Your recommended daily dose of gadgeting info, fresh from the electronic news ranches of the US.

X-Woofer reviewed (Engadget): Now you too can be strangled by a two-headed metal snake.

wakamaru Humanoid Robot on Sale (I4U): I'm not sure why anyone needs a bright yellow hulking robotic companion to be a personal organiser...

Wonder Pizza - America's Food Source (Gizmodo): Another triumph for capitalism.

LG launches first WCDMA DMB phone (Engadget): Telly on your mobi by 2006.

MSI Mega View 588 also Mega Records your Mega Videos (DAPReview): A pretty strong rival for the Zen Vision.

Gaming peripherals have seen an explosion in popularity in recent times and part of that is due to Razer's excellent Diamondback that set the standards now demanded by dangerously elite players. The Copperhead is Razer's latest offering which, although sporting the same shape as its counterpart, seeks to add greater functionality and precision. Unlike some of Logitech's rival models the Copperhead is ambidextrous, making it one of the only options for lefties, plus there are two extra buttons on each side of the mouse whose functionality changes according which hand you prefer.

If you a gentle peace loving sort who doesn't want the emotional trauma of knowing that your PSP could be an unnecessary drain on the earth's resources then the solution is at hand. This Solar Charger has an inbuilt 1800mAh Li-ion battery and is alleged to charge a PSP fully in just four hours and in overcast or artificial lighting conditions. Furthermore, it folds away for easier transportation and is also compatible with the Nintendo DS and GBA SP. This solar charger is available now for $35 (about £20) which seems a reasonable price to get that pesky humans-are-killing-the-planet issue off your mind whilst enjoying a bit of Wipeout Pure.

Brando via I4U

Got a fast broadband connection? Does it race along at all of 1.5 megs? Well how do you fancy web speeds that really threaten speed records? In what it likely to bring about a virtual stampede new UK broadband provider Be is on the look out for customers who fancy trailing its ADSL2+ 24meg download, 1 meg upload internet connection. Triallists will pay nothing for September and then after it is apparently 20 quid a month. Non-triallists who get the service later will probably pay a little more. The only catch is that users have to live in London, own a BT landline that can be connected to a telephone exchange where Be has fitted their equipment. To register, go here.

Creative has never had much success in its attempts to dislodge Apple's top spot in the MP3 player market in spite of an extensive line-up and decent quality products. However, a recent patent award has put a smile back on the face of the long-suffering underdog as it was acknowledged that Creative has claim to a patent covering the track selection interface pioneered in its early Nomad Jukebox MP3 players. This interface involves selection of music from a branching list beginning with artists then albums and finally the individual tracks: all in all exactly how you would expect to select music and a method that Apple has been employing in it's iPods since their launch in 2001. It will be interesting to see how Creative plans to use the 'Zen Patent', but one possibility is that Apple may need to pay royalities to Creative for use of the patented system. What with this and the similar Microsoft patent conflict, Apple has had a bit of tough month.

A top-end snapper from Nikon is always big news round here, so we're very excited about the impending arrival of the 12.4 mega pixel digital SLR, the D200. The successor to the awesome D100 will apparently include a 2.5inch LCD, Compact Flash and MicroDrive compatibility, Nikon's usual raft of exposure modes and continuous shooting at 3 frames per second (fps). The big story though is that the camera boasts a new CMOS image sensor which features high image quality and high-speed 4-channel data output. Also included are new image processing algorithms which combine with optimized analog and digital white balance to apparently produce smoother, more consistent gradations with exceptionally pure color reproduction. There's no news on price or launch as yet. More details here

Just because the demise of traditional radio stations draws ever closer doesn't mean you can't remember the glory days of the Wireless. Roberts Radios are defined by cool retro styling plus a focus on simplicity and now it has revealed the Gemini 27, a portable DAB set which will rival the likes of Pure's Evoke 2-XT. For those who are still taking tentative steps into the digital revolution there's also an FM tuner included. Rotary controls enable the station selection and info is shown on the large LCD display. Roberts Radios' ace in the hole is the PausePlus system, which lets you pause whatever you are listening to should anything threaten to distract you. It will also let you rewind by double-pressing the same button and the Gemini 27 can store up to 30 minutes of programming. For £120 this is a pretty decent looking portable DAB and though it may fall slightly short of the Pure alternatives acoustically, it has a more reasonable price tag.

Once again, our daily roundup of the big and beautiful world of Tech news, straight from the US.

Sony VAIO's new RC-powered Media machine (engadget): A very handsome looking new media centre to dream about having in your living room.

MobiBlu ups DAH-1400 to 1600 (dapreview): Ickle MP3 player series gets upgrade to the happy world of USB 2.0 with 20 hours of battery life.

Interview with the Heliodisplay inventor (ohgizmo,via gizmodo): Listen to what the creator of the world's coolest hologram has to say.

Rumours of the RICOH Caplio R3 (livingroom, via gizmodo): Here's what the camera might do. If it exists.

The Archos Gmini 500 (i4u): More screenies of the neat looking media player.

Lucky us, it looks like we get to have a replay of what happened when Sony released the PS2 in the UK all those years ago. Apparently there are 150,000 units bound for the UK with the majority having already been booked for pre-order, with only a limited amount to be kept for retail sale. As you might know, a fair few GAME branches are staying open until midnight on the 1st to sell the PSP to the more *dedicated* gadget freaks. GAME, which has stopped taking pre-orders (as well as Dixons and many others), has announced that they think that retail stock will go in an hour. WH Smith has told The Times that it doesn't think it can fulfill all its pre-orders in one day.

What madness. Guess Sony don't want a repeat of the American launch where they shipped over a million units, only to find that they had shipped more than a few too many.

via the Inquirer

For more games news, see the unbeatable Games Digest.

In perhaps its strongest endorsement to date, it looks like New Zealand is embracing VoIP in a pretty big way. New Zealand Telecom has announced a seven year project, investing about 200 million US dollars, to switch every telephone line to an IP platform. Not only will this help with phone calls, but would also  pave the way for fantastic video streaming and hyper-fast internet. The first few customers are expected to switch over in 2007, with everybody over by 2012. This will of course mean cheaper phone calls for resident New Zealanders. As well as stonking profit for New Zealand telecom, I'd bet.

Samsung has just announced that it's currently trialling its new MMC plus memory cards on consumers. These 1GB and 2GB cards are a little faster then their smaller brethren, allowing data transfer of up 52 Megabytes a second. That's apparently up to twenty times faster than older generations of MMC memory and three times faster than SD memory. Also of note is that Samsung are testing out a new 1GB MMC mobile card, which is of course much smaller and able to fit into the slightly smaller MMC port on your mobile phone. No word on pricing or availability yet.

Well, its been a long road to release, but Apple has announced a major press conference on September 7th, gently hinting that it's going to reveal the hottest product since the original iPod. Analyst Roger Entner, who says he's been talking to Apple, claims that the company is preparing to release the iPod phone. The phone, he says, will come with iTunes pre-installed (no surprises there), be made by Motorola and marketed by Cingular Wireless. With any luck we'll finally get to see Apple's new toy in a week.

Today's serving of juicy, digestable tech news, straight from the US.

Sirius S50 Portable Satellite Radio Player (i4u): Really nice looking MP3 player with a built-in satellite tuner. It also comes with voice assisted channel navigation, which makes it cooler.

Japanese Supersonic Passenger Plane (i4u): Undergoing an unmanned test soon, and is supposed to hit mach 2, which I think you'll agree is pretty nippy.

Gameboy Micro Playtest (Kotaku, via Gizmodo): Some lucky git's managed to get his hands on a micro and is going to rubbing our faces in it via a series of online reports all day. Lucky us.

Gemini iKey Portable USB recorder (engadget): Neat little device, cheaper then a lot of other stuff on the market.

The Morphy Richards 29204 (daprevew): What edition of 'Top Tech...' would be complete without a weirdly shaped MP3 player?

If you've ever felt that the internet didn't quite have enough porn on it (and haven't we all at some time), then you'll be pleased to hear that Playboy is now going online, starting from the October issue. We can expect to see entire issues of digitally delivered porn on the freely available Zinio reader (a reader which also manages content for Macworld and BusinessWeek), although the issues will go for the same amount as their in-store counterparts. And will be uncut.

via The Register

Although we already know that it's going to be the power house behind your shiny new PS3 console (whenever when it comes out: anyone else think we're going to have to wait untill 2007?), Toshiba, IBM and Sony, the trio behind the mega powered chip, have just released details of it online, releasing a whopping 750 documents today, with another 250 to come between now and October. Although Cell chips have already been announced in servers, it looks like the minds behind Cell want to see it used in much more than just games. If you're a tech boff who's interested in that sort of thing, you can see the documents here.

With the release of the PSP looming, if you're planning on getting your hands on one of these toys, you're going to need a screen protector. Nothing hurts more then pulling a PSP out of your pocket to see several long scratches, courtesy of spare change. This new case from Brando looks pretty good, with cutouts for all of the different ports on your PSP. While this means that a little dust -might- get in, it does mean that you never have to remove the PSP from the case, even while blasting away on Lumines. Even better, the cushion-lined aluminium case only weighs 3.8 ounces.  The case is available from Brando for $28.

via the gadgeteer

Now Intel's taking a page out of Sony's book and trying to get into your lounge: Intel has just announced 'Viiv' (it rhymes with 'five'), a new type of PC technology that combines dual-core microprocessors, networking capabilities, chipsets and software. 'Viiv' PCs will run with Windows Media Centre Edition operating system, and are meant to sit in your living room. These Viiv PCs will work with a remote, and will apparently start up in the time it takes a DVD player to switch on. Details are thin on the ground at the moment, but Intel were proudly showing off automatic transcoding, meaning that you can leave your 'Viiv' PC to handle all that messy format conversion business. More details as we get them.

What is going on? Last week a property programme on Channel 4 voted Hull as the UK's worst place to live. This week the very same place, most famous for Philip Larkin and, er, The Beautiful South, is revealed as being home to some of the nation's biggest gadget lovers. According to the Intel poll, nearly 62 per cent of Yorkshire and Humberside folk own at least one of the 14 home entertainment essentials* while among those in the South East and London it's just 58 per cent (surely more than that own a mobile phone?). Maybe people in Hull are buying more gadgets because there's not that much to do around town. Or maybe it's that the survey is more likely to get picked up by national press if it has an unexpected 'northerners love gadgets more than southerners' angle. Call me cynical, but I suspect the latter. Anyway, like all surveys it makes interesting reading so we've cut and pasted the highlights of the press release for you.

* satellite tv, digital radio, mobile phones, DVD player, MP3 players/iPods, computers, laptops, the internet, digital camera, gaming console, in car satellite navigation, wireless networks in the home and cordless phone

Presenting five of the choicest cuts of technonews, fresh from the weblogging community stateside.

Wolf CRRAAAWWW Keyboard Reviewed (Gizmodo): The long awaited gaming keyboard is put to the test.

Aircraft-mounted laser weapon may be ready in two years (Engadget): Moral issues aside: laser guns - oh hell yes.

Sony PSP firmware 2.0 is finally here... sheesh (DAPReview): It seems to be getting a good reception across the pond, and to think we only have a week to wait!

Intel Introduces, Confuses Us With VIIV Initiative (Gizmodo): Admit it, VIIV obviously means cool doesn't it?

Very Low-Cost Robo Maxx Floor Cleaning Robot (I4U): Cleaning robot for the extremely lazy person on a budget.

I like to think that being a gadget obsessive in the UK takes a little more dedication than many other places. Although we get to look at a menagerie of the neatest pieces of technology ever conceived, we're lucky if even a third of them make it to this country for commercial release. Luckily the Qtek S110 has reached this far, meaning you too can get your hands on one of the slickest PDA - mobile hybrids. Its office features include Outlook, Media Player, Messenger and Internet Explorer, all powered by Windows Pocket PC. It also has a 1.3 megapixel camera and decent audio and MPEG4 playback support; to support this, the memory can be expanded with the integrated SD/SDIO card support. Connectivity is handled by Tri-band, GPRS/GSM and Bluetooth, although the noteable exception is WiFi support but this seems about the only omission. The Qtek S110 is available now for £319, along with other Qtek products, from Smart Devices.

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