Archive for February 2007

Philips latest portable DVD player has added a feature that just might convince me to pick one up. In addition to the usual DVD player and LCD screen, the player has a sleek integrated dock for your iPod.

Like the idea of a portable media player, but want to bring your entire collection of music AND videos on the road? Most players top out around 60 to 80GB of storage, which isn’t enough for a tremendous amount of video content.

Pioneer Japan is showing off this new music system that can send audio signals to remote speakers around your house. Rather than using more modern wireless technologies like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, Pioneer opted to use power line signal transmission, to reduce the likelihood of over-the-air interference, and to simplify configuration.

You’ll be the center of attention with this little gadget which lets you wear your own miniature LED scrolling sign board. The $39 Infrared LED Name Badge is a tiny version of those scrolling signs you see all over the place.

The guys over at Destructoid dug up this $10 beauty. It’s a cheap gaming system which looks NOTHING like Sony’s PlayStation 3, but has the audacity to package itself as a “SONY PS3.” The system actually appears to be one of those shoddy “Famiclone” systems designed to play old games from the Nintendo Entertainment System (aka “Famicom” in Japan.)

Tech geek Tzywen was too impatient to wait for the upcoming Apple iPhone, so he created a custom launcher application for his Microsoft Pocket PC which is based on the iPhone user interface. He’s even went so far as to recreate the finger-scrolling capability for music playlists that Steve Jobs showed off when the iPhone was announced.

Sony’s Spring/Summer 2007 product slate was officially announced today, and includes the release of a number of new displays in their popular BRAVIA series. Of particular note are two new ultra-slim rear projector models featuring full 1080p resolution.

Olympus is showing off this new tabletop radio design that integrates a 37GB hard drive to store up to 2500 hours of MP3 and WMA audio files. The Radio Server VJ-10 features an easy-to-read 3.9-inch backlit LCD screen for viewing track, title, and radio station information.

Some sick individual strapped their buddy to a seat at the end of a FANUC industrial robot’s arm and then ran him through the spin cycle. They captured all of the fun and festivities in this video clip: I wouldn’t want to be the one sitting in that chair.

While plenty of computer mice have gone wireless these days, there’s still nothing quite like the responsiveness and ease of use of corded mice. This new mouse is just 8mm thick and features a unique retractable USB cable for easy travel.

Here’s an odd one from Hong Kong importer Brando. It’s an external hard disk enclosure that looks exactly like an internal hard drive. The drive enclosure is literally a large mock version of a hard drive that you can place any 2.5-inch IDE drive inside of, and connects to your PC or Mac via a USB 2.0 port.

While I’m not certain what the connection is between the Fab Four and Nintendo’s latest game console, I do find this T-shirt design quite amusing anyway. The Let it Bii shirt is 20 bucks from Nerdy Shirts features Nintendo “Mii” avatars designed to look like John, Paul, Ringo and George.

If you thought the technology in the 2002 flick, Minority Report was impressive, you can now own one of the very cool futuristic cars that Tom Cruise drove in that film. One of the three custom-built Lexus 2054 concept cars made for the Cameron Crowe film will be put up for auction next month.

This cool piece of sporting gear uses modern technology to help you answer that question. The football features a built in sensor that can track just how far you threw it, with accuracy down to 1 yard of the actual distance.

Taking a page from science fiction films, Philips has been working on this new concept in electronic gaming which allows players to use physical game pieces to interact with video “board” games. At the heart of Philips’ Entertaible system is a 32-inch touch-sensitive LCD embedded into the top of a table.

NASA is thinking about a new technology to save the lives of astronauts if something goes wrong at launch time. The proposed new emergency escape system is actually based on those vertical drop roller-coasters that have popped up at amusement parks around the country.