The only reason I find the E-Light Entertainment Light at all remarkable is that it looks like a tesla coil. Seriously, that’s it. What it’s designed to be is a combination lighting and speaker system that clips around patio umbrellas “to add dinner music and soft illumination to your alfresco dining.” I don’t know about you, but I think I’m alergic to alfresco. You can plug an MP3 player (or anything else with a 3.5mm jack) into it, and the rechargeable batteries last for 6 hours, or 12 hours if you only want light or music, not both. When you put it on the recharging dock, it turns into a desk lamp, as in the picture. You can buy it for a vaguely ridiculous $100 from Frontgate.
I think that Frontgate should throw a little R&D money at this thing and turn it into an actual musical tesla coil, like the awesome one in the video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
I would be willing to venture that more than a few people reading this have downloaded music illegally. I’ll admit that I used to do my fair share back in the day, but being a little older and wiser, have been legally purchasing my music from iTunes for some time. Recently I heard about Qtrax, which is a legal site that will let you download as much music as you want, for free. The only catch is that it is DRM protected, and you have to watch some ads. Seems like a small price to pay for unlimited music downloads, right?
I’m sure that it would work out just fine, if they actually have any music to download. Unfortunately, the service went live yesterday, sans downloads. They had been talking big about the deals they had with the big four labels for over 25 million tracks, the only problem was that they didn’t have anything signed with even a single one of them.
You know what they say, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
I’m generally in favor of anything that’s both practical and edible at the same time, and although a MIDI sequencer might not be the most practical thing ever and bubble gum isn’t technically edible, who cares, this thing looks like fun. The Bubblegum Sequencer was designed by Hannes Hesse, Andrew McDiarmid and Rosie Han for a course at UC Berkeley called “Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces,” which is the sort of awesome sounding course that my school didn’t offer (sigh). Since the production of the video, some new features have been added to the sequencer:
-Tempo tapping: Tap three or more times on a pressure-sensitive area on the side of the sequencer to set a new tempo for the playback loop.
-Visual feedback: The sequencer now sports a row of running LEDs to indicate the current position. We’ve also experimented with projecting animations of popping bubbles onto the surface to provide direct feedback which beats are currently played.
-Melody mode: Instead of just playing monophonic beats, we developed a mode in which the vertical position of the balls encodes the pitch of the sample played. To increase the range, two balls can be combined, totalling seven different possible notes on the blues scale.
And of course, because of the way it’s designed, you can replace the MIDI samples with whatever you want, or extend/combine boards to make more complicated loops. You could even replace the gumballs with, say, marbles… But on second thought, since you can’t eat marbles, that would render the device more or less useless. My advice? Go for mini jawbreakers, those things totally are rocks rock.
On my tour of the Sony booth (I like how they call these places “booths,” but they’re bigger than my house), I was given a little demo of Sony’s Rolly MP3 player. Rolly is… Well… I’m not sure what it is. It plays music and dances and looks like an egg. It’s not good for much, but I really really like it. Don’t ask me why. The controls are intuitive (neat gyroscopic sensitivity), and its dance moves are automatically synced up with the music it plays quite well. It’s programmable, so that you can choreograph your own sequences, and in Japan (where the Rolly has been on sale since September) there are competitive Rolly dance-offs. Rolly can hold a gig of music, or it can stream music from another source via integrated Bluetooth. Battery life is good for about four hours of song and dance.
Rolly should go on sale this spring in Sony Style stores, for an undisclosed price. If you’re guessing that it’s weird enough to be either super cheap or super expensive, you’re right: the price in Japan is, sadly, $350.
I’ve never played Guitar Hero (shocking, right?), but I play air guitar all the time… Mostly when I’m listening to really loud RATM on the BART. This behavior usually means that nobody sits next to me, which is understandable if it makes me look like the guy in the above pic. Anyway, the Air Guitar Rocker is a portable Guitar Hero system that uses a belt mounted speaker and buckle that you wave a guitar pick in front of, in sync to the music. Get it? No? Just watch the video, from the guys over at Gearlog:
Although you can control the tempo, nothing you do with your left hand is going to have any effect on the notes. The Air Guitar Rocker is going to be available in March for about $30. It’ll come with 10 songs in a swappable cartridge, including Black Sabbath (”Iron Man”), Deep Purple (”Smoke On The Water”), and my personal favorite, Boston (”More Than A Feeling”).
I’ve always been a Star Wars nut, which means that I tend to stay away from anything related to Star Trek. I’m not really sure what it is, but the two worlds just never seem to mix well. Anywho, while I’ll admit that George Lucas has put is stamp of approval on some wacky stuff, I can’t help but find an abundance of weird Trekkie gear in my travels across the interweb. Today’s specimen is a horn for your car.
This set of five horns will blast the Star Trek theme song whenever the corresponding button is pressed. By blast, I’m talking about 118 decibels of pure female repellent. The kit comes with everything you’ll need to hook this up to your car, and is powered by your cigarette lighter. If this is your kind of thing, then you can beam one up for right around $70.
If you’re a musician, a DJ, or have to deal with AV systems on a regular basis you might be interested in the Electronic Musician’s Emergency Adapters kit. It’s basically just a nylon bag full of essential audio adapters you might not think you’ll need, but could end up saving your butt at one point. The idea was originally conceived by electronic musician Liz Mclean Knight, but to be honest anyone who does this type of thing for a living probably already has a similar collection on hand. Liz just had the idea to sell it as an emergency kit. And if you’re curious, here’s a run-down on what you’ll find in the bag.
(1) 1/8” male stereo plug <-> (2x) 1/8” female stereo jack
(1) (2x) mono RCA male plug <-> 1/8″ male stereo plug (6′ cable + hook & loop cable tie)
(2) 1/8″ male stereo plug <-> 1/4″ female stereo jack
(1) 1/8″ (2x) female stereo jack <-> 1/8″ male stereo plug
(2) 1/8″ female coupler
(1) 1/4″ male stereo plug <-> (2x) female stereo 1/4″ jacks
(1) 1/4″ male stereo plug <-> (2x) female stereo ¼” jacks (Y-cable) (2) 1/4″ male stereo plug <-> 1/8″ female stereo jack
(2) 1/4″ female stereo coupler
(2) XLR female jack <-> 1/4″ male stereo plug
(2) XLR male plug <-> 1/4″ male stereo plug
(2) RCA mono female jack <-> 1/4″ male stereo plug
(2) RCA mono female coupler
It even includes a small red LED flashlight attached to the drawstring which should help you find the adapter you’re looking for, even in a darkened theater or club.
While buying all of these adapters separately might actually be cheaper than the $65 they’re charging for the kit, it’s definitely not easier, which is probably the biggest selling point.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a laptop stuffed into a guitar before, but the LCDetar makes me wonder why not. It’s such an obviously good idea for so many reasons, not the least of which is the capability to turn the face of your guitar into an adaptive visualizer:
If only I could get my bagpipes to do this. One more video of a motion sensitive version, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
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