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For the past 12 to 18 months, astute readers may have noticed an increased bit of hedging in our reviews for AV receivers. Yes, even low-end receivers offer more features and flexibility than $1,500 models did just three or four years ago and yes, there are plenty of great-sounding receivers available out there at great prices. But smart shoppers looking for a no-compromise, future-proof AV receiver have been stymied, even if they've been willing to pay upwards of $2,000.

At least, that was the case--until today. Onkyo has become the first mainstream manufacturer to officially announce an array of home audio products that offer the two big features that have been MIA on home audio products to date: HDMI 1.3; and onboard decoding of Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks found on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. The news itself wasn't a surprise, as most of the details had been leaked on the Web earlier this month. And there is no doubt that other manufacturers will be announcing similarly equipped receivers in the next few weeks and months. But because specs, pricing, and availability have been confirmed, we can now say authoritatively that Onkyo looks to be offering some of the most exciting--and surprisingly affordable--A/V receivers seen in recent years.… Read more

Photobucket members will discover a new option when logging in this morning. The company has partnered with Meez, the 3-D avatar service to give Photobucket members a place to store and host their 3-D avatars. We don't normally cover personal avatar services, but when they partner with sites with over 40 million users, it's worth noting. Meez has approximately a million users (which in and of itself is no small feat), and the service has apparently seen quite a bit of growth in the last few months.

Users can pick from a ton of options to make their … Read more

Ever wish you didn't have to get your hands anywhere near those icky-smelling flakes of fish food? Well, here's an answer to your problem. An Egyptian professor, Mohamad Abou El-Nasr, won third prize at last week's Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif. for creating a home aquarium that allows the owner to remotely control it from anywhere in the world. With the Wi-Quarium, you can adjust the heat, water filter, and lights in the tank, as well as feed the fish on command. You can also watch them on a webcam and obtain e-mail reports of … Read more

Intel announced today the winners of its Intel Core Processor Challenge, a competition with a total of $1 million in prize money that encouraged computer manufacturers to use its Viiv processor technology to create a high-performance, media-savvy machine. The winners, well, aren't particularly earth-shattering.

You do have to keep in mind that these are legitimate working PCs, not trippy concept designs created under the influence of what-have-you. So when Intel talks about the "best mix of style, acoustics, functionality and features for digital home entertainment," you have to take that with a grain of (pragmatic) salt.

The … Read more

Netvibes, maker of the single-page aggregator (or metagator) that I favor, is making an aggressive announcement at the Web 2.0 Expo. The company is launching the "Netvibes Universes" project. It's a simple technical improvement to the current service, but it's a bit of a business coup.

Netvibes Universes allows content creators to create custom Netvibes aggregation pages. What's technically new is that content owners can now customize the look and feel of their pages, and publish them as standalone Web pages with semifriendly URLs (for example: www.netvibes.com/icecube). Fully friendly URLS--in other words, custom Web addresses--will come later.

The business coup is that Netvibes signed up over 100 publishing partners, including recording artists like Mandy Moore and 50 Cent, and major media like Time, USA Today, and The Washington Post. All their Netvibes pages will be available on Monday.

It's hard to say if the Universes pages be better than their publishers' own home pages. They are different. A custom-designed home page can really stand out, but with more people finding content through "side doors" like blog posts, Digg, and aggregators like Netvibes, the front pages of content sites matter less than they used to. It makes sense, then, for some publishers to use off-the-shelf services like Universes to publish front pages that are almost as attractive, and far easier to modify, than all the individually coded front pages that sites now support.

Netvibes told me that it will make the Universes functionality available to all its users by June. At the moment, it's possible for ordinary Netvibes users to share a Netvibes page only with other users, and you can't customize the page nor specify a standalone URL for it.

In related news, Netvibes competitor Pageflakes is releasing its Flurry feature at Web 2.0 Expo. By interviewing you about your location and your interests, this update makes it even easier to get started with the service. I interviewed Pageflakes CEO Dan Cohen in February. It's a great product--I'd use it if I wasn't already hooked on Netvibes.

Both Netvibes and Pageflakes make better start pages than the majors (Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google), although in the long run that won't matter because the big guys can easily grab the lion's share of traffic. For that reason I think Netvibes' direction is very smart. Instead of focusing on making a better product for individuals, the company is now embarking on a business-to-business strategy, too, and hopes to reach new users not only directly, but through its business clients.

Read on for more preview screenshots from Netvibes.

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There are some very enterprising members on AVS Forum. Poster "Ohgami" did some digging around the Internet to find some new information about Onkyo's upcoming receivers and happened to stumble upon specs for the entire 2007 lineup. Read all the details of his Onkyo receiver search (plus a very detailed post), or we've edited down the most important info below. We're not 100 percent sure this information is correct, and of course Onkyo has the ability to change the specs before the products are actually released, but we'll find out for sure at Onkyo'… Read more

I should start off with a disclaimer: The title of this post may be biased. I am inclined to perceive just about any dishwasher as a dishwasher of awesomeness, since (like many New Yorkers) I don't have one. Consequently, I see the dishwasher as some sort of magical mystery device. Take that as you will.

But this one, the Fisher & Paykel Double DishDrawer, is still cooler than most, in my opinion. Why? Because it tackles both energy efficiency and space efficiency in one clever design move. Instead of being one big, water-guzzling machine that doesn't always fill … Read more

On-screen instruction for household activities has been around for years, especially in the kitchen for cooking and such. So Bernina got the bright idea to apply the concept to other domestic chores--namely, sewing.

Its "Artista 730E" has a color touchscreen built right into the machine at eye level and is loaded with Windows software, according to Chip Chick, to help with sewing patterns, quilting and embroidery. It even has a "stitch library" that includes 850 stich types and more than 100 embroidery patterns.

All of this is well and good, but don't think you'll … Read more

Sorry, Mike, I just couldn't resist. Looks like Hello Kitty is stalking you in the kitchen, too, thanks to this slow cooking crock pot. It's predictably pink and is decorated with lovely little depictions of Hello Kitty and food. It's supposed to make cooking easier, but really, it's just for the aesthetic touch.

Try pairing it with your pink George Foreman grill, which regrettably doesn't have Hello Kitty imprinted on it. But that's what stickers are for!

(Via ThisNext)