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Audio
Void player puts a whole new spin on playing your old LPs
By Paul Ridden
16:18 July 2, 2009 PDT
Korean designer Rhea Jeong says she's been astounded by the amount of interest in her conceptual Void LP record player. One look at the design and you can see why it's made so much noise without even uttering a sound. Close your eyes and imagine a little red globe spinning around on top of a vinyl record emitting sound from speakers inside it. The record itself is suspended in mid-air above a simple black base unit - no strings attached, no wires holding it up and definitely no safety net. The imagery is quite simply jaw-dropping. But can such a thing really work? Read More
Belkin TuneCast Auto Live FM Transmitter uses iPhone’s GPS capabilities
By Darren Quick
02:29 June 5, 2009 PDT
Belkin has announced the TuneCast Auto Live, a new FM transmitter for the iPhone that is one of the first devices to take advantage of OS 3.0’s support for third party peripherals. The TuneCast Auto Live acts in conjunction with Belkin’s ClearScan Live software application to display the FM frequency and TuneCast controls on the iPhone’s screen, as well as utilizing the GPS capabilities of the iPhone to identify the clearest FM frequencies, based on geographical data as well as results from other TuneCast Auto users in the same area. Read More
Look no PC: Akai USB turntable digitizes vinyl direct to hard drive
By Darren Quick
03:49 May 19, 2009 PDT
USB turntables provide an easy way to digitize your collection of vinyl. Usually, it requires a PC. However, a new range of USB turntables from Akai includes a model that lets you record from vinyl, directly to a USB hard drive – without the need of a PC. Read More
Sony X-Series Walkman packs OLED display and noise canceling technology
By Darren Quick
06:00 May 14, 2009 PDT
Sony has set its PMP sights firmly on the iPod Touch with the new X-Series Walkman. Sporting a similar form factor and much of the functionality of its Apple competitor, the X-Series manages to hold its own with the inclusion of an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) touch screen and integrated digital noise canceling technology. Read More
Improved technology and design in new Elios speaker line
By Darren Quick
01:12 April 27, 2009 PDT
As any home cinema buff will tell you, a good picture is only half of the equation when it comes to a truly superior home theater experience. The other half is of course good sound, an area that unfortunately often takes a back seat when it comes to setting up a first rate home cinema. The new Elios line of speakers from ELAN Home Systems boasts some new technology aimed at those who recognize the need for good sound reproduction as well as new designs that make the installation of the speakers into a wall or ceiling a much simpler task. Read More
Cisco Linksys Media Hub promises intelligent multimedia management
By Karen Sprey
17:25 April 20, 2009 PDT
‘Whatever you want – wherever and whenever you want it' is pretty much today’s philosophy, especially when it comes to music, movies and photos. We’re used to getting our content at the click of a mouse, button or scroll-wheel and it's this kind of flexibility and simplicity of access that Cisco's Linksys Media Hub aims to bring to personal media collections, delivering up to a terabyte of storage capacity backed by an intuitive interface and remote access functionality. Read More
Lotus’ patented Active Noise Control technologies poised to make motoring more comfortable
By Darren Quick
17:52 April 18, 2009 PDT
Although the environmental benefits of hybrid vehicles are well known, their near silent operation when running off batteries does pose a danger to pedestrians who are used to the rumble of an engine to alert them to oncoming vehicles. Active Noise Control technologies from Lotus Engineering address this problem by projecting engine sounds externally to improve pedestrian safety, while also employing noise-canceling technology internally to reduce unwanted cabin noise. Read More
Engineers develop cheap flexible loudspeaker that's only 0.25mm thick
By Paul Best
22:32 April 6, 2009 PDT
A loudspeaker that’s so flat and flexible it can be tacked to a wall just like a picture? That’s precisely what engineers at Warwick Audio Technologies in the UK have cooked up. The speaker – dubbed the Flat Flexible Loudspeaker (FFL) for obvious reasons – is less than 0.25mm and thin enough to be concealed inside office ceiling tiles, cars or printed with a design and attached to any flat surface, like a wall. Read More
Eco Media Player lets you wind it up for a free charge
By Jamilah Le
20:42 March 12, 2009 PDT
Wind-up devices have seen a boom in the last decade and this new example, the Baylis Eco Media Player revolution, builds on the success of its predecessor the EP-MX71 with a sleeker design and larger screen size backed by the same human-powered wind-up power system. Read More
Silent Drum wins applause
By Darren Quick
22:27 March 10, 2009 PDT
New technology means new ways to create and express music and new types of interfaces that broaden the definition of a "musical instrument" way beyond traditional parameters. Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology seeks to recognize the creators of new musical instruments with the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. The first winners of the competition include a robotic guitar, SLABS touch pad and a Silent Drum that generates sound by manipulating the elastic spandex head of a drum shell. Read More
Gizmag road test: Sonoma Wireworks 4-track recorder for iPhone
By Loz Blain
19:58 February 12, 2009 PST
The song you're about to hear will probably never win a Grammy, but it was recorded entirely on an iPhone using only the equipment that came with the phone - and one very nifty application. FourTrack, from Sonoma Wireworks, is a US$10 iPhone app that brings 4-track audio recording capabilities to the iPhone, including the ability to adjust the volume and pan of each track. Each track is recorded to WAV at CD quality and auto-compressed - and once you're done you can WiFi the results straight to your computer. Apart from a couple of niggles, it's a pretty amazing little songwriting tool that lets you flesh out a tune with harmonies or instrumental tracks when you don't have GarageBand handy. Read More
Chevy Volt to get energy efficient Bose sound system
By Darren Quick
19:20 February 11, 2009 PST
It’s obvious that car manufacturers working to provide consumers with environmentally friendly vehicles must deal with power, weight, and space constraints to make the next generation of automobiles a reality. What isn’t so obvious is that manufacturers of in car systems will also need to address these constraints, which is the reason Bose has been working on a new sound system that utilizes a proprietary design to produce a system that is 30% smaller, 40% lighter, and uses 50% less energy than conventional Bose sound systems, while still delivering premium, high-quality audio. Bose will debut its Energy Efficient Series sound system in the Chevy Volt, which is set to hit showrooms in 2011. Read More
IOGEAR's new wireless multimedia solution
By Darren Quick
23:14 January 27, 2009 PST
With so many people downloading video content via their PC, IOGEAR have decided to make the process of getting said content from the study to the lounge room a fuss-free, and more importantly, cable-free affair. The company's Wireless USB Audio/Video Kit unveiled at CES 2009 can stream audio and video content from a PC to a monitor or TV with VGA input up to 30 feet away. Read More
Panasonic's Zirconia in-ear headphones for audiophiles
By Darren Quick
22:30 January 22, 2009 PST
Home shoppers have long been aware of the miraculous properties of Zirconia of the cubic variety. Now audiophiles can discover these wonders through Panasonic’s high fidelity in-ear headphones, which promise ultra-clear sound reproduction with virtually no distortion thanks to a sound chamber made of Zirconia, which has less resonance than plastic or aluminum. Read More
Bowers & Wilkins announces Panorama soundbar
17:27 January 20, 2009 PST
The company that set a new benchmark for iPod docks with the Zeppelin has made its first foray into the soundbar market with an offering dubbed Panorama. Designed to inject a dose of high-end audio into your flatscreen TV viewing experience, Panorama incorporates Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and six separate, individually amplified speaker channels - two front, two rear, one center and one subwoofer - positioned to reflect sound off walls and create a surround effect that can be tailored to a particular environment from a single enclosure. Read More
Ears-on with Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones
By Tim Hanlon
00:15 January 10, 2009 PST
While we covered the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones back in July 2008, it took a trip to the Monster Audio booth at CES 2009 for Gizmag's Tim Hanlon to get his ears on a set. So how do they compare with the benchmarks set by the German engineering coming out of companies like beyerdynamic and Sennheiser? To put it bluntly, he was blown away. Read More
ECLIPSE car entertainment unit features removeable standalone GPS navigation unit
By Loz Blain
01:11 January 7, 2009 PST
Fujitsu Ten Limited's latest all-in-one car entertainment system incorporates CD, DVD, MP3, WMA, iPod audio and video, Bluetooth phone integration and a fully-featured TomTom navigation system - all mounted in the dash so no part of the driver's line of sight to the road is obscured. The unit's touch-screen is removeable, and acts as a standalone GPS nav system when it's not attached to the main unit. Read More
Marantz's versatile hand-held iPod dock
20:47 December 28, 2008 PST
Marantz is set to release a best-of-both world's solution for those who want the convenience of a hi-fi docking station without giving up the use of the iPod's intuitive interface. The IS301 system effectively turns the iPod itself into a remote control via a detachable, Bluetooth-equipped hand-held module that lets you stroll about with your iPod while controlling the audio output from your home system. Read More
LightSpeed binoculars transmit sound and video
By Kyle Sherer
15:38 December 22, 2008 PST
December 22, 2008 Torrey Pines Logic has designed an optical system that allows people to speak to the person they’re looking at. The LightSpeed uses infrared LEDs to transmit the wearer’s voice via a secure optical beam to another LightSpeed model. The data channel used by the binoculars can accommodate Ethernet, video streaming and multi-channel audio data, and the devices transmit data at 1Mpbs, at distances exceeding 5km. Read More
The Top 50 Best Selling Home Theaters
By Tim Hanlon
23:47 December 19, 2008 PST
If you're still relying on the speakers built in to your HDTV, the home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) is an inexpensive way to make your home theater experience a lot more authentic. Here's a list of the 50 best selling HTIBs on PriceGrabber, complete with the best prices available online. Read More
Nikon's portable viewing surprise package: the Media Port UP
18:03 November 27, 2008 PST
Here’s one we didn’t see coming. Nikon is much better known for capturing media through its cameras and lenses so the announcement of a multi-tasking portable viewer might have slipped past the media gaze as one of those weird things photographers have. It’s not – it’s for everyone and we think the Wi-Fi ready Media Port UP headset, which offers video comparable to viewing a 50-inch large screen from a distance of three meters and motion sensor control, could well find a niche among the emerging crop of portable media viewing solutions. Read More
ZVOX Z-Base 550: big sound, small package
15:35 November 25, 2008 PST
Running with the theory that bigger isn't always better, ZVOX has crammed a complete home theater sound system into a compact cabinet measuring 28" wide x 14.5” deep x 3 3/8” high that doubles as a minimalist base platform for stand-mounted flat panel TVs. Within this small footprint the Z-Base 550 incorporates five 2" full-range speakers, a 5.25" powered subwoofer, 60W amplifier and virtual surround circuitry with only one connection required to the TV for a simple set-up. Read More
i-Station Rotate iPod dock goes both ways
By Darren Quick
19:43 November 20, 2008 PST
Logic3 has come to the rescue of all those iPhone and iPod Touch users who have been straining their necks sideways so they can watch full screen videos while the iPhone or iPod is housed in their speaker dock. The i-Station Rotate is an iPhone/iPod speaker dock that features a clever built-in rotating mechanism that allows an iPhone, iPod Touch, or new iPod nano to be turned sideways for watching videos in all their widescreen glory. Read More
RXS launches two new Bluetooth adaptors
By Darren Quick
03:21 November 19, 2008 PST
November 19, 2008 Everyone hates headphone cords trailing around everywhere and getting in a tangle, which is one of the reasons Bluetooth has proven so popular for listening to music from Bluetooth capable players and phones. For those whose phones and portable music players aren’t Bluetooth capable, RXS has released two new adapters, which add Bluetooth functionality to iPods, iPhones or any device with a 3.5mm headphone socket. Read More
How to set up your surround speakers
By Tim LeFevre
03:45 November 11, 2008 PST
The world of home theater seems ever changing. New formats, new innovations and cheaper prices have made an altogether bigger audio-visual experience more accessible for everyone. Two channel systems have been common place in our lounge rooms for decades now, but you might need a few more tricks in your arsenal to get the best out of the latest multi-speaker systems. Tim LeFevre investigates. Read More
Celeste H Calabro
- July 5, 2009 @ 22:20 UTC
