Tech Digest

Knomo Bags

The fact that Knomo won Shiny Shiny's Accessory award at our awards evening the other week (yes, we know we promised to stop banging on about them, but we lied) will give you a clue that we're great fans of the bags. We've not actually covered them on Tech Digest yet, and since the company is promising to get bags out before Christmas to anyone who orders by the 23rd, we thought the time was ripe to point you in the direction of the website. This bag is called Bungo (they're all named after Wombles for reasons that are never made entirely clear). It's made from leather, has room for a 15-inch laptop and comes with all manner of inner and outer pockets. It'll set you back £150.

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ABOSS i-Pocket - iPod mini's long lost twin?

You think the designers of the ABOSS i-Pocket might have drawn inspiration from external influences? A combination of the iPod mini and the 3G iPod, the colours are the same as the mini and the front wheel button design is about as shameless as you can possibly get. How many GB the player harbours is unclear, but there appears to be a memory card slot and an OLED screen, so there are at least a couple of innovations on board.

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iRiver H10

Certain members of the Tech Digest team are beginning to wonder why they bothered to sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement for iRiver's H10 since the product was leaked with pictures of it all over the internet before the ink was dry. Still, we'll be playing it safe by sticking only to what's already been announced (not that there's much missing by the looks of things). The 5GB hard drive player is a smidgeon bigger than the iPod mini, but it's lighter, weighing 96.2g compared to the iPod mini's 102g. It's the proud bearer of a colour screen, FM Tuner and a scroll panel that we're surprised Creative doesn't have something to say about.

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Denon Home Cinema MICRO

We're keeping it all short but sweet today since we're winding down for Christmas. So just the bare facts from hereon in. The name of Denon's DHT-M330DV Two-Box DVD Home Cinema MICRO tells you all you need to know really: it's in a two-box format, it's micro-sized for small spaces, it's a DVD home cinema system. For £449.99 you get that plus a 5.1 speaker system. It comes with PAL Progressive Scan, RGB on SCART and Dolby PLIIx. Other features include Auto Decode (automatically detects the sound format when you put a disc in); Quick Setup to make it easy for new users; and, most importantly, a remote control with illuminated buttons.

DHT-M330DV 7.1 capable Micro DVD Surround System
- Delivered as 5.1 yet 6.1 and 7.1 capable
  via pre-out jacks with additional amplification
- 6 x 20 watts into 6 ohms - high-quality amplification
- DTS-ES Discrete 6.1. DTS-Neo:6,
- Dolby Digital + EX plus Dolby Pro-Logic IIx
- Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker 'Wide'
   which enlarges the soundfield in small rooms
- PAL 625p Progressive Scan via component
  for best picture with Plasma and LCD screens
- RGB on SCART for best picture on conventional TVs
- Denon's whole suite of MP3/WMA & Family
  Photo replay JPEG and Photo-CD
- Auto-Format Decode, Quick Set-Up and simple
  Screen On-Screen Displays for easy consumer use
- Full AM/FM radio with FM RDS and 40 memory presets
- Neat two-box design - each component is just 70mm
  high and 210 mm wide, with an alloy front panel and side cheeks

Motorola's iPod phone coming along nicely

Latest reports on The Register suggest that a Motorola-built iPod phone is well on its way. Apple is apparently "very happy" with Moto's decision to build an iPod-style mobile that will be able to play music downloaded from iTunes. Apple is developing a version of the iTunes jukebox for Motorola phones and the rumour mill has been working over time on when a handset will actually appear. Some time during the first half of 2005 seems to be the official line, but hints that the phone might be flashed about a bit sooner than that is causing speculation that Steve Jobs might produce one from his pocket at the Macworld Expo in January. The Register has also pointed out that Motorola is set to make some sort of announcement on 6th January at CES in Las Vegas so there's a chance the phone might get a mention then as well.

The likelihood of rival Napster producing a service for Windows Smartphone devices (such as the Orange SPV C500) means that Apple will need to get cracking if it wants to beat the company to market. Meanwhile, The Register is speculating that the rumoured Flash iPod and the Moto phone could actually be one and the same - especially since the companies seem to be viewing this as an actual music player and not a GPRS music download service.

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Sony gives up on Plasma

Not content with dumping PDAs, Sony's also decided to give plasma television the boot as well. The company is apparently pulling out of the plasma TV market and concentrating its efforts entirely on LCD TV technology. Companies such as Sharp and Samsung have already massively invested in LCD technology, and Sony has obviously decided that it doesn't want to be left out, especially as the other companies were starting to get away from it when it came to flat panels.

What this means for the future of Plasma is anyone's guess. As I4U's report points out, Plasmas are still being developed and improved upon, but LCD is cheaper - and getting better all the time.

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2GB Flash Player from Cowon

The time seems ripe for a bit of idle speculation about whether Flash players will soon be replacing HDD players as everyone's portable music player of choice. Not while the prices are still sky high, we suspect, but Cowon's just pushed things forward a bit more on the capacity front with this 2GB Flash Player. The 2GB version of the G3 Player has just been announced for the Japanese market, so we'll be expecting it over here some time in the new year with any luck. Only problem is, at 45,000 yen (around £222), it's more expensive, with less storage space than the iPod mini.

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Stupidly cheap 3G handset

Vodafone may have some rather nice handsets in its 3G portfolio, but since you'll have to fork out around £200 for them on pay-as-you-go they're suddenly looking rather less appealing. Good job 3's on hand to offer you a deal you can't refuse, then. The company's already gained a reputation for its splendid value tariffs and now it's got a deal going with The Carphone Warehouse that means you can get hold of a Pay As You Go 3G Motorola C975 for £29.99. To get the deal you just need to purchase £15 of airtime with the handset, so it's still only costing you £44.99.

The phone itself is a pretty basic one, but it's got all the stuff you need - VGA camera with digital zoom, MP3 player, video streaming capabilities and speakerphone. Full marks to 3 for this one.

The Carphone Warehouse

TV Tuner Card for less than £30

There's no vouching for the quality of image you'll get from this thing, but £29.99 for a TV tuner card is pretty impressive. AverMedia is the company responsible, its TV GO 007 Plus card provides TV, video capture and video conferencing. It also comes with 16-channel preview, TV programme scheduler, Channel Groups and a Lockout option for adding parental controls. It's an analogue tuner and supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM. It will record TV or Video into MPEG 1, 2 and 4 formats so you can plug in a video camera and convert video to digital formats.

Available from Media Atlantic

DVD with Interesting Extra Features

Yes, we know it's probably just a ploy to get more visitors to the site and more sales, but it's Friday and it's nearly Christmas, and we're in the mood for writing stupid stories about people adding comedy extra features to a DVD recorder. Take a look at Samsung's DVD-R4000. At £299.99, it offers all the usual features you'd expect on a DVD Recorder, as well as some neat extras such as "Mosquito Noise Reduction" and "Gamma Correction in case you have the Hulk on DVD". Suddenly not so entertaining now we've written it out ourselves, but you have to credit these people for trying.

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