If internet radio is your thing, and you often find yourself befuddled by buttons, dials and knobs, design and development firm Cambridge Consultants has just the thing for you! Their recently unveiled Q2 Cube Internet Radio features no visible controls, but instead relies on gravity to change its settings. To select from one of four preset stations, you just turn the cube onto one of its four sides, and to adjust the volume up or down, you just tilt it forwards or backwards. At the moment pricing info hasn’t been revealed, but the company expects to at least have the Cube Radio available in the U.K. in time for Christmas.
Designed by Alyce Santoro and Julio Cesar, these rather dapper Sonic Fabric Neckties are made from 50% colored thread and 50% recorded audio cassette tape which means you can sacrifice an old Walkman to make a ’sonic fabric reader’ (see the video below) allowing you to hear remnants of what was originally on the tapes.
The Sonic Fabric Neckties are available from Supermarket in black, dark brown and grey for $90 a pop, plus the cost of a Walkman if your curiosity gets the best of you.
If you’ve yet to make the move from analog cassette tapes to digital audio files, the Tape Express from ION Audio will make the transition a bit easier for you. First of all, the device looks like an old-school Walkman, and if you’re still listening to cassettes on a daily basis, there’s a good chance you’re a master of that technology. Converting your tapes to MP3s is as easy as connecting the device to your PC via USB and hitting play. The included EZ Tape Converter software will take care of the rest.
And if you’re having a difficult time transitioning to this futuristic circa-1995 digital MP3 technology, the Tape Express also works like a regular tape player, allowing you to listen to your music the old-fashioned way. IWOOT appears to have it for just over $80, though they’re sold out at the moment.
Last month I showed you guys the Livio Radio, and gave you an in-depth review of the device. If you’re into listening to music all day long, then it really is one of the coolest radios out there. However, what if music isn’t really your thing? If you like talk radio, then Livio has something just for you.
I’ve never listened to NPR, but if that’s your thing then you might want to check out the NPR Radio by Livio. This device is very similar to is Pandora-playing brother, however you’ll be tuning into more than 1,000 NPR station streams. You’ll also have access to over 800 podcasts and audio archives of NPR programs. If you do feel like a little music, then you can tune into one of the 16,000 various internet radio stations through Reciva. You’re not going to find more talk radio without a PC or some sort of HD radio. You can pick the NPR Radio now for $199.
If you find yourself using the Voice Memos app on the iPhone a lot, or capture a lot of videos, this tiny pseudo-shotgun mic for the iPhone 3G and 3GS claims to provide “10 times better audio reception!” for just $14. It plugs into the iPhone’s headphone jack and can be pointed in any direction for capturing audio directly from the source, and according to Brando it gains 25+ db over the iPhone’s built-in mic.
If you play PC games with other people online, there’s a good chance that you use some sort of voice chat. When playing WoW, our entire guild would use Ventrilo in order to stay coordinated in raids, or just to chit-chat. I never cared for free-standing mics, so I would always be wearing a headset. Sometimes it can be hard to find one that sounds good, picks up your voice properly and feels comfortable during long-term gaming sessions. This is why I love getting to review new headsets, so you don’t have to figure out the hard way whether or not one is worth buying. Well today I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on the Logitech Gaming Headset G330.
First Look
The G330 headset is of the behind-the-head variety, making it smaller than more traditional headsets. You’ll see that the width is actually adjustable on these, which is a welcome feature not often seen (on behind-the-head styles). The mic extends from the left ear and is adjustable. You will find in-line controls and your choice of standard stereo jacks or a USB adapter for hooking the device to your computer.
You can brag about your karaoke skills all you want, but if you want to prove you’ve got the chops when it comes to singing along with a bouncing ball you’ll need to take this karaoke machine for a spin. You see the microphone detects the pitch of each note you sing and compares it against how it’s supposed to sound, and the closer you are, the higher your score will be.
The Scoring Karaoke Game comes with 100 songs from the likes of Elvis, The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, but new songs can be downloaded and transferred to the base unit either via USB or its SD card slot. And while that base unit gets tethered to your TV with an included AV cable, the microphone is wireless, freeing you up to dance around and look as terrible as you sound. $199.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.
When it comes to Star Wars it’s usually the visual effects that get all the attention, but the films’ sound design and foley work are just as impressive. So it’s cool to see a new book from becker&mayer that specifically takes a look at the sounds created for the ’science fiction’ saga.
The Sounds of Star Wars illuminates the audio universe of Star Wars by exploring the vision for an “organic” sound that George Lucas and sound designer Ben Burtt brought to the movies’ sound effects, as well as how these distinctive sound effects were achieved. The book features a state-of-the-art audio module that will easily allow readers to hear the sounds while learning the stories behind those sounds. Lavishly illustrated pages will include clear markers directing readers to listen to specific tracks as they view and read about the scenes.
There’s no release date or pricing info available just yet, but the 304 page book does include an embedded audio module loaded with more than 200 sounds from the films.
You never have to worry about a party being ruined because the DJ cancelled at the last minute as long as you’ve got this Lecci Mini Mixer buried somewhere in your backpack. I can’t seem to find too many details about it online, so I’m going to assume it has the requisite connections on the back for hooking up a pair of MP3 players and some speakers. On top there appears to be a headphone jack, a cross fader and a couple of knobs that are probably volume controls for the headphones and the line out, and the whole package looks to be only slightly larger than your standard mint tin. ~$20 from Play.com.
Related Tags: Audio, Innovation
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