According to the witches and wizards at NEC Electronics and Onryoku Hatsuden, their new remote generates electricity when the users clicks on any button. They are planning to see the first production remotes in 2011. [Aiajin via Crunchgear]

They're coming out next year, though they haven't set a price. Separate, NEC's planning a pair of similar shades, except that they'd translate foreign languages in real time, with subtitles hovering in front of you, like you're watching a movie of your life. Which is how I feel a bunch of the time anyway. [Register, FarEastGizmos via Popular Science via Engadget]

The camera is manufactured with a Sony 3-megapixel CMOS sensor by Point Grey, and will be presented at the Intel Developers Forum this week. The USB-IF—which controls the SuperSpeed USB certification process—says that they expect USB 3.0 devices to arrive to the market at the beginning of 2010. [Engadget and Electronista]

• HP announced that they are shipping the Photosmart Premium today, the world's first web-connected printer. We saw the printer a while ago, and were impressed with it's ability to print images and documents from the web without having to interface with a computer at all. The device presents thumbnails of content from Flickr, Google Maps and other web services for you to browse through, then the printer grabs the full-res image and spits them out on paper.

It seems like it could be a pretty cool idea when combined with the App Studio idea HP is exploring, and hopefully developers can come up with some pretty nifty time saving applications. Whodathunk there'd be a day where even printers have their own apps? It's yours for $399. [Press Release]

• Dell released a thin-and-light addition to their Inspiron lineup today with the 14z and 15z. The "z" denotes that the models feature Intel CULV processors inside, and as a result are thinner and weigh less than their non-z brethren. The size of each falls more in line with the dimensions of the Inspiron 11z Dell released last month, albeit with larger screens. Unlike the 11z, though, the 14z and 15z both feature optical drives.

The addition to the line could be great for anyone looking for a notebook with a larger screen that still gets great battery life, but personally if I'm going to be buying anything with a CULV processor in it I would want it in a more portable form factor. Anyone interested can grab the Inspiron 14z starting at $649, or the 15z starting at $599. [ Crunchgear]

The job was not easy: Admirable mom Patti Deni wanted the 98-inch StarGlas60 screen to be aligned straight with the ceiling of her kid's bedroom. Above the bedroom, Stereo Advantage—an audio/video specialty company in Williamsville, NY—had to place a NEC video projector and projection mirrors. In total, the whole solution weighted more than 300 pounds, so they had to make a new reinforced ceiling frame to support it.

According to this laudable woman, her son spends a lot of time playing and editing his own videos, which now will include a YouTube time lapse of him progressively getting fatter and fatter while he plays in bed, and his brain liquifies into a puddle of green goo. [Electronic House]

No idea. We're surprised that Apple is getting in on this agreement, though, and we're wondering if the microUSB port will supplement or replace the standard Apple 30-pin iPod port. We're guessing supplement.

As a refresher, you should go and look back at our cable explainer to see what other kinds of cables are out there now. [Reuters via Slashdot]

Update: Looks like Apple's going to provide an adapter. [PocketLint]

The National Electric Code (NEC) states:

NEC ARTICLE 400 Flexible Cords and Cables General 400.1 Scope.
This article covers general requirements, applications, and construction specifications for flexible cords and flexible cables.
400.8 Uses Not Permitted.
Flexible cords and cables shall not be used for the following:
(1) As a substitute for the fixed wiring of a structure
(2) Where run through holes in walls, structural ceilings, suspended ceilings, dropped ceilings, or floors
(3) Where run through doorways, windows, or similar openings
(4) Where attached to building surfaces
Exception: Flexible cord and cable shall be permitted to be attached to building surfaces in accordance with the provisions of 368.8.
(5) Where concealed by walls, floors, or ceilings or located above suspended or dropped ceilings

In other words, running power cords through the walls is not a substitute for permanent wiring. You're supposed to have a new electric socket installed directly behind the TV, where you can plug in the power cord and coil up the slack to tuck underneath. If you drilled some holes and ran cable yourself all willy nilly, in and back out to a power socket, chances are you are in violation of these codes. Should a fire result, your insurance may find reason to get out of covering your losses. Naturally, it is in your best interests to hire a professional to check out your setup and make sure everything is as it should be. That having been said, let's clarify the original poll and focus on how many of you might be on the wrong side of the NEC.

[Powerbridge and Avsforum and ECM and NEC/ Image via CEA]

This bad boy is basically 4 DLP monitors stiched together and LED backlit, offering a killer response time of 0.02 seconds. It's got DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 inputs, but don't bother hooking up something like your Xbox 360 to this thing—it wouldn't know what the hell to do with the wacky 2880x990 resolution. But I can only imagine how incredible this thing would be when set up to properly run an FPS or driving game. Good god. Hardcore gamers looking to out-rig each other, the bar has been raised. It can be yours for $7,999 of your dad's money next month.

NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS DELIVERS UNMATCHED VIEWING EXPERIENCE WITH 43-INCH SEAMLESS CURVED DISPLAY

Ultra-Wide Curved Display Designed for Simulation, Digital Imaging, Command & Control Applications

CHICAGO - June 4, 2009 - NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, today announced the 43" NEC CRV43 ultra-widescreen specialty desktop display, designed for use in applications such as professional graphics, higher education, government, financial, command & control and home office.

The NEC CRV43 curved display can be seen at InfoComm 09 on June 17-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.

The unique NEC CRV43 curved display provides a much wider field of view and greater dynamic range with its double WGXA resolution (32:10 aspect ratio). The user's taskbar is extended natively and setup is made easy to configure with one input. These features make it an ideal solution for simulation, digital imaging and command & control.

"The NEC CRV43 curved display provides an excitingly immersive viewing experience for any type of user," said Keith Yanke, Director of Product Marketing for NEC Display Solutions. "Its lightning-fast response time coupled with its seamless curved screen provides enhanced comfort, decreased frustration and increased productivity. The monitor eliminates the bezel and screen gap issues that have complicated users' work environment for years."

The NEC CRV43 curved display includes the following features:
* Seamless curved screen, which eliminates bezel and screen gap issues for increased productivity and decreased frustration (according to Center for Human-Computer Interaction - Shupp et al, presented at Graphics Interface 2006)
* 2880 x 900 double WXGA native resolution
* 200 cd/m² brightness
* 0.02ms Rapid Response
* 10,000:1 contrast ratio
* Wide color gamut with 100% coverage of sRGB and 99.3% coverage of Adobe RGB
* Single link DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 input connectors
* USB 2.0 connectivity for easy use of peripherals
* Front panel controls
* On Screen Display (OSD®) and software-based GUI, which enables advanced display control options

The NEC CRV43 curved display is backed by a 3-year parts and labor warranty including the backlight and will be available for July 2009 shipment with estimated street price of $7,999.

The NEC Versa Pro J UltraLite Type VS is a 10-inch, Atom 1.86GHz netbook with Intel GMA500 graphics and a 64GB SSD. It measures just .62 inches in thickness and weighs in at a ridiculous 1.65lbs—those are the typical specs of a MID, but clearly this NEC is built like a far more usable netbook.

Slated for release in Japan this July, we're curious as to the price (UPDATE: it'll have an introductory price of around $1000 before jumping to $1800)...and why NEC preloaded what may be the most gorgeous netbook around with Vista. [NEC via Akihabara News and Engadget]

The add-on is a special channel for the Wii, called the "Health Checkup Channel", that provides two-way communication between doctors and their patients. For the doctors, the system is essentially a readout of whatever information Wii Fit collects, presented over time and in the context of the patient's medical history, which I would assume he or she would be privy to. For the patient, the experience is much like the vanilla Wii Fit, except with a real-life doctor feeding you personalized guidance.

The Checkup Channel is expected to launch in Japan by April. Video of Nintendo recent Wii Fit guilt campaign. [Nintendo via Akihabara]

Using the robot is easy enough. You push the touchscreen on its chest to select, say, tickets for an amusement park. Then you wave your FeliCa-enabled wallet phone (RFID device) over the robot's right hand to, as we can only assume, pay for your tickets and deactivate the robot's deadly laser security system.

Apparently the system could also incorporate facial recognition to identify frequent visitors, or recommend services based upon their age/gender. And while we know that this terminal is just a kiosk shaped like a robot, we can't help but to admire the sincere technoanthropomorphism. [IT Media via Pink Tentacle]

To give you an idea of how much you might save, for instance, Sony's cutting $400 off its 46-inch KDL-46S4100, to $1599, and $500 off its newest 1080p 40-incher, to $1199. So we're looking at discounts in the 20-25 percent range, which is none too shabby, and definitely worth holding off for a couple weeks on your Best Buy TV hunting expedition. [HD Guru]