Robotic Lamp Brightens Your Path May 29, 2007

Read more Robots , Science

Built by MIT's Guy Hoffman, AUR is a desk lamp that can track your movement so it's always shining a spotlight where you need it. The lamp, which is dubbed a lighting assistant, was created to explore the relationship between humans and robots. I personally think it's cool and would love to replace my flashlight and desk lamp with something like this. – Louis Ramirez

AUR Robotic Desk Lamp [via New Scientist]

Vu Coffee Table For Your Ugly Mug May 29, 2007

Read more Appliances , Gadgets

Don't just roll your eyes when your girlfriend says its time to update your crappy bachelor furniture. (After all, two overturned crates topped by half of the bathroom door you once ripped out in a moment of drunken frustration haven't been considered avant garde since Andy Warhol's days.)

Phonograph Concept Treats Your CDs Like Vinyl May 29, 2007

Read more Gadgets , Home Entertainment

Designed by Yong Jieyu, the Phonograph CD Player has the looks of an old-school record player, but plays CDs instead. It's essentially a gutted CD player with a laser pointer that doubles as a tone arm. I'm a pretty big vinyl fan, and while something like this wouldn't get me to ditch my records, it'd at least get me interested in my old CD collection. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page [Yanko Design]

LG’s DVD Burner Secures DVDs May 29, 2007

Read more PC , Portable Media , Storage

While most people spend their time cracking DVD copyright and flaunting security measures on discs in order to copy them for free, LG has launched the world’s first DVD drive with SecurDisc technology.

Borrowed from Nero and HL Data Storage, SecurDisc is aimed at people that want to burn data to discs but also want to make sure no one else can have a quick peek.

The snazzily named Super Multi Security DVD Rewriter GSA-H55N is 20x and will allow people to apply authentication codes to each disc, along with 16-character passwords, digital signatures and copy protection measures. Not one for the masses probably, but companies might be interested.

Find more details here.-Martin Lynch

DVD PC storage LG

Zune Sales Top The 1-Million Mark Early May 29, 2007

Read more MP3 , Music , Zune , iPod

As head-starts go, 100 million or so iPods sold is a good one. Microsoft’s iPod-killer, Zune, was abysmally late, arrived with a lot of fanfare and has not exactly set the digital music player market alight.

Still, it has shifted a little over 1 million of them ahead of schedule, which is a start, but even Microsoft is not crowing. According to Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division:

"We're still about nine months into having Zune in the marketplace. We're very pleased with the progress. We've sold a little over a million Zunes. In the category we're in, the hard-disk-based category, we've got about 10 percent market share. It's a good start. It's not an overwhelming start. I'm not going to pretend it's some gigantic move,” he said, speaking to the SF Chronicle at the weekend.

Zune might be more iPod Annoyance than iPod Killer right now but, over a million sales is good and it means it’s on the right track, even if the journey ahead is really, really, really long.-Martin Lynch

[SF Chronicle]

zune microsoft ipod

World’s Smallest Mobile Is A Watch Too May 29, 2007

Read more Gadgets , Mobile Devices , Mobile phones

I covered the predecessor to this spy watch a little while back but it seems it got the boot before launch, to be replaced with this, the M500 GSM Watchfone from SMS Technology.

Yes, it is what it sounds like, a tiny, fully working quad-band GSM mobile phone that you wear on your wrist. Boys the world over are having flashbacks of those crappy spy communicators that came on the front of comics but which were cool, regardless.

This spy toy has a 1.5in colour touchscreen, 128Mb of memory, 200 minutes of talk time, 80 hours of stand-by, space for 199 numbers, Bluetooth, USB connectivity, MP3 and MP4 playback. It’s also water resistant.

It’s supposed to launch this week and will cost around £420. I still think I prefer the spacey look of the scrapped M300.

[SMS]

news technology gadgets watch mobile phone phone

LG's Washing Machine Has an iPod Dock May 29, 2007

Read more Appliances , Gadgets , iPod

Of all the things that we've seen an iPod dock stuck onto, this washing machine is probably the worst. LG's patent for a "Home appliance with MP3 player" loads a dock for the iPod/Zune on the top along with speakers and what looks like a powerline networking adapter with a slot for a USB port.

We're not sure how useful this is—who spends all 40 minutes of the cycle standing in front of the washer?—but LG apparently has other ideas in mind. Oh crap, that reminds us that we left a wet load in the washer last night! – Jason Chen

A Washing Machine with Mp3 player by LG [Unwiredview]