It's a situation I'm sure we've all been in: You're visiting your Nanna and Pop and you pull out your fancy new phone with all the bells and whistles to show them. But where you expect unbridled enthusiasm at your MP3-playing, 5-megapixel photo taking, internet browsing masterpiece of engineering, you instead got looks of confusion.

"Oh, that all sounds like too much for silly old me" they say to you. "All I need is a phone that can make calls and lets me listen to Ray Hadley on 2GB. He makes me feel all warm and tingly inside". And after you recover from the shock that it was your Pop who expressed his affectations for the AM radio DJ, you realise that there aren't a great number of AM-radio capable handsets in the world. You know, for the old people who still listen to AM. Thankfully, Sony Ericsson are addressing the problem with their R306 mobile phone.

On top of AM radio, you get... wait for it... FM radio, making this one of the greatest radio phones ever (although there isn't any internet radio or DAB+ functionality). You also get a 1.3MP camera for photos of your Nanna's cats, stereo loudspeakers so you can share your love for Ray Hadley with the world, plus standard phone features like MMS, MP3 ringtones and Bluetooth.

The R306 is available now. There's no word on price in the press release, but given its obvious target demographic, I wouldn't think it would be too expensive.

[Sony Ericsson]

Here's the thought process we think the creator of this caliper-style AM/FM radio went through. "Hmmmm, how can I take a normally compact device that fits well inside hats and make it about seven times wider?" Several hours of 3D rendering later, and out pops Aivan! It's definitely cool, but could be a little more economical on the space factor. If this were a satellite radio receiver and that space was used as an antenna, all would be forgiven. [Yanko Design]

Brando's Cyber Tap bath-time radio is not massively high-tech, sure, but its cuteness is undeniable. Stick its 12 cm sucker onto tiles or glass, adjust FM/AM frequency and twirl the volume tap to boogie away to showertime music. Is the red one more suited to Hot Gossip while the blue one's best for Coldplay? Who knows, but after a bad joke like that you'll be pleased to know the water-resistant, battery-powered Cyber Tap costs US$16. [Brando]

Read More »

Compatible with pretty much every Apple player except for the iPhone, this Belkin TuneBase FM has ClearScan technology, which searches all FM stations and finds the least-used one for you to broadcast your tunes on. It's $89, has a docking station, and plugs neatly into your car's cigarette adapter. Of course, even with the cleanest FM station, you're still going to run into some interference, which is why we still recommend the $10, 1995 method of using a tape adapter. [Belkin]

Today Kensington introduced its LiquidFM line of FM transmitters. The top tier products have QuickSeek, the technology the company first launched in May: with the touch of a button, it will find the three cleanest frequencies for you to set your radio on. The LiquidFM Deluxe for iPod ($99) will not only transmit the music to your car stereo, but the artist and track names, which show up on any RDS-compatible car radio.

The standard LiquidFM for iPod will cost $79, and will have everything but the QuickSeek and cool text transmitter. (Frankly, I think I'd spend the extra $20—even if you don't have an RDS radio, you never know if your rental car will, and FM transmitters are best for rentals anyhow.)

Naturally, in addition to the iPod transmitters (which of course charge the players through the 30-pin connector), Kensington has two products for other MP3 players. The LiquidFM Plus for MP3 Players ($69) has both 3.5mm and 2.5mm jacks for recent music-playing cell phones, and the QuickSeek technology for finding the clearest channels. But its extra trick is a "pass-through" USB jack on its cable that can be used to charge your phone or MP3 player.

At the bottom rung, there's the LiquidFM for MP3 Players ($49), with every Plus feature except the QuickSeek and the USB jack.

Read More »

iRiver are set to launch their first DAP under the Siren brand, which they procured earlier this year. The new model, the DP250, has obviously had strong influences from the iRiver team and sports a solid feature set too.

The player will have a paltry 400mW speaker built in, (given the size we will let them off), and an FM transmitter to allow you tunes to travel through slightly better speakers. Voice, line-in and FM radio recording are all also possible. The players will debut in black and white colours, retailing at $85 (1GB), or $120 (2GB). Expect the usual plethora of iRiver file support from this player. The inclusion of the recording and broadcasting features may make this worth the extra cash, but if you are in the field for a do it all player at a dirt-cheap price, the Sansa Clip is for you. [anythingbutipod].

TomTom will ship a new high-end navigator in the US, the Go 920 series, including the $599 Go 920 and the Go 920 T (for "traffic"), which will sell at a premium likely to be $100 more. The key to the new flagship is voice control: you can use TomTom's Voice Address Input to name your destination out loud.

Read More »

Just when you thought you had to carry around a tacky pager in order to tell when lightning's coming, Nokia goes and files a patent to integrate lightning detection into their phones.

Not at all useful to bloggers, these lightning detectors (which uses FM and GPS receivers to detect EM waves emitted from lightning) will allow storm chasers, farmers, and Travis Hudson to stay safe in the case of a lightning storm. Or when Captain Marvel is around. Seriously, that guy's an asshole. – Jason Chen

Nokia Phone will Detect Lightning [PCWorld]
Image Credit