Koreans will soon be able to get their hands on Samsung’s YP-PB2 PMP. The portable  media player will have 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of storage capacity. The design is sleek with slim dimensions of 52 x 100 mm x 11.95 and weighs only 97 grams. The PMP’s main feature is its DVB-T mobile TV tuner, as well as high end digital television the PMP supports most audio and video formats. The battery lasts for 46 hours playing audio, and five to seven hours for video and DMB.  The PMP has a 3-inch display, integrated Bluetooth, and will be available in both black and white. Like most of Samsung’s goodies there is no word yet on a North American release.

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Samsung has announced it plans to deliver mobile handsets that can run on electricity generated through water. Wait a minute, what?  Oh Yong-Soo, Vice President of Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ research center said that by the year 2010, water powered mobile phones will be available to energy-hungry markets. The engineers of Samsung’s research center have created a micro-fuel cell and hydrogen generator that runs on water. The reaction between metal and water generates hydrogen gas which is then supplied to the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen to generate power. That’s enough to charge a cell phone for 10 hours, twice the charge you get from rechargeable batteries.The fuel cell can make 3W of electricity, current cell phones use around 2W.

The research center has already started working on their prototype, but it wants to improve the battery and make it safer before they releasing it. That sounds like a good idea consider all the reccent PR given to exploding batteries.

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Samsung & Armani have once again joined forces, and announced at this years Milan International Furniture Fair the release of a premium LCD TV. A 46″ version of the TV will be available in Europe, Korea, and Russia, with a 52″ model being released in the same markets later this summer. Details are thin, but the TV’s are said to be ‘top of the line technology’, with 100Hz Full HD and HDMI connectors.

The press release says the display was created for customers “who are seeking a prestige television that combines sophisticated design and leading flat screen technology“, a very nice way of saying the main customers this will be targeting is people obsessed with branding. Sitting in the press release for anyone to see is the full scope of Armani’s involvement in the project, which is very little. The two remotes (why two?) are designed by Armani as well as the Samsung/Armani logo on the display that stylishly lights up in four different colors. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors provided by the “strategic marketing alliance announced by the two companies in September, 2007“.

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Gp2X F-200 Handheld Gaming Device

GamePark Holdings GP2x F-200 gaming hand held looks like a mash up between the DS Lite and PSP, and although you might not think the device can compare to either device the GP2X F-200 has proven itself to be a nice little gaming device.

Running on a ARM920T processor and sporting 64 MB of NAND flash memory (expandable storage via SD), this Linux handheld pumps out a plethora of media on its 3.5″ touchscreen TFT-LCD. The system comes pre-loaded with five games, but its the systems ability to easily load emulators that makes the device stand out. Commodore 64, Atari ST, Arcade, and Game Consoles, if there is an emulator for it chances are the Gp2X F-200 can run it. On top of the gaming the handheld does all the other standard PMP functions, video, audio, pictures, and e-books. GamPark Holding’s open source handheld gamers paradise is currently available for $169.99 USD.

Gp2X F-200 Review

There is a great review of the GP2X F-200 at Artstechnica by Jerry Bonner who was very satisfied with the handheld. The best part of the review is when he ponders over the karaoke function of the Gp2X F-200 and wonders, “how many people out there are singing aloud on the go?”. Well Jerry, take a trip to South Korea and you will be horrified to discover the answer to you question is… everyone sings aloud, even while on the go.

GamePark Holdings

It looks like the decision made by GamePark Holdings engineers has paid off. It was rumored that all of GamePark’s engineers abandoned ship after the engineers and management disagreed over the feature of the company. After releasing the GP32 the engineering staff left and formed GamePark Holdings, the company responsible for GP2X F-200. In March 2008 it was rumored that GamePark, no doubt short of engineers not to mention company spirit filed for bankruptcy.

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Although the critics were not too friendly to D’Cube’s previous attempts at PMPs the new D9 has one some respect for its improved functions and stylish design. The D9 supports a wide range of codecs including AVI, WMV, WMA, MP3, and JPEG. The PMP comes in 2GB and 4GB versions, with expandable memory via microSD. The 4GB model is available for W128,000 ($131 USD)

Best of all (if you live in Korea) the player includes a DMB TV tuner so you can catch all your favorite dramas on the go. Your Full House or Winter Sonata programing will be displayed on the D9’s 3.5″ 320 x 240 resolution TFT-LCD.

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Hyundai has come way out of left field bringing what they have dubbed as the worlds firts 46-inch stereoscopic 3D TV to market in Japan. The 1920 x 1080 LCD display also has 2 HDMI and 3 composite inputs. Hyundai’s display requires special broadcasts and gigantic clown glasses to take advantage of the 3D functions. The broadcasts, which began several months ago are provided by Nippon Broadcast Service. The TV is not cheap costing Y498,000 ($4,938 USD), and the 3D glasses will run you another Y2,980 ($29.55).

The release of a stereoscopic 3D TV from Hyundai is surprising considering their fairly lackluster display of generic copy-cat LCD displays at CES.

Source via Engadget

The RD-P1 is the newest dictionary from Sharp Korea features over 118 different dictionaries and supports a new pen based writing recognition system, and Mp3 playback. The dictionary’s 5.4″ LCD screen and handy QWERTY keyboard are all packed into its 1.8cm thin design. The suggested retail price is W210,000 ($215 USD), but will anyone pay it?

The new RD-P1 electronic dictionary is a little confusing, it departs form the companies standard fair of dictionary’s featuring color displays, hard drives, and video playback. One might assume Sharp was targeting the low end of the market, but the price is over double the cost of their low end dictionaries. The ’sharp’ price might be due to the 118 dictionaries they have included, that many dictionaries would cost a lot for royalties. It appears that Sharp Korea is targeting consumers way to obsessed with definitions or dictionary authors.

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Samsung has just released its first Smart Phone with High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA). The HSUPA utilizes 3G networks to offer incredibly fast download speeds. Samsung’s SCH-M470 smart phone will be able to download data up to five times faster then WCDMA. For example the incredible speeds allow for 5 Mp3 songs to be downloaded in one minute using HSUPA. The best part about all that speed is that data plans are actually affordable to the average consumer in Korea.

In addition to the SCH-M470’s super speed the smart phone supports web browsing, push email, and Google search. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a 2 mega pixel camera is thrown in to complete the package. If your looking to fulfill your need for speed, the SCH-M470 is currently available in Korea for W600,000 - 700,000 ($614 - 714 USD).

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South Koreans where filled with pride this Tuesday as the country’s first astronaut successfully entered earths orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-12 spaceship.

Yi So-Yeon a 29 year old bio systems engineer had the honor of being the first Korean, 49th woman, and 2nd Asian woman to orbit the earth. Yi So-Yeon will dock with the International Space Station later today where she will give her first media interviews and talk to Korean students via radio.

Korea has yet to become a major player in outer space, but the country has plans to become one of the top seven space powers by 2010. It aims to launch a domestically developed rocket that is capable of carrying satellites to orbit later this year.

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After teasing the Korean market with TV ads and flaunting it about at CES Samsung has finally released their Deluxe MITs UMPC under its domestic Anycall brand. The UMPC connects to the net via WiBro and HSDPA. The Deluxe MITs runs Windows XP on a 5″ touch screen, with a 30GB hard drive, and it even manages to pack in a 1.3 mega pixel camera.

By far the most interesting feature of the Delux MITs is its amazing folding QWERTY keyboard. The UMPC and keyboard are all attached and fold into a neat little package.

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