With everything electronic these days getting smaller, it’s nice once in a while to see something getting big – really big. Big enough for those of us with poor vision and big, clumsy fingers to still hit the right button every time.

That seems to be the idea behind Brookstone’s new Super-Sized Remote, which is a gigantic slab-sized universal remote control measuring 5″ x 11″ x 1″. In all other respects this is a fairly basic 6-in-1 remote control offering one-button selection for TV, VCR, DVD, satellite, cable box and an auxiliary device (and codes for 296 of the most popular A/V equipment). The buttons are correspondingly huge and glow-in-the-dark, meaning if you ever lose the remote again you’ll have no one to blame but yourself. (more…)

We’ve gotten a lot of e-mail from our readers over the last year asking us about our lab facilities, as in - do we really have any?

We most certainly do. And to prove it, here’s a video recently taken in our durability lab, where we stress test products to see how well they’ll hold up for the long haul. Senior Lab Assistant Rudy is (the hirsute individual on the treadmill) is running the Pure Digital Flip Video camcorder through its paces. As you can see, the quality is quite good and, thus far, the Flip camera is holding up quite well.

Wish we could say the same for Rudy.

download

With HD DVD and Blu-ray players costing upwards of $1000 a pop – assuming you can even find one – what’s a home theater aficionado in search of the highest quality video to do?

In a move so un-Microsoft-like that it may trigger identity verification tests throughout the company’s executive ranks, the Redmond, Wash.-based company has delivered a quick, easy and cost-effective way to add HD DVD playback to any home entertainment setup. (more…)

In this final installment of The Geek Beat’s series on Everything HD, we learn that while size matters when picking the best HD display, more often than not, he who lives with the most pixels wins.

So, you’ve got your HD disc player, your high definition cable or satellite service or your ATSC antenna ready to go. Now comes the fun part: picking a screen to see it all on. (more…)

Updated November 30th, 2006

The BlackBerry 8100, better known as the Pearl, truly is a thing of beauty. Sleek, black and compact, it’s one powerful mobile communications device that weighs just 3.16 ounces and will fit comfortably in a shirt pocket.

But while the Pearl is an amazing feat of miniaturization – perhaps too much so for users with large hands – Research in Motion’s Blackberry operating system is just now playing catch-up with the smartphone marketplace it helped define. And while the Pearl’s long-overdue feature face-lift is welcome, it still falls a bit short of competitors when it comes to multimedia capabilities. (more…)