Coming to a UK store near you this Christmas is the Q2 Cube, an Internet radio player like no other. Instead of mashing buttons to change your settings, you physically flip the cube-shaped device onto a different side.

Here’s how it works. You set up your Q2 with four pre-selected Internet radio stations, and then to change from one to another, you turn the device onto one of four “live” faces. The fifth face manipulates the speaker — tilt the Q2 forward to turn up the volume, or tilt it backwards to turn it down.
The Q2 Cube was developed by Cambridge …read more

VHS has gone the way of the dinosaur. DVD is on its way out. Blu-ray is the flavor of the month, but how long will that month last?
Netflix and iTunes already offer streaming movie rentals to computers and game consoles, and more and more DVD and Blu-ray players are coming equipped with the ability to stream video from online services. Today, Best Buy announced that it’s adding CinemaNow’s DVD streaming service to “every Web-connected device” the retail chain sells.
So I have to ask the inevitable question: How long will it be until physical media goes away forever, in favor of …read more

Tell me if this sounds familiar. A full color tablet device that displays text, photos, audio, video, and surfs the Internet, all with a touchscreen interface. Creative is touting this just-announced device as the company’s entry into the ebook reader market, but it sounds to me more like a direct competitor to Apple’s long-awaited iPad.

Creative calls it the MediaBook, and though what details we have are low on specs, we know that it has an SD card for storage, and it runs on Creative’s “Zii” technology (which sounds an accessory for Nintendo’s Wii, but in reality is a subsidiary technology …read more

Cisco is planning a companion device to its popular Flip mini video recorder. According to a new FCC filing, it’s called FlipShareTV, and it basically does for Flip what Apple TV does for the iPod — only not as easily.

Apparently the device works by a semi-complicated process where you transfer your Flip videos to your computer as you normally would, and then connect the FlipShareTV USB device to your PC. The USB device streams video from your PC to the FlipShareTV, which you connect to your television. An included remote control lets you control the videos that are played on …read more

Peek makes handheld messaging devices used exclusively for email and texting, for a small monthly fee. Now the company is planning to release TwitterPeek, a variation on their existing devices that’s devoted exclusively to Twitter.
Let me say that again: a messaging device you can only use with Twitter. A Tweevice that’s good for one thing alone.
Is it madness? You’ll have to decide for yourself. But I wonder if Twitter has really become so important that we’re ready for a computing device that allows you to do nothing but Tweet, 24/7. Especially when you can already do that all you want …read more

It was less than two years ago when Roku announced the first (and until now, only) model of its affordable little set-top box that makes streaming HD movies from Netflix simple. Today, Roku has introduced two new models to its lineup, one for lower-end users, and another for those that want to go bigger.

The original Roku HD sells for just $99, and plays HD video, optical surround sound audio output, and an HDMI port. It’s easy to set up, comes with built-in wireless connectivity, and plays videos from Netflix, Amazon.com, and more.
The new Roku SD has those same functions, but …read more

Best Buy is offering a Blu-ray player with streaming Netflix for just $99. The player is part of Best Buy’s own “Insignia” brand of electronic products, and it also includes BD-Live capabilities, which connect your player to the Net for added content that enhances your Blu-ray disc experience.

The Insignia NS-BRDVD3 Blu-ray Player outputs at 1080p and comes with a remote control and an A/V cable (HDMI cable sold separately). It plays BD-ROM discs, standard DVDs, and MP3 & WMA audio, and has a USB port built in.
Best Buy’s deal, which discounts the player down from a regular price of $149, …read more

Have you ever had someone look through the pics on your digital photo frame and they go, “Hey, I’d like a copy of this photo!” Yeah, me neither. But should that day ever come, Sony has got you covered.

Come January 2010, Sony’s DPP-F700 digital photo frame will make it easy to print out 4×6 photos in 45 seconds. It stores up to 2,000 photos on its 1GB of memory, and displays them on a 7″ LCD screen. A nice touch is that you can do a lot more than just print the photos in their original format. You can edit …read more

The ebook world has been all abuzz this week about Barnes & Noble’s long-awaited ereader, the Nook. It’s an impressive machine that promises capabilities beyond Amazon’s popular Kindle. We’ll have to wait until the end of November to see if it can deliver on all of its promises.
In the meantime, Amazon has taken the first step in addressing one of Kindle’s deficiencies, today announcing Kindle for PC, a free PC program that will let you read Kindle ebooks on your computer. (No word yet on a Mac version, but I’m working on finding out.) Barnes & Noble has offered a …read more

Livio’s new NPR Radio is a special Internet radio device with the ability to access NPR content made easy. Not only does the device access more than 16,000 Internet radio stations, it also has the built-in ability to access more than 1,000 NPR radio streams and over 800 NPR podcasts and archives.

There are no subscriptions or fees required to access the Internet radio or NPR content, just a WiFi or ethernet connection. It includes a remote control and offers the ability to listen through its own speaker or through a connection to your home audio system. The NPR Radio allows …read more