Monday, February 28, 2005

Sonus 1XT DAB radio with voice navigation. Those of us not living in the U.K. are seriously behind when it comes to radio. Sure, we’ve got satellite radio in the U.S. But the Brits have DAB — digital audio broadcasts that are free over the air as long as you’ve got a DAB receiver (America’s answer to DAB, HD radio, has a long way to go before it even comes close to DAB in terms of reach). This has led to something of an explosion in DAB receivers, many with Tivo-like time-shifting features built-in. We particularly like the units from Pure, which have a sort of retro-Henry Kloss look to them, but still pack in a range of modern features. One that’s really intriguing is the Sonus 1XT, which includes voice navigation. As you scroll through stations on the dial, a gender-selectable voice prompt tells you what station you’ve reached. Sure, digital tuning and presets make this less useful than it might have been a few years ago, but we like the idea of being able to scroll and randomly find a station we might like, without having to wait for a station break to find out where we are. Of course, since we’re in the U.S., we can’t actually check this out, but we hope the upcoming crop of HD radios includes similar functions. [Engadget] 9:25:04 PM

	Sunday, February 27, 2005

Jens Of Sweden MP-120. Jens of Sweden is taking on the iPod shuffle, launching the MP-120, a 1GB player with an OLED display that retails for one krona less than Apple's flash player. As is typical for JoS players, the MP-120 can play a variety of formats, including OGG Vorbis and WMA. The players all have an excellent battery life of 22 hours, and a built-in USB 2.0 plug. Essentially, if you can get your hands on one for less than the price of the shuffle, you should buy one—as long as you don't need to play music from the iTunes Music Store. Unfortunately, Jens players don't get a lot of traffic here in the US, plus Apple tends to really hike up the price of their products in Europe, meaning the likelihood of we Americans finding an MP-120 for less than $150 is probably pretty slim. Product Page [JensOfSweden] [Gizmodo] 8:02:41 PM

Shuffle Art Archive. In what is hopefully my last iPod post of the morning, I have to note that the Shuffle Art Archives are great. I don't know who sent me the link—I woke up this morning and it was on my desktop, which happens more often than I'm comfortable with—but thanks. What is it? It's remixed iPod shuffles, both in real life and the Republic of Photoshop. Shuffle Art Archives [ServePics] [Gizmodo] 8:01:33 PM

Game Boy On Your iRiver iHP-140. Rockbox is an open source replacement firmware system for your Archos Jukebox, iRiver and one or two other players. There's a new plugin for Rockbox in development called Rockboy, which allows you to port the gnuboy emulator over to your iRiver iHP-140 (only?) and play your favorite GameBoy Color games. Rockbox only supports monochrome, so you're stuck with that, and playback is pretty slow, but it's a neat concept nonetheless and not faked like those Sonic-on-Archos pics. Still, we're not sure when/if it'll be widely available, as it appears they're still in the relatively early stages of Rockbox for iRiver. More pictures after the jump. (Thanks, BiLo!) Rockboy Plugin [Rockbox] [Gizmodo] 8:00:18 PM

iPods and MRIs. David Pescovitz: UCLA radiologists Osman Ratib and Antoine Rosset developed an open source iPod app to manage and move medical imaging data. Around 6,000 radiologists, surgeons, and cardiologists are now using OsiriX. From Technology Review: It automatically recognizes and lists the medical images stored on the iPod. Now, iin much the same manner that people scroll through a playlist, radiologists can scroll through a list of patients or view their records through iPod's iPhoto application.... But it's not just a novelty, a one-time joyride for medical hackers. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents say they use it every day, and 24 percent say they are likely to develop plug-ins or other upgrades to better serve their needs. While critics have leveled criticism about the iPod application, Ratib says that the patient's personal data is stripped out and assigned an anonymous identification during transport. Link [Boing Boing] 7:55:56 PM

HCL launches India's Cheapest PC. Suhit Anantula points an article on MoneyControl: In little over a year of introducing personal computers, PC, at Rs 14,990 plus taxes, HCL Infosystems has launched another one at Rs 12,990 plus taxes. What is more, you could even buy it in installments of Rs 360 a month. It’s a computer that comes with a 1GHz processor, a 30 MB hard disk, 128 MB RAM, a 15-inch colour monitor and even a 52 x CD ROM drive. Describing the product - which is clearly the cheapest branded PC in the country - as the Maruti 800 of computers, Chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems Ajai Chowdhry said it would give assemblers a run for their money. He told CNBC-TV18, “It is aimed at first time users in small towns and villages.� Chowdhry added, “We have a very sincere belief, that in this country the bottom of the pyramid is where the market lies. 70% of India lives in small towns and villages. So, if we don’t create products for them, how will we ever grow the market in a big way?� [E M E R G I C . o r g] 7:54:20 PM

iPodderSP is "the podcasting client for SmartPhones." [Scripting News] 7:53:43 PM

The iRiver H10 Junior. Aw, isn’t it cute? The already tiny head-turning iRiver H10 has a bun in the oven, the iRiver H10 Junior. So what can we expect from the little runt? 2GB of flash memory, 60-hour battery life, and an official announcement at CeBit next month. Oh, and a pricetag that’ll make you wince, more than likely. Can’t wait! [Via I4U] [Engadget] 7:46:30 PM

Sony Ericsson planning a P915/P1000?. This is all a bit sketch, but the word on the street that Sony Ericsson is about to announce a successor to their P910 smartphone. It’s not entirely clear whether it’s going to be called the P915 or the P1000, but it is said to have a 320x240 QVGA resolution display, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Best part: instead of the keyboard flipping down, which caused some, ahem, ergonomic issues with the P910, the keyboard on the P915/P91000 is supposed to remain in a fixed position just underneath the screen (similar to the Treo 650). Or something along those lines. Whatever they’re calling it, this one could be announced as early as Tuesday. P.S. - Before you get too excited, the image at right is just a concept design someone mocked up, as far as we can tell there are no actual images of the P915 in circulation. [Thanks, Niyazz] [Engadget] 7:44:45 PM

MP3beamer gets the budget audio/media server just right. What would you say to a Pentium 4-based Linux-powered audio server that has a 4-in-1 card reader, PCMCIA slot, SPDIF in/out, 1394, USB 2.0, S-video, RCA, DVI, and a DVD drive that automatically rips and encodes your audio to MP3 on its 80GB drive? And what if we also told you it distributes the music not only over the network, but wirelessly as well, supports syncing, and has slick web, Java, WinCE, Palm, and Windows interfaces? Oh yeah, and that it only costs $400? Well, we’d say that this is everything the Sony NAS-A10 wishes it could be, but doesn’t even come close. In fact, we’d say this is basically everything we’d always wished a budget audio/media server could be, and we couldn’t be more stoked about it. [Via LinuxDevices] [Engadget] 7:41:39 PM

Arcom WER1500 rugged Linux gateway/router. We here at Engadget know you’ve got needs. You’ve got fixed and vehicular telemetry needs — we all do. This Arcom compact Linux gateway and edge-router will satisfy all that and more, including enhanced Field Force Automation, remote monitoring for Homeland Security, distributed building management and Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) services. The WER1500 sports a 133 Mhz AMD SC520 processor running embedded Linux and supports Nextel’s iDEN network, with 802.11b available as an option. Loaded with three serial ports (two RS485, one RS232), Ethernet, WiFi, 32MB SDRAM and 16MB flash memory, this wee unit measures 6.57 x 4.84 x 3.19-inches. But how can I pinpoint a vehicle’s location, you ask? Just bundle in the optional GPS receiver and your beefy little box can sniff out that mobile’s location, making it an ideal choice for monitoring temperature-sensitive cargo. [Engadget] 7:39:42 PM

You have 24 hours left to win Memina's 2GB Pocket Rocket USB flash drive. Oh, just a little reminder for ya: you have exactly 24 hours left to enter our contest to win Memina’s new 2GB Pocket Rocket USB flash drive. [Engadget] 7:38:42 PM

Xbox 360 Mockup. These mock-ups of the Xbox 360 are obviously not real (there's a copyright attributed to them) nor are they practical, but they are pretty imaginative all the same. Xbox 360 First Pic? [Warp2Search via Botros] [Gizmodo] 7:30:11 PM