z00pster’s gadget blog

Oops! After all that hype about a Dec 8 unveiling, looks like Creative’s big product launch was undermined by Japan, where the Zen Vision:M was unearthed a day before it’s London debut. The product, which is a bit of a mouthful, if you please, is indeed green and white (though it also comes in black and white as well as all white), has a 30GB hard drive, a 320×240 pixel, 2.5-inch screen with and plays MP3 and WMA-DRM audio files. But, as you may have guessed, it also plays 4 hours of video (or image playback) in MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, Motion JPEG, DivX 4/5 and Xvid formats. Sure, it’s a shot at the Video iPod—it is twice as thick—but unlike Apple’s offerring it’s got an FM tuner and voice recorder tucked in for good luck. Not a bad little product if you ask me, though maybe the interface does look a little familiar…

So here’s our question: Why did you buy a portable video player, if you did at all? Poll after the jump.

News of Creative ZEN VISION:M 30GB [Creative]

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Internet Week 2005 started yesterday in Tokyo, and this Linux phone was one of the first things unveiled. It is built on Windows CE with an additional Linux bootloader, if that makes any sense to you. The phone also runs Mozilla for web access and can access Google Maps (although I suppose lots of phones can technically do that). It was developed by Tokyo University.

Impress

[Thanks to Sven Kilian, CScout Trendconsultancy Japan for the latest news updates from Japan.]

A new display set up at Tokyo station makes interesting use of e-paper. Six A4 sheets of e-paper are on show for commuters in a snazzy transparent blue housing — allowing you to see how thin the e-paper is. The sheets of e-paper are being fed with the latest news stories via a wireless internet connection and are updated with new content every 5 minutes. Rather cool, although to the casual observer (read: soulless, speed-walking salaryman zombie that make up most of Tokyo station’s commuters) it will simply look like someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to frame today’s weather report.

If you’re tired of investing in the coolest, most expensive cell phones on the market, the winds of change may be blowing. Looks like chip companies have been banding together to bring us phones as cheap as $20 by 2007. Promising us the quality we’re accustomed to, the companies are saying that fewer features is the key to low-priced handsets and are now working to do things such as integrate key functions into a single chip for just $5. Not bad. Right now, phone producers use about 150 components to assemble a phone, This would obviously ratchet that down—hopefully to around 50 components.

With production prices at that level, the wholesale price of a handset, which includes distribution and other costs, will be at or below $20,” said Horst Pratsch, vice president for Entry Platforms at German chip maker Infineon. “Most consumers get their phones directly from their wireless operator, and the retail price is based on the wholesale cost to mobile carriers.”

Won’t it be nice when the wireless operators didn’t have us all by the balls?

Chip makers drive race to $20 cellphones by 2007

Games are gonna get speedier with Hynix Semiconductor’s double data rate 4 memory chip, being aimed mainly at consoles and PC graphics cards. The recently announced 512-megabit density GDDR4 chips are high-bandwidth DRAM, which the company claims will be able to process heavy volumes of gaming and video images a hell of a lot quicker than the chips you’ve got working in your PC right now. It also says data processing speed will be close to twice as fast as the GDDR3 chips being currently used. The GDDR4 chips will operate at 2.9 gigabits per second and can process 11.6GB of data in one second. Wow. Look for mass production of the chip by first quarter 2006 and by mid next year, look for an improved speed of 14.4GB.

New 512-megabit GDDR4 chips push video images to new speeds. [PC World]

How often has a birthday or holiday snuck up on you, forcing you to become creative with your food in a feeble attempt to show your can-do spirit? Never? Oh, well in that case, next time you want to create some designer cookies with custom imprints, you can reach for the Cookie Factory. Basically, you shove your cookie dough into the contraption, push it through the desired shape and pound out your cookies. Fun shapes like hearts, snowflakes, and flowers are available with the set. You can pick the Cookie Factory up for $29.99 and start pounding out the holiday fun.

The Cookie Factory [Popgadget]

Playboy is jumping on the podcast bandwagon by offering up their new “Bodcast” daily video podcasts.

These Bodcasts will be available through the Playboy website and will feature video of Playmates, the joke of the day, commentary from ole’ Hugh, and advice from the gals. The Bodcasts are free as long as you sign up for the Playboy newsletter. Bodcasts. HA! Get it? Oh Hugh, you are SO funny—am I still banned from the mansion? I promise not to hide webcams in the toilet again.

Playboy Begins Video “Bodcasts” [Designtechnica]
Playboy Bodcast (Here be scantily-clad women not suitable for your work environment)

Don’t get me wrong—I hate the high gas prices, pollution and all that jazz. Then again, on the other hand something doesn’t seem quite right knowing I could be driving a mobile hydrogen bomb at speeds upwards of 70mph. Danish scientists have developed a way to store hydrogen in a cheaper and safer manner: small tablets. The tablets are created with the help of good ole’ ammonia. High-tech and good for the environment? Who’da thunk it?

Is that hydrogen in your pocket? [MobileMag]

Running a little low on cash this holiday season? Check out our cohorts over at Laptop Magazine. They’re having an enormousa kinda big holiday giveaway featuring 25 gadgets waiting to be won. Cell phones, computer peripherals, software, digital cameras, printers—they’re all up for the taking. Unfortunately, nude photos of the publisher, Ed Brown, are not in the offing.

Laptop Mag Giveaway