Paul Ridden
Pounding the beat with a huge mechanical version of Roland's TR-808 drum machine
If you're a fan of 1980s music, then there's a very good chance that you'll already be familiar with the electronic beats provided by what's widely regarded as the drum machine that started it all, Roland's TR-808. It set the mood for Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing, fired shots at David Byrne in the concert movie Stop Making Sense and was the inspiration for the naming of the band 808 State. In his own homage to the iconic device, electronic music tinkerer Moritz Simon Geist has mechanically reproduced 11 of its key sounds using real instruments played by robots within the supersized, wall-filling frame of the stunning MR-808. Read More
If you're on the lookout for the perfect accessory to complement your titanium computer mouse, bike and lock, or your special guitar, then how about a nice new pen? Brian Fellhoelter has been privately selling his hand-made titanium TiBolt pens – featuring a nifty bolt-action mechanism – for the past few years, but can no longer cope with the demand so is scaling up production. Read More
Despite being heavily tipped for inclusion in the latest version of Apple's iPhone, near field communication (NFC) technology didn't make the final cut and remains on the wants list. The new iPad and iPad mini are similarly lacking, leaving iDevice users lagging a little behind in the short-range wireless connectivity department. A project has just launched on crowd-funding portal Kickstarter, which offers iPhone and iPad users a simple and relatively inexpensive way to join the NFC revolution. FloJack from Flomio is a small disc-shaped NFC reader/writer for Apple mobile devices that conveniently plugs into a 3.5-mm audio port. Read More
The Etón Corporation has now announced details of pricing for the BoostTurbine and BoostBloc portable power packs that debuted at IFA 2012 back in September. Read More
Surely no working drummer would seriously entertain the use of drum pants or t-shirts to make the burden of transporting and setting up a kit a little easier, but even conventional acoustic skin bashers might give electronic drums a whirl. The e-drumkit takes up much less room in the back of the band's van, is always in tune and can sound just like the real thing, or just about anything else you might want the various pads to sound like. In the case of Roland's new TD-4KP V-Drums Portable, the whole setup can be collapsed down and carried under the arm. Read More
There was a time not so long ago when updating, upgrading, repairing or otherwise tweaking your computer system was relatively tinkerer-friendly. Those halcyon days that helped fuel my drive toward a career as a computer engineer are now all-but over, and getting to the heart of today's ultra-thin notebooks and tablets calls for equal measures of cerebral athletics, manual dexterity and plain old luck. Happily, the folks over at iFixit are demystifying much of today's consumer electronic gadgets by ripping them apart, showing exactly what they're made of, and rating them for user repairability. Microsoft's new Surface tablet was recently given the teardown treatment and found to be quite a tough nut to crack ... but not quite as challenging as the iPad. Read More
Following a very successful funding campaign on Kickstarter, the Ubiquitous Computer – or Ubi for short – has just entered the pre-order stage ahead of expected shipping early next year. Read More
Back in July, we brought news of the rebirth of two VOX legends as travel guitars. Next month, the Apache Series six-string models are joined by equally gorgeous bass guitar versions. Read More
While gaming monsters like the Tytan CG8890 might satisfy a player's lust for power in the home, we live in a mobile world and today's gamer needs a good dose of high performance portable power. ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) set its sights on creating a smaller, lighter and easier-to-carry gaming notebook while still offering gamers the powerful performance of bigger family members. That quest is now over, and the result is the launch of the first 14-inch ROG gaming notebook, the G46VW. Read More
The modern tree house is not just for wannabe Johnny Weissmullers, they've now become a luxury item – as demonstrated recently with the ErlebNest, HemLoft and MirrorCube. The aptly-named Cocoon Tree pod is not so much a house as a bed. It can be suspended amid the trees or erected on legs, assembled and installed without any particular skillset and comes in Beach and Jungle varieties. Read More
