Storing away your ever-growing music and adult movie collection just isn’t a job for your PC any more. Let’s face it, there’s never enough space for lengthy Pink Floyd LPs and the entire Digital Playground back catalogue..

Which is why we love Escient Vision VS200. On the face of it, it’s just a huge 4 terabyte place to stick all your digital wares.

But on closer inspection, there’s a lot more going on. You can import DVDs legally, without any hassle. And we’re not just talking the movie alone. You can grab extra features, menus and tiresome outtakes, then pick and choose the ones you want.

The clincher though is the fact you can search your library on your PC by artwork just like Apple’s cover flow. You can also trawl the system by artists, genre and rating.

Escient brag that their baby can put away enough material to fill up 50 MacBook Airs. That’s a whole lot of space right there.

We’ve also had word to the wise from a reliable source that a firmware update will be coming later in the year, making it even easier to download HD flicks straight to the box. Rumour has it this will tie in nicely with Apple’s movie download service too.

Obviously, it’ll let you play CDs and DVDs, and it comes with 1080p upscaling for a spot of hi-def too. It makes Apple TV look like something made by Fisher Price.

Better get saving if you want one though. The VS200 will set you back a whacking £3,999 from Easter.

Filed under: Cellphones

All you other iPhone knockoff manufacturers out there better take note: the C-002 HiPhone isn’t messing around. Not only is this phone built to mimic the iPhone hardware, but the interface is one of the most faithful reproductions we’ve seen, and even the unboxing experience has been made to scream Apple. In fact, some of the largest differences between this phone and its inspiration are improvements: a removable battery, dual SIM cards and a microSD slot. There’s a video after the break — it’s just like falling in love all over again.

[Via TRFJ]

Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CIX: C-002 HiPhone ups the ante

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Filed under: Laptops

We’ve been waiting for Dell to pop a Penryn chip inside one of its laptops — so far it’s been HP and Toshiba sitting pretty with some of the few Penryn laptop offerings in existence — but we didn’t think it’d come for free. Dell is pushing Penryn on consumers with an upgrade to the existing XPS M1330 line, which is a far sight smaller than what HP and Toshiba intro’d Penryn in, but the best news is that if you build out the AUD$2,000 model (which includes 4GB of RAM and other perks) you get a free “upgarde” [sic] to the Core 2 Duo T9300 processor, at least for today. As you might’ve guessed from that currency, this deal is only in Australia so far, but new Dell products and deals usually start there and end up in the States whenever the international date line swings around.

[Thanks, Rupert]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

For those of you who’ve recently dropped some dough on a new Fujifilm Z10fd or Z100fd, you’ve got some firmware to update. The company issued a couple of fixes today which tweak minor features on the cameras — though we’re sure a few folks will be happy to get them. The updates boost the startup speed in both models when using xD cards, enable camera-to-computer transfer with higher capacity media in the Z10fd, and adjust the underwater white balance on the Z100fd. Hit the read links, and begin your magical journey to freshness.

[Via Digital Photography Review]

Read – FinePix Z10fd Firmware (camera control software) Update Ver.1.01
Read – FinePix Z100fd Firmware (camera control software) Update Ver.1.01

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In the surest sign yet that HD-DVD is going for all out price slashing in its attempts to claw back the hi-def initiative, Amazon in the US has dropped the price of the Xbox HD drive to a mere $80. That’s forty round pounds!

£40 for a decent hi-def drive ain’t half bad, right? Well, add to that six free HD-DVDs and you’re looking at the best bargain on the web.

Seeing as discs are shifting for $25 in the US, it works out that HD-DVD is losing out to the tune of $70 to keep the format alive.

We’re all for a spot of price cutting, but it strikes us that things really are starting to get desperate in the battle for your hi-def virginity.

Still, at this price, you can probably afford to back both sides and tidy up when it comes to the inevitable sell off when HD-DVD loses out for good.

We’ve been on the phone to Microsoft and Amazon about whether this deal extends to the UK, but have had no word as yet. As soon as we hear, you’ll be the first to know.