All you need is a flush surface and a funky analog clock for your cell phone, according to this Mimique concept by RKS Design. Some may say that it fits somewhere between the Treo and the iPhone, but I personally think that the Mimique cell phone bears more of a resemblance to the Creative Zen Stone. RKS Design says that this minimalist mobile phone will be rocking the open source Android OS platform by Google, so its level of functionality and features will largely be determined by the open source development community. I’d imagine that the face of the phone comes with touch-sensitive controls that adapt to the situation, but you probably shouldn’t expect too much to floor you. Naturally, because the Mimique is little more than a concept at this point, there’s no saying when and if it will ever make it to market. Read more

[Tags]phone, mimique, cell, concept, design, open, creative zen[/Tags]

Playstation Portable (PSP) - Order Today! The multi-year agreement provides Mad Catz with rights to distribute licensed accessory products throughout Europe. Mad Catz plans to develop new, Arsenal-branded video game controllers, faceplates, Console Skinz and carrying cases for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS Lite, and Nintendo Wii gaming consoles. Read more

[Tags]playstation, catz, mad, nintendo, psp, , digital media players[/Tags]

While we like the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200, we found using Media Center too unreliable to replace our Freeview boxes, let alone a service such as Sky+. Devices such as the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200 enable you to connect your television to your computer via a home network and control Media Center from the comfort of your couch. Setup of the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200 is relatively painless providing you’re running a version of Vista with Windows Media Center (Vista Home Premium or Ultimate). Once it’s on your network you simply fire up Media Center on your PC and select the device in the Settings menu, the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200 puts an eight-digit number on screen, which you type into your PC and from then on you can use the DMA2200 to control Media Center on your PC. It also doesn’t help that we’ve found Media Center to become extremely unhappy if its aerial signal isn’t 100 percent, with the menu hanging, crashing and resetting the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200 periodically. It was when we had to input the eight-digit sync code into Media Center for the third time that we decided the LinkSYS Media Center Extender with DVD Player DMA2200 wasn’t the TV solution we were looking for. Read more

[Tags]media, center, extender, dvd, player, linksys, digital media players[/Tags]

More cars are coming equipped with sophisticated multimedia navigation systems that help turn interiors into something approximating state-of-the-art sound studios. The two companies, each at the high end of its field, have collaborated on developing a simplified multimedia navigation system that comes standard with the Scaglietti. Surprisingly, this is Bose’s first automotive “audio system” or as they’re now called, “head units” or “media systems. Simple as it may be, the Bose system also is smart - the tuning knob senses when someone is reaching for it and responds by enlarging the text on the screen. Rotate the outer part of the knob and the system will organize the available stations by genre such as rock, classical, talk, or news on AM-FM, TV, and satellite bands. One of the “musts” on the design list was the ability to recognize and play almost every optical disc available - including CD, DVD (both audio and video), SACD, and digital storage formats MP3 and WMA - and then play them through the Bose system’s 5. Read more

[Tags]system, , bose, audio, navigation, systems, digital media players[/Tags]

WEB PORTALS LOST 5% OF online ad dollars last year to narrower content sites and search engines as spending followed consumers across a more fragmented Web landscape. Underscoring the continuing shift away from portals to more targeted properties, the agency last year more than doubled the number of sites it bought ads on, from 863 to 1,832. When it comes to search, Google remains dominant, but technology upgrades by Yahoo and Microsoft helped the category increase its market share by three percentage points to nearly one-third last year. After an initial focus on pre-roll ads, different formats began surfacing last year including overlay ads (on YouTube), contextually targeted ads, and advertising “skins” that surround media players. Read more

[Tags]year, ad, advertising, media, digital, portals, digital media players[/Tags]

It’s not going to have the richness of a regular audio CD but it’s enough for background music considering the pint-sized sound of some smaller systems. Some systems boast of having unique audio processing technology, although this typically boosts the lower frequencies and overall volume without necessarily improving the quality of the sound. Micro systems are designed primarily for use in small areas that don’t need a great wall of sound but there is sometimes distortion at the top end because the small speakers aren’t designed for high volume. As with all the systems here, hours of digital music can be played from a digital music CD and USB device. This low-profile model has the standard audio and digital music playback from CD and USB sources and, as with the Philips unit, it includes an iPod dock that recharges the player while listening to tunes - but song details aren’t shown on the LCD readout. Read more

[Tags]systems, sound, music, cd, speakers, small, digital media players[/Tags]

Apple on Wednesday dropped a patch for QuickTime to fix a arbitrary code execution vulnerability. It supports to convert your favorite video from / to AVI, MP4, iPod, PSP, 3GP (mobile phone format), Zune, iPhone, FLV, MKV, WMV, ASF, MOV, QuickTime, MPEG, RM, VCD, VOB. It can convert Mp4, m4v, QuickTime MOV, 3gp, FLV, MPEG1, MPEG2, VOB, WMV, AVI, ASF, DivX, XviD file to iPod video. Sony PSP and Apple iPod), WMV, 3GP, 3G2, QuickTime (MOV, QT),. Watch the videos on BNET>> Sun Sponsors Open Source Community $1M Innovation Award Sun is pleased to announce a $1 Million Open Source Community Innovation Awards Program which will foster innovation and recognize the most interesting initiatives within open source communities worldwide. Read more

[Tags]quicktime, apple, video, , 3gp, convert, digital media players[/Tags]