Hi-tech Frontier

Smiling Face USB Drive Features: High-Speed USB 2.0 certified Durable solid rubber casing Hot Plug and Play; Functions like another hard drive No driver needed for most operating systems Support: Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and Mac OS Dimension: 48 x 42 x 9.5mm Weight: 14g Capacity: 2GB Color: Yellow, Blue Price: US$ 15.00

Tiny Retro LED Projector Tiny LED Projector with built-in rechargeable battery and a speaker. Simply connect your Digital devices, such as cellphones, laptops, netbooks, PC, digital cameras, VCD/DVD players, iPod, PMP players, via the RCA and USB cable - then project your film, music concert, PowerPoint presentation on the wall or ceiling. Featuers: Cuboid Tiny Projector Plug-and-Play Standard Camera screw-hold Connected Interface: RCA cable Resolution: 640 x 480 pixel Light source: 3W LED Picture Size: 15 - 48 inch Contract Ratio: 200:1 Video Source: Composite Video In (iPod Video Compatible (PAL/NTSC) Video Input: AV IN (iPod Video compatible) Speaker: Built-in Loudspeaker Size: 6 x 6 x 3.8 cm The Retro Tiny LED Projector is available from the Gagdet Brando website for $219.

GameTrak Freedom motion controller for Xbox 360 IGN's gotten a preview of the Gametrak Freedom motion-controller we first spied back in September. Designed by Performance Designed Products (PDP), the Xbox 360 (which will probably also be available for the PS3 at some point, too) stick's looks have changed quite a bit since then. Like most other motion controllers it uses accelerometers, but also adds ultrasonic 3D positioning using two sensor bars mounted to the display, which can triangulate the device's positioning to precisely calculate its distance, orientation and speed. Though the Gametrak Freedom is expected for Xbox 360 in the fourth quarter of this year, there are no specific details about pricing or availability yet.

Vuzix dips toes in augmented reality, makes video eyewear cool again Nintendo ain't the only company making waves at the Game Developers Conference this year -- oh no, we've also got Vuzix gettin' down and dirty with a brand new addition to its video eyewear segment. Said outfit has teamed up with metaio in order to showcase a new Augmented Reality Accessory Kit for the VR920 head-mounted display. The bundle will include the CamAR -- a clip-on USB camera that is designed to accurately track objects and the user's position in three-dimensional space -- along with the PhasAR wireless augmented reality input controller. When these are used in unison, users are able to simultaneously see what's going on in the Matrix and in the display. For instance, imagine reading a book that's tied into a program on the VR920; as you read along, images can pop up and complement the text. Far out, right? We've been told that the attachment should sell for around $100 on top of...

Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 Lenovo's breaking some serious molds with the IdeaCentre A600, and if you've been waiting anxiously ever since we got up close and personal with one back at CES, the patience has (nearly) paid off. As of now (like, right this very moment in time), three varients of the all-black machine are up for ordering, with base prices sitting at $699.99, $799.99 and $999.99. They each show that shipping won't happen for another few weeks, but we'll bet Lenovo's just being conversative.

Western Digital My Book series of external hard drives Western Digital's extremely popular My Book series of external hard drives got a little capacity boost today: all the single disk models now max out at 2TB. Not bad for the $330 - $380 you'll spend depending on port configuration, but that's a lot of data to trust to one disk -- we'd have a backup strategy firmly in place before plunking down the green.

Samsung U5 DoReMi pocket audio player If you can set aside the emotional ire evoked by its unfortunate DoReMi subtitle, French site Le Journal du Geek has procured a Samsung U5 pocket audio player and posted a plethora of pics of it dans la nature. No impressions here, but it does appear to come with a handful of colored face plates. They certainly won't cover the player the ones we saw in the official photos, but if you need a change of scenery, we guess every little bit helps. Still no word on pricing, availability, or that certain je ne sais quoi that'll help the player rise above the fates of its U3 and U4 predecessors.

Evergreen's impossibly small Micro USB Mouse As nerds of feeble build and limited lung capacity, we generally like our portable gadgets to be as small as possible. Problem is, there's a fine line between ultra-portable and un-useable. Take Evergreen's $20 Micro USB Mouse... please. Our opposable meat-hammers would futilely mash away on this quartet of buttons -- nevermind the scroll-ball.

KARAOKE Channel ONLINE introduces its first hardware kit Eager to add a little spice to your weekly "family night?" No, we're not talking about forcing your kids to hack your DS into a MIDI controller while you and the spouse race to see who can eat the most frankfurters in ten minutes, we're talking about karaoke. The KARAOKE Channel ONLINE has just branched out by introducing its first hardware kit, which includes a pair of microphones, a vocal mixer and a volume controller. Oh, and this is somehow the first and only karaoke system "designed explicitly for use online," which likely means it's too lousy to be used in public. Anywho -- the singing system can be procured right now for $99.95 with a one year's subscription to The KARAOKE Channel ONLINE's library of more than 5,000 songs, or if you've got all the latest hits logged in your brain, you can snag the standalone kit for $39.95.

Sony Ericsson Idou in silver So far, we've only seen the Idou in black, but Sony Ericsson does like to play with the palette -- and sure enough, we're now seeing a shot of a silver model for the first time. SEMC Blog doesn't know whether this is a canceled or to-be-announced version, but like everyone, we're hoping it's the latter.

Nokia song-inspired Bluetooth headset designs It didn't exactly cause that big a stir when it was first announced, but it looks like Nokia's Music Almighty headset design competition still managed to attract a respectable 6,000 entrants, and Nokia is now showing off the five winners that have been manufactured as fully-functional, one-off headsets. The hook of the contest is that all of the headsets had to be inspired by a song, which expectedly drew a whole range of designs from the stylish Daft Punk "Robot Rock" set above to feat of subtlety that is the R. Kelly "I Believe I Can Fly" headset.

Verizon Alias2 Verizon's original Alias U740 dual-hinge phone may not have rocked any worlds, but it was a clever attempt to provide the best of both a QWERTY keypad and a standard clamshell number pad in a single device -- and it sounds like the Alias 2 we're seeing leaked here improves on that concept by using dynamically-changing button labels to hammer home the mode switches. It's not clear what tech is being used to switch layouts -- there are some whispers that it's an E-Ink display, since the labels apparently remain even without power -- but given this phone's expected price point, we'll say we're expecting more along the lines of one of those segmented LCDs found in cheap universal remotes. In other words, garbage. Hopefully we'll be proven wrong at CTIA, we'll let you know.

Sony XEL-1 OLED TV Sony's XEL-1, widely known as the first consumer-level OLED TV to hit the market, has done a pretty decent job of traversing the globe. For reasons unknown, however, it has yet to touch down in the great nation of Australia. Thankfully for deep-pocketed Aussies who passed up on the Kevin37 deal, all that changes next month. CNET is reporting that Sony will launch its 11-inch wonder Down Under in "mid-April," with pricing expected to be anywhere from AU$6,000 ($4,209) to AU$8,000 ($5,612). Call us looney, but we get the idea that most mates will be passing this opportunity up without thinking twice. We mean, do you have any idea how much, um, stuff that kind of dough buys in Nimbin?

Sony brings STR-DA6400ES network AV receiver, three others to Europe Sony's STR-DA6400ES, which casually streams high-def content over CAT5e, has finally nailed down a date to mingle with crowds in Europe. Just today, Sony has announced that the aforementioned model will be available this May along with three other new STR-DH receivers: the STR-DH500, STR-DH700 and the STR-DH800. The flagship model boasts 7.1-channel audio, DLNA compatibility, six HDMI inputs (alongside two outputs) and Digital Cinema Auto-Calibration. The rest of the crew ranges from 5.1- to 7.1-channel and are generally stripped down versions of the big papa.

Aleratec Blu-ray recording wares If you've been holding off on buying yourself a Blu-ray duplicator, bravo. Aleratec has just announced price drops of up to 65 percent on its 1:3 Copy Cruiser Blu LS LightScribe-enabled disc publisher and its 4x BD-R Blu-ray recording media. The former has seen a 25 percent dip down to $1,575, and for those unaware, it provides the ability to produce a trio of Blu-ray Discs at 6x each. The latter is potentially most riveting, with a 10-pack of "duplicator grade" BD-R media falling all the way down to $57.99 (MSRP). By our math, that's under six bucks a disc, and that's definitely hovering a lot closer to respectable than what we've seen in months past.

Forever Plus finally takes a pico projector to 720p Well, would you look at that! It's not 3M, Dell, Toshiba or any other mega-corp taking the totally tired pico projector from lackluster to 720p -- oh no, it's, um, Forever Plus. Said beamer has been around the block a time or two, but given the native 1,280 x 768 native resolution, we couldn't help but take notice. Reportedly, the 0.49- x 0.59- x 0.19-inch box outputs via HDMI and packs a lamp life of 30,000 hours, but we definitely have serious doubts about the quality. And the actual availability, for that matter.