TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Shure, known for making pro-quality mics that seem to work just fine after being subjected to the rigors of stage and studio, have turned their attention to bedroom musicians, podcasters and others who record direct-to-computer with a new line of high-quality USB microphones that will work with any computer made in the past decade. (Everything after Windows 98 First Edition has the requisite USB Audio profile.)

These cardioid microphones, announced Tuesday at Macworld and to be displayed later this week at CES, can be directed to pick up sound from a specific source to provide some natural sound isolation — unlike omnidirectional mics, which pick up sound from all directions. And these are condensor mics, meaning that they require power from the computer but are more sensitive than mics that don’t (that’s why you’ll find condenser mics in recording studios worldwide).

Shure says these mics have zero latency.

Oops! More CES leaks, this time an official press release from Kodak. The company has a few treats in store — a new weather-resistant mini camcorder, and a pair of new stills cameras, clocking in at 10 and 12 megapixels.

All products have two things in common. They have terrible, letter-jumble names, and they are ugly. Really ugly. The Z980 (above) is the 12MP still camera. Stoundout features are the detachable vertical grip with second shutter release and a 24x optical zoom complete with image stabilization (for when you actually use that zoom).

I thought notebooks with two screens were silly enough, but Kyle Cherry’s concept design of a collapsible gaming laptop takes the word "impracticality" to new heights.

His design features a primary 13-inch display accompanied by two smaller screens on the sides, amounting to a 26-inch notebook when unfolded. Closed, the notebook looks like a normal 13-incher.

Some are speculating that Apple’s top-of-the-line notebook could receive a significant chip upgrade at January’s Macworld Expo.

When Apple refreshed its MacBook family in October, it mysteriously left out the 17-inch MacBook Pro — Apple’s high-end notebook designed for creative professionals. Incidentally, APC noticed Intel quietly added a new quad-core mobile processor to its CPU line.

APC deduces that it’s likely Apple stalled on upgrading the 17-inch MacBook Pro to await Intel’s quad-core mobile processor, dubbed the Core 2 Extreme Q9000, which costs $350.

Here’s another rumor that suggests January’s Macworld Expo 2009 will be a snoozer: Upgraded iMacs are slated for shipping that month, according to a Chinese newspaper.

Chinese publication Economic Daily News says a component supplier leaked Apple’s plans to launch new iMacs in the first quarter of the year.

That doesn’t sound very exciting, since this will likely only be an incremental upgrade.

LG’s latest green displays could offer consumers the two things they want out of their notebooks–lower power consumption and higher battery life–while working outdoors.

The company announced a 14.1-inch LCD panel that can switch to being illuminated by sunlight instead of the backlight unit when used outdoors.

The switching allows the display’s outdoor energy consumption to fall to one fourth the level of indoors consumption boosting battery life. Backlight units in conventional notebooks can account for about 75 percent of the total energy consumption used in LCD panels, says the company. 

The new displays will solve the problem that most users face around visibility and clarity of their notebook screen in bright sunlight. LG says its offers contrast ratio of at least 9:1 when used outdoors, compared to 2:1 or 3:1 for most displays used currently in notebook PCs.

The LCD panels will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show next month where LG is likely offer more details on price and availability.

You know what I want for Christmas? Not an iPhone, not a 72-inch laser powered tyranno-vision TV,  not even a pair of Star Wars themed underwear (Boba Fett went commando, baby!) No, what I want is for the back of my home entertainment center NOT to look like the horrific offspring of the Cthulhu and the Kraken. You know what I’m talking about. It’s a rich tapestry that looks something like this:

Solutuion to this mess? Planet Waves’ home theater cable making kit. Yep, it’s exactly what you think it is: a box containing HD cables, RCA connectors, and wire cutting tools. We tried the "Advanced" package that includes a 12-foot triple HD Cable, 12-foot Dual HD Cable, 20 RCA connectors, 3 elastic cable ties, a screwdriver, and a cable cutter. From there you just cut the exact length and type of cable you desire, hook it up, and tie it together. 

The only stumbling block is the inexplicable price.

A leaked letter confirms the upcoming sale of the iPhone at Walmart. The bulleted list therein begins thus:

Walmart has signed a Non Discosure Agreement (NDA) with Apple, that prohibits Walmart associates from discussing the iPhone with non Walmart associates prior to the launch.

Oops!

The full Walmart/iPhone battlestation will be fully operational on December 28th, and today an internal pilot scheme commences to test the systems — employees can participate in a raffle to get one of five iPhones in each of 488 participating stores.

Slydial, a telephone service that’s supposed to help you slyly avoid confrontation by connecting you straight to someone’s voicemail, isn’t sly at all. The service just launched its own iPhone app, too, and it’s equally useless.

I tested Slydial on my frenemy Pam, whom I would never dream of calling. I thought it worked fine: It went straight to her voicemail. But minutes later she IMed me and said, "I got a missed call from you." Drats!

I thought the point of the service was to connect to someone’s voicemail without giving yourself away. I’ve used Slydial in the past to dial numbers I didn’t recognize in my "Missed Calls" list, hoping to avoid the inevitably awkward, "Hey, who are you and why are you calling me?" conversation. But upon further testing I’ve come to realize the service doesn’t exactly bypass the call process: It connects you to the recipient’s voicemail only after displaying your number in his or her missed-calls list.

Lomo has released the Lubitel+, a plastic-bodied, medium format Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera. TLRs were always the cheap option for medium format photographers, and the original Lubitel was cheaper than most.

Of course, Lomo has as ever done little more than re-animate the ageing product line and as such you’ll get all the Lomo hallmarks — wonky focus, odd color shifts and a generally fun but inferior experience. I used one of the originals back in school and, while it was fun, it could also be frustrating.

You’ll also need to buy film. The Lubitel+ works with 120 roll film, but will also accept 35mm. This is a new, added feature, and Lomo has also upgraded the focus screen to flat ground glass instead of the old curved, shiny version, tweaked the lens to focus closer (80cm or 31"), and added film rewinding and a hotshoe.

That’s not to say it’s high-tech. As the blurb says: "Fully manual everything, fully automatic nothing." It’s also not cheap. This Soviet era relaunch can be yours for a distinctly capitalist $350 (basic) and up to $560 for the "supreme" kit, which bundles a flash, tripod and films.