Epson's new multimedia viewer P-4000 has a pretty decent 3.8 inch LCD (resolution 640x480 pixels) for viewing your snaps. The hard drive is a more than reasonable 80GB and can apparently store 18,000 6 MegaPixel images. Slightly better than your average digi-cam storage, no? It also stores digital movies and music files. Transfer your pics via the integrated CF and SD memory card slots or via USB cable.

Would be quite nice if it took pictures too but it doesn't. Can't have everything. RRP 499, we found it at £431 [Camilla Chafer]

Roberts Radio Ltd, makers of those rather nice retro 50s-styled radios have raced into the 21st century with this Sound 39 DAB Radio. It appears to be rather a generation-bridging product:

1) It receives DAB radio with all the benefits of clarity that go hand-in-hand with it,
2) It allows you to pause and re-wind up to 35 minutes' playtime (even from standby if that was the last station you listened to)
3) AND it also has a bright red button completely dedicated to Classic FM. Not that it's FM any more. But we won't worry about that, now.

Much easier to tell your mum/nan to push the big red button for music than it is to force-feed them the manual...   [Sara Wallen]

Read

More Audio at Shiny

Well, not exclusively for naughty pictures, of course. These FlexiSkins from BoxWave have just been released for the Canon PowerShot SD550 and Ixus 750 (which I'm almost entirely sure is the same camera). They come in coral pink, frosted clear, jet black, aluminium grey and smoke grey.

These are not only for cameras - they do a multitude more of these things for PDAs, smartphones, mobiles, MP3 players and GPS units. You've probably seen similar things suffocating your local iPods.

Sanyo's been at it again, producing a teensy new addition to the teensy Xacti range. The Xacti C6 is apparently the world's smallest, thinnest and lightest solid state still and moving image camera of its kind. It certainly looks the part, thanks to a smart gold shell. The 6.37mp camcorder records 30fps in MPEG-4 Video and can also snap 6mp still images whilst you're filming. It comes with a 1GB SD Memory Card, which is enough room for an hour of footage.

More details from the press release after the turn.

This isn't strictly gadget-related, but I thought the true blue geeks in the audience might like be interested to hear that Mulder and Scully may well be making a come back. According to our new gossip blog, Startrip, Gillian Anderson would love to do another show - and Chris Carter and David Duchovny are both up for it as well. Gillian did a great job  of playing pleasure vortex, Lady Dedlock in BBC's Bleak House recently, but she says that finding work is not so easy since she moved to the UK.

Read the full piece over on Startrip

I used to think Dick Tracy's two-way watch radio was pretty nifty, but now that I've seen Eurotech's Wrist Worn Computer, I think the Detective could use a technological upgrade.

Designed to be worn on the wrist, the low-powered CPU comes equipped with GPS, wireless LAN and USB support; a touch screen with a display area of 72x55mm; Bluetooth, speakers; a microphone and up to 1GB of memory (via the SDS).  Adjustable to be worn on either the left or right wrist, the Wrist PC is an accessory that favours function over fashion.  Not that Dick Tracy would complain...I believe he's still wearing the same fedora and Mac he's been wearing for the past 50 years, so fashion really isn't his forte anyway. - [Star C. Foster]

Read (via igargoyle)

I never thought left-handers had a problem when it comes to keyboard use but left-hander luvvies RU-Lefthanded have a whole host of useful items for lefties. Like this wireless keyboard designed in an ergonomic 'A' shape that is supposed to reduce RSI and carpel tunnel syndrome. The only really obvious layout difference is the number pad has been plonked on the left side. It's yours for £48.75 and they'll thrown in a wireless mouse and a little donation to a water project in Maasailand. A word of warning though, you'll need a floppy drive to install the software.

Cor! Count how many times I wrote 'left'. [Camilla Chafer]

Designer bag lady Kate Spade has knocked her Tripoli iPod shuffle cases down by half price. It's not particularly exciting in design and I'm still struggling to understand what all the blurb about Libya and Tripoli has to do with anything... Still, it is attractive, especially when it's only $30 on sale and it isn't likely to clash with that much.

Her Broome Street iPod case fashion range are also down to $32 in some colourways. Ah sales, they come in spades. I'll get my coat. [Camilla Chafer]

For those of us mere mortals who can't afford all the swish Bang & Olufsen-style electronics, Maplin are offering this slightly retro-styled wall-mountable DVD player which claims to play all sorts of formats.

Have to admit I think that's rather nice but then it's no secret that I love a bit of 80's style. Thinking about it, this player reminds me slightly of a Delorean. It's the brushed metal and angular features. Puurrrrr.  [Sara Wallen]

Get your hands on it for just under £60 at your friendly local Maplin's.
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If you prefer virtual parenthood to the flesh and blood tykes who need MP3 players, there's Eccky - a game that let's two "parents" create, name and interact with their darling offspring via MSN Instant Messenger, mobile phone, and an on-line game window.  Like real-life, these cyber children will resemble their real-life parents using their DNA traits; unlike real-life, however, it takes only 6 days for the tot to reach their 18th birthday and move out of the house and leave your life forever, like the ungrateful wretch you always knew you'd raise.  On the other hand, Social Services isn't likely to come around and nab you if you choose to go AFK and leave the baby without adult supervision.

I tried the mini-version of the game, and managed to only to upset or spoil my Eccky child.  I'd like to blame more poor parenting skills on the fact that the interface wasn't in English...but I fear it may go deeper than that.  My brain is so often AFK that I can't be trusted to rear plants, let alone children. - [Star C. Foster]

Read (via pasta and vinegar)

Although I would argue the 6-12 year-old set doesn't actually need an MP3 player (although I'm sure many 6-12 year-olds would vehemently disagree with me), I would be far more comfortable giving them a player that was designed for rough-and-tumble behaviour, because I sure as heck wouldn't give them mine.

Maxfield's upcoming Max-Joy MP3 player is looking to fill that bill.  Impact, dirt and water resistant, the colourful 256MB - 1G player will retail for approximately £45; £61 if you get it preloaded with the fairytale audio bundle.  Perhaps the most attractive selling point for concerned and tech savvy parents, however, is the fact that the audio output is restricted to 60DB in order to stop little ears from being damaged by loud music.  As we all know, blasting our way to deafness is a grown-up prerogative. - [Star C. Foster]

Read (via Forever Geek)

More Kids' Gadgets
MYMO cute kid's mobile
TV Time Manager for your kids
Winnie the Pooh TV & DVD Player

Like wearing heels, but can't bear to be stuck in a pair all day? This concept design from Walking Chair lets you have the best of both worlds, allowing you to flip down your heel when the balls on your foot start screaming obscenities at you.

I just hope that's one secure locking mechanism to keep the heel up! And that it'll be available in more (or should I say less?) colours than shown... [Sara Wallen]

Read, 7th page under 'products' (via BornRich, thanks Veronica!)

Now that phone cameras are actually getting quite good - are you starting to miss the heady days of "Ooh, who's that? Hahaha his left eye's massive! And Dave looks like Quasimodo!" when all the camera phones seemed to have interesting, err, effects?

Never fear, the days of seeing all your friends disfigured are back! Well, not really. Unless you repeatedly wallop them over the head with your camera-phone. But these neat little stick-on Gummi lenses allow you to do a few tricks with photos which were previously the reserve of those with posh cameras and a bag full of filter lenses.

Dualit's one of those aspirational brands that even I can get all excited about. I never thought I'd live to see the day when I actively fantasised over owning something that's desiged to brown bread, but those Dualit toasters are just too damned purty. They're expensive, mind. And this Dualit DAB Kitchen Radio is no different.

The hefty chrome kitchen radio comes with a rechargeable battery, as well as a kitchen timer for cookery type ventures and a snooze button should you decide to stick it by your bed instead of in your kitchen. It's available for £200, which makes it on the pricey side, but I've had a go with one and it's really rather lovely.

How about clubbing in the courtyard? Music in the meadow? Enough of the alliteration? Okay then.

Bear with me, The Move have just invaded my brain:

My head's attracted to
Magnetic wave of sound
With streams of coloured circles
Makin' their way around.

I can hear the grass grow
I can hear the grass grow
I see rainbows in the evening...

Rational posting resumes after the continue link...

The LaundryPure device, due out mid-April of this year, claims to clean and soften your laundry without the need for  hot water, detergent or fabric softener. With a suggested retail price of $747, it proposes that cleaner, softer, more-bacteria free clothes can be obtained through washing with cold water and...UV lighting?

Apparently, the UV apparatus will infuse your water with ozone bubbles, which they claim is an effective, environmentally sound way of cleaning.  Not so effective, however, that your stained clothes won't still benefit from a little pre-treating; and optional enzyme tablets are available to boost the LaundryPure cleaning experience.  This probably says volumes about me as a consumer, but as much as I'd like to believe my clothes could be made soft and sparkling by water and light - cleaning without the benefit of man-made chemicals seems somehow unnatural. -[Star C. Foster]

LaundryPure (via Red Ferret Journal)

Related:
WashDryIron
Whirlpool Fabric Freshener
Wash with the Body Box

This is a neat little idea - though how well it would work is another matter. The Phlash is a little stick on flash for your camera phone, designed to help improve photo quality in less than perfect light. It works the same way as the flashes you get inbuilt on some cameras, providing a burst of light from an LED which should help your camera out a bit. Apparently, it's 12 times stronger than current phone flashes, so it should do a better job than most of them seem to do. It's a shame that you have to activate it yourself rather than having it work automatically with your phone, but it's probably not much more effort that fannying about in the menu options to switch on the flashes in most camera phones.

Phone Phlash

LG is looking to break into the fashion phone market in Europe, seeing as its current handset offerings are flagging next to the new giant Sony Ericsson and the machine that is Nokia churning out handset upon handset.

It's a novel colour - brown with red back-lights is likely to stand out nicely from a market where we are used to black, silver and the occasional pink or blue, with nearly always blue-LED back lights. Why blue LEDs? Geeks just like them. Trust me on this one, I should know.

Minimalism is great and all, but I just know I'd spend the first 15 minutes of holding this trying desperately to figure out how the thing actually works. It's almost impossible to look cool when you're repeating turning your Easy Cube MP3 player round and round in the hope of finding the one switch. Which kind of defeats the object of trendy minimalism in the first place.

It looks very similar to the Q-Be/Mobiblu players (though not as small at 70mm cubed), but also carries a faint whiff of the Asono Play. There's no display or internal memory - tracks are stored on SD cards. It's only $50, but bear in mind you'll have to buy 4 AA batteries for it - and memory cards if you want to bump up the storage space. Someone's bound to import one

Product Page [Via Engadget, via The MP3 Players]

Not, as the press release claims, the first pink 3G phone on the market (that honour, I believe, goes to LG's U880 available on 3), but  certainly the first pink 3G phone available from Vodafone. The Samsung Z500 comes with an MP3 player, 50MB of memory and TransFlash external memory - plus all the support you'd expect for 3G video calling, recording, and messaging. Oh, and you also get one of those pink Plantronics Bluetooth headsets thrown in.

Vodafone info