Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

It’s actually called the “Home Theater Watch,” but that’s somewhat of a misnomer, seeing as the screen that this watch features is only an inch and a half in size. Nothing wrong with that, though… It is, after all, a watch. The 2 gigs of onboard memory should handle at least one movie, or the equivalent number of episodes of Invader Zim. The watch hooks up to your computer via USB, and can also play back picture slideshows and audio files.

Although software is included to convert some types of video files (including AVI, WMV, MPEG, and VCD) into watch video format (whatever that is), there’s no information given about battery life. It would be nice, too, if instead of the 2GB of built in memory, there was an SD card slot. Oh well… At $150, I shouldn’t be picky.

[ Home Theater Watch ] VIA [ Coolest-gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A Japanese company called KFE will soon be releasing the EXEMODE CDR-300 mini stereo system. At first glance it’s pretty run-of-the-mill with support for CDs and an AM/FM radio but what really sets it apart is the ability to copy those CDs in either MP3 or WMA formats to an SD card or a USB Key.

I assume it’s also able to playback MP3s or WMAs otherwise the whole setup would seem a bit useless. One downside is that it only supports SD cards up to 1Gb in size which is kind of lame so hopefully you can adjust the bit rate settings for the conversion process in order to squeeze as many files on the card as possible.

When released the EXEMODE CDR-300 should be available for about $60.

[ KFE EXEMODE CDR-300 ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When it comes to universal remotes Logitech has recently made a push to become king of the consumer castle but there are other companies vying for that same title. One in particular called tvCompass is pushing the idea of a wifi capable remote that does more than just control your home theater.

The Wifi Smart Remote as they call it includes a mobile phone sized 2.2-inch QVGA LCD screen that can be used for setting up and controlling all the components in your home theater system. Nothing new there but the addition of built-in wifi means the remote can automatically retrieve the ‘device codes’ for whatever hardware you’re running online and even safely backup your remote’s settings on the company’s network servers in case they need to be retrieved later on.

The wifi and screen combination also allows content to be delivered directly to the remote itself including news, sports scores, stock info, programming guides and of course advertisements. It even has a built in speaker like the Wiimote which can be used to grab your attention or probably just annoy the heck out of you.

As far as I can tell the remote is still kind of a concept in the works (the single image of the remote is a bit plain looking) but the extra features might make paying $300-400 for a remote control actually seem worth it.

[ tvCompass WiFi Smart Remote ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The Datacolor Spyder products have long been used by imaging professionals like photographers or graphic designers for calibrating their screens to ensure accurate color reproduction. Trust me there’s nothing worse than tweaking a project for a few weeks only to have it come back from the printers in a whole new color scheme because your monitor was off. Well now home theater enthusiasts can do the same with the SpyderTV calibrator.

Like its PC counterparts the SpyderTV sensor is placed directly onto the TV screen and is then connected to your computer via USB. You start by telling the included software the make and model of your TV and the current settings including color temperature and brightness. You’re then instructed to skip to different test patterns on an included DVD while the software calculates the optimal color, tint and brightness settings based on readings from the sensor. CrunchGear recently took the device for a spin and were quite pleased with the results they got for their JVC DLP television even when watching standard def programming.

At $229 (available on the Datacolor website) the device is actually not that expensive when compared to higher end solutions and is probably worth every penny if you want to get the most from your home theater setup. And I wouldn’t recommend buying the device, using it once and then selling it since the colors on your TV will change over time and you will need to recalibrate it again in the future. (For example I recalibrate my PC’s monitor every 2 weeks.)

[ Datacolor SpyderTV ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]