Yes, Toshiba seems resigned to some sort of HD disc-free existence, as it continues to mope about HD DVD's loss to Blu-ray and refrains from releasing a player for the once rival format, but let's set all aside for the moment. We got a look at Toshiba's new XD-E500 in action, and we must say: it does what it sets out to do. Most consumers will see a visible quality improvement when playing their DVDs, particularly in the realm of sharpness. Toshiba's new filters are "intelligent" enough to spice up the grass while leaving the sky and clouds free of noise, and while the contrast and color filters are less necessary, many consumers will enjoy their effect -- even if video purists would scoff at such alterations. As for usability, it couldn't really be much easier to flip on and off the three different enhancements, but there's also no customization of those modes to speak of. This $150 player isn't in any way Toshiba's Blu-ray killer, but thankfully the company actually seems to recognize that, and plans to market to Joe consumer who doesn't want to fork over the dough for a Blu-ray player or doesn't want to invest in a brand new video library, and won't be insulting videophiles' intelligence with claims to the contrary. If you're looking for something to magically make DVDs look like HD, this isn't it, but it bests Toshiba's best upconverter easily, and we'd venture to guess it's probably tops yours as well. All that said, Toshiba will have in store demos of the player at major retailers, and we'd highly recommend taking a gander for yourself before you take the plunge.

So Archos still seems to be struggling a bit matching the design curve of the industry, but boy oh boy can they pile on those specs. The new Archos 5 and Archos 7 "generation 6" players offer capacities as high as 320GB, well-res'd screens and just about every codec we'd ever need -- plus available plug-ins to cover the rest. But that's not even the exciting part. The Archos 5g adds in that 3.5 HSDPA data we were hearing about, providing true on-the-go surfing, and all three players sport WiFi as well. Sizes start off at 30GB for the Archos 5g, which runs a 800 x 480 4.8-inch touchscreen. The Archos 5 bumps that up to 60-250GB, while the Archos 7 does up 160GB and 320GB, with a 7-inch touchscreen that sadly matches the 5 series' resolution exactly. All three players can record VGA video through an optional DVR Station dock or the DVR snap-on accessory, and Archos will have plenty of other accessories in the offing as well. As for player design, Archos has made considerable strides in thinness, with the Archos 7 at 0.63-inches thick, and the Archos 5 as slim as 0.5-inches, depending on drive size, but we're not crazy about the new look -- though we're sure opinions will vary. No word on price or availability just yet, but stay tuned.

Yeah, we get it, those arcade glory years were indeed glorious, but we're a bit past the point of needing a retro cabinet at home large enough to house an entire army of quarter gremlins just to rock a bit of MAME standing up. Retro Space chucks the cabinet chubbiness, keeps all those mashy buttons, robust joysticks and spinny white ball things we know and love, and adds in a full-powered PC and a 24-inch 1920 x 1200 LCD. It's a tad bit boxy, but we'll probably manage to overlook that for another decade or two. No word on price, but expect something in the two or three thousand dollar range.

[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

We've got the Jack Johnson playlist locked and loaded, our polarized Oakleys are firmly ensconced, and those khakis are tucked snugly into our tube socks. It's time to ride, fool. The Powabyke X-6 is the electric bike for the bore in all of us, masquerading perfectly as a traditional road bike, complete with the old "battery disguised as a water bottle" trick. The six-speed electric bike weighs in at 48.5 pounds, with an battery-powered top speed of 15mph -- the max allowed by law -- and a 15 mile range. The battery can be detached and charged indoors, but replacements run a few hundred dollars, so don't lose sight of that sucker. The X-6 should be out in the UK this September for £750, about $1,395 US.

If Archos.com happens to be a regular haunt of yours, you might've noticed that the site went down last night, with only a simple message remaining: "Coming up soon..." If you can ignore the awkward phrasing, it sounds like Archos has more than a new website in the works, and most people are pretty sure a generation 6 line of players is being prepped, including a flagship 606 device. A tipster says the site is due back at midnight CET (a bit over 9 hours from now), but that hasn't been confirmed. Archos did have a little teaser graphic up for a few days before the site went down (pictured) , but that's about all we've got to go on, at least officially -- rumors naturally abound.

[Thanks, Ziplepingouin]

Craving some more room for that season of Avatar you've been trying to cram onto your Zune without dropping your Mega Carrie Underwood Workout Mix? It looks like Microsoft is one-upping its 80GB model with a 120GB version, which just blew by the FCC, and should allow all your media to live in harmony. As might be expected, there's not much other than that new hard drive to set this new model apart -- the drive size is the same, as is the 2.5 firmware. The FCC tested this out on June 19th, which helps us exactly none in pinning when this will ship to stores, how much it will cost, or how they'll ever top those Joy Division designs.

We've never really had anything bad to say about our Bluetooth mouse experience (this week, at least), but Ozmo thinks it can do better. The company has built an optical mouse that connects over low-power WiFI Personal Area Network (PAN) technology. Ozmo has special drivers for the PC to allow it to do concurrent WLAN and WPAN connections, and is compatible with 802.11g and 802.11a. They're also fighting Bluetooth on the audio front with a headset, where we think they might find a more welcome reception -- especially when they get some good stereo headphones on the market. Intel and Ozmo just recently trotted out this WiFI PAN tech a couple of months ago, and what we have here are reference designs for use by OEMs, so no word on commercial availability just yet.

[Via I4U]

What could possibly provide us more joy and mirth than a Segway? How about a Segway-inspired bot that fails spectacularly on a consistent basis? The tech in play here is quite simple, and the fact it can stand as long as it does being that top heavy is actually pretty surprising. The best news? Hit the read link for a guide to making your very own fail bot at home. It's fun for the whole family.

[Via technabob]

We've seen some decent video alteration in our day, but this new research project by some folks at the University of Washington has the potential to turn the entire concept on its head. Using some rather advanced algorithms to analyze video and photographs of a the same scene, the software can meld the two into something slightly better or even dramatically different. In effect, it's Photoshop for video, since it brings your Photoshop chops to bear on video effects: edit up a still shot or two of the scene, and then meld that with the video, and your edits can be seamlessly integrated into the scene, without all that nasty manual labor required by Shake or After Effects. It's not the end all be all yet, since the tech only works with static scenes so far, but the researchers are working to rectify that. While video evidence hasn't been a sure thing for years, it's always been significantly harder to fiddle with than still shots. With that barrier removed, we might be in for a whole new generation of video that lies and a reality we can be none too sure of. Oh, and really good looking indie flicks. Sample vid is after the break.

The dam has been breached, and now there seems to be no stopping the internet at large as every little nook and cranny of the Treo Pro is exposed and explored. TreoCentral member scottymomo has fleshed out a few more details on the device, and dug up that Comm Manager shot up above. Details include:

• HTC task manager.
• Comm Manager's Airplane Mode and other assorted easily switched options.
• MicroSD (up to 32GB supported) isn't under the battery, but you do have to take off the battery cover to access.
• 1500mh battery.
• Other stuff.

It's all very exciting, we assure you, but you can explore the shots for yourself if you're really feeling hard up for Treo Pro infos. Oh, while we're thinking about it: sexiest Treo yet, or disastrous usage of phone face real estate? Both?

[Via Palm Infocenter]

If you hadn't heard, TSA's new laptop bag rule went into effect today, so we're wondering: what sort of experience are you getting at the checkpoint? Like many TSA policies, they can take a few days to trickle down to the rank and file, plus your line compatriots could muck everything up by misunderstanding the fairly strict new guidelines for scanner-compatible bags, but hopefully somebody, somewhere is having a better flying experience this weekend.

Update: TSA's official guidelines are here, the cheat sheet is above.

With Zing on board, Dell's going after Apple's portable media dominance once again, but it seems our worst nightmares of a DJ Ditty 2 could be unfounded. Instead of building just another PlaysForSure-friendly or even WiFi-happy DAP, Dell's hoping to partner up with Apple's rivals to build a new ecosystem that will create better interoperation between PMPs, phones, cars, satellite radios and the multitude of online music stores out there. From the looks of things, that ecosystem is in good hands: with the acquisition of Zing's Tim Bucher, formerly of Apple fame, and the 120 person team he's built to help Dell put Apple in its place. Dell's staying a bit coy about the specifics of its plans, but word on the street is that they'll start shipping the software later this year, and push out a couple of players early next year. Sure, it could all fall apart in the end, but it's nice to see someone trying to be "the whole widget" of open standards portable media, as royally as it might eventually fail in the Apple-owned marketplace.

ESA is showing off its new "ExoMars" bots, Bruno and Bradley, who are being prepped for a 2015 mission to the red planet. The six-wheeled bots are being designed to carry a significant scientific payload, oriented around the search for life, but won't slouch in the maneuverability department, with six independently rotating wheels. In addition to independent movement, the wheels can also be locked into "wheel walking mode," where treacherous terrain can be traversed by crawling instead of rolling over it. On the AI front, Bruno and Bradley have significantly better AI than their progenitors, being able to plot their own courses and therefore cover more ground. The mission will involve traversing the planet and drilling six feet into the ground for soil samples, which the rover will be able to examine in its on-board laboratory. The only problem now is funding: ExoMars is looking to cost about double the 650 million Euros initially approved for the project in 2005, and there's no guarantee (yet) that the extra cash will be there when they need it.

Mere months after debuting its highly-desirable and smashingly-priced Core Series of SATA II SSDs, OCZ is back for more with the Core Series V2 of 2.5-inch drives. Sizes have been bumped to 30GB / 60GB / 120GB / 250GB, and access times are up to 170MBps read and 98MBps write. OCZ even crammed in a mini-USB port for applying future speed-enhancing firmware updates. No word on price yet, but hopefully OCZ will stay in line with its original Core lineup.

You know how Go nerds are always going on about how magical they are since supercomputer AI hasn't yet cracked the ancient board game, and rarely beats even an average Go player? No? Maybe those are just our nerdy friends. Well, those folks can wipe the smug grins off their faces as they're faced with the sobering reality of defeat: Dutch supercomputer "Huygens" has defeated a human Go professional in an official match at the 24th Annual Congress of the game Go in Portland, Oregon. The newly-minted supercomputer was aided by the recently-developed Monte-Carlo Tree Search algorithm, a whopping 60 teraflops of processing power and a considerable 9 stone handicap. Poor Kim MyungWan -- who managed to beat the computer in three "blitz" games leading up to the actual match, and probably won't be hanging up his Go hat just yet -- didn't stand a chance.

[Via Tech Digest]