Gadgets Monkey tipped us about this one – Buffalo of Japan has limited edition USB flash drives. Buffalo is finally getting past the simple silk-screen and going with molded statuettes. The limited edition figurine collection (only 5000 to be made) is comprised of Mickey Mouse taking the helm, Winnie the Pooh, doing what he does best – eating, and Stitch getting loose on his surfboard.
Available only in Japan sometime in February you’d better make the jump if you’re looking to A) buy some because you’re a Disney freak or B) looking to make a quick buck from an eBay addicted Disney fan.
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The BeoLab 9 from Bang & Olufsen is the latest high-end loudspeaker system with performance past it’s modest design. Using B&O’s Acoustic Lens Technology the treble area sits atop the loudspeaker as if a lighthouse.
This position gives a uniform sound in front of the bass and midrange tones so even the unappreciated will notice the high range – at least that’s the idea. Although the BeoLab 9 is a little Star Trek looking,
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LaCie unveils the first speaker system to harness FireWire connectivity for superior audio quality. Although USB is the front runner for connectivity, we’ve gotta give credit where credit is due. LaCie teamed with designer Neil Poulton for this simple and elegant style.
If you are not familiar with his work, Neil does give an interesting perspective for his motivation:
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The Ion Audio iPod DJ Mixer is a compact console which docks two iPods for mixing at your late night shingdigs. Using the iPod Mixer you can also connect two additional turntables or MP3/CD players. Reading through the specs I noticed you can take things a step further and connect via S-Video, so the Ion Audio could be a good video mixer for schools, churches or corporate applications where you have multiple people presenting and don’t want to fumble around with PC connections and projectors.
The Ion Audio Mixer accommodates the 3rd gen iPods, mini and photo iPod. Inputs include what’s mentioned above along with microphone input. The iPod Mixer does have a turn-wheel, but I read this doesn’t allow one to scratch the music but rather used for navigation- damn! If you’re looking to scratch iPod audio then check out
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Yep, Japanese company Century tweaked a PCB board to house 16 USB ports. Not bad for a USB addicted gadget freak and with an internal power supply even those poorly made USB flash drives that suck too much juice…will have…well, juice. Also included are two PC USB-B adaptors to spread the wealth of 16 ports. Doubt this will make it to the US so here’s the company link for 16 port USB hub.
Lindy has a useful USB VoIP adapter which saves your computer speakers for the important stuff, like music. Many times the headset plug is used for external speakers so this USB VoIP adapter has both a microphone and headset plug. Another bonus is the USB audio adapter works for both Mac and PC. Included is a surface mount mute button to clip out your backtalk to Mom during those Sunday afternoon catch-me-up calls. At just under $22USD it’s a decent deal.
Here’s a quick lesson in the art of Kawai – first Kawai means “cute” in Japanese and the term is applied to little gadgets and trinkets one carries around. Case-in-point, Elecom of Japan introduces this Mogumo-Kun foam figure which embodies your MiniSD or MicroSD card for safe keeping. Yes, it’s cute and with a snap of the neck pop out your MiniSD card. Included is small tether to A) hang your Mogumo-Kan or B) strap her down to say, your cell phone, so that all important SD card doesn’t wonder too far.
DAP Review stumbled upon the 2 new players from Airis called the N0041 and the N0042 – with capacities of 1 and 2 GB respectively. The player has a battery life of 10 hours and is relatively thin at only 1.5” 128×128 pixel color screen. A nice bonus is the battery is user replaceable. Other features this player offers are FM Radio, Video Playback and picture viewing all weighing in at a total of 40 grams.
Wireless speakers never looked like this before. The Griffin Evolve wireless speaker system and iPod station is ideal for the contemporary. The Evolve is comprised of a two wireless speaker cubes and a dock station. The cubes can be picked up and placed anywhere within 150 feet of the base.
What makes this system stand out are the wireless speakers which recharge simply by placing them on the dock station. With Lithium-Ion batters you can expect 10+ hours of continual play.
Easy SlideShow takes your pictures and synchronizes them with transition effects and audio for top-shelf looking slide shows even your Grandmother could put together. Created for the U3 addicted flash drive user – it’s a snap to put together your award winning life for on-the-go display. U3 is a portable software platform which runs from your U3 flash drive so the Easy SlideShow will run on any PC.
Easy SlideShow is free to try and $15USD to buy. Takes up about 4.5MBs of flash space…plus pictures and audio of course. Here’s other U3 related items.
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Now this makes sense, if you’re a reporter and need to grab-n-go the HHB FlashMic is definitely the right choice for gear. With 1GB of flash memory the microphone can record over 18 hours of audio – perfect for the next Michael Jackson court hearing.
This time, however, the HHB FlashMic is a Cardioid version rather then omni-directional. What does that mean? The mic is a better gear for use in a uni-directional application, like places with high-ambient noise such as the CES trade show floor, press pits or conflict zones.
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Back in Octoboer of 2006 Yahoo! Widgets and U3 came together to offer the Yahoo! Widgets engine for U3 flash drives. The Yahoo! Widget Engine for U3 allows you to run 1,000 of widgets directly from your U3 flash drive. Take your Yahoo! Widgets everywhere you go. Below is the link to grab the Widget engine and install it onto your flash drive.
Be sure you have a U3 flash drive and it’s inserted and active (powered up in PC) in your OS before installing. The download is 10.7MBs and from there you can launch for installation. The Yahoo! engine comes with some Widgets pre-installed. You need 32MBs of space on the flash drive and need to run at least Win2000 or XP with SP1 or better. Sorry Mac folk, since U3 is only Windows compliant you are SOL.
Yahoo! Widget Engine for U3 downlaod. It’s free.
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