Tech Digest

Akai releases budget 30-inch LCD TV

A promising budget TV is out from Akai. This 30-inch flat screen, LCD TV, dubbed the LM-H30CJSA, is set to retail for a very reasonable £799.99. In a neat little add-on the TV can also function as a 1280x768 WGA monitor for your PC, and has picture-in-picture, meaning that you can watch the footie while using your computer. The monitor also comes with a pan-European tuner, has two built in stereo speakers, 2 x 10 watt RMS amps, and for you DVD fanatics and gamers out there, the TV also comes with progressive scan support via component input

The Shawshank Redemption released for Mobile Phones

Those of you out there owning phones with MMC slots might be pleased to hear that Nokia, Granada Ventures and ROK Player have teamed up to start releasing films on memory card. The first to come out is the classic “Shawshank Redemption” (see it if you haven’t), which comes preloaded on a memory chip for £16.99 from mobile phones stores or is available to order online for a slightly pricier £19.99.

Sony releases Silver edition of Slimline PS2

Sony Playstation fanatics may have heard rumours of a new slim line PS2 silver edition after Argos mistakenly posted it prematurely on their website. Well, it won’t surprise you to find out that the rumours are true, and the new silver PS2 will go on sale on the 13th of May for a suggested £114.99. The price will include the console, a controller and a silver DVD remote. Also on sale to complement your PS2 will be the Vertical Stand, Memory Card, DUALSHOCK 2 Controller and Eyetoy, available seperately. And all in silver of course.

Griffin release iPod battery backup

iPod meister Griffin has rolled out a surprisingly practical new addition for everyone’s favourite MP3 player, the iPod. The Griffin Tunejuice employs a single 9V battery to give an extra power boost to your iPod: 8 hours of additional play if your iPod has some charge, and 4 hours if your iPod is completely drained. The device will work both for iPod and iPod mini. The Tunejuice retails here for $19.99, not including international shpping charges.

Griffin

Bloggers chase the Mongolian Death Worm

It sounds like a pitch for a bad Blair Witch project spin-off, but a group of intrepid zoologists are going to go hunting for the mythical Mongolian Death Worm in the harsh Gobi desert. While they’re there, there going to upload their experiences onto their blog using a GPS 1600 satellite connection to the net. Will they find the worm? Or die trying? Find out by following the blog or waiting for the inevitable cable TV special, When Worms go Wrong V.

Samsung release the MP3 friendly E720 phone

Samsung has released the new MP3 friendly E720 phone. Apart from featuring an intergrated megapixel camera with a 4x zoom, an internal 260k TFT screen measuring176x220 pixels and an external 65k one measuring 96x96 pixels, the phone will feature an MP3 player. Although a lot of phones try to be MP3 players as well, Samsung seems to making a more determined effort with the availability of external player controls on the phone.

The phone has an OK 88.5MB of memory and can play music in MP3, AAC and AAC+ formats. It hooks up to your PC via USB. The phone also comes with the regular current generation phone features: GPRS and bluetooth among them.

The seven metre tall WEEE man

The WEEE man isn’t so wee. What is he? A seven-metre tall tall human figure made of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE, for those of you who hadn’t guessed). The WEEE man, unveiled by Canon Europe and the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts) is built out of three tons of electronic and electrical waste, apparently about what the average consumer will produce in a life time.

He will be on display London City hall for 28 days until the May 27th , when he moves to the Eden project in Cornwall.

Canon, who jointly launched the event, has said in a press release that it will "help promote and encourage better waste management and recycling in the community, in a bid to make the disposal of electrical and electronic goods as widely accepted as the recycling of newspapers, glass bottles and aluminium cans."

James Leipnik, chief of communication and corporate relations at Canon Europe added that "Last year, 1,000 business machines a month were either reused or recycled by Canon‘s UK operation to prevent them being added to landfill sites. This figure represents 100 percent of the machines returned to Canon by UK businesses."

The WEEE man also draws attention to legislation going through the European parliaments at the moment, which would ensure that retailers would have to take back WEEE, inform customers of their WEEE recycling schemes and ensure that that the WEEE is recycled. A joke here would be cheap, so don't even think about it. The UK government has announced that these laws would not come into effect until at least Janaury 2006, postponing it by 5 months.

Bags more sound for your iPod

Japanese company BrightonNet has joined in the iPod cash-in frenzy with the release of two new iPod bags: these vinyl bags have special slots for your iPod and feature integrated speakers. Although these bags do broadcast the presence of your iPod to any potential mugger within a 500 yard radius, they do look quite fashionable and are both available in handbag and shoulder bag style. Both weigh about 800g, and use four AA batteries to power the speakers. The bags also let you hold a bit of stuff, both measuring in at about 34 x 13 x 22mm. Unfortunately, these bags are only on sale in Japan. If that changes, I'll let you know.

via Techjapan

Water out of thin air

Hippyshopper has found an interesting little toy: a water cooler that dehumidifies the air, purifies it and the gives it to you in the form of drinkable water. This product from Pure Water Technology claims, amazingly, to be able to draw an amazing 38 litres of water in a mere 24 hours. If it does what it says on the tin, then this could be a really could make a splash. Sorry, couldn’t resist it.

Read more at Hippyshopper.

Wristwatch MP3 player/recorder

Looks like that James Bond fantasy is a little closer with help from Thanko Corporation’s new Analog MP3 watch with voice recorder. Released in Japan, the watch features a microphone that can record monoaurally in 64kpbs, 16kHz audio. The recordings can be played through on the watch itself, which also functions as a flash MP3 player, and it comes with an adaptor for your standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

The watch connects to your machine using USB 1.1 and has an internal rechargeable battery to keep things ticking for 9 hours. The watch is available in three fruity flavours: 128MB for 12,800 yen, 256MB for 15,800 yen and 512Mb for 19,800 yen. Now if they could only release a laser and grappling hook USB watch, my life would be complete.

via TechJapan