Forget Xbox Live. Take your death matches to the street with Hasbro's latest incarnation of Lazer Tag. This version adds a display on the goggles that shows when you've locked onto a target or stumbled into an opponent's crosshairs. An optional wireless headset keeps you in contact with teammates across the battlefield. And, just as if you were playing Unreal on your console, points are tallied after each round, separating the poser from the sharpshooter. Lock and load your double-As!
Lazer Tag Team Ops: $60; Team Talk Headset (not shown): $25, www.lazertag.com
There's a reason violins aren't made out of aluminum. When it comes to acoustics, wood's natural resonance can't be beat. By soaking birch in rice wine to make it malleable, JVC has created a speaker cone that gives its EX-A1 music system an amazingly wide frequency response, including thumping bass not normally heard without a subwoofer. Complete with a DVD player that spins DVD A/V and the usual gang of CD formats, it's the Stradivarius of compact stereos.
EX-A1: $550, www.jvc.com
What good is a megapixel phonecam if its screen turns exquisite portraits into unrecognizable blobs? NEC's hi-res handset packs a 2.2-inch LCD running at 1é4 VGA resolution, making it one of the most advanced displays ever to grace a mobile phone. It's the perfect palette for viewing 1.3 million-pixel snaps or video clips captured by the 535's dual-function camera. It also sports a tri-element LED for lighting up dark scenes. Images will be as clear as they are in your memory.
NEC 535: $350, www.necamerica.com
Gamers aren't the only ones twitching over the PlayStation Portable - film and music geeks are, too. The PSP, which hits stores this fall in Japan and next year in the US, is a mobile entertainment system. It comes with earbuds and stereo speakers for listening to music. And its luscious widescreen (16.7 million colors and a 16:9 aspect ratio!) is ideal for both blasting aliens and screening Alien. Games, movies, and music will be available in the Universal Media Disc format. Yes, Sony is fragging itself - again - by relying on non-standard media and DRM overkill. But finally there's an all-in-one gizmo that's more fun than a smartphone.
PSP: TBD, www.playstation.com
Pimp your ride with a retro spin on state-of-the-art sound. Panasonic delivers the first car stereo to handle CDs and MP3s with the tender touch of a tube amp. Second-order harmonic distortion makes for a richer sound than that produced by solid-state systems. Crank the jams to 11 and see the bulb glow as the VU meters bob. This baby will shift your music into overdrive.
B-Flat Tube CQ-TX5500D: $949, www.audiocubes.com
Clock-watchers now have an excuse for their fixation: prime time. NHJ has crammed a 1.5-inch TV into its new wristwatch, so your favorite broadcasts are within arm's reach. The roughly 2 x 2-inch timepiece weighs less than 2 ounces, including the rechargeable one-hour battery. To watch the watch longer, just pop the screen onto the external battery pack and zone out for the evening.
VTV-101 with battery pack: $200, www.nhjapan.com
- Seth Feman and Brian Lam
credit Craig Maxwell
Lazer Tag Team Ops
credit Craig Maxwell
EX-A1
credit Craig Maxwell
NEC 535
credit Craig Maxwell
PSP
credit Craig Maxwell
B-Flat Tube CQ-TX5500D
credit Craig Maxwell
VTV-101
PLAY
>
Fetish
