Archive for May 2007

The editors over at Fortune magazine were kind enough to dissect the Nintendo Wii controller recently, revealing an interesting tidbit. In addition to all of the well known features of the controller, the Wii-mote appears to have a special chip on board which is designed for voice processing applications.

These piggy banks from i-Kiddo are not only goofy looking, but they’re actually quite tech savvy. The i-Panda and i-Piggy digiBanks automatically identify each coin placed in the bank, then calculate the total and display them on the bank’s LCD screen.

Nokia today revealed their latest high-end phone, the 8600 Luna. Constructed mostly from stainless steel, the new model’s main appeal comes in its sexy industrial design. The phone’s most striking feature is its illuminated numeric keypad, concealed beneath a smoked glass slider.

Leave it to the high-tech watch guys over at Tokyoflash to create another totally baffling digital watch design. Their new Eleeno EG3 features a colored grid of LCDs, masked by a layer of raised glass “windows”.

Denon Electronics and Boston Acoustics have announced a contest which gives you a chance to dump your crappy old home theater and replace it with a brand-spankin’ new system. The Makeshifters contest asks entrants to submit videos, photos and an explanation of why their current home theater setup sucks.

Palm today rolled out the details on a new device which extends the functionality of smartphones. Dubbed the Foleo, it’s a companion product for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile versions of Treo smartphones. In a nutshell, Foleo adds a big screen and a full size keyboard to your mobile phone.

While I question the utility of this flashlight, the idea of carrying around what looks like a traditional incandescent light bulb on your keychain is just wacky enough that I thought I’d give it a mention.

Microsoft today announced the launch of a new product line known as Surface. The tabletop system is designed to create interactive experiences using gestures, touch and objects placed on the surface of the tabletop. We’ve seen earlier research prototypes of this technology under the moniker PlayAnywhere, but now Microsoft is commercializing it.

The new technology, called Super Hi-Vision (SHV) was shown off to reporters in Tokyo recently, and has an astounding 7680 x 4320 resolution. To put that in perspective, you’d need to connect sixteen of the highest resolution 1080p monitors you can buy in a 4 x 4 grid to reproduce that quality.

Philips has released their new line of GoGear mobile media players with video playback capabilities. The GoGear SA6000 series features a 2.2-inch color LCD screen (320×240 resolution,) and can play back WMV vid clips. Philips also throws in a software converter for AVI, QuickTime and DVD (VOB) format files.

Slurpr may sound like another “Web 2.0” site, but it’s actually a piece of networking hardware. The beastly device, designed by Dutch hacker Mark Hoekstra, is designed to aggregate a bunch of Wi-Fi access points into one big fat high speed connection.

A console modder known as sir crx has fabricated a mashup between an Xbox 360 controller and a Wii-mote, allowing the Wii control to operate the Xbox 360. From what I can tell, he modified the 360 controller to accept Bluetooth commands, then uses it as a proxy for connecting to the Xbox through Microsoft’s proprietary wireless scheme.

While this robot might just be a kids toy, it actually looks pretty cool. The King Titan Robot walks, talks, and has a shiny electroplate chrome finish that makes it really stand out. King Titan measures about 15-inches tall and features removable weapons and armor.

Sony Japan recently released a new USB mouse with a unique twist. Simply pick up the mouse from your desktop, and it flips open to become a Skype telephone handset. The Sony VN-CX1A telephone mouse is a fully-functional optical mouse which works with all Windows PCs.

The world’s most prolific console modder, Ben Heck, has a new trick up his sleeve. This time, he’s partnered up with a company called Gameport to design a portable emulation console for mass-production. Currently in the prototype stages, the pocket-sized Gameport will be capable of emulating multiple classic 8-bit systems, currently the Atari 2600 and Colecovision, with additional systems to come in future.

Some serious racing fanatic has gone above and beyond by putting together this insane Xbox 360 racing rig. He’s got the living room all decked out with a real racing chair, a force feedback wheel, and an amazing 3-screen panoramic display.