Keytars used to be cool. Then they were lame. Now they're cool again, thanks to Jeri Ellsworth and her Commodore 64 bass guitar.
The unique instrument debuted at the Bay Area Maker Faire over the weekend. It's essentially a bass guitar grafted onto a Commodore 64, creating an unholy alliance between the thudding bottom end of a rock song and the raw retro power of an iconic computer.
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Sound bars are an excellent compromise between shelling out for an expensive surround-sound system and settling for the tinny sound from your TV's built-in speakers, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. In fact, sound bars have quite a few real-world problems and limitations that are often glossed over, only to rear their heads after you've got one set up at home.
Here's what you should know before you make the jump to buying a sound bar.
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Interest in Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S III is so far out of this world it's forcing me to pull out all my most revolting puns.
The flagship Android phone has already smashed preorder records in the U.K., and is causing global pangs of jealousy today with word that it's apparently gone on sale early in Dubai.
If you just can't wait any longer, or your personal jet is in the shop and you can't make the trip to the UAE right away, there's still a way to get your hands on the Galaxy S III experience. Kind of.
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We love 3D printers here at Crave, but one small problem exists with the devices: They traditionally can't print sturdy thin lines. 3D printers use a layering process based on slices printed thinly and bonded together, which works well for voluminous objects, but not necessarily thin ones.
The DIWire Bender, created by New York design firm Pensa, works as a DIY wire printer that bridges the gap between 3D printers and commercial computer numerical control (CNC) wire benders. To create shapes, wire from a spool feeds into the DIwire, passes through several wheels for straightening, and leads to the three-dimensional head that bends wire as instructed.
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Tivoli Audio's PAL radio has been out for several years and while it's pretty pricey, it remains one our favorite portable speakers.
Over time Tivoli has done little to change the PAL except to offer it in more colors and stick an "i" in front of its name for a white model that includes a cable to hook up your iPod. But now the company has finally added a wireless Bluetooth option to the PAL and its tabletop radio cousin, the Model One. Keeping things simple, the products are called the PAL BT ($299.99) and Model One more
My kid spent 45 minutes in the hot sun inventing and screwing together a life-size car-like contraption, and I got to dive into the minutiae of the product with its creators, Phil and Richard Jergenson.
Grid Beam is Erector Set meets IKEA. The hardware is standard 2x2 wood beams with holes drilled through every 1 1/2 inches (which is the actual width of a 2x2 beam), and standard furniture bolts that will be familiar to anyone who's ever assembled a futon frame. more
Originally posted at Bootstrap
At the 2012 NCTA Cable Show, TiVo announced the eventual availability (again) of a TiVo IP set-top box for viewing content on secondary TVs and a new streaming box for use with mobile devices.
The TiVo IP set-top box (yes, that's what it's being called for now) works as an extender for a TiVo Premiere Q DVR. Connect the box to a secondary TV and to your home network, and you'll have access to live and recorded TV, video-on-demand services, or other broadband-delivered content through the main DVR.
Presumably it'll tie up one of the Q's tuners to access live TV, but with four tuners in the Q, you should be able to hook up multiple IP set-top boxes throughout your home.
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A tech company creates a robotic espresso machine that can be controlled by text messages and print bits of those messages on espresso foam. All in the name of duping gadget bloggers and others into spreading the company's name far and wide.
The blogosphere-manipulating company is called Zipwhip. And as you'll see in the video below, it has a product it would like everyone to know about. And, as we think we've mentioned, it also has a robotic espresso machine that can be controlled by text messages etcetera.
Now, this machine is not something that's on the market. Apparently it's a one-off created expressly for Zipwhip's offices (though Zipwhip has posted some info about it for those who might like to create their own).
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Last time Jill Schlesinger was here, she advised all our listeners to be patient and wait to see how the Facebook IPO would react to the hype machine leading up to last Friday's open trading. Two weeks later, we hope you listened, or you may have lost some money.
Maybe not as much as Zuckerberg eating $2 billion, but either way you should tune into today's episode as Aunt Jill explains the two debacles that sent Facebook into a downward financial spiral.
Everyone needs an Aunt Jill, right? She'll answer a few of our listeners' questions this more
While there have been many new 2.5-inch-standard solid-state drives (SSDs) being introduced to the market in the last two years, it's not every day that you run into one that comes in the new low-profile 7mm thickness. The first one was introduced a few months back by Intel, the
The purpose of the new 7mm thickness is so that the drive can fit in an ultrabook, or other ultraportable laptop, without changing the standard SATA port configuration. This means that when more
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The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com
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