iPod Shuffle: The new Shuffle returns to the square form factor of the pre-previous model, and thankfully loses the silly, instantly breakable ear-bud mounted controls, getting a real click-wheel in their place. Of course, there’s a handy clip for athletic wearability… The tiniest body is machined from a single piece of aluminium, and comes in silver, blue, green, orange, or pink. Other new features include playlists, the increasingly improving and popular Genius mixes, and a discrete Voiceover button. The capacity is 2GB and the device will last 15 hours on a single charge.

iPod nano: Apple’s obsession with touch, is slowly but relentlessly spreading down their line of products. The new iPod nano is the latest to be annointed with a display featuring Multi-touch technology. The device form-factor changes completely, from previous nano’s. And. Lo and behold, there’s a clip! That, together with the size change, makes this another easily-wearable iPod. There are 8GB and 16GB models, and the battery life is 24 hours. Display rotation makes for super-easy handling, and Nike+ love and the built-in pedometer, ensure this one’ll be loved by the jogging set.

iPod Touch: The biggest of the iPods has inherited a slew of features from it’s sibling, the iPhone, but at the same time, the locked-in-step same-case-design trend, has fallen away. The remarkable 960×480 pixel resolution Retina display, front and rear cameras for FaceTime, and HD (720p) video recording and editing? All in. iOS 4.1 brings with it Game Center, and the device loves it. BTW? The “Project Sword” demo by Mike Capps from Epic games at the Apple event yesterday, was a excellent peek at what to expect from gaming on the new Touch.

How “lowest priced”? R1399 retail. Killer.

The phone is the Vodafone 845, which is a branded version of the Huawei “Joy” handset. It has very acceptable specs for an entry-level smart-phone. The 845 features Android 2.1/Eclair and supports GPRS/EDGE as well as 3G/HSDPA, and has Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi b/g, a digital compass and an accelerometer. The 2.8″, 262k colour, touch display supports the unusual QVGA resolution (320×240), and the camera is a 3.2 megapixel device.

Mark Taylor, of Vodacom SA, says: “Yet again we’ve been able to leverage the power of Vodafone to bring something unimaginable just a few years ago. This kind of functionality and design has never been available before at anything near this price. Android is a stunning platform which has become a favourite amongst developers worldwide and means that owners can never get bored with their VF845.”

If you’re at all interested in this kind of entertainment service, a word to the wise. Take some time to research the difference between “3G streaming TV”, “digital video broadcasting for handheld (DVB-H)” and “TV on demand”. There are some kinks in those cables, and they create significant differences in the product. For instance, as the DStv/Multichoice “fair-use” terms explain, there are limits to the amount of TV you can watch. 45 minutes in a week? That’s not even a Rugby match! Or a Grand Prix…

How much does TV:On Demand! cost? R75.00 per month or R20.00 per week. Streaming the content to the customer’s cellphone is zero-rated. (Yay!) To subscribe, SMS ‘ondemand‘ to 31116 (FREE). More good news! Monthly subscribers get the first 30 days free. Weekly subscriber sign-ups, the first week.

And, you needn’t be concerned about long, boring meetings filling your pen to overflowing, either. The 2GB device will record a staggering 200 hours, of mind-numbing meeting. So even if you get caught taking minutes in a filibuster, you’re good to go.

Once you (finally) get back to the office, simply plug the pen into a USB port on a Mac or PC. All your pages are instantly uploaded where they can be viewed as visual interactive documents, in which your hand-written text can be searched for keywords, your notes shared with others online and where they can be even made into PDF’s or Flash movies. A really cool use for the pen is the ability to draw a sketch of something and make verbal notes or instructions while you do it. Then, when you upload it, the sketch will be drawn live on screen with your voice (or audio notes) overlaying the picture, as it’s redrawn in real time. OCR software allows you to take the handwritten notes and convert directly to text, without all the time wasted in between re-capturing!

What You Get: The Pulse smartpen 2GB of memory Livescribe Desktop software 3D Recording Headset 100 sheet dot paper ruled notebook USB mobile charging cradle Black ink cartridges + 1 stylus cartridge

As always, you can get the Pulse 2GB Smartpen at your nearby Incredible Connection store.

Unfortunately, that’s not the whole story. The promises of absurd viewing-angles, and ultra-low power consumption, are not quite all they were made out to be. And, there’s another thorn in AMOLED’s foot(print). Super LCD’s (SLCD). In the never-ending game of leapfrog that is technology, the competition is never far behind, and the latest round of SLCD displays reach right into AMOLED’s lunchbox, and in some cases are cheeky enough to be adding mayo, before tucking into the sarmies.

And now, HTC, it’s hand forced by Samsung’s inability (or unwillingness, depending where you read) to keep up with the outrageous demand for AMOLED screens for HTC’s Desire, Droid Incredible and Nexus One models, has engaged the services of Sony, to supply an alternative, Super TFT LCD display, for these models. Quoting from the press release:

“HTC is experiencing high-demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7 inch displays. The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high-demand. The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC’s current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance.” ~ Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation.

* Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode

Packed into it’s sexy, black, 120x70x30mm, slip-me-in-your-pocket enclosure, the PK301 has a 20,000 hr LED lamp, which requires no fan, so it’s quiet. Silent, in fact. And at a range of 3 meters, it’ll throw a HUGE 120″ image on the surface of your choice. And with a 2000:1 contrast ratio, your audience won’t be squinting at a dim, washed out blob, either. It runs off mains or it’s own 1.5hr rechargeable battery, (5 hours with the optional high-capacity version), supports more video and image formats than you could shake a stick at (avi, wmv, mpg, mpeg, mp4, 3gp, 3g2, mov, m4v, rm, rmvb, ogm, flv, asf, jpg, tiff, gif, png, bmp, tga, fpx, pcx, pcd, psd) and has a micro SD slot which accepts cards up to 32GB.

Where can you get one of these little beauties? Just pop into your local Incredible Connection store, and get sorted. Project away, captain!

Sound familiar? Yes, that’s right, the lady who lives in your Garmin PND (Portable Navigation Device), telling you what to do and where to go. Starting now, with the launch of Traffic on Garmin, she’ll also be able to tell you where NOT to go! According to the info sheet,

“Traffic is an information service, Provided by Altech Netstar Traffic (ANT),
that enables the identification of traffic congestion along a planned route,
which is then displayed on a compatible PND.”

That’s right folks, she’ll tell you where the traffic is, so you can take an alternate route and save your nerves. Awesome!

So, how does it work? Information about traffic flow patterns and obstructions is gathered from a network of 1000′s of ANT“probe “ vehicles, recovery helicopters and the like, as well as alliances with key radio stations. This data is transmitted to a receiver, paired with your Garmin device and the data is shown on the device screen. You’ll see details of the cause of the congestion, and the effect or delay that it may have on your journey in minutes. Coverage will initially be available in Gauteng, but will be expanded to other major metropolitan areas “in the near future”.

What will you need? Obviously, a compatible Garmin PND. A compatible GTM receiver, which depends on your nüvi/zúmo model. We’ve included a table below, to help you see which receiver is needed. (we’re cool that way…) A subscription to the Traffic system, and a Traffic Message Channel compatible mapset from Garmap. All mapsets issued from the 2009 TMC 1st edition are good to go.

What will it cost? There’s some good news here. A subscription IS needed to access the system, but is included with the purchase of any new GTM Traffic Receiver, or bundled Traffic device, such as the nüvi 1300T. Subscriptions are valid for 12 months from date of activation and a renewal will cost you just R299 incl VAT. Subscriptions can be purchased and activated from the Garmap website.

Of course, Incredible Connection stocks all the Garmin nüvi models you might want, and you can head over to the Garmap site for more details about Traffic. Bring it!

The range includes the TL205, TL210, TL220 and TL225, all using a 12.4MP CCD sensor, with optical zoom ranging from 3x to 5x. The base model TL205 gets a Samsung f6.3, 18.9mm lens, but ALL other models get some real glass: An f3.5~5.9, Schneider-KREUZNACH piece, that is the 35mm film equivalent of 27-124mm! There is dual image stabilisation (optical and digital) and a 3-inch, 230K pixel rear LCD display. The front display is 1.5-inch, 61k-pixel. That’s as big as the rear LCD on some (still) very popular DSLR cameras…

Hopefully Samsung will decide to sell this range in SA, and we’ll get a demo to report back with!

Never again will you be caught short at that presidential dinner party when the commander-in-chief asks for the budget spreadsheet, or the documents for world peace, or even the latest episode of Top Gear. You’ll be the man!

The cufflinks measure about 19mm by 15mm. Functional fashion, indeed!

It’s a very elegant phone, despite it’s size, which is due in part to that lovely big display, all 4 inches, 480×854 pixels and 65K colours of it. The other numbers look like this: 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8GB MicroSD memory, 1GB on-board, topped off with Google’s Android 1.6 operating system. The Cybershot 8MP camera, of course, does not disappoint. 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash touch focus, image stabilization, geo-tagging, face and smile detection…

It would be hugely over-dramatic to say that the future of the company depends on this phone. But it is very important that Sony-Ericsson has a viable player in the hugely competitive smartphone-space, that is currently being dominated by the iPhone, Android variants from HTC and others, and under threat from the arrival of Windows Phone 7. Can the X10 be that viable player? We’ll see.