Can you believe it? only a few weeks before the absolute death of the minidisk platform Sony finally announces that their existing customer base can finally use mP3 as format as well...

The not only release the new model NW-HD3 but offer send-in upgrades at 2000 Yen for existing models HD1/2... if that saves Minidisk? I would have loved such a feature back in 1995 when I bought my first Minidisker... or better when I dropped it for lack of space some time in the old century...

Sony Adds MP3 Support to Network Walkman

The Kenwood VRS-N8100 Network Receiver will have to be next investment in the digital media equipment.

This AV receiver not only brings 100 watts x 6 channels of Kenwood's sound quality powered by an advanced 32-bit SHARC processor.

What's really amazing is the ability to interface with your PC via a Wi-Fi® or wired Ethernet network. Navigation screens displayed on your TV make it easy to browse the contents of your hard drive and select audio, video, or still picture files to stream to your home theater system's speakers and TV.

It handles the following file formats:

• MP3, WMA, WAV, and Ogg Vorbis audio
• MPEG1, MPEG2, and XviD video
• JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG digital photos

so if you have your PC running, there actually won't be a need to create DIVx DVDs or MP3 CDs anymore to consume your digital content.

This unit even has a front panel PCMCIA card slot which will accept media card adapters so you can display pictures from digital cameras on the video monitor of your home theater. With an adapater you can use all your CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, Smart Media, etc.

Interesting.... it has Surround Back Preouts: the receiver includes left and right preamp outputs for surround back channels. So if you wish to connect wireless active speakers for the surround back channels, that carry an own amplifier, that should work... cool

As you can see, they even have component signals going in and out - best to plugin your high def Plasma TV and DVD recorder to it...

If you are looking for a similar device featuring HDMI in/output ( not even my new HD Recorder has that, but some high end digital projectors could utilize that), but lacking the network capabilities, take a look at the Panasonic SA-XR 70 ...

What a wonderful device - Siemens Lifebook P7010 - a sub notebook reviewed e.g. here with perfect setup of long battery life time, great display, a bigger than usual sub notebook keyboard...

It weights less than half of my Inspiron 8600 (1,4 kg instead of 3+ kg) and runs probably at least same time - the folks at C'T and trustedreviews measured 4+ hours... fantastic...

BUT: even tough they have a centrino certificed 54g WLAN the engineers forgot to implement the bluetooth chip - and in contrast to Dell & others they don't even offer it as an Add-On ... (it's a mini-pci addon in my DELL Inspiron 8600 ) ... and they don't have IRDA

So they don't offer any way builtin to couple my Sony Ericsson P800 wireless.

And I am not going to pay 2000+ EUR for this hot thing and then carry the phone cable with me for the case that I might want to dial up somewhere via GPRS... for sure not...

Sorry FSC - these 10EUR production price saved made you lose the deal... I am going to take a Sony VAIO T1XP/L or TR5MP , both equipped similar and including the Bluetooth chip.