Kansas City LAN Party

It’s been a tick since Ziova cranked out a new media streamer, but its ClearStream CS615 looks pretty promising. Interestingly, this one doesn’t feature any built-in wireless capabilities nor a DVD drive, but it seems as if the firm’s CEO is aiming this unit at folks who didn’t want to go cordless, anyway. You will, however, find USB 2.0 and 10 / 100 Ethernet ports along with a caddy for an internal 3.5-inch HDD, and the support for WAV, H.264, FLAC, OGG, LPCM, WMA, AAC, AC3, DTS, MPEG1/2/3/4, WMV9, QuickTime, JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG files (just to name a few) ain’t too shabby, either. Furthermore, there’s HDMI (HDCP-compliant), S-Video, composite and component video jacks, support for SMB / FTP and a front-mounted LCD to dish out ID3 tags and other pertinent information. The CS615 is slated to land stateside in March for $329, while Europeans and Aussies can expect it to head their way shortly thereafter.

While the corporate IT world has long had access to remotely-controlled power for servers and data centers, it’s pretty cutting-edge stuff for home theater, with PS Audio releasing the first line of Internet-connected power management devices. Ranging in price from $600 to $1,995 and scheduled to release in Spring 2008, the four products in the PowerPlay line differ in number of switchable and isolated plugs, but all offer a web interface to toggle power, schedule reboots, and monitor power quality. There is an RS-232 port for hardwired power control as well as IR blasters for turning devices back on after a reboot. Now you can reboot your TiVo without ever stepping foot in the house.

As the unfortunate trend continues, yet another kiddo has found their Christmas PMP replaced with something that’s, well, not a PMP. In today’s episode, we find a Washington, D.C. girl that unwrapped an iPod earlier this week and discovered that the only Apple product tucked within was the inner packaging. Instead, a clever note was stashed inside (presumably with a paperweight of some sort) that read: “Reclaim your mind from the media shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To claim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple store.” Oh, and just in case you really needed more than one guess as to where this thing came from, here’s a hint: it was sold by the same retailer who passed on Wii demo units due to “safety” concerns.

[Via TUAW]

We already saw the Amilo Xi 2550 from Fujitsu-Siemens, but if you thought that was the only mobile Penryn-based lappie you’d see prior to January 6th, you’ve got another a few more things coming. Spotted over at Notebook Italia, we’ve got five new Acer Aspires (2920, 4920, 5920, 7720 and 9920), a pair of new Acer Travelmates (6492 and 6592G), a couple of Fujitsu-Siemens (the aforementioned Amilo Pi Amilo Xi 2550 and the 2428) and four new Sony VAIOs (FZ31, SZ71, CR31 and AR61) — all of which will be housing that Penryn goodness when they launch. As you can imagine, there’s far too many specs between the 13 new machines to cover in this space, but feel free to tag the links below for all the details on each.

Read - Fujitsu-Siemens
Read - Acer Aspires
Read - Acer Travelmates
Read - Sony VAIOs

Just over a month ago, we got word that Pentax could be readying a pair of new DSLRs, and now it seems that we’ve been blessed with a plethora of shots of the K200D. ‘Course, we suppose they could be doctored, but we just don’t believe someone would spend that much time working up Pentax fakes, ya know? Regardless, feel free to hit the read link and check out what’s probably the outfit’s next shooter — or some mighty fine ’shops, worst case scenario.

[Via Photography Bay]

Ah, eBay. Home to some of the rarest, most incredible devices known (and previously unknown) to man. On the docket today is a stupendously rare, unreleased development controller for use with the SNES CD dev kit. Yep, a unreleased controller for an unreleased system — pretty much a collector’s dream. Unfortunately, the controller alone won’t do you very much good beyond hooking you up with unbelievable bragging rights, but unless you’ve got $2,999.99 (at least) to blow, the above picture is close as you’ll get to this treasure.

[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]

We’ve seen returned / resold DAPs (among other things) ruin celebrations before, but we’re inclined to say that this episode is a tad more disheartening than receiving a couple of rock-filled iPod boxes. Reportedly, an unspecified MP3 player purchased in a Tennessee Wal-Mart was wrapped and given as a Christmas present to a 10-year old daughter, but upon connecting said player to a computer, heaps of pornographic material and explicit songs were discovered. According to a Wally World spokesperson, stores aren’t supposed to “return opened packages to the sales floor,” but given that it already happened, the matter will purportedly be “investigated.”

[Via TGDaily]

That’s right, babies. We’ve seen Sony play this hand in other parts of our great big world, and now the S-gang is bringing this sweet bacon on home… er, to the States. According to a promotion we’ve caught wind of, if you get yourself approved for the Sony Visa, then promptly purchase a Sony HDTV at the Sony Rewards store (out of a pool of models from the BRAVIA and SXRD lines), the good folks at Sony will throw a free PlayStation 3 your way. Of course, there’s a few hoops you have to jump through, the deal ends on December 31st, and obviously you’ll need a half-decent credit score, but if the suits approve your transaction, this is a pretty solid deal. Hit the read link for all the info — just make sure you read the fine print.

[Thanks, Stephen]

Marantz is jumping back into the display pool for 2008, announcing the new VP-11S2 model 1080p DLP projector. Compared to last year’s VP-11S1H, this model adds a second HDMI 1.3 input, and Texas Instrument’s DarkChip4 chipset, boosting it up to 800 lumens of brightness and a 12,000:1 contrast ratio. No price was released, but considering the previous models hover in the $15,000 price range, we expect no less quality — or cost — from this one either.

Don’t adjust your screens folks, as this actually isn’t a year-end case of déjà vu. Rather, we’re looking to give you an(other) imaginary shot at tweaking the OLPC XO now that it has moved beyond the initiative phase and been productized for the general consumer. In case you’ve been parked squarely under a rock for the last few months, you should know that the XO’s journey through production has been quite a lengthy one, and while a few countries have made substantial bulk purchases to inject these machines into their respective school systems, we’re interested in seeing how the average joe / jane located in a developed nation sees things.

Needless to say, One Laptop Per Child’s “Give One, Get One” program has been quite the success, and by now, we’re confident that some of you have already received your own. ‘Course, we’re sure there’s at least a few of you that chose this over that other low-cost laptop (and many that chose it over this), and we’re curious to know how you’d improve the newly commercialized XO now that it actually has a rival. Yeah, we too would love an even skimpier price tag, but beyond that, what hardware / software changes would you like to see on the next version? Could you stand to have a few more megabytes of RAM? Still yearning for dual-boot capability out of the box? How’s about a design scheme that doesn’t involve opaque white and bright green? As stated, we’re well aware that these things weren’t designed with LAN partiers in mind, but now that NickNeg is offering ‘em up to these very citizens — not to mention every other type of user in North America — why not toss out a few suggestions for making it more suitable for you?