Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Not to be out-tech’d by the refrigerator, it looks like stoves, and rangehoods in particular, are finally fighting back when it comes to useless upgrades and enhancements. Australian appliance maker ILVE has designed the VELA rangehood which incorporates a 10-inch LCD monitor on top that would probably end up perched near the ceiling in most kitchens. And just in case your last kitchen renovation didn’t include the addition of cable jacks, the LCD screen has the appropriate AV inputs for connecting a DVD player or other video source.

The display is also easy to clean given all the airborne foodstuffs the rangehood might miss, and it obviously comes with a remote control so you don’t need to keep pulling out the stepladder just to adjust the volume. As for the price, your guess is as good as mine (if not better) but given such a “high-tech” upgrade I’m sure the VELA will be sold at a premium.

[ ILVE VELA LCD TV Rangehood ] VIA [ Home Improvement Ideas ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Some people think of a bathtub as a place to relax and get away from things, while others lament the fact that their cellphones and laptops aren’t compatible with large volumes of H20. And while it’s not exactly a productivity tool, the XDV-W600 LCD TV from Sony will at least provide you with some of the comforts of the electronic world while you’re splashing about in the bathroom. It features a 4 inch LCD panel that will run for 23 hours on its internal batteries (and a set of AA’s) and can safely operate three feet under water for up to half an hour. It even has 2GB of memory on-board allowing it to function as a limted DVR, but since it’s strictly a digital oneseg TV, it won’t do much if you try to import it to North America. Boo-urns.

[ Sony XDV-W600 ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Jonathan Kimak

People in Japan will now be able to watch those insane gameshows of theirs in 3-D. Hyundai has created a 46-inch LCD television that displays shows in 3-D. And it’s not insanely expensive either. The price it’s selling for is $3,960 which includes the TV and two sets of glasses used for watching the television.

The TV uses a technology called Tri-Def to display the 3-D images. Tri-Def was developed by Ddd Group Plc , based in Santa Monica, California.

Japan already has programming for the 3-D television. Tokyo channel BS 11 currently broadcasts 3-D programs 4 times a day but it only shows short clips of things like animals at the zoo and some motorcycle races.

The worst news is that Hyundai has no intention of selling the TV anywhere else so none of us in North America will be seeing any 3-D broadcasts for a while.

And here I was hoping I could see the last half season of Battlestar Galactica in 3-D.

VIA [ Welt Online ]