Hi-tech Frontier

iriver P7 Unfortunately, we're still no closer to finding out when the iriver P7 will be available, but given that it's now showing up on the company's worldwide web portal alongside scads of other beautiful pieces of hardware, we'd say it's certainly closer than before. None of the listed specifications look to have changed. Grab a tissue, place it beneath your chin and head on over.

ASUS Eee PC T91 Much like the S101, the T91 isn't exactly "Eee PC" material. Sure, it's small and ASUS-branded, but design wise, it's a pretty bold departure. bit-tech was able to sit down and take an early look at the Eee PC T91 convertible tablet, and while the machine is still a few months out from release , it seems that you can curb your enthusiasm in the meanwhile. Critics found the touchpad to be a hair less awesome than those on other Eee PCs, the lack of multitouch to be a real bummer and the uncanny ability of the LCD to attract fingerprints as just plain annoying. Of course, their unit was still subject to alterations, so the crew isn't completely giving up hope that things won't improve by launch day. In fact, it noted that the inclusion of a DVB-T tuner, WWAN support and GPS functionality were very nice touches , but it still maintained that a standard netbook would likely suit you best unless you're just head over heels for touching.

MSI 13.4-inch X340 and 15.6-inch X600 We certainly aren't tired of the X-Slim 320 laptop from MSI , with its Air-like form-factor in less expensive and slightly more practical packaging -- it's still many moons away from release, after all. Despite that, MSI felt the need to announce two new model s to round out the still unreleased lineup: the 13.4-inch X340 and 15.6-inch X600 . We don't know much about these two yet except that the X340 is slated be priced somewhere in the (wide) range of $699-$999 in the US, that both offer HDMI in addition to VGA output, both are Centrino 2-based, and that the X600 even has an eSATA port on top of its two USBs. We'll surely be seeing a lot more of this pair (plus the X320 as well) at CeBIT in just a few weeks, and are hoping that MSI will go ahead and maybe release one before introducing any more.

Samsung TL320 and HZ15W What's this, Samsung ? Announcing a few new cameras each week until PMA hits us when we least expect it? Just days after the firm expanded its less than enthralling SL lineup comes two new 12 megapixelers. The TL320 is the same one we spotted earlier at Amazon, though some of those specs were -- shall we say, preliminary. The official specs sheets lists a 12.2 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 3-inch HVGA AMOLED display, 720p movie recording, HDMI output, dual image stabilization and twin analog gauges for checking out memory capacity and battery life . As for the ZH15W , that one checks in with a dozen megapixels even, a 10x optical zoom, a 3-inch LCD monitor, 720p movie mode and most of the same features as the aforementioned cousin . Both shooters should be available this May for $379.99 and $329.99 , respectively.

Lenovo S10 Lenovo's S10 netbook has always had a reputation for being a bit warm to the touch, but it sounds like the little lappy has some more serious issues with heat -- the official Lenovo support forums are flooded with users complaining that the fan endlessly spins up and down . Making matters worse, Lenovo apparently hasn't acknowledged the problem, and some customers report that S10s sent in for repair return in exactly the same condition. That doesn't sound totally awesome -- anyone else having this problem?

Samsung P3 It was hard to give back Samsung's P3 after caressing it for a few moments at CES, knowing we'd be sadly separated for at least a few months waiting for an indeterminate release date sometime before July. Today that official arrival is still just as vague , but now our hearts yearn just a little more with Samsung updating and extending the functionality of the player, adding the ability to play native resolution 800 x 600 video, enabling support for video subtitles in SMIs, adding mosaic browsing for videos, and throwing in a fun little drawing application to boot . A full (and jazzy) video breakdown of the new features is embedded below, which people on the fence about S9 now or P3 later won't want to miss.

HTC Touch Pro2 In October of last year, HTC informed us that the Touch HD would sadly not be coming to the States via its Twitter feed . Shortly after Mobile World Congress, that same feed has delivered much, much better news in regard to the Touch Pro2 . Directly from HTC: "And to answer the big question on everyone's minds, the Touch Pro2 will be broadly available in all major markets, including North America ." A followup tweet affirmed that a launch date and country wasn't yet set in stone, but that the phone would begin shipping out in "late Q2." Oh, where art thou, May through July time frame?

Apple's iPhone and Bluetooth keyboard Not that we've never seen a jailbroken iPhone get cozy with a keyboard before, but this is just a match made in heaven. Not according to those who matter in Cupertino, mind you, but since when have you renegade hackers cared about those folks? An Apple Bluetooth keyboard interactis with an iPhone 3G , but it seems that you'll have to wait a bit longer before the general public gets instructions / files / etc. in order to replicate.

Insignia's NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray player gets reviewed Ever heard that phrase "you get what you pay for?" Yeah, it applies here. Insignia's low-cost NS-2BRDVD has been effectively panned by reviewers over at CNET, with the only bright spots coming in the form of a relatively low price, a USB port for accessing digital media and "solid Blu-ray image quality with most movies." The bad? That Profile 2.0 compatibility we reckoned it had actually isn't there (currently, at least), and it lacks full onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. In truth, that's not totally awful, but what affluent individual with a decoding AV receiver (psst... those aren't cheap) would go out and grab this? At any rate, the deck is also slow to load some flicks, and it doesn't support firmware updates via Ethernet or USB. If you really needed a bottom line, here goes: "The NS-2BRDVD is an under-featured and slow-loading Blu-ray player, but it provide...

Philips BDP3000, BDP5000 and BDP7300 Blu-ray players Given that Philips handed off its North American Blu-ray and DVD operations to Funai here in North America, you can bet its latest trio of BD decks won't be hitting US soil anytime soon... at least not branded like this. At any rate, those across the pond can look forward to three more BD-Live-capable players in the near future, all of which support 1080p24 and upscale DVDs to 1080i. As of now, details are pretty scant about the low(er)-end BDP3000 and the mid-range BD5000; all we're told is that they'll be DivX Certified, and the latter of the two will boast a USB 2.0 port for multimedia viewing. The top-end BDP7300 will include integrated 7.1 audio decoding along with 1GB of storage, but prices for the three are still undisclosed. Though, we shouldn't be waiting long, as the 7300 should land in March with the other two following shortly after.

Boston Acoustics’ VS 336 floorstanding speakers You remember the curvy-looking Boston Acoustics speakers that came in under the " Vista " name , only to get re-branded " VS " to avoid confusion with other products sharing the Vista moniker? Well, the top of the line model VS 336 floorstanders grabbed a pretty good review from CE Pro, with the soundstaging and bass response earning good remarks. But speakers being subjective, you'd be advised to kick the tires on the $3,400 per pair boxes before you drive them home -- the review turned up a bit of excess presence in the upper bass and midrange that gives a lot of detail but also turned into a "forwardness" as notes moved up the scale. If you're considering them, judge for yourself if you like the effect or not; at this price point you've got plenty of choices that combine looks and performance.

Kenwood DTS Surround Sensation CD system If you weren't well versed on logos (and you were illiterate, too), you'd probably assume that the music system pictured above was just another overpriced Bose that could be yours for nine low payments of $49.99. In fact, it's a new Kenwood-branded CD system that will purportedly be able to simulate surround sound from just two speakers . The system will include the DTS Surround Sensation technology , a slot for audio CDs and a rather vanilla display . Beyond that, we're left to simply wonder, as Kenwood is remaining mum on critical details like pricing, release date, RMS, driver size, frequency range and input / output options. Wow, that kind of dodgy secretiveness reeks of some other company we know of... but we're sure it's not intentional. (Right?)