GadgetReview

For those of you who spent your childhood (and parts of your adulthood too, more than likely, like me) fantasizing that your remote control was a magic wand that whisked bad TV off into the land of the giant sand worms to be eaten messily, you can now live the dream.

Thanks to the Kymera magic wand remote, a buttonless remote control that reacts to a series of pre-programmable wrist flicks, you can now make TV dance to your tune as though you were a mystical puppetmaster yourself.  It can learn up to thirteen infrared codes, which will allow you to control a panoply of devices remotely with your new wonder remote.

The opportunity to perform such wonders in your living room will cost you about a hundred bucks US (forty nine ninety five pounds sterling), but you have to admit this is truly a small price to pay to have this much awesome available at the flick of a wrist.

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You may think that, if you don’t have a whole lot of home theatre space, all you’re left with is tiny, half-baked theatre systems or a hugely expensive chair that has all your speaker needs within it, but that may no longer be the case thanks to the Zvox Incredibass 575.  You’ll have to shell out eight hundred bucks for this tiny monster system, but you’ll get the equivalent of a hundred and thirty three watt amp and two six and a half inch subwoofers.

Better, they’ll fit it all in a package roughly three feet by one and a quarter feet.

If this even sounds vaguely good, it’d be a value if for no other reason than it’s an incredibly compact system.  I’m definitely looking forward to the end of October–this might be all the system a lot of people need.

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So in case you haven’t heard, Californian gadget buffs, there’s a push on in Sacramento to ban certain types of big screen TV that use too much energy.  Of course, by “certain types”, I mean roughly a quarter of all TVs in production today and every single plasma TV over sixty inches.  Needless to say, the people are not happy about this, and small businesses are firing back also, but perhaps the worst news came today with a simple pronouncement from Wired Magazine’s Gadget Lab that declared that such a law would be useless within two years, as “energy hogging TVs” would be gone by then anyway, thrown over in favor of LCD and “greener” TVs.

Basically, California’s planning to blow a bunch of money it doesn’t have to make a law it can’t enforce that’ll be rendered moot in two years anyway when the kind of TV it would ban can’t be found on the market.

Way to go, California legislature!  Best start checking the want ads–come November I’d be plenty of you will be run out on a rail.

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Like the Jitterbug phone for old people, Sony has plans to release a set of remotes that features over sized buttons and are resistant to liquid spills.  They’ve done a nice job to dress up the ‘you’re too senile to use a real remote’, by offering them in a variety of finishes and colored button patterns.  For now, they’ll only be available in Japan for about $29.

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Bose is set to introduce a new product on August 19th according to a press invite sent out to select media.  What it is unknown at this time, but the company is claiming it is their “best ever [in 30 years]“, which is bold to say the least.  Chances of it being an iPod related product are good, but would you want your claim to 30 years of fame to hinge on another brand?

Thirty years of research. Our best ever. Now Arriving. Please join us to experience the next generation of the product that defined an industry.

Logitech kicked out a new touchscreen remote today, the Harmony 900.  Based on the Logitech Haromoy One – it’s essentially the same form factor – it adds Radio Frequency technology that enables you to control your home theater components, or just about any piece of kit from almost anywhere in your home.

Included in the package is a RF blaster and two mini blasters, which unlike other systems sit on your cabinet’s shelves and transmit remote commands to your non-RF infused gear.  How exactly these are better than the stick on RF to IR converters is anyone’s guess, especially if you’ve got very limited shelf space in your cabinet, but Logitech seems to think so.

Logitech’s has also beefed up the remote’s display by adding a higher resolution touchscreen, a more sophiticated user interface and four additional programmable buttons for STB/DVR/teletext controls.

Expect the Logitech Harmony 900 to ship this September in the US and the EU for a painstaking $399.99.

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If the iPhone’s remote app doesn’t completely fill the remote void and you happen to be kicking it with a Sonos system, then you’ll be glad to know their recently leaked CR200 touchscreen remote is now available for order.  It’ll set you back $349, or if you purchase it with the Bundle 250 they’ll knock an uneven 17% off the purchase price.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of music in every room, but just not at this cost.

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If you are looking for a new home theater-in-a-box, Samsung may have just provided you a solution: the HT-BD3252. This new and cool system has a 5.1 (1000 watts) sound system, a Blu-ray player, support for the latest HD audio codec, a microphone, Internet services like Pandora, Netflix and Blockbuster and an iPod dock (of course!).  And to keep your cord tangling to a minimum, they’ve tossed in a set of rear wireless speakers and a WiFi dongle.  The HT-BD3252 is priced at $799 and is set to be released this August.

Full specs after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Samsung Launches The HT-BD3252, A Netflix And Pandora Enabled Blu-ray Home Theater

It’s not too often that the power pack comes unplugged from the outlet, but when it does it probably couldn’t happen at a worse time.  Like when you’re in the heat of the FPS battle or hammering home the closing statements of that research paper.  Although it doesn’t contain a UPS backup battery (that would really seal the deal) the PFPower Pluglock power strip features 5 outlets each with their very own clamp to insure that the plug stays in place and that the juice is always delivered, pending any power outages or other acts of God.  It’s rated for 15 amps and includes a 5ft extension cord.  You can grab on now for about $45.

It’s too bad Rackspace couldn’t invest in an enterprise version of this.  If they did, maybe this site and many others wouldn’t have had any down time a few weeks ago.  ZING!

[via RFJ]

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Haptic feedback on handheld devices, specifically cell phones, has yet to hit critical mass.  But that hasn’t stopped URC from adopting the technology into their latest touchscreen remote, the MX-5000.   It features a 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD which should let you control your components from just about any where in your home thanks to the built-in WiFi and RF communication.  And what kind of high end remote would it be without a charging base station with IR and RS-232  components.   URC hasn’t released an official price, but when it goes on sale expect it to cost about $1,500.

[via EngadgetHD]

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