Kickin' back in the Chrysler 300 LWB
Maingear's Prysma does Viiv Egyptian-style
 The new pyramid-shaped Prysma Media Center PC from game PC manufacturer Maingear has support for the ViiV spec, and though the $1752 base configuration has a mere 512MB of RAM, 80GB HDD, and integrated graphics, there's plenty of room to grow. Of course, in keeping with the Viiv spec, there is gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 Intel HD Audio, and a Pentium D 920 Dual Core 2.8Ghz processor, so the PC should at least be able to push around a bit of HD content if you can manage to find some. Maingear rounds out the Prysma with dual NTSC tuners and some pricey ($299) custom color options. Read more..!
Gitaroo-Man set to rock the PSP
 Listings on Sony Japan's retail site has noted the rhythm-based title, called Gitaroo-Man Live!, will be released on the 25th of May. There is still no official word from the title's developer, Koei. There's also no news if the game will ever be released outside of Japan. However, if Gitaroo-Man on the PS2 was any indication, there's always a chance it could see some action on US soil. Strange as the game may be, it does have its share of fans, all of whom we're guessing are already drooling at the thought of taking their Gitaroo on the road. Read more..!
 The crown for largest pixel array goes to a man known only as Crazy Jon (trust us, that's no misnomer). Dude cobbled six NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB video cards and three 1,000-watt power supplies to take on a wall o' what appears to be Dell 30-inch 3007WFPs. Twelve, to be exact. By our math that's 49,152,000 pixels -- and about $26,400 just for the displays alone. Oh, and did we mention that Crazy Jon already had five Apple 30-inchers on his desk! We love you, Jon. Seriously though, can we come over sometime?! Read more..!
Zagato Ferrari 575GTZ preview
 Zagato has released a preview photo of one-of-a-kind Ferrari 575GTZ. The new Ferrari GTZ was commissioned by Japanese car collector Yoshiyuki Hayashi (pictured), who specifically requested that Zagato make a unique 575 in the style of the famous 250 GTZ berlinetta. The aluminum-bodied car incorporates a host of styling cues from Zagato's classic custom sports cars of the '50s, including the two-tone color scheme of the 250GTZ. Read more..!
Christian Louboutin Suede Cork-Heel Slings
 These understated sling-back pumps from Christian Louboutin are Suede Cork-Heel Slings made of soft suede in a warm, earthy tobacco brown. The base and heel of the shoe, but not the soles, are made of cork. These pumps don't have the same punch as, say, the black Balenciaga platform pumps, but the sky high heels will still ensure that all eyes are on you - not just on your shoes. Price $670. Read more..!
Averatec's AHI UMPC concept device
 Mix one part OQO, one part Sidekick, and a touch of UMPC, you get Averatec's new AHI concept device. Expected to be launched this fall for as little as €500 or €900 ($600 or $1,090 US) depending on options including: windows XP, a touchscreen (which we assume will take advantage of Microsoft's Touch Pack UMPC suite), WiFi, GPS, 3G data, and a six hour battery life in a 7.3 x 3.5 x 1.3-inch 24 ounce package. So yeah, basically this device might single-handedly solve just about every complaint the UMPC community (and we) have: price, battery life, keyboard, and wireless data. So keep your eyes out for Averatec this fall. Read more..!
Onkyo unveils HDC-7 Viiv media PC
 The Onkyo media PC now known as the HDC-7, is now ready for its close up, and comes packed with lots of goodies, including a Pentium D820 at 2.8GHz, 1GB RAM, 400GB drive, DVD burner and all the inputs and outputs you'd expect, including DVI, component, VGA, dual Firewire and dual USB. It's due out in Japan in late May, with pricing expected to run about ¥300,000 (about $2,500). Read more..!
 The Clio NXT was (is?) the successor to the cult 1998-released WinCE laptop/tablet which is said to feature Windows CE.NET 5.0 (yes, CE), a 10.4-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen LCD with 180-degree pivot, WiFi, 64MB SDRAM and 64MB Flash memory, a near full-size QWERTY keyboard, and a smattering of connectivity and expansion options including SD card slots, PCMCIA, USB, a headphone jack, mic, and video out. Out of the blue a press release stating that Duke University's Fuqua School of Business is to serve as the "beta site" for the NXT and Data Evolution's other CE computing device, the Cathena ultra-light laptop. That's it -- no price (although we last heard $999 for the NXT), no expected start date for this beta program, let alone a revised ship date... nothin'. Read more..!
AjaxAMP: Slick web-based Winamp control and streaming
 AjaxAMP is a Web-based interfaces for Winamp. It's a plugin that lets you control Winamp via a web browser with an Ajaxy interface. It features drag-and-drop playlists and a rearrangeable (though not skinnable) interface, and it can stream music over the web to any computer. It's also free and, at 445kb, a nice and small download. Read more..!
Free screencast creator Wink 2.0 released
 Wink lets you make software tutorial or demonstration movies by recording whatever's happening on your screen, adding text boxes, buttons,and saves it as a Flash file. The new version features unlimited text boxes and buttons, image and shape objects, audio recording and editing, undo and redo, improved Flash output, and more available languages. No word on when the Linux version will be available. Read more..!
 With JotSpot Family Site, a private wiki service is geared specifically toward extended families. JotSpot Family Site provides birthday and event calendars, Google-powered maps, family trees, polls, and a family blog. As someone who has a large extended family, it sounds like a great idea if they can make it easy enough for everyone to use. JotSpot Family Site is in beta and most appealing of all, free. Read more..!
Japan launches effort to colonize moon with robots
 Reported by the Asahi Shimbun the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are taking action on their earlier intentions to build lunar and inter-planetary exploration and colonization robots. Meaning they've gathered their team to develop robots with artificial intelligence to land on and explore the moon within 10 years, and independently colonize the joint within 20. Read more..!
Intellitabs: Tabs for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
 Intellitabs is an addon for Microsoft Office putting a seamlessly integrated set of tabs to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for fast switching between documents. With Intellitabs you can customize what data is shown on the tabs and in their tooltips (e.g. author, word count, file size, etc.), and you can save a group of tabs as a "session" so all of the documents can be opened at once. Intellitabs isn't free--it will cost you $19 for the Standard edition of each flavor (Word/Excel/PowerPoint) or $29 for Professional, or you can get all three Pro addons in a $49 bundle. Read more..!
Use up ink cartridges until they're (really) empty
 Here's some tips for Epson and HP owners: SSC Service Utility is a free Windows app for Epson printers that lets you freeze or reset your printer's internal ink counters to fool your printer into thinking the cartridge is full again. For HP owners things aren't so simple. Methods vary by printer and cartridge type and many of them require rolling up your sleeves and fiddling with the cartridge itself, but Mr. Ink Jet (an ink refill kit vendor) has some tips. Read more..!
Put your screensavers on shuffle
 ScreenSaver Commander(is free) handles the task of randomizing your Windows screensavers, and its other distinguishing feature is that you can configure it to prevent the screensaver from running when certain applications are open. It does other things like letting you manually set your screensaver. Its makers, Badevlav Software, also sell a shareware app called System ScreenSaver that lets you run ordinary programs as screensavers (and minimize all other apps, if you want), but the full version will cost you $10. Read more..!
Get rid of the Windows Update reboot nag
 There seems to be a solution for the Restart Now/Restart Later nag box that pops up after your install a patch from Windows Update, at least for folks with SP2. Using the Group Policy editor you can change the time between nags from 10 minutes to something more reasonable like an hour, or get rid of them entirely. Head over to The Code Project's forum, where a user called Daniel Turini describes the tweak. Stopping the Automatic Updates service will make the nags temporarily go away(if you don't have SP2). Just go to Start > Run and type net stop wuauserv. Once you eventually reboot, the Automatic Updates service will start again by itself. Read more..!
Sennheiser's Style, Sport, and Street range of headphones
 Sennheiser is set to drop 17 new headphone models: Style, Sport, and Street. A select few of these units like the MX 90 VC (pictured) will flaunt a new twist-to-fit ear securing system which relies upon a small rubber "stopper" you can twist securing the headphone around the outer ear. The Style range of headphones gun for optimum sound quality while remaining stylish and elegant via a "metal look" (and very German) design. The Sport range dishes out a healthy slathering of neon "fresh" green knowing that jocks everywhere secretly long for that color palette. These headphones are designed with max comfort and secure fit in mind and rock regardless of rain, sweat or low temps. Rounding things out is the Street line-up which conspicuously omits any old-school can designs and features unusual design, secure fit, and practical accessories with plenty of bass for use with both MP3 players and gaming systems. Expect to see all the new skull candy in stores starting next month. Read more..!
BenQ's BW1000 3-in-1 Blu-ray burner
 BenQ's BW1000 three-in-one burner has shown up in both internal and external flavors, courtesy of AVING. In case you hadn't heard, the BW1000, or "Trio", can read from/write to 25GB and 50GB Blu-ray discs, dual-layer DVD±R, and of course, the reliable old CD. Write speeds for BD-R and BD-RE discs a bit slower at 2x, with DVDs clocking in at 12x (4x for DL, 8x/6x for DVD±RW), and CDs burning at a zippy 32x (24x for CD-RWs). Nothing new as far as pricing or availability. Read more..!
 The developers of the Monome, a minimalist-but-clever button-covered box say, "The wonderful thing about this device is that is doesn't do anything really. It wasn't intended for any specific application. We'll make several applications, and others will make more. We hope to share as many of these as possible. Drum machines, loopers, 1-bit video transformers, physics models, virtual sliders, math games, etc."This new interface, is almost impossible to describe, but check out the video, it seems to be surprisingly flexible and fast to use. A year ago, the Monome was the Bitbox, a crude wooden box covered in illuminated momentary push-button switches. It had some early software developed in MAX/MSP which triggered a different sample on each row. Now, there are a range of interesting applications using OSC and MIDI, and the box is going into small-time production.
In February, the Philly-based development team bought 13,000 diodes from Digikey, and they’re currently building the first batch of 200 units, 8 x 8 grids which will sell for $500 with a USB interface and a bundle of open-source software.
Read more..!
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-Lytir1
