Hi-tech Frontier

Logitech Unveils An Updated Version Of Their PS3 Guitar Hero Wireless Controller Today Logitech announced an updated version of their Wireless Guitar Controller Premiere Edition for the PS3. In addition to the new glossy black finish, the guitar incorporates some minor improvements in the build and design based on feedback from Guitar Hero players over the past few months. But fans of the original version need not worry, the new model still has the heft and high-end features of the original like real metal frets and a touch sensitive neck slider and star power buttons to justify the $200 price tag. Look for it to be available sometime in May in the US, and in Europe beginning in June.

Grass Charging Valet doesn't actually charge your gadgets, isn't really grass Wouldn't it be great to be able to just toss your various gadgets into a nice little bed of grass and have them instantly recharge themselves through the magic of some WildCharger-style cordless charging technology? Of course it would. Unfortunately, this new so-called Grass Charging Valet available from Taylor Gifts won't let you do any of that. It will, however, let you conceal your current entanglement of chargers beneath a tasteful patch of 100% faux grass, and set you back a mere $30. Hit up the link below to get your order in if you're feeling so inclined, and look for it to start shipping next week.

WorldCard Ultra Palm-Sized Business Card Scanner When you think about it, handing people a small paper card with your contact info in this age of wireless communications is a bit old-fashioned. But I’ve yet to find an easier, or as universal a solution as the business card, so as antiquated as they may seem, I don’t think they’re going to be disappearing anytime soon. ##CONTINUE## Thankfully the WorldCard Ultra serves as a handy middle-man for getting the contact info from a business card into your contacts database. It’s a palm-sized scanner that’s actually powered via the integrated USB cable, making it particularly convenient for business travelers who have to deal with a new stack of cards every day. And not only will the WorldCard Ultra produce a full color scan of every business card (allowing you to ditch the originals) but the included WorldCard software will automatically OCR and add the contact info to your databases in Outlook, Lotus Notes or pretty much any other applicatio...

Nest Box With IR Camera Lets You Learn About The Birds And The Bees - Minus The Bees Now you can teach your kids about the birds and the bees - well at least the birds part - without all that awkwardness. (Human babies hatch from eggs right?) This nest box comes with an IR camera pre-installed inside that transmits a video image, night and day, to a base station that can be connected to any display with an RCA input, revealing the secrets of the circle of life. The transmitter’s got a range of about 328ft and 4 different broadcast channels in case you get interference from another device, but you’ll need to run a power feed out to wherever the nest box gets mounted since even the optional 9V battery pack is really only good for about 2 hours. You can order the kit from Pro-Idee for about $211, which isn’t cheap, but do you really want your kids learning where birds come from on the internet or on the street? I didn’t think so.

Fun Flash Disk: A flash disk that has a cassette shape Bored with all regular flash disks? Regular looks, just candy bar style, on few colors variation? Or maybe the flash disk that you need is something that more than just something to save your data? Maybe you are a very stylish person, so you want to look stylish in every way including with your flash disks? Maybe, you should consider buying these kinds of flash disks. As you see, those flash disks have many variances. Just choose, the flash disk that really you. Don’t worry, won’t take too much to spend for those thing. Just around 34 $, you’ll already have them: high speed USB drive, compact size-just 2” tall. For style, this might be could fulfill your needs. But for function, 1 GB is not a big capacity these days. For style, this is one of a kind. Many variations, not just color but also style, even the shape. For example, the flash disk that has a cassette shape. Well, it is depend on your choice. But remember, can use these fl...

Buffalo OTOKORO Mini iPod Speaker Is Kind Of All Over The Place It seems like Buffalo decided to cast a big net when they designed this miniature iPod speaker, in order to appeal to as many users as possible. First, there’s the iPod users who think that everyone else wants to hear what they’re listening to. The OTOKORO speaker connects to your iPod (iPod Nano 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Gen. / iPod 4th, 5th Gen. / iPod Classic 80/120/160GB / iPod Mini 1st, 2nd Gen. / iPod Touch 2nd Gen) via the dock connector which not only allows you to blare your tunes, but also control the volume via a set of + and - buttons. (Even though the iPod’s own volume controls should still work fine.) ##CONTINUE## Also, I guess since the speaker is cube-shaped and has a couple of round buttons, Buffalo figured they could go the whole nine yards and make it look like a single die, appealing to the problem gamblers. And finally, instead of leaving a single dot on one side, they replaced it with a heart graphic, which ...

Kyocera EOS Folding Concept Phone The flexible OLED screen of EOS folding phone concept from Kyocera is able to change its shape from a clamshell to close like a clutch-purse or a wallet. Appealing to our humanistic senses, a semi-rigid and soft polymer skin is used surrounding the flexible OLED display. This flexible screen allows greater adaptability of shape and interaction by maintaining a compact shape for simple use and unfolds to access a large widescreen display. The most incredible thing is the EOS charges through a collection of nano-scale piezoelectric generators that can create energy when a user interacts with this device. ##CONTINUE## The Kyocera EOS can be used in its folded-up shape for simple phone calls, unfolds to reveal a wide screen, and we were excited to hear that the it derives its energy from human interaction. The more you use the phone, the more kinetic energy is turned into an electric charge through an array of tiny piezoelectric generators. In other words...

Toro Tractor Combines Strength and Elegant Shape of Lamborghini Car Lamborghini is world renowned because of their high profile cars, but long before these supercars were roaming in the earth, the company was a leading tractor manufacturer. This innovative concept design of a Lamborghini tractor TORO is aimed to combine the today’s stylish Lamborghini cars with their triumphant tractor line to develop a consistent brand image. After plenty of revisions, the final design that has come out is being considered as the coolest tractor in the world. TORO comprises the strength of an efficient and powerful tractor as well as the elegance of a perfect shape that a Lamborghini car supposed to have. Jason Battersby, the designer, is 23 years old and currently a student at the Umea Institute of Design in Sweden.

Lenovo gets official with mildly refreshed IdeaPad S10-2 netbook Lenovo's S10 has walked a long, rough road. First it battled months of delays, then hordes of anxious owners began weeping rivers due to incessant fan noise. Lenovo already made a few attempts to better its cute-as-a-button netbook, but now it's ditching the little-by-little approach entirely and introducing a 'Part II' version. The understandably titled S10-2, which we spotted via a handy user manual just last week, is officially official, and while it's still rocking the same basic specs (1.6GHz Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera, etc.), there have been a few appreciated tweaks made. There's a new cover design, a larger keyboard, a bigger trackpad and a model with integrated 3G that'll run just $50 more than the standard $349.99 flavors; too bad Lenovo didn't take this opportunity to dish out an entirely new IdeaPad with a CPU that's marginally robust.

Monitor Audio Airstream 10 WiFi radio hands on While Monitor Audio's new Airstream 10 WiFi / DAB radio unfortunately isn't a radio inspired by a vintage Airstream trailer, it is nonetheless pretty eye catching in its own right, and fairly full featured as far as WiFi radios go. Apparently, the radio can either be stood upright or placed on its side, and it'll let you listen to some standard FM or DAB radio, or hop onto a network via WiFi or Ethernet to either stream some tunes off your Mac or PC or tune into some internet radio stations. What's more, while Stuff.tv is apparently reserving final judgment for its full review, it does say that the sound quality doesn't disappoint, and it packs the usual 3.5mm jack to round out its options. Still no word on a DAB-less version for these parts, sadly, but those in the UK should be able to pick this one up starting in June.

Another Balance Board edition Why should authentic, honest-to-goodness Wii owners be the only ones to indulge in some mindless escapism -- or a spirited virtual workout, for that matter? To this end, the heads at Chinavasion have dreamt up a two-tone, quasi-legal Balance Board KIRF for you and your game console. Sure, this is by no means the first such beast we've seen, and there's no telling whether or not this bad boy is compatible with your WÜ, MiWi2, or Chintendo Vii, but it does sport handsome light blue accents. Take one home for $67.91, or save a few shekles and buy 'em in lots of three or more.

LaCie hurdles the 10TB barrier, upgrades its 2big and 5big RAID drives The kids at LaCie are clearly out of control. Every time we turn around they're unveiling another big, bad storage solution aimed at a world hungry for... well, more storage. If the old 8TB model was a little slight for your liking, the company has announced product upgrades for both the 2big Network and 5big Network devices, featuring Apple Time Machine and in the case of the 5big device, iTunes server support. While the latter rocks five hot-swappable drive bays for up to 10TB storage with models starting at $799.99, the 2big device sports a 'mere' 4TB of RAID action starting at $319.99. These are devices that speak calmly, in an eerie monotone, pronouncing that they still have the "utmost enthusiasm and confidence" in your mission. They clearly "want to help you." Available soon on the company's website.

Dell's $299 Mini 10v now on sale Looks like Dell's Stateside online store has put the new $299 Atom N270-powered Mini 10v(née Inspiron 1101) up for order after it went on sale in Denmark late last night. Preliminary ship date is listed as June 1, but we're guessing it'll arrive a little sooner, as the original date was "mid-May." Anyone taking the plunge?

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 hands-on You've seen Lenovo's IdeaPad S10, right? If so, you'll surely recognize the recently revised S10-2 -- a mildly tweaked version of the netbook that sports the most minuscule of changes. That said, the new top cover and larger, more mature keyboard are certainly worth a gander

Corsair's speedy P256 256GB solid state drive Remember that then-named S256 we saw sneak out right around a month ago? Yeah, that bad boy's finally on sale, and it's shipping as we speak from a number of trustworthy e-tailers. Said SSD -- which now goes formally by P256 -- packs specially selected Samsung MLC flash memory and a sophisticated Samsung Controller IC, coupled with 128MB of cache memory and Native Command Queuing (NCQ) support for stutter-free performance. By the books, this one can reach speeds of up to 220MB/sec (read) and 200MB/sec (write), though you can bet you'll be paying for the haste. We're seeing it on sale for around $658 online, though Dell's listing shows a wicked steep $851.99. Either way, ouch.

Samsung's 30nm NAND chips give birth to 32GB memory cards Remember the halcyon days of 2007, when Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" rocked the charts and Samsung revealed its 30-nm manufacturing process, promising a 128GB memory card in every digicam? We're still not quite there yet, but the company is finally releasing the first cards to utilize that manufacturing process, the biggest offering 32GB of storage goodness. That's twice the capacity of its 40nm cards, which never made it past the 16GB mark. 30nm moviNAND chips are in production now in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB sizes, and hopefully will hit retail before that 33 megapixel Mamiya we've had on order finally ships.

Motorola announces W7 Active Edition for fitness and sporting enthusiasts Sure, we were a little hard on it back when we first saw its rumored, horrifying existence but it turns out our nightmare scenario has come true: the W7 exists. The one we're seeing above however, has had at least a little sexy added to it -- ditching the three-part color scheme for blackish silver -- and it also has 3G which lessens the pain a little. The fitness and sporting targeted handset sports an accelerometer, which can be used to do all sorts of things like silence the ringer and pause or restart the tunes on a run, and it also boasts a pedometer for those of you who like to enumerate every step you take. The W7 (which will be available in white as well) is going to be available by June of this year in Asia and Latin America, but there's no word on pricing or availability elsewhere.

Samsung a177 gets reviewed Today AT&T begins selling an interesting new GoPhone pay-as-you-go option, offering users unlimited domestic local and long distance for $3 a day, only on the days that you use it. If all you need is a sheer crapload of voice minutes, this actually stacks up really favorable against AT&T's postpaid offerings, which price unlimited service at $99.99 a month -- with this, you'll be paying between $84 and $93 a month, assuming you end up springing for service every single day. Of course, the tradeoff is that you're stuck bringing your own phone to the network or picking up one of AT&T's GoPhone devices -- which tend to dominate the low end of the spectrum -- but then again, if voice is really your thing, odds are you don't care about how many accelerometers your phone features. ##CONTINUE## On a related note, Samsung's a177 (pictured) has gone live on AT&T's site, bringing a solid text messaging experience to the prepa...

Samsung Exclaim dual slider, looks awesome Yo, Ocean 2, look out -- Samsung's onto your game. QWERTY dual sliders are still pretty frickin' rare as form factors go, but it seems like Sammy's looking to rock one in the next few weeks for Sprint. This is a device that we'd previously seen rumored as the Cello, and for a device that's clearly intended to be a mainstream SMS-heavy handset, the specs really aren't that bad: QVGA display, EV-DO, 2 megapixel cam with video recording, AGPS, and Bluetooth in your choice of two tasty colors. Rumor has it we'll see it hit the market on June 7 -- possibly alongside the Pre, of all things, in which case we wouldn't expect much fanfare on launch day.

Panasonic DMR-BS850 Blu-ray DVR reviewed Infuriatingly restrictive DRM aside, Panasonic's FreeSat+ Blu-ray burning DVR brings some new capabilities to the UK, apparently enough to impress Home Cinema Choice. A few downsides, like ITV marking its HD broadcasts Copy Never preventing any disc backups, and an inability to connect to other devices on the network didn't take away its DVR features, h.264 compression capabilities and solid Blu-ray playback. Of course the entry price for the DMR-BS850 is high, but take a look at the rest of their notes before deciding whether or not all those arrows and padlocks are worth the trouble.

Samsung's Joe Kane-designed SP-A900 due later this month Been waiting for something to top the well-received Samsung SP-A800B? How about the next in the line, the SP-A900, ready to ship later this month but now improved with Texas Instruments' DarkChip 4 DLP chipset for an even higher contrast ratio (now up to 12,000:1), similarly higher price, 1080p res at an MSRP of $12,999. CNET lets it be known this should bring the Joe Kane approved design home via specialty retailers as is its custom, but we're sure fans of quality projectors know where it can be found.

NEC 46-inch X461HB high-bright display For those with professional-grade demands on their LCDs, NEC is launching the latest addition to the MultiSync line, the 46-inch X461HB high-bright display. So named because of its 1500 cd/m² brightness and 3500:1 contrast ratio, it's 110% brighter than NEC's previous efforts, though not quite as eyeball searing as Samsung's 70-inch Super Bright champ. Still, if these specs and a 1360 x 768 res fit the bill for your brightly lit commercial application, it's just $3,899 and shipping in July.

Sanyo's LP-WXU700 projector is first to stream HD video over 802.11n WiFi True, Sanyo's LP-WXU700 is limited to a WXGA (1280 x 800) pixel image. But it's still the world's first to transmit that video over 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.0). Grabbing wireless video off your Vista PC is a snap thanks to the projector's Windows Embedded CE 6.0 software with Video Streaming Function that links back to Vista's Network Projector Function. Spec-wise we're looking at a 0.74-inch 3LCD panel capable of projecting a 100-inch image at a distance of 2.5 to 4-meters at 3,800 lumens with a 500:1 contrast ratio. Sanyo even tosses in a single HDMI jack in addition to the usual analog inputs. While, it's targeted at offices and schools, it wouldn't surprise us to see this ¥62,790 (about $642) projector show up in make-shift home theaters and gaming rooms when it launches in June.

WinFast HPVC1100 is world's first external SpursEngine encoder Toshiba's Cell-based SpursEngine HD video co-processor has made plenty of appearances within monstrous gaming machines, but this marks the very first time where it has stepped out of the laptop chassis and into a portable enclosure. Granted, the language barrier is killing us here, but it seems as if the Leadtek WinFast HPVC1100 wraps a SpursEngine encoder into an on-the-go solution that can be lugged around with a standard laptop in order to churn through video while on set, in the field or on the road. Other specs include 128MB of RAM, a PCI-Express slot and a weight of 1.54 pounds; there's no word just yet on pricing or availability.

JVC debuts 8K / 4K prototype camcorders, moviemakers drool Aw, snap. Just when you thought the 4K market couldn't get any more dominated by RED and the gang, along comes JVC to shake things up. For reasons unknown, the company has chosen now (and not a few weeks back at NAB) to unleash its prototype 4K and 8K camcorders, both of which boast D-ILA technology and can capture clips at a downright mind-blowing 8,912 x 4,320 or 3,840 x 2,160 resolution. There's also a more "compact" sibling which does 4K only, but even it provides plenty of pixels to zoom and pan in unprecedented clarity on. So JVC -- you, us, CEDIA 2009. It's a date, cool?