When is a media player not a media player? When it’s an 8-in-1 Addonics MFR (Multi-Function Recorder). It features a 2.5 hour battery life, USB 2.0 and plays DVD, MP3 and records directly from flash memory cards to CDR/W ‘The device merges the function of a stand alone DVD Player, a CDRW and flash memory reader/writer into one powerful portable peripheral that can be used in a wide range of applications:’

Not quite sure about this, but Hello (great URL, wonder how much it cost?) seems to be a new peer to peer system for sharing chat and photographs in real time. Sort of an IM app for photies. Is there a real demand for this?

OK, plug your normal telephone into this little SIPAdapter box, and then plug the box into the Ethernet socket of your broadband modem and you’ll be able to make free VoiP phone calls to anyone in the world with the same adapter attached. No call charges, just $149.99 for two adapters. It’s not ground breakingly new, but the idea is to make it easy for anyone to set up a free global phone connection without fiddling around with PCs, software…

Psst. Wanna give a movie exec the heebie jeebies for a month? Just mention this 43 gbps high speed network [Babel] which can transmit a complete 2 hour movie in 1 second. Then tell him that it’s sure to be in every home within 20 years.

Auntie apparently thinks that we’re at the start of a robot buying frenzy. At first I was sceptical, but now having come across (thanks David!) the Roomba Community hack site, I am a believer.

The Ion electric scooter looks cool. 45 mile range from a 4 – 6 hour charge, and a 30 mph top speed. The $2799.00 also makes it a bargin’. Gizmodo recently featured a comparison trial between an electric scooter like this and the Segway. The scooter won.

Impress your friends with some tricks with credit card numbers. Or not?

How to use a bit of cellophane to turn your laptop into a lean, mean 3D display machine. Move over the Sharp Mebius!

The very Fancy M290 MP3 player contains a speaker, line-in and voice recording (including telephone conversations!), and an FM tuner. All in the size of a Bic gas lighter. Only USB 1.1 though, and the 256MB version is $229.00.

Sharp, Sony, Pioneer and Kenwood of Japan have announced the first of their Any Music Planning hi-fi systems which will be able to download online music directly without the need for a computer. Each of the Linux powered systems will be able to access the LabelGate music service in Japan via an inbuilt Ethernet port. There are plans to roll out the system worldwide at some point. Sketchy details so far…

Sony’s new Cybershot DSC-T1 [Babel] looks really cool. But don’t be fooled by the blurb, it’s still quite a bit thicker than the Casio Exilim that it’s so obviously targeting. Still size isn’t everything is it, and a Carl Zeiss zoom lens, massive 2.5 inch LCD viewer and 5.0 megapixel chip (gulp) shoehorned into that form factor are clearly not features to be sneezed at (but Memory Stick…?). More here.

The Japanese really seem to be enjoying themselves in the design of mobile phones. The Infobar is a new KDDI handset which is really interesting. Features a camera, flash and magnesium body. More here. [Japanese]

This is easily one of the most surreal things I’ve seen in a long time. The new luxury VW Phaeton car plant in Dresden, Germany. $208 million dollars later you have a factory which features 290,000 sq feet of glass and floors of Canadian maple wood. Page 9 features the drivetrain assembly area which looks like it should be on the cover of Vogue magazine. I remember touring an Austin car plant here in Coventry back in the 70s and…

I throw in this site purely as a demonstration of the power of the Internet. One guy, one cheapo DVD player and his attempts to locate a region free hack for it. Could you have gone into this kind of depth 7 years ago? I don’t think so. Manufacturers really should take note of the new order.

When I were a very young lad at school in New York I used to love those Pez candy dispensers. Such fun. Well this guy clearly has a thing about them, since his MyPezQL site features 1,371 of the little blighters. And $62 for a rare one? Sheesh, I knew I should have kept my cast-offs!