The AV700 has up to 40GB of hard drive space and plays WMA, MPEG-4, AVI, and WMV9, among others. The big news, however, is that the DVB tuner works in a moving vehicle, which makes it great for the train.

The 104 is a flash-based, color OLED player that comes in three sassy colors, black, silver, and pink. It will cost $149.95 and plays WMA-DRM, WAV, and JPGs. It has 4GB of storage. It's a successor to the GMINI XS 100.

AV700 Translation [GenerationMP3]
Archos 104 Translation [GenerationMP3]

Original Archos AV700 for $509 (without tuner) [Amazon]

Essentially, you never need to recharge this thing as long as you're outside. This, assume, however, that we leave the house.

Solar-powered MP3P 'MEGA PLAYER 540' [AVing]

Browse solar powered electronics [Amazon]

Product Page [Brainic]

Product Page [Wowpen]

We even got to see it go back and forth inside a tube, which was slightly disturbing.

Product Page [Ka-Te]

It comes with 1MB built-in but the phone supports MiniSD for up to 1GB of memory and has a 6-band equalizer and even shows karaoke-esque lyrics on the screen so you can sing along to your favorite tunes.

Productg Page [BenQ]

Full-bore, full-Flash, all singing all dancing CeBIT microsite [BenQ]

Product Page.

Product Page

It feels like we're at an turning point or, if you want to be all Gladwell about it, a tipping point. This industry has gone from speeds and feeds to "Gee, it's purdy" in about 6 years and we're about to turn another corner and talk about performance again because the innovation-through-trade-dress route is in danger of imploding on itself. As we all know, Asia is making some incredible stuff that we'll never see. It looks great and is very inexpensive. But thus far we've seen few technological advances here except size reduction, which is an inevitable process.

So what am I saying? I'm saying that the stuff we saw this year will get very smart next year and in the next five years. It will become more "all-in-one" in a good way, with WAN, WiFi, Wireless USB, and other connectivity systems creating a seamless environment for our gear. The sexiness of the iPod will give way to the power of some cool PC/media player that will amaze us. I know this has been said more than once before (see: countless articles on Newton, Tablet PCs, Napster, Internet Porn, etc.) but I believe this time we'll pull it off. Because we know how to make pretty machines and interfaces, we can hide lots of the backend stuff from the user in ways that we have thus far only dreamed of. Take Origami, for example. It is no winner, but it is no Microsoft Bob, either. Tools like Origami and Frontrow and even the open-source Mac media system called CenterStage will offer us a simple interface to complex systems.

Maybe it's the jetlag and the cookies, but I'm kind of glad there is so much gloss here. I remember the heady days of 286 computers and 10MB hard drives. I used to go to swap meets and computer shows with my father and there we'd wander the halls, wondering at what these strange things all did. What was that board for? Audio input? Video editing? What was that shareware program for? A spreadsheet? A waveform generator? All that stuff was complex and hard to grasp, especially for someone without a CS degree. Now, I could probably walk through CeBIT with my grandmother and kind of explain to her what's up: That's a portable video player, you can put your favorite shows on there... That's a computer that looks like a helicopter.

Sure it's simplistic, but it's where we need to be in order to prove to the wider world that technology isn't just for the smart and rich. It's for everyone, now, it's its all eminently usable.

Oh, and that picture up there is of a pineapple we saw on the sidewalk here. It was early. We were tired.

Tell me what for in comments or chat with me here.

In this, the final chapter of our ever-increasingly silly quest to get all sorts of Origami footage, your correspondents go deep into the Origami launcher and realize... it's still just Windows.

Product Page [SonicGear]

The N70 is like the PMP's in-car buddy. It's basically a GPS unit with media functions and has the same bulbous/laquered design. As someone mentioned in one of the comments before, "Is innovation now just industrial design?" I'm going to have to say "Yes." If it doesn't work well and look great, it won't sell. Anyone can OEM a flash drive. But can anyone make one we'd like to buy?

Product Page

The biggest coolness? The OLED display under the main display. No chintzy body displays for Pantech. They slap it on the little nub at the bottom and out RAZR the RAZR. Sure, it's derivative, but it's so nice. Not much else to report on this one, but it would be nice to own one day in the far future.

The mice aren't as practical as the laptops. Leather coated in palm sweat is going to smell worse than a Kansas feed yard after a rain-storm. At least the laptops looked nice. Very slick and very "luxury." Are we entering a new era in design where the guts of a laptop matter much less than the look and feel? Talk amongst yourselves.

The second in our ongoing series on UMPCs in the wild. Thrill to the power of Microsoft's Sexy Windows Shell 1.0b.

This is a wireless camera that creates a self-healing network and connects to handhelds, laptops, or a central command headquarters. Using Motorola-branded toughbooks and handhelds, you can set up a bunch of these in a secure area and keep an eye on things. The bulbous head appears to be baseball bat proof and the idea—if not totalitarian and creepy—is very cool.

Older Product Page [Motorola]