Urban Outfitters has a nice looking USB flex speaker which attaches to your PC or laptop via USB.  Looks odd, yet cool but I doubt it’s contribution to quality audio or enhancing the standard laptop speakers you probably already have.

At just over 3″ in width and 1.25″ in height the goose neck speaker does give you the freedom for directional audio but if you are using a laptop aren’t you generally right in front of the computer anyway, just crank up the sound.

Regardless of my petty opinion, Urban Outfitters feels different.  They offer the USB flex speaker at

Creative Labs just came out with a hot little box for 5.1 digital surround sound for any laptop or PC.  What Creative did with this new Sound Blaster is rather than make a card out of it, the Sound Blaster is a USB based external device.  The X-Fi, as they call it, operates over a USB interface and will provide full cinematic digital surround sound in hi-fidelity with a 1 second connection.

Two Creative technologies are embedded into the USB Sound Blaster which are X-Fi Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS-3D.  I’ve talked about these technologies before which are the key components to Creative’s solution.

Not to leave any stone unturned, here are the list of features for the USB Sound Blaster:

• Supports USB 2.0 for high quality 5.1 audio
• USB bus-powered
• Gold plated RCA front outputs and mini-jack surround outputs for maximum fidelity
• Optical Output for connectivity to surround sound systems
• 24-bit Playback and Recording ADC, DAC
• X-Fi audio enhancement technology
• Easily accessible Headphone out and Mic In for connecting headsets
• Convenient Volume Control with push to mute feature
• Line-in monitoring
• Host-based EAX advanced HD 4.0 and OpenAL support
• Creative Alchemy software that restores DS3D Games’ 3D audio in Windows Vista

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround Sound 5.1 system will retail for $60 – a great price for the package (available now).

The Imation Disc Stakka is a management tool for keeping those messy CDs organized and accessible.  Granted your music is probably on your iPod and if it isn’t then you should contact a CD Ripper Service…but even with all your music on that MP3 player you can still find a use for the Disc Stakka.

I’ve got at least 3 dozen installation CDs, software CDs, and utility CDs that I like to have in storage.  Problem is the over flow of putting those CDs into a leather case – now I’ve got two cases.  Rather then spending more mone on another bulky leather CD/DVD case, I’m looking at this Disc Stakka.

The Stakka is an automated carousel that stores and protects your CDs and DVDs.  It does the painfully obvious as well, retrieves them.  The Stakka holds

..or at least a professional sounding podcaster.  I’ve considering doing the podcasting, but I want to build up my reader subscription a bit more.  The Alesis USB podcasting kit doesn’t care who you are, it’ll work on Mac or PC computers.  The kit is designed for the novice user with features an advanced technical geek would enjoy.

Stream from 16 bit, 44.1-48kHz directly from your computer and use the high-quality headphones for monitoring your session.  The USB podcasting microphone makes it a snap to get connected and get going.

One of the best applications for this type of product, other than being self-absorbed and loving the sound of your voice on the net, would be setting up a portable studio for trade-show interviews with customers, clients and critics.  With the ease of setup from the Alesis system, your booth could have a podcasting station for in depth interviews, tutorials on products or guest speakers you could immediately deliver to the world via podcasting and the internet.  After all, the classic 10×20 booth with some posters and fliers is so old-school.

The Alesis USB podcasting kit is priced at just $99 bucks.  A drop in the bucket for anyone reading this post.

I’ve written about USB albums many times before and even a microSD music disk from Ricky Martin, but I thought he was going out on a limb.  Apparently not.

SanDisk just announced a sponsorship in association with the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards from April 6-10 in Hollywood, Florida.  I guess the sponsorship is a reflection on SanDisk’s marketing campaign to “Wake Up Your Phone” by providing pre-loaded entertainment on microSD cards.  “Wake Up Your Phone” is focused on informing mobile phone users how they can capture their experiences and take their music with them by expanding the storage capacity of their mobile phones – or between the lines – “hey consumers, don’t forget to stuff your memory slot with a microSD card for $30.”

The Billboard Latin Music Conference will also offer attendees the ability to download additional multimedia entertainment to the microSD cards, such as photos and video, in the attempt to show there is more to do that just microSD music cards.

“This year’s Billboard Latin Music Conference is all about exploring the new way of doing business, so it is extremely fitting that SanDisk Corporation is an in association sponsor of the event,” said Leila Cobo, Billboard’s Executive Director of Content & Programming for Latin Music & Entertainment. “From ringtones to video, understanding and utilizing mobile technology is crucial for any artist or company that wants to succeed in the Latin music business, and we’re thrilled that SanDisk will be giving our attendees the opportunity to experience the true power of mobile entertainment through its microSD cards.”

To increase awareness for how microSD cards can be used SanDisk launched this very entertertaining website WakeUpYourPhone.com.

AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX is a long name to describe the multitude of functions the USB TV tuner does. The USB based TV tuner stick has the ability to receive HDTV, Analog TV and FM radio on any Windows XP or Vista computer or laptop.

Unless you need specific subscription channels, you no longer have to put up with cable or satellite costs to get the High Definition TV everyone is craving for. The AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX does it all. For video quality, playback and speed consider this:

“The AVer MeidaCenter provides users more joy from Clear QAM digital cable TV. Advanced real-time H.264 recording compression significantly reduces CPU loading and the amount of hard disk space needed for recording. The optional 320×240 resolution enables users to save and playback video on an iPod.”

Don’t hold doubt either, the AVerTV Hybrid Volar MAX can truly present the details of HDTV in 720p/1080i resolution. With an exclusive Vista MCE Video Gaming Plug-in, the AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX resolves the

The Sharper Image does seem to come out with some cool stuff.  Example, they announced a laser beam music system powered by USB.  The music system is shaped like a big “W” with laser beams spanning each post.  Using your fingers or hands, breaking the laser beams produces pre-authored sounds.

Although it appears simplistic with only 6 laser strings, the pre-authored pulses allow you to play pulses, streams, riffs and loops from a variety of instrument selections.  Configure the laser beam music system to play strings, keyboards, winds and percussion instruments.

The laser beam music system from Sharper Image includes 30 original songs in 19 different music genres.  Genres include Jazz, bluegrass, classical, hip-hop, reggae, heavy metal and more.