The Quiet Foxconn Mini PC

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Foxconn refreshes its nettop line with two Nano PCs-- the AT-5250 and AT-5600, both inside sleek black housing with a fanless design Foxconn claims is the most quiet yet.

Foxconn Nano PCThe housing is rather compact, measuring 19 x 13.5 x 3.8cm. The AT-5250 carries an Cedar View D2500 (1.86GHz) processor and integrated Intel graphics, while the AT-5600 comes with an AMD Brazos E450 (1.65GHz) and a Radeon HD 6320 graphics chip.

The PCs lack memory or storage, and support 2.5-inch HDDs and 1.8/2.5-inch SSDs. Ports include x6 USB, ethernet, HDMI, VGA and a 5-in-1 card reader.

The package also includes a VESA mount, for mounting on the back of monitors or PCs.

The Foxconn Nano PCs will be available from September 2012.

Go Foxconn Nano PCs

Kickstarting an Alternative Console

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How do you get funds to make the low-cost Android-based games console of your dreams? If you do like Ouya, you use Kickstarter, asking the potential customers to fund your project.

OuyaWho knows, you might get lucky like Ouya-- getting nearly $5 million from over 38000 people in less than a week. Not bad for a company who failed to drum up enough interest from venture capitalists to get $950000 (the goal asked on the Kickstarter campaign).

It appears Ouya might become the most successful Kickstarter project, should it manage to beat the $10.3m pledged for the Pebble smart-watch earlier in 2012.

Read more...

Virgin Megastore to Cut French Outlets

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According to Le Figaro Economie, Virgin will soon decide on the fate of a number of Megastore outlets in France as CD and DVD sales decline further.

Virgin megastoreVirgin operates 28 stores in France, where it already closed 3 Megastores-- Bordeaux Merignac (2011), Carrousel du Louvre, Paris (January 2012) and Saint-Denis (March 2012).

Now the retailer will decide on 4 more stores-- 3 in Ile-deFrence and 1 in Strasbourg. It is also slashing store sizes, as it has already done to a des Quatre Temps (Paris) outlet (down from 3500 to 2500 square metres).

The fate of 6 other Virgin stores (Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Beautiful Thorn, Montpellier and Champs-Elysées) is also on the line.

Le Figaro reports Virgin is also cutting on employees-- 34 from its HQ and 80 from retail.

Go Ten Virgin Megastores Threatened with Closure (Le Figaro Economie)

Samsung's 75-inch Smart TV

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Samsung reveals a big brother to the ES8000 Smart TV at a London event hosted by retailer John Lewis-- the 75-inch ES9000 "Premium Smart TV" with a "super-ultra-slim" design.

ES9000The company says the ES9000 is 56% thinner than previous models, with a 7.9mm bezel finished in "rose gold." It shares a dual-core processor (complete with smart TV capability and gesture-based interaction) as well as a LED-backlit Diamond Black panel with the ES8000.

Meanwhile the top edge carries a retractable webcam unit.

Samsung hasn't confirmed an international release (despite the London reveal), but the ES9000 will definitely hit Korean markets with a hefty 19.8 million won (or $17450) price tag.

Go Samsung ES9000 Smart TV Debut

Olympus Scopes Augmented Reality (Again)

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Google is not the only company playing with the augmented-reality (AR) goggles concept-- Olympus shows off the MEG4.0 prototype, a 3rd attempt at wearable computing devices from the camera maker.

MEG4.0The MEG4.0 looks like a regular pair of glasses, and has a 320x240 display above the right eye of the wearer. It carries what Olympus calls a "Pupil Division Optical Display" which the company claims is both bright and battery efficient.

A smartphone (connects via Bluetooth) powers the Head Mounted Display (HMD), and the glasses also carry a GPS and accelerometer.

The MEG4.0 is not the first set of Olympus AR goggles-- two previous stabs at the technology from the company appeared on 2005 and 2008... only to never hit the market.

Will Olympus beat Google at the augmented-reality game? Olympus fails to mention which flavour of smartphone OS the MEG4.0 connects to, never mind an actual release date...

Go Olympus MEG4.0 Prototype

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