Technofile: It's time for another round-up of the latest gadgets coming up from the world of geekness:
Is this the biggest ever iPod accessory? The Geneva Sound System is large, black and looks more like a square Deathstar than a stereo speaker system. It also has an FM receiver, plays CDs and any digital audio format. It will also take any kind of iPod, from the regular to the nano.
Hi-Fi geeks are increasingly interested in getting the best out of their digital music. This is certainly one route. The Geneva Sound System isn't out yet, so perhaps it's one to catch in the new year.
Meanwhile, Sharp has been busy producing the digital audio players MP-S200 and MP-S300, with 512MB and 1GB of memory respectively. The players look durable and even slightly outdoorsy, although I would counsel against testing whether it's waterproof. However, Sharp says that it can be dropped from over a metre without doing any harm, but they remain a little bulky compared to some.
They come in four colours, have an FM tuner and voice recording, and will be out in Europe next year, as it's only just been launched in Japan, costing around €150.
Panasonic's latest camcorder, the diminutive SDR-100, packs in a lot of features for its size (97mm tall). It also uses 3CCD technology - most traditional camcorders use just 1CCD.
As a result, the picture is almost at a professional level. The optical image stabiliser (OIS) will come in handy in such a small and light camera, which many a granny videoing their first grandchild will appreciate.
Speaking of iPods, Scosche Industries in the US have come up with a pretty cute idea. Why fiddle around trying to adjust the volume of your iPod on a cable when you could strap a wireless controller to your wrist?
The iPod Remote looks like a watch with player buttons and uses shortwave radio to connect with a plug-in adaptor on the iPod. There's a slight problem. Knowing the Americans, this will be on some frequency that European countries don't like, but we'll have to wait and see.
As if we don't already have enough super-slim mobile phones on the market, Sagem has come up with another. The my300x, my301x and my302x phones have a very useful 350 hours standby time, four hours' talk time and, yes, slim dimensions. They come with the usual set of features (GPRS, WAP ) but miss one common one. No camera.
It might be that Sagem is playing to the business crowd - some businesses frown on camera phones in the workplace. However, I for one would feel that I was missing something without a handy camera on the phone.
Remember the iTunes phone? Well, Motorola has extended its deal with Apple, such that the latest version of the super-sexy and slim RAZR phone, the V3i, will also be iTunes compatible.
However, before you get too excited, it's yet to be confirmed which markets Motorola will make it available to. The UK and US are on the list but Ireland is almost certainly on the cards too.
The phone uses Transflash storage cards, which go up to 512MB, but iTunes phones are typically limited to 100 tracks, to avoid eating into iPod sales. So don't throw away your iPod just yet!
