FRITZ! Mini maker AVM's RadioFRITZ! and VideoFRITZ!

FRITZ! Mini maker AVM's RadioFRITZ! and VideoFRITZ!: "Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Wireless, Networking


We've got some more details on the RadioFRITZ!, that music streaming device we saw during our hands-on with AVM's Mini at CeBIT, as well as its big brother VideoFRITZ! (which streams video, as you might expect). Both Radio and Video FRITZ! use your existing WLAN to stream content from your PC to your home theater, and sport a number of tasty features like UPnP for simple connections and H.264 support on the video version. Using the FRITZ! Box required for feeding tunes to the Mini also allows you to stream Internet audio and video to the two FRITZ! media extenders. As with the Mini, price and availability on these two products is a mystery for now.

CeBIT '06: Brainic VW-500 Vibrating MP3 Player

CeBIT '06: Brainic VW-500 Vibrating MP3 Player: "Another item in the 'Huh' category. This thing is a haptic MP3 player that vibrates in time to your music. Hot little OLED display and up to 1GB storage are nice, and this thing is tiny. Why a vibrating MP3 player, you ask? Who knows. Let's just assume that this thing doesn't necessarily have to go on the hand.

Sirius S50

Sirius S50: "The Sirius S50's ability to record your favorite songs with one touch of the 'Love' button and take them with you is great for fans of the satellite service, but the confusing interface, relatively small capacity, and so-so sound quality prevent it from being a real portable music player competitor."

FRITZ! Mini: WiFi! phone, MP3! player, and! more

FRITZ! Mini: WiFi! phone, MP3! player, and! more: "Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household German company AVM just announced their new FRITZ! Mini. This handheld device combines a cordless phone and music player with an information service allowing you to view news, weather, and sports reports on the color display. Not good enough, well the handset will also alert you to incoming emails and text messages though how they accomplish the latter is a bit unclear. See, the 802.11g WiFi enabled FRITZ!Box is the key, it acts as a base station and information hub for the Mini by streaming music, information, and both VoIP or fixed-line calls directly to the handset. It doesn’t appear though, that the !Box packs any storage it’s own damned self, but you can slip in a Memory Stick or connect any MP3 player with USB support for playback to the Mini. We’ll hunt one down on the CeBIT floor to see what all the hubbub is ok bub? Expected release in Q3 -- hey isn’t that Robert Crumb we see over at the AVM booth demanding royalties?

Yet Another iPod Accessory: MP3 Shower Radio

Yet Another iPod Accessory: MP3 Shower Radio: "While we at Gizmodo will readily admit that this MP3 Shower Radio is not exactly the most exciting thing we’ve seen in the past few days, it does have a certain kind of hokey charm to it. This water-resistant radio houses a compartment where you can put your MP3 player (read: iPod), enabling you to listen to your whole music library whilst you exfoliate in the morning without fear of, well, electrocution. The radio also includes a fog-free mirror for those ever-so-dangerous in-the-shower shaving sessions. Four AA batteries power the $29.95 radio.

Toshiba Announces Projector with Integrated DVD Player and “Super Close” Lens

Toshiba Announces Projector with Integrated DVD Player and “Super Close” Lens: "Toshiba introduced its et20 projector at CeBIT 2006 that includes an integrated DVD player, 5.1 channel sound and a unique lens that can produce a six-foot image from three feet away, and a 4.5-foot image from just 27 inches away. The projector also has an image enhancer Toshiba calls Realta HQV, which attempts to enhance DVD video so it looks like HD. It uses 10-bit video processing and pixel-by-pixel noise reduction, along with motion adaptive video de-interlacing and a few other tricks Toshiba had previously incorporated into its $60,000 Teranex Xantux box. The et20 will be available in April for $1900.

Toshiba Europe Website

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MiniDisc lives! Hi-MD MZ-RH1 said to be coming soon

MiniDisc lives! Hi-MD MZ-RH1 said to be coming soon: "Filed under: Portable Audio


Like a zombie that keeps coming back from the dead no matter what you do (even 'kill the brain and you kill the ghoul' doesn't work), Sony's MiniDisc format seems destined to survive all attempts to relegate it to the disc shredder of history. And despite expectations that Sir Howard would do his best to finally kill the format, it looks like it's going to make at least one more appearance, with the rumored third-gen HiMD recorder that may be just around the corner. According to various postings on the internets, the MZ-RH1 will be targeted at live-music enthusiasts, and may include such computer-friendly features as USB 2.0 and Mac compatibility. The recorder will, of course, use Sony's SonicStage software and ATRAC3plus data format, and will reportedly sell for about $300. And, now, Sir Howard, can we recommend the shovel to the head?

Toshiba SED rollout planned for late 2007

Toshiba SED rollout planned for late 2007: "Filed under: HDTV If you've been waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for Toshiba to roll out its SED TVs, we've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, yes, they're coming. The bad: you guessed it. You have to wait a bit longer. In fact, quite a bit longer. Toshiba now says that the first SED sets will hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2007, after mass production starts in July of next year. Given that when Toshiba first started showing SED prototypes in 2004, the company hinted that the first models could be available as early as 2005 (a date that was later pushed back to early 2006), we won't blame you if you just give up on waiting for this and buy a plasma or LCD already. But remember: on this schedule, Toshiba's first SEDs will arrive just in time for you to catch the 2008 Beijing Olympics in glorious 50-inch-plus HD (yes, that really is the spin Toshiba's putting on this).

Toshiba SED rollout planned for late 2007

Toshiba SED rollout planned for late 2007: "Filed under: HDTV If you've been waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for Toshiba to roll out its SED TVs, we've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, yes, they're coming. The bad: you guessed it. You have to wait a bit longer. In fact, quite a bit longer. Toshiba now says that the first SED sets will hit the market in the fourth quarter of 2007, after mass production starts in July of next year. Given that when Toshiba first started showing SED prototypes in 2004, the company hinted that the first models could be available as early as 2005 (a date that was later pushed back to early 2006), we won't blame you if you just give up on waiting for this and buy a plasma or LCD already. But remember: on this schedule, Toshiba's first SEDs will arrive just in time for you to catch the 2008 Beijing Olympics in glorious 50-inch-plus HD (yes, that really is the spin Toshiba's putting on this).

DVD player inside a NES

DVD player inside a NES
We're not sure how much longer the fit-something-inside-a-NES gimmick's going to hold our fancy, but for now we're nowhere near over cramming other kinds of gadgets into our favoritest of 80s game consoles. This working NES DVD player has functional power and reset buttons, IR receiver, and automatically opening/closing cartridge door on opening or closing the tray. Anyone want to get a Blu-ray drive in there for some real irony up in this piece?

Kensington Entertainment Dock 500 for iPod

Kensington Entertainment Dock 500 for iPod: "This is a solid product, but it's about to be eclipsed by similarly priced docks with more features."

iubi's blue media player with Bluetooth

iubi's blue media player with Bluetooth: "Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video We can't confirm the name is actually 'blue,' but from the looks of it iubi's got a new portable media device in the pipeline with Bluetooth (we hope for A2DP), a 4.3-inch display with optional T-DMB receiver. We should probably see this thing debuted later this week at CeBIT, just don't get your hopes up about this thing seeing a US launch (at least not any time soon) -- you all know the drill by now.

Solar USB drive and MP3 player to rise at CeBIT

Solar USB drive and MP3 player to rise at CeBIT: "Filed under: Portable Audio, Storage Taiwanese manufacturers A-Data and MSI plan to unveil solar-powered flash devices at CeBIT, though we're not quite sure either one is a shining example of bright new ways to harness the sun's power. A-Data's offering, the Solar Disk USB drive, is a fairly generic thumb drive with a solar-powered LCD that displays its available capacity. Given that USB flash drives with LCD displays are becoming fairly common, and that the use of a solar cell to power such a display isn't exactly earth-shattering (we seem to remember picking up our first solar calculator about 20 years ago), we can't exactly see this feature commanding a premium. Meanwhile, MSI plans to demo a solar-cell MP3 player. While that sounds like it could be promising, the solar cell won't be the sole source of juice for the prototype player; rather, it'll help charge a conventional lithium battery. And given the amount of time audio players spend in pockets, backpacks and purses, we somehow don't anticipate this giving the player much of a boost.

Sanyo's weather-resistant LCD TV

Sanyo's weather-resistant LCD TV: "Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment Nope, despite Sanyo's claims, their new 32-inch weather-resistant LCD TV isn't actually the first of its kind, though it may be one of the first of a suitable size from a major display manufacturer. We don't yet have a model number, specs and resolution, release date, or price, but we do understand it's got a 176 degree viewing angle and high brightness, which we hope would be coupled with a nice anti-glare coating on that screen to make it easily viewable on those sunnier days when it's not getting all rained on.

LG to expand DVR-equipped TV line with 42PC1RR

LG to expand DVR-equipped TV line with 42PC1RR: "Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment LG is the market leader when it comes to DVR-equipped flat-panel TVs (not surprising, given that virtually nobody else makes them), and the company looks poised to expand the market for the models with the 42PC1RR, a 42-inch plasma set the company plans to roll out at CeBIT. The HD-ready set includes an 80GB hard drive, 1024x768 resolution, 10,000:1 contrast ratio and is expected to sell for about $2,600.

Higher capacity 50GB EVD / VMD at CeBIT

Higher capacity 50GB EVD / VMD at CeBIT: "Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Storage We can't and don't always expect segments of the Asian market to follow suit with the goings on of the western tech world (see TD-SCDMA, for on example), so for some 'viable' alternatives to HD DVD and Blu-ray, see EVD and VMD: the Enhanced Versatile Disc and Versatile Multilayer Disc. Medium Enterprises claims to have bumped up EVD to 50GB capacities now after their majority purchase of Beijing E-World Technology and putting in hours with VMD's R&D department. What's this mean for your average Chinese consumer? 1080 high def video in a red-laser player box costing about $150, or so they claim; definitely 'good enough' to compete in the Chinese market, and perhaps even abroad. NME should have a box ready to show off at CeBIT, which can't wait to see for ourselves

Sony expands Bravia S, V, X series LCD HDTVs

Sony expands Bravia S, V, X series LCD HDTVs: "Filed under: HDTV Gearing up for CeBIT, Sony has announced some new additions to the Bravia series, including new models in sizes from 26 inches up through 46 inches. S-series models are HD-ready, with support for 1080i and 720p, and come with digital tuners and HDMI input. For the V series, Sony claims a wider color gamut than most other LCD displays, and a 1300:1 contrast ratio.

Sony expands Bravia S, V, X series LCD HDTVs

Sony expands Bravia S, V, X series LCD HDTVs: "Filed under: HDTV Gearing up for CeBIT, Sony has announced some new additions to the Bravia series, including new models in sizes from 26 inches up through 46 inches. S-series models are HD-ready, with support for 1080i and 720p, and come with digital tuners and HDMI input. For the V series, Sony claims a wider color gamut than most other LCD displays, and a 1300:1 contrast ratio.

Is this the XM satellite video player?

Is this the XM satellite video player?:

You've got to be used to it by now, but after we get past our standard disclaimer (no, we don't know that this is real, yes, this might be a photoshop, no, we're not vouching for its validity) you might be interested to happen upon XM's supposedly forthcoming satellite-broadcast video device, which happens to look dangerously like Samsung's Helix. According to OrbitCast, such a device was apparently recently shown off by XM to analysts, which would use On2's tech for video with 256kbps data streams for each of at least 20 broadcast video channels. Yes, it's all very off the record unofficial can't comment, but if asked for the official Engadget opinion, we think it's at least plausible -- just know that we find its similarity to some of those Helix press shots (especially the reflection off the antenna, for example) a little unsettling.

Another "video iPod" surfaces online

Another "video iPod" surfaces online: "Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video


Dear readers: We thought that we were all of a common mindset regarding these purported video iPod pics- mainly, that we're all quite sick of them by now. But judging by the number of tips we received on this latest claimant, it seems that there is still a surprising amount of demand for being fooled by Attack of the Show-style hoaxes. That being said, and keeping in mind how unlikely it is that someone snapped such good photos of such a secretive device, we hereby present you with some more grist for the rumor mill: MacShrine-scored pics of that mythical Jobsian gadget which occupies far more waking time than can possibly be healthy. Keep reading to see more of what is definitely, absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt a picture of something.