Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

While you won't find us dropping our wad on their new $480 head-mounted, speakers anytime soon, Sony might just tempt us with these. Their SRS-ZX1 speakers feature what Sony calls a new "Mobius Duct" meant to bring a decent, low-frequency response in a relatively portable 3.1 × 6.6 × 7.4-inch package. So it's small, just not that small. This active speaker system with built-in amp gives 20W x 2ch output off 2x analog inputs. Available October 20th in Japan for ¥49,350 or about $426.

[Via Impress] 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Ever dreamt of having a second, electronic, miniature nose that you could use to sniff out explosives, and maybe detect when your milk will go bad? We "sense" that you're at home shaking your head "no." Not a problem -- because some scientists in Israel have had that dream for you. Enter the Mini-Nose (no, seriously), a new technology developed by Herzliya-based Scent Detection Technologies Ltd., which effectively emulates the mammalian olfactory sense for trace and particle detection. The analyzer will be put into use by security organizations in Israel and the US, including (but not limited to) the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. Apparently, the Mini-Nose works by utilizing a technology called High-Frequency Quartz Crystal Microbalance (HF-QCM), which sniffs trace levels of explosives with a lower cost and greater accuracy than existing technologies. "Our technology is portable, reliable, cost-effective and can also detect imp...

Filed under: Portable Audio

It's not too tricky to get your palms around a relatively diminutive voice recorder these days, but finding one this convenient is definitely a rarity. This gem from Narae Inter measures in at just 6.5-millimeters in thickness and shouldn't take up much more room than a few useless credit cards in your wallet. Furthermore, it features 1GB of built-in storage, a flip-out USB connector, and flush-mounted controls to boot. Click on for a closer look.

[Via EverythingUSB]Continue reading Narae Inter intros wallet-friendly voice recorder
 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras
JVC's latest camcorder isn't apt to make your jaw drop with a sensational list of features, but if you're looking for an innovative way to handle just the basics, this sucka just may do the trick. The GR-DA20 SD camcorder offers up a 1/6-inch 800k pixel CCD sensor, 34x optical zoom, a 16:9 widescreen mode, 3D noise filter, and records onto those tried and true MiniDV tapes. Furthermore, this unit boasts a 2.4-inch color LCD monitor that slides vertically to provide a much wider range of viewing angles for the shooter, and the Digital Color NightScope function makes low-light recording a bit more feasible. Sadly, there's been no mention of a projected price point or release date.

[Via LetsGoDigital] 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Laptops

Not much to tell, but Sony just confirmed the updated specs we've already seen on their 15.4-inch VAIO F-series of laptops with Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, Blu-ray disk drive, and HDMI (a bit too early still for DisplayPort). They've also updated their VAIO C-series (pictured) for the ladies with options for a new T7250 processor and Radeon X2300 graphics. Yup, just seasonal updates to keep 'em fresh and in the news.

[Via Akihabara News]

Read -- VAIO F-series
Read -- VAIO C-series 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Handhelds

Alright, so it's a discontinued model and all, but is that necessarily a bad thing? A member of the dubiously named PPCWarez forum has figured out a way to upgrade this heavily featured PDA to WindowsMobile 6 capability. Fujitsu Siemens seems pretty unlikely to make the effort to upgrade, so these talented fans have stepped in and done it for them. Check out the package over at the link, making sure to reclick once you've accepted the terms and conditions of viewing the forum. Again, there's a slight tinge of dubiousness to the whole proceedings, so don't blame us if by some freak happening your precious PDA gets bricked.

[Thanks, Geert] 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Water purification is generally an energy-intensive, wasteful operation, but designers Alberto Medo and Francisco Gomez Paz have done a neat end-run around those problems with their Solar Bottle, a portable water bottle that purifies water using the sun. The bottle, which holds just over a gallon of water, uses a purification process called SODIS that takes six hours to kill off a whole host of baddies, including Oregon Trail favorites cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Just a concept for now, but the design has been well-received and won several awards, so hopefully someone will step up and take it into production soon.

[Via Inhabitat] 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays

Not satisfied with just unleashing a pair of HD DVD players for the European crowd, Toshiba has now announced a forthcoming digital photo frame for the same set that does a whole lot more than shuffle through old photo albums. The DPF7XSE boasts a seven-inch 800 x 480 resolution panel, dual one-watt stereo speakers, SD / MMC / CF / Memory Stick support, USB 2.0 connectivity, and 256MB of built-in storage space. Most notable, however, is the supported format list, which includes JPEG, MP3, WMA, MPEG4, and DivX. Currently, Tosh hasn't released details surrounding a price for the fall-bound frame, but users picking this one will reportedly find an infrared remote and USB cable bundled in.

[Via TrustedReviews] 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

Aw Sony, just as you were getting back on our good side you come out with this, your PFR-V1 headset. A steep ¥55,650 (about $480) buys you a headset that mimics front-facing speakers with an "extended bass reflex duct" which fits onto your ear canal. Of course, you could buy a decent pair of front facing speakers for that dough but that would be too easy, eh? Sony, like.no.other.

[Via Engadget Japanese] 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

As if you need another source "confirming" the launch of new iPods at Apple's September 5th event, along comes DigiTimes riding their wave of Taiwanese component manufacturing insiders. According to the folks who brought us the Powerbook G5 (No DigiTimes, we won't forget), Apple is due to drop a new Inventec Appliances manufactured, widescreen iPod with touch-interface (widely rumored to carry the iPod Touch brand) sporting WiFi and an iPhone-like UI when it ships "at the end of this month or early October." Also in the cards is a Foxconn manufactured iPod nano with more storage and iPhone-like UI at the same prices as existing models and higher capacity iPod shuffles from Asustek. So yeah, it falls in line with all the other rumors but that doesn't mean we're buying it. 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!