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T3: Cambridge Audio has stamped its size 14 audiophilic feet in the compact hifi market with two cracking systems. Showing off a new direction for its kit and brand at the Milan Top Audio show, the Fusion and Sonata are fully integrated hifis, each with their own bespoke iPod dock.

The Sonata, aimed at audio buffs, comes as a two-part separates system. The 2.1 DAB receiver, which also brags an FM radio configuration, boasts 40 watts per channel and is generously lavished with brushed aluminium. Complementing the AV receiver is your choice of an upscaling 1080p HDMI DVD player or Wolfson-DAC-loaded CD unit.

Both are equipped to take the full force of Cambridge Audio’s specially built iPod dock that uses a technology to eliminate unwanted signal noise.

At the all-in-one end of the market, the Cambridge Audio Fusion sets pulses racing with a heavy hitting hifi combo. Churning out 30w per channel, the amp has an integrated CD player, DAB/FM tuner, USB port and SD card sockets and MP3/WMA playback compatibility from CD.

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Trusted Reviews: Despite the underwhelming impression given by the XD-E500 upscaling DVD player Toshiba is still pushing its XDE upscaling into a whole range of products. Newest of these is a new line-up of video recorders, dubbed the RD-X8, the Rd-S503 (pictured) and RD-S303.

Flagshiping the range, the RD-X8 packs a 1TB hard drive and sports Deep Colour capable HDMI output – a feature the lesser two recorders can’t boast. The X8 also boasts superior video (12-bit/297MHz DACS) and audio (24-bit/192Khz DA converter) processing.

As well as recording to their hard drives the RD-X8, RD-S503 and RD-S303 can all also burn content to DVD, either in MPEG-4 or H.264 format.

The biggest attraction of the three recorders should be the inclusion of Toshiba’s XDE upscaling engine. Importantly this works to upscale broadcast content.

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Electronista: Stanton for the first time released a touch-sensitive device through DaScratch, a new advanced MIDI control pad.

The device centers around a large, central touchpad that replicates the functions of analog DJ controllers and lets DJs scratch or scrub as well as use the device as though it were a multi-touch notebook trackpad.

All the buttons and faders to adjust the final output have similarly been replaced with touch-sensitive controls and will recognize multi-tap commands to quickly bring down a sound level or apply an effect.

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Electricpig: Until now, the cheapest Blu-ray player has been the PS3, and even that comes at a cost as eye-popping as the visuals it belts out.

Iceland shoppers rejoice then, as Memorex are about to bring the next-gen technology to the masses with the announcement of the MVBD-2510.

Shipping at the price of just $270 (186 Euro), the player will undercut the nearest competitors by more than half, despite bundling in a feast of features, including decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD High Resolution and 5.1 surround sound analogue output.

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Phones Review: Last week Samsung unveiled their whole Beat family of music orientated mobile phones, and includes the Samsung M3510 which has already been announced, and the slider design Samsung M3200.

The Samsung M3200 Beat if a slider format with a metallic finish and incorporating dedicated music keys, a Bang&Olufsen ICEpower audio chip, stereo loudspeakers, FM radio with RDS and audio recording, a music player Shake control thanks to the built-in accelerometer. stereo Bluetooth, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The Samsung M3200 Beat offers mood based song sorting and also has Samsung’s latest DNSe technology.

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Techradar.com: Archos’ MD of Northern Europe has not ruled out the possibility of an Archos phone in the future, but believes there’s still a massive market for standalone PMPs for a while yet.

“There is convergence [in mobile devices], and we both support and like it,” says Tony Limrick.

“But when it comes to compromise, although many phones could do some of the things [an Archos can], we choose not to do that, as things like the quality of the screen is not good enough, not up to the experience level found on an Archos.”

“I’m not saying the Archos phone won’t happen, if we were to deliver an Archos 5 with phone functionality that would appeal to some people, though I haven’t seen any prototypes.

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Engadget: A recent Reuters article doesn’t mention a specific model (although we have our hunches), but one thing’s for sure: some kind of Comes with Music handset is launching on October 17th.

We had previously assumed that October 2nd would be the go-live date for the intriguing music bundle.

Retailer Carphone Warehouse has now made clear that Britain won’t be able to buy in until a few weeks later.

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Electronista: RCA has finished the week with new devices all meant to modernize the company’s line. The Lyra name is being revived with the Lyra Slider, a basic portable media player that uses the same concept as behind slider phones to shrink the size of the device without sacrificing controls.

The black and chrome look improves on earlier designs and is matched by a handful of extras that include FM radio and voice recording.

Also new is the Infinite Radio, also known as the RIR205.

The countertop radio earns its name through support both for usual AM/FM broadcasts as well as direct Internet streaming over Wi-Fi from a catalog of “thousands” of stations.

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Techradar.com: The Blu-ray Disc Association has delivered some depressing news about the high-definition format this week, saying that Blu-ray is unlikely to see a significant price drop any time soon.

And the reason for the lack of discount? Well, us apparently, for not snapping up enough Blu movies.

“There’s not enough market [volume] to lower the price. Prices will go down but, what people overlook is that you need a marketplace first before you start cutting prices,” said BDA Chairman, Andy Parsons.

“If there’s not enough awareness about [the technology] then low prices are besides the point.”

Not enough awareness? Surely, that’s the whole point of the BDA, but there you go.

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DVICE: We can’t say we’ve ever wanted to carry digital pics on a keychain, but no one ever said a gadget had to have a demand before it was made.

This Pocket Album keychain from Digital Foci has a 1.5-inch OLED screen that displays pictures (well, more like thumbnails) in 128 x 128-pixel glory.

The 32MB of internal memory stores up to 124 photos, which is great… for 2002.  Still, we’ve got to give it props for maximum portability.

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T3: Motorola has two Bluetooth headsets vying for your attention, the H15 and the H780.

The H15 boasts Motorola exclusive flip design, which is a new way of saving battery life if you’re constantly on the blower. RapidConnect, which lets you answer calls immediately by flipping the headset open, and closing it again will curtail the battery drain.

To keep everything clear, the H15 employs a pair of microphones, located in the top and bottom of the device. An internal processor compares the two and isolates the sound of your voice from the background hum.

The H780 is the cheaper option. It sports the same CrystalTalk sound enhancement. You don’t get any special power saving abilities but because it’s still good for seven hours of talk time.

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PC World: Griffin Technology on Wednesday introduced the AirCurve, an “acoustic amplifier” dock for the iPhone, along with the Clarifi, a new case that boosts the capability of the iPhone camera.

The AirCurve boosts audio using a coiled waveguide instead of an amplified speaker. AirCurve is a translucent polycarbonate block you rest your iPhone on that features a coiled waveguide that amplifies the sound of the iPhone’s built-in speaker.

The Clarifi is a protective case for the iPhone that provides access to the iPhone’s power switch, headphone jack, volume controls and touchscreen. It also incorporates an “EasyDock” design that lets you slip off the bottom of the case to charge and sync your iPhone.

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