Crave

We can hardly blame the people at Plantronics if they've gotten tired of making and remaking headsets. But the last thing we would have guessed they'd get into is clothing. Not just T-shirts, mind you, but apparel with built-in technologies that can be used with media players and mobile phones.

Its new line is being marketed through a partnership with Quiksilver and Roxy--and, judging by the names of the first three products, Plantronics has deferred to the judgment of the apparel industry's marketing reps as well: the "Pulse Helmet" and "Double Daffy Snow Jacket&… Read more

There are loads of interior tech features on the Infiniti FX45 that just got delivered to the CNET Car Tech garage. The space-age crossover SUV comes with the same navigation system that we saw in the 2007 Infinti M35 Sport (although without the latter's amazing voice-command interface). It also has Bluetooth hands-free calling and a rear-seat entertainment system complete with wireless headphones and a dedicated remote control.

However, the two most impressive tech features for me have to do with good old freeway driving. As part of its $4,200 Technology Package, the FX45 comes with Intelligent Cruise Control … Read more

Much has been made of how the PS3 is Sony's not-so-secret weapon in the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war. But I actually held out some small hope--call me naive--that the PS3 might be able to breathe some new life into Sony's near-dead, high-fidelity audio format, SACD (Super Audio CD), which competes with another near-dead, high-fidelity audio format, DVD-Audio.

In case you hadn't heard, the PS3 supports playback of SACD discs. There aren't a whole lot of SACD discs out there, but I happen to own five of them. I made an effort to find them the … Read more

XM Satellite Radio continues to branch out. It first went beyond its original remit of offering dozens of obscure radio stations with the introduction of XM NavTraffic, a service to drivers providing real-time information on congestion and traffic conditions. Now the company is getting into weather forecasting with its XM WX weather data service. The first standalone device to feature the new service will be the ONIX400, a joint collaboration between XM and Bushnell Outdoor Products that will let you listen to death metal tracks while checking the outlook for your weekend picnic.

The waterproof handheld device, which features a … Read more

As strange a concept as it may seem, some people actually want to record sounds in real-life conditions on occasion. An odd thing indeed in a world where practically everything is manufactured, tweaked and refined digitally (for better or worse).

But how do you keep your work from sounding like the cassette tape remixes we did in high school? The answer may be the "Zoom H4 Handy Recorder" from zZounds. Red Ferret says this "pretty cool piece of field recording gear" can record up to 380 minutes in CD quality and 34 hours in MP3 stereo … Read more

Motorola remains hard at work pumping out new models from its big, thin-phone machine. Pictures of updated versions of the Krzr and Rizr trickled into the blogosphere yesterday, after Moto showed the phones to company investors. Both the Krzr K3 and the Rizr Z8 should feature all the goodies of the existing models but add 3G support as well. No word on availability, but stay tuned.

OK, so maybe I shouldn't readily admit how lazy I am when it comes to foraging for new music. I listen to a lot of online streams (Last.fm, Pandora, and CNET Download.com Music) and whatnot, but then forget to write down the songs I like. And who has time to comb through online music sites or dig through the bins at the local record store (do people still do that?). For precisely this reason, I--the non-iPod user--turn to helpful extras such as Rhapsody Channels and MTV Urge's Auto-Mix feature for my on-the-go music needs. But … Read more

Though the iPhone announcement at Macworld completely trumped any cell phone news at CES, we did mange to find a few gems in Las Vegas. In fact, we liked Verizon's V Cast TV so much that we chose it as our pick for CNET's Best of CES in the cell phones category. The sharpness of the picture quality did wow us, and the supported handsets--the LG VX9400 and the Samsung SCH-U620--were pretty cool in their own right.

Now, of course, we have to wait until March for the service to launch. But even when it arrives, there'… Read more

This isn't a gadget, but I felt obliged to post it here on Crave for two reasons: 1) we all love corny blog humor, as much as we hate to admit it; and 2) I suffered through four years of high school Latin, right through that excruciating Aeneid-based AP exam. But in retrospect (i.e. once you're no longer getting graded on it), Latin really is kind of cool, especially since it gives you fun insider details as to what the stuff in that HBO series Rome is really about. Plus, the mashup of an ancient language with … Read more