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The Music Bird Corporation has developed a fantastic new product that is only slightly tainted by their ad-copy flim-flammery — the “Canon,” a series of vases and flower pots that actually use the leaves and flowers of plants as speakers. The Canon (a play on Japanese words for flower (“ka”) and sound (“non”)) uses an…
If you’d like to read a review of the Creative Portable Media Center with “so much added (and useless) commentary that Gizmodo would be ashamed to publish it,” ExtremeTech has a very unpositive, baseball-centric review. While I don’t think that portable media centers are going to crash and burn, necessarily (although the ones hobbled by…
Visteon has a new portable DVD player that does something that’s actually pretty innovative, if sort of in a “oh, duh” way. They’ve made their new portable DVD player dockable, so that when attached to an automotive roof (ceiling?) mounting kit, the picture will flip and work like a regular in-car DVD player (that is,…
So Free iPods, right? Apparently there’s a sort of multi-level-marketing promotion through the site FreeiPods.com, who will give you a free iPod mini, 15GB iPod, or $250 iTunes gift certificate for signing up for one of their “online offers,” like signing up for AOL Broadband or Ancestry.com. The idea is, of course, that after six…
I guessed, but I guessed wrong. Lindsay Lohan’s Sidekick was bejewelled — with Swarovski crystals, no less — by none other than local mobile couturists NYC Peach. How do I know? It’s on the freaking website. Well, and a bunch of you guys told me. My reputation as a hard-hitting technology journalist is besmirched forever.…
I can’t tell if Seidio’s new 2 in 1 Headset is only for the Treo 600 or if they’re just capitalizing on that smartphone’s success, but either way the combination headphones/phone headset looks pretty decent, with one touch call answering, and in-line volume control and all the other things you’d expect from a hands-free kit.…
Sure, it’s cheesy, but there’s a surprising amount of potential use to be had from this $20 Boom Boom Box. Four AA batteries power built-in stereo speakers inside a water-proof casing that even comes with a hanger so you can hook it on your shower curtain rod or nozzle, turning almost any portable audio player…
Reuters brings word of a plan by British digital radio firm UBC to add downloading capabilities to digital radio receivers (like the BUG, pictured) — something that, it a sense, they can already do. While many of the current crop of digital radios can record the audio being digitally broadcasted (either through an on-board interface…
The Apple Airport Express (shipping this week, by the way) is a decent option for those already using iTunes, but what if you want to stream more than that? NoDRM takes a(nother) look at one option, the D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Multimedia Player, an 802.11g-enabled streaming media outlet that can stream not only audio, but all…
It’s probably not going to give you the same sort of visual fidelity of a nicer camera, but for $230 the new AIPTEK PocketDV 4100 looks like a fun diversion, with a 4-megapixel sensor and a 1.8-inch color LCD screen. Keep in mind that the 4100 doesn’t use tapes. Instead, it has a Compact Flash…
Is reverse psychology the one where you tell me not to pee on a spark plug but then I do and then everybody laughs at me while I’m writhing on the ground holding my crotch? Because I think MetaSonix is using that sort of psychology on me again to incite desire of the Agonizer Tx-1,…
NHJ’s v@mp VP-325/350 flash memory players will hit the Japanese market in the end of July in 256MB and 512MB capacities, respectively. Although the players aren’t really that special from a music angle (they’re still stuck with USB 1.1, for instance), but each player does have a 4,096-color 1.9-inch LCD for displaying pictures and games.…
Reader Lee Crane sent me images of the DC/Incase Skatebag, the backpack announced yesterday designed specifically for Powerbooks and iBooks, although I have a sneaking suspicion that you could even put a gnarly PC laptop in there just fine. It’s not skatepunk-priced, though — this plasticy camo bag will set you back $120. Guess it’s…
One of Toshiko Sakai’s designs for ComCom, from a suite of 22 integrated electronic gadgets, is this wall-mount triple socket, with USB port, power (ungrounded, for shame!), and a built-in hard disk for storing home media and sharing them with other items in the product line. So an un-portable iPod, basically, albeit one with 110…
Microsoft has been eyeing the automotive market for nigh-on a decade at this point and finally their investments may start to pay off in products that might actually be useful. Fiat, for instance, has just announced a long-term strategic partnership, which in and of itself isn’t that spectacular, but some of their ideas, if they…
At night, awake with concern for all mankind, I sweat. An array of fans helps, as does sleeping on the air hockey table, but perhaps something like the SoothSoft Chillow is the way to go. A “heatsink for your head,” the flexible plastic insert has a cooling technology — water, I think they’re calling it…
In an amazing bit of promotion for iRobot (the company, not the travesty), one of the new Roomba Discoveries has written a comparison review for San Diego Source, putting an Electrolux Trilobite and columnist Phil Baker in an head-to-head deathmatch to answer the home automation question of our time: Can an $1,800 euro-robot clean floors…
Someone is pre-selling a Motorola i930 Windows Smartphone — the as-yet unreleased clamshell for Nextel — on eBay, but there’s a catch. The auction isn’t for a leaked prototype or anything like that, but instead just the promise of being the first to get one when they hit the street in the fourth quarter of…
First, I want to thank you all for being incredibly unfunny. I used to feel badly about getting paid to write dick jokes, but you have all shown me what an elusive skill it truly is. More specific thanks to the hundreds of you who established that old computers look like refrigerators, Windows sucks, three…
Cufflinks are classy. Trust me, I know; I used to have arms. Cramming tiny clocks, compasses, and thermometers inside things can be classy, too, provided everyone involved is wearing white (and are consenting adults). For $50 (or less, depending on your choice of metal), these cufflinks can find a home on your wrist where you…