The folks at Parrot have released a new toy RC toy called the AR.Drone, a “quadricopter” that can be controlled and viewed with an iPhone or iPod touch through a WiFi connection. The AR.DRONE works like a remote control helicopter with four separate helicopter blades to maneuver the device, but that is definitely not what makes this copter cool.

What really sets this guy apart from the others is that you can control it with your iPhone or iPod touch using the built-in accelerometers which will sense which way you tip the phone and maneuver the AR.Drone accordingly. The quadricopter also has a couple of cameras on board, one for “seeing” what the AR.Drone sees real-time through the iPhone, but also another camera on the bottom which can track speed and help the ‘copter maintain a still flight.

Netflix fans have something else to be happy about. Philips is now rolling out a bunch of Blu-ray players featuring Netflix Watch Instantly streaming. The BDP5110 and 5320 are both BD-Live players and have vTuner Internet radio.

The 5110 will arrive in Q1 for $169, while the BDP5320 comes with a WiFi dongle and will ship around the same time for $249. On the high-end, the BDP7320 sports all of those features plus DLNA access to stream video from networked devices or PCs.

TV stations that broadcast on airwaves today each have what’s called whitespace between them. The whitespace is there to keep each broadcast from interfering with the ones next to it. There has been lots of talk about using this whitespace for other uses.

A company called Cambridge Consultants has unveiled a new radio at CES that can use the whitespace to stream HD video and other material around a home. The radio can operate on normal 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi bands and can also operate on the 600Mhz whitespace band between stations.

This is what I call a beautiful laptop. Powerful too. ASUS has just launched its newest Republic of Gamers laptop at CES. The G73hj manages to make other laptops look puny. I love those angles. It features a Core i7-720QM CPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 8-channel HD audio, up to 1TB of HDD space and DirectX 11 compatibility with the internal ATI Radeon HD 5870.

That display is a 17.3-incher with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, Blu-ray / DVD drive, 8-cell battery, a 2 megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1, an 8-in-1 card reader and a mini-VGA connector. It’s running Windows 7 Home Premium.

We already knew about Interead’s COOL-ER 3G e-book reader, but now they are announcing a new WiFi-equipped COOL-ER Connect model. Details are in short supply, but the reader will apparently have a touchscreen and weigh only 5.8 ounces.

Look for it to be available this Spring. The COOL-ER 3G is scheduled for mid-2010. Interead has also announced a new line of content for its e-book readers. Like the Coolermatic application for instance, which will let users access over 1,400 newspapers and “select websites,”. Twitter feeds as well, but with no posting.

We all know how versatile Chumby is. This old time gadget above was created with a set of Chumby Guts, an old clock and some brass horns, along with a Dremel by Etsy member AbrahamBook.

It’s a WiFi-enabled Chumby lovingly shoved into a vintage steampunk-styled enclosure. We’re guessing that the Chumbophone doesn’t actually make calls using the horns, but we still dig it. What do you think? Ready to hit the antique store and start modding?

Fring was the first to bring VoIP calls to the iPhone, and now it brings on the video calling. Obviously it can’t change the iPhone’s camera placement, but it makes the most of what it has to work with. The latest version of the app will still let iPhone and iPod touch users see the person on the other end.

Fring also says that it will add two-way video calling when “a front camera is placed on these.” You’ll also be able to make video calls to Skype users, but you have to be near a WiFi hotspot since it doesn’t support calls on 3G.

We now have more details about the Google Chrome OS, which is a stripped-down Linux that should boot very quickly and launch a browser (Chrome). Everything that you do is web-based. Apparently users will have to buy a Chrome OS machine if they want it. Chrome will run on Intel and ARM processors.

According to Google it’s secure because the data is stored on a remote server, however if someone gets your password, well they have access to everything. They do say that Apps are more secure, because they have access to nothing, just like web apps on other OS.

Litl describes their Webbook as “an internet computer that works great with your favorite websites”. The Litle Webbook aims to be versatile and can be used as a standard netbook or, flipped around, as a TV device with an optional remote and “TV style” control knob.

Some features include a 12-inch LCD display with an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, a GPU that can playback H.264 in 720p, 1GB of RAM, and 2GB of built in flash storage. What sets it apart is that it has no hard drive. All data is stored on the Internet. You’ll also get built-in WiFi, a headphone jack, HDMI, a USB 2.0 port, and a built-in webcam.

What with all of the Droid excitement, it’s easy to forget LG’s GW620, LG’s first Android smartphone. And so you won’t forget about it, the LG GW620 now has its own mini-site. The page appears to be a work in progress, but there are two video demos, some stock photos, and the user manual and spec sheet for download.

The GW620 will be a dualband UMTS (900/2100) quadband GSM device, with WiFi and Bluetooth. It has either 2GB or 4GB of internal storage, along with a microSD card slot, and a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. The touchscreen is a 3-inch HVGA resistive panel, while the OS is Android 1.5 Cupcake with LG’s own S-Class UI running on top.

We had heard that Asus was planning some ebook readers and now some new details have emerged. Executives from the company apparently confirmed that WiFi, 3G and WiMAX versions will be announced before the year is out. The ebook readers will apparently hit carrier partners in the US and Europe in March 2010, with prices that will be “competitive” with what’s offered from Amazon and Sony.

Previous rumors have ASUS readying two different sized readers, one with a 6-inch e-ink display while a second model will have a larger 9-inch panel. WiMax seems like overkill, but Asus apparently thinks it will sell well.

Arstechnica has a mole. No, it’s not as bad as it sounds. It doesn’t chew up the house or dig in the yard or anything, or hang off Cindy Crawford’s face. It just hands them info now and again. According to that mole, the updated 802.11n wireless adapter will be $100.

The older G adapter will drop down to $80. Still pretty expensive when you compare it to regular Wi-Fi adapters, but whatever. The new adapter has the ability to stream 1080p video and is tied to Microsoft’s upcoming Zune video store update to Xbox Live later this year.

Here’s an interesting eBook from Asus dubbed the eee-Book, sporting two color displays that lets you flip the pages like you would on a real book. Think of it as a large Nintendo DS on it’s side. You can also browse the web on one of the displays, presumably while reading on the other.

It connects using 3G or Wifi, comes with a memory card slot and supports Skype audio/video conferencing. The price is a really nice $165. Look out Kindle! That’s about all the info we have right now, but we like what we see.

Seems like China is the land of Android lately. And here’s the LG GW880, the company’s first Android phone. To clarify, in this case “Android” means China Mobile’s custom WiFi-less OPhone platform, so we won’t be seeing this one outside of China.

It gives you a good idea of what LG’s handset designers have in mind for Android sets though. This one sports the following specs: A stunning 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, 256MB RAM, GPS, and a five megapixel camera.

The folks from Sungale gave us a chance to check out their recently released 8″ touchscreen, WiFi digital photo frame and while we were initially excited by seeing the features we felt the actual implementation fell a little short of our expectations.

By reading through the features included in the picture frame we found that the designer was going for much more than just a picture frame, and we liked the direction they were heading. After all the list of functionality includes utilizing the WiFi connection to view weather, YouTube videos, Picasa photos, news, Gmail and internet radio. And of course you can view your photos as a slideshow on the device, but that’s the easy part, right? And this is all accessed through a touchscreen which for the most part usually makes this pretty intuitive and easy to navigate.