Wired for sound
Now you can stay in touch and listen to music on the move without having to worry about where all the wires go. Clothes company Levi's has teamed up with Dutch electronics giant Philips to introduce the first of four new e-jackets. Each of the designs incorporates wires into the lining to create a complete body area network (BAN) for hooking up various electronic devices.
The first truly wearable electronics available in the UK, these innovative jackets, which are the result of five years research in Philips' Redhill Laboratories, allow the synchronous control of the new Philips Xenium GSM mobile phone and Rush MP3 player via an integrated remote control. Microphone and headphones are stored in the collar and can be extended while playing music or making calls. When the phone rings sound from the MP3 player will automatically cut out. Available from September, the e-jackets will cost from £600 with MP3 player and Xenium phone fitted. (CP)
Printcam
Everybody says "I'll send you a print" when they take a photo, but they almost never do. But Sony will help people keep their promises with the DCR-TRV820 camcorder, the first to feature a built-in printer. Press the shutter and the camera not only stores a VGA- resolution (640 by 480 pixels) image, it produces a small (6.4 by 4.8cm) print. The camera uses Sony's own Digital8 format and Memory Stick storage, and has a 25x zoom lens.
In a flood of new products, Sony has also launched the DCR-TRV20, a megapixel digital video camera with built-in editing functions; the DCR-PC5, a palm-sized camcorder that weighs only 450g; the DVP-FX1 and DVP-F5 portable DVD players with 7in screens; the SCD-XB940 Super Audio CD player; two Art Couture TV sets, and a fast (8x) CD-RW writer, the CRX-160E-RP, to enhance your PC. It must be nearly Christmas...
Touchy iFeely
In September, Logitech is having another go at the "feelymouse" market with two rodents that react to what is on the screen. For example, a mouse should slide smoothly as the cursor crosses a plain white background, react when it bumps into a button, and vibrate on a "rough" image.
Logitech launched this market a year ago with the Wingman Force Feedback Mouse, targeted at a games market where force-feedback joysticks and vibrating controllers are all the rage.
The two new models use the same technology, licensed from Immersion Corporation, but follow Logitech's award-winning MouseMan Wheel design: unlike Wingman models, they do not use a large, dedicated base unit, and will work anywhere.
The right-handed iFeel MouseMan will cost £39.99 and the ambidextrous iFeel Mouse will cost £49.99.
Both mice are optical designs with flat bottoms and no balls.
Posh gear
If you normally work on a large mahogany desk or boardroom table, neither the standard beige box nor a plastic-looking "styled" computer is going to look at home.
AWTS, based in Somerset, hopes to soak up that market with the Vasari c rafted in wood.
AWTS's Alan Jennings says it is "designed to transcend the purely practical aspect of a computer and take it into the realms of desirability".
Technically, the machine is a rigid variant of a fold-up notebook PC, with a 650MHz Intel Pentium III SpeedStep processor, 64 megabytes of memory, and 14.1in colour LCD screen. See www.awts.co.uk for more information. (JS)
