series

Photos: Gamers compete at Playboy Mansion

When you picked your team on Halo, was there a scantily-clad model present? When you entered your guild on Warcraft, did a Playboy Bunny frolic in the corner? No? Then you must not be among the Championship Gaming Series inaugural draftees. Too bad for you!

To soothe your sorry situation, we suggest you click on the image at left to experience the vicarious thrill of the Carolina, Chicago and San Francisco gamers who convened at Hugh Hefner's infamous Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills this week. Do you think the draft picks will play better knowing the Bunnies are behind … Read more

Nokia's 'Signature' phone is work of art

It's not often that a mobile phone gets a unique makeover these days, especially at a time when ordinary handsets with loud paint jobs are routinely passed off as exclusive designer creations. But the new "Signature Edition" of Nokia's N76 is truly a work of art, thanks to Finnish sculptor Bjorn Weckstrom.

This customized black-and-chrome version of the smart phone features a miniature handmade sculpture from Lapponia Jewelry designed by Weckstrom. Electronista says that even the on-screen interface of the handset is "directly inspired by the artist's efforts."

The phone, whose specs are … Read more

Fujitsu's missing-link laptop

Where does a laptop end and a handheld computer--or even a really, really smart phone--begin? We have no idea, and we're not sure it really matters. But for those who care, Fujitsu is doing its best to blur the lines.

The "U series" addition to its "LifeBook" line of laptops features ultra-portable machines that are barely an inch thick and weigh less than 1.3 pounds. But you wouldn't necessarily know it by the specs: an 800MHz Intel chip, 20GB hard drive, 512 of memory and a built-in fingerprint reader. All of which beats … Read more

The incredible shrinking Walkman

As MP3 players continue their magic shrinking act, it's getting difficult even to identify what they are at first sight. The latest version of Sony's once-venerable Walkman making its Japan debut, for example, could be mistaken for a USB key or dongle, measuring just over 3 inches long and weighing only 1 ounce.

In fact, as Akibahara News notes, the E Series players can be used as a USB drive too. But that would make it a pretty expensive storage device, going for about $92 to $167 for versions ranging from 1GB to 4GB, providing up to 30 … Read more

Pharos GPS Phone gets official

Today, Pharos announced the official availability of its Pharos GPS Phone , which we covered back in January. You'll have a choice of two flavors: the Pharos GPS Phone 600 ($699.95) and the Pharos GPS Phone 600E ($599.95). The difference between the two is that the 600 ships with maps of the North America and Pharos' Ostia Navigation, while the 600E does not. Umm, we'll wait till we've finished our official road tests to give the final verdict on the Pharos GPS phone, but as I said in my earlier blog, I just can't imagine … Read more

Garmin introduces budget-friendly Nuvi 200 series

We're huge fans of the Garmin Nuvi series of GPS devices, which include the Nuvi 660 and the Nuvi 350. These little bundles of joy (seriously, they're about the size of a deck of cards) can be your navigator and your tour guide; they come with foreign-language dictionaries, currency converters, and the option to add on other travel-friendly features. Now, what we don't love is the jaw-dropping price tags. I don't know about you, but I don't have an extra grand to plunk down for the Nuvi 660. And even if I did, I'd … Read more

Preorder H-Series Cyber-shot cameras

Sony is now taking preorders for the DSC-H7/B and the higher-end DSC-H9/B. Each features 8 megapixels of resolution and Carl Zeiss optics. Offered at a price range of less than $500, these two both should be a sure hit.

Good vibrations for new BMW drivers

Drivers of the new BMW 5 series will have the option of an extra tech safety device to ensure that they make it to the boardroom meeting in one piece. The 2008 5 series, which will make its official debut at this week's Geneva auto show, will come with the intelligent Lane Departure Warning system (LDW), which will warn drivers if they are about to cross over a lane-dividing line without using their turn signal.

Rather than sounding a chime or flashing a light on the dashboard (a la the system in the 2007 Infiniti M35 Sport), the BMW … Read more

TiVo and JVC copy-protection follow-up

There's still no word on whether the TiVo Series3 will be seeing a price cut in the near future. But in the meantime, it's worth visiting an issue that cropped up during our testing of the box back in the fall of 2006. At that time, we noticed that the Series3 analog-video outputs exhibited some strange behavior when connected to JVC A/V receivers via HDMI--essentially, the composite and S-video outputs wouldn't work when playing back recordings that were flagged as "restricted" by the content provider.

Both TiVo and JVC have since followed up on … Read more