October 13, 2006, 3:08 PM PDT
Red Razr for AIDS charity
Posted by: Nicole Lee

Along with the red iPod Nano announced yesterday, Motorola has jumped on the AIDS charity bandwagon with the very luscious red Razr, available from Sprint. As with the red iPod, this is part of Bono and Bobby Shriver's recent Red initiative to help combat HIV and AIDS in Africa. This new red Razr will be available in November from Sprint, and you can get it for $304.99 retail or $64.99 with a two-year service agreement.

If you're more of a Slvr fan, however, you might have to move to the U.K. to get the red version of the slim candy bar. That's right; while the red Razr is exclusive to the States, the red Slvr is exclusive to the U.K. And to up the ante of the Product Red experience, Motorola has also launched Studio Red, a site where you can download wallpaper, ring tones, and exclusive video content and learn more about the Red initiative.

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October 13, 2006, 2:18 PM PDT
DigitalLife 2006: Universal power for laptops
Posted by: Dan Ackerman

Antec, known for its PC cases and power supplies, had a particularly useful gadget on hand at DigitalLife for laptop users. The recently introduced NP100 is a universal laptop power adapter, which must sound like a pretty good idea to anyone who has ever gone crazy digging around for an elusive A/C adapter while their battery life ticked away.

Compatible with most Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba laptops, the NP100 includes a series of interchangeable connectors and a switch to control output voltage for different laptop models. Of course, it would be great if laptop manufacturers would agree to a standard power cable (like desktop PCs), but we suppose they'll have to get in line behind the digital camera and MP3 player camps.

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October 13, 2006, 10:48 AM PDT
Zen Vision:M firmware upgrade removes FM recording
Posted by: Molly Wood

Despite the cheerful existence of VCRs, DVRs, and DVD recorders, apparently the music industry still doesn't buy the whole "recording broadcasts is fair use" argument. And since they tend to have a lot of influence (if not friends), the RIAA has succeeded in getting Creative to disable an advertised feature of the Creative Zen Vision:M--namely, FM recording. The latest firmware update to the Zen Vision:M removes the FM recording feature of the device, and according to some forum users, tech support has responded thusly: "With regards to your enquiry, you may like to know that the FM recording feature is removed due to licensing issues." As is so often the case, technology marches forward, and industry marches backward.

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October 13, 2006, 8:29 AM PDT
Escape trendy iPod colors, stay on Bono's good side
Posted by: Lindsey Turrentine

Oh yeah, and do good, too. Today, Apple snuck onto its store (but not without some speculation) a special edition, fire-engine red iPod Nano branded with the "PRODUCT(RED)" logo on the back. Apple donates $10 from each sale to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa as part of the (RED) campaign, which Bono and friends created "to engage the private sector in the fight against AIDS in Africa."

The red Nano seems to be no different from its 4GB pals (in pink, blue, green, and silver) and costs the same. And, dare I say this, it looks a lot hotter than the iPod U2 of yesteryear.

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• See product information for Apple iPod Nano (2nd generation, 4GB, pink)
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October 13, 2006, 8:02 AM PDT
DigitalLife 2006: Nvidia's GeForce Go 7950 GTX
Posted by: Dan Ackerman

For many years the idea of a "gaming laptop" was something of an oxymoron, unless you were into intense sessions of Myst or Spider Solitaire. These days, laptop GPUs can go head-to-head with all but the fastest desktop models, and laptops have even moved into the SLI era.

This week's DigitalLife show was Nvidia's choice to unveil its latest mobile GPU, the GeForce Go 7950 GTX, which the company claims is the fastest laptop graphics chip on the market. It's immediately available in select systems, including the newest revision of Dell's high-end XPS M1710.

Besides gamers, hi-def movie fans will be interested, because along with the rest of Nvidia's GeForce 7 series, the 7950 offers GPU acceleration of HD video formats such as H.264--a must-have for the next generation of laptops with built-in HD-DVD or Blu-ray dives.

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