Sony are keen for us to ‘redefine’ our living rooms with the release of their new VAIO XL1 Digital Living System, a twin box offering combining a high-end multimedia PC with a 200-disc media changer/recorder.
Clad in natty silver and black casings, the combo runs on Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and connects to a television via an HDMI cable, outputting high-definition video and multi-channel digital audio in a single connection.
Boasting unique functionality as the result of a “close collaboration with Microsoft”, discs inserted into the changer are automatically detected by the PC which connects to the Web (via wired or wireless network) to download any available metadata, including jewel case covers and artist information.
A similar process takes place for movies, where an in-depth synopsis and star, cast, director and producer details etc are automatically downloaded and made accessible onscreen through the included wireless keyboard or remote control.
Sony has innovated once again by introducing a product that is a monumental step forward in defining the way consumers enjoy digital entertainment,” insisted Mike Abary, vice president of VAIO product marketing for Sony Electronics in the US.
“With the XL1, users can still manage all their meaningful entertainment content such as downloaded music, home movies and personal photos. But the really groundbreaking functionality is the additional ability to easily organize, sort, and access packaged content – all of the DVD movies and audio CDs that have been traditionally relegated to a bookshelf,” he added.
There’s no denying that the recording functionality seems mighty impressive to us, with the XL1 able to automatically and sequentially record up to 200 audio CDs from the media changer to the hard drive.
Users can also record a series of television show episodes to the hard drive, and transfer them to blank DVDs stored in the changer
Beating in the heart of the XL1 A/V system is a powerful PC boasting an Intel Pentium D dual-core processor, half a gig of DDR2 memory, PCI-E graphics and space for up to three SATA hard drives (RAID ready).
To ensure that your late night listening pleasure isn’t spoilt by the sound of a mass of Boeing 747-like fans starting up, the XL1 system uses liquid-cooled components for quiet operation.
The Digital Living System will be sold as a package and will be available next month for about US$2,300 (~£1,300, ~€1,930).
Quickly earning a We Want One Now Please accolade, Garmin have announced the nüvi, a feature packed GPS travel assistant the size of a deck of playing cards.
Garmin are claiming that the built-in lithium ion battery offers between 4-8 hours of battery life.
With the guide, travellers can look up and translate more than 17,000 words or 20,000 phrases per language with a text-to-speech interface letting users talka da lingo.
Sold exclusively in Europe, the nüvi 300 comes with approximately 200 MBs of internal memory for storage of supplemental maps, MP3s, and audio books (available from Audible.com). Pricing to be announced.
The super-thin triband LG U880 will be offered in black, silver and pink with its clamshell design incorporating a 1.3 megapixel camera and expandable internal memory of 80 MB. 
The first mass-market 3G Nokia handset to go on sale in the UK, the 6280 has a sliding keyboard and built-in 2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom and integrated flash.
A poseur’s delight, the Motorola RAZR V3x is the high-fashion phone for the “Look at me!” crowd, with its slinky, slim-line form supporting a full range of 3G services.
Destined to be 3’s first two megapixel phone when it becomes available at the end of October, the Nokia N70 is based on the hugely successful Nokia 6680 and offers video calling, integrated flash, a built-in FM tuner, Bluetooth and support for Visual Radio.
Panasonic has announced a new range of attractive music players with battery lives that make the Duracell bunny look like a fag-smoking sloth in lead boots.
The SD350V/ SD300V models come with a smaller display (5 lines), less fancy navigation buttons and a battery claiming up to 94 hours of SD audio playback.
The site also bangs on about Panasonic’s “Double drive in side phone” which, apparently, has separate drivers for bass and treble raising, the, err, “shelter density”.
The SV-SD750V/700 measures up at 87.3x46x11mm and 48.4g, while the SV-SD350V/300 is marginally smaller at 87×40.5×10.3mm and 47.9g.
Samsung Electronics have launched the hard-disk-based SPH-V7900 mobile phone, sporting a record-breaking built-in 3GB hard disk drive.
Naturally, there’s an MP3/video player onboard, capable of playing several formats including Mpeg4/H.264 video and Mpeg4 AAC, AAC+ and MP3 audio.
Their SGH-I300 – scheduled for a European November release – will run on the Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system and also offer a 3GB hard disk drive offering plug-and-play support (so files can be dragged over from your home PC).
According to the latest figures from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Italy can now boast the highest mobile penetration rate in Europe, with mobile-mad Italians notching up 109.42 phones per 100 inhabitants.
With over four million UMTS users, Italians are also leading the way in 3G take up, with the ITU reporting that the country is the most prominent user of 3G services in Europe.
Mind you, it could be argued that Luxembourg’s high mobile ownership is equally skewed due to their nationals living in neighbouring countries needing a second handset for use within its borders.
Sony Ericsson has today announced the launch of their first 3G (UMTS) tri-band GPRS Walkman phone, the W900.
The phone comes stuffed with multimedia widgets, with a built-in FM radio and 2 megapixel auto-focus flash camera offering 8x digital zoom and the ability to record and playback video at a nippy 30fps.
In line with its Walkman branding, the phone has dedicated music controls, letting users scroll through play lists, artists or individual songs, and a bundled LCD remote control.
The W900 UMTS Walkman phone will be commercially available in black or white finished by the end of Q4 2005 in two versions: 
Did someone say fast?
Couch Potatoes Rejoice
Internet? Break? Yeah right…
Last night Apple launched 3 new products (as we 
Front Row gives extremely simple access to content stored on the iMacincluding music through iTunes, videos (including the newly availablevideo content that’s available through iTunes), photos stored in iPhotoand DVD’s though iDVD. The remote works up to 30 feet away from theunit.
Since there’s no base unit (everything is built into the actualdisplay) the amount is space they require is minimal. They’d look justas good on a desk as in the living room.
iTunes 5 was launched with the iPod nano, and a month later there’s nowiTunes 6 to go with the 5th generation model. The main new advance isvideo content, there are now around 2000 music videos available on theiTunes music store (unfortunately there’s still a huge pricedifferential between the US and UK with a music video costing $1.99 inthe US and GBP 1.89 in the UK – with the UK getting panned on price, as usual).
The video aspects of the iTunes store, though limited at the moment,are a major break-through (even ground-breaking) especially with thecurrent shows being available. Disney obviously have a huge amount ofcontent they could make available if all the legal intricacies can besorted. Once one studio cracks, they’ll all follow suit.
Apple’s future has definitely been shaped by the iPod (they sold 1mNanos in 17 days – how many returned was, not surprisingly undefined) which is molding how the company moves forward. 
After weeks of frantic speculation that a video-capable iPod was on the way, Apple have sure enough announced the very thing at their event in the California Theatre in San Jose and BBC Television Centre in the UK.
New iMac G5. A bit faster, but the big thing is FrontRow. It’s Apple’s Media Centre-killer. The new Apple Remote, a svelte 6 button remote control that looks like a shuffle, controls any media you have on your iMac. Makes the MS Media Centre 26+ button remote look very wrong – too tech. Simplicity reigns. iSight camera is built in. Parallel output to bigger screen, projector. Price is very tempting starting at $1,299 (17″ £899 inc vat, €1379) (20″ £1199, €1799).
Video-capable iPod. Next gen iPod with 30% thinner than current generation player but with a bigger 2.5″ colour screen. 320×240 QVGA (quarter VGA), but not wide screen as rumoured. Video playback supports MPEG-4 and h.264 playback. 30Gb & 60Gb. S-vdeo out through the doc, but video will appear pixelated on full size TV screen. The 30GB should go for $299 (~£219~€349), and the 60GB for $399 (~£300~€469). They’re on the Apple online Store and will be shipping next week.?
“It’s never been done before, where you could view hit TV shows and buy them online the day after they’re shown,” Jobs said. While this may be true that people have not been able to _Buy_ it, but let’s not forget that the BBC has the iMP trial running, where you can get shows straight after they’re shown – but for nothing.