Hi-tech Frontier

Novague Rocking Chair concept: Convert the rocking motion into electricity Novague, a Prague design studio, have proposed a rocking chair concept that will be able to produce enough power for a reading light by converting the rocking motion into electricity. The LED lamp is empowered by a dynamo that can convert the mechanic energy acquired by the movement of the chair into electric energy. A simple steam engine like kinematic mechanism is set under the seat which works with a sliding lever that pulls a flywheel disc while the chair rocks. Produced energy is either supplied to the LED lamp or deposited in the batteries for later use. The aim of the principle is to develop the awareness among mass people of producing their required energy easily by themselves.

Cowon rolls out 32GB S9 PMP in Korea now Cowon's done a commendable job in making the S9 a force to be reckoned with in the PMP arena, but the 16GB maximum has likely caused quite a few music aficionados to look elsewhere. At long last, the company is releasing a 32GB flavor over in South Korea, though it'll cost you a stiff ₩379,000 ($287) for the privilege of ownership. There's no word on a US release, but we'd wager that it'll be here within a month or two. Right, Cowon?

Packard Bell intros 13.4-inch EasyNote Butterfly laptop While Acer is keeping plenty of its latest and greatest laptops for itself, it's also keeping its Packard Bell subsidiary fairly well supplied with some gear to reshape and rebrand, with this new EasyNote Butterfly model only the latest to surface following a pair of new DOT netbooks. This one steps above netbook territory with a 13.4-inch LED-backlit display, however, along with an unspecified Intel Ultra Low Voltage processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 graphics, your choice of an SSD or standard hard drive, a multitouch trackpad, optional 3G, and a promised eight hours of battery life. No word on a price just yet, but, as with the netbooks, this one will be reserved for the European market.

Microsoft's ambidextrous SideWinder X3 mouse available Still feeling a little less than a'right with dropping $99 on a wireless gaming mouse? Microsoft's newest, the SideWinder X3, is an eight-button wonder that boasts a 2,000 dpi laser-tracking engine, on-the-fly dpi switching between high, medium and low sensitivity, a totally sweet scroll wheel, and a cable. You know, for connecting to your computer and such. The best part? It's ambidextrous (a first for the line), so the southpaw in your life won't feel left out. Starts shipping in May for $39.95.

iriver P7 review We've been getting friendly with iriver's latest touchscreen masterpiece over the past few days, and have a few impressions to share. In many ways, though, the P7 is exactly what the pictures and spec sheet make it out to be: great design, great specs, few surprises, and little in the way of "interesting" functionality. While the Apples and Microsofts of the world keep on merging the world of PMPs with PDAs with phones, iriver seems content here to build a "mere" media player and leave it at that.

LaCie's Rugged XL: 1TB of ready-for-anything storage Clearly LaCie's going for that "timeless" look, 'cause the Rugged XL looks precisely like the original Rugged that launched over three years ago. The drive, which was unsurprisingly designed by Neil Poulton, touts a durable aluminum casing with external and internal shock absorbers, USB 2.0 and eSATA connectors along with a software suit to handle your backups. Packed within is a single 1TB drive, and externally, there's a "warm orange LED strip" to either keep you informed of drive status or just look stupendously fashionable, one. It's up for grabs today (or it should be soon, anyway) for $159.99, and no, the orange exterior cannot be swapped for a non-DOT-approved hue.

BubLuv Concept Aims to Reduce Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) BubLuv is a concept design by Michael Geedrick, a student of Queensland University of Technology, which is a monitoring device that can help parents to reduce the incidents on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS amongst infants. BubLuve monitors the children when they are sleeping and alerts the parents if any serious respiratory situation occurs. BubLuv is designed in a way that can measure carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations of the child during the sleep cycles of the infants. Later on, this device interprets these data to find out the exact situation and relay to the parents through gentle glowing signals.

Microsoft ushers in spring with new Zune Originals designs How much Zune can you handle? It's a question few have asked, and even fewer have answered. Microsoft seems to be unafraid of such conundrums, however, and it has now fearlessly introduced a new collection of Zune Originals designs in a day filled with Zune rumors. Each of the new designs, appropriately, feature a spring theme from artists APAK, Carolina Melis, and Linn Olofsdotter, and include options like a "tree-like design," a "tapestry-like design," and a giant Queen Bee for those that really want to stand out. Best of all, as with other similar Zune Originals collections, each of these are available at no extra charge, and are ready to be etched into your future Zune right now.

Pandora-lovin' Livio Radio sports 'thumbs up / down' controls Much like digital photo frames, the whole internet radio sector is getting really, really tired. Thankfully, a little known company by the name of Livio is breaking in to spice things up. The simply titled (and classically styled) Livio Radio is the first and only dedicated device to offer Pandora's signature "thumbs up, thumbs down" controls on both the front panel and a remote, and while we suppose Pandora will be plenty for most of the targeted customers, it can also tune into a comprehensive list of other validated internet radio stations from around the world through Reciva. Outside of that, functionality is indeed limited, but Livio designed this thing to be a simple WiFi mix tape of sorts, not a bona fide home audio player. Naturally, all that's required to get tunes streaming is an AC outlet and an internet connection, so you can feel free to leave your PC / laptop at home. It's ship...

Teclast M66 PMP If we were being sarcastic, we'd probably characterize Teclast as an exciting and dynamic outfit whose gear we always look forward to getting our hands on. Still, we were pretty surprised when the initial product renders for the M66 portrayed the device as little more than a glorified digiframe -- a Rockchip RK2806-packing digiframe, but still not very charming. All that said, we're relieved to report that in its current state the bad boy is a bit more palatable, sporting a 5-inch display, 720p decoding support, and support for H.264 MKV, RM / RMVB, and AVI video. And buttons. Still no word on release date or availability.

Acer 13.3-inch Aspire 3935 and 18.4-inch 8935G Still can't decide which of Acer's ample number of shiny new netbooks / laptops has caught your eye specifically? Here's some more details on two of those models, including availability, to help you out. First up, the 13.3-inch Aspire 3935 is available as now for just a smidgen under nine Benjamins. With that you'll get a golden brown metal chassis, one inch thick and and weighing in at 4.18 pounds with a frameless, 16:9 CineCrystal LED backlit display showing a 1366 x 768 resolution. Other amenities include a full-size keyboard with touch-sensitive hotkeys, multi-gesture touchpad, webcam, three USB 2.0 ports, a bio-protection fingerprint reader, 802.11 a / g / draft-N, and a 4-cell Li-ion battery. Spec-wise, we've got a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7350 with 4500MHD graphics, 8x DVD writer, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD, and Vista Home Premium SP1. If you're looking for something with a little more horsepower, the 18.4-inch Aspire ...

Magic Cube all-in-one card reader, cute Multi-card readers? Sure, they're ususally kind of a snooze... but this one's pretty cute. The so-called Magic Cube All-in-One reader -- which looks not a little like a Rubik's cube -- is a 56-in-one jack of all trades (microSD, SDHC, SD, xD, you name it) which tranfers up to 480Mb per second, and comes with a USB to mini USB cable. You can own this puppy (for Windows and Linux) for $9.99.

Sony Ericsson's C905 Plus is basically a C905 Your first thought when you hear "C905 Plus" might be, "oh, dear, the plain ol' C905 hasn't even been released on Rogers or AT&T yet." Well, we wouldn't worry about that too much, because it turns out that the Plus isn't much of a retooling -- in fact, it's not a retooling at all. Instead, Sony Ericsson has simply dropped its latest and greatest firmware on the thing to include new features like Smile Shutter, bundled an 8GB Memory Stick Micro card, and moved on with life. In fact, the C905 Plus is being billed as a limited offering in the UK at this point, so we wouldn't be surprised to see this fade into oblivion in the next few months -- at which point we can all get back to our regularly-scheduled 8.1 megapixel envy.

Samsung S8000 "Cubic" details It's easy to pass off the rumored Cubic as just another of the seemingly countless Sammy full-touch dumbphones and Windows Mobile smartphones, but hold up a second, there, partner -- rumor has it that this might end up being one of the company's first Android devices. If you're wondering how the S8000 model number morphed into Cubic, the answer lies not in the cutely cubic d-pad (at least, we hope it doesn't) but rather in the interface, which could sport the usual TouchWiz with 3D enhancements like we've seen on the OmniaHD. Add in HSDPA, WiFi, AGPS, FM with RDS, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 2GB of internal storage with microSDHC expansion, and a WVGA AMOLED display clocking in at 3.1 inches, and you've got yourself a bona fide superphone here -- only questions are when it'll launch, and how much brutally excessive financial stress we'll need to endure to get it.

Pioneer BDR-2203 internal Blu-ray burner Slowly but surely, these internal Blu-ray drive prices are sinking down to levels we'd consider to be "halfway reasonable." For instance, have a look at Pioneer's latest, the BDR-2203. An 8x BD writer that's totally capable of toasting DVDs and CDs when the BD-R spindle runs dry and very eager to play back Blu-ray Discs on your newfangled HTPC. It's all set to ship this month for a very manageable $249.99, and don't be shocked to see it moving for even less on the streets. Just be careful out there, cool?

Red Cube USB Jewel Drive Features: Metal Housing Retractable USB connector Capacity: 2GB Price: US$ 25.00

Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock Every body would hate Monday! It is so difficult to wake up early after a fully loaded night. If could be more difficult if we are not already sober after last night drunk. Unable to wake up early will make us come to the office not in time. It must be bad for our reputation and not to mention the Boss’ anger we must face. The American Innovative knows this problem and they give a solution in a gadget called Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock. This alarm clock has seven days schedules and reminders. It is fully available for customizing. User could customize its ring tones, scheduled, alarm volume and gradual wake options. You will get full control with user friendly dial system. The American Innovative understands that the key of wake up freshly is high quality sleep. That is the reason that this alarm clock is completed with sleep and naps timer system. It allows user to fall asleep with their favorite music from its music storage or radio station. That i...