For Japan's upcoming Apology Day, an interactive website by the name of Ayamari Bijin offers 31 different girls apologizing in video messages, along with stacks of photos of them looking "remorseful". You can even find out their blood types! The best thing is that as they're all speaking in Japanese, you don't have the flipping faintest idea what they're actually apologizing for. You could pretend it's for actually daring to ask for a cuddle after sexytimes last night. Or perhaps for squeezing the toothpaste from the wrong end.

Perhaps you're a more vanilla kind of guy, in which case you'd rather hear Japanese girls say how much they love you? Either way, if you can't speak Japanese, it's much of a muchness. For $25, the Hougen CD has 600 different girls saying "I love you" in their various Japanese dialects.

So what'll it be tonight, men? Apologies or confessions of love? [Japan Trends and CrunchGear]

Designed by Mac Funamizu, Quackie doesn't really seem like it'd be practical once you're over the five minutes of "Wee! It rolls around! Quack Quack! What's that, Quackie? Ya wanna go louder? Ooooopen wide!" childlike glee, but it could still be a nice desk decoration. [Yanko Design]

Moldover really went all-out with this one. The CD case theremin features a headphone jack as well as a speaker, and the wiring on the theremin itself spells out the artist name, track names, and "album art," such as it is. He even includes a tiny pocket-sized version of the theremin so you're never without that odd organic screechy sound. The album costs $50, which actually seems pretty cheap considering it's packaged inside a musical instrument. [Denver Westword]

First of all, a laser is going to burn up whatever it touches, so, like, do you listen to it once and then throw it away? That sounds like a great idea if you're one of those guys who made us buy 8 tracks and now want us to repurchase all our favorite songs on cassettes again. I'm not even going to get started on the potential fire hazard here. And last time I checked (the movies) lasers shoot out, they don't shoot back in, so its not like a laser is a good replacement for a record needle. Sure, it wouldn't wear out these magic laser records like vinyl and physical needles do, but that's because said disc would be make believe. And if even real, be on fire.

Sheesh. Nice try, rumor fakers. Never going to fool an expert gadget blogger. [25th anniversary of the CD]

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Some people are telling me this can't be done with actual CDs, others say they can. I've seen a couple more videos in YouTube, but never tried it myself. Any experiences out there? [DRB]

It's got an auxiliary jack for other audio inputs, a nice little OLED screen to display the time and track information, and of course comes with a nice enough remote control. But $550 seems like a sort of outrageous price for such pedestrian technology, fancy package or not. It'll be available soon, if you're a gazillionaire who likes shiny things. [Oh Gizmo!]

While CDs are read in 2D space (one layer), and DVDs are read in much the same way (but with an extra layer+ of data), GE's holographic storage uses the entire disc density for storage. Data drawn through chemical reactions floats if suspended in gelatin.

Or...you could let the expert explain it in his own words about a minute in to this clip...Mr. Fancy Goggles and his fancy blue shirt. [via boingboing]

Happy birthday! 1979-2009.Thirty years. Pretty amazing that it's been that long since those crazy Dutchmen at Philips spun the technology off of laser discs as part of an optical digital audio disc demo in Eindhoven.

Of course, the CD didn't immediately take off right then and there. It needed a little help from Sony, which worked with Philips to get the format standardized. The standard they named Red Book, which included everything from playing time (initially 60 minutes), to the disc diameter to sampling frequency. Put simply, the collaboration worked out, and Red Book was a success. In the book The Compact Disc Story, Philips reps lauded the task force they established with Sony. The CD that team created was "invented collectively by a large group of people working as a team," Philips said. If only Apple and Microsoft could say the same, no? Oh, the things they could build.

Gushing and my bloviating aside, it wouldn't be until October 1, 1982 that Billy Joel's 52nd Street became the first CD album released. It was conveniently released in Japan alongside Sony's brand new CDP-101 Compact Disc player. The album (and more importantly the medium it was pressed upon) changed history, as more compact disc players were introduced into the market beginning in 1983. The music CD would reach its zenith with The Beatles "1" (30 million in sales), before beginning its eventual and inevitable fall to the Mp3 in the mid-2000's (in 2008, for example, CD sales dropped 20%).

Related to that point on Mp3s is copy protection. Or, to be more accurate, the CD's complete and utter lack of copy protection of any kind.

When the Red Book was finalized, the standard made nary a mention of copy protection. Other than an anti-copy clause in the subcode, there was nothing. In fact, if a company tried to market a copy-protected CD (no ripping, copying, etc), as many did in 2002, Philips said the discs would not bear the official Compact Disc Digital Audio logo. It's great that Philips did this, because as is the case with many "protected" forms of media today, these non-standardized CDs were anti-consumer; they often did not work in a variety of CD-ROM drives or standalone players. And yet Lars Ulrich was silent. Baffling, but true, and definitely an interesting parallel to today's debate about digital rights management and piracy.

As was noted by Blam today in an email to me about this anniversary, Red Book's active attempts to keep copy protection from the spec was incredibly forward thinking at the time. You definitely didn't see it in the infamous anti-consumer Extended Copy Protection (XCP) debacle at Sony Music BMG. Remember that ol' chestnut? Ironic that the creator of the original standard would be somehow involved in one of the most egregious CD-related abuses of consumer trust, no?

But back on point. The CD is 30. It changed tech and gadgetry pretty substantially. Even as it enters the twilight of its existence, we geeks have a lot to be thankful for, and there's still plenty to learn from that copy of What's the Story Morning Glory you have under your coffee mug right now. [Wikipedia]

The setup sort of reminds me of the overpriced Bose 3-2-1 system, which mimics surround sound using just two speakers and a sub, but unfortunately there's little else to go on. The press release is sparse, as hyped-up marketing materials are wont to be, and not even a release date or pricing escapes its hazy grip. Maybe April. In Japan. Maybe.

What we do know is that this little box will make use of DTS Surround Sensation tech. Nothing more. [Press Release via CrunchGear]

Unfortunately, the vinyl was made from the same mix as the CD, so the distortion is still there. However, it is fairly standard practice to make separate masters for separate formats, and Sheperd's analysis reveals that the analog distortion on the vinyl tracks have less clipping (although the difference is minimal) compared to the the CD version. In reality, this is probably a moot point given the fact that a hardcore Metallica fan is far more likely to to dig up GHIII tracks than buy a turntable. However, even the thought of turning to vinyl these days further illustrates the point that record labels need to re-focus their attention back on quality. [Mastering Media Thanks Michael!]

Berlin, Germany – Philips has found a new way to put a complete home theater system into another surprising form factor without compromising on quality: The Philips CinemaOne (http://www.philips.com/ambisound) combines a DVD and CD player, an iPod dock, a five channel amplifier, six speakers, and a subwoofer all into a single stylish box of the size of a football, This small, stylish all-in-one home cinema system is the perfect fit for small spaces and budgets.

Measuring just 27.3 x 17.2 x 27.3cm (wxhxd) the Philips CinemaOne surprises with a great surround sound experience caused by six precisely angled speakers which are positioned around the body of the CinemaOne. The 4” subwoofer is built into the base of the unit whereby the installation is clutter free without the need for extra power cables and speaker wires. With the Philips CinemaOne a cinema like experience can be created also in smaller spaces like the living room of a student appartment, the bedroom, or in the office.

Technical details
CinemaOne's five channel amplifier and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) unit can process Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG2 multichannel or stereo sound tracks and uses Philips' proprietary sound and array processing technology to create a realistic and immersive cinema sound effect with distinct and clear dialogue, a convincingly wide sound stage and powerful deep bass.

The CinemaOne is compatible with nearly any format of movie – including DivX, Mpeg and WMV - from just about every type of DVD, CD or iPod. The dock also allows an iPod to be controlled via the units remote control while all track information can be accessed via the TV screen.

Movies can be upscaled to 1080p HD resolution with a pristine digital quality transfer to the TV via the HDMI connector. The CinemaOne also offers the high quality display of jpeg photos and includes flip, rotate, slideshow and zoom functions.

A hi-speed USB port and MP3 link allows connection to a huge variety of portable devices - using PCM, WMA or MP3 - while Philips’ unique Fullsound technology uses the CinemaOne's DSP to restore the emotion, warmth and dynamics to compressed MP3 music tracks.

[Philips]