More details of the Asus WL-HDMI500 wireless HDMI after the jump.

HDMI is the near-universal interface for virtually any digital audio/video device. It’s used on everything, from DVD players, PCs, Xbox 360s and PS3s, HDTVs, and even camcorders and digital cameras. If you want to transfer high quality audio or video between devices, you use HDMI.

Currently, the only way you can do this is through cables. You connect your DVD player, say, to your HD-TV via wires plugged into the HDMI ports of both devices. And if there’s one thing that makes the digital home so unsightly, it’s wires. The more gadgets you have, the more wires you’ll need to connect them all together.

With the Asus WL-HDMI500, though, you simply plug one into your DVD player (or whatever device you’re using), and another one into you HD-TV, and you get instant wireless connection between the two devices. You can even store your DVD player in another room, as the Asus WL-HDMI500 transmits and receives through walls!

One novel application of the WL-HDMI500 is to connect your laptop to your HD-TV wirelessly without the need for Wi-Fi. Indeed, there’s nothing stopping you from connecting your PC to to your home theatre system, enabling your PC to output videos or tunes and effectively stream them to your home entertainment system. If wireless HDMI transmitter/receivers catch on, they could make dedicated media streamers completely unnecessary.

The price will apparently be the same as 10 metres of high quality HDMI cable, which should make the Asus WL-HDMI500 a big hit with people with a huge array of home entertainment devices and a fierce loathing of wires.

[Source: The Inquirer]

More details and video of the iUbi PMP-1480 after the jump.

Being a PMP, it needs a lot of storage, so naturally the PMP-1480 comes with a hard drive (30, 40 and 60GB models are available), as well as 64MB of Flash ROM and 128MB of RAM. It also comes with a USB port and composite/S-Video and Component video outputs so you can hook it up to your TV and watch your videos on a screen a little larger (perfect for when you’re in your hotel room or villa).

More impressively, though, is the list of other little add-ons that iUbi have somehow managed to squeeze into the PMP-1428. Bluetooth 2.0, for one, which will let you transfer your content from your mobile phone. If Bluetooth is too slow, you could use Wi-Fi to transfer your media to and from your PC. If that still doesn’t work for you, you could use its optional HSDPA to transfer your media over your mobile phone network at 3.6Mbps.

Of course, being able to watch your vids and transfer your content is all very well, but what kind of PMP would the PMP-1480 be if it didn’t come with GPS? Hang on, GPS on a Personal Media Player? Yup, strap it onto your car, and the PMP-1480 also doubles as a Sat-Nav, with possibly the world’s most impressive Sat-Nav screen!

And just in case you were worried about the PMP-1480 being able to play your media, it supports a full range of media formats, including XviD, DivX, MPEG1/2/4, AVI, WMV, JPEG, BMP, and MP3.

The iUbi PMP-1480 will be out in Korea in May. No details on other markets, yet, but their previous devices have been sold across Europe and Russia, so it may find its way outside of Korea later in the year.

[Source: PMPToday, via Engadget]

Samsung have announced the Samsung SPH-72P, an 800 x 480 pixel photo frame. Long known for their cries of “the world’s most…”, the SPH-72P could let Samsung claim they have the “world’s most powerful photo frame”. Why? Well, not only does it come with Wi-Fi to stream your pictures from your PC, it also supports RSS to pull in images from the Web from places such as Flickr.

Not only that, it also searches for PCs to connect to all by itself, pulling in pictures stored in Windows Media Player 11. Not sure how automatic this process is, but it could certainly lead to some entertaining pictures being displayed if your picture frame happens to find your neighbour’s unsecure Wi-Fi connection, and starts pulling in pictures from his classic collection of vintage pr0n!

More details of the Samsung SPH-72P Wi-Fi picture frame after the jump.

Samsung SPH-72P Wi-Fi picture frame

It’s not just pictures that the Samsung picture frames can display either. If it finds an MP3 tune, it’ll play that as well, as it comes with a built-in MP3 player (I’m starting to think that all Samsung devices come with an MP3 player – even its washing machines!). An just for good measure, it’ll also play any videos it finds sa well (which really could make for some interesting viewing if it picks up your neighbours dirty hoarde!)

The Samsung SPH-72P sounds like a cracking device for those with a lot of money to spare for mantelpiece decoration. The screen itself is 7 inches, with 800 x 480 resolution. A bigger 12 inch version is due later in the year.

The SPH-72P release date is unclear at the moment, but is expected to be later in the year, priced around $300.

[Source: TechShout, via Gizmodo]

Looking for the award for daftest gadget of CeBIT is Nu, with their, er, new wireless TV. OK so wireless TV’s aren’t at all daft – but waterproof ones are! One simple word…why?!

[Source: TechDigest]

There’s the Gravel Personal, which is your traditional PMP with some tasty features; the Gravel In-Car, featuring PMP features plus GPS for in-car Sat-Nav; and the Gravel In-Pocket, which lets you place a PMP in your pocket!

More details, pics and even a video of the Commodore Gravels after the jump.

Commodore Gravel In-Pocket PMP

The Commodore Gravel In-Pocket is the baby of the bunch, but don’t let that fool you. It comes fully-loaded with the ability to display JPEG, BMP, GIF and PNG pictures, and play MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX and XviD files, and all on a crisp clear 2.8″ colour screen.

The Gravel In-Pocket comes with 2GB of memory (expandable to 8GB, and a far cry form Commodore’s old 64KB offerings of old!) and Wi-Fi, letting you access your media files from your PC wirelessly.

Interestingly, you control the Gravel’s interface through a joystick that’s located on the back of the device (see pic, above). Although counter-intuitive at first, apparently it’s very easy to use, as the joystick is locatged where the hand sits naturally, and certainly saves on space, enabling the screen to occupy most of the front of the device.

Commodore Gravel Personal PMP

Although called the Gravel Personal, it’s actualy a bit bigger than the In-Pocket, so isn’t that personal! Its extra size means the Gravel Personal can be offered with a whopping 4″ screen, a 2 megapixel camera on the back, and 4GB of on-board memory, expandable to 6GB.

The addition of a camera does rather pitch the Gravel Personal in the same segment as some top end phones, such as the Nokia N95, but such phones can’t match the Gravel’s screen size. Price and screen size will largely determine which gadget you prefer, although having to carry around only one gadget rather than two may tip the decision in then phone’s favour.

Commodore Gravel In-Car

The final Gravel is the Commodore Gravel In-Car, which offers all the features of the other two (including the 2 megapixel camera of the Gravel Personal), but also packs in a GPS receiver and Sat-Nav software, making it a fully operational car-based Sat-Nav system. When (if?!) you reach your destination, you can simply take the Gravel In-Crar with you to view all the media that you’ve got stashed in its memory.

The Commodore Gravels are an interesting series of PMPs, and it’s great to see the name Commodore re-emerge, albeit in a completely different direction from its past. Let’s just hope it has more success in its new incarnation.

Video fo the Commodore Gravel

Finally, a video from ShinyShiny of the Commodore Gravel in action at CeBIT 2007 (although the folks at Shiny forgot that bright lights on LCD screens don’t make for great clarity!)

[Source: Crave]

Not that you’d need such a system – the Asus A33 comes packed with a 500W amplifier and can pump out some serious 7.1 surround sound through your top-end speakers.

More details of the Asus A33 media center after the jump.

It’s not all about (loud) sound though. Being a media center, the A33 also connects to your HDTV through an HDMI input and two (yes two, count ‘em) HDMI outputs, enabling it to connect to such esoterica as, say, a PlayStation 3.

There’s also the PC side of things – the A33 comes ready equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium and Linux plus Moxi.

Set to cost around £1,000, the Asus A33 release date is summer 2007.

[Source: Crave]