Pioneer intros the NavGate AVIC-F900BT and AVIC-F700BT GPS units

If Pioneer’s AVIC-F500BT satnav unit got you all hot and bothered, then big brothers NavGate AVIC-F900BT and AVIC-F700BT should totally wreck your lifestyle. The new units sport all kinds of funky functions, like a 5.8-inch WVGA touchscreen display, built in DVD player (CD for the F700BT), 3D mapping with text to speech, PMP functionality with playback of MPEG, DivX, MP3, and WMA files, plus Bluetooth support for cell phones and the ability to manage up to 300 contacts. The do-it-all units also feature SD card support and USB jacks. Both new models will go on sale in Europe, Russia, Australia, and the States sometime in June, no word on pricing yet. You can watch a demo of the unit in action in the video after the break.

“Scroll” concept device packs everything but a sense of reality

Sure, there’s plenty of far fetched concept devices from big players like Nokia, but it’s nice to see that folks without millions of dollars in research funding can also come up with equally unrealistic devices, as evidenced by this so-called “Scroll” contraption created by 13 Tech Design. What’s more, this one doesn’t get by on looks alone, with it packing a touchscreen-based cellphone, a 10 megapixel camera and 1080p camcorder, various media-playing features, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, and a full-fledged computer that runs on Vista or XP. That’s right, it seems that even fantasyland gadgets need to fall back on XP.

The unique watch with mechanical ‘digital’ display

If you consider that Di Grisogono Meccanica DG is a hybrid mechanical-digital watch, then you are wrong. This is a limited-edition line of the watch that includes just 177 amazing models.

It is remarkable, that the watch consists of 651 pieces and there are no digital parts or LEDs. The gadget was presented as the world’s most complicated digital-analog watch. Anyway, the digital display is mechanical and is made of rolling tubes that form the digital segments.

This is the description of the work of the watch:
The gadget’s digital display is mechanically operated, it shows tens of hours, single hours, tens of minutes and, of course, single minutes. The whole system is displayed via mobile micro segments driven by an accumulation of 23 cams attached to a set of gears and a starting and synchronization system. The necessary information about the time is showed by a system of 23 horizontally and vertically positioned micro segments.

The horizontal segments are 2.90 mm in length and their weigh is just 10 milligrams. At the same time, vertical segments measure 9 mm high, but the weight is 25 milligrams. The segments feature four sides: two opposing visible sides featuring multicolored strips and the other sides are unmarked. Time changes depend on 90° rotations of the segments.

Pittsburgh museum plans “largest national” robotics exhibition

Heads-up Pittsburgh residents and robot lovers across the universe: an all new exhibition is coming to the Steel City next year, and it’s got high, high hopes. The $3.4 million display, which is slated to be “permanent,” will be housed in the Carnegie Science Center and go by the not-at-all-puzzling title of “roboworld.” The installation is expected to house an “array of mechanized devices,” and given that it’s being billed as the “largest and most comprehensive nationwide on robotics,” we’d say it’s got a lot to live up to. Of course, we’ll be utterly shocked if it even compares to the now-closed Robot Museum in Nagoya, Japan, but we suppose we’ll have to see for ourselves when the doors fling open in Spring 2009.

HP Mini-Note gets unboxed, causes extreme jealousy

We can’t all be as lucky as reader Robert, who’s somehow (we suspect by using money) gotten his hands all over a brand new Mini-Note. At least Robert is a kind man, evidenced by the fact that he’s sent us some terrific shots of him unboxing his new toy. Check the gallery after the link to see it all go down, photo-style.

Vista Media Center update for HP’s MediaSmart HDTVs now available

Owners of HP‘s older MediaSmart HDTVs, your sometime is now as Chris Lanier reports the company’s posted the long-awaited Vista Media Center Extender update. The SL4278N and SL4778N model TVs should prompt for the update automatically if they’re connected to the internet, and afterwards connect to your fully patched Vista Home Premium or Ultimate edition machine and access your Media Center library (DivX, Xvid, h.264, MPEG-2 and WMV of course), live TV, recorded TV or other features directly through the TV. Check out HP’s support page for a full walkthrough on the process and keep your Windows Media Center remote close by.

eMachines launches two new desktops, puts your pennies into play

Look, eMachines is just here to help. The low-cost PC maker has introduced a few new desktop models, destined to sit beside your paper plates, can of beans, and tin of generic instant coffee. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you. The new budget models come in two flavors, the T3646 and T5254, both featuring AMD CPUs (2.2GHz Sempron LE-1250 versus the 2.1GHz dual core Athlon BE-2350), an NVIDIA 6100 graphics chipset, 1GB or 2GB of RAM, a 160GB or 320GB hard drive, DVD+R/RW SuperMulti drive, a handful of ports, a mouse, and really nasty looking cases. Available right now, $299.99 and $399.99, respectively.

Chinavasion comes through with 7-inch Wii LCD monitor

If you’ve exhausted all of your resources and still can’t seem to whip up your very own Wii Laptop, Chinavasion’s out to make sure you have the second (albeit a distant one) best alternative. Granted, the CVSN-901 isn’t the first of its breed, but it does provide a marginally less unsightly design. As for specs, you’ll find a 7-inch 480 x 234 resolution display, built-in stereo speakers, auxiliary stereo AV connection, adjustments for contrast / brightness / etc. and a fan grill hole thrown in just to ensure that “your Wii won’t overheat.” For what it’s worth, it seems the requisite IR emitters are sitting just above the speakers (though it’s not spelled out on the product page), and at least the unit itself will only set you back a Benjamin and change (or way less if you order enough for your entire community).