the power grid. As of now, the whips should be cruising down the carpool lanes in Q4, though a few modifications may be needed in order to comply with US laws. Plans are to test the i MiEV for three solid years, and hopefully the $30,000 ride will be made available for purchase shortly thereafter (or earlier, if we’re fortunate). What now, MINI?

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Storage

Western Digital’s hasty VelociRaptor already got reviewed by its lonesome, but for those thinking of getting a RAID system into their rig, HotHardware has taken a trio of ‘em, setup a RAID 5 array and put the drives through their collaborative paces. The configuration was made possible thanks to an Areca PCIe X8 hardware RAID card, and the results were rather impressive — to no one’s surprise, might we add. Across the entire volume, performance was generally linear save for a few small valleys along the way, burst speed was 598MB/sec and average read speed was 209.4MB/sec, which pretty much blew the doors off of everything that came before it. Number lovers, there’s more where this came from in the read link below.

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Filed under: Transportation

General Motors doesn’t have long before everyone and their cousin expects to see at least a few Volts on the road — and it knows it. In an attempt to make sure the deadline is met, the firm has battery testing going on ’round the clock in Michigan and Germany that will theoretically simulate a decade of use in just two years. Additionally, it’s placing batteries in test Malibus in order to get a feel for real-world results. Still, GM has yet to definitively decide on the final engine or which battery supplier it’ll end up working with, but as the eleventh hour grows ever closer, we can only hope that the pieces start to come together.

[Via CNET, image courtesy of Reuters]

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Filed under: Robots

We don’t know about you, but to us, there’s nothing cuter than a warm, cuddly bunny — save for Hello Kitty, of course. Thankfully, the National Institute of Health and the EPA have teamed up to jumpstart a five-year research program that “will use high-speed automated screening robots” instead of live animals to run chemical tests on cells grown in a laboratory. Reportedly, the long term goal here is to “reduce the cost, time and number of animals used in screening everything from pesticides to household chemicals,” but according to those involved with the initiative, it’ll be quite some time before non animal-based testing becomes the norm. Hang tight, dear bunnies — there’s hope for you all yet.

[Image courtesy of Flickr]

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Filed under: Storage

Listen, we know you think your RAID setup is pretty snazzy, and, truth be told, it probably makes our rig look silly by comparison. However, in the computer world, there’s always someone out there with a bigger, nastier system — and we’ve just spotted one of the nastiest of them all. Next Level Hardware is a site that specializes in putting outrageous setups to the test, and this time they haven’t disappointed with their benchmarks on the Mtron 16GB SSD (reportedly the fastest SATA drive in the world). Oh, did we mention the test was on a RAID 0 array of nine drives? Dubbed the “Battleship Mtron,” the sickening collection of hardware blazed past the competition (a WD Raptor, less stacked Mtron RAID setups), delivering mind-boggling data swaps like copying a 1GB folder in four seconds. You read that right: four seconds. Like where this is headed? Truck over to the test page and peep all the stats… seriously, it’s upsetting.

[Thanks, David]

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

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

The new Zune 80 has hit and passed the FCC and its rigorous series of emissions tests. Unfortunately you won’t see the usual slightly beat up shots in the documents this time: just a series of charts and plenty of data about “radiated emissions.” Microsoft made sure to request that the FCC hold back from posting external / internal photos, the user manual, schematics, antenna specification, and well, anything interesting at all. At least any Zune fans out there can sleep safe at night knowing that when they pick up their own Zune 80, it won’t burn their hand off in a blast of radiation.

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

Filed under: Cellphones

In one of the more impressive Frankenphone installations we’ve ever seen, a company called Mobile Complete has been operating a remote phone-testing service called DeviceAnywhere that allows mobile phone developers to test out their apps on any of their choice of over 500 different phone models. The phones are opened up and have their circuits wired directly into a server, so devs have access to every part of the device, just as if they were physically present. CEO Faraz Syed says that the networked handsets are “surprisingly reliable and robust, even though they look like we’ve cut them open and killed them.” According to the company, all the major carriers and several large content providers are all customers, and only Nokia offers a similar testing suite — and it’s not as robust. Too bad the service starts at $200 and runs from $17 an hour up — we’d love to spend a couple hours fooling around.

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

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Regular nerves getting you down? Why not try a bionic nerve? According to reports, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed an artificial nerve which could have the ability to bring damaged limbs and organs back to life. In a study published in the medical rag Experimental Neurology, Dr. Paul Kingham and his team at the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration managed to take fat tissue from adult animals and differentiate them into nerve cells to be used for repair and regeneration. The team will repeat the study with human volunteers, and then develop an artificial nerve constructed from a biodegradable polymer. The “bio-material” will be rolled into a tube-like structure and inserted between two cut nerves, so that regrowing nerve fibers can spread from one end to the other. Next, the researchers hope to create a species of tyrannical man-bots called the Borg, whom they hope will move outward through the galaxy, assimilating all who stand in their way.

[Via Slashdot]

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