Hi-tech Frontier

USB Flower Mini Speaker If you are a fan of flower inspired gadgets, like the USB Flower Fan and the Rose Microphone, this brand new USB mini speaker should be right up your alley. The USB Flower Mini Speaker is available in purple or red and you can get the product for $19.99 from the GizFever.com website.

USB Bamboo Fountain If you want to try to add a little zen to your workplace, this USB bamboo fountain with flowing water might give you a nice relaxing and soothing effect - or, maybe it won’t. The USB Bamboo Fountain is available over at the USB Geek website for $25.

Block Speaker Dock -- iPod LEGO Inspired Dock in New Colors Some of you might remember the iPod LEGO Dock that we covered here at GeekAlerts last year. This playful audio accessory is now available in two new colors: black and white. Features An iPod speaker dock that looks like a gigantic toy building block. Active Bass System for superior sound quality. Supports the following iPod family generations:Nano 1st, 2nd 7 3rd, iPod 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and Classic, Mini, iPod Touch 1st, Shuffle. Easily connect other MP3 players using the mini headphone jack cable (included). Can be charged using a 12V adapter (not included). Suitable for ages 12 years+. Requires 3 x AA Batteries (not included). Size: 24 x 9 x 4.7cm. The Block Speaker Dock is available from the IWOOT website for £39.99 (about $56 USD).

GPS-equipped FineDrive iQ500 PMP Seriously folks, is it really that hard? Can we North Americans get a few PMPs like this one, or are we destined to have but a few kinda-sorta similar Archos units to choose from? South Korea is proving yet again that its PMP designers are truly top notch with the FineDrive iQ500, which proudly sports an expansive 7-inch LCD (800 x 480 resolution), a 600MHz ARM processor, 4GB / 8GB of internal storage, an SDHC expansion slot, WinCE, GPS module, a DMB TV tuner and support for a smorgasbord of audio and video file formats. It's also spectacularly thin and drool-worthy, and naturally, can only be procured and fully enjoyed within the confines of its home nation. Oh, one question though: "Oil Save?"

IBM ZTIC USB stick Among the goodies making their debut at CeBIT this week, ZTIC (Zone Trusted Information Channel) is a USB stick designed for secure online banking, even on your horribly malware-infected machine. Developed in Zurich by IBM, this guy opens an SSL connection with the bank's servers, keeping the data safely on its side of things (this guy has no storage of its own) and displaying the transaction on the hardware itself. Even if your connection is breached by a "man-in-the-middle" attack, the hacker's funny business will be exposed on the device's display, which comes equipped with a big red "panic" button -- just in case. Pricing and availability for banking institutions has yet to be determined,

ASUS Eee Box 206 ASUS first got official with its upgraded Eee Box 206 way back in December, but the nettop is just now finally rolling out into availability (in the UK, at least), and bringing with it a number of more HD-friendly features. That, of course, includes an HDMI port, and some ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics to ensure that your HD videos play without a hitch, though serious gaming is certainly still a bit of a stretch. Otherwise, you can expect the usual 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive (plus 10GB of ASUS' Eee online storage service), a fairly generous complement of ports (including DVI) and, of particular note, a total power consumption of just 20 watts. Still no official word on a release 'round here, it seems, but folks in the UK can pick this one up now in their choice of black or white for £310, or just under $440.

Bird Electron Takotsubo "octopus trap" speakers Bird Electron loves rolling out the crazy little speakers and such for your listening pleasure. The company's newest pair, the Takotsubo speakers, are modeled on Japanese fisherman traps. In this form factor, however, we doubt they'll do much beyond catch some wild stares from your friends, but they sure are cute! Don't expect to be blown away by the sound, but they're available now (in Japan only) for ¥5,000 (about $50).

MSI Wind NetTop CD130 MSI's Wind NetTop CD130 was quietly introduced at the tail end of CES this year, and if you're suspecting that it's simply a cousin of the NetTop D130, you'd be right. We caught two of the boxes on hand at CeBIT, both of which were sporting a dual-core Atom processor and one of which was entirely more colorful than the other. Supposedly, these things only draw around 40 watts of power, but don't expect to do anything other than process Word documents, surf the web and send email with any amount of haste.

Mitsubishi iMiEV electric vehicle We're not sure if it has anything to do with its falling out with Telsa or not, but auto-parts maker Magna International looks to have really gone all out for this year's Geneva Motor Show, where it is showing off its new Mila EV concept vehicle. Apparently, in addition to proving that it can build more than just parts, Magna is hoping that the vehicle will appeal to manufactures who want a turn-key EV platform that they can quickly get into production. Magna even seems to be going so far as to supply the batteries for the vehicle, which it says could have a charging time of just 2.5 hours and a range of 150 kilometers. Also offering up an EV concept at the show is Mitsubishi, which has rolled out an update to its iMiEV electric vehicle in the form of the iMiEV Sport Air. In addition to getting an even more eye-catching, head-scratching look, this one also gets a boost in range from 100 to 120 miles, and a bit of an increase in performance from...

Samsung Nano-powered Q1EX UMPC Meet the latest iteration of the Samsung Q1 handheld: the NP-Q1EX. First spotted at CES in January, Sammy's going back to its UMPC roots by ditching the split QWERTY in favor of a clean, slate look that keeps the eye focused on the 7-inch, touchscreen display with 1,024 x 600 pixel resolution. Inside you'll find XP Tablet Edition running on a 1.2GHz VIA Nano ULV U2500 processor, VIA's Chrome9 HC graphics, 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, a SiRF Star GPS receiver, SD card slot, and a rear-mounted camera of unspecified pixel density. The unit that passed through the FCC for US airwaves approval also features a 60GB hard disk and 4-cell, 4,000mAh lithium ion battery for up to 4.5-hours of battery life according to Samsung. A quick search through the Intertubes also reveals a retail price of about $775 at on-line retailers. No launch date yet, but it can't be long now can it?

EDAG Light Car -- Open Source We're pretty comfortable with the idea of open source software running on computers and mobile phone -- heck, even guitars -- but cars? That one we're still warming up to, but this concept vehicle from EDAG definitely helps. As its name implies, the Light Car - Open Source lets developers modify and / or improve upon the auto's technologies -- or at least put a SNES emulator on the back. The lithium ion-powered bubble car also sports an OLED-infused exterior for lights and signals that are supposedly useful both to the driver and other nearby motorists, but in actuality we suspect it'd just scare anyone tailing behind. No information on the interior, but we imagine a decked out dashboard and some futuristic chairs. It's currently being shown off at the Geneva Motor Show.

A-DATA laptop-ready 2.5-inch 512GB XPG SSD We heard way back in January that ASUS' S121 would be the world's first laptop with a 512GB SSD, and now we've reason to believe that very drive could be coming from the labs at A-DATA. Here at CeBIT, the company has launched what it's claiming is the industry's highest capacity SSD (in the 2.5-inch form factor) with its 512GB XPG SSD. The drive promises to provide 230MB/s read and 160MB/s write rates while shuffling data around on the SATA II interface. As expected, it comes housed in a durable aluminum casing to shake off those occasional bumps and bruises, but there's sadly no word on price or availability. Next stop: 1TB. (Hopefully, anyway.)

Nautiz X5 Ever drop a phone and spend a few unpleasant moments cringing with anticipation of the flimsy shattering noise it will make when it ends its journey on the ground, battery asunder and various pieces scattered to the winds? We've all been there, which makes a rugged smartphone like the Nautiz X5 a little more appealing than it would otherwise be based purely on aesthetics alone. It's been rated IP65 (two marks higher than Sony's recent semi-rugged GXD-L64H1 LCD), meaning it's completely dust-proof and can stand up to a heavy shower, but also sports modern conveniences like a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, a barcode scanner, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g, and a 3.5-inch VGA LCD through which you can get your Windows Mobile 6.1 on. All that is powered by an 806MHz Marvell CPU with 256MB of RAM, meaning it's not only beefy on the outside. No word on price or availability, but don't expect all that heft to come cheap.

O2 Joggler Our friend Mr. Blurrycam was right on the money: OpenPeak's OpenFrame 7-inch MID touchscreen is on its way to the UK care of O2, albeit with a rather odd name change. The Joggler, as it's now called, connects via WiFi or Ethernet and has no SIM card for mobile use. In addition to the standard lot of apps -- news, weather, sports, media player, etc. -- its calendar can send out SMS reminders to other phones. Interestingly, though not apparently available at launch, it'll be able to send up to 50 free text messages to any UK-based phone, as well as receive an undisclosed number of messages. It's on track for an April release for £149.99 ($220), or free if you decide to pick this up instead of a handset when upgrading your plan.

Motorola RUSH 2 Of those leaked Verizon-bound Motorolas we saw back in December, the RUSH 2 wasn't one of the devices that stood out -- blame the cartoonish keyboard and color scheme, if you like -- but the little texter's all growed up now, and she's looking a lot better for it. Apparently rechristened the A455, Mobile-review has also discovered that it'll have a touchscreen, EV-DO, Bluetooth, GPS, and a camera (imagine that). Unfortunately, the user interface looks just about as boring as anything Verizon has allowed into its lineup in the past couple years, but hey, as long as it's got a decent keyboard and a dirt-cheap sticker, it'll sell. Last we'd heard, this would be out in the first quarter of 2009, so we'll see if this somehow manages to materialize before the month's out.

Alcatel OT-707 and OT-800 Alcatel's not known for its high-end fare, and we wouldn't get our hopes up here, either -- in fact, the full touchscreen set is so low-end that there's nothing "full touchscreen" about it. As you can see here, the QVGA display on the OT-707 actually only takes up about three-quarters of the front, the remainder treated to a listless matte black plastic. Good news is it'll only run about 100 euros ($127), but you'll have to put up with GPRS -- yes, GPRS, not EDGE -- to use it. Moving one tiny rung down the luxury ladder at 95 euros, the OT-800 is a portrait QWERTY phone that'll be available in a variety of fun colors at launch; it seems that the keyboard's surprisingly usable, and the quadband EDGE radio means you could theoretically take it stateside if you were so inclined. No word on release dates or carriers, but these would make great prepaid offerings, wouldn't they?

Panasonic TH-L17F1 HDTV Inside what appears to be a run of the mill Panasonic 17-inch 1366 x 768 edge LED backlit IPS LCD (ok, maybe not so run of the mill) is a world's first, picking up that title because it can go where your external antenna wiring doesn't. Capable of picking up all 12 segments of Japan's digital TV broadcasts courtesy of that funky rear mounted antenna -- lighting up (pictured) is thankfully optional -- the TH-L17F1 HDTV is completely ready for Japan's still upcoming DTV transition. Of course, diversity antennas alone are nothing new, with plenty of DVB / ISDB (the digital TV format of choice in Europe and Japan) tuners capable of picking up multiple sub channels or, in this case, able to kick down to 1seg in particularly bad signal conditions, to improve picture quality. We don't know how well that could work with ATSC broadcasts in the U.S. but never fear, we're sure Panasonic will figure out a way to bring over annoyingly distracting (and...

Yamaha's four updated HTIB systems :YHT-791 , 591, 491 and 391 As much as we itch to go fully custom in assembling speaker/receiver combos from disparate brands, there are reasons that HTIB systems are so popular, with value and ease of use coming in high on the list. The four updated HTIB systems from Yamaha certainly stack up pretty well: a couple of systems (YHT-791 and 591) with HD audio codec support are balanced out by a pair of 5.1 systems (YHT-491 and 391) that trim the price without leaving you totally out of the game. Holding pole position is the $850 YHT-791, packing 90-Watts to the seven discrete channels and 100-Watts in the 10-inch sub. Four HDMI inputs, HD audio codecs and even a iPod dock round things out and pretty much ensure you'll have the audio thing covered. If you need that DTS HD-MA and Dolby TrueHD support but not 7-channels' worth, save yourself $200 with the YHT-591 and up to 5-channels at 105-Watts each -- it'd be the direction we'd lean ...

Sony latest DVD HTIB sets: DAV-HDX589W and DAV-HDX589WC systems Also checking in at Sony's Las Vegas showcase are these DVD upscaling-based HTIB systems. If those Blu-ray packing all-in-ones are a bit too much for you, the top of the line DAV-HDX589W and DAV-HDX589WC systems, featuring either S-AIR wireless speakers or S-AIR multiroom listening station, respectively, with 1000 watts maximum power to their 5.1 speakers for $430 later this month. The next models down drop features like auto calibration and audio enhancement on their way to a $300 price tag leaving a few lonely new portable DVD players, but really, like the rest of this line, it may be time to look upmarket.

VidaBox's RoomClient: SE Where does a HTPC enthusiast who needs some of Kaleidescape's ease-of-use, but is left cold by even the new Mini System pricing turn? We'd suggest rolling your own HTPC, but if that's out of the question, then VidaBox's new RoomClient:SE might fit the bill. For $2,250, you can pick up what amounts to a cute little Vista Media Center box packed with a single analog tuner (hey, it's good for a few more months) and a digital tuner, a 1TB hard drive, DVD burner, audio out via optical or 8x3.5-mm jacks and video output over HDMI (courtesy a DVI adapter), component, VGA or S-Video. Once you're ready to step things up, the RoomClient will pull duty as either a VidaBox Server or extender; sadly, the Blu-ray streaming of its bigger brother RoomClientHD didn't make the cut.