I read the Gear Diary review of the VIA Artigo and must say that I am getting interested. With dimensions of 5.9″ x 1.8″ x 4.3″, the VIA Artigo is tiny. The VIA C7 CPU and onboard graphics won’t exactly give you Crysis, but then that is not what a system like this is about. This is for when you need a discreet system without the bells and whistles. While it can be used as a standalone system, this thing is built for embedding. It looks perfect for offloading some of your system’s simpler tasks so that you can enjoy a few performance gains.

What this system lacks is expandability. If I were embedding, I would want a second LAN port, which some of the other small (but not Pico) motherboards in the VIA range have. A second LAN port would allow you to use it as a wired Internet gateway. Snap the right wireless A/B/G/N and you have an Access Point with a bit of juice.

The price is right at $279, I wouldn’t buy the VIA Artigo, but I would buy something very close to it. You do need to sacrifice some expandability for that tiny form factor. I, however, would prefer a slightly larger motherboard that I could still mount in a CD slot, the HDDs can be wired up from elsewhere to make a bit more room for a PCI slot. Lower performance would eliminate the need for a fan which would also save a bit of room and give you a more functional embedded device, but less useful standalone system.

Sources: Logic Supply, Gear Diary

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Car computer manufacturer Azentek has come out with an update to its award winning CPC-1000, and has introduced the CPC-1200. From what I understand, they are both basically the same system with a bit of a performance boost in the CPC-1200. According to Audio Junkies, the newer model will include the following:

Intel Core Duo 1.66Ghz processor on an Intel GMA 950 motherboard with 1GB of expandable DDR2 memory and a 120GB hard disk. The system runs Windows Vista Ultimate as well as a custom automotive GUI created by Azentech, which are displayed on a 6.5″ touch screen. Internal GPS navigation, Bluetooth, and 802.11b/g wireless are all included.

What I find a little strange is that the CPC-1200 actually had a 1.83GHz processor, so the processing power seems to have been downgraded (unless there has been a misprint somewhere along hte line. Either way, 1.66 GHz is plenty for an in car system. Unfortunately you will not be able to kill hours behind the wheel lost in your favorite games, as access is cut off while the car is in motion. Put a big enough antenna on this thing and you will have a very sweet mobile computing platform. A computer is the answer to so many car entertainment needs, it is a shame, however, that they remain so expensive. It is $2800 for the CPC-1200 which will be out in March or April of this year. Alternatively, you could also opt for the CPC-1100, which sports a slightly larger 7″ screen.

Source: Audio Junkies, Sound Domain, Azentek, Twice

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Now here is some news that just might get me to break out my hard earned cash and purchase a PSP. To run Skype on a PSP, you will need a Wi-Fi connection and a memory card, but those cost next to nothing these days. It is, by all accounts, Skype as we know and love it. As fun as the DS is, and it is fun, it lacks the expandability that makes the PSP great. Adding something like Skype makes it less a games package and more an ultra-mobile PC of sorts.

I would like to see a few more developments on the PSP front and I don’t see why they are not possible. A quality email client would really round it off. With Skype taken care of, it is only a matter of time. How hard can it be?

Electronic House

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It is not easy to come up with a really original mouse design, so when I saw these adorable (?) good looking mouses for sale I thought how bad they must be on the ergonomics area.

The left and right buttons look too big, the handling doesn’t look any better and I won’t mention the scroll-wheel. But that doesn’t matter with these mouses because they go after design, shape, concept and colors to make a difference from the rest of the more technical mouses that already have a saturated market.

Each USB mouse has a specific theme – Frog, Panda, Tiger – and feature a 300dpi resolution. There should be a Mouse Pad for each specific theme, but unfortunately it seems that there is only a Frog Mousepad in stock.

Price: $15

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If there ever was a list of top 10 iPod gadgets, this speaker system would certainly be on the top spots. I’m not too fond about the sound quality, but the teddy bear itself and the flash lights sure look attractive.

Just like a panda carries its baby-panda on the belly, so does the iPulse Bear hold your iPod on his belly. It is a nice way of making the iPod look kind of secure from bumpings and falls, unlike what happens with other speakers.

Inside the bear there are built-in speakers that connect to the player via a hidden headphone jack that is located on the belly, to go along with the sound there are different (green, blue and red) LED lights on the bears paws, each color will flash accordingly to the music’s rhythm, frequency and volume.

To turn the iPulse on just squeeze his paw and listen to your favorite songs while looking at a… bear. There are 2 different versions, one is white bear and has blue eyes while the other is brown and comes with green eyes – which one is your favorite? I must say that the brown bear looks scary.

Price: $14

PS – besides working with iPods, it also supports any other kind of player that has a headphone jack.

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