Your cat/dog/ferret may get peeved if it detects their thermal temperature and follows it about playing drum 'n bass, but I would love a roving music tank that I could control using any Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enabled device. Mint claims its Mintpad is the perfect partner for the Music Tank, but you can control it with your PC if you so desire.

If it ever comes up against the effeminate Sony Rolly, our money is on the Mint Robot Music Tank. Just look at those tracks! [Mint Pass via DVICE]

The $57 NXT speaker, probably better suited to sitting on your desk, can be powered by three AAA batteries (which can keep it running for up to five hours) or plugged into a power source. [AkihabaraNews via UberGizmo]

At one point today, Mordacil will also probably claim he's not a virgin in the comments. [Deviant Art via Hawty McBloggyvia Technablog]

The ClearAudio Statement: At $100,000 the ClearAudio Statement, seen above, is everything that is wrong with the audiophile culture, combined into one four-foot, 770lb, variously suspended, NASA-electronics-adorned turntable (check out a full-length shot here). But it's a design triumph, coaxing a polished, demure aesthetic out of what should by all means be an ostentatious CNC-machined mess.

Speak-er: Spawned by a playful concept that nobody honestly expected to get made, the Speak-er isn't fancy, powerful or technologically impressive. It's a dead-simple desktop speaker in a fantastic shell, which opens up a slew of design possibilities for your office, room, or live-action comic book troupe.

Sonnance Freewheeler: Continuing the simple-but-perfect theme, the Sonnance Freewheeler is a wireless speaker disc, about the size of a car's wheel and able to run for about 8 hours on a full charge. It's also $21,000, but that neither here nor there, "here" being "within the range of you to buy" and "there" being "at all worth it, even if it was." But, pretty!

BeoSound 5: It's somehow heartening to see so much design go into a remote control. That's what the BeoSound 5 is: a 1024x768 screen with a brushed aluminum control wheel that serves solely as an interface for the BeoMaster 5, a giant B&O media server.

Montegiro Lusso Turntable: Apparently designed in the Towers of Hanoi tradition, this conical turntable is adorned with enough expensive-sounding features for even the most credulous discerning audiophile. It's just under $50,000, but really, you can't put a price on tying a room together, can you?

Sony Sountina: So, it's a speaker in a glass stick, but it's also one of the rare speakers that would work in virtually any setting. As a bonus, it can be illuminated in blue, amber or purple light, though I think it looks best without any at all.

V-Moda Vibe Earphones/Headsets: This is one of the few items on this list that people actually buy, and with good reason. They're capable (though not outstanding) earphones, on which V-Moda has shown extreme attention to design. The corrugated bodies, Mont Blanc-esque pen-tip wire accessories and (sometimes) fabric wire casings make for the most stylish earbphones on the market today.

Harman Kardon Soundsticks: You've seen this at Apple Store and Best Buys for years, but they're due some credit: they bring a stunning transparent aesthetic to mainstream buyers, perfectly complementing a generation of Apple hardware while being generally gorgeous enough to be appealing to the PC crowd too. You'd still be hard-pressed to find a lovelier set of speakers for under $200.

Opera Sonora Speakers: Every once in a while, questionably scientific theories of audiophilia result in extremely handsome products. That's the story of the Opera Sonora line of speakers. The theory: Bolting little speaker driver on to the back of tonewood—the same stuff used in high-end violins—will provide a rich, warm sound. The result: Speakers that look like they were designed by a reanimated Antonio Stradivari, with a sound—well, not many people have actually heard them yet.

Sony Qualia 010: Priced at over $2500, slapped with a painfully pretentious name and jinxed forever to be rejected by mainstream-averse audiophiles, these futuristic headphones were doomed from the start. But whatever, these are subtly good-looking cans, blending in for day-to-day use but revealing meticulous design and construction on close examination. (Image from Head-fi)

Listening Test: It's music tech week at Gizmodo.

Price: $419

How it Tastes: The speaker system is loud enough to share music with those in close proximity on the slopes, or a couple of seats over on the lift. The 3AAA powered pack sits in a pocket and sends up wires to the little flatish egg like speakers on both sides of the hood. They seem very weather resistant, from the cloth covering to the small speaker holes. Battery life is 10 hours, but good news— when your battery pack dies, your ipod or whatever you've got plugged into the mini jack, will still be as loud as a set of headphones, without amplification. At this volume, only the people next to you will hear the sound, about the volume you get when you're on the bus and a person's headphones are cranked. This is a far better and simpler solution — things necessary on the mountain — than the old complicated ribbon cable and bluetooth motorola audex jackets which basically unplugged when you moved too much and ran out of batteries and died on you often.

The jacket itself is down filled, and waterproofed on the outside. It's very very warm and better for slow movers on cold blue bird days where you don't have any chance or worry about sweat building up. There are pit zips for cooling, of course, but down is hot, and this jacket is no exception. You'll have to deal with the drafty pits and the heat build up on your core in certain places wearing this jacket, like with any down shell. The waterproofness and breath factors are rated at 10,000mm 5000g, which is mid high on waterproofing, using Burton's 3 layer dryride shell but the breathability, as I said above, is not as great as you'd get on a unlined shell. There's a zip and snap jacket to pant interface to avoid snow wedgies on pow days. I love riding in storms, when the tourists go home and the overpriced waterproof outdoor jackets I have are tested, so this one isn't breathable enough for me. It also makes me look even more like a teddy bear than I do naked. But if you need to stay warm and listen to tunes on the mountain, there are very few jackets that do audio so well.

[Burton]

Snowmodo is our snow sport winter meet up at Lake Tahoe, with prizes, discounts, tons of fun snow activities, a party and GADGETS. If you can make it (and people are coming from TEXAS) please RSVP. I'll let you wear my hat (below).

Apart from the weird look, the home theater speaker is particularly interesting as it can run for months without needing a recharge.

I'm not so sure about the indoor fuel charger, however. Would it be cheaper than just connecting your devices to your computer or power plug? []

The speaker, which is made out of stainless steel, is fully functional and was designed by Tord Boontje as part of the "Digital Explorers: Discovery" exhibition at Metropoliton Works center in London. Pretty cool, huh. [Art Daily via Design Boom]

Pretty much just a computer speaker cleverly shaped as a word bubble, it's the most tactile way we've found yet to make it seem like John Mayer was really singing just to us (although, we already have reason to suspect that such is the case.) Sized at 4"x6"x2", a pair will run you $120, allowing your deepest desired to be fulfilled in stereo. [Think Of The via Newlaunches]

It has numerous LED light sources, moving parts and sound effects, and along with awe, inspires some sort of Godzilla-like instinctual response to crush it's little buildings and trains right down into its wooden pedestal. And smack down a giant moth. [Bandai via Akihabaranews]

Here are some extra details. It's going to be $449 in June, and will come with the speaker fan, a transmitter and the remote, which controls not just volume, but the brightness of the lights.

It's pretty damn good. Even though it only has one channel playing out of one speaker, shit, it's still a speaker IN YOUR CEILING FAN. You can sync it up to the other Soundolier speaker lamps (Hunter's fan is also using the same technology) for a more well-rounded speaker setup. But supposedly the sound gets blasted in a 360-degree spread so the entire room gets covered in that single channel of sound.

As a fan, it's got Hunter's fan experience, so although they didn't turn it up full blast, there was a decent amount of breeze. But, again, it's a fan with a speaker, so how could you not like it? This IS Gizmodo.

The Boom Bench features eight 60-watt co-axial speakers and two subwoofers that can be accessed through Bluetooth. The Boom Bench in a way is a super-sized Docking Station. Connect your player to the amplifier and take control. Now you can play your music with 95 dB high quality sound. A Bass Shaker in the seat transforms the deep sounds into vibrations that enhance the physical sensation of your tunes.

Great, so now only you can shake your bootie good to your favorite hip hop, but the bench itself will do it for you. My dog Jones would love it. For him to poop on (since it won't work with his iPhone). [Dezeen]

The toothpicks hold the cups together, and a small hole at the base of the top cup holds an earbud. The sound is magnified due to the shape of the cup, not any fancy-schmancy "electronics." It may not compete with, you know, real speakers, but Dmitry's got a good sense of humor about him and it looks like a fun project for the incredibly bored. [Yanko]

See. Vertical. Horizontal. Now vertical, the horizontal. Simple as that. And like Logic3 says for only $130, you also get other good features like "compact, loud and packed with the latest technology". Thankfully, it has other specs as well:

The i-Station Rotate also features:
- TDMA noise suppression technology to remove static interference noise when your iPhone rings or when surfing the web
- Video Out function for iPhone and iPod, meaning video’s can be displayed directly on your TV
- Remote control with iPhone/iPod Menu navigation
- 10W Audio output power (5W + 5W RMS) and power efficient Class D Amplifier for superb sound quality at high volume
- 4x AA battery power for use outside and at home
- 3.5mm Stereo line-in socket, meaning a wide range of other media devices can be connected
- A carry case for safe storage and easy portability

Technical Specification
- Rotating Dock Mechanism to allow Videos to be played on iPhone, iPod touch or iPod nano 4G
- Video Out Function for iPhone / iPhone 3G, iPod nano 3G / 4G, iPod classic and iPod touch 1G / 2G.
- TDMA Suppression Technology
- Provides charging for iPhone/iPod
- Audio output power: 5W + 5W (RMS)
- Power source: Mains adaptor or 4 x AA batteries
- Speaker drivers: 1 x 2” Mid range driver + 1 x 1” tweeter driver for each Channel
- Remote Control with iPhone/iPod Menu Navigation
- Low Battery Power Indicator System
- Volume Level Display on iPhone/iPod
- Power Saving Sleep Mode
- 3.5mm Stereo Line-in for playing other audio devices including iPod shuffle, MP3, or CD players.
- Freq Response: 200Hz – 20KHz
- Unit size : 12½”(W) x 5”(H) mm x 2”(D)
- Unit weight: 1½ lb.

Fortunately for everyone, this is arriving soon: January 2009, so remember to move Xmas to February this year. [Logic3]

As you can see in the graphic, its design produces a three-dimensional sound bubble in the area right in the center of the Oto-Shigure. The inventors, Yusuke Kamiyama and Mai Tanaka, are now showing the prototype and, if there's enough interest, they plan to sell it for just $100. [Pink Tentacle]