LG has recently revealed a new mobile handset designed for the ladies. The handset – the SH490, is a clamshell and is being dubbed the 'make-up' phone, though in my opinion that title should rightfully belong to the Nokia 7610 Supernova.


The SH490 has a reflective/shiny outer shell that bears stylish and girly patterns and colors - “Smoky Red,” “Deep Blue” and “Pearl White”. It sports a 2.4-inch QVGA main display and also features an external 1.1-inch screen. It comes with a 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a media player for video and audio, with 512MB of internal memory with external support via microSD cards.

There's no word on pricing or availability yet so stay tuned.

Verismo Networks, the developer of the VuNow Internet TV platform, and YouTube have partnered to provide broadband subscribers the ability to watch YouTube videos directly on the TV using the VuNow PoD. By pushing YouTube content from the computer to the television, Verismo Networks lets usersexperience the enjoyment of watching and sharing the latest videos on the big screen TV.

The VuNow Internet TV platform is the first solution that allows consumers to watch content from the web directly on their television, without having to connect a computer. The palm-sized VuNow Pod provides simple and seamless access to a broad choice of online video content — from movies, global Live TV channels, to user-generated content and viral videos.

Users simply connect the PoD to the TV like a DVD player and within minutes they can browse, search, and select Internet content with a click of their remote. Verismo Networks is now selling the VuNow Pod directly to consumers online. The cost is $99 USD.

In the previous Logitech 5.1 speaker review, we had promised more options for surround sound multimedia. Thus this week those AC3 files will be having a blast, getting all this attention. This time we have one by Creative — the Creative Inspire M5300, the 5.1 speaker set from their Inspire series; sort of a mid-range series in Creative's line-up.

Design and Features
The M5300 comes nicely packed in a highly illustrated, cubical cardboard box. The first thing we removed was the subwoofer, a small sized (comparatively) unit with a side facing driver, measuring about 5.5 inches, covered by quite a weird looking silver grille. The front face has the reflex port, positioned towards the top end. The back panel has inputs for the five speakers (RCA ins) and a bass volume knob. There is a pre-attached wire that ends out in EP connectors for input to the soundcard.

The satellite speakers are quite slim, with a centrally located driver measuring 2.5 inches. These are rimmed in shiny metallic silver, with a black protective grille. The speaker can be placed on detachable stands, all packed in separately in the box. Without the stands, there is also an option to wall mount them. The speaker and subwoofer are both very light and create a small footprint, thus this unit can work where there are space constraints. On the flip side, these speakers are light enough to easily fly away by an accidental swoosh of the hand. The finish and build is not that bad though, it's just light weighted.

Last but not the least, there is a wired remote unit, which is a small little black pod, that has a volume dial on the side panel. This connects to the subwoofer’s back panel. The output of the speakers is 6 watts RMS each, while the sub outputs 17 watts RMS. The rated frequency response is 40 Hz- 20kHz.

I personally like Philips as a brand; they have earned a reputation over the years by constantly delivering decent products. Especially their DVD players, which have never failed to impress us. The product we have is new, and loaded with features, but off course no verdicts until the review is done, so let’s check it out — the DVP5996K.

Design and Features
The DVP 5996 has a sleek metallic chassis, with a coat of black all around the body. The front panel has a glossy finished panel, bordered by a silver strip. The aesthetics are minimalist but classy — there is no element of loud and tacky elements anywhere. The Philips logo is soberly positioned dead center of the front panel, with the tray to its left. The right extremity of the front panel has an EP input for a Mic, a USB 2.0 in, and also two flush mounted, round buttons that simply illustrate ‘play’ and ‘stop’. The corners of the body are rounded, which adds to the good looks.

Now, this DVD player doesn’t just play DVDs. It has a karaoke feature (thus the mic input), with little gimmicks that display animated pictures, and rate your singing. Secondly, it can rip MP3s directly to a flash drive in the USB port, from a CD spinning in the disc. Next we have support for quite a few formats including DivX Ultra certification. The player has HDMI out, with 1080p up scaling. Speaking of HDMI, the package includes an HDMI cable. There is a coaxial digital audio out, beside component video outputs. For a complete list of connectivity and specifications please view specs pic.

The remote aesthetically matches the unit to a large extent, with a black face and white clear fonts for the buttons. These buttons are well laid out, with the numerical matrix at eh bottom, while the top half has the menu and navigation buttons. There is one touch control for the audio ripping function, switching to USB device etc.