TechCrunch has been working for more than a year on a simple but large, touchscreen device that could be used to “surf the Internet from your couch,” intended to be sold for a $300-or-less pricetag. Today, TC reports that all of their long efforts have gone up in smoke, due to a bizarre series of events that ultimately boil down to one thing: greed. The CrunchPad was an ambitious, brilliantly obvious idea. Who wouldn’t want to have an easy-to-use, open source touchscreen pad with wireless connectivity and ease of use? Surf the net, watch video, play games, etc. The CrunchPad was poised to be a major competitor against Apple’s impending iPad device. But the dream has ended. According to the story posted on TechCrunch,... [Read more]

Quality never comes cheap. Except maybe in the case of this new HD multimedia hard drive player from LaCie. The potential AppleTV killer offers a full terabyte of storage space for just $250. The LaCinema Classic HD offers Ethernet or WiFi connectability (WiFI requires an available accessory) through which you can output your content to your television with an HDMI cable. It plays back at full 1080p HD, working with a wide array of media formats. It can even act as a media server to stream content to other devices, such as your Xbox. The LaCinema Classic HD is available now at the LaCie Online Store. Image: LaCie. [Read more]

Pumping your computer into your big-screen TV is becoming more and more common these days. The idea is simple: use your flatscreen plasma (or whatever) as a secondary computer monitor, either for work purposes or to watch the growing number of Internet videos on your television. Here’s a little gadget that makes it easier to control the action from your easy chair — without the need for a keyboard or mouse. USB Geek is selling a controller that has both a touchpad and a Blackberry-style keyboard on the bottom. It connects to your PC via wireless USB that has a 30 foot range. The touchpad works like your mouse or the trackpad on your laptop, allowing you to move the cursor on the screen, and the keyboard lets you type just like you... [Read more]

Until recently, Blu-ray players have been unaffordable by most middle-class and lower-class consumers. But we’ve seen them dropping to the $150-$200 range of late, and now that Black Friday ads are busting out all over, it looks like the day-after-Thanksgiving is going to be most consumers’ best opportunity to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon, with prices dropping as low as $100 and even lower. Which ones offer the best value? These are my three picks, but read carefully… Costco is offering Vizio’s VBR110 Blu-ray player for $99 on Black Friday. It’s important to note that the VBR110 is considered an “entry level” Blu-ray player, meaning it doesn’t come with some of the bigger bells and whistles that... [Read more]

Digital photo frames are a hot item this holiday season, and more and more, we’re seeing clever new twists on the concept that add netbook-like functions to the device. eStarling has announced a new version of its frame that adds the ability to receive video via WiFi in mere seconds. The WPF-588 eStarling 802.11n Touchscreen Connected Digital Frame (yeesh, mouthful much?) comes with a unique Gmail address to be used for sending and receiving digital media. As the name suggests, eStarling has adopted the new WiFi standard, 802.11n, to allow connection speeds of up to 150 megabits and a range of 230 feet. The device sports a huge 10.2′ touchscreen that ditches past models’ remote control for a tactile approach that keeps up... [Read more]