Hi-tech Frontier

Aliens PS3 case mod is staggeringly ugly to non-fans Adding even more credibility to the whole "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" mantra is this... masterpiece / abomination. Inspired by the iconic Aliens films, this completely over the top PlayStation 3 case mod is about as ridiculous as it gets. We're not really told how the modder went about crafting this lovely interpretation -- which you won't visit unless you too are an Aliens freak, but hey, that's cool.

Apple touch-screen netbook in Q3 Boom: Apple netbook in Q3 -- that's the rumor being spread by the Commercial Times / DigiTimes tag-team of electronics tattlers. Apparently, Wintek will supply the touch-panels to Quanta computer who'll be tasked with assembling Apple's netbook. Take this one with a grain of salt though -- while these two Taiwan-based magazines tend to be accurate with insider info related to Taiwan-based companies like Acer and ASUS, they can often be wide of the mark with rumors related to foreign companies. Unless of course we missed the launch of the Blu-ray Xbox 360 and G5 PowerBooks.

Sony's OLED Walkman -- NWZ-X1000-series player We've been itching to spend some quality time with Sony's NWZ-X1000-series player since its granite-sided shell was first revealed just ahead of CES, and now that it's inching closer to release (in the Old Country, at least) we finally have a full spec sheet to parse. On the audio side it'll play MP3, WMA, and AAC at up to 320kbps, and for video there's MPEG-4, H.264, and WMV support, sadly in most cases crippled at 320 x 240 despite that 3-inch OLED screen's 432 x 240 native resolution. That's nearly a quarter of those pixels gone to waste. Other goodies include FM tuning, 802.11g/b WiFi, internet browsing with YouTube support, and 33 hours of battery life when grooving to tunes, 9 hours when watching video, and surely much less when cruising the web. Still no confirmed domestic release date, but it can't be long now.

ASUS Eee Top ET2203 and ET2003 Amongst many, many other things at CeBIT, ASUS also found time to showcase two new Eee Top all-in-one PCs, though it completely failed to make any deal of it at all. In fact, it didn't even bother hosting up specifications placards, leaving us curious as to what these offer over the existing (and smaller) Eee Top machines. Aside from boasting 22- and 20-inch panels (respectively), NotebookItalia noticed that the ET2203 and ET2003 both included an HDMI socket and a Blu-ray optical drive, not to mention a natural affinity towards kitchens. We'll keep an ear to the ground for more on these in the coming weeks, but for now, you'll have to let ye old imagination handle the hard work.

Software dumps bring a taste of the Touch Diamond2 to the original No quantity of illicit CABs will grant your Touch Diamond a 5 megapixel camera or touch-sensitive zoom bar, but at least you can get some of the Touch Diamond2's software goodies ahead of time. everythingdiamond.info is hoting a plethora of binaries ripped from a Touch Diamond2 ROM, including several versions of the new on-screen keyboard, the photo album app, calculator, volume control, and more, all just waiting for a lovely Touch Diamond to call home -- especially cool considering the sequel's screen resolution has changed. Odds are we're just weeks (if not days) away from a full cooked 6.5 ROM with all of the Touch Diamond2's features for the Diamond, but if you're really into living on the bleeding edge, your playground awaits.

Pioneer SC-07 receiver The loveliness that trickle-down is, Pioneer's flagship SC-09TX receiver is no longer the only member of the family packing the B&O-sourced ICEpower Class D amplification. The $2,200, 110-Watt 7.1-channel SC-07 went under review at digitaltrends and to no one's surprise, it was liked. Taking top honors were the clean front panel and powerful, warm sound. The remote, however, wasn't so well-liked and much like other reviews, the lack of HDMI video processing didn't slip by unnoticed for this target market or price point. As much as we admire Pioneer's purist approach and even feel that it's likely that a display paired with an SC-07 is probably more than capable of handling HDMI scaling duties, it's a notable missing check mark relative to the competition.

Samsung new Bordeaux PAVV Fabrizio 650 LCD HDTVs Despite a sudden lack of support, the plasma ain't dead yet. Just days after announcing its ritzy new Bordeaux PAVV Fabrizio 650 LCD HDTVs over in South Korea, the same company has introduced a new line catering to the unshakable PDP fans across the globe. The Fabrizio PAVV 450 Series includes a 42- and 50-inch version with Sammy's own Crystal Engine, 0.001 millisecond response time, "Mega Contrast," and a trio of HDMI sockets. Outside of that, details are still being kept under wraps, but hopefully we'll know more after these get a US ship date. Wait, these are coming to America, right Samsung?