Crave

The name might be crude, but the product is pretty clever. Guitammer's ButtKicker Gamer is a vibrating bass module that puts some thump into your gameplay. The surprisingly heavy ButtKicker device clamps onto your chair, and the included amplifier runs between the ButtKicker and your audio input. When you start playing, the ButtKicker starts jumping, making your seat rock and rumble with every shot and explosion.

Rumble seats are hardly new for gaming; bass-rocking gaming chairs from companies such as Pyramat and D-Box can be had by anyone willing to shell out the cash. They're usually bulky chairs … Read more

Remember Creative's high-end Zen Aurvana earbuds? The company has decided to expand the line with a full-size, DJ-friendly set. I managed to get my hands on a set of these as-yet-unannounced headphones and can attest that they're pretty sweet. They have a high-end look and feel, with a cushy headband, supersoft earcups (that flip all the way around), and brushed metal accents. The coiled cord is long enough to allow for unhindered motion between the decks and your vinyl collection. Plus, they sound great. You can pick up a pair for $99 later this year.

LG announced three new series of plasma TVs at their press conference at CES 2007 yesterday: the PC5D series, the PB4D series, and the PY3D series. The press release lacks specifics and availability, but we were able to get a good outline of their upcoming plasma TV product lines.

The PY3D series is LG's 1080p line of plasma TVs, and consists of both a 50- and a 60-inch model. Along with their 1,920x1,080 native resolution, this series also has three HDMI inputs as well as a USB port. Models in the PY3D series--and all other LG plasma … Read more

Crave first spotted this one a few weeks ago, and now Intellitouch has announced its inexpensive, wireless "whole house" iPod speaker system.

The Eos system consists of an iPod dock/base station with integrated speakers and a subwoofer, and separate Wi-Fi speakers. The base station can transmit audio to as many as four wireless speakers; each speaker has a removable power supply so that you can mount it directly on a power outlet or place it on any surface like a bookshelf system. Intellitouch claims that in contrast to existing wireless speaker systems, its GigaWave technology can transmit … Read more

Just when we thought Plantronics couldn't improve their Discovery 600 headset series any more, here it comes with a brand new update, the Plantronics Discovery 665, which debuted at CES 2007.

Though it isn't a significant upgrade from the Plantronics Discovery 655, there are a few notable improvements. First, the headset itself is much slimmer and smaller than its predecessor. Second, it is packaged with a new sound-enhancement technology, AudioIQ, which optimizes sound quality on both sides of every call. And third, it comes with a sparkly headset-charging pocket that lights up whenever there's an incoming call. … Read more

Ambient light is the enemy of video fidelity for any display, because external light that hits the screen dilutes the light produced by the display. Plasma HDTVs are more susceptible to the wiles of bright room light because their screens are essentially big, reflective panes of glass, unlike the less-reflective plastic screens of flat-panel LCD TVs and rear-projection HDTVs. Last year, Samsung tried to address that issue with FilterBright, a technology it says helps reduce glare and otherwise improves the image quality in bright light. In my tests last year of models like the HP-S5053, I couldn't detect much … Read more

If there were no buttons on your cell phone, imagine how big the screen could be.

Synaptics is doing just that with its Onyx phone, a new concept in cell phone technology. Shaped like a remote, it's a bar-style phone that would integrate GPS, music, teleconferencing and calendar events.

But the coolest part is the screen, which takes up nearly the whole handset. Synaptics calls it ClearPad, a thin, high-resolution touch screen based on the company's proprietary sensing technology. With it, there would be no need for buttons to input information. Information can be entered into the Onyx … Read more

Motorola's Follow Me TV feature for its DVR set-top boxes lets users choose which TV to watch a recorded TV show on.

Instead of keeping content stored on only that TV, Follow Me TV lets users bring TV with them from room to room. Any recorded show is aggregated and made available on any TV on the network. In addition to TV programs, music and photos can also follow to any TV, and the content can also be sent to portable devices.

Or, as Motorola CEO Ed Zander demonstrated for the audience here at CES 2007, you can pause … Read more

As if heading up a ramp to Noah's ark, the Flash and DVD models move in pairs. Panasonic at least manages to differentiate the models a bit. The DVD-based HDC-DX1, announced this week, and the SD card-based HDC-SD1 (announced in late 2006), are the latest pair of AVCHD cancorders to get on the boat. Both incorporate a trio of 1/4-inch, 580K-pixel CCDs, a 12x zoom, and an optical image stabilizer. The DX1 has dual-layer support, as well as DVD-RAM capability.

The difference? Aside from some design tweaks made necessary by the different media support, the DX1 seems … Read more