It’s actually impressive to see how much planning went into this iPhone call recorder. Since time is money, we are gonna say shelling out the money for apps like Recorder 10 or SpoofApp (though requires jailbreaking) is worth it. [Make via AwaitingInspiration]

With the lower price point, the PCM-M10 is now the cheapest flash-based recorder in the Sony lineup. Another first is that the recorder is the first to feature a built-in speaker for playback recordings. One more first? The PCM-M10 is the first player in the line to produce MP3 files. Finally!

In other words, says blogger Brad Linder (who may or may not have interviewed Sony execs with this thing for his overview), this thing has all the same software features as the more expensive PCM-D50, except that reocrder checks in at roughly $US600. Oh, and there’s the drawbacks to consider too at that price point. Mainly, cheaper materials, Linder says, especially in the area of the headphone jack and some of the plastics.

Still, seems to be quite the rig for the price. But you’re still no Cronkite (and neither am I, for that matter). [Brad Linder]

There are two new ranges that feature DVR capabilities from LG: The PS70 and PS80, which will be available in 50-inch and 60-inch sizes (although only the PS70 gets the 60-inch). The main difference is that the PS80 includes a 250GB HDD, while the PS70 doesn’t, instead requiring you to plug in an external hard drive of 40GB or more to actually record your content. You can add storage in the same way on the PS80 too.

Other than that, they’re pretty standard FullHD plasmas – 1080p, 4 x HDMI inputs, Plug and play via USB for DivX, JPG and MP3, twin HD tuner… you get the idea. And while I would have been more impressed by an actual time machine, combining a DVR and HDTV is still interesting enough to write about…

[LG]

For the record, I would gladly purchase that Great Gazooish television today. [Dark Roasted Blend via bbGadgets]

The Blu-ray players (DMP-BD60 and DMP-BD80) Bring BD Profile 2.0 to the range, something that’s been sadly missing from Panny’s lineup (although BD-Live is still somewhat inadequate). The BD80 also has DivX playback, and both feature Viera Cast. They have, howvere, been hit by the financiapocalypse and the crappy Aussie dollar, with the BD60 going for $549, and the BD80 for $719.

The portable Blu-ray player (DMP-B15) has an 8.9-inch screen, doubles as a digital photo frame, and is also BD Profile 2.0 (although that’s through a wired LAN connection, sadly). It comes with a HDMI socket so you can use it as a standalone player. It’s fairly pricey though, at $1,319.

All the players and recorders will hit stores in April, except the portable Blu-ray player which lands in June. We’ll be getting out hands on the Portable unit as soon as we can to give it a thorough going over as well.

[Panasonic]

As many of you know, the steel or titanium black box is actually painted orange or red so it’s easy to spot. And it’s often actually two boxes (and in this case, one’s a cylinder), with one “box” recording voice, one “box” recording data.

The voice recorder grabs two hours of audio feeds from pilot headsets and in-cockpit microphones. In recent years, it’s gotten a digital upgrade that’s less susceptible to environmental problems than tapes of yore.

The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) records measurements on about 88 different flight performance issues at an interval of once every few seconds. When the shit hits the fan (or, in some cases, the plane), the FDR records measurements at a faster rate.

But even with as neat as the black box may be from the standpoint of apocalyptic durability, it seems like a dated idea in an era when realtime wireless communication is available globally. [Wired and Getty]

In a nutshell, the device converts electrical signals sent to the visual cortex into images that can be viewed on a computer screen. In their experiment, they showed test subjects the six letters in the word neuron and succeeded in reconstructing the word on screen by measuring their brain activity. As the technology progresses, it could be possible to “see” what people are thinking, what they dream about and record it for posterity. What do you think? Would that be awesome or scary as hell? All I know is that image weirds me out. [Yahoo Image via Pink Tentacle Thanks Roger!]

For $US30/month you can record all of your calls through the Cogi website or a dial-in number—up to 1000 minutes a month. These calls can be pulled up at any time in the future, and you can bookmark important points of the call along the way for quick review.

But where the service gets really cool is that you can have 15 of these bookmarks transcribed for you (unfortunately, only in 30 second chunks). Apparently the system uses voice-to-text software along with some level of human quality control assurance.

We figure Cogi could be pretty great or a bit mediocre, but they are offering free one-month trials so you can try before you buy. [Cogi]

The larger models (37-inches and up) boast 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, a 2000:1 contrast ratio, 30W speakers, a 176 degree viewing angle and nine different types of input. The smaller versions have a 1,366×768 pixel resolution, a 1500:1 contrast ratio, and 20W speakers. [Sharp via Akihabara News]