Gadgets and Gizmos

Shimadzu: Million-frame-per-second video camera

It may only shoot in monochrome at a size of 312 x 260 pixels and take up to 100 frames at a time, but Shimadzu’s HyperVision HPV-1 camera can record at a million frames a second (you can step down through a range of slower rates to a crawling 30 fps should you wish), enabling you to capture those precious split seconds of blindingly fast motion in all the loving detail you need.
The rest of the package consists of a Windows-XP powered control unit with a 20GB hard drive and Ethernet/USB2.0 connections; images are stored as either AVI, TIFF or BMP. The whole thing will set you back a stinging Y22 mn ($205,000).

Buzz on Creative Neeon

Once the buzz has started, it’s hard to keep the walls from falling down. It’s no different for the rumored Creative Neeon.

The unit looks a bit like the Zen NX, because it comes with interchangeable face plates. There’s indeed no hot-swappable battery behind the hatch, unfortunately, so it’s merely a design-technical aspect. You feel like a different face plate, just pop a new one on your Neeon.

The Neeon is expected to be equiped with both FM tuner and voice recorder. To sum things up, Creative’s mysterious 6GB player will be more slender than its Micro-counterpart. That’s all for now folks, but stay tuned.

Sunglasses let you watch TV while avoiding UV

SUNGLASSES fitted with TV screens are to become the next step in mobile phone hands-free technology, thanks to research by Scottish scientists.

Engineers at electronics firm MicroEmissive Displays (MED) have produced a fully functional television screen less than half the size of a postage stamp. The wafer-thin display entered the record books last year as the world’s smallest television.

Now the Edinburgh-based firm hopes the miniaturised technology will be snapped up by telecommunication giants to create a new generation of mobile phones. (more…)

Creative Labs MuVo Mix Players looks hot

Releases Apr 04/05. The MuVo Mix 512MB is an incredibly easy-to-use MP3 player. It directly plugs into your USB port so no software or cables are needed! It also features Shuffle playback so you can enjoy your favourite songs in random order everyday. Easily share music, photos and other files. Carry and store documents, pictures, music and other files on this tiny player.

But the buyers are confused that this is some bizarre stealth attempt by Creative to hit back at the iPod shuffle or just a retailer taking some liberties with their product descriptions.

Kenwood Home Audio Rumored To Be Closed

Rumors surfaced today that Kenwood USA is closing their home electronics business. Contacts at Kenwood and their PR firm were not available for comment at the time of publishing.

Kenwood is a legendary Japanese audio brand with tremendous brand equity. They were first to the market with many technologies. Most recently, they were one of the first home theater brands to incorporate Faroudja’s internal video processing chips inside a DVD player at a reasonable price. (more…)