Both the DreamScreen 100 (10.2-inch screen) and 130 (13.3-inch) have 2GB of built-in storage, though they also have a combo flash card reader and USB connectivity for more room. You can load content onto them either through the storage or by a drag-and-drop software interface on a PC. Though it can stream audio and photos (with a really pretty interface, nice big album art), it can't stream video.

The DreamScreen becomes more of a mobile Internet device with its Facebook, Pandora and Snapfish photos support. However all of these have limitations. Firstly, all of these are controlled by either a remote or by buttons on the device itself—the DreamScreen isn't a touchscreen. Secondly, in the Facebook app you can only browse your photos, see status updates and view event invites.

While the DreamScreen has wireless capabilities it doesn't have a browser function and is more for consuming short bits of online content. It does seem like device primed for applications or widgets (I'm thinking Chumby here), but right now HP is only offering these capabilities.

The DreamScreen 100 is available today for $250, while the DreamScreen 130 is expected to be available sometime this fall for $300. Full press release below. [HP]

HP Announces New Line of Wireless Connected Screens with HP DreamScreen

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 17, 2009 – People now can stay current with Facebook friends and photos, listen to Pandora Internet radio, share Snapfish personal photos and enjoy their music and pictures from home networked PCs(1) with a new category of connected screens from HP.

The HP DreamScreen, a companion to the PC, connects easily to a wireless or wired network to bring photos, music and video into any area of the home. The screen also transforms social media and web information into consumable, bite-sized pieces.

"Constant, always-on access to friends, information and entertainment is a common expectation today," said Satjiv S. Chahil, senior vice president, worldwide marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP. "With HP DreamScreen, social media, web services and digital entertainment can be enjoyed in more areas of the home."

The HP DreamScreen features a piano-black design with a vibrant, flush glass widescreen display. The DreamScreen 100 (measuring 10.2 inches) was designed to fit perfectly on a nightstand or dresser. The HP DreamScreen 130 (measuring 13.3 inches) is ideal for kitchen counters and coffee tables.

A product demonstration is available at www.hp.com/go/dreamscreen.

Enjoying digital entertainment

The HP DreamScreen comes with 2 gigabytes of built-in memory for storing photos, music and home movies directly on the device. Digital content can be loaded and played using a USB drive or most types of flash memory cards. Photos and music can be streamed wirelessly or moved to the HP DreamScreen by a simple "drag and drop" motion from a networked PC with included software.

Finding and playing songs is easy – searchable by artist, album or genre – and is enhanced with album cover art. High-fidelity speakers are built in and include connections to accommodate headphones and external speakers.

For music enthusiasts, the HP DreamScreen allows users to stream music directly from the Internet using Pandora. The custom-designed experience makes accessing Pandora accounts easy. Album cover art is displayed and users can personalize their stations by thumbing-up favorite songs or artists to refine their stations.

"Pandora's listeners want to have access to their personalized stations on a variety of devices," said Jessica Steel, senior vice president, Business Development, Pandora. "The HP DreamScreen makes it fun and easy for listeners to enjoy Pandora throughout their homes."

In addition, the HP DreamScreen gives users access to HP SmartRadio, a new service that aggregates streams of live Internet broadcasts from more than 10,000 radio stations around the world. Users can now listen to their favorite radio stations on the Internet by location or genre in any part of their home.

With the HP DreamScreen's capabilities, it becomes the "fourth screen" in people's lives, extending the enjoyment of digital content beyond a computer, TV and mobile phone.

Staying connected

The HP DreamScreen includes 802.11 b or g wireless capabilities to access real-time information from the web. By selecting the Facebook icon, for example, users can stay up to date with their social networks while away from their computers. Friends' status updates, photos and upcoming events can all be viewed in real time.

In addition to viewing images from a PC, flash memory card or Facebook, customers also can access their own or their friends' Snapfish photos and albums. Photos from any of these locations can be enjoyed in slideshow mode simultaneously with music stored on the device or streamed from the user's PC in the background.

Checking time, day and weather

The HP DreamScreen also helps people prepare for and organize their day with access to five-day weather forecasts for cities around the world and a view of their calendar. The HP DreamScreen's built-in clock feature can show time in digital or analog format with dual time-zones and lets users choose tones or music for alarms.

Setting up is easy

The HP DreamScreen was designed to be fun, simple and intuitive. A remote control that nests almost invisibly on the top of the product is easy to use, and touch controls that are visible only when the border of the screen is touched provide another way to select activities or preferences. Both models come with a stand and are ready for wall mounting right out of the box.

Pricing(2) and availability: Perfect for holiday gift-giving

The HP DreamScreen 100 is available today in the United States for $249(2) from online distributors including BestBuy.com, Amazon.com and HPDirect.com. U.S. channel partners include the full range of more than 900 Best Buy retail outlets, which will be selling the HP DreamScreen 100 starting Oct. 11.

The HP DreamScreen 130 is expected to be broadly available this fall in the United States for $299.(2)

About HP

HP, the world's largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.

Yes. That definitely goes beyond the general area of stupidity straight into the I'm a Bloody Moron, Please Shoot Me Dimension. It had to be a dumb Spaniard, of course, for this Euro-African country—alongside Italy and France—produces the biggest driving—and regular—dumbasses in the planet (I know because I was born there).

The 18-year-old driver—identified as J.C.R—was caught by the Spanish police while racing through the streets of the Northwest city of Vigo. The police noticed the speeding car at 2:50am. According to them, the guy was fishtailing, and running red lights while taking photos of himself using a cellphone.

When the police tried to stop him, the moron accelerated and tried to escape, only to be intercepted in another street. Then he tried to escape running and, when he realized he couldn't make it, he returned to his car, and crashed against one of the police vehicles that was chasing him.

Adding to this list of idiotic things, when the police tested his alcohol levels, he was off of the scale. In Spanish law, that means that you will get your driver's license automatically revoked. But then again—as the police discovered later—this guy doesn't even have a driver's license, so it's not that he's going to care about that. Not that he will need one in jail, anyway. [Yahoo! Noticias (in Spanish)—Thanks Mariló]

The 1520 x 2032 pixel image looks very videoish, just like the iPhone. I was hoping for a better camera, but I guess that everyone is cutting corners when it comes to smartphones—and there's not enough space to make things a whole lot better.

But since one photo alone is not good enough to judge the quality of the camera, here is a gallery taken by Rik Sagar—Multimedia Software Engineer at Palm—with a Pre.

I wish he had some taken in darker environments, to see the speed, but it doesn't look much different from the iPhones or Blackberries of this world. I hope someone releases one with a better camera built-in, at least as good as the ones found in some cameraphones. [Flickr—thanks Stephan—and yfrong via Twitter—Thanks Kat]

Perfectly timed to complement (or perhaps aid in) the rise of hip-hop, the boombox rose to prominence in the late 70s and early 80s. Panasonic, Aiwa, JVC, Sharp, Conic, Yamaha, Sony and Lasonic were all kings of the street.

In it's most idealized form, the boombox was monolithic—both in stature and cultural relevance. Companies began competing to see who could make the loudest, flashiest machine around. Those big, beautiful graphic EQs that would rise and fall with the music became commonplace on machines like this, looking like a bot-send from the future.

While walking around town blasting a tape as loud as one possibly can is the imagery that first comes up (peace to Radio Raheem!), I think the tape-making ability of the boombox is what I loved best. You always hear stories about rappers, producers and DJs talking about how they used to spend all day dubbing tapes from the radio. By the time I got a boombox of my own in the early 90s, they had passed their marketing prime, and the ghettoblaster of my dreams had been reduced to a boring, black piece of plastic. But it was my own, and it still had a radio tuner and a record button!

As a kid, I was addicted to compiling tapes full of my favorite songs from the radio. I used to sit by the boombox, finger always at the ready, waiting for the song I wanted to come on. It was a precision artform—the tape had to be queued up to the right spot, you couldn't hit record too early and get too much DJ jibba jabba and you had to make sure to stop recording before the next song hit.

But I digress. The point is that while the iPod might be the new way to show off your standing in the social pecking order, the boombox might possibly have been the first piece of musical gadgetry to signify one's cool. Before the Walkman. Before the car sound system. Before all that. Long live the boom box. (Top photo courtesy of Photo Courtesy of ddefranza)

Listening Test: It's music tech week at Gizmodo.

That bulky iPod color hangs tenuously from this girl's bikini. How impractical. That's not going to stay put once she runs towards you in slow motion in your mind. This particular model is from 2004, right before the shuffle was released in 2005, and years before the last and current gen's clip. How far we've come in beach-appropriate gadgets. [Snowking@Flickr]

Thankfully, the bicyclist who was hit was not hurt. (Even though his very nice carbon fiber forks on his very nice road bike was smashed up.)

[Photos from Jase n tonic via gadgetlab]

Objects scanned include the electronics we're interested in as well as various toys and food items. There's been no word as yet about what in a Filet O' Fish would turn vomitous shades of teal and magenta, but it's enough to turn me off the square fish sandwich for life. [Radiology Art, thanks Jeff!]

The emergency services were alerted by a professor and his eight students, who all reported they had seen a suspicious man carrying a "long, tubular object." Following a campus lockdown and a thorough two-hour search, nothing was found. Information incoming across the weekend has indicated a photographer with a tripod was the reason for the disturbance, though he has yet to be located and spanked for all the fuss he caused. Let this be a lesson to you camouflage-cargo pants-wearing weirdos; don't wear camouflage cargo pants. You're not in the army, you suck. Talking of things that suck, according to a satirical joke we are about to make, the NRA was said to be very disappointed about there being one less gun on the streets. We don't doubt it. [Globe and Mail via blogTO]