At the front and center of Hyundai’s portable boombox is an oversized 12.1-inch LCD monitor. The spec sheet says the screen is 1280 x 800, but from the pictures I’ve seen, I’m not sure that’s really the case. It’s not like you’re going to be watching Hi-Def video on this thing anyhow. Unlike the classic ghetto blaster, these new compact stereos are all about the image, and not the sound. As a matter of fact, the speakers on this boombox have taken a serious backseat to the screen.

The Hyundai HY-1210 is all about watching movies and TV – not listening to your jamz. The portable has a built-in DVD player, and can play content in VCD, DVD, CD, CD-R, JPEG, MP3, MPEG-4, AVI formats. There’s even a Karaoke feature built-in so you can sing along. And if you don’t have any DVDs lying around, there are USB and SD/MMC/MS slots for watching media stored on digital memory devices. And there’s a VGA connector on the back for some reason too. I can officially say this is the first boombox EVER with a VGA port.

Unfortunately, the TV tuner is analog, so you won’t be able to tune in stations in many parts of the world. At least you can listen to the FM radio when you’re not watching those Harajuku girls on screen. And with a 10-watt per channel stereo amp under the hood, audio actually isn’t that bad. One other technological advancement – this boombox only needs 8 “C”-Cell batteries – so we have made progress in the last 25 years or so. Maybe by 2035, we’ll have OLED boomboxes that run on 8 “AAA” batteries.

The Hyundai HY-1210 boombox can be yours over at ChinaGrabber for $219.99 (USD).

Nanotech’s Multipin is a digital pinball simulator, mashed-up with the physical look of a classic pinballer. The game is a full-sized pinball machine that provides electronic renditions of 17 pinball machines in a single cabinet. The system comes loaded with a number of original pinball games, as well as several modern remakes of classic Gottlieb pinball titles from the 1970s and 80s. And if 17 games aren’t enough Nanotech plans on offering upgrade packs with additional tables you can load in later.

Games are played on a large 32-inch 720p high-def LCD monitor that’s set into the playing surface under glass. Multipin not only looks like a pinball cabinet, the game is controlled with all of the classic trappings, a mechanical plunger, clicky flipper buttons, and a realistic audio experience which includes all of the sounds you’d expect to hear coming from a mechanical pinball machine. There are even digital motion sensors in the cabinet that let you nudge and shake the ball around (and eventually tilt the machine if you go too far). There’s also a second LCD screen under the machines backglass that’s used for displaying scores, game graphics, and the occasional mini-game.

Here’s some video from a recent episode of NBC’s TechNow showing off the Multipin in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The best thing about the Multipin? You can buy one for yourself – now. This isn’t vaporware, it’s a real thing. The $6000 (USD) machine is available now over at Hammacher Schlemmer. Sure, you’ll need some seriously deep pockets to buy one, but if you’re a serious pinball addict, you might want to put Multipin on your Christmas list this year.

That’s right, this ordinary looking Casio LCD desktop calculator has been retrofitted to conceal a tiny little video camera, perfect for snooping on your unsuspecting office buddies in between math equations.

From the product description, it sounds like its got a built in digital video and audio recorder, and runs on a 9-volt battery, so it’s completely self-contained. Although I am confused by the part where it says that it’s also a wireless camera with a built in transmitter and a remote video receiver. Maybe it can send an analog feed in real-time, and then store video on the internal memory. Each one comes with 8GB of storage and can record videos at up to 628×582 pixels (what a strange resolution). Plus it doesn’t need much light to operate – just 3 Lux. Plus, it’s still a fully-functional calculator, which should make it look even less suspicious to casual observers.

The calculator spy cam is available over at ChinaGrabber for $78.99 (USD). But there’s also a guy over on eBay with what appear to be exactly the same calcucameras for a few bucks less. But in this case, the resolutions listed seem to make more sense, they mention no wireless connectivity and a built-in rechargeable battery instead of a 9-volt. Who knows which product listing is more accurate? I’m laying odds on the eBay option. That said, as is always the case with these odd little gadgets from China, caveat emptor, YMMV and all that jazz.

The ZAZ tells time using a minimal liquid-crystal display that that indicates the hours, minutes and seconds using stacks of dots and dashes. Unlike most LCD watches, the ZAZ features an unusual transparent screen that lets you see through to your wrist below. And unlike some other unconventional watch displays out there, this one is actually pretty easy to tell the time with.

The stainless-steel watch comes is positioned asymmetrically on its band, lending to its distinct looks. Each one is water-resistant to 3ATM, and is available with either a black or white leather band, or one with mesh silver styling. The Nooka ZAZ will ship later this Fall, and is available for pre-order over at Watchismo for $380 (USD).

TV Armor is a simple, yet ingenious invention that keeps your LCD or Plasma TV from getting cracked, scratched, dirty or otherwise slimy by covering the screen with a thin, but durable acrylic shield. A 1/4″ thick layer of optical-grade plastic is thick enough to keep your screen from getting damaged, but won’t interfere with picture quality. Just slide the TV Armor over the top of your TV, fasten the Velcro straps, and you won’t have to worry about flying Wii-motes smashing your precious investment.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

They’re available in a variety of sizes to fit whatever screen you have, and prices range from $69 to $289 (USD), depending on screen size. You can order yours over at the TV Armor website.

Remember, your kids’ wounds will heal, plasmas and LCDs won’t.

I’m not sure what these panda bears are doing with all of my Yen coins, but they appear to be quite happy, and they like to do all sorts of fun tricks on the LCD screen when fed money.

It seems to have something to do with pandas eating pie, and that’s way better than watching a bunch of greedy old white guys in suits flush our money down the drain.

As usual, I’ll bet you that you’ll never see the Panda Bank anywhere but in Japan. But if they ever were to sell these in the States, they should be a mandatory part of Obama’s next major economic stimulus plan.

Although the Spacebook might be stretching the meaning of “portable”, as Gizmodo estimates that the thing will weigh at least 12 lbs. gScreen founder Gordon Stewart couldn’t have been more right when he called it “absolutely the opposite of a netbook.” You got a slogan right there, Mr. Stewart.

As you can see the screens slide out of the frame; one of the screens slides behind the other for the times when you don’t need the extra space. Weirdly enough, this prototype as I said sports 15.4-inch screens, but Gizmodo says that the first Spacebooks that will be released will have 16- or 17-inch screens. You’ll probably need a forklift to load those heavyweights on to your car.

These are the Spacebook’s tentative specs as listed on gScreen’s website:
- Windows VISTA/ WIN XP PRO (optional)
- Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26-GHz
- 4 GB of RAM (2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM x 2)
- 320GB 7200-rpm HD
- NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT with 512MB dedicated memory (or)
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700M Graphics with 512MB dedicated memory
- 9-cell battery
- IEEE 1394 1 Graphics Card Output (15-pin, D-Sub) X 1, HDMI X 1 Mic-in X 1, Line-in x 1, Headphone X 1 PCI Express Card X 1 AC Power Adaptor Output: 19V DC, 90W Input: 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz universal Battery Pack Li-ion 9 cells

Stewart plans to have the Spacebook series available on Amazon by December of this year, hopefully with a price below $3,000 (USD). I’m pretty sure gScreen can fit a better processor as well as Windows 7 before the laptop launches.

[via Gizmodo]

The panel can also be used as a picture frame (but of course). Pictures can be transferred to the panel’s 128 MB internal memory via infrared or from memory cards through its card reader. I hope Sharp builds on this and adds some kind of videoconferencing in the future. That would be awesome.

It’s nice to see new and useful upgrades to the old landline phone. What’s not nice is not knowing the price and availability of new and useful upgrades to the old landline phone. But I’m sure we’ll get more details in no time at all; secrets and unknowns don’t last long on the Internet.

This hacked-together Atari 2600 Portable goes by the name “Stella-Tubby” – which does a good job summing up its less than svelte form-factor as a handheld gaming console. Retro-modder Nonogadi built out this portable 2600 with an integrated 5″ LCD screen, as well as built-in joystick and paddle controllers. Plus, it’ll run on a pair of 9-volt batteries if you don’t feel like lugging around an A/C power brick.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The Stella-Tubby has found its way all the way from Singapore over to eBay auction block, but is priced at the somewhat astronomical starting bid of $400 bucks – a bit irrational for what amounts to a 30 year old gaming system with a $25 LCD screen embedded into it. Still, you’ve got to give it up to Nongadi for the time and effort it probably took to build this oddity.

These Nintendo mini classic games have gotten a modern makeover, with all of the electronics fitting neatly into a keychain-sized gadget.

Each one hearkens back to a classic Game & Watch title. There’s Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario’s Cement Factory, among others. All of them feature the same rudimentary LCD animations found on their ancestors, along with simplistic color overlays.

Each of the Nintendo Mini Classics is available over at Firebox for £9.99 (appx. $16 USD). But if you’re willing to dig around a bit over on Amazon, you can find some of these for as little as $2.99!

They will be available in 22″, 24″ and 27″ variants. All 3 models are capable of displaying at 1080p, and they also have built-in TV tuners that can receive both digital and analog signals. Nice. The T1 TV monitors also have built-in a pair of 7-watt speakers. The inputs available are IEC (TV), D-sub (PC), HDMI 1.3 x2, Component (Y/Pb/Pr), Composite, S-Video, SCART1 (RGB & CVBS), and SCART2 (Y/C & S-Video), while there are audio outputs for the now obsolete RCA, as well as Optical S/PDIF and the ever-present 3.5 mm jack. A remote control is also included.

Although as SlashGear’s Chris Davies said, a picture-in-picture feature would have been nice, so you could watch TV and use your computer at the same time. No word on pricing and availability yet. Product press releases shouldn’t be released without those two details, dammit.

The One is a mere 1″ thick, and it already comes with a mirror for easy setup. It’s a widescreen LCD TV that supports up to 1080p, with a built-in TV tuner and 25-watt speaker. Seura doesn’t have high resolution images of The One, so I suggest you take a look at the video in their website for a better look – it’s in the May 2009 video. The One is priced at $3,500 (USD), more than the cost of a couple of 52-in LCD TVs, but hey, it’s in a freakin’ mirror right? Right. Have your butler check out Seura’s website for more details.

[via TFTS]

The author of the article, DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira, singled-out the lack of a respectable viewing angle on LCD TVs, as seen in the pictures below. If you think that Dr. Soneira is nitpicking, think again. He adds, “The significance of this [the narrow viewing angle] is enormous, because it means that the ’sweet spot’ for seeing an accurate picture on an LCD HDTV is only one person wide, even for these top-of-the-line models, so essentially everyone looking at an LCD HDTV will see a picture with noticeably different coloration.” Wow.

But more than praising plasma technology, Dr. Soneira criticized the “marketing gimmicks” of all TV manufacturers – hyping their TVs with “features” like Dynamic Backlight, Dynamic Contrast, Dynamic Black, Dynamic White, and Dynamic Color that do nothing but “reduce picture quality and accuracy and introduce ugly image artifacts.” Other features such as contrast ratios and brightness were either exaggerated or “misunderstood.” The sad part? Most customers don’t care. Perhaps in the HDTV market, size is all that matters for most people.

[via NY Times via tv snob]

Measuring in at 13mm thick, this portable GPS is definitely one of the slimmest units I’ve seen. Although last time I checked, my iPhone 3GS is actually a hair slimmer at 12.3mm thick, but I suppose that’s splitting hairs. Regardless, as standalone units go, this one could be the thinnest. The compact GPS features a 5-inch diagonal LCD touchscreen, and is powered by a SiRF-Atlas III processor. The device runs on the Windows CE 5.0 operating system, and takes map files loaded onto a MicroSD card. The system offers voice guidance, 2D and 3D map modes, as well as day and night modes for the display.

In addition to its GPS capabilities, it can play media files in MP4, AVI, 3GP, MOV, WMV, M4A, WAV, MP3, WMA and even SWF formats. There’s even a built-in FM transmitter so you can send the audio to your car stereo. And it does all this for just $100 (USD).

So that sounds okay, right? Well, here’s the bad news. According to Chinavasion’s product description: “This model is compatible with most brands of GPS software – however hardware specific software such as Garmin may not run on this unit. As the wholesaler, Chinavasion provides the GPS- enabled hardware only, not the software. Chinavasion provides no warranty or customer support regarding GPS software. Chinavasion cannot provide downloads / links / advice regarding GPS software. Any software installation you undertake should be performed or supervised by a professional… Actual GPS voice and display languages depends on the GPS software package.” So unless you know where to go digging for Windows CE-based GPS applications and maps, it sounds like this super-thin GPS could be pretty much useless.

If you’re feeling adventurous and don’t mind trolling around some Torrents looking for GPS software, you can order one here. Just don’t blame me when you drive your car into a drainage ditch.

If you’ve never seen the X50 before, it’s really a nice looking little PC. The 1.4-inch (36mm) thick system has a dual-core Intel Atom 330 CPU, and thanks to a pop-out handle, it’s portable enough to carry around like a laptop.

The system has a 15.6-inch diagonal display with a touchscreen that can be used with either your fingertip or a stylus. There’s also a built-in webcam and microphone, stereo speakers, gigabit ethernet, 802.b/g/n wireless networking, and a media card reader. And if you don’t want to put the X50 on your desktop, the system can be easily hung on the wall thanks to a flexible VESA mount.

You can find the barebones version of the Shuttle X50 over at Provantage for $423 (USD). If you’d rather just have one ready to go, they’ve got complete systems, with the Linux version selling for $543, and the Windows version for $634.

[Shuttle X50 Product Page via FreshPilot]

Vizio has already confirmed the support of several content and service providers aside from Facebook and Twitter, such as eBay, Flickr, Netflix and Vudu. Currently, the only XVT series on sale is the 55″ VF550XVT LCD HDTV. You can order one at Amazon for $1899 (USD), or at Vizio’s online store for $2000.

The 42″ SV421XVT and 47″ SV471XVT HDTVs will be available in July for $1,200 and $1,500 respectively. If you were hoping for relatively cheaper XVTs, you’re in luck: The 32″ SV320XVT will be available in September, featuring a thin profile and full 1080p goodness for “only” $750. The 37″ SV370XVT ($850) will also be on sale in September, along with the LED-backlit 55″ VF551XVT ($2,200). Check out Vizio’s press release for more info as well as the complete roster of XVT series. Whew. Typing is exhausting.

[via Engadget]

That keyboard is adapted from the Xbox controller keyboard attachment, and the screen–which is fully functional as a flip screen, so the unit folds in half–has been installed in a PSP visor from Joytech so that it fits flush against the unit when it’s folded.

While the project isn’t quite finished, even at this point, it looks pretty incredible, and with all those repurposed materials, it might be a nice way to get rid of spare electronics.

[Acid Mods forums via HackNMod]

That’s just an Aquos LCD TV, not a picture of the LCD display in question. Sorry. But what I can share with you is that the new “Multi-Primary-Color Technology” is able to display 99% of the “real surface colors” thanks to two other color filters: cyan and yellow. Normally, more color filters also means larger power consumption, but Sharp claims that the 5-color setup compensates for that because it’s able to use the display’s backlight more efficiently.

It will take some time before the technology finds its way down to consumer products, but the 60.5-in, 1920 x 1080 full HD prototype is already on display at the ongoing Society for Information Display (SID) 2009. I bet it’s showing footage of roses cruising on a sea using brass plated boats.

[via Gadget Venue]

Modder Goteking recently turned an old Donkey Kong Jr. Game & Watch into a tiny color TV. And while the buttons no longer work properly, it’s a whole lot more fun to watch weird Japanese game shows than to watch choppy grey LCD version of an arcade game, IMHO.

To get this hack working, Goteking gutted the old G&W, and glued a cheap $40 LCD TV to the back. Not a particularly complex operation from the looks of things.

There wasn’t any room to keep the TV’s front-mounted speakers in place, so sound is provided by a gigantic external speaker that’s about 3 times the size of the Game & Watch & TV itself. It’s all very MacGyver of him. I guess the good thing about that is that this is one of those rare mods that even I could probably replicate.

[via Ben Heck Forums]

It really is the perfect gift for bears. Or for people who love fishing. Or for bears. I think we should have bear friends for a change.

The Humminbird RF35 sells for $80 USD and can be ordered at Humminbird’s online shop. Buy one for your fisherman friend and he’ll surely give you a bear hug. Buy one for your bear friend and he might, I don’t know, growl in gratitude.

[via techchee]