Here’s the first keyboard to integrate a universal iPod dock, and the Razer Pro|Solutions Pro|Type Multimedia Keyboard also has a dedicated button to launch iTunes. It’s loaded with ten macro command hot keys which give you dedicated transport controls for your iPod and let you do things such as undo, zoom in and out, and of course, turn the Mac on and off. Plus, all the standard keys are fully programmable. Sync and charge your iPod using USB 2.0 without having to deal with a rat’s nest of wires. Nice. No release date was set yet, but it’ll be $99.

Razer’s iPod Docking Keyboard on the Way [xyz Computing]

From Gizmodo

 

We know what you’re thinking: “Those two gizmos look an awful lot like the Game Boy Micro.” And they do, there’s no denying it, but they’re not actually full-fledged handheld game consoles— Lavod’s PocketPlay 320 & 350 may come pre-loaded with classic SEGA titles like Sonic Chaos, Sonic Spinball and Ecco the Dolphin, but are also meant to be MP3 players. Surprisingly, considering their model numbers, the 320 has twenty games and the 350 just ten. They both have 2.4-inch TFT color displays and TV outs; the 350 has both a SD Card slot and USB 2.0 port; presumably the 320 has a way for you to get media onto it as well.

Lavod is based in Taiwan and distributes mainly in their local market and Europe, where the PocketPlays are expected to surface in April. No word on pricing or if they’re going to make it to the US, but if they’re cheap enough they’d make a nice present for someone who just needs a simple way to kill time on a daily commute.

Lavod PocketPlay MP3/Handheld SEGA Consoles [RetroThing]

From Gizmodo

Design student Tamar Dax’s minimalist concept for the Uni-P is a hygienic toilet that serves both genders, so men can use it standing and women can use it in a semi-squat. Interesting take on the traditional squat toilets, but the very design makes it somewhat impractical for mass production because children would have a very hard time using it.

Uni-Pee [Yanko Design]

From Gizmodo

Feisty Singapore startup EDS Lab is showing off their WiDRIVE in a small booth tucked deep in the bowels of CeBIT. The WiDRIVE is an 802.11b/g WiFi drive enclosure for 1.8 and 2.5-inch drives. There are other wireless disk solutions available, but WiDRIVE claims theirs is the only portable solution (yeah, it has a rechargeable battery rated for 2-hours of continuous op) which provides direct access to disk from your laptop. In other words, if you’re running XP then it looks just like a regular ol’ disk drive — hell, you can even boot your OS from it…or so says EDS Lab. We got a demo of the product running video off the WiDRIVE which er, worked. However, it lurched noticeably at times albeit in a convention center hall flooded with about 80 different WiFi networks. So that means it won’t work in the Engadget mansion but it should work in your largely interference free living room without a hitch. Should. Still, they have a few months to work out the kinks since the WiDRIVE won’t be turned-out proper until July for about $95 — Europe first, and still you gotta pony up for the disk, son.

It’s all packed in — no external antenna protruding from these enclosures.

 Available in white or black as these things generally go

more info.

From Engadget

 

We know this company’s named iQRIO and all, but jeez, love the M1 or M2 much, guys? Their CamP3 seems like a pretty obvious knock of Sony’s unique — if unusual — digital camera, except it adds MP3 playback and uses SD instead, though we think it’d be much funnier if they actually licensed MemoryStick and used that. It was a prime candidate for our Keepin’ It Real Fake series, but it fell short by not actually being called the M3 or the Sorny M1 or something of the like. Sorry guys, better luck next time. Now you just get a regular mocking Engadget post.

More info

From Engadget

 

Far be it from us to dispute anyone’s claims to the world’s first of this or that, but we’re not quite sure what Japan’s SEL and TDK are getting at here. They’re claiming to have co-developed the first bendable radio, an RFID chip built on a bendable plastic substrate using thin-film transistors. No external battery is needed, making this device great for business cards or other bendy situations. The problem is that Philips just did about the exact same thing last month, making this valiant effort — by our calculations at least — not, um, first. Sorry guys, better luck next time.

More info

From Engadget

After an on-again, off-again review process that finally culminated with full State Department approval last year, the US government has finally issued its first passports containing RFID chips. The embedded chips in the new passports — which are being issued to a group of diplomats as part of a pilot program — contain the same information that’s in the printed document, including a photo of the passport holder. Government officials have said that the use of the RFID chip allows passports to be scanned and cross-referenced with security databases more easily, while privacy advocates have argued they’ll make it easier for identity thieves and terrorists to extract information — especially after a security firm successfully demonstrated that they were able to crack the encryption used on prototype Dutch RFID passports. Despite such concerns, the new passports are scheduled to be rolled out nationally in October.

More info.

From Engadget