MSI Wind gets terse pre-release review

It's pretty tough to wrap your melon around, but MSI's Wind has not yet officially launched per se. That being said, it has still managed to end up in the hands of quite a few eager subnote lovers, and Laptop Mag is no exception. Shortly after the UK branch of CNET posted up their initial impressions, along comes yet another mini-review to get you even more worked up about June 3rd. Here's the skinny so far: the screen is amazing, keyboard is as well, the trackpad is simply too cramped and the port assortment is very respectable.

Pioneer's AVIC-F Series of in-car navigators to take on Sync

Look out Microsoft, Pioneer's Linc series of in-dash and "on-dash" systems have their sights set on your voice controlled Sync. The first thing you'll notice is Pioneer's pixy-dusted UI which easily trumps the Sync's rather staid presentation. The videos show off Pioneer's real-time data feeds and natural speech recognition with the help of some smarmy actor-slash-models who'll probably be serving you lunch today if you live in LA. But we digress. Videos after the break... which, let's be honest, is the best we can do until the DivX-happy, SD-friendly AVIC-F900BT, F700BT, and F500BT (pictured) are released in June.

Harman Kardon intros The Bridge II iPod / iPhone docking station

Almost three years after The Bridge was unveiled, the unit's successor has finally emerged. Harman Kardon chose today to announce the simplistically named The Bridge II, which effectively connects compatible iPods and the iPhone to any H/K The Bridge-ready component. Once connected, you'll find obligatory audio / video playback through your home entertainment system as well as on-screen iPod menus, remote control operation and charging. Folks looking for the standalone unit can acquire one this summer for $129, though it will be bundled right in with the AVR 354 receiver.

Creative ditches Zen Share WiFi player, X-Fi DAP might be in the works

Creative got some Jello-O knees in the run-up to launching Zen Share, its WiFi-enabled PMP, and decided to quit the project altogether. The company is blaming "technical complications," which we have a suspicion is shorthand for "building the necessary software to make WiFi helpful in a DAP is harder than we anticipated." That's too bad, but have no fear: Creative is replacing the project with a player due in the next two months that will sport an "exciting" design. We know, you're so excited right now. Rumor has it that the player could be an X-Fi-branded DAP with a metal back and X-Fi audio processing. Creative also confirmed that it's moving exclusively to flash memory.

Earth Trek touts "world's smallest" projector

While it likely won't hold onto the (slightly dubious) title for long at the rate mini-projectors are cropping up these days, Hong Kong-based Earth Trek has nonetheless gone out and proclaimed its new 90-805R projector to be the "world's smallest" and, indeed, it is small. Measuring about 4 by 2 inches, the projector can apparently pump out a 22-inch diagonal image (no word from what distance), with an SD card slot and an A/V input provided via a 3.5 mm jack, not to mention a built-in speaker. No word on a price or release date just yet, but we'd assume they'd want to get it out relatively soon in order to beat the inevitable cellphone projector rush.

Willcom shows off 1seg-equipped Willcom 03 smartphone

It looks like those wanting something a bit more capable but just as brightly-colored as Willcom's most recent candybar phones could soon be getting their fix, as the company has just announced its new Willcom 03 smartphone, which packs a bundle of features into an eye-catching package. Up front and center on this one is a 3-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display, which should complement the built-in 1seg mobile TV tuner quite nicely. Otherwise, you can expect built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, along with 256MB of flash memory, a microSD card slot for expansion, a 2 megapixel camera, and Windows Mobile 6.1 for an OS, to name but a few features. Look for this one to hit Japan by the end of June.

Willcom's D4 Vista MID previewed

Akihabara News had the chance to take the Atom-based Willcom D4 / Sharp WS016SH for a spin in Tokyo. Although they only got hands-on with a near-final, engineering prototype, the kids at Aki came away impressed. Sure, the yet-to-be-optimized hardware still struggled a bit with Vista. Nevertheless, Aki remains enthusiastic about the OneSeg device toting a sliding / tilting 5-inch, LED-backlit 1,024 x 600 touchscreen display with WiFi and Japanese W-SIM. With this, Lenovo's ideapad U8, and other Intel Atom-based MIDs on the immediate horizon, these bigger than a cellphone smaller than a laptop handhelds look to be fulfilling the ultra-portable 2006 Origami promise... finally, in the second half of 2008. Lengthy video available after the break.

Cowon's A3 PMP gets bumped to 80GB

If you've been holding off on getting an A3 for some strange reason, perhaps a bump in capacity will push you over the edge. That's right, Cowon's little performer just got more junk in the trunk -- 80GB of junk, to be exact. Sure, you'll have to drop €448 (or about $691) on this thing, but think of all the pics, music, and "movies" you'll be able to load up on it.

Amex Digital launches iMON HD Mobile portable media center

Amex Digital has certainly dabbled in the home theater space before, but we'll be honest, we're still scratching our heads on this one. The lightly detailed iMON HD Mobile is a self-proclaimed "portable media center," but beyond that, we're pretty much left to wonder what exactly is going on. We are told that it's an advanced IR receiver and VFD display device, and aside from delivering IR commands back to your PC, it'll also scroll across useful information such as news, media information, current time, weather, a graphical equalizer and system details. Guess we'll just hang tight until it gets fleshed out and goes on sale, though we can't say that display really gets our hopes up for anything great.

Sharp reveals world's most densely powerful methanol fuel cell - still can't buy it

We've been huffing the vaporous promise of methanol fuel cells for so long now that we sold all our furniture and live in a cardboard box. Nevertheless, Sharp's in a tizzy over its direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) prototype. Sharp's cell is able to provide 0.3 Watts of power per cubic centimeter making it the world's most powerful DMFC cell for its size. Availability? Sharp has no idea but "it won't be commercialized soon," according to a spokesperson. Kudos for honesty, but that gnawing angst for a refillable battery replacement for traditional lithium-ion batteries continues to taunt us.

VIA's new EPIA PX5000EG 500MHz Pico-ITX board loses the fan

Despite the shortcomings, it's hard not to get excited about VIA's Pico-ITX offerings: who cares if the capabilities are limited, they're just so adorably small we want to pinch their cheeks. Now VIA is making things even more efficient with a 500MHz board that can be cooled solely with the heatsink -- no fan required. Naturally, that step down in processor speed from the PX10000 won't exactly be much help to the folks sticking Ubuntu on these things, but the PX5000EG should be a boon to the embedded market and reliability nuts. Video is after the break.

Sharp rolls out 46-, 52-inch LCD TVs with built-in web browser

harp has just let loose a pair of new sizable and feature-packed LCD TVs, although you're more likely to find one of 'em in a kiosk or a conference room than a home theater. Intended primarily for commercial use, the 46-inch TL-M4600 and 52-inch TL-M5200 each boast a full 1920 x 1080 resolution, along with a "sub-6ms" response time, a full range of ports (including DVI-D and HDCP-compatible HDMI), optional speakers, and a 1,500:1 contrast ratio on TL-M4600 and 2,000:1 on the TL-M5200. Both also boast fanless internal cooling systems to keep the noise down and, perhaps most notably, LAN connectivity complete with a built-in web browser. Of course, just because Sharp's targeting businesses and the like doesn't mean it won't sell you one, although you'll have to drop a hefty $4,000 for the 46-incher or $5,000 for the 52-inch model.

Greenhouse claims its DH-SSDGD SSD drive is 'industry's fastest'

When it comes to drives, it's all about space and speed. That's why we were happy to see that Greenhouse is boasting that the DH-SSDGS series is the "industry's fastest" -- sure, we can't verify that claim, but at least they're trying to get our attention. Regardless, the new drives read at up to 130MB/s with write speeds of 67MB/s, with capacities that range from 16GB up to 128GB. Drive size is a standard 2.5-inches, with a 9.5mm height. Greenhouse says the SATA-compatible boxes will be available in late May (in Japan at least), no word on pricing.

First Intel Atom based MID gets priced $1131!?

Intel's been making a lot of noise about MIDs for a while now, but we're going to guarantee that the entire category flops if this first wave of pricing info is accurate. Autralian importer Tegatech's got the Gigabyte M528 up for pre-order, and while we're intrigued by the 800MHz Atom processor, 512MB of RAM, and 8GB SSD, we're certainly not willing to pay AU$1199 ($1131) to satisfy our curiosity -- especially since the Linux build was so half-baked when we played with this thing at CeBIT. Of course, this isn't official pricing (and it's actually dropped from AU$1549 since we first saw the listing), but let's hope this is even more inaccurate than usual, eh?

Philips working on a 3-inch touchscreen Xenium X-Connect?

A couple things you should know about this purported Philips Xenium X-Connect before churning your gadget juices through the emotional Osterizer. First, it's clearly a product rendering. Second, Philips Xenium cellphones are primarily found in Asia Pacific region -- as such, a European or North American launch is likely out of the question. If the X-Connect is the real-deal, however, here's what we'll be missing: Windows Mobile 6, 3G UMTS/HSDPA radios, GPS receiver, AA/AAA battery backup, microSD slot, and Bluetooth 2.0 all powered by a 624MHz Intel processor beneath a 3.0-inch (presumably touchscreen) display. Still, as a broadly positioned "communication device," maybe we'll see Philips reach out to different geographies this time around.

Hitachi's 1.5 UltraThin LCD HDTVs now available in US

You heard it right -- Hitachi's UltraThin 1.5 family that caused such a stir at CES is finally available for US consumers. Available in 32-, 37-, 42- and 47-inch sizes, the lot has been broken down into two distinct clans: the Director's Series (X) and Ultra Vision (V) models. Each member of the former comes with a 2-year warranty and a sticker ranging from $1,999 to $4,699, while the latter gets a 1-year warranty and price tags between $1,799 and $4,499. Curiously enough, it seems that several sets (the UT47X902, UT47V702, UT32A302/W, UT32V502/W, UT42V702 and UT37V702) may actually not yet be ready for shipping judging by their July to September availability dates, but we'll leave it to you to sort out the contradictions in Hitachi's press release with your dealer.

Popcorn Hour's A-100 HD media streamer publicly available for pre-order

What do you know? Yet another outlet for you to happily blow $179. As of today, Popcorn Hour's heralded A-100 HD media streamer is finally available for the public at large to pre-order. Previously, folks had to actually sign a list just to be blessed with the privilege of placing an order, but now it seems supply is at long last flowing in nicely. The company has even set up a forum to keep customers informed of order status, but we wouldn't dillydally around -- these are still being sold on a first come, first served basis.