This new monitor from LG is apparently only available in Japan at the moment. The W2261VG boasts a Full HD resolution TN panel LCD with 1000:1 contrast, 300 cd/m2 brightness and 160/170 viewing angles rating. Flip the switch and the 2ms rated panel can extend its 1000:1 contrast rating of up to 50k:1; revealing more details in darkly lit scenes.

As far as connectivity, it features HDMI, VGA and a HDCP compliant DVI-D digital port. Looks like its more suited for gaming and multimedia. It’s available now in Japan for $227.

Marantz, known for its luxury hi-fi output, has announced the CR502, an all-in-one music system. The CR502 consists of two stereo amplifiers, each with 2 x 25W, adding up to 100W of music output and comes complete with a CD drive and DAB tuner.

You’ll also get a variety of inputs and outputs that includes a USB 2.0 port. It’s all packed into a compact aluminum chassis. The CR502 will also give you a clock radio and alarm with sleep functions. This all-in-one will cost you about GBP 499.

Sony showed off some fuel cell prototypes at the Fuel Cell Expo 2009 in Tokyo. Pictured are some fuel cell-powered speakers and a charger that create power with only pure water as a byproduct.

The silver speakers can play music and power a mobile device, while that thing that resembles a coffee maker is a completely wireless speaker system that is capable of running for months with its container of ethanol. The blue thing will charge up anything with a USB port.

Vestalife certainly has a thing for bug inspired electronics. True to form, they’ve released the Butterfly iPod speaker dock that doubles as a charger. It sports a few speakers at the top, while the iPod docking station is in the middle. Yeah. Not much to write home about. At least their other efforts incorporated neat insect designs.

It will work with most popular iPod models, features LED volume indicators, auxiliary-in jack and a USB port for PC synchronization. Oh and did you notice it was fugly? This one has an automatic shut-off feature to save batteries. As long as your iPod is a model from 2004 onward, it will be compatible with the Butterfly iPod speaker dock.

This electronic change counting bank makes sure that you always have money for beer. Because in these tough times, beer money too often goes toward other frivolous things like a “mortgage”, or a “college fund”. Make sure that doesn’t happen to your beer money by making daily deposits.

It will count and tally up your total savings, but sadly doesn’t translate that into number of beers saved. It also won’t convert the change into cash, so you’ll be known as “that guy who always pays in pennies”.

This is the type of gadget that you buy in 2009 and by 2010 your arms have atrophied into little girl Mr. Burns type arms. It’s for the laziest of the lazy. What we have here is basically a rocking chair for gallon jugs.

Ben Kenobi once said that the force works great on the weak minded. Well, this thing sells great to the weak-limbed. Seriously, if you buy this, it means that you would lose an arm wrestling match to a squirrel. Please just pick up the jug. Practice with half gallons first if you must.

An analyst with Janco, Mike Hickey, says that a major price cut for the PS3 could be on the way in the next few days. According to Hickey (Who I’m assuming has no marks on his neck) the price drop needs to be at least $100 to get retail sales moving again.

If it doesn’t happen, Sony console sales are expected to continue to decline. This wouldn’t be a huge surprise, but we’ll have to see what happens.

According to Acclaim developer David Perry, the new Playstation Portable won’t feature a UMD disc drive.

“I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!” Perry wrote on both his Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Whether or not he has actually seen the rumored new Playstation Portable himself is not clear. He may just be hearing rumors through the development community. Ditching the UMD wouldn’t be a surprise as it would cut costs and make the device slimmer. It fits with the other rumor, that the new PSP will be a slider, but have the same guts as its predecessor.

Looks like the Super Famicon controller for the Wii was just the first such retro controller. Codejunkies is offering this NES-type classic gamepad that has the SNES’s four buttons for $20.

What’s next? We predict a new version of the Nintendo Power Glove, maybe a Mini ROB the robot that can hold your Wiimote. Once they redo all the old Nintendo peripherals, how about an Atari joystick for the Wii?

It was just the other day that we were complaining about the lack of color options for the DSi and looky here. Three new colors of the Nintendo DSi just announced in Japan for ¥18,900 beginning March 20th.

It’s nice to know that Nintendo is giving us some options, despite the fact that the device has not yet launched outside of Japan. Australia will be limited to the black and white models when it launches there on April 2nd, while Europe will launch with the same choices starting April 3rd. The US will get the DSi on April 5th in the boo-boo colors of either black or blue.

Nintendo has the most popular and best selling game console on the market thanks to its Nintendo Wii. The system is still hard to find in many areas. The Nintendo DS is also the most popular portable game console and the latest version the DS is set to continue that tradition.

We mentioned last week that the DSi was available for pre-order at both Amazon.com and GameStop. This week Walmart.com announced that it too was offering a preorder system for gamers looking to get a DSi console.

If a popular video game or movie is released it often doesn’t take long before the content if being ripped off in one way or another. From illegal file sharing to outright bootleg copies being sold lots of illegitimate content makes it to market. Often unauthorized products based on games and films are produced as well.

Square Enix Holdings, the owner of the publisher behind the Final Fantasy video game franchise, announced a huge settlement today against three companies importing unauthorized goods based on the game. The companies were importing and selling replicas of the sword from the game.

There are many environments where a computer is needed where the conditions are too harsh for the average notebook to survive and operate. In these environment users have to resort to semi-rugged or full rugged computers.

Lenovo has announced that it has certified several of its standard laptop computers including the ThinkPad X200, X301, X200s, X200 Tablet, T400, T500, R400, and SL300 models to meet military semi-rugged specifications. The computer maker also announced a new optional high brightness LCD with 680-nits for daylight use on these systems.

The Sony PS3 is one of the most popular game consoles on the market. One of the best things about the console for me is that I can use it as a Blu-ray player in addition to a gaming system. I also believe that it is one of the best Blu-ray players around thanks to the continual updates Sony adds to the Blu-ray player via downloads.

Another nice thing about the PS3 is the PlayStation Network and Sony says that the network has reached a significant milestone. After being available for two years and three months the network has exceeded 20 million registered accounts worldwide.

What have we here? The Kindle 2 has only been in our collective hands for a few hours, but already it’s been lovingly and thoroughly dissected. The guys at iFixit have already ripped theirs into pieces. Lovingly of course. Someone has to do it.

Probably the most interestingly reveal of the teardown is an empty space for a SIM card slot, which seems to suggest that Amazon has some plans for the Kindle’s international debut. Maybe. Hit the link for step by step details of the teardown.