Thomson have just released their F1 MP4 player – just in time to miss the Christmas rush. The mini player features a 2.4 inch QVGA screen, USB 2.0 connection, and scarily – built-in speakers.

It also come with a microSD slot and is preloaded with some classic games. So, if you are looking for a gadget to annoy all around, this will likely fit the bill.

The Thomson F1 supports AVI and MP3/WMA/WAV formats, will display jpeg/bmp photos and allow text file viewing. A 4gigabyte storage capacity for around $100 seems like a good buy though. Surprisingly the price will be $101 rather than the more user-friendly $99.99 allowing them to sell it for “less than a hundred bucks.”

It seems an interesting design, with several rocker switches on the top for controls and the main part of the front of the player is taken up with the screen.

Although Thomson are a reasonably successful company, we doubt they will be stealing much business from the Apple range next year and have yet to see a true iPod killer hit the streets.

Creative have just announced a new version of their Zen media player – with 32 GB of storage. The new Zen offers all the features of the previous version but now includes a 16GB and 32 GB memory capacity.

This credit card-sized ZEN has a great looking 2.5″ color screen; plays music and videos and displays photos. The 32 GB version holds up to 8,000 MP31, WMA or AAC songs, up to 120 of video and 100s of photos. It is possible to add more capacity by using SD memory cards.

You could argue the Zen now outperforms Apple’s iPod range, supporting audio books and iTunes – and is compatible with both Rhapsody and Napster to go. Built-in FM radio and up to 25 hours complete the package.

Laptop magazine gave the 8GB zen 4.5 stars out of 5 and the only issue they found was a relatively slow start-up time.

Once again, only time will tell if this is a real iPod killer, but Creative have a ways to go if that’s the market they are after. It’s a nice looking player, but the slow boot-up combined with lousy earphones leave it wanting. I’ll be sticking with Apple, but the Creative Zen does have a slightly bigger screen if video is your thing.

Press release is here.

Sitting through slideshows is often boring, and there’s nothing more bland than a slideshow full of nothing but still images. Animoto aims to bring an end to the monotony of image slideshows.

Animoto, which is in open beta and was developed by actual producers, takes the images and audio you provide, analyzes it, and uses artificial intelligence to generate a customized video. They claim no two videos are the same, and it’s true—I created two videos with the exact same images and audio and they were both dynamic, yet completely different. After being created, videos can be shared with others or posted online.

One limitation to Animoto is that free “shorts” can be no longer than thiry seconds long. Credit for longer, “full-length” videos can be purchased. But since a thirty second short can showcase up to fifteen images, it’s not such a bad deal. People are likely to find music to be a bigger drawback. Even if they’re only being created for personal, non-commerical use, only original, unlicensed music can be used. If you want to use licensed music, you have to get permission from the proper party. Animoto does, however, have a library of music for those who do not wish to search for something suitable.

So how helpful is Animoto? Well if you don’t want to spend time putting together a static slideshow or you need a dynamic presentation, Animoto is perfect. I wouldn’t recommend using it for a demo reel or for showing anything that people may need to take a close look at, though. Learn more or sign up to try it at animoto.com.

Qingbar take nerdiness to a whole new level with the upcoming release of their GP300 wireless video glasses. The manufacturer describes the video glasses as “sleek ergonomically designed,” but looking at the release photos I’m hard pushed to decide what an ergo really looks like, and if these are sleek, what on earth do they consider to be chunky. These are sleek the same way Rosie O’Donnell is.

The Qingbar GP300 glasses feature a “sleek,” light weight design with LCOS micro displays, which deliver crisp, vivid-color, QVGA video image that simulates the image of a 50” display from a distance of 2M away. Would you watch a 50 inch screen from 6 feet away? No, I didn’t think so, neither would I.

The device can connect to a TV receiver, allowing you to watch TV programs in private, so the possibilities for getting yourself into trouble are endless. I really cannot imagine where someone might use a pair of wireless video glasses, but I guess at 3-400 dollars, they’ll sell a few pairs just from curiosity.

I haven’t managed to get my hands on a pair yet, but they are due to be released next month in the US. Speaking personally, I can think of a lot more pleasurable ways of making yourself go blind, Oh, wait a minute, there’s an idea……

I am a subscriber to Blockbuster’s online rental service, which is great, but some people just don’t like waiting. There are a few solutions to this problem; one is called Vongo (Video on the go). Don’t let late fees and late night runs to the video store interrupt your life ever again.

Vongo offers more than 2500 popular movies including many Walt Disney films. Unlike the other movie download services (CinemaNow and Movielink,) this is the only service that does not offer movie purchases. It is just rentals. In addition, Vongo requires you to register and download their software before you can start browsing their movies.

After Vongo’s 8-step registration process, I was up and running. The Vongo application is elegant and simple to use (although some beg to differ.) The download manager is also very smart. It’ll happily run in the background as a tray icon and inform you of your download status. Vongo is also able to streamline the searching and downloading process because they have their own desktop application.

Vongo sets itself apart from the competition with its rental-only subscription. For $9.99 per month you get unlimited access, as well as access to stream the Starz TV channel. Just browse the catalog and download until you get an error message telling you that there isn’t any hard drive space left! Each title has an “available until” date, at which time the content you’ve downloaded will automatically expire. One thing that gets me is the fact that you have to pay for newer video even though you pay $9.99/month. These titles are called “pay-per-view.” Once these titles are started you have 24 hours to view the content, after which the movie expires.

Bad News: Video quality is not great. Full-screen mode is poor quality. The audio often didn’t synch up with the lip movement. Once I watched it in window mode it was much better, but it still wasn’t the same video quality as watching a DVD on my computer. I was a bit disappointed in that aspect. I am picky, though. You may find the video quality to be just fine. You’ll have to try it yourself.

Good News: Vongo offers a free 14-day trial of their subscription option, as well as convenient gift cards so you can give a film away as a gift.

Vongo is a great serive, but before I try them again they are going to have to get video quality up to par, drop the “pay-per-view” for paying customers, and add a few more movie titles. Most of the movies I looked for were just not there.