Okoro makes some awesome high-end home theater PCs. These are not your granny’s home theater PCs. They pack a lot of heat. Their new line of home theater PCs are powered by Intel’s i7 processor.

TH550
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Intel® Core i7 920 2.66GHz Quad-Core Processor
3 Gigabytes DDR3 Memory at 1333MHz
750GB Storage with 16x Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive
9-in-1 Memory Card Reader
Dual Analog SDTV (S-Video/RCA/TV) and OTA HDTV Recording
Dual QAM HDTV Recording (optional)
CableCARD HDTV Recording (optional)
VIDEO OUTPUT CARD
ATI HD4870 512MB (DVI/VGA/TV-out HDCP) w/ HDMI adapter
AUDIO OUTPUT CARD
HD Audio (Analog Audio / Digital Audio Optical Toslink)

GX100
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Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core
6 Gigabytes of DDR3 Memory at 1600MHz
1TB Media Storage
HDDVD & Blu-ray Playback
VIDEO RECORDING OPTIONS
Analog TV Tuners (S-Video/RCA/TV/FM-in) and HDTV Tuner
DualCableCARD HDTV Recording
Quad CableCARD HDTV Recording
VIDEO OUTPUT CARD
ATI™ Radeon HD 4870 512MB (DVI/VGA/TV-out HDCP)
AUDIO OUTPUT CARD
HD Audio (Analog Audio / Digital Audio Optical Toslink)

GX300
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Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 3.2GHz Quad-Core
6 Gigabytes of DDR3 Memory at 1600MHz
32GB Solid State Drive with 1TB Media Storage
HDDVD & Blu-ray Playback
VIDEO RECORDING OPTIONS
Dual Analog TV Tuners (S-Video/RCA/TV/FM-in) and HDTV Tuners
Dual CableCARD HDTV Recording
Quad CableCARD HDTV Recording
VIDEO OUTPUT CARD
ATI™ Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB (DVI/VGA/TV-out HDCP)
AUDIO OUTPUT CARD
HD Audio (Analog Audio / Digital Audio Optical Toslink)

Via:  Okoro / HaloTEKNO

Sling Media will be releasing a public beta of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry on December 30th.

Sling Media lists the following BlackBerry models as being supported by SlingPlayer Mobile:

BlackBerry Bold
BlackBerry 8820
BlackBerry Curve 8320
BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220
BlackBerry Pearl 8120

Via: Sling Media

Here is a video from a Fiji TV station talking about a dish washing robot developed by researchers at Tokyo University and Panasonic.  The robot is capable of picking up and washing fragile dishes. The research team plans to eventually make the robot affordable.

Via:  Japan Probe

Le Trung, a 33 year old former software engineer from Toronto has an odd hobby. He spends his time building sexy robot nurses in his basement. His recent creation is called Project Aiko. Aiko is not your everyday RadioShack robot. In fact, he probably roughly modeled her around Cameron from the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

So yea, Aiko is supposedly kind of hot if you are into that kind of stuff. But Le Trung swears that her realistic body serves an  admirable purpose. He built her to “help the elderly” with their daily lives.

Project Aiko is still a work in progress. Aiko is currently wheelchair bound. Le’s future plans include programming emotions into her and making her walk.

You can learn more about Project Aiko at its website.

9. The Handphone

8. Solar-Powered Bra: Charge Your Cellphone With Your Bra

7. Cell Phone Call & Message Alerter Bulb

6. Skiing and Snowboarding Cell Phone Glove

5. Stick-On Cell Phone Vanity Mirror

4. Cell Phone Call Alert Pen

3. Cell Phone Rain Jacket

2. Retro Cell Phone Handset

1. Shoe Cell Phone Holder

Reid Hoffman will be returning to the CEO position for LinkedIn.  LinkedIn was founded and launched by Hoffman in May 2003.  Over the last two years, Dan Nye held the CEO spot.  However, LinkedIn has been struggling to make large amounts of revenue despite their $100 million in venture capital infusion.  Their total investment gave the company a $1 billion valuation.

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Joost sent an email to all of its users today saying that the company is discontinuing its desktop software application. Users can still watch all Joost videos online at Joost.com. You can see a screenshot of the email below.

Joost lost a lot of traction in 2008. In October, Joost.com received a pathetic 600,000 unique US visitors.  Hulu on the other hand pulled in about 24 million unique viewers in October according to comScore.

2009 may very well be Joost’s last year in business.

Runes of Magic, a fantasy MMORPG game has reached an uncanny milestone.  Frogster Interactive, the company behind the game announced today that Rune of Magic’s open beta exceeded all of their expectations through the creation of 100,000 characters in theif first 24 hours.  Due to the high number of players in the world of Taborea, Frogster will be creating an additional game.  The Runes of Magic community is now spread across seven servers.

“We will systematically analyze the feedback of the high number of players in the coming weeks and use it to give Runes of Magic the final polish for the official release in the first quarter of 2009,” stated Daniel Ullrich, director of product management at Frogster Interactive. “The beta is now open to all interested players and the game can be downloaded free of charge after a short registration on www.runesofmagic.com.”

Runes of Magic will have more than 1,000 quests available for play.  The game offers 36 individual character combinations and players can choose from six man classes and secondary classes.  Each character has unique skills and powers.  Each player can create their own virtual home and guildhalls for their players.  The game has taken over three years of development.  Every three to four months the game will have free game add-ons and updates.

The background of the story was created by Runewaker Entertainement based in Taichung, Taiwan.  Frogster Interactive is based in Berlin, Germany.

Guitar Hero was introduced to the video game market three years ago.  Having sold 22 million copies of their Guitar Hero games, Activision and Neversoft are stepping up their franchise by creating Guitar Hero: Metallica.  This game will be especially designed for the hardcore guitar and drum players.

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It originally started as an April Fools joke, but due to a request to make it a real product ThinkGeek Labs has created the Personal Soundtrack Shirt.  It doesn’t matter if you are leaving the room, talking to a girl, walking a dog, or riding a bike, you always know the right song that should be playing right at that moment.  The Personal Soundtrack Shirt allows you to play that much needed song during those moments.

The Personal Soundtrack Shirt comes with a remote control with 20 song selection choices.  The songs are powered by a SD memory card loaded with MP3 files.  The filename of the MP3 determines the button correlated with the track.  For example, 03.mp3 is connected to button #3.  If you add an “L” to the end of the filename, the track will loop until you press the button to stop.   The Personal Soundtrack shirt can also play music from an iPod or other portable audio player.

The music is played from a working speaker on the front of the shirt, requiring 4 AAA batteries (sold separately). The shirt also comes with 20 preloaded sounds.  To wash the shirt, unplug the battery pack and remove the cables and battery pack.  Below is a video demo of the shirt. The price of the shirt is $39.99 and sells here.

Via: bookofjoe.com

Parrot, an innovator in car kits, wireless speakers, digital frames, and iPod accessories has announced their new product: Zimku.  Parrot partnered with Philippe Starck to create these wireless speakers.

The Design
The idea behind the design was to create an elegant, yet minimalistic speaker that is compatible with the latest in technology.  “These speakers are thoroughly modern, thanks to all their technical specifications and minimalist design,” stated Philippe Starck in a press release.  “They feature the most extreme and innovative technology with the fewest possible materials to deliver maximum effect: that is the magic.”

Technology
Zikmu is able to stream any audio tracks played with an iPod or iPhone on the docking station or is able to play tracks via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.  The two speakers send signals to play music in sync using Bluetooth.  The two speakers stand at 2.5 feet tall.

Availability/MSRP
These speakers will be available for purchase in Spring 2009.  The suggested retail price is $1,500.

Usually when people are summoned to court, they are usually sent subpoena physical documents or even e-mails.  In one rare case, Sonny Bill Williams was sent a text message subpoena while he was in France.  But now it has been reported that The Supreme Court of the ACT in Australia has accepted the first court order made by verifying contact information through Facebook as a legal binding document.

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When YouTube first came out, they were one of the first companies to revolutionize Internet video.  Back then FOX and NBC were getting upset that clips of their copyrighted programs were being uploaded on the Google owned video website.  Hence the creation of Hulu, a video website that has full episodes of FOX and NBC programs.  CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) decided to place their own TV shows on CBS.com.  Now that CBS has acquired CNET, they have access to very lucrative web properties.

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Within the last couple of weeks there has been speculation about whether Walmart will be selling the iPhone for a substantially lower price than Apple stores and other retail outlets.  According to a Walmart report sent to Engadget, these rumors have been quashed.  On December 28 at around 9AM, the Apple iPhone will be sold at select Walmart stores at a price of $197 for an 8GB phone and $297 for a 16GB phone with a two year AT&T contract.

Apple and Walmart have signed at Non Disclosure Agreement that will not allow Walmart employees to discuss iPhone information with non-employees.  About 488 stores will be carrying the device initially. Today there will be an internal pilot program where Walmart employees will be able to buy the device at a 15% discount.  Each of the select stores will receive 5 iPhones that can be purchased by Walmart employees.

[via: Engadget]

This is the last year that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will be appearing at Macworld Conference & Expo.  Sadly Steve Jobs will not be making an appearance either.  Philip Schiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing will be delivering the keynote this year.  The Conference will be held at the Moscone West in San Francisco, California.  The conference will be taking place between January 5-9, 2009 and Apple’s keynote will take place on January 6.

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