ESPN's unleashing The Ultimate Remote, developed by tvCompass, complete with 2.2-inch QVGA LCD screen and 802.11 b/g WiFi stuffed in a 6.5 oz package. It's certainly a serious contender with the Harmony One -- and priced like it, at $300. The marketing info claims no PC is required for setup, recharging via USB, an internet browser with real time access to scores, fantasy info and TV listings for broadcast, cable and satellite from click365's wireless partners. There's even a messaging feature for texting from remote to remote, email, or to a cellphone. We got a glimpse of it at Microsoft's booth during CES, and while it claims "Advanced Microsoft Windows operating software" it's not talking about SideShow. It reminds us a lot of the Ricavision VAVE100 MCE/SideShow remote, but with a slightly different feature set. Father's Day is coming up and suddenly walking over to the computer (or keeping a laptop or PDA/phone on the couch) is sounding like a lot of unnecessary work. Check after the break for a bigger pic with keypad breakdown, or head to Amazon to preorder.

[Via Electronista]

If you've ever dreamed of a cute little television which would speak to you (and we're pretty sure you have), you're in luck. Thanks to E-Revolutiona and Takara Tomy, that dream is now a reality. The two companies have gotten together and produced a 2.7-inch, QVGA TV called the Segnity which runs on AAA batteries or USB power, features a 1seg tuner (a a mobile terrestrial digital audio / video / data broadcasting service in Japan), and... talks to you. Apparently, the little display (which comes in black or white) will asking you things like, "Are you leaving already?" when you attempt to switch it off. No word on whether it whispers subliminal messages to you while you sleep, or threatens to kill you if you return it -- but we can certainly hope. Available at the end of September for about ¥10,000 (or $86). Check the video after the break to see the annoying device in action. [Warning: read link not translated]

[Via Akihabara News]

There's nothing quite like wading through some unintelligible, mistranslated press releases to really get you jazzed up about a new gadget, meaning that we're practically falling all over ourselves to introduce iriver's second portable multimedia device of the day, the oddly-named U:MO. Sporting a mere 1GB of storage complemented by a miniSD slot, the QVGA 'MO's real appeal is evident from that nubby antenna sticking out the top, which allows it to pull in eight video and 40 music channels straight from the heavens -- thanks to satellite content from provider Mobile USEN. All your favorite file formats are supported -- unless you're a fan of a little-known codec called DivX -- and battery life is said to range from a little over two hours to a full 24 hours, depending on your mix of content. Sounds like the U:MO is hitting stores today, and not that the majority of you even care, but we haven't been able to nail down a price yet.

[Via Impress]

Clix comparisons aside, this new Bitoy Cube100 looks like a not-shabby-at-all PMP offering for the Chinese company. Sporting a 3.6-inch QVGA screen, the Cube100 sadly lacks a D-Click interface, instead opting for some rather small navigation buttons across the bottom of the device. Still, quite a bit of screen for a device this small, and the codec support isn't bad either, with MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MOV, MP3 and WAV all represented. The device can also play games, two of which are included. There's an unfortunate 512MB of memory, but if our eyes don't deceive us, the player has what looks to be a memory card slot -- though it could just be some sort of docking port. No word on price or availability, but we're guessing we won't be seeing this one outside of China anytime soon.

[Via CNET; thanks alisonteck]

When Apple announced the new VGA res for all iTunes videos the other week -- including new versions of their current QVGA catalog -- we were definitely stoked to be getting 4x the pixels for our video dollar, even if we were a bit miffed at having to re-purchase some of those videos which we'd already bought. Unfortunately, it looks like the offer might not be quite as rosy as we would've hoped. It seems that for certain videos, Apple has simply up-sampled the flick from its formerly compressed QVGA version, the disastrous results of which can be seen above. So, instead of paying $2 for a second time around for what should be a high-res video sampled straight from the original source, you might be paying through the nose for a file that doubles the pixels and megabytes, but severely lessens the general quality of the picture. Friendly tipster Paul C. was kind enough to alert us to this problem, and screencapped a few videos to demonstrate the sitch, all of which can be seen after the break. If you're experiencing similar quality problems, please let us know in the comments so we can figure out the extent of this issue, and bring the appropriate smackdown upon Apple.

Manually converting videos to play on your cellphone is often a pain in the neck -- so thankfully our friends in Hong Kong have come up with a way to solve this incessant problem: the mobile Digital Video Recorder. According to the company's site and Slashphone, you simply plug the mDVR into the television via three "CA AV" jacks (we're assuming that means composite) and presto, you're now able to record your favorite shows direct to an SD card that you can later pop into your Treo or the handset of your choice. We know, never been done before, right? And as you can imagine, this isn't really H.264 codec quality we're talking about here, but how many phones are great at playing that anyway? You get 3GP and H.263, at QCIF, CIF and QVGA resolutions -- and you'll like it In other words, it'll probably do the job -- assuming that at some point iTech lists the price and get some distribution channels lined up.

[Via Slashphone]

We're no strangers to the Pontus line of consumer electronics devices from Japanese manufacturer Edia, and now the company has announced yet another in-car nav unit that's heavy on the multimedia features but light on the internal storage -- and by light, we mean that it has none. Therefore, the EN-3700 gets all its maptastic goodness from the included 1GB card (its predecessor, the EN-3500, only shipped with 512MB), though you also have to pack your MP3, WMA, JPEG, and BMP files in with whatever maps you need to store. As for the screen, it's a 3.5-inch little touchscreen number with a QVGA display -- not bad, but since they're cutting corners in the storage department, we'd expect a little more for our 74,800 yen ($642). If you're looking for a way to navigate your way around Japan (or just locate one of the seemingly abundant McDonalds locations) and this sounds like the right GPS system for you, you should be able to snatch one up sometime this month.

With a 2.5-inch QVGA screen, 512MB of memory and SD card expansion, there really isn't anything going on with this new ADY-30512 "Muvia" PMP from NHC that we haven't seen a million times before. Still, the device manages to be reasonably svelte at 0.75-inches thick, and the MPEG, MOV, AVI, ASF, DivX and WMV codec support is fairly expansive. The device also manages a mic input and AV line-in, and the 6 hour battery life (12 hours with music) ain't too shabby. Sadly, the device interfaces with USB 1.1, and its 29,800 Yen pricetag ($257 US) doesn't really stand out from the crowd. All the same, we should be seeing this one in Japan on the 24th of August.

[Via Impress]

It takes a pretty special phone-less PDA to pique our interest these days, and even though Korean manufacturer BlueBird's new Pidion BM-300 doesn't really push the envelope in areas like processor speed or screen resolution, the fact that they threw a DMB tuner into the mix puts this model in some pretty distinguished company. Besides the PM80 from LG, in fact, we're hard-pressed to think of another palmtop that sports a built-in digital TV receiver -- which is probably because there's little demand for this feature anywhere outside of Korea for now. Specs-wise, the WiFi- and Bluetooth-equipped BM-300 definitely comes out on top, as its 512MHz Bulverde CPU, 64MB/128MB RAM/ROM configuration and Windows Mobile 5.0 OS are all superior to what the LG model offers, though the two do share the same unfortunate 320 x 240 resolution. South Korean TV fanatics can expect these to hit stores sometime in October -- from the look of things, they need some time to polish up that design a little -- for a price that's yet to be announced.

[Via Digital-Lifestyles]

Transcoders got their wish last week with TiVo Desktop 2.3 and its conversion tools that finally allow users an easy way to get MPEG-4 or H.264 video all prepped for a portable device. Unfortunately, it's QVGA or bust with video conversions, which puts a damper on use with the PSP and other higher-res devices -- real and imagined. Luckily, our pal Dave Zatz has a hack all prepped for setting the resolution to whatever your heart desires, and it really doesn't take a lot of technical knowhow to do. So head on over and get transcoding, or just wait for QVGA-induced blindness to set in. Your call.

Since they don't release these products in the US, you might not know that Acer's got quite the little digital camera business going on overseas, and now they've announced three more new models to join the 8.28 megapixel CP 8660 we spotted earlier. If you were hoping for some of the retro styling or compelling features we saw on the CP-8660, though, you'll probably be disappointed, as there's not much noteworthy about the 5.05 megapixel CE 5430 and 6.36 megapixel CE 6430 point-and-shoots or the 5.05 megapixel CL 5300 (pictured), other than the fact that this latter model seems to be Acer's first foray into ultracompacts. Both new members of the CE line feature those standard 3x optical zooms that have become so tiresome along with 2.36-inch TFT LCDs (no viewfinder here), while the 5300 sports a 2.0-inch LCD and seemingly no optical zoom. Rounding out the ho-hum specs for all three devices are a USB 1.1 connection, SD slot, PictBridge support, and that old standby, QVGA video capture (thankfully it's at least 30fps), although so far pricing remains a mystery. Keep reading to check out the two new CE models, although we should warn you that they look like a thousand other cameras you've seen before...

Read- CL 5300
Read- CE 5430
Read- CE 6430