If you enjoyed Hitchcock’s Rear Window movie, you can now play a James Stewart character in your very own home thanks to Brando’s new USB Web Cam With Telescope.
The sneaky, spying Webcam comes with a built in 7×18 optical telescope letting you closely examine the goings-on of neighbours far and wide and – best of all – share their dodgy activities with the rest of the Web!
The example photos on Brando’s Website show that it’s a pretty powerful telescope, although with Image quality a mere VGA 800 x 600, you won’t have to worry about Patrick Moore smashing down your front door with his glockenspiel mallets and demanding a go.
The manual focus Webcam also offers video with a frame rate of 30fps at 320×240 and 15fps at 640×480.
The package arrives with its own mini tripod, driver, manual and – bless – a little cloth to keep your telescope glass nice and shiny.
Being a Brando product, it’s as cheap as chips – just $26 – and only available via mail order from Hong Kong.
We’ve been tempted by some of their daft products in the past and can report that we’ve always found them a prompt and reliable supplier.
There was a lot to like when we reviewed the 
A new “Intelligent ISO Control” automatically boosts the ISO setting and shutter speed if the camera detects subject motion, and the camera offers an improved range of scene modes. 
Aimed at serious photographers, we hope to have a review copy of the LX2 shortly to put it through its paces. 
Modes 
Yeah, we know: it’s another ruddy phone from Samsung who seem to have a new mobile on the market every tea break, but this one is actually a bit different – honest! 
The phone itself looks much like the usual fare from the overactive designers at Samsung, featuring a familiar slide-out design and mean, all-black finish. 
Specifications
Logitech has dished out some details on their new QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam, which they claim offers, “a true-to-life video calling experience by delivering twice the image clarity as that offered by typical Webcams.” 
Unfortunately, Logitech haven’t released any proper photos of the Webcam or posted up any examples of the image quality, so I guess we’ll have to wait to see if the it’s as good as they say. 
We’re sure children under 10 years old (and some cray-zee tie wearing office pranksters) will get more pleasure than we did out of using the included ‘Video Effects’ software. 
Korean technology company Daewoo Lucoms, have unveiled their new ultra mobile PC Solo M1. 
The Solo M1 features a variety of multimedia features, including video and music playback via Windows Media player, a DMB tuner, a 1.3 MP webcam for video conferencing and a 4-in-1 (MMC/ SDIO/ MS/ MS Pro) memory card reader. 
There’s also a range of optional accessories available, including a leather case, mini keyboard and external optical drive. 
Travellers needing to keep connected might like the cut of the jib of Trendnet’s handy new USB wotsit. Regaling under the lengthy name of the ‘Trendnet HotFlash 802.11g Wireless & 512MB Flash Memory Combo USB Adapter with HotSpot Detector,’ this cheeky little puppy wedges in a ton of functionality into a memory stick sized unit. 
Powered by a built-in rechargeable Li-on battery (which charges up when connected to a USB port), the specs claim a wireless working range of 35-100 meters indoors and 100-300 meters outdoors. 
Here’s the third in Mike’s three part review of why the Palm Treo rocks his boat.
Word!
It’s the same story with SMS, with the built in text messaging interface on the Palm remaining streets ahead of its Pocket PC rivals, with the superb auto-threading conversations making it easy to keep track of text conversations. It really is a delight to use. 
A French company with the tongue twisting nomenclature of Neonumeric has released details of their NTG-1 portable media player. 
The 107 x 62 x 21mm player can also play back MP3, WMA and WAV audio files, and there’s also a built-in FM tuner, 512MB of internal memory and a SD/MMC card slot for shunting in your own memory. 
Pricing is still to be confirmed, although we’re looking at something between $250 to $300, and we’ve no idea of availibility yet. 
People still waiting for those wall-sized flat screen TVs that were promised in sci-fi books will be able to take a step closer to their dream with the announcement of Matsushita’s thumping great 103-inch panel TV. 
The specifications look sumptuous though, with the 103-inch panel offering a full 1080i HD resolution (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) and an “aaaieee – my eyes!” brightness rating of 3000:1. 
Panasonic reckon that they’ll be able to shift around 5,000 of these enormo-displays in the first year, although they added that probably only 20% of takers will be TV viewers, with the majority buying the display for use as electronic billboards, or displays in studios and corporate lobbies. 
Seeing as our office fan decided to go on the blink just as a sticky, sweltering heatwave sent temperatures soaring above 32C, we needed a new fan. Fast. 
At full blast, the fan knocks out a fair bit of air (1.5m/sec, to be precise) although we’re not looking at office blasting wind tunnel effect here – this fan is definitely only for personal/small office use. 
Ionisers work by sending out negative ions (which are found naturally by the sea and in the mountains, and after thunderstorms) and this should strip the air of particles and micro-organisms, pollen, dust, pollutants and airborne germs.