By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added URL of X-mini site.

OKAY, so we journalists usually get nifty giveaways, but this one — the X-mini Capsule Speaker — stands out from the coffee mugs and USB thumb drives so it’s worth mentioning here.

It’s a portable “capsule” speaker (it actually looks a lot like a mosquito repellent device), which sets it apart from the generic, mostly two-speaker types. It connects via a two-prong cable, one for your USB port and another for your standard 3.5mm stereo jack.

Best of all, no need to plug it because the battery’s rechargeable via USB. So if it doesn’t have its own power, what about sound quality then? Not bad at all, I’d say it’s definitely better than those portable speakers you’ll find in P88 stores. The package did say “Hearing is believing.” I tried supporting that point with this video.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

ONLY a few things would make a splash buff blush, and among them is getting a camera that can be taken underwater, be frozen down to below five degrees Celsius, and be dropped from a height of 1.5 meters (shoulder length).

This sounds familiar because Olympus already did this with the mju 725 about three years ago. Then it followed up with the mju 750 in 2006 and now, the company has recently introduced the mju 790 SW. So far, the mju 790 is the most high-tech all-terrain consumer camera from Olympus and it certainly lives up to the hype of the best underwater camera in the market.

Two months ago, I was able to test the mju 770 by sinking it in a bucket of water and chucking it inside my freezer. This time the mju 790 SW took a more sustained test when I brought it to Miniloc island in El Nido, Palawan. Of course, that’s the juicy part — and here’s an underwater video I took to show the mju 790 SW in action.

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OK, maybe it isn’t, but at a whopping price in excess of — get this — $55, 000, this gold remote control from Danish company Lantic Systems probably is.

Obviously, the Gold RC1 isn’t for ordinary couch potatoes like you and me. Here’s an excerpt from the Lantic Systems press statement:

The new remote control — Gold RC1 — was presented Nov. 13 at the METS 2007 Exhibition in Amsterdam, Holland — the world’s biggest marine equipment trade show.

Lantic Systems is ready to deliver Gold RC1 from December 2007 and the first orders have already been received.

Modeled after the original RC1 from Lantic Systems, the Gold RC1 offers the same sleek form factor and cool metallic finish and ease of use that have made the RC1 one of the hottest remote controls on the market today.
The Gold RC1 is… in design as in function the center of the Lantic Entertainment system which offers control over TV/video/DVD, music/CD, internet, e-mail, CCTV, burglary alarm, lights, curtains, air-conditioning and surveillance of navigation systems etc.

This is a unique technology which matches the other integrated state-of-the-art management and entertainment systems, which Lantic Systems is specialized in developing for the mega yachts and the exclusive homes worldwide.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m just gonna go to my yacht to try this out heh

HERE’S a Reuters video report on social networking site Bebo’s new Open Media platform.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

TAIWANESE computer maker Asus has unveiled the Asus Eee PC, which weighs barely a kilogram and is no wider than an eight-inch hardbound book. Its thickness is about two inches and it has a seven-inch (diagonal) LCD monitor.

Unlike normal laptops, the Eee PC’s size limits its functions such as the memory storage and the absence of an internal drive. Instead of a hard disk, the Eee PC uses flash memory, similar to small USB thumb drives. There are no optical disc drives but it has three USB slots to allow for connecting USB devices, including external optical drives and hard disks.

Here’s a video interview I did.

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