We've given you the full details on Logitech's Harmony 1000 Universal Remote before, but it wasn't till Wednesday night that we got some one-on-one action with a working unit. Though we didn't get to fully test it out, we were mighty impressed with the remote's design and interface. $500 bucks is still a high price to pay, but you get a 3.5-inch touch screen, the ability to control up to 15 components, and major bragging rights amongst your friends. Click on for some blurry hands-on pics. (Sorry, sexy remotes make our hands quake). –Louis Ramirez
From bouncing balls to urban graffiti, Sony is marking its latest Bravia ad campaign by launching a new commercial next week based on blasting a tower block in Glasgow with 70,000 litres of paint. Check out the teaser above and another here.
No one is suggesting that Glasgow needs a lick of paint but how desperate are things getting when an ad company funds painting a tower block by exploding fireworks filled with paint. It took 10 days shooting with 250 people, paint delivered in one tonne trucks and a full five days and 60 unlucky people at the end to clean it all up.
Still, it does look really good and no Glaswegians were harmed during the filming of this advert. The full thing airs on ITV next week.-Martin Lynch
USB data sticks are generally something we don’t get all that excited about but there’s no denying they are damn useful and newer ones are certainly a bit more interesting.
The new DataTraveler Secure series of USB drives from Kingston is doing its bit to shake things up by being clad in a Titanium-coated, stainless steel shell that just happens to be waterproof up to 4ft. Now there’s something you don’t see everyday.
Sizes range from an average 512MB to a healthy 4GB. In addition to being able to drown the new Travelers, they also come with in-built 256-bit AES encryption for your data. The prices range from £24 to £147 (ex VAT).
Having drowned more than one electronic device in pints of beer - and a washing machine - I’ll be getting my grubby mitts on one of these in a few days so check back in and see what happens. -Martin Lynch
If finding wireless hotspots proves difficult – which it usually does - Sony has done a deal with T-Mobile in the UK to offer high-speed mobile broadband on its new SZ3 Vaio notebook.
Mobile broadband as many of you will know is a frustrating experience at the best of times and thanks to older technologies, it’s slow, slow, slow. The skinny notebook - which is now powered by Core Duo chips - uses the faster HDSPA ExpressCard hardware which it claims will allow for connection speeds of between 1.8Mbps and 3.6Mbps.
T-Mobile is allowing people to trial the service before signing up. It probably won’t be cheap but if your company is paying, who cares? Find out more about the SZ3 here.-Martin Lynch
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's number-one phone provider, went buck wild at a Tokyo press conference this morning and unveiled no fewer than 14 new handsets, all of 'em 3G wonders. The lineup consists of 11 high-end FOMA 903i series models, two dumb-but-nice Simpure phones and the N902iL Wi-Fi-ed smartphone.
There's far too much phonetastic goodness to go into here (check the press release at the link below if you dare) but standouts include IC cards preloaded with DoCoMo's RFID credit card software, One-seg digital TV, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, interoperability with Napster Japan and – get this – the Keitai-Osagashi service, which uses GPS and a PC to find lost or stolen phones. – Jonny Hiratsuka
An Imperial spy informs us that Mimoco's going to drop a Darth Vadar USB flash drive tomorrow. A limited run of 3500, too, so you'd better queue up now if you want one. They're officially sanctioned by his royal Lucas-ness, and will go for £40 for a 1GB version, all the way to £80 for a 4GB version. That's a whole lotta space bucks for 4GB isn't it?
You know what would be cool? If this Darth Vadar USB drive's cap didn't have little bear ears, and if the helmet was in the shape of the dark lord's helmet. And if the USB plug looked like James Earl Jones. For the record, I'd consider rocking a Han Solo model, for sure.–Brian Lam
The Sharp Zaurus RD-CMP2000R continues Sharp's tradition of putting an accessible version of Linux onto handhelds, letting users run wild with the various open source Linux apps available on the net. Not only does this one run Linux, it has a swiveling screen, QWERTY keypad, a 1.3-megapixel camera, e-Book reader, FM radio, and music player. This means it's pretty much all you need to spy on HP's board and not get caught.
It's only available in Korea for now, but if it supports an English version of their UI, there's no reason why you can't import it. – Jason Chen
Despite looking a little bit photoshopped, this Altec Lansing dock for the Microsoft Zune seems promising, in a "now the Zune will have a thousand accessories too" sort of way. No other details yet, but it should be released around the same time as the Zune.
We'd like to see some accessories taking advantage of the Zune's WiFi, wirelessly streaming music to all rooms of the house. Can we get on that, Microsoft? – Jason Chen
There was lots of food and booze to be had at Wednesday night's Pepcom event in midtown Manhattan, but our geek antenna naturally gravitated toward Linksys' WUSB300N, a Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) USB network adapter for your desktop/notebook. Naturally, the adapter is compatible with Wireless-G and -B equipment, but provides up to 4x the range and 12x the speed than 802.11g. Click on for some sexy 802.11n action.
A reader saw our Nine Volt Candle post and took it upon himself to make one of his own, then share the steps with the world. In short (because we're not that handy and like our gadgets pre-assembled), the process involves a battery, a flashlight bulb, a film canister, and various connecting parts.
The final result looks pretty darn sexy, and these steps look easy enough that even we can do them. – Jason Chen
Similar to the USRobotics USR9630 Skype phone we reviewed yesterday, the Auvi PHIP64 Skype phone uses DECT to connect your handset to the base station, which then connects to your PC via USB to give you wireless Skype calling. Like the USRobotics phone, this has both landline and Skype, along with an LCD display, caller ID, speakerphone, and Skype contact list. In fact, we're pretty sure the feature set is so similar, that they've got more than just a little bit in common.
This Auvi is £70 and will have additional handsets (up to four) available in November for £40 each. All in all, this seems like yet another Skype DECT phone that's, for better or worse, indistinguishable from the competition. – Jason Chen
Looking like the Firefly phone, this Imaginarium Mo1 Mobile Phone lets kids ages 6-12 talk on the phone on a restricted basis. In addition to the call and hangup buttons, there are keys to cycle through the phone book and two dedicated keys for "mom" and "dad".
Available in December for 2006, but no word when it's going to be marketed in the UK. Not bad for an emergency contact phone for your little ones. – Jason Chen
This seemingly low-end X-540 surround set from Logitech certainly doesn't look low end, with its nice black finish and fairly stylish satellite design. So why is it available for under £100? We honestly have no clue—most likely from skimping out on features. However, the center speaker does feature a clip to hook onto your flat-panel LCD or plasma TV screen, which is pretty cool.
Other than that, there's talk of Logitech's Frequency Directed Dual Driver technology and 70 watts of RMS power. What's really important is the £50 price tag, which makes it a nice entry-level surround system for students or poor people. Yes, I said it! – Jason Chen
Built with two and three-pin adapters, this Trust PW-1100P notebook surge protector works great with most notebook AC adapters, sitting in-between the power and your laptop. The devices makes sure wherever you are, you're always safe from dirty spikes or other hazardous electrical failures that will fry your laptop faster than you canthrow away that Sony battery.
There are also two landline analog ports to protect your modem from surges as well, but most of the time you're going to be using ethernet or WiFi unless you're visiting some third world country.
The title says it all—someone has taken the beloved Tickle Me Xtreme Elmo and created a sex tape. Note that it could be considered NSFW. It doesn't have any hoo-ha's or ho-ho's, but you know, it's still sexual content ... with Sesame Street's Elmo. – Travis Hudson
Contrary to earlier jumps to conclusions, the Wii Sensor bar doesn't really have a problem with the sunlight directly shining onto it. Sure, one of their earlier engineering feats was getting it to work in sunlight, not to mention UV light, IR, and florescent lights. But Nintendo now says:
Our testing thus far shows no great risk of light interference when playing a game that relies on the pointer and sensor bar.
No problem here. Good job Japanese engineers! May you go out and get some sun once the Wii launch is complete. – Jason Chen
Microsoft's just launched the Xbox Live Pipeline website, which is an online catalogue of Xbox Live Marketplace content for (potential?) Xbox 360 users. It's a lot easier to browse all the various content available from a web browser than from the 360, which points out some flaws in the XBLM design.
Although you can see most of the stuff available, you can't actually download or do anything with this information. The most you get is, well, a redirect to xbox.com and get more info on an item. It's a far cry from the Xbox Live Anywhere experience demoed to us at E3 where you can trigger downloads on your Xbox 360 from your phone or PC using Xbox Live Anywhere. We're still waiting for that. – Jason Chen
Our own resident James Bond, Nick Denton, loves Skype phones. He loves calling up important people all day with his Skypeout, knowing that thanks to the 1 (000) 012-3456 caller ID, nobody knows it's him. So what does he think of the Netgear SPH101 Skype phone?
• incoming and outgoing calls don't register
• call history doesn't synchronize between Skype on PC, and Skype phone
• keyboard a little clunky
• can't send sms texts
• takes over a minute to load up contacts
• contacts have to be reloaded every time Skype reconnects, which is
each time one switches networks
• standard typeface is gross, with poor kerning
Apart from that, the phone is excellent! I gave my sister, in London, a local number on which to call me. Free for her, because she has bundled local minutes. Free for me, apart from the number rental. And
the quality of the call was perfect.
We agree with him on just about all counts. It's great to have a Skype phone you can take with you wherever there's WiFi, but it does need a little polish—it's first generation technology after all.
What's the difference between hiring Sonic the Hedgehog for a kiddie party and hiring one for an adult party? The answer is in this video of a costumed cocktail hour Sonic embarassing patrons during the DigitalLife press party in NYC last night. We'll be bringing you more updates from DigitalLife starting later this evening.
Measuring in at 15.4 inches wide, 13.5 inches tall and 10.4 inches deep, and weighing 30 pounds is the Samsung CLP-300. This prints in black and white at 17 ppm and color at 4ppm. And rather than having big, expensive toner cartridges, it uses smaller, still likely expensive toner bottles. Even more surprising is the price tag. Only £150for a color laser printer, what the hell. Back when I was hocking giant color lasers at Staples at a teenager, color laser printers went for well over two grand. Damn, I'm getting old. – Travis Hudson
Sony has released their latest headphones, the Atlus or MDR-D777LP Hi-Fi headphones. These headphones have a 80KHz frequency response. They can be folded nicely for easy travel, but are still built to be durable. They have a steep price tag of £75, but if you head down to any Sony Style store tomorrow, you can give them a hands-on try before buy. They are currently pre-order only and will be officially available in November. – Travis Hudson
Tree-hugging geeks who like spending time in the great outdoors might wanna check out the new Addex Design AD80 Solar Radio. Like it's name suggests, the radio sports a solar panel letting you listen to AM/FM radio by the power of the sun. (Non environmentalists can also pop in some AAA batteries for juice). Great concept and we're digging the iPod-y design, but we'd like to see some MP3-playing capabilities before we break this one out at our next hiking trip. –Louis Ramirez
How does the newest slim smartphone on the block stack up to the reigning Windows Mobile champs, the Motorola Q and the Palm Treo 700w? Pretty well, actually.
The T-Mobile Dash is tied for shortest with the Treo 700w, tied for widest with the Motorola Q, and just 0.06 inches thicker than the first place Moto. The Palm is the porker at almost twice the fatness as both phones, but the Dash does measure just about the same as the Motorola Q. – Jason Chen
CDW, the company known for those doofy commercials, actually has a 64GB (yes, gigabyte) flash drive available for purchase. How much, you say? Well, this flash drive weighs in at a very cheap, £2,900. Yes, this 64GB flash drives costs roughly the same as a slightly used, cheap car. It supports USB 2.0, thankfully. – Travis Hudson
In an effort to make your cheeseburger-eating experience more pleasurable, McDonald's has teamed up with Akoo to launch the m-Venue, a platform that lets you browse and buy music/videos through your mobile handset all while chowing down on your ketchup-drenched burger (content providers include Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Sony Pictures).
For now, the service is only available in McDonald's at Woodfield Mall in Illinois, but McD's plans on rolling it out in other stores worlwide claiming it's boosted its sales by 17%. Now if only they'd do something about the taste of their food. –Louis Ramirez
Who would have thought a series of boring laptop battery recalls could explode into such mass hysteria? Flaming tempers are running rampant at Sony executives. Though they've traditionally made some hot electronics, it hasn't paid off in their battery recalls - now totaling well over 7 million units. Dell, Apple, Toshiba, IBM/Lenovo, Fujitsu and Hitachi are all taking heat from their guilt by assonyiation. Check out our warm apple pie graph, and then hit the jump for a very special frankenreview (hint: we actually got him into a speedo). – Mark Wilson
This is the latest revision of the TuneCast FM transmitter. This is a universal FM transmitter that plugs into the standard 3.5mm headphone jack and will transmit the audio through a FM frequency range between 88.1MHz and 107.9MHz. The TuneCast 3 has a 20-hour battery life or can plug in directly to a power source. It will be available in November for £25. – Travis Hudson
Stuck on the road without a charger for that cellphone? Mobicharger disposable batteries will give you 60 minutes of talk time on a cellphone and 480 minutes of standby, and they're available in a variety of connectors that will fit most phones.
The plan is to distribute these handy little helpers in vending machines and other locations where forgetful travelers congregate. They'll first appear in London's Gatwick Airport, and hopefully in other locations soon thereafter, for a little less than £5.
Well, it's about time someone thought of this. Let's have some non-exploding models for laptops, too. – Charlie White
If you're like me, you're thinking the vibrating cellphone in your pocket will actually alert you to an incoming call, which it often doesn't because of its anemic lack of vigor. This goofy egg-shaped Mobile Phone Sensor Clock has an antenna growing out of its head that can detect incoming cellphone ring signals, which makes it kick its little legs like a chipmunk scratching itself. That I'll notice.
Just make sure your cellphone isn't more than 6 feet away from the little bugger, and it'll get the heebie-jeebies every time a call comes in. Hey, it also doubles as a clock. Sign me up. It's £10 – Charlie White
The makers of the Zboard (that folding keyboard with the custom layouts) are branching out further into the gaming world with their first gaming mouse dubbed the Reaper. The mouse will have a 1600 dpi sensor, 6 programmable buttons (plus one dedicated button for DPI switching), and in true gangsta style, gold-plated USB connectors. It'll be out in November for about £20 bucks. –Louis Ramirez
It was only 30 years ago this week that JVC received a IEEE milestone for development of the VHS Video along with releasing the first VHS player. You kicked that Betamax's ass right to the curb and you can celebrate three decaded later by watching HD DVD kick another Sony proprietary media to the curb, Blu-Ray.
I wasn't even alive at the time of your birth, but you still managed to kick-start my life of stealing video media with the help of recordable formats, like VHS. Some companies may still make VHS players, or combo players, but it is inevitable that you have died. Rest in peace VHS, rest in peace.
To celebrate the life of the VHS, I ask you, the readers, to share your favorite VHS memories. My favorite memories were when I was a kid—I turned the VHS player into a secret cave/hideout for my Ninja Turtles. My mom got pissed that I was cramming Ninja Turtles in the VHS player, but she got over it. – Travis Hudson
Here's an idea straight out of a prison movie: the Huckleberry, which can turn your MacBook into a video camera. You know how prisoners use hand mirrors to see people in the next cell? That's how the Huckleberry works, using a small mirror to let you use that little iSight camera on the MacBook as a forward-facing video camera, too. Developed by Charlie Dancey with a little help from Mungai Mirrors Ltd., it'll be introduced at Mac Expo on October 26 in London, selling for £14.95.
Neat idea. Now if they could just make it quickly swing out of the way using electronic switching, you could use it to video record interviews between you and someone sitting in front of you. – Charlie White
Samsung takes another potshot at the Motorola Q with its upcoming SGH-i760, a Windows Mobile 5 for Pocket PC Smartphone with an Intel 520MHz CPU inside. This one looks like it has it all, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0, a 240x320 touchscreen, WiFi, and even has a forward-facing video calling camera. On the other side there's a 2-megapixel camera, too. Plus, the thing is exceedingly light, weighing in at just 119g (that's just over 4 ounces for us metrically-challenged).
Our interest is piqued. It won't take much to slam-dunk that Motorola Q, and this might just be the ticket. Full spec list and ten gorgeous pics (courtesy mobile mania.sk), after the jump. – Charlie White
USB data sticks are generally something we don’t get all that excited about but there’s no denying they are damn useful and newer ones are certainly a bit more interesting. 
If finding wireless hotspots proves difficult – which it usually does - Sony has done a deal with T-Mobile in the UK to offer high-speed mobile broadband on its new SZ3 Vaio notebook. 
Measuring in at 15.4 inches wide, 13.5 inches tall and 10.4 inches deep, and weighing 30 pounds is the Samsung CLP-300. This prints in black and white at 17 ppm and color at 4ppm. And rather than having big, expensive toner cartridges, it uses smaller, still likely expensive toner bottles. Even more surprising is the price tag. Only £150for a color laser printer, what the hell. Back when I was hocking giant color lasers at Staples at a teenager, color laser printers went for well over two grand. Damn, I'm getting old. 
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
