Subscription music services may be slow at garnering mainstream acceptance, but I--and others--still think that they have a lot of potential. There's something to be said for paying a flat monthly fee for virtually unlimited music discovery. Besides, I don't really need to own that hot song of the moment when I'll probably be sick of it in less than a year.

That said, an iPod-dominated MP3 player market means an iTunes-dominated digital music domain, and it must be tough for competitors to nail down a decent buck in such a closed environment. How does the … Read more

As Apple made clear with the iPhone last week, touch screens are the next evolutionary step in the development of mobile handsets. But Sony Ericsson is going after another one of the human senses: smell.

The company is making a line of aroma phones for Japan's NTT DoCoMo, according to Reuters, "to relax the users while making calls." (So Japanese in so many ways.) The handsets come with your choice of nine "scented sheets" accompanied by different designs.

Why, one might ask, would anyone want a scented phone? Perhaps it has something to do with … Read more

There was a time when technological "convergence" in the home was defined by a combo device that merged television with computing. Now, it can be anything from a table-refrigerator to a smart coffee maker.

And the pace of innovation is furious. Just a few days after posting an item on a combo speaker lamp, we discovered that it's already been trumped by a combination lamp, speaker and air purifier, according to Chip Chick. The tower-shaped "Rigel," by Italy's Artemide, has a mirrored finish that gives way to colored lights when in use. But at … Read more

Retro chic is one thing, but then there are just some people who refuse to let go of the past. That's our take, anyway, on the cult-like pressure to continue producing "Single-8" cartridge film.

Fuji has agreed once again to let the format stave off extinction, even though sales totaled an estimated 14,000 cartridges last year. Retro Thing reported that the company, which had earlier scheduled to cease production of the film in March, relented after protests both from professional cinematographers and amateur hobbyists. We're considering campaigns to bring back 8-track tapes and Betamax too.… Read more

If digital gaming can truly help people lose weight, as some claim, than this could be the equivalent of a personal trainer. The "Dream Machine" is a "personal simulation system powered by the computer game player's own body," according to Australian Simulation Control Systems. A better way to describe it is a cross between a game simulator and an adult version of those baby jumpers that hang from the door frame.

Either way, it's supposed to combine exercise with entertainment as you bounce and twist your way through gaming systems of any type with &… Read more

Netflix has fleshed out some details of its newly announced movie download service. The Watch Now instant viewing service is scheduled to become available to all Netflix subscribers by June. It will launch with just 1,000 titles (movies and TV shows), but the selection will expand thereafter--slowly but surely--to encompass as many of the 70,000-plus titles in the Netflix database as possible. The online viewing feature will be a free addition to existing accounts, with subscribers getting a monthly allotment of online viewing time based on their subscription level. For instance, an $18-per-month plan (three DVDs out at … Read more

Because of the popularity of last week's post on the "Sonic Bomb" alarm clock, we feel obligated to pass along this latest update from Gadgetizer on an analog version of the eardrum-shattering timepiece. Or, for a sleeker design, you can go for the AM/FM "sonic" clock radio for a few dollars more. And yes, don't worry, all of these versions have the same earth-shaking alarm and bed-shaking features as the original. Your neighbors will love you.

I can see how the concept for the 'Halo suit' came about. A guy with some tinkering skills and an affinity for all things Xbox was watching pessimistic reports of the latest worldwide conflicts on TV. And he thought to himself: The Master Chief could solve this thing with one snap of his cybernetically-enhanced fingers.

So he got to work. He spent two years building an authentic, working Halo suit that he's hoping will eventually be used by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's no Halloween costume. The $15,000 armor can protect against knives, bullets, and bombs; … Read more

If you're like most Crave readers, we assume that you want all the appropriate accoutrements for the Lamborghini resting comfortably in your garage. (That's what we tell our advertisers, anyway.) So we do our level best to keep you abreast of the latest technologies that bear the family name, such as the just-released "VX2" new generation of Asus laptops.

As the Gadgets Weblog points out, Asus has provided scant details in the specs department, so we don't know how much of an improvement the new version is over its maiden line. But let's face … Read more