After being turned away by Warner Brothers from supporting its format and cancelling their high-profile CES press conference hours before scheduled time, the HD-DVD people have regrouped and trying a different strategy. This time, they're cutting prices on all their HD-DVD players (by as much as 40% to 50%).

Déjà vu, you say? I think so.

It seems like the HD-DVD camp is following the same strategy as the VHS folks when they pulled the same stunt and won the VHS-Betamax war of the 80's. In the previous "war", VHS format won out because it was cheaper and could record/play longer than the Betamax counterpart. In the current "war", HD-DVD is trying to cheaper (really cheap) to win the war.

We'll see if this strategy would work. Hey, if it worked for VHS before in the 80's, there is no harm trying it.

And I thought paying $140 for my 16GB Voyager Flash GT flash drive was way too much money. Apparently not.

Meet USB drives from mii STOR. Together with flash media giant, Sandisk, the online store sells nothing but "high-end" flash drives. No, not high-end in terms of performance or durability but rather "blingability". That's right. The Sheffield-based store sells flash drives encased with precious stones.

Available in 6 different models (STAHL, SILVER, JET, JET+, SNOW and ICE), the pricing of these USB drives starts at around Euro 199 to an astronomical price of Euro 15,500. The most expensive model, ICE, is made with Hallmark platinum and covered with 456 white diamonds.

Hmm, I wonder if they have an affiliate program. I figure with just only 1% commission on the ICE, I'll be making a killing selling these through my site.

After eyeing this item for the past 10 days, it is finally sold. The Sky Commuter prototype, which was listed on eBay Motors and had been generating quite a buzz in the media, has been sold to an eBayer by the name of prattesgirl (whose last transaction was way back in 2006).

The Sky Commuter Project was funded by Boeing engineers in Arlington, WA, back in the mid 80's in hopes of replacing wheeled cars with flying ones. With over 60 investors and $6 million in R&D fund, the project went bust and yieled only 3 prototypes. However, the one listed on eBay was the only one that survived.

prattesgirl, I'm jealous.

Korean DAP maker, iriver, is letting the public in on its new iriver Life (TM) service. As expected, the service works only on iriver devices. When connected to the Internet its PC cradle, iriver Life allows iriver devices to download news, information, cartoons and stories from the service. Though the default sync time for the service is at 5 AM, you can change it to fit your schedule.  It also has a Twitter-like feature that allows you to microblog and share your thoughts with other iriver owners.

But here's the best feature of iriver Life for those lonely hearts out there. Based on your blood type and other information you subscribe to, iriver Life can also find another iriver owner that is a good match for you.

Who needs Match.com when you have iriver Life.

You've probably heard the rumor about a 13.3" thin Macbook-like laptop that maybe announced at Macworld tomorrow. Combine that with the message on the banners that Apple put up for the event - "There is someting in the Air". 9to5Mac now has reported that the new thin MacBook will be called "Macbook Air."

Why "Air"? Could it be related to WiMax, since Intel is really pushing this technology? It's a possibility. The name might also refer to the new technology that Apple filed for patent for that allows charging via induction. If this is true, it would be awesome. No more wires.

Whatever the reason behind the name or even if that is the name or if the product is pure rumor, we have just less than 24 hours to find out tomorrow. Maybe it will come during his famous "one more thing" section normally reserved at the end of the keynote.

Oh the anticipation...

One of the products I was excited about at CES 2007 was the Moxi HD DMR. The rep at the booth wowed me with all its features and informed me that it was going to be available very soon at major retailers. Weeks went by, then months. HD-capable Tivos were announced, and I held on. Now, one year later, still nothing.

So I went by Digeo's booth to see what was new with Moxi line of products. And the final answer is: nothing!

The company announced partnerships major companies and services like Flickr and Finetune but still no release date. The only thing I heard from the rep was they are coming in 2008. But, hey, that was what you told me last year. I will not believe it until I see them at Best Buy.

Hear that Digeo?

I went by the LimePC booth and saw what I thought was pretty nice-looking all-in-one PC being displayed. With a 17" glossy widescreen LCD with built-in front speakers and a sleek wireless keyboard, equipped with a trackball, it would be quite a contender for the iMac and Dell XPS One.

It turned out that I was misled. The company was actually showcasing its ThinPC, a small-form factor PC. The screen and the keyboard were optional. Oh well, it was still quite nice.

The ThinPC is powered by the Freescale MPC5121e mobileGT processor (with 3D graphics and media processoring capabilities); it's a basically a PC on a chip. Piling on to the features are 802.11g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, ethernet, USB 2.0 and VGA connector. It comes in 3 storage flavors: 30GB, 80GB and 100GB.

For the curious, yes, the ThinPC is powered by the same chip as their more popular UMPC, HandheldPC and Palm PC. In fact the motherboards of these products look very similar.

No words yet on its availability.

We've seen many digital media players equipped with speakers over the years. However, Coby MP-735 has a twist on that, literally. The new media player from Coby has a pair of speakers to the the back of its body. To expose the speakers, just slide them down and twist; the speakers also act as a stand for the player.

Like most new digital media players from Coby, the MP-735 features a touchpad control with LED backlight. It is equipped with a 1.66" LCD, integrated flash memory, FM radio, photo viewer and text viewer. The player supports Windows Media DRM 10 and other popular media formats.

DXG, a company known for making low-cost cameras/camcorders, has announced 2 new inexpensive compact digital camcorders: the DXG-565V 5MP fashion camcorder and the DXG-566 High-definition camcorder.

Appealing to teens, college students, young adults and women, the fashion-conscious DXG-565V digital camcorder is sleek, stylish and comes in 5 trendy colors: Metallic Pink, Ruby Red, Deep-sea Blue, Gun Metal and Midnight Black. It comes equipped with a 5.1MP camcorder/camera, 2.4" LCD, 4x digital zoom, 32MB of internal memory, an SD slot, a music player and a voice recorder. It can record MPEG-4 video up to 720x480 at 30fps and capture still images (JPEG) UP TO 12MP resolution. The DXG-565V is priced at only $99 and will be available in Q1 2008 at retail stores.

For HD customers, the DXG-566V HD should fit the bill. At only $149, it is the most inexpensive HD camcorders around. The camera captures video in two resolutions: D1 (720x480 @ 30fps) and HD (1280x720 @ 30fps). Recording formats available are Quicktime (MOV) and H.264. The camera is equipped with a 3" LCD, 2x digital zoom, 32mb internal memory and an SD slot (standard and high-capacity). The DXG-566V is available now at major retailers.

IOGEAR has unveiled 3 new members to the company's GearJuice family of emergency power backup devices. These products are the Slim Charger, the Rescue Charger and Battery Tester. The lightweight Slim Charger can provide power to mobile devices that are powered by a USB connection; it can power a cell phone twice before requiring a refresh. The Rescue Charger, which is powered by a single AA battery, serves as an energy source for smaller devices that are powered through a mini-USB connection. Lastly, the Battery Tester provies a quick way of gauging how much power is left in 1.5V, AA, AAA, C, D and 9V batteries.

The Slim Charger, Rescue Charger and the Battery Tester are priced at $29.95, $11.95 and $6.95 respectively.

How would you like to look years younger without going under the knife? Now you can, at least on photos.

Kodak has announced their new all-in-one printer, the ESP 3. Besides being able to save the consumers up to 50% on ink, it will ship with a new software feature called "Facial Retouch", which reduces blemishes and enhances facial features with just one click. It can print up to 30 pages per minute in black and up to 29 pages per minute in color.

The Kodak ESP 3 is priced at $129.99 annd will be available in March.

Like sharing your music with your friends but don't like them to get too close to you? Then, throw that splitter jack away, pick up the i2i Stream music sharing devices and start sharing music wirelessly.

The concept behind the i2i is quite ingenious. Each i2i Stream device can either stream music from another i2i Stream or listen in on one that is broadcasting. The device can receive or broadcast on one of the 7 color-coded channels. To broadcast your music, just plug in an audio source (iPod , Zune, etc.) and pick one of the 7 colors to broadcast. For others to listen in, they just need to "tune" in by picking the same color as the broadcasting channel. With the range of 30 feet, up to 7 channels of CD quality music can be broadcast and shared at once. The best thing is there is no limit to how many people can share.

The i2i Stream will be available soon for $69.95 with a 2-pack version priced at $129.95.

Streaming music across multiple rooms using over-the-air wireless technology is nothing new. Tech companies have been doing this for years. However, IOGEAR has just added a new twist to the mix with their Powerline Stereo System.

Instead of using RF-based technologies like WiFi or Bluetooth, IOGEAR's Powerline Music System uses a HomePlug-compliant technology to stream music using electrical outlets around the house. IOGEAR's powerline-based technology allows for data to be transmitted with the range of over 990ft, which is greater than most WiFi networks; it also suffers less interferences from appliances around the house. The Powerline Music System has a built-in iPod dock and analog input jacks for connecting to external audio source. One transmitter is able to handle up to 4 receiver modules.

There is no doubt that one of the phones that people are drooling over right now is the new ROKR E8. What a long way from the first ROKR that was the laughing stock of just about everybody. The phone's main feature is its shiny flat surface with "morphing" soft buttons. It uses vibration to simulate the feel of buttons on the phone's surface. To aid with navigation, the phone is embedded with a 3/4 circle pad that can be used to adjust volume and other settings.

It was almost love at first touch when I finally got a chance to use the phone. The sleek black body is beyond sexy. The weight and size feel just right. Though the phone's surface is completely flat, the vibration it emits make your fingers feel like they're actually touching real buttons. The "morphing" buttons on the phone is the main draw for me. Depending on what the current function is, the phone displays an appropriate "icon" on each button. For example, if you are using its phone function, the buttons will display numbers on the keypad. Likewise, it only displays music controls when the phone is in the media player mode. Though the phone lacks 3G support, it does support EDGE, so it's not at all that bad. And the 2MP camera and a built-in 2GB memory should be sufficient for most users (including me).

I took several photos of the E8 that I wanted to share with you but I was not able to get one good shot of the phone. So, I can only supply you with the stock ones offered to the press.

IPEVO is finally unveiling their PoV (point-of-view) webcam today at CES. Unlike traditional webcam, the PoV camera, with its pen-like form factor, is designed to be held to give the camera audience on the other end a unique point of view. The user of the PoV camera can point the camera to an object or text on a book to better get their point across. The camera is also Skype-enabled with a unique feature for sending snapshots to a Skype contact with just a click on the built-in button.

For business customers, IPEVO has also announced its VoiP Conference Station. The new product is designed to deliver business quality teleconference experience over the Internet. Besides supporting VoiP standards like Skype, Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger, the Conference Station supports a host of enterprise VoiP systems such as Microsoft Office Communicator, Avaya one-X Deskphone Edition, Cisco IP Communicator and Nortel MCS Client.

Lastly, IPEVO has updated new features to their existing Skype-enabled products. The company has updated their FREE.1 USB handset to support enterprise-class VoiP standards to appeal to business users. It also updated their SOLO Skype-enabled desktop phone with WiFi capability.

The company will be offering CES attendees free internet calls using their latest Skype-enabled products.