Portable multimedia devices are almost as popular with companies as the flood of eco-friendly gadgets. Most “multimedia” gadgets over promise and under deliver. Philips latest gadget - the DCP951 Portable DVD Player - reverses that trend. It has a 9″ TFT LCD screen. Philips designed this media player to be different from its competition. Unlike the laptop media player that fills the market today, the DCP951 resembles a tablet. It can easily sit on a table, counter or an entertainment center. This media player even includes a retractable docking station for your iPod. You can play music through your iPod while the DCP951 recharges it.

The compact Philips DCP951 is a hand-held media player. It has the following dimensions: height 7″, width 9.3″ and depth 1.6” Weighing in at a petite 3 pounds, this media player is definitely light enough for you to pack for a much needed vacation or quick trip to the office. The DCP951’s battery can provide approximately 2 ½ hours of video playback before needing a recharge. Philips packs its media player with an AC and Car Adapter. You will need to buy or build a stand for this media player. It is light enough to be propped up by a small picture stand.

Philips focuses the DCP951 features toward one goal - providing solid multimedia entertainment. This media player has several SD/MMC card slots. This allows the DCP951 to display your digital photos. You can review images individually, see thumbnails or run a slide show. You can even zoom, pan and rotate your photos. Philips includes a 35 key remote control that controls this and all other player functions. The controller will even access a docked iPod for music playback. The DCP951 can play movies from the following formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD, MPEG4, DivX and VCD. Philips includes Dolby Digital Sound for your audio enjoyment.

Philips DCP951 costs $199.99. This is an incredible price for a device that allows you to listen to music and watch movies anywhere you desire. The DCP951 is elegantly designed. It can leave the oftentimes sterile computer area and take its place amongst designer furniture in your living room.

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Similar to Lego Bricks, BUG is an excellent educational tool. It is a collection of easy to use electronic modules that can snap together to build any gadget you can imagine. Each BUGmodule represents a specific gadget function. (ex. A camera, a video output, a keyboard, etc.) You decide which functions to include and BUG takes care of the rest. BUG allows you to try out different combinations quickly and easily. In order to use BUG, you need to be able to write software applications in JAVA.

BUGbase ‘Hiro P’ Edition is the foundation for all BUG devices. It is a fully programmable LINUX computer equipped with a fast CPU, 128MB RAM, rechargeable battery, USB, Ethernet and a small LCD with button controls. Each BUGbase has four connectors for BUGmodules and includes a small tripod. The ‘Hiro P’ will cost $299 when it becomes available. The first BUGmodules will be BUGlocate (GPS Receiver) for $79, BUGmotion (motion detector and accelerator) for $49, BUGview (Full-color hi-res touch screen) for $99 and BUGcam2MP (2 Megapixel Digital Camera) for $69.

BUG helps you to explore the realm of personalized devices and applications. With BUG you can find ways to solve many of the problems current gadgets can’t. BUG Labs gives this illustration on their website: “For example, with BUG you can easily assemble and program a GPS + digital camera device that automatically publishes geo-tagged photos as a web service, integrating with an online photo-sharing service like Flickr is only a few more lines of code away, and you have your own real-time, connected traffic-enabled mobile webcam!”

BUG is designed with collaborative development in mind. The online community is called BUGnet which is tied directly into the BUG SDK. This system encourages developers to connect with others, share information and jointly build products and services. BUG is the Lego of the 21^st century for techno-adepts. The current modules (BUG Labs promises to begin shipping of orders before March 17^th) encourages users to plug it in and see what happens. BUG is designed to encourage exploration of technological devices. Tinkering with BUG could result in many scientific breakthroughs and innovations.

Sansa’s TakeTV Video Player is the easiest way to watch downloaded PC movies on your television set. SanDisk expands on their core product of flash drives with this innovative new product. USB flash drives move data from PC to PC. The Sansa TakeTV moves digital video from PC to TV.

Daniel Schreiber, senior vice president and general manger for SanDisk’s audio/visual unit describes the Sansa Take TV in this fashion. “Sansa TakeTV is the most easy-to-use, straightforward solution for watching downloaded personal video content and other shows in the comfort of the living room. No confusing wireless network setup, no wires running across the living room and no cumbersome burning of DVDs. Just use the Sansa TakeTV device to more your favorite video content over to TV and enjoy it on the big screen with family and friends.”

SanDisk’s Sansa TakeTV Video Player is as easy to use as a flash drive. Users simply drag their desired video content into the TakeTV player. Place the TakeTV into its TV cradle. This cradle plugs into the standard A/V sockets of most existing television sets. Users are then shown an easy to follow on screen guide. They can select their downloaded content with the included TakeTV remote control.

The Sansa TakeTV Video Player will work with new and legacy TV systems via standard AV composite inputs or S-Video. TakeTV supports a wide range of video formats. These formats include DivX, XVID and MPEG-4. TakeTV is also certified for use in a Home Theater. It connects via a USB port to any PC running either Windows Vista or XP. TakeTV also can connect with systems running the latest versions of Mac or UNIX.

Sansa TakeTV is a flash-based video player. It is available in two storage sizes. The 4 GB version holds approximately five hours of video. The larger 8 GB version holds up to 10 hours of video. The 4 GB TakeTV costs $99.99 and the 8GB version cost $149.99.

Sansa TakeTV is a device whose time has come. SanDisk is to be applauded for making watching video from your PC on your TV “drag and drop” easy.