Crave

There's another blogger here on Crave who is trying to convince all our readers that I am unhealthily obsessed with penguins. Not true. Yes, I think they're cute. Yes, I think the occasional penguin gadget is kind of cool. But come on, Mike. First, it's not an obsession. And second, the market has become so saturated with the penguin motif that I'm ready to say: I'm over it.

I mean, check out this penguin humidifier that's available in Japan. Way overkill, even though it would probably be easy to mod into a nice device … Read more

Someone tipped Gizmodo off to the possibility of a new Samsung clamshell making its way to the T-Mobile lineup in the near future. Dubbed the Samsung Stripe for the vertical gray stripe down the middle, it will sport a low-end set of features such as a speakerphone, instant messaging, a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and T-Mobile's MyFaves support. Actual pricing is still unknown to us, but we're guessing it won't be terribly costly.

Most of the so-called multimedia furniture pieces we've seen are unsightly contraptions that seem to treat their media components as an afterthought. Not so with the "Sonic Chair Boom Box."

This piece of digital furniture also has brains to match the beauty of its Austin Powers-era design. Uber-Review says its insulation reserves the soundwaves for the person sitting in it, without disturbing others nearby: "The speakers are encased in a carefully crafted body that creates sufficient volume for powerful bass tones, while two body-focused sound generators, in the seat and the backrest, further augment the lower … Read more

I think we all know by now that yesterday, the city of Boston experienced the humiliation of a lifetime when light-up ads for the Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, depicting a "Mooninite" character, were mistaken for bombs and basically shut down the city. (There must be something in that dirty water, you know, the same thing that makes them root for the Red Sox year after year.)

Naturally, one of the LED advertisements from Boston wound up on eBay and bids had topped $5000 in what seemed like seconds. It appears, however, that the auction has … Read more

Wacky rumor or legitimate buzz? CrunchGear is reporting that a well-connected tipster has informed them that Microsoft is developing a "Zune phone." Allegedly, it'll be able to sync with other Microsoft devices, like the Xbox 360 and its movie download service. And it probably won't run Windows Mobile--it'll have a Zune-branded interface instead.

CrunchGear is reporting a possible December release date. It's a long way off, and any "tipsters" should be taken with a grain of salt. (Especially when dealing with Microsoft and its penchant for changing release dates around multiple times.)… Read more

Poor Aibo. Derided since its birth in 1999 as too expensive, which it was ($2,000), the robotic pup was put to sleep rather unceremoniously six years later.

Now we hear that Sony won't even release a driver or develop any other software compatible with Windows Vista for the pooch, according to Akihabara News. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Like so many mobile trends, GetaBuz has its genesis in the creativity of teenagers.

GetaBuz licenses hit songs from major record labels and allows users to record personalized voice mail greetings and messages over the song, which cost $1 to $3 each.

It's a smoother way of doing what teens had already figured out--they wanted to send clips of songs to their friends from their mobile phones, Buz Interactive Co-founder Steve Ehrlich told me.

I got a quick demo, and the interface is pretty smooth. Just choose a song and record a message--up to 30 seconds--with any microphone. No … Read more

Demo 07: Seagate is showing off its new "Dave" technology mobile hard drive. Available in 10GB or 20GB capacities (bigger drives coming later), its unique feature is that it's wireless. You can connect to it via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or via USB cable if you're feeling old-fashioned.

The Bluetooth thing I get, and it's interesting: You could use it as outboard storage for a cameraphone or a future camera that has Bluetooth. The fact that it connects via Wi-Fi means that, essentially, it's also a portable, wireless, battery-powered network-attached storage device too. And that'… Read more

No, the phone pictured here isn't broken--that's how it's supposed to look. Kensington's "Vo200 Bluetooth Internet Phone" traded its funky appearance for a simple and practical use.

The mouthpiece swivels around to become a stand when the handset is used as a speakphone to improve voice reception, according to Newlaunches--and every little bit helps when using many of today's VoIP services. It's also thin enough to slide into your laptop's card slot for easy recharging.

It still looks a little too fragile for our taste, but we're all thumbs when … Read more