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Music Phone FM Transmitter: Sony-Ericsson [Brando]

At first glance the iBag Turntable looked very cool, but that reaction wore off as soon as I realized that it doesn’t really use vinyl. What you really have here is a backpack that you can connect your iPod to. With four AA batteries you can also play your iPod through the backpack’s speakers. The backpack includes a FM radio, and retails for $60. I have yet to hear (or see) someone playing music through their backpack’s speakers. Here in San Francisco, we still use boom boxes on our shoulders for being obnoxious.

iBag Turntable [shiny shiny]

Read these exciting stories before our planet is engulfed by the sun:

The Elite Cuisine Multi-Function 3-in-1 Breakfast Center
USB Roll-Up Keyboard
High Tech Karaoke
GPS Could Be Disabled By Solar Flares In 2011
Japanese Power Suit Makes You Super Human

Zen V Plus [Creative]

Elite Cuisine Multi-Fucntion 3-in-1 Breakfast Center [Target]

PC DAB Radio [Gizoo.co.uk]

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, told ABC News today that he will be in New York on Nintendo Wii launch day and will hand out some of the first Wiis at a store. The store remains unnamed, but it’s rumored that he will be at Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Center. Nintendo claims to feel more connected to its gamers than other console manufacturers, and this is a great way to show that connection.

You won’t see Sony handing out $600 dollar systems at the Metreon. Nintendo is holding its ground stating that, they don’t believe gaming is all graphics and that the average gamer doesn’t have high definition equipment anyway. Whatever spin Nintendo puts on it, the bottom line is: Free Wiis!

EDIT: You guys were right – he’s just “handing” them out. No free Wii Units for New Yorkers.

Free Nintendo Wiis [gamespot]

leak on the board of directors who was giving information to CNET reporters.

A number of high-level HP employees have resigned and taken their Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate themselves. This means that either Dunn told these people what to do, or that they were working without Dunn’s knowledge. Dunn is saying that prior to all these shenanigans, she’d never heard the word “pretexting.”

Either way, HP’s brass knew what it was doing, and they knew that it was illegal. The story hasn’t finish writing itself, however, so stay tuned.

Dunn Grilled by Congress [C|Net]

Here’s something that could be handy for on the go musicians. The USB roll-up keyboard features 49 keys, 128 instruments, 100 prerecorded rhythms. And you know, it also rolls up. There hasn’t been much use of the roll up keyboard. Some musicians are on the go all the time with Logic Pro 7 or Pro-Tools. Both those programs are heavily MIDI-based, and usually used by electronics musicians everywhere they go.

With the new USB support you can have a MIDI controller everywhere you are. Since the keys don’t look push-sensitive you’re going to loose certain humanization features such as velocity, but you can always edit something like this in the program. The keyboard runs $46.00, so the onboard stuff probably sounds like crap. But with all the features a program like Logic Pro 7 has, you wouldn’t be using many of a keyboard’s onboard features anyway.

USB Roll-Up Keyboard [the red ferret journal]

It was announced today that Intel has reached an agreement with Nokia to embed an HSDPA connectivity module on its Centrino Duo. Intel will handle all elements of production, from hardware implementation to software development.

It’s an exciting time for mobility. Just five years ago, options like this were essentially science fiction and now we’re on the cusp of a legitimately wireless world. It really is about time that we shed the shackles of ethernet cables once and for all.

Nokia and Intel Team for Wireless Broadband [Digital Trends News]

Zune Accessories [Amazon]

IBM and Xing announced today that they have come together to release a new high tech karaoke controller that will allow users to take karaoke with them throughout Japanese restaurants and karaoke bars. The Kyoku NAVIs features a touch screen interface, allows users to search for songs in a simplified fashion and has wireless LAN for updates and streaming videos. The controller is also waterproof (for all that “water” you’re going to spill on it at the bar) and shock resistant.

It looks as though you’ve got to connect the NAVIs to another karaoke system (screen and speakers) for it to work. This sort of takes the novelty out of going to a karaoke bar and doing embarrassing songs in front of all your friends and public alike. I know I vouched for the iPod Karaoke before, but that was designed for the comfort of your own home. The Kyoku NAVIs just seems a little bit ridiculous. But hey, we all saw “Lost In Translation,” maybe Japan does need something like this for karaoke lovers to carry around. Maybe.

Either way, it feels as though IBM is running on empty here. There is also another model of the controller, the Kyoku NAVII, which features all the same things as the NAVIs, but can wirelessly order drinks and food to whichever restaurant it’s connected to. What? Japan must really be technologically advanced if we’re still doing the ol’ paper and writing thing over here.

Xing’s Kyoku-NAVIs [ibm technology]

JVC Everio [Impress.co.jp, translated via Babelfish]

Technical hurdles delay mobile Skype: CEO [Yahoo]

Looks like Gizmodo got more footage of another raucous party held in honor of a small piece of plastic and some wires. Boom-shaka-laka-ActivSync! Look for friend of CG, Vince, cursing his Vienna sausage at the end.

HTC 3125 Launch Party in New York: Enjoy the Decadence [Gizmodo]

actually introduced several days ago, but is now shipping, which is nice for those of you who actually want a physical phone. The BlackBerry-esque E62 totes a 320 x 240 screen and runs Symbian’s S60 Smartphone OS, an alternative to Windows Mobile and PalmOS that we don’t see as much in the States as we do in Europe. It also sports EDGE hi-speed wireless, a expansion card slot and Bluetooth.

The E62 is aimed directly at the Motorola Q market, and Cingular is selling it with its BlackBerry Connect service, meaning you can have your (BlackBerry) cake and eat it, too.

Nokia E62 [Cingular]

Head on over to Lenovo’s handy idenfication page to figure out if your shiz is going to fizzle all over your pants or not.

IBM and Lenovo sold these Sony batteries in systems listed below between February 2005 and September 2006. Customers who bought one of the following systems may have a battery subject to this recall:

* ThinkPad R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e)
* ThinkPad T Series (T43, T43p, T60)
* ThinkPad X Series (X60, X60s)

Isn’t it amazing what cellphones can do now? Because a dozen people documented what, for all we know, an extremely rare but not impossible occurrence we’ve collectively brought hellfire down upon almost every major laptop manufacturer.

Battery recall [IBM]

This pair of headphones from Philips goes around your neck like a neck cushion (as seen in The Office last night) and have a pair of earbuds that go into your ear. When an appropriate sound effect is fired, the neck “brace” rumbles around and lets you feel the action. The Philips Sonic Vibes do look somewhat weird, and hopefully they designed it well enough not to give you permanent neck damage.

These headphones might not work well for games like World of Warcraft, but for first person shooters or more action-oriented games, they might be great. You can pick one up for around £35 or $66.

Product Page [Philips via Shiny Shiny]

Creative has introduced the MuVo 100, a subtle upgrade to the V200. Don’t let the smaller number fool you though, the new addition packs some welcome upgrades. Not only is the V100 smaller than the previous version, it also promises an 18 hour batter life and capacities up to 2GB. It also has a full USB port on the unit. The MuVo V100 is currently only available in Asia, but I suspect we’ll see something similar here by the holidays.

Creative MuVo V100: It’s an update [CNET Asia]