The Q2U supports both XLR and USB cables, letting you plug it into basically any machine you have in your house. Now you can break glass, stomp on light bulbs and do whatever it is those crazy sound recording artists do to get effects to seem more exciting than they actually are in real life. It also has a 3.5mm headphone port so you can listen to what you're recording while you're recording it. [Samson via Engadget]

The typical TiVo user is a person who just wants their TV recordings to work, regardless of the monthly fee. They may or may not be tech savvy, but chances are TiVo was their first DVR—since we've found, anecdotally, people gravitate back to the first DVR interface they use. So why is their marketshare down to 2004 levels? The answer is simple: cheap DVRs from providers are eating TiVo from the low end, and everyone else can now use Windows 7 and a tuner to act as a DVR just fine.

Cheap DVRs from Comcast, or Time Warner or your satellite provider have gotten good—or rather, less shitty—enough to make them actually viable options for home recording. Even I couldn't turn down only paying an extra $5 per month to have a recorder that works well enough to watch stuff with, even if you don't have show recommendations, and fast forwarding barely functions well enough to stop where you want. But it's $5. $5. Five. Dollars. And that's without having to pay upfront for the box. You can rent three of these for the price of one TiVo subscription.

As for the big reason why you don't need a TiVo anymore, in the future, you can thank Microsoft and Windows 7. Just take a look at that Windows 7 PC you have. Yeah, the one in your office. That can be your DVR. CableLabs finally took off their ridiculous OEM restriction on who can install CableCARD tuners—the device that actually takes a digital cable signal and turns it into something your computer can understand and record—so you can go and get one of these yourself for about $200. So for $200, with no future fees except for your normal cable bill, you can have yourself a home DVR that's arguably as good as TiVo. And, much easier to expand and augment, both storage and functionality-wise, than a set top box.

And if you don't want a computer in your living room (you need that thing in your office anyway), all you have to do is get an Xbox 360 and extend it. Multiple Xboxes mean streaming to multiple rooms, something that's not even possible on a TiVo.

Of course there's going to be a core group of TiVo users who really enjoy TiVo functionality, really appreciate their interface and can't imagine using something else. But is that enough to sustain a business when so many other options are cheaper and just as good? The numbers say no.

Hank calls the technique equivalent to a virtual cover band playing The Beatles' songs. He bought all of their albums, had a computer analyze the waveforms to determine their pitch, timbre and other defining qualities, then destroyed the original copies of the music.

He then had a computer reconstruct the songs based on the data it collected from analyzing the waveforms. It wasn't a recording, but a complete mathematical rebuild of the song.

That's really cool, and incredibly impressive that he managed to recreate the tracks from scratch like that, but there's no way the defense stands a chance against EMI's lawyers. I think I remember this argument being tried before with MP3s. A defendant claimed that because a majority of the waveform data was thrown away during encoding, it was not identical to the original recording.

Nice try, said the judge. As long as it's audibly identifiable as a certain recording, it constitutes as copyright infringement. At least that's what I remember. If anyone knows the specific case or I'm completely wrong, please chime in. Have fun in court November 20, Mr. Risan. [FastCompany]

[DeltaLab Studios]

TUAW says this is much, much better than the web-based method, and works well on 3G or EDGE. It requires one of the compatible models, and can even set a recording two minutes before a show starts. If you have a DTV DVR and an iPhone, you should get this. [App Store via TUAW]

While a megapixel pissing contest may be an effective marketing strategy, it's doubtful that it'll be most conducive to higher quality photos — the biggest weaknesses of current phone cameras have nothing to do with pixel count, but crappy CMOS sensors and dumpy little lenses.

This declaration was buried in between a few other predictably optimistic projections: LTE connectivity at 100Mbps, 1GHz CPU speeds and 1024x768 screen resolution. Interesting numbers for sure, but they don't really much vision for what such a device might actually look like. [TechOn]

Melodyne Plugin 2, the first product to incorporate DNA, has also added the ability to cut and paste / overlap notes and chords individually or in sequence. Unfortunately, the release date of the plugin has been pushed back to 2009—but Celemony has promised to run a public beta testing program prior to launch so people can familiarize themselves with the technology. The fact that it is getting pushed back sucks, but it's better late than never. After all, the recording industry needs a good kick in the pants to get their focus back on quality. [Music Radar]

This beast offers 150 hours of HD recording, plus it's THX certified; it's always been a technicality, since the HD doesn't have it but had the same AV quality as the TiVo Series 3. The XL also has the same dual-tuner HD recording as the previous models, plus all the same expanded non-TV features: photos, YouTube, Amazon Unbox, Rhapsody and Music Choice, the music video service. The only downside to all this increased storage is that the box costs $600, the same price as the TiVo Series 3 after the first price cut; but it does come with a Series 3 backlit remote.

The Install: Super easy. Comcast was great about getting a guy down to our house that was experienced with CableCARD installs, and the installer (who shall remain nameless) did an excellent job getting the card in and active. It's pretty much exactly the same as the TiVo HD in terms of the install, and provided your local cable provider has them, one M-Card is enough to get both tuners working. Otherwise you'll need two standard ones. Great job to both Comcast on TiVo on this part.

The Experience: For those of you who are familiar with TiVo, the XL is the same user experience you're familiar with in previous HD models. Not much UI change here except for the fact that you're going to be scrolling through a lot more shows saved up on your big drive.

The Verdict: Very good. We extend our recommendation of the TiVo HD easily to the beefier TiVo HD XL, which despite the 2x price point, still offers a great DVR experience for the money.

The Recommendation: If you had to pick between the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL, what would we recommend? It depends on your watching habits. If you can make do with only having 20 hours of HD sitting on your machine at once, because you clear out shows shortly after watching or you just don't have all that many shows to record, the regular HD is fine. If you're like Brian Lam and hoard shows like they were being cancelled the next week, or like Mark Wilson, who records and saves every show with the word "dance" or "dancing" in the title (he claims it's for his wife), we'd recommend the XL.

On the other hand, you could also get a TiVo HD and expand the storage by purchasing a compatible external eSATA drive and just plugging it in, which increases the storage by 65 HD hours with a 500GB drive. See more details here. The plug-and-play eSATA port only supports up to 500GB, but you can hack it to support up to 1TB if you really wanted to. Or, if even the TiVo HD XL isn't enough, you can shove another 65-hour drive on there. [TiVo Store]

HOUSTON —(Business Wire)— Aug. 8, 2008 System of Proof, Inc. (systemofproof.com) has delivered the ultimate in recording any conversation that so many people wished they had recorded, i.e., sexual harassment, police profiling, business deals gone wrong, class room lectures and many more. The System of Proof technology simply turns your cell or land phone into a microphone. There is NO software installation requirement and NO other equipment, "Just the Phone You Have!"

How It Works:

This technology can be used with any cell phone, land line, VOIP at home or at your office. It's as simple as dialing a phone number. The user dials a number that is assigned to them upon subscribing to the service (they can use speed-dial or voice activation) that automatically activates recording. The recording gets stored on a mainframe computer at the company. When the recording is completed, a voice email is automatically generated to the user's email address that user assigned when subscribing. This email file can be archived to the subscriber's hard drive, to a CD, iPod, mp3 or any other data storing device to be retrieved at a later date. There is no log-in process to retrieve your recording—it comes directly to you! No time limit to your recording!

Uses for the System of Proof Technology:

— Deter profiling of an individual whether it be race, sex or religion

— Provide proof in the case of harassment, civil rights abuses on the job or in other public settings

— Capture evidence of spousal abuse whether it be physical, verbal or mental that can now be admissible to law enforcement

— Record your lectures to make sure you don't miss pertinent exam notes

— Provide a recording device in board and business meetings to avoid miscommunications

— Do 3-way calling recording of threatening bill collectors or other disgruntled callers

— Record your spouse or your significant other

Plans & Cost of Service:

Silver Plan: 1,000 minutes for $4.95 per month*

Gold Plan: 1,500 minutes for $6.95 per month*

Platinum: Unlimited recording for $9.95 per month.

*here is a $0.15 per minute surcharge for additional minutes.

To get the levels back on another DS, just play it back over your computer's speakers and hold up the DS mic to it—the mic will grab the sound and the game will change it back into level code. If only Nintendo didn't make their online system so horrible to use, the developers wouldn't have to resort to archaic methods that are pretty much on par with tin cans and strings. [Kotaku]

The Price: $18

The Verdict: Perfect for journalists, lawyers and students. Comes with different soft earpieces and jack adapters. I love it. Sound quality of the recordings is as you hear it, which is to say as good as your cellphone delivers. If you're recording by cellphone using a native app, that's going to be better, though.

[Amazon]

It's also got twin analog and digital tuners so you can record one channel and watch another, and it sports Sony's Roomlink interface. There's one HDMI-out for your TV, plus all the usual optical and analog video and audio connectors. It's due out in Japan April 30th for around $1,670. [AV Watch]