WAVIO
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Onkyo unveils aluminum WAVIO keyboards
We'll admit, we've seen a plethora of unique and well-featured keyboards in the past few months, but we can't exactly say we saw this one coming. Now that pigs are reaching cruising altitude and Denon's kicking out some new high-end headphones, we suppose an aluminum keyboard to match Onkyo's recently-unveiled metallic PC isn't all that shocking, but it's certainly not the company's usual cup of tea. Nevertheless, the WAVIO aluminum keyboard rocks a fairly typical QWERTY layout, an unfortunately truncated backspace key and spacebar, a noticeably cluttered numeric keypad, a bevy of macro / multimedia hotkeys, and entirely too much bezel for our liking. Still, the board comes in a few flavors, with a more rectangular wired USB version costing ¥8,000 ($67), while the curvaceous cordless version comes bundled with a matching critter for ¥5,000 ($42) more. Those who don't mind the tether can pick up the KB-1 sometime next week, while the folks waiting on the KM-1W won't have any luck until late March, but be sure to click on through for a few more closeups of Onkyo's oddities anyway.[Via AkihabaraNews]
Onkyo announces Wavio VR-1000J media recorder
It looks like Neuros is soon going to have to work a little harder to win over media-happy PSP users, with Onkyo announcing that it's about to bust out a standalone media recorder of its own. Like the Neuros recorder, Onkyo's Wavio VR-1000J doesn't have any internal storage, relying instead on Memory Sticks and SD Cards that you can pop directly into your PSP or other video-capable device. In addition to PSP compatible video, it'll also record in the 3GPP, 3GPP2, and ASF video formats, with three video quality settings for each to suit your needs (maxing out at 320x240, 30 fps, apparently not supporting the PSP's native widescreen resolution). On the audio front, you'll only get AAC, G.726, and AMR formats, making it bit less versatile than the Neuros all around, although it does have the whole pyramid thing going for it. Look for this one to hit Japan Decemeber 25th, coming in around the 20,000 Yen mark ($170US).[Via Akihabara News]
