It's not exactly a TiVo, and it's only capable of storing over-the-air TV (and in its current form, just European digital broadcasting protocols), but the BlobBox from Telsey and TVBlob has an impressive list of talents stashed in a single plastic case:

• BitTorrent searching and downloading (plus downloading via HTTP and FTP)
• YouTube playback and uploading
• Miro for podcast management
• DVB-T over-the-air dual tuner, for watching and recording at same time
• Support for DivX, Xvid, WMV, MP4, MOV, ASF and (soon) MKV
• Web browsing
• Access to Flickr and other photo sites for viewing
• UPnP and USB connectivity for accessing content on other devices
• HDMI output for true 1080p viewing

It's only got a 160GB hard drive, and not only does it just work on European DVB-T broadcasts, but it doesn't have anything like a CableCard either, and given the fact that the company is based in Italy with few or no US distribution, there's probably no plan for that either.

Bummers aside, the fact is, Telsey and TVBlob are taking us one step closer to Chen's dream, and we certainly admire anyone with the guts (and the stomach) to help Chen realize his fantasies. [PRWeb, TVBlob and Telsey via Engadget]

If our best guess is correct, not only is the board built on a ceramic underplate, but all of those off-white structures on the board are "micro-porous ceramic" heat sinks as well. But not only do they dissipate heat from board components while looking ever so evil—the ceramic also improves the structure integrity of the board itself.

The only catch to performance clockers may be the inclusion of SO-DIMM slots—small form memory slots generally reserved for notebooks.

As of right now, the Marine Cool is a concept. But like their dual-screen laptop, if Asus actually brings this model to market, we'd all remember that the company is capable of creating a lot more than just netbooks. [Softpedia via Engadget]

Back to the products: "iRobot introduces cheap refresh to its Verro pool robot." Wow. "Razer introduces entry-level mouse." Ooh, it's getting hot in herre. And Wilson's personal favorite, "Logitech unveils first wireless stereo headset for internet calling with a PC." Mmmm. dreamy. Still, work is work.

A couple of weeks back, I started checking travel websites to see how much it would cost to get there. It was $925 and I would have to fly via Mallorca—a journey of over five hours, excluding check-in time. On top of that, you've got two nights in a hotel, plus expenses. We were looking at paying out around $3,000, then, for a day and a half tops at the fair. No bango, and mucho bucko.

So, I emailed Dieter Jirmann, one of the writers on German Gizmodo. Was he going? He replied the next day.

As far as I know no one from Giz Germany will be in Hannover, so sorry—perhaps better luck at this year's IFA where we can perhaps arrange something beforehand.
If you need any advice for Hannover though (Germany's capital of really bad music—Scorpions are only the tip of the iceberg) please just let us know—we are all vets of surviving CeBIT.

Some people, however, did think it was worth it. Ballmer turned up to promote software that displays your electricity consumption on your PC, a tie-in with German energy provider Yello Strom. Eff that, Steve, said the journalists at the press conference, we want to talk to you about Yahoo.

Greenpeace held a press conference to say that some of the tech companies were *pats heads patronizingly* doing better on the green front, but there was still room for improvement. CeBIT's organizers, who had spent so much time and energy promoting the green side of technology, were left scratching their heads when just a smattering of journos bothered to park their arses on the chairs to listen to the charity's lecture.

Sadly for CeBIT, the real news has come from the police's anti-piracy busts. Fifty-one booths were raided, including that of Meizu, whose portable MP3 player was the culprit, rather than its iPhone doppelganger, the Mini One smartphone.

Last year's CeBIT had stuff going on, the sinister Blu-ray organization saying they would own the world in just three years, plus a heap of interesting gear. And let's not forget the laydeez, either. But this year, what has gone on? Hands-on with the Meizu, Asus' UMPC and a bunch of Samsung printers—and we're talking edited highlights here.

My guess is that tech companies have realized that too many announcements of the same things at different fairs dilutes the message. The PRs think that the six-day CeBIT, reduced this year from seven, is shinky-shonky. This is what Michael Langbehn, German head of PR and Marketing for Panasonic, thinks. "We decided to do product launches globally at CES. Then there's IFA, which is a must." This year, Panasonic is only using CeBIT to promote its business-solution products.

This is one of the things on show at CeBIT this year. I think it looks like a headshot for the latest Sigourney Weaver movie, Alien XIII: Showdown At The Olympic Velodrome, but feel free to tell me that I am even more stupid than you originally thought. Anyway, do you have a clue? Do you even care? It is, gadget lovers, Gigabyte's Cool Rain, a water-cooled memory module, and a product that the Japanese site Impress put up under the heading: "At CeBIT found Worrisome PC-Related Products."

IFA 2008 is less than six months away, and I can guarantee you that it will be a crazy fest of deliciousness, of products that we actually want, rather than a bunch of Apple rip-offs, earnest pledges to do better for the environment (whilst flying a heap of products halfway round the world to show them off to overweight men in suits. Oh, and me.)

But don't get me wrong. Apple rip-offs make me laugh, but they should only be a side order of chips to the curry wurst of brand new-and-amazing gear that we can fondle. And you can bet there won't be a hooker shortage in Berlin, either. [CNET and Reuters and Hexus and PC Watch]

On the other hand, AMD's refusal to specify when in the second half of '08 they'll launch is a bit worrying—December would basically put them a year behind Intel, and it wouldn't be the first time they've been late. Come on AMD, be awesome again, please. Update: Press release below.

AMD Demos 45nm Native Quad-Core Processors for Server, Desktop

— Customer Testing of Product Samples Underway —

HANNOVER, Germany. — March 4, 2008 —AMD (NYSE: AMD) demonstrated at the CeBit electronics exhibition its first 45nm quad-core chips running multiple operating systems and a range of processing intensive applications. The processors were produced in Dresden, Germany, in AMD's Fab 36 300mm manufacturing facility, using an advanced 45nm process co-developed with IBM.

AMD 45nm transistors are engineered to enable greater performance-per-watt capabilities in AMD processors and platforms. AMD combines new processes and materials with leading edge technologies, such as immersion lithography and AMD's fourth-generation strained silicon, for a highly-manufacturable, highly-efficient production process.

This important milestone is the first of many as AMD moves toward delivery of 45nm products later this year. The first 45nm chips demonstrated by AMD include the "Shanghai" product for server and "Deneb" for desktop platforms.

Topping the quintet of drives is the BD-M100A (pictured above), a 2x Blu-ray writer for desktops that can also burn single- and dual-layer DVDs. Optiarc also rolled out the BD5500A, 5500S, 5600S, and 5710S, all with the same specs (see the gallery for a full spec list) except for their laptop-sized form factor and serial ATA connectivity on the models ending with "S". Details on all these drives were murky, but pricing is said to start at 599 Euros, or $796, and they'll be available in July. – Charlie White

CeBIT 2007 Blu-ray at Sony [59 Hardware]

Sony and NEC [PC Launches]

How do you like the idea of a phone with an extra external battery, which will give you extra juice by connecting it to the USB? I think these are aimed at teen girls who, as we know, love to talk INTERMINABLY (unlike teen boys, whose adolescent years are frequently punctuated by grunts). Also, only teen girls would bother customizing their batteries with pink fake fur and glitter. Boys would just scratch "World, I HATE you" on theirs.

The final concept, below, is a mobile with a detachable Bluetooth headset, although I originally thought it was a space-age biro. Even if you just use the headset you can still connect to your address book or any data stored in the phone which, in my book, makes it smart. And you can use the space-age biro thingy to track your phone interactively via Bluetooth.

– Ad Dugdale

Chinese Concept Phones Revealed In CeBit [Coolest Gadgets]

We all knew Beyoncé was fronting Samsung's Ultra Phone, and we all guessed that the dual-screen cell would probably come in red, white, and black (we were so thankful they nixed it in pink), but did we have a clue that it would come in juicy orange and fabulous electric blue? Nope, we'll freely admit that we didn't see that coming and we LOVE it. And yes, we are that shallow. – Ad Dugdale

Samung's Flagship Model Handset Ultra Music Phone [Aving News] via Ultra Music Phone in Colours [Techie Diva]

Ok, so our USBCELL bunny tried to find some folk at the Sony CEBIT 2007 event to chat. Sadly Kinda of empty. So thats a several hundred thousand dollar spend by Sony Ericcson in SL, but it's kinda off empty. Shame. Might as well go to the real Cebit show Sony Ericsson...

UPDATE: We have more. Hit the jump.

I checked out the Sony Ericsson pavilion in Second Life. When I arrived, there were nine people there, including one staff member who was very good at saying "No problem :-)" and "Push the red button!" but couldn't answer many more questions about the project.

There were free t-shirts to get, and a contest where you can a W880 a day (that's where the button pushing comes in). There are also "live" photos from the conference and a dance pad where you can rock out to one of a dozen dances.

This build is a decent recreation of the real world, but there was nothing that really leveraged the advantages of the SL platform or the SL community.

Thanks Simon & Hilary! You did a great job.

Second Life

It's by ad notam, a company famous/notorious for sticking TVs everywhere in your home ala The Future. While we've seen similar items before from companies like Smarthome, this new display looks like it's thin enough to replace your current setup with little modification (just a lot of money).

So why is this mirror a horrible idea? Because the last thing my unshaven, morning-mouth self needs is that boost of confidence every time I see Orlando Bloom. – Mark Wilson

Bathroom Mirror TV [slashgear]
ad notam

It may not be as shiny-black and sideways phallic as the Creative webcam but, at $59.99, Logitech's QuickCam Deluxe will cost you $100 less. This too has face-tracking software, as well as a 1.3 megapixel manual-focus lens and 24-bit VGA video at 15 frames per second.

RightSound technology supports noise suppression and RightLight will let you be seen in the gloomiest of environments. Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, Vista and AIM all say Yes Please to the QuikCam, but what crowns it for me are the 12 fun filters. That means I can give Charlie White a headache as I switch between fish eye, neon and chalk effect when we're video conf-ing. There's a picture of its cheaper sister, the $39.99 QuickCam after the jump.

– Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Logitech via New Launches]

So now the official name of this much-delayed and over-hyped keyboard is Optimus Maximus. Too bad the damn thing will have a maximus price to go along with that naming conceit, spanking early adopters with a $1490 price tag, and now the company is saying it won't be available until December of this year. If ever. Sigh. – Charlie White

Optimus Keyboards [Art.Lebedev]

Hit up the gallery below for a few more views of these speakers that look realistic enough to have some tiny bad guys inside, but looks aren't everything—let's hope they sound good enough so we won't want to immediately shoot them down. Jump for more about these speakers and other Star Wars products from Nikko.

We've seen products from Nikko Home Electronics before, namely its Motion Speaker with its kooky disco lighting and motion-sensitive volume control.

Nikko is no stranger to Star Wars gear, either, introducing its R2D2 Skype Webcam and the R2D2 DVD Projector at CES in January.

These TIE Fighter speakers are just out of the prototype stage, and will be rolled out at CeBIT, the big consumer electronics confab in Hannover, Germany that starts tomorrow. – Charlie White

Manufacturer's Site [Question Mark Entertainment]

Optimus Key Modules [Livejournal]

Founder MiniNote UMPC Specs [PaperBackPC]

Obviously this thumb-typing interface is the stand out discovery, but there's also mention in the copy of plug-in GPS and DMB-TV receivers. Strangely, there's talk that the Samsung device can rip DVDs to its 40GB hard drive—something that's illegal to do in the US. Perhaps there's no Korean equivilent to the DMCA?

CeBIT News [Turnpages]

Looks better than most of the prototypes, that's for sure.

First of all, apologies for the poor performance of the site today. We hit little speed bumps all the time, but today's been a pretty spectacular failure. The good news is that we're a victim of our own success. We'll take growing pains over most other problems.

We should have everything in place by tomorrow, when our Live from CeBIT '06 reports start, courtesy of News Editor John Biggs and Reporter Travis Hudson, who have been whisked across the cold, blue sea to Germany on a junket from BenQ.

You may recall that last year that Siemens sent me on a junket last year, much to the consternation of one of our competitors. I mention this specifically because BenQ—who has bought up Siemens' phone assets—asked me to address it because they wanted to highlight their desire for transparency.

Without getting into another pissing match, let's make one thing clear: We are under no obligation to post anything positive about BenQ's products this year, just as we weren't last year. Unlike publications that accept junkets from companies and try to hide them from their readers, we feel that you are smart enough to make your own judgments when presented any potential conflicts of interest.

I appreciate the opportunity BenQ has afforded us by covering John and Travis's hotel and flights and giving Gizmodo first-rate access to their new gadgets, and I look forward to their reports from CeBIT about BenQ's (and heck, maybe even other companies') products.

Especially if those products from BenQ suck—that's when we write best.

If you like your phones super skinny and encased in metal, Motorola's RAZR and SLVR have just gotten themselves some serious new competition in the BenQ-Siemens EL71 slider phone, announced today at CeBIT. Brushed aluminum and magnesium! Only 16.mm thick! A keypad that glides out gently! You'd probably be going out on the town more if you had this phone, the better to show it off.

For a phone that's meant first and foremost to be stylish, the EL71 is no slouch feature-wise—unlike, say, Nokia's first fashion phones. The camera is 1.3 megapixels with a flash and will do video, it has Bluetooth, takes microSD cards and will play MP3s and AAC files. The Music Cable IHM-100 accessory lets you plug it into any hifi system and play your music over speakers, so maybe you wouldn't bring your iPod around so much anymore.

Price for the EL71 is still TBA, but it should hit markets next month in Quartz Anthracite ; Opal Black" is to follow. If BenQ Mobile is serious about taking consumers away from Motorola, perhaps they should consider putting it out in pink, no?

We'll try and get an EL71 in for review later this month, before it goes on sale. We'll have more on the other handsets BenQ-Siemens announced at CeBIT as the week progresses.

Finest quality mobile design: The ultra-slim BenQ-Siemens EL71 slider phone with metal casing and QVGA display [BenQ Mobile]
BenQ-Siemens Announces Six New Handsets [Gizmodo]