Looking like a cross between a tank and a mini PC, Tangent's Rugged Mini is the first rugged desktop we've laid eyes on. Spec-wise, it's not as powerful as your average desktop (it runs off an Intel Pentium M or Celeron M), but otherwise its got all the goods you'd find in its bigger counterparts and one ups them by being VESA compliant. It's also got a fanless chassis so it'll be quieter than most desktops. It'll set you back around $1,400 bucks, which we think could be better spent on an entry to mid-level notebook. Unless you wanna scare the pants off your Mac Mini. – Louis Ramirez
Here's an ad for DJ equipment maker Eclectic Breaks for its Pro-X-Fade crossfader. It's a clever animation that has a pencil-armed DJ manipulating a miniature world from his god-like perch, spinning cars as if they were vinyl, with the street being his turntable and passers-by standing in as the crossover.
Nice piece of production work, even though we're not ones to idolize those who play records for a living, no matter how intricate their manipulations. – Charlie White
According to the briefest morsels of info leaking out of the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei, the long-rumored collaboration between Intel and Yahoo to produce their own UMPC device has finally borne fruit in the shape of that rust-colored contraption you see above.
The as-yet-unnamed UMPC is to be made by Quanta Computer, the Taiwanese company apparently involved in the $100 laptop wheeze. Hard facts are still thin on the ground, but the word is that bog-standard Windows XP Tablet Edition is involved, as well as:
"Yahoo's Go for ultramobiles, a joint software effort with Intel designed to deliver digital entertainment on devices that use Intel Viiv technology, including Go TV, and Yahoo photos, music, and other content."
It seems like nary the blink of an eye since dual-core CPUs were the hottest ticket in town with all their fancy cutting-edge newness and yet here they are in budget laptops going for a hefty chunk less than $1,000 already.
Averatec's latest 4lb, 12.1-inch laptop, the Averatec 2300, features a 1.6GHz dual-core AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 processor, yet costs just $849. Considering the fact that there's also a dual-layer DVD writer and a roomy 100GB hard drive in there, we're looking at serious bargain territory here. – Jonny Hiratsuka
Late last night saw one of our favorite companies spring quite the surprise when Slim Devices announced that it had been bought by peripherals monster Logitech.
The company responsible for such streaming-audio goodness as the Transporter and Squeezebox is set to suckle from the Logitech marketing teat in a bid to bring its high-end audio technology to the unwashed masses, while remaining an independent unit within the larger group. According to a forum post by Slim Devices CEO Sean Adams, every last man jack on his staff has accepted the new gig and the offices are staying put in Mountain View.
Logitech's sheer size and brand strength is sure to result in more products being shifted at lower prices (a la Harmony Remote), but maintaining the Slim track record for quality is going to be a tall order. – Jonny Hiratsuka
This is the Ultra Portable Personal Media Player & Recorder and it sure is small. I’m not sure if you want to be watching video on the 1.5in screen but then I’ve been on journeys so long that I'd watch paint dry on a screen the size of my fingernail.
This little gadget is designed to view content off SD/MMC memory cards since it only comes with a weenie 256Mb of on-board memory. That probably explains why it only costs around £50. Alongside photo and video viewing, it has an in-built FM radio and voice recorder. While I admit that it looks cute, there’s no info on screen resolution and there’s not enough formats supported for my liking. Also, I'm tiring fast of uber-cheap players with dubious quality.
Let’s put it this way: it looks the same size as the Creative Zen V Plus which can do it all too – very well - and costs around £100 for a 2GB model. I know what I’d plump for.-Martin Lynch
You know how it is with the silly ‘random selection’ feature on your MP3 player: you're jogging along, going great, feeling ‘amped’ and ‘pumped’ and all of that stuff, when suddenly the sheer thumping drive of Metallica’s Sanitarium is replaced by bloody Dido. That’s it, the exercise high evaporates, your legs turn to lead, your lungs fail you and no amount of fiddling with the MP3 player can get that endorphin high back.
Now meet, PersonalSoundtrack, a small(ish) wearable computer that chooses tracks from your collection based on your pace. For ambling see Burt Bacharach whereas fleeing the police might require a little bit of MegaDeth to get those pins moving. The device was aired at the recent LA, DorkBot gathering and the makers promise an iPod-sized version next. Read more here.-Martin Lynch
The news has been knocking around for some months that Archos was planning to add Wi-Fi to its 604 portable media player and I’m happy to report that the job is done and the product is expected to ship in the coming month.
This makes Archos – makers of the most complete PMPs – the first to install Wi-Fi in such a device. Apple and Microsoft usually need a year’s worth of rumours and media attention before coming up with the next ‘innovation’.
The Wi-Fi will allow users to access the Net via hotspots or swap content from PCs etc. invisibly through the very air. Even better, firmware is on the way that will allow you to use the 604 to download content directly from online stores without the PC.
The existing non-Wi-Fi 604, with its 30GB hard drive, costs around £220. No news yet on what the Wi-Fi will add but will keep you posted.-Martin Lynch
We've pretty much had it with the whole HD DVD vs Blu-ray war, but if you've got your heart set on owning both formats, the VidaBox Dual HD Lux and Dual HD Max are the first Media Center PCs that can be configured with both flavors inside making for one tasty PC. The machines can play Blu-ray and HD DVD discs at their native 1080p resolution and both systems also feature HDCP-compliant outputs. We're too poor to afford this kind of machinery, but if you're looking to OD on some HD, these £2,000 systems are your only bet. – Louis Ramirez
Something we'd either need to be really bored or really drunk to think of—these guys rigged up a screen with light sensors so they can play Pong with flashlights. Next up, Halo 2 with a miner's helmet. – Jason Chen
Phones are getting smaller, no doubt. And screens? Sharper. So one day soon we'll all need this little microscope cellphone strap just to read our text messages. Does up to 15x magnification. I want this thing, esp as my eyes fade into mole-vision from blogging 18 hours a day.–Brian Lam
First covered by us way back in the Johnson administration, the Sony Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD) technology gives projectors a max resolution of 4096 x 2160, which if you do the math, is 8.8 megapixels. Their newest projector using this technology is the SRX-S110, a device more at home in professional workspaces than actual homes.
Projector enthusiasts say that "true" 4K resolution is 10-megapixels or higher, but unless your eyes can see as well as Daredevil's ears can hear, you probably can't tell the difference. The 4K of this isn't enough to display the 4K of the Red One, which is 4520 x 2540, but it's close. – Jason Chen
Bloggers don't get much sunlight in their day-to-day routine, so this plant wall is about as close as we'll get to "being outside." Created by the folks at Green Fortune, the wall can be custom made to fit any space (including our bloggy sweatshop downtown) and best of all, it waters and fertilizes itself. That's the kinda brush with nature we like. – Louis Ramirez
D-Link's jumping into the Draft 802.11n pool with the DIR-655 Xtreme N router, which has three antennas that are, coincidentally enough, not used for MIMO. The router is supposed to be the first Gigabit Draft N router that has "Intelligent Wireless Quality of Service" technology to prioritize bandwidth, meaning your VoIP calls are of higher priority than your BitTorrent traffic.
The router supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2, but is also backwards compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g as well. Compared to the Linksys WRT350N Gigabit Draft N router, we'll have to say the lack of MIMO and missing network storage puts this below Linksys' offering. However, the DIR-655 router is available now and for around £100, whereas Linksys' router has no price and no availability information. – Jason Chen
Having taken the Lego philosophy of design to heart, Ultra Products is releasing a series of peripherals that stack on top of each other to form a tower of technology. Arrangeable in vertical (if you only have one) or horizontal positions, the bricks stack one on top of the other, leaving enough space so that each doesn't overheat and melt your data like day-old ice cream.
There are a few varieties available: USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure, USB 2.0/Firewire hard drive enclosure, eSATA/USB2.0 hard drive enclosure, USB 2.0 Hub, USB 2.0 hub/card reader, and a power supply to power all of them. They actually look nice when stacked, if you're into the Metal Gear Solid military black motif.
We hope these towers are secure, or else you may become trapped under a pile of USB card readers and Firewire enclosures for hours, having to drink your own urine and sweat to stay alive before someone finds you. – Jason Chen
Giving CPR only works when the person who's passed out is attractive. At least that's our motto. So for those times when you happen to see a troll passed out on the ground there's the Just-in-Time Support (JITS) device which lets you perform CPR without giving mouth. The device comes with a headrest, anesthesia mask, defibrillator pads, and a video screen that tells you what to do before jolting the victim's heart back to life. It's currently in prototype at the University of Utah. The chances of passing out next to someone carrying a JITS are slim, but it's a great concept nonetheless. – Louis Ramirez
Yep, another piece of clothing with integrated iPod controls. Seriously, is it really that hard to pull the iPod out of your pocket to change the track or turn up the music?
This poop-brown t-shirt is the work of Urbantool, a Korean retailer. It includes a pocket with an iPod dock connector, and it can supposedly be washed without any problems. Can I get a polo version of this, in pink, preferably with the collar pre-popped? – Travis Hudson
Our blogging cohorts, Engadget, got some word about the release date of the highly anticipated Core 2 Duo Apple laptops. An IT guy at a Swiss University got the scoop on the Core 2 Duo MacBooks from some sales reps and word is that the laptops will be released in November. Not much other information is known about this Swiss IT guy, but it is still awesome that the Core 2 Duo-ness will be here sooner than expected, possibly.
This makes me all happy in my underoos—I've been waiting for the Core 2 Duo MacBooks to be released so I can upgrade my ancient Dell laptop that is just waiting to explode on me. – Travis Hudson
In the olden day, transferring files from computer to computer either required a little bit of networking know-how or some painstaking CD burning or USB flash drive swapping. The Tornado eliminates any troubles and makes PC-to-PC transferring as easy as creamy pie. Plug the retractable Tornado into each machine and simply drag-n-drop. Easy peasy.
The Tornado and its 25MB/s transfer rate could be very handy when I'm transferring uhm...large movies files to my media center. – Travis Hudson
This is the Ultra Portable Personal Media Player & Recorder and it sure is small. I’m not sure if you want to be watching video on the 1.5in screen but then I’ve been on journeys so long that I'd watch paint dry on a screen the size of my fingernail. 
You know how it is with the silly ‘random selection’ feature on your MP3 player: you're jogging along, going great, feeling ‘amped’ and ‘pumped’ and all of that stuff, when suddenly the sheer thumping drive of Metallica’s Sanitarium is replaced by bloody Dido. That’s it, the exercise high evaporates, your legs turn to lead, your lungs fail you and no amount of fiddling with the MP3 player can get that endorphin high back. 
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
