Electronic Toy World

Posted Jan 13th 2008 12:40AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: CES, Handhelds, Tablet PCs
To wrap up its CES week, iriver has some pictures and scattered Korean text about its booth experience and product reception in Vegas over the past days. Tucked below all the self-congratulation, however, is what looks to be an as yet unannounced prototype from the ever-active iriver designers. The product appears to be an e-book of sorts, but with handwriting recognition and potentially a color display. Obviously, there’s no more info at the moment to go on, iriver has been feeling a little protype-ish of late, and we never got much of a product out of iriver’s last e-book, but hopefully we’ll be hearing more about this one soon.

Posted Jan 12th 2008 10:59PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Gaming, PeripheralsCopper Innovations Group has a bone to pick with Sony and Nintendo, and has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania seeking after some monies and an injunction against further infringement. The patent in question? Copper has a patent dating back to 1996 that “covers a method for connecting devices to a system and sorting their inputs by means of hardware identification numbers tied to each transmission.” Sounds like it would cover just about any sort of controller ever, but the lawsuit apparently is referring to Bluetooth — Microsoft, which uses a proprietary wireless standard for the 360, isn’t being named in the suit. No official word from Sony or Nintendo yet, but Sony lawyers could be heard crying softly into a pillow somewhere.

Posted Jan 13th 2008 3:08AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Apple, a company normally and notoriously known for being fast and loose loose with its product announcements just blew our minds: spy shots from within the Macworld expo revealed a large, black, shrouded booth; there’s simply nothing to see. More on this story as it develops — Tuesday morning.

Whilst travelling back from a frankly exhausting CES 2008, I found a very small reference in one of the local UK newspapers referring to a new product just about to hit the market. Now, I’ve heard of some strange food and drink combinations in my time, but Marmite with Champagne is probably one of the weirdest. Now I’m one of the odd people in my family who actually likes Marmite and I also like Champagne, but both together, um, I’m not so sure….

This is being marketed as a limited edition valentine’s gift, with only 600,000 being made available. The jar has a gold-coloured label saying ‘I love you’ or ‘For my lovely Marmite lover’.

Prior to it’s full release on 21 January 2008, Selfridges are selling the Marmite with a hint of Champage for £3.99. After this date they will sell at the lower price of £2.99 for a 250g jar. Selfridges have also commissioned Theo Fennel, the jewellery designer, who has designed jar with a sterling silver engraved lid at £145. However, you’ll have to be quick to get these ones as there’s only going to be 50 made.

Therefore if you’re other half is more minted, perhaps this loving gift would be more appreciated (particularly if there was something with a diamond hidden in the black stuff). Mind you, think it would get a bit messy if everyone thought, ‘he hasn’t just bought me a jar of Marmite has he? There must be something else in here too’!

Now, this comment is aimed at one particular person, and I think you know who you are - if all you get me this valentine’s day is Marmite, albeit with champage, I will not be happy or impressed! Even if it has a silver lid!

I haven’t as yet tasted this product, but if you have or if you know of anyone who has, please share the taste experience.

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Posted Jan 12th 2008 7:14PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Features
Apple’s a bit short on banners this year — just that “There’s something in the air” teaser we saw yesterday in a couple of forms — but we’ve arrived in San Francisco to prep for the show, and thought we’d snap a few shots of the convention center before the Macworld 2008 attendees descend upon this place like a plague.

Gallery: We’re on the ground at Macworld 2008

The quintessential luggage-toting image of bookworms has long gone. Now, even more so with something like the Sony Reader Digital Book available.

The Sony Reader Digital Book can carry up to 160 ebooks in its 1/3-in. think frame. Weighing a mere 9 ounces, the Sony Reader is perfect for a bookworm on the go. You can download files from the Sony Ebook store, although you can also view files of various formats such as PDFs, texts, RTFs, Word documents and BBeBs. It features a six-inch display and boasts paper-like screen technology. You can use the Sony Reader until 7,500 page turns before the need for a recharge. In my opinion, this is the next best thing to the Amazon Kindle, especially since the Kindle costs a full USD$100 more. The Sony Reader Digital Ebook retails for USD$299.

via Techeblog