Crave

Plantronics sticks Bluetooth stereo in your ear

Throw away those lousy, hanging-off-your-ear buds that come with most MP3-playing cordless phones. The Plantronics Pulsar 260 gives you soft in-ear buds that jack into a stereo Bluetooth dongle with an in-line mic that clips to your shirt or lapel. The advantage of Bluetooth stereo earphones is that you don't have to swap headphones when a call comes in. But unlike bulky stereo Bluetooth headphones, you can pull one earbud out so that you're not listening to your significant other, friend or co-worker in stereo. The disadvantage is that the Pulsar dongle jack is 2.5mm, so you … Read more

Carry your hard drive with you

Zyxel's new NSA-220 NAS drive plus media server offers two empty drive bays so that you can bring your own SATA drives, up to 1.5TB. The drives can be arranged in a RAID-0 or RAID-1 array, and the included Memeo software lets you set up autobackup of your data. Two USB ports let you connect additional hard drives or thumbdrives, and a "copy" button allows you to quickly duplicate the contents of an external drive (or an MP3 player or digital camera) to the NAS-220 without touching your PC.

Aside from acting as a repository for … Read more

CS3.7: Jim Thiel's new masterpiece speaker

Conventional wisdom says that a stereo or surround sound system is only as good as its speakers. That's why speaker designers often become celebrities in the world of high-end audio. One such celeb is Jim Thiel, who's been designing speakers for the company he co-founded for 30 years now. He calls his latest high-end creation the CS3.7 and it stands 45-inches tall, 12.5-inches wide, and 21-inches deep, looking more like a sleek piece of modern sculpture when compared to the bland boxes taking up space in Best Buy.

Mr. Thiel's gone to great lengths to … Read more

Mio C520: High-end nav features at an affordable price

On the other end of the spectrum from the C250, Mio has also announced the full-featured Mio C520 portable navigation device. Unlike the C250, the C520 goes beyond turn-by-turn driving directions with integrated Bluetooth for hands-free calling and advanced multimedia capabilities. The stylish device also has a large, 4.3-inch touch screen and a new, useful split-screen view, which presents your current location and a map on one side and allows you to get route information, upcoming points of interest, and address lookup on the other side. All maps are preloaded on the device, and there is an expansion slot … Read more

Samsung shows off new Blu-ray player, has HDMI 1.3

Samsung was the first to roll out a Blu-ray player last year, and now they're the first company to roll out a standard form-factor player with HDMI 1.3. The new BD-P1200 offers many of the same features as last year's BD-P1000: 1080p playback; DVD upconversion to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p; and a stylish design. The BD-P1200's HDMI output is also compatible with the consumer electronics control (CEC) format, which should enable compatible products to send commands between each other--for instance, a CEC-compatible TV could send commands to the BD-P1200 and tell it to turn on and … Read more

Cowon A3: the A2 gets a face-lift

We always welcome a revamped product, and the A3 is just that. Cowon took the already highly rated A2 and gave it just a bit of a face-lift. The A3 is swathed from head to toe in shiny black, with just a bit of silver on the controls. Also, unlike the A2, it comes ready to support DRM-protected content from services such as Rhapsody and Yahoo Music (subscription included). The A2 review has plenty of relevant details for you to absorb, but here are some key specs:

4-inch new TFT LCD High-quality TV Out: Component S-Video Supports H.264, WMV7/… Read more

Do you hate ringtones? Try a silent one. No, a really silent one.

How do you listen to the sound of silence? It sounds like some kind of corny philosophical question, but conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has decided to address the quandary through an unusual medium: a cell phone ringtone. Download it to your phone (it's free), and then your handset will ring with four minutes and thirty-three seconds of pure silence instead of that irritating Kelly Clarkson ringtone that you've been using for the past two years.

Keats named the ringtone "My Cage (Silence for Cellphone)" after the artist John Cage, who once similarly composed four minutes and … Read more

Cingular gets Razr V3xx

Razr fans (yes, there are still a lot of them) can rejoice again as Cingular picks up the Motorola Razr V3xx. Though it resembles Cingular's original Razr V3 (except for the darker color), the V3xx is compatible with Cingular's growing 3.5G HSDPA network. Cingular Video support is also included, and the phone sports a dedicated Cingular TV button in the navigation array. Other features are standard for the Razr series. You'll find Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and a digital music player. Though the phone has been shipped to Cingular, Motorola said it's still not available in … Read more

The Cowon D2 begs to be touched

Cowon may be a bit of an underdog in the U.S. market in terms of sales, but boy, this company sure does know how to make a quality MP3 player. I have in my hand the Cowon D2, a solid device dominated by a 2.5-inch screen. I had seen a picture of the player before CES, but it didn't do the D2 justice--the player has such a nice feel to it. The sleek, black body is wrapped in a brushed-metal border, where you can find some tactile controls: a power/hold slider, volume buttons, and a menu … Read more