I think I am failing at my goal with this blog, just a little. Mostly because I heard nothing about these amazing little computers until Dell officially launched them today.

The Dell Inspiron Zino HD is a new model from Dell that takes some cues from the very smartly designed Mac Mini. Sharing a similar miniscule footprint, the Zino HD does for PCs exactly what the Mac Mini did when it first launch. Gave a small, powerful computer in a small package, for a great price.

Now, recently I posted about the updated Mac Minis, and how I would love to have one for a centralized media center computer. However, I am starting to reconsider that. As much as I love Mac, the Zino HD has a couple features that beat the Mac Mini completely.

The Zino HD comes with an impressive video card, easily capable of outputting full 1080p video, and can do so over the included HDMI port. Meaning seamless integration with your flat panel TV or home theater receiver. Options include up to 1TB of hard drive space, 8 gigs of memory and, wait for it…. a Blu-Ray optical drive.

<rant> Yes, Blu-Ray, the HD format that so far Apple has completely snubbed. I think this is a careful choice. Blu-Ray is a good format, but the truth is, modern HD video is leaning more and more to Internet delivery. But the film industry is still leaning heavily on physical media for distrobution, so for now, a Blu-Ray drive is an option I would like to have. </rant>

The Zino HD is a great option for a home theater PC, and has made its way near the top of my Christmas wish list!

I have to say, this thing looks like it could be a lot of fun.

THe BeamBox MiLi Evolution iPod projector is an amazing new little gadget. One of the first commercially available pico projectors, this one is designed specifically to allow your iPod or iPhone to project images and movies onto any surface, with images up to 60 inches. The resolution seems low at only 640 x 480, but when you think about it, packing a projector into something that small, its pretty darn amazing!

There are lots of possibilities for this thing, impromptu presentations, photo slide shows, or just sharing that funny youtube video you found with the whole office. Just point it at the wall, and hit play!

The BeamBox is available for pre-order now for a rather reasonable price of $350, and supports AV and VGA inputs as well. Yay for versatility!

(via Slashgear)

This is some rather cool tech that the military is working on. Similar to the BigDog robot that went around the tubes a year or so ago, this is a self-balancing robot, with only two legs this time. Using heel-toe walking like a human, it can walk rather quickly over uneven terrain. And I dig the shoes.

(via Crunchgear)