Sony MFM-HT75W: Wide-boy LCD
TelevisionsIt's not just mobile phones that are convergent multi-taskers. You turn your back for five minutes and this Sony LCD TV/monitor hybrid sneaks up on you, with a built-in TV tuner and PC connectivity that don't hamper its style one little bit. Featuring Sony's X-Black LCD technology, a widescreen panel and component/VGA inputs, the MFM-HT75W is the perfect display for your bedroom or office.
Sony seems to have an exclusive contract with the gods of TV design at the moment, and it feels as though every Sony TV that turns up at Crave is more desirable than the last. It certainly kicks the other big boys like the KE-P42M1 and even the gorgeous KDL-L32MRX into touch. We've had the MFM-HT75W sitting on our desk and it's been quite embarrassing how much attention it's getting -- anyone would think we were actually popular.
Lenticular television: What's your angle?
MonitorsThe problem with plasma TVs is that by the time you can afford one, your children are so much stronger than you they can beat your haggard body into submission and prise the controller from your bloodied, palsied hands. What the kids want to watch goes. Unless you want to end up in a coma.
Help may be at hand though -- an obsessive geek in New York has devised a monitor that will display a different picture depending on what angle you're viewing the screen. This means that little Timmy can watch Rug Rats while you watch Eyes Wide Shut and your girlfriend watches an exercise video. As long as you're all seated in different parts of the room, little Timmy will never have to go through three years of Kubrick-induced therapy.
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NEC 61XR3: rich man's plasma
TelevisionsWe've seen a few nice TVs at Crave recently -- Samsung's rear pro was a beacon of light during our late-night testing sessions. However, nothing quite prepared us for The Simpsons on a 61-inch plasma, something which attracted the attention of half the office. In fact, watching TV from a normal distance and still having a good portion of your peripheral vision taken up is actually a scary experience, especially if you're watching Trisha.
This formidable flatscreen comes with a formidable price tag, clocking in at just under £8,000 online, and for that you don't even get speakers. Luckily though, we subscribe to the idea that a product's value is directly related to how heavy it is. And at 61kg, or 1kg per inch of screen, you know the image quality is going to be pretty spectacular. We were blown away with standard DVD playback, and the downside is that it's too posh for an RGB Scart connection. No joy for us Freeview plebs.
Dell W2600: Dell-iciously good LCD
TelevisionsWe've seen so many LCD TVs at Crave that we've begun using them as our PC displays. Having such a big screen on your desk brings certain -- benefits. For example, playing Half Life 2 on a 26-inch widescreen display is a dream for avid gamers, even if it is a bit obvious when the boss strolls by.
Now that the asking price for an all-singing, all-dancing high-definition display is as little as £825, the urge to go flat is even more difficult to resist. That's the price Dell has managed to achieve with its W2600, a hugely impressive LCD TV that really shows the traditional AV companies a thing or two about design. It has every connection under the sun -- 12 separate sockets that include a Sky HD-compatible DVI input -- and although we challenge anyone to actually have enough kit to use them all, it's very nice to have the choice.
See me, feel me, taste me: edible user interfaces
GadgetsWhile you're eating biscuits at your desk and dropping crumbs into the keyboard, Stanford student Dan Maynes-Aminzade is licking flavours off his monitor. He's trying to solve one of the key problems in user interfaces: the lack of mouth-wateringly delicious feedback.
Maynes-Aminzade has developed two Edible User Interfaces (EUIs), BeanCounter and TasteScreen. BeanCounter dispenses jellybeans according to the use of system resources. Beans drop into a clear chamber when memory is allocated, then fall out into a bowl when the memory is released, enabling programmers to monitor up to six processes. Of course this might lead to all sorts of maverick programming, because the best way to get jellybeans is by using up lots of memory, then releasing it quickly -- but hey, it's a lot prettier than a bar chart.
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