It may look like another iPod accessory (thanks to its all-white design), but the Phoenix IP Radio is a different kind of beast. This portable, 2-pound radio lets you listen to any station, podcast, or music source that streams online. It has built-in Wi-Fi (802.11g) and can automatically detect and connect to any open hot spot. You can save your favorite stations and songs straight on the radio and the radio's software can also be upgraded over the air. It'll be out just prior to CES for £130. – Louis Ramirez
Not everyone can live in the sprawling feudalist mansion estates like those of Gizmodo writers - or so we've heard. Apparently there are hordes of peasants who live in single-family homes, or even (gasp!) apartments.
For the "poors" who live in cramped quarters or the "crazies" who don't want their entertainment centers sprawling into their kitchens, the Philips One Piece DVD Home Theater (HTS8100) is a promising choice. The system features a DVD-player with HDMI out and 1080p upconversion, while built-in Sonowave speakers offer surround sound without the rears taking up your living room. The whole package is one, elegant line only broken by a separate subwoofer. Now if this system only supported next gen DVDs, we'd sell our mansions just to fondle its svelt, obelisk-on-its-side body. – Mark Wilson
The Monster Central Home Theater and Lighting Controller 300 (yes, that is the entire name) is a £300 uber-remote. Similar to a nice Logitech Harmony, you program devices via the web. Users can setup one-button theater modes and customize the menu display for each member in your household.
But Monster's biggest claim is their "activity-based control", which is essentially a fancy name for lighting controls. Now, one-button theater setup can include dimming the lights, which will really get her in the mood before you watch A Knight's Tale for the 30,000th time. Because the remote uses RF frequencies, you can control lighting and media devices throughout your entire home (as long as they are hooked up to Monster dimmers and switches). Wow, Monster may have invented something noteworthy other than a bajillion dollar cable. – Mark Wilson
We know, cordless phones don't grace our pages very often, but the Philips DECT phone/answering machine won a Best of Innovations award for CES 2007. We know little about the product other than it's "pure indulgence crafted exclusively with you in mind," but you already knew that.
We like that you can record up to 15 minutes of a conversation. And apparently the DECT features an acoustic chamber, which we are guessing mellows the usually harsh frequencies of receiver speakers, improving phone sex tenfold. We are also guessing that an intern was probably stuck with the job of handing out the cordless phone awards.– Mark Wilson
It's important to remember that the X-Arm was once a child's dream - a child who yearned to invent and change the world through ingenuity. It's important to remember that as a lesson that good intentions sometimes breed ugly home theatre accessories.
The X-Arm is a robotic mount that allows you to angle a 42" television up to 28-degrees both left and right, 7-degrees up and 25-degrees down. Supporting weights up to 180 pounds and sizes up to 60", we're certain the X-Arm far exceeds its goal of eliminating glare.
But now we need to ask, why did you buy that sexy plasma display in the first place? Was it because the flush wall mount was both space-efficient and attractive? Was it because you wanted to impress your friend who only owned a boxy rear-projection? Now why would you attach the world's ugliest instrument to the world's prettiest TV, completely ruining your ingenious plan of blockwide television domination? £1000 – Mark Wilson
This video apparently shows the exact moment that Kevin Federline gets the SMS from Britney telling them that it's over. According to the video, cameras were following him around the entire day in order to conduct an interview, part of which was him gushing about his wife and kids.
At about 1:46, you can see as K-Fed's soul gets crushed as Brit-Brit drops the text-bomb on him via Sidekick—that is a Sidekick, right? Being divorced over the phone, wow. The Federlines truly are were America's royalty. – Jason Chen
In a move that actually makes sense (WTF Sony?), the latest ad for the PlayStation 3 highlights the fact that the SIXAXIS has tilt sensing capabilities. Though from the video, it looks like the SIXAXIS has god-like powers as well, but we'll chalk that up to creative license. It's good that Sony's finally making an ad that doesn't either makes us drop a dook in our pants or look to the skies in befuddlement. – Jason Chen
Furutech's DeMag devices manages to demagnetize any kind of disc-shaped media in order to eliminate "resolution-sapping magnetic interference" from your CDs, DVDs, SACDs, and DVD-As. Maybe we're not understanding this correctly, because CESWeb gave it a Best of Innovations 2007 award, but can someone tell me why does optical media need to be demagnetized? A simple Google search for demagnetizing optical media gives Furutech as the most of the top 20 results. Why?
In addition, you can also use this on LPs (magnetic interference with the grooves?), cables, connectors and power cords. This smells of wine-soaked volume knobs to us, but maybe we're wrong. – Jason Chen
You might think its November 8th, 2006, but here at the Giz, we're already ramping up our CES 2007 coverage. For you, we would arm wrestle the hands of time to bring you the best updates from the biggest, baddest electronics show of the future. Get that? Tricky, I know.
We'll have more coming tonight, tomorrow, and the day after that.
This first round of tips come to us courtesy of the Digital Experience event in NY. I don't know whether to thank the show organizers for giving us the heads up, or be terribly angry for starting the tech journo acid enema that is CES, two months early.
This iPod FM transmitter from Monster landed an innovation award from CES. Whaaa...? An iPod accessory landing an innovation award? Bullhookey, I tell you. This FM transmitter is a bit different than the average iPod FM transmitter. It has an AutoScan that will automatically scan all of the FM networks to find the clearest one to work with your iPod, and it will also display the station information on the actual iPod screen itself. Add in charging functionality and 3 programmable buttons makes this device pretty damn nice (except the £50 price tag). – Travis Hudson
Tavi was an Innovation Award winner in 2006, and we were impressed with this perky little PMP from New Media Life when we first saw it too. Apparently this new version includes satellite TV, wireless VOD, IPTV, Podcasting and it supports high def. This we gotta see.
The current model has a 30GB hard drive, 3.5-inch LCD screen, 5.1 surround sound, a 5.5 hour battery life and lots of other impressive numbers with decimal points attached as well. £230 from Amazon, Wal-Mart etc. – Noah Robischon
Ubicod's UMH700 is the next generation of the home media center. It combines a high definition video recorder (think TiVo) with the ability to store, network and share multimedia files from your PC. You've just turned your TV into a wireless monitor connected to every machine in your house, so now you can finally be bombarded by your little brother's "BOOM, HEADSHOT!" and "You're the man now dog!" addictions from the comfort of your living room.
Another sweet feature on the UMH700 is its integration with Ubicod's other product, the PlugNet Gateway. The PlugNet allows you to convert any electronic socket into an Ethernet port, so you can network and share data without wireless cards or running fifty-foot cables across your stairs. Home movies, MP3 libraries and even your My Pictures folder are now fair game for your TV. The future of the home media center is here, and it's simpler and more user-friendly than you could have hoped for. – Karson Thompson
Brave the Engrish website to find out more about the Ubicod UMH700 [Company Web]
Here's an oddball CES Innovation Award winner. The Ecosol Power Stick looks to be some kind of solar powered charging thingamabob. Claims it can be used for "all portable devices." But the company website is down for maintenance, and I can't find out much else about this intriguing green product. Can anyone out there shine some light on this Power Stick for us? – Noah Robischon
Too much drink can have wondrous benefits (no shame, great singing voice, legendary Kebab-eating prowess). But, it comes at a price, not least of which is coordination.
This has, on certain occasions, resulted in long periods trying to get the key in the door. The Locklite is designed for such moments by turning your humble key into a wee little torch. It fires out a 3-metre jet of LED brightness at your intended target and might even ensure you don’t fall on your face reaching the damn door in the first place. Apparently, even sober people can use it.
Debuting at CES 2007 in early January is the world's first SD card that comes loaded with bi-stable display technology. Bi-stable is a fancy way of saying the SD card has a very small display integrated into the card that does not require additional power sources to function. The display will show the available space on the card and name of the card. With so many gadgets using SD, it is hard to juggle them all. The Info SD won the innovations award for computer accessories at CES 2007.
The Info SD is a big step forward for memory cards, but I think I know a better step. Here is my million dollar idea: find a way to add a mini-USB port onto the actual card. No need for card readers or any of that jazz, just plug the card directly into your computer. Anybody want to tackle this? I'll give you a cut of the profits. – Travis Hudson
Just when Phantom's managed to get a modicum of credibility back into their corner with the recent Lapboard news (even though the concept for the keyboard was all but firmed up even back in 2004), they go and blow it all like Charlie Sheen on $450 hookers. Yes, Phantom's just announced that they've found some suckers to manufacture their stuff, but they also say release is delayed until January 2007 for pre-order customers and March 2007 for wide release.
So once again, we were all fools to believe that the company who strung investors along for years with a nonexistent console could possibly make an adjustable keyboard and mousepad—something any two-bit third-world company can crap out in a month and a half. – Jason Chen
There were as many Zunes as there were martini glasses at Microsoft's soiree in New York last night and thanks to Gawker's videographer, Richard Blakeley, we managed to get a good look at the player's interface and music-beaming capabilities despite the wall-thumping techno/house soundtrack that filled the warehouse throughout the night. Here's what you missed if you weren't around. – Louis Ramirez
Luxury car maker Bentley has taken the car phone to a new level in their Flying Spur model. The car comes equipped with built-in Bluetooth support for the headset of your choice, and even features a slot to fit the SIM card from your cell phone. It transfers your phonebook data, receives text messages, and makes crystal clear calls using the vehicle's antenna to blast the reception up two- to three-times higher than a standard cell phone. – Karson Thompson
We've always dreamed of owning a laptop with enough power to launch missiles and take over small countries and now the mad scientists at NEC and Takara have teamed up to bring us the limited edition Type-N01. This eccentric laptop has the kind of looks to make even the meanest ToughBook cringe in fear. It even has a red emergency button that juts out from the side. Inside, however, it's powered by your choice of an AMD Sempron or Turion, so you may need more than just one system before invading new territory. Click through for some extra close ups.
The liquid-cooling specialists at Danger Den have partnered with BFG Technologies and released a water-cooled GeForce 8800GTX. Retailing for £400, this stock speed 8800 frees up an expansion slot by removing the bulky fan that is partnered with the standard model. It doesn't look like Danger Den is marketing their water block by itself just yet, so if you want to integrate your 8800 into your water-cooled rig, this may be your only option.
I'm disappointed that BFG didn't crank up the clock speeds to take advantage of the enhanced cooling, but any serious water-cooler is probably capable of doing that on their own. Even at stock speeds, this beast is outperforming every other card on the market, including some dual-card setups from both NVIDIA and rival ATI. – Karson Thompson
Aimed towards photographers for construction sites, UFC Fights and snuff films, this BigJob HD-3W camera features a large lens that's protected by some kind of cushioning all around. Making up for the lost aerodynamics in ruggedness, the FujiFilm BigJob is waterproof, dust-resistant, and can take drops of up to 27 inches, or a little more than two feet. Great if you're a toddler.
The camera also has a 6-megapixel sensor, can record 30FPS VGA video, a 3x optical zoom, ISO 1600 support, 23MB of internal memory and takes xD format cards. No availability info, but the functionality seems pretty good for such a Fisher Price/Nerf-like camera design. – Jason Chen
To help you remember why you bought an Xbox 360 in the wake of the Wii and PS3 launches this month, Microsoft is preparing to unveil a revamped 360 Marketplace experience. The new marketplace will feature downloadable TV shows and high-definition movies. The video above should give you some idea of what to expect for your hard-earned Microsoft points.
You may have seen our video coverage yesterday but this is an angle from somebody a bit less fanboyish. – Karson Thompson
Bets are now being placed around the office on whether or not Microsoft can flog a whopping 4 million Xbox 360 consoles in, let’s see, just seven and half weeks? Yesterday, Microsoft maintained that it is still on track to do so. I covered this wishful thinking a few weeks ago.
It has managed to hit 6 million so far, apparently, but claims 10 million units sold by the end of the year is realistic and, 13-15 million by the end of next year. The Whiff of Optimism is strong in this one, Obi-wan.
Unless Microsoft is fudging sales and hiding the true figure, or has some great price cut ready to announce really soon, this seems more like a Christmas wish than a certainty. What do you think?-Martin Lynch
A big thanks and manly hug to all those Gizmodo readers that responded to my blog yesterday on possible UK and European delays for the Wii. You know, the console that was meant to have millions ready to go at launch?
Anyway, thanks to you guys for confirming the situation before any ‘official’ sources, thus proving the power of the Wibbly Wobbly Web in getting the story out there before the PR people get a chance to tart it up. Sadly, it’s all true. Play.com is suffering shortages and Gameplay are also now warning that Wii pre-orders will be on a first come first served basis. Nintendo bosses around the globe are also muttering about ‘incredible demand’ outpacing delivery. Great for Nintendo. Not so great for us (except Giz reader Paul, the lucky git).
Check Giz readers’ contributions after the jump. Also, if you have any further updates – let me know.-Martin Lynch
Too much drink can have wondrous benefits (no shame, great singing voice, legendary Kebab-eating prowess). But, it comes at a price, not least of which is coordination. 
Debuting at CES 2007 in early January is the world's first SD card that comes loaded with bi-stable display technology. Bi-stable is a fancy way of saying the SD card has a very small display integrated into the card that does not require additional power sources to function. The display will show the available space on the card and name of the card. With so many gadgets using SD, it is hard to juggle them all. The Info SD won the innovations award for computer accessories at CES 2007. 
Bets are now being placed around the office on whether or not Microsoft can flog a whopping 4 million Xbox 360 consoles in, let’s see, just seven and half weeks? Yesterday, Microsoft maintained that it is still on track to do so. I covered this 
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
