G-spot: The latest tech.

Panasonic Let'snote

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has begun selling Let'snote R3 series, T2 series, W2 series and Y2 series. The series have a liquid crystal display measuring between 10.4 and 14.1 inches. The R3 series has a nine-hour battery life, the longest of such PCs with the same-sized LCD and a standard battery. It weighs 990 grams. The T2 series has multi DVD drives, which are compatible with DVD-ROM, CD-R/RW and other DVD standards. While R3 and T2 have 12.1 inch LCD, Y2 has 14.1-inch LCD. The Let'snote will have Windows XP pre-installed and uses Intel's Centrino chipset.

More info: http://matsushita.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn040421-1/jn040421-1.html

Olympus CAMEDIA AZ-1

CAMEDIA AZ-1 is the world's first digital camera that uses a mobile ASV liquid crystal display monitor, technology that allows digital cameras to have large screens. The CAMEDIA AZ-1 has a 2.5-inch LCD monitor, the biggest of all the digital cameras. The LCD also has better visual quality than conventional models. Users can view the monitor from a sharp angle and still get a good look at pictures. The camera uses xD Picture Card as a medium. It takes photos of 3.2 mega pixel, has a shutter speed of 1/725 second and weighs 160 grams, excluding Picture Card and battery.

More info: http://olympus-imaging.jp/lineup/digicamera/az1/

Sharp Auvi

Auvi provides better sound quality and longer battery life than rival products. The portable MD recorder features a mobile 1-bitdigital amplifier. Auvi can play music for up to 135 hours if it uses the attached rechargeable battery and a triple-A battery at the same time. It comes with a remote controller, so users can put it in front of a speaker in a big conference room and record, stop, rewind and fast-forward remotely. The device comes in three colors (silver, metallic blue, black) and has a variety of functions such as random play, favorite play, intro play and play speed control.

More info: www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/040414.html

Sony Network Audio System NAS-A1 and 5V LCD Display AUDP-A1

NAS-A1, dubbed "NET JUKE," is an audio system connected to the Internet--so it can download music and obtain information about artists displayed on AUPD-A1. NAS-A1 also pre-installs Web browsers and email software. Users can play music through the Internet with a user-friendly remote controller, instead of using their PCs and mouses. Users can also hook up NAS-A1 with either AUPD-A1 or a television. NAS-A1 is the first gadget compatible with the Anymusic service, a music downloading service run by a joint venture between Sony, Kenwood, Sharp and others.

More info: www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200404/04-0420/

Sanyo Hapish

Sanyo Electric Co. has released a new line of super-lightweight electric toothbrushes. Hapish, a combination of the Japanese words for "teeth" and the sound of the brushing action, weighs just 29 grams. It comes with a carrying case for travel and brushes 10,000 times per minute. According to Sanyo, electric toothbrush sales rose 13.6 percent from the previous year--to JPY12.5 billion in Japan in the year that ended in March 2004. Sanyo attributes the boost to an increasing number of people who buy toothbrushes for school and work in addition to the brush they keep at home.

More info: www.sanyo.co.jp/koho/hypertext4/0403news-j/0325-2.html

Victor InterLink MP-XV831

Victor's World First entry is a spanky new laptop PC, the InterLink MP-XV831, the smallest portable in the world to incorporate a multi-DVD drive. At a positively dwarf-like 235x214x43.2mm and weighing 1.47kg, the MP-XV831 will soldier on for five and a half hours on one charge of its battery. It can also play back images from Victor's digital hi-vision video camera, the GR-HD1, thanks to an internal high-definition decoder. The new MP-XV831 is powered by a 1GHz mobile Pentium chip, has 256MB of PC2700 RAM, a 40-gig hard drive and IEEE 802.11b/g wireless gadgetry.

More info: www.victor.co.jp/press/2004/mp-xv831.html