Destined to Reign

Ready or not, here comes yet another extravagant speaker that the vast majority of us will simply be forced to drool over. Vivid Audio's G1 Giya speaker rocks a wild design, comes in a variety of automotive paint finishes and aims to catch the eye of style conscious enthusiasts more so than diehard audiophiles. 'Course, we're pretty certain this fine piece of engineering sounds pretty impressive in its own right, as it utilizes dual 12-inch subwoofers and aluminum tweeters / midrange drivers to crank out the jams. Reportedly, each 154-pound, 5.58-foot tower can handle frequencies from 23Hz to 44kHz and a staggering 800-watts of power, but alas, it'll remain a pipe dream unless you've got $54,000 to lay down (for each, we presume).

We've been waiting this long, what's a couple more months? Art Lebedev has announced that the Optimus Maximus keyboard isn't quite ready for prime time yet, and will be delayed until late February. Lucky for you reckless early adopters out there, if you pre-ordered the Maximus you can get Art Lebedev to ship you the keyboard now, it'll just be lacking its final firmware, and therefore you've got a bit of a hack job to look forward to when Lebedev releases the full firmware -- which will be software-updatable. Not exactly exciting news, but we'd much prefer Lebedev get this out the door than sit around a few more years waiting on perfection.

Let's face it: there's a myriad ways to open one's garage door, but you won't find us kvetching over a new, relatively affordable alternative to the tried and true numeric keypad. Master Lock's smartTouch GDO is a universal add-on device that ditches the numbers and relies instead on the swiping of your digit to open the connected door. Purportedly, you can register up to 20 users on a single device, ensuring that your entire fraternity will have the ability to sneak in through the garage door if they misplace the house key. Sadly, it's not likely to arrive before the Spring semester starts, but you can snap one up shortly after Rush Week for $129.95.

Considering the multitude of Bluetooth headsets out there which claim to be the smallest this world has to offer, we're not apt to believe that ADTEC's AD-HSM10 is actually the most diminutive, regardless of what the firm promises. Nevertheless, this wee earpiece is indeed tiny, and since this little bugger only weighs five grams, you might just forget it's even resting in your ear canal. Reportedly, it can last through three solid hours of yappin' (or 100 hours in standby), and just in case you're not down with silver, there's also a titanium version out there. 'Course, it needn't be mentioned just how similar this thing is to Motorola's Miniblue H9, but regardless, those interested can snag one of their own in late January for ¥8,980 ($78).

So you like wooden headphones, and you're down with JVC's offerings, but you don't have a thousand bucks to spend on the company's swanky HP-DX1000 over-the-ear cans. Before, you might have had a problem. However thanks to the new HP-FX500s earbuds, you can proudly sport the dead tree look and have your Victor sound for only ¥15,000 ($131). These buds tout a sensitivity of 100dB/1mW and frequency response of 8Hz to 25kHz and , which is not quite as good as their bulkier big brother, but what can you expect for around ten percent of the price.

We've been bored by the entirely too utilitarian concept of multi-card readers ever since they were hosting our SmartMedia and xD cards, but Earth Trek seems to have revitalized the concept for 2008. The 2-in-1 rotary multi-card reader has a patented swiveling USB 2.0 connector to let you come at it from all angles -- not exactly going to revolutionize your memory card experience, but a nice touch. The reader also includes a plug and adaptors for charging your phone, which seems random but useful. No word on price or availability.

If you're heavy into geotagging -- and we think you are -- you may want to look into an interesting new product from ATP (no relation to the multifunctional nucleotide of the same name) called the GPS Photo Finder, a unique device which automatically tags your digital pictures with latitude and longitude, without the need for a PC nearby. The little rectangular box works by reading SD, MMC or Memory Stick data and then tagging pictures on the media with location coordinates (as long as your camera is synced to the clock of the Photo Finder). The internal 128MB of memory allows for roughly 550 hours of tracking, and the pictures / GPS data can be read by any application capable of handling geotagged images (such as Picasa). The device is scheduled for mass release in the first quarter of 2008, no word on price right now.

LG's dressing up the gear-waifs to roll out product again in South Korea. Up on the block is this, their new XNOTE P300-series of 13.3-inch LED backlit 1,280 x 800 laptops. The top-end, ₩2,600,000 (about $2,810) model touts a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 processor, 2GB of memory, 256MB of NVIDIA Geforce 8600M graphics, 250GB of disk, super multi-drive disc, 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated WWAN, and HDMI out. Although we'd appreciate a few more pixels on that screen, an easy on the shoulder 1.6-kg (3.5-pounds) weight is sounding might fine.

It looks like APC is trying to make its uninterruptible power supplies a little less power-hungry, with its new Back-UPS ES 750 model promising both a boost in efficiency and a savings, however small, on your power bill. Among other things, the ES 750 (which apparently replaces the previous model of the same name) can automatically cut off power to unused peripherals when your computer's in sleep mode, which APC says should save you on average $40 a year on your power bill compared to competing models. Otherwise, you'll get all the features you'd expect in a model of its class, including ten power outlets (five of which have battery backup), and 450 watts of power which, depending on what you have plugged in, can give you up to 70 minutes of run time. Look for this one to set you back an even $100 when its released sometime in January.

There are quite a few HDMI switches out there for the input-challenged, but this latest box from Belkin is by far the least-expensive we've seen at $49.99 list -- which means street prices might be even lower. Nothing too special apart from that: 1080p compatibility, HDMI powered, IR remote for switching, and Belkin's classy-but-anonymous case design. Shipping now in the US and Canada, March 2008 in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

NEC is rolling out a new home server / client solution for persons of the active "digital lifestyle." Dubbed "Lui," we're talking platform, not device, though the family kicks off with a trio of new devices for iEXPO in Japan. The idea here is simple enough (and certainly not new): a central home server manages your video, music and photos which can then be streamed out to a handheld "PC Remoter Pocket" and/or laptop "PC Remoter Notebook." The server features a pair of terrestrial digital high-def tuners with a DVR functionality operating independently of the PC. The PC Remoter Notebook brings a 10.6-inch WXGA LCD, measures 257 x 182-mm, and weights just 650-grams (1.4-pounds). The handheld MID device packs a 4.1-inch touchscreen and weighs just 250-grams (about 0.55-pounds). All should hit Japan en masse sometime before mid-2008. It's just a shame that the name sounds like a french toilet. Plenty of pics over at Aki.

Samsung just loosed a pair of low-end digital cameras for your newbie'n consumption. The $169, 7.2 megapixel S760 and $179, 8.1 megapixel S860 both feature a 3x optical zoom Samsung SHD lens, digital image stabilization, face detection, a 30fps VGA video recording mode in AVI (MJPEG) format, and the ability to motor off a pair of AA batteries in an photographic emergency. A special effects "E" button gives PC-less control over red-eye and basic image manipulation -- it does not, however, give you a sense of lime-green lollipop euphoria. Look for them on shelves in January.

If you're an artist or designer who needs a little more real estate, or if your project happens to be in the trendy widesceen format, Wacom has got a new interactive pen display that might put a smile on your face. Enter the Cintiq 20WSX, a follow-up to the company's wildly popular 21UX which provides a 16:10 aspect ratio at 1680 x 1050 resolution, giving you 20.1-inches of sweet, succulent workspace to throw down your ideas. Like other models in the Cintiq line, the 20WSX comes equipped with programmable ExpressKeys and finger-sensitive Touch Strips, so you can get speedy access to oft-used tools, like that hideous "emboss" effect you keep putting on everything. Regardless of your artistic choices, the tablet is available now for $1,999.

Hey there Ansel Adams -- we know you're shooting all your news pictures in an ultra-detailed, millions-of-megapixels format. Unfortunately for you, it's hard to show off your breathtaking work to friends and family. Well, a company called Hama hopes to change all that with its PhotoPlayer 1080i, a curious device that serves one basic function: it allows you to view your photos on an HD television. Basically, the little contraption is a 35-in-1 card reader which also outputs images (via composite hookups) to your favorite 1080i-equipped display. The PhotoPlayer comes with a tiny remote for flipping through your majestic vision, and also includes a USB jack (for hard drives and the like), so you can go for a really, really long haul during your presentations. We can hear the "oohs" and "ahhs" already. Available now, no word on price.