Looking for a great little network media storage device that offers so much more? Well, the Mvix MX-780HD may be the solution you are after. Hook this little sucker up to your HD TV, link it in to your network and you can store all the media you want on its internal hard drive (user provided) and away you go. Of course that media is still available to your PCs and laptops across your wireless network. Sounds good, eh? Well it looks even better with a US$340 price tag on it too and here’s some more bells and whistles for you to drool over.

* 64 MB memory
* video support for DivX® (3/4/5), DivX® 6, AVI, Xvid, BivX®, MPEG, MPG, VCD(DAT), DVD(VOB, IFO), ISO, WMV(WMV-9), ASF(WMV-9), TP, TS, TRP
* audio support for MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, PCM, AC3, DTS decoding including down-mixing, DTS pass through
* image support for BMP, JPEG/JPG, PNG
* video outputs Composite, S-Video, Component, and HDMI1.2
* audio outputs Stereo RCA, 5.1 channel RCA, Coaxial, Optical
* wireless 802.11b/g
* Ethernet (10/100) LAN
* Hard disk support for 3.5 inch IDE(PATA) OR 3.5 inch SATA
* USB 2.0 support
* 187 x 193 x 58 mm

Well, I think that just about covers the bases. If the guys at Mvix have missed anything out then I can’t spot it. They are offering the unit with their own hard drives supplied which bumps the price up accordingly, 300 GB - US$100, 500 GB - US$170, 750 GB - US$250 and 1 TB - US$330. So $670 will get you an almost literally all singing and dancing media centre, not a bad deal in my opinion.

If you don’t believe me then check out this review over at anythingbutipod whose main complaints are about the UI and lack of support for H.264 and MKV.

Source: Mvix

Knoll are enthusing about their latest projector, the HDP460, which features 1080p DLP Darkchip4 technology. Apparently this projector

raises the bar when it comes to flawless, spectacular, award-winning image quality.

and

This projector delivers amazing technology and stunning high-definition.

Advertising hyperbole aside, here are some hard numbers on the HDP460

* brightness of 1600 lumens
* 5000:1 contrast ratio
* HDMI 1.3 connectivity allowing over a billion colours to be displayed
* 1080p DLP DarkChip4
* Built-in scaling support for 2.35:1 aspect ratio

Unfortunately no pricing is available and you’ll have to wait until April to get your grubby little paws on one of these suckers. However the stats match the advertising enthusiasm and the HDP460 could be the very next home theatre upgrade on your list.

Source: Knoll

Toshiba announced their entry into the NAND flash-based SSD market with a selection of units, the most notable of which is 1.8 inch form factor SATA 128 GB unit which unfortunately won’t be in mass production until May next year. The units have a max read speed of 100 MB/s and max write of 40 MB/s with a SATA-2 interface (3 Gbps).

Now that SSDs are becoming a bit more mainstream hopefully the price tags will follow that trend too, but we’ll have to wait and see until May what these suckers from Toshiba will set you back.

And if you want an early sneak preview of these units then get yourself on down to the CES in Las Vegas on Jan 7th as apparently Tosh will be showing them off at the show.

Source: Toshiba

This week Epson launched its latest home cinema projector on to the market. The PowerLite Home Cinema 720 is priced at US$1,300 making it a mid-range purchase, suitable for a home enthusiast looking for a hi-def projector. The PowerLite’s features include 1,600 lumens of brightness, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 16:9 display ratio, hi def quality up to 120 inch display, 4,000 hours of lamp life plus numerous inputs including HMDI, Component Video, S-Video and Composite Video. It also sports 3LCD technology which according to the blurb

3LCD is the world’s leading projection technology, delivering unbelievable color, amazing detail and road-tested reliability. Using an advanced 3-chip design, 3LCD offers full-time RGB for brilliant quality images without the possibility of color break-up.

So how does this sucker stack up against other projectors

* Prices from Amazon

I deliberately picked higher priced projectors, but even so the Epson stacks well against these competitors. The only downside may be the 120 inch display with both the Panasonic and Mitsubishi giving at least 66% diagonal width to your movie. So it looks as if Epson have come up with a winner here.

If anyone has one of these suckers feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Source: PR News Wire

As reported by InfoWorld it appears as if someone in the Zune team is having a bit of joke by setting up an amnesty bin for team member’s to deposit their iPods! This image was posted on flickr supposedly taken at Zune HQ. The bin’s probably a bit of a joke as Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, points out

“Most of the people [working on] Zune would want to have an iPod to keep track of the competition,” he said. “On that team, they’re all into digital music, so all of them probably have a bunch of players.”

Nice to see a sense of humour in the workplace!

Source: InfoWorld

We’re not really into fashion accessories at our-picks.com unless they can do 0-60 in under five seconds but we spotted this little gem posted at The Gadget Blog. With mother’s day coming up it’s the ideal present for a geeky mother or a geek’s mom, either way she’ll be the talk of the town as she strolls down the main street of town with this slung over her shoulder!

The handbag is available from fractal spin, a snip at US$55. Apparently the sliding metal doors have been glued to prevent snagging on your clothing and a magnetic latch holds the top edges together! Other geek-inspired mother’s day gifts include resistor bunch earrings, a fan guard chain necklace and a circuitboard memo pad. Of course a real geek/son would make these from her old PC.

The change from XP to Vista wasn’t as sudden as most would have expected. Despite the craze that has surrounded Microsoft’s newest product, not everybody was ready to drop their former operating system (namely Windows XP, because I doubt many Mac or Linux users made the change) and switch to Vista.
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