Apart from their Spinn 70s-retro analogue goodness, iRiver had two beautiful concept products in their IFA 2008 stand which had a design that looked further into the past, as far as the beginning of the 20th century. As you can see in the video, both their Clix speaker--inspired by the shape of cathode ray tubes--and their pipe music player--which you can blow to mute (insert joke here), and connect it to a speaker resembling a phonograph horn--look both intriguing and beautiful. [More IFA 2008 Coverage]

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One more IFA, one more gallery of absolutely crazy PC mods by nutty Europeans. The best of the lot was, without a doubt, this menacing Unreal Rocket Launcher. But there are others, each of them more silly, pointless, and horrendous than the previous one.

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We already saw the HTC Dream on video. Now, as the release date gets closer, more people are getting to play with--and leak pictures of--the first Android cellphone. Slide this, slide that, it looks exactly as we expected. [Engadget]

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Yamaha and KDDI put together a group of concept mobile phones with musical themes, including a trumpet, guitar, DJ scratch pad, and drums. [MobileMentalism and AkihabaraNews]

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The Zune 120 and 16GB models are on their way, but here are some unconfirmed spy shots of the 120GB and the boxes for both. (There are more images post-jump.) [ZUnited, thanks Jared]

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I love the new analogue controller in the iRiver Spinn as much as I love its simple brushed aluminium design, the old radio-inspired user interface, and the whole packaging. While I'm still partial to direct touch interfaces--which the Spinn has as well, although it's not multitouch--the Spinn rolling thingie feels great, giving it a heavenly 70s analogue feeling.

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With Bill Gates' part time transition in full effect, Steve Ballmer will be picking up Keynote duties at 2009's CES, but only for the pre show speech. Opening night honours go to the charming and witty Sir Howard Stringer, who is like Sony's CEO answer to Benny Hill. I'd say I'm satisfied with these two as speakers, considering how entertaining they've been on previous occasions. [CES]

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The RED camera's Jim Jannard mentions the next generation Mysterium "Monstro" sensor, which be offered as a free upgrade to the Mysterium-X piece shipping in the Epic cam. Then he blows my mind by revealing he's getting into the DSLR race with the same kit. [REDUSER via Engadget, image not of anything remotely made by RED]

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Since I already have the breast-shaped gel dispenser installed in my shower, I think I may get this 9-inch-high Nose Shower Gel to put it in my kitchen and dispense lime Jello Mello. Too bad it only exudes gel out of the right nostril, though, because it would make an excellent ketchup and mustard dispenser for just US$17.95. [Potpourri via Dark Roasted Blend]

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I got to play for quite a long time with the Samsung Omnia, the iPhone-Killer wannabe with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, here at IFA 2008. The verdict: it's not an iPhone killer, despite previous demos. In fact, it sucks. It has a poorly designed interface, lousy response time, buggy software, and it felt cheap and fat on my hand. I even thought that I was being even more thick than usual while trying it, but I got the Omnia expert lady to give it a marketdrone spin for me and her last sentence summarised it all: "Oh, naw it'z not verking at all. I think I haf too many tasks open. Sorry."

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