Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

I’d like to make a comment about how in this day and age of modern technology and electronics it’s sometimes nice to just sit back and listen to an old-fashioned radio, but this USB stick AM/FM tuner is pretty much useless without a laptop, so forget that idea. It does however allow you to record radio broadcasts with its included software to be later enjoyed on your MP3 player, and since the flash drive doesn’t even include any storage space, I guess that’s pretty much it… Price TBD.

[ Logitec USB Radio Tuner ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Evan Ackerman

On Monday we posted about the Q2 radio, which you control by rocking it back and forth. And today, we’ve got the R1 radio, which you control by rolling it back and forth. So, they’re radios. And they rock and roll. How could we possibly justify not posting about them? I mean, the potential for terrible puns or something is just enormous! Or it would be, if these were somehow combined into one incredibly awesome radio. But sadly, the R1 isn’t even a real product yet, although you’ll be interested to know that it’s actually been designed for blind people, who’d have a much easier time using a radio with simple and intuitive tactile controls. Designed by South Korean Il-Gu Cha, the R1 is currently at the working prototype stage.

[ Il-Gu Cha ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Chris Scott Barr

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.

[ Livio ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Being the geek that I am, I have computers scattered all through my house. It’s something that people tend to notice when they come over for the first time, not because they’re ugly and out of place, just that there seems to be a lot of them. A couple of them are used almost primarily for playing music, namely the ones in my kitchen or garage. Usually I’ll either have them playing music from my iTunes, or Pandora. If you’re not familiar with Pandora, I highly suggest checking it out. Essentially it’s free internet radio. You can create stations with the exact artists and genres that you want.

I little while ago I learned of the Livio Radio, which allows you to play music from your Pandora stations without a PC. I was given the opportunity to review one, so I could find out if this was really as awesome as it sounded. Hit the jump for my thoughts.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Gadzooks! It’s something not made out of brushed metal or piano black plastic! The Magno radio hails from Indonesia, where it’s made from sustainably harvested hardwoods by pretty much an entire village of native Indonesians. Designed by Singgih Kartono, the big version costs $250 and the smaller one is $200. Seems like a lot to pay for something that grows on trees, but you can feel warm and fuzzy and green inside and that’ll make up for the additional cost. …Right?

[ Areaware ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Once the symbol of freedom and the ‘peace and love’ movement of the 60’s, the iconic Volkswagen bus has now been reduced to a cheesy piece of craptronics. From the Dreams company (Japan) this mini version of the VW bus features an AM/FM radio (they can make them that small these days!?), jacks for connecting an external audio source and radio antenna as well as a small LCD display in the back window with as basic a digital clock as one can find these days. There’s also a couple of dials for tuning the radio and adjusting the volume, and based on the above graphic it might even make some kind of sound if you press on the front-end.

But if this radio brings back fond memories or happens to appeal to your nostalgic side, you better hope you were one of those hippies who grew up and got a well-paying job working for ‘the man’ since AudioCubes.com is asking $129.99 for it.

[ Dreams VolksWagen Type 2 Radio ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Given how many songs are ‘illegally’ downloaded from the internet every day, it’s kind of hard to claim you’re a rebel when so many other people are doing exactly the same thing. And even though this clock radio from Intempo ’steals’ music it in a slightly different way, I still don’t think it deserves the ‘Rebel’ moniker. Instead of grabbing music online, the Rebel records the most-played tracks from any FM station and then converts them to MP3 files which can be offloaded to a memory card or USB flash drive. It does seem to be a slightly easier way to discover new music, as long as you’re happy with the quality of FM radio, which is far from CD quality. The Rebel also automatically removes DJ banter and commercials from the recordings, though I have my doubts as to how effective it is given that DJs will usually talk through the entire intro of a song.

Other features include a headphone and line-in jack, AC adapter, slots for MMC, SD and Memory Stick cards, a USB jack and enough on-board memory to store up to 40 recorded songs. You can get it directly from the Intempo website for about $136.

[ Intempo Rebel ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The Olinda digital radio was commissioned by BBC Audio & Music Interactive R&D as part of a study to see how physical products could benefit from features we’re accustomed to having while surfing the web. The radio uses a modular design that allows the listener to adapt the product over time to their own needs with hardware add-ons and upgrades. The first prototype pictured here has a social networking module that uses six lights to show when one of your friends is listening to the radio. Pushing their particular button will tune your radio to whatever they’re listening to, allowing you to discover new stations via your social network.

Another web surfing influence can be found on the Olinda’s tuner dials. While the outer dial scrolls the names of stations alphabetically, the inner dial only scrolls through your most listened. In the same way a web browser will auto-complete the URL for a website you’ve already visited, the Olinda radio will automatically compile and remember a list of your most frequented stations. No more having to manually program a list of presets.

[ Olinda Digital Radio ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Normally the terms hand-crank & radio really aren’t that interesting, and this time is no exception. However, I do like the fact that this particular hand-crank radio from Eton can be used to talk to other persons with the same radio, or other 2-way radios tuned to the same band of the 22 available channels. The website claims you can store enough power for an hour’s worth of use with just a “few smooth turns” of the fold out crank, but from my own experiences it usually requires a bit more effort.

Besides AM and FM stations, the radio can also be tuned to the NOAA weather broadcasts if you’re worried about an upcoming storm, or are currently in the middle of one that’s knocked out power. And for those times when even a “few smooth turns” seems like too much effort, the radio can run off of 4 AA batteries and also includes an AC adapter. But even with all those features I’m not sure if it’s worth $149.95.

[ 2-Way AM/FM/NOAA Crank Radio ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]