It wasnt too long ago when we heard rumblings about a $200 or $300 HD DVD player being available at Wal-Mart. Months went by and we still didnt see it materialize until now. A off brand player has finally come through. Venturer’s SHD7000 HD DVD player should be hitting your local Wal-Mart as you read this. The 1080i player is selling $50 cheaper than we had thought, coming in at only $199. If your not ready for 1080p than why not give this cheaper solution a spin while you wait for the prices to come down on the 1080p’s.

Tags: hd dvd

Twinbird might have really done it this time. We all know that there are many mp3 players that are water resistant. Some might call it weather proof, but they really cant be submerged in water like Twinbirds’s Zabady player. This abnormally large mp3/cd player can be submerged in 39 inches of water for for about a half-hour. No clue on shipdate yet, but pricing is coming in at about $190.

Tags: cd, mp3, waterproof

Today Japan began selling some twisted looking two legged walking robot that is running completly on Microsoft’s new Robotic-ware. One of the demonstrators was controlling the $5000 robot with an Xbox 360 controller. The Demobot was about 14 inches tall and weight 5.5 pounds. I doubt many would flip the 5k bill for one of these, but it sure looks promising.

Tags: microsoft, Robots

This is one sexy MP3 player. Vivienne Tam has a new MP3 player they call the TAM MP3walkman that they plan to display at their flagship store in New York. The company has been making stylish handset pouches for Motorola and is obviously looking to move forward and bring their trendy designs to new heights. I must admit this is one of the nicer “designer” devices I have come across.

Tags: mp3 player

Rumblings around the net about defects in the MacBook hard drive have been going on for the past few days. Today UK data-recovery firm Retrodata released a report to back it all up. Retrodata states in their report that revision 7.0.1 Seagate drives manufactured in China have defective read/write heads that can cause physical damage to the heads and make data recovery impossible. Apple has stated that they have only had a few reports of this problem but Retrodata says the problem is severe enought for a complete recall. If your a MacBook owner you might want to consider backing up…

Tags: hard drive, macbook

Harmon/Becker has another GPS, the BE 7977 which has recently received an FCC approval and should soon hit the US market. It seems to be a clone of their 7927 although with a larger widescreen display. The BE 7977 (manufactured by Mitac) has all the basic GPS features, bluetooth, DS/MMC card reader, optional external antenna and an on-board music player. Its not much to look at, but it should do its job. NO word on retail price as of yet. 

Tags: GPS

What a remarkable conversation tool. Picture this, your at your office water cooler having a conversation with a few co-workers when all of a sudden one of them pulls out his trusty compact sperm microscope and says “Check out my sperm count”. He fills this tiny little bad boy up with his newly created sperm and hands it around for all to see. I think not, but quite the story that will be told for years to come.

 The disposable compact microscope magnfy sperm, blood or other body fluids from 500 to 1000 times depending on how much light you use. The 5-pack costs costs $89

Tags: microscope

Siemens has announced that they are developing a new technology that will assign reps to support calls based on the caller’s age and gender. The new tech will be able to “intelligently” determin both the callers age and gender. I am not sure why they chose to impliment this in their call center, I think it is better suited for the local carnival. But hey, what do I know.

Tags: call center, voice recognition

Word surfacing from AT&T’s offical support forums is that the Samsung Blackjack manufactured between Nov. 2006 and Feb 2007 are being recalled due to an antenna issue. It seems that over time the internal componets wear making the antenna loosen and disconnet causing dropped calls and or poor signal strength. Is your Blackjack acting funky? Better hit AT&T’s helpdesk and get it repaired under warrenty… 

Tags: blackjack, cellphone

 ThirstyLight keeps an eye on your plants moisture with it’s “Drypoint Digital Circuit”. This little light on a stick will start blinking at you once the soil starts to get dry. It checks the moisture levels once per second and can send 5 different signals depending on different levels. I still dont think it will save the plants I have around here, but it might be worth it for you if you cant seem to keep your plants watered. Price? $10..

Tags: plants