The Rhythmo BeatBox ($TBA) is a DIY project that was meant to be a cost-effective first step in making music. It uses a cardboard box as a platform and leaves it up to the future performer to assemble it (no soldering required). It can be built in under one hour and uses an array of arcade buttons, knobs, and a joystick for control. A companion app handles much of the sound processing, and it also can serve as a standard MIDI controller. Creations can be enjoyed via the built-in speakers, through headphones, or through external speakers attached to the headphone jack.
Released in 1970, JBL's L100 ($4,000) became a classic both for its sound and its eye-catching design. The L100 Classic is updated with modern components. Behind the removable, iconic Quadrex foam grille sits a 1-inch titanium dome tweeter, a 5-inch pure-pulp cone mid-range driver, and a 12-inch pure-pulp woofer with a bass-reflex enclosure and front-firing port. The result is a speaker that can hold its own against contemporary options, with a design that pairs perfectly with vintage pieces, particularly when paired with the JS-120 stand.
For DJs on-the-go, the DJ2GO2 from Numark ($79) is the portable option many need. I know I would. The smallest full-featured DJ controller available is small enough to fit on top of your laptop and is easy to setup and connect to speakers through the master 1/8" output. The DJ2GO2 has a built-in sound card, crossfader, two channels with pitch control, headphone output, and the ability to browse and load songs. It's ideal for smaller gigs, as an emergency backup, or for preparing for your next big showcase. Find out more information on Numark website.
Most people use there phones to wake them up, but what if there was a smart alarm clock to assist. Let me introduce you to The Sandman Doppler Alarm Clock ($119) not only does it wakes you up with a customized, soothing tone but is Alexa enabled, giving it a broad range of important functions. It's equipped with high-quality stereo speakers, giving you the option to ask Alexa to play music, or control your smartphone using the Bluetooth connectivity. That clock's dashboard is also fully customizable, giving you the day of the week, weather, and even your work commute or a check on the stock market. It has six USB ports for charging and will even connect to multiple smart devices in your home so you can control them with a push of a button. Check out more information on Doppler Alarm Clock on Kickstarter.
The aesthetics on this amp are just beautiful. The Billie Amp ($600), which is named after the jazz singer Billie Holiday promises to bring smooth sound into your home no matter the source. It has dual inputs for both analog and digital sources, a dedicated turntable input, and aptX Bluetooth, all of which pass through the custom-built tube preamp before the Class D ICEpower Bang & Olufsen amp sends the signal out to your speakers. There's also a powerful headphone amp with a convenient front connection jack, and to ensure everything looks as good as it sounds, it has wooden volume and source selection knobs that add warmth to the machined aluminum body. Get more info on there Kickstarter page.
If anyone out there is like me, you're driving the chilluns around, heading to work, and focusing on the everyday life... Suddenly, "uh oh...what's that sound? Why's my car making that sound?" You try to block it out by turning up the radio, but it's too late... panic has taken hold. You feel every weird shimmy the car makes and deep down, you start to think about the very limited car knowledge that you possess trying to figure out what the friggin problem is with this stupid car, how much it's going to be, and when was the last time you had it serviced (you're pretty sure it wasn't THAT long ago). Every single detail of your mutual love/hate relationship with your car stands out in stark contrast from the amazing day you had planned.
Luckily, I have found a solution that will ease all of your slowly growing stress ulcers... meet Drivebot. Drivebot is a dongle that connects to your OBD-II (On Board Diagnostic port) that monitors your cars health and alerts you on your smartphone via Bluetooth when there's a problem. Upon detection, it provides simple instructions of possible quick fixes. Plus, it monitors your driving behavior and how to save gas with driving suggestions on how to save. Who doesn't like that idea?! Oh! And before I forget, for those of you who go on business trips and/or have to log your every move with your vehicle, Drivebot can export the data and email it to you as a report. Knowing what's wrong in advance can give you that much needed leg up when you bring your car to that scheister mechanic (who you totally know is trying to take you for a ride), and can help in avoiding the possible douchebag all together. Yay to that! With the proper mental preparation and new knowledge that you now possess, all your bad little thoughts and worries can ease away.
The Lit C-1 is a electric urban vehicle, combining the size of a motorcycle and durability of a car. The C-1 uses electronically-controlled gyroscopes to remain upright even in the case of an accident. It can be charged up in six hours, has a top speed of 120mph, and the battery provides enough autonomy for 150 to 220 miles. It will be available in 2014 and will sell for $12,000 to $16,000 (USD). I wonder how many people will go for this craze and get themselves one of these? Would you get one? Check out the video below.
DJ TechTools have updated their original MIDI Fighter controller and added a 3D gyroscope to their arcade button Midi Fighter midi controller. This will now allow DJs to change parameters like pitch, volume and effects to be controlled by simply moving it around. To me this would only be for DJs who don't like spending most of their time dancing around their laptop screen.
The Midi Fighter 3D includes a 16-button array of arcade-like buttons, that can be used as midi triggers and can be configured to any style of color theme that you would like, just in case one color was not enough to keep you focused. The midi controller will run you about $250, shipping sometime in April. So if you don't want to stand behind your laptop screen the whole time and you want to dance with your audience then this bad boy is for you!
I have always been a Logitech junkie and that's because I feel that their products serve a purpose and they work with ease. One area that I think will help serve a good purpose is the Logitech M600 Touch Mouse or what some would call the Magic Mouse of PC-centric users. This mouse has a large responsive touch surface, scrolling and swiping where ever your fingertips rest on the mouse. The scrolling with this mouse is as smooth as scrolling on a touch screen Smartphone. Its optical sensor provides plenty of accuracy, and its tiny receiver creates a solid 2.4 GHz wireless connection up to 5 other devices but it will run you about $70.00 dollars.
The team at Teenage Engineering has created a stylish looking portable synthesizer but it will cost you. It has a hefty price of $1,100 and it's such in high demand that they're currently sold out. The OP-1 synthesizer was created to be the world's preeminent, portable synthesizer. It merges the best of classic, analogue soul with the latest in digital technology. It's more like a hybrid of sorts with a digital synthesizer and MIDI controller with tons of features.
It has 8 synthesizer models (FM, Virtual Analog, String, +), 8 samplers, on board effects, OLED display, battery powered, built in microphone, FM radio, built in speaker, mp3 export, and some really unique sequencer to explore.
Samsung Series 9 Monitor 27" Quad hi-def ($1,199) is nothing but a cutting-edge, sophisticated design that blends with any decor. It has a brushed aluminum finish and screen that almost seems like it's floating in mid-air. The connections on the monitor are integrated into the base allowing for a streamlined appearance. It even has anti-glare edge-to-edge tempered glass display and a slim profile. The Series 9 monitor also has the ability to produce over one billion colors with an amazing resolution of 2560 x 1440 (WQHD), which is four times more detail than a traditional HD panel. One of the coolest features on this monitor is the Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) for MHL-enabled smart phones and tablets.
By linking their Android MHL-compatible smartphone, users can enjoy content from their mobile devices directly on the much larger screen and with the benefit of rich, built-in stereo audio. They can also keep an eye on their smartphone, seamlessly browse to it and even charge the device for added convenience.
Google has joined with Samsung to produce the Galaxy Nexus (TBA). This new phone will be the first to run the whole redesigned Andriod 4.0 or a.k.a Ice Cream Sandwich. Why they named it that I have no idea but it was bad naming. Yeah, what's your phone running? It's running "Ice Cream Sandwich". Really Google? I'm going to have to give you an F for your failure in naming the new Andriod 4.0.
Now let's talk about some of the features on this new phone. It will be sporting a 4.65 inch; 720p high-definition sAMOLED curved Contour Display, LG LTE or HSPA+data, a 1.2GHz dual core processor, NFC technology for instant sharing of content and Google Wallet support. It also has Face Unlock a feature that gives you access to your phone using nothing but your mug, and a 5 megapixel rear camera with a LED flash boasting a single-motion panorama capability and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing cam, and 1080p video recording.
I think I found the phone that will be replacing my Google Nexus One?
This is the first radio I think I have come across that is made of cardboard and is a fully functional radio/mp3 input player. Did I mention also that this radio is fully recyclable, No! The Cardboard Radio ($34) was designed by Christopher McNicholl with the intent to manufacture a design that would make a more green approach once the product had met its end.
The internals of the radio are housed in a simple cardboard structure and the
device itself is also minimally designed, which is somewhat appealing from a
design standpoint. It’s powered by 4 AA batteries or DC power (power
adapter not included). It also comes with two nice retro dials and an audio
jack to allow you to hook up your mp3 player or smartphone.
The DJM-2000 ($2999) is a pretty expensive mixer but it sits at the top of Pioneer's DJ line. This mixer which weighs about 20lbs is a heavy duty mixing machine. The mixer as you can see has a sizable multi-touch, multi-fucntion screen sitting just above the crossfader. It also houses everything famous from DJM 800 and E-effect 500 & 1000 and some of the SVM1000. So anyone that has used a Pioneer DJM prior should be able to walk up and use this bad boy. I could just keep telling you more about it but why not just watch these videos below instead.
The weather is getting warmer here in Florida and the first things that come to mind is Skimboarding and Surfing. It's always exciting to get out there and show your skill but if no one is around to take photo's or video what do you do? Well here is your answer. Get the new HD Surf Hero ($269). The Surf Hero is the worlds only 1080p HD on-board video and still photo surfing camera. It has professional quality 1080p / 960p / 720p HD resolutions recording at 30 and 60 frames per second (60 fps in 720p). Easily mounts to any surfboard in seconds. It also can shoot 5MP photos automatically every 2 seconds while you surf. So no more trying to hold on to that waterproof camera and fumbling around and lose your ride cause of your camera. The batteries last for over 2.5 hours of HD video or automatic photo taking on a 32GB SD card (not included), so you can document your entire surf with a single push of the shutter button on the paddle out.
The Vita Audio R4 Music System is a beautifully designed sound system, with it's use of a wood frame. It gives it a 70'ish feel to it. It's quality is better then a generic looking dock system with speakers. The Vita Audio R4 Music System ($975) delivers, with a slot-loading CD player, DAB, DAB+ and FM tuners, a top-mounted universal dock, a USB port for playing back music from a thumb drive or hard drive, front and rear auxiliary inputs, an integrated active subwoofer, 80 watts of power output, a docking "RotoDial" remote control. It also comes in gorgeous walnut, white, or gloss black body.
The Arcade tables ($3,000-$3,400) are the answer to those clunky old video arcade games that only plays one game and take up a lot of space. Not these arcade tables they give a modern look to an old classic without taking up a lot of space. They will blend nicely in your man cave decor. Did I also mention that it comes loaded with 60 classic games so that you can relive that misspent youth of yours and dominate the universe all over again. They are available in Classic, Custom Classic, and modern Stealth models, these cocktail-style tables offer LCD screens, high-quality joysticks, buttons, and sound systems and built-in libraries of classic games.
I know some of you have been waiting for this rumor to become a reality and it has. Sony has officially unveiled the Xperia Play($TBA). The Xperia Play will be the first PlayStation certified device. The Play will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, features include a 854×480 pixel capacitive multi-touch TFT LCD display, 5.5 hours of gaming time on a single charge and a 5.1MP camera and a certified Playstation slide-out controller. Powered by 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7 single-core CPU, 512MB of RAM and comes with an 8GB microSD card. Did I also mention that upon its debut there will be 50 launch titles that will be available plus it will come loaded with a "legendary" Playstation One title, which, Engadget reports it will be Crash Bandicoot.
So here becomes the real blur between dedicated mobile gaming devices and smartphones. Let the gaming begin. Is this a phone that you would be willing to rock out?
Pulse news reader is an elegant application for iPhone, iPad and Andriod devices. It incorporates colorful panning story bars and fills them with content from your favorite sources. Pulse redefines news, giving you the opportunity to experience the news you desire from traditional sources, your favorite blogs and social networks – all in one beautiful interface.
I have been personally using this app for a while now. It makes checking my content easy and it gives it a more professional look. I even like how I can share right from my phone in this app without having to go to another app to share it. The guys at Alphonso Labs got it right when they set out to make mobile content less frustrating and more user friendly as well as visually pleasing.
Design concepts interest me. The thought process that goes behind a project is intriguing. So today we are going to look at the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse ($70). This is a minialistic ergonomically-sound pointing device. The flexible palm rest allows you to flatten the mouse to turn it off and make it more suitable for packing. The metallic middle strip lets you perform gestures to quickly and easily move around your documents. This mouse is packing a 2.4 GHz wireless USB Nano Transceiver that can connect wirelessly right out of the box with virtually no interference and has up to a 30-foot wireless range. Just in case you could see 30-foot away from your computer. Below is a video of Young Kim the Senior User Experience Designer talking about the design process of making this new Microsoft mouse.
