sonic

It's a painful subject, but some of us at Crave have had an ongoing domestic problem--with moles and gophers. We've tried just about every deterrant on the market, short of weapons of mass destruction, to no avail.

So it is with commensurate skepticism that we convey this latest so-called remedy for the perennial lawn intruders, but more power to you if it actually works. At the very least, both environmentally sensitive and animal-loving neighbors won't object because this anti-rodent device runs on solar energy and is meant to drive the dastardly beasties away, rather than dispose of … Read more

Excuse our lack of productivity today--we've got a hedgehog in the office. Sonic the Hedgehog, that is. Sega's 16-bit classic has made its way onto the iPod games section of iTunes (link) this morning and can be had for a mere $4.99. In comparison, the Wii version of the title, which launched just a month ago runs nearly twice as much at 800 Wii points ($8).

The controls use the circular iPod touch wheel as a four-way d-pad, with the center button acting just like the original ABC buttons from the first Genesis controller. They take a … Read more

When we first saw the Polk Audio I-Sonic, we dubbed it a "home theater in a shoebox." But now the all-in-one I-Sonic finally looks to have some competition in the form of the Cambridge SoundWorks i765. At first glance, the product looks like a doppelganger of the company's Radio CD 745i, but adds DVD playback and a top-mounted iPod dock to the AM/FM radio, CD player, and dual-alarm system found on that earlier model. The price is a hefty $500, but that's $100 less than that of the I-Sonic, which lacks the iPod dock but includes digital HD Radio and support (with an add-on antenna dongle and monthly subscription) for XM satellite radio. … Read more

Forget "Clocky," the "Sonic Bomb," and the flying alarm clock. The last thing we need in the morning is something that shatters our eardrums or requires us to chase it around the room to shut the damn thing off.

At our advanced age, any of these could easily shorten our lives with coronary issues. A far more civilized way to awaken is the gentle tones of a "Wind Chime Alarm Clock" and, naturally, its continuous snooze functions. (Our definition of the snooze button: Unplug clock, go back to sleep.)

But if you must get … Read more

Microsoft has hired Rob Conery, founder and lead on the SubSonic project, reports eWeek. SubSonic is a DAL (Data Access Layer) that helps a Web site build itself. Got that? Neither did I, but it sounds cool, if too technically complex for a layman like me.

This is all mildly interesting. After all, Conery has apparently been on contract with Microsoft for the past eight months and is an "MVP" (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, which is a bit like being a community lead in the open-source world--it means you know your Microsoft stuff).

What is very interesting is that Microsoft will likely be including SubSonic with its products, and that SubSonic will remain under MPL 1.1:… Read more

Nintendo held its Fall Conference this week, and the company has revealed some interesting news about its upcoming games. Some of the biggest news of the conference is the announcement that Super Smash Bros. Brawl will include Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character. While Sonic's been long-speculated as a character in SSBB, this is the first time his presence has been officially confirmed. Unfortunately, the game itself has been pushed back in Japan until January 2008, which could mean that an American release will also be pushed back until next year. In other news, the new Mario Kart Wii … Read more

TVs and PCs may be taking their own sweet time to morph into one appliance, but some designs are starting to betray the romance. Case in point: ViewSonic's new "Diamani DUO" series (dynamic duo?) are meant to be used both as a desktop monitor and an LCD TV, in 19- and 22-inch models with 1,440x900 and 1,680x1050 respective resolutions.

Unlike other PC-TV screens, which are often indistinguishable from desktop monitors, this one actually takes on some of the design characteristics of a plasma or LCD set, such as today's popular piano-black gloss finish, contoured … Read more

Polk Audio has taken the wraps off the I-Sonic Entertainment System 2, the follow-up to the company's impressive 2006 tabletop AV system. The new ES2 model gets the iPod dock that was missing from the original I-Sonic, but it loses the Swiss-Army-knife luster of that all-in-one model: gone are CD/DVD player and XM satellite radio support (though an auxiliary line-in port lets you connect any external device of your choosing). Video output (for the increasingly burgeoning number of video-capable iPods) remains, as does the dual alarm clock and HD Radio tuner. And it's the interaction between the HD Radio and the iPod where the new I-Sonic debuts a first-of-its-kind feature called iTunes Tagging. … Read more

Sony's years-long effort to promote its Atrac audio encoding format appears to be coming to an end.

Sony's known for creating proprietary formats rather than adopting formats developed elsewhere. Many other companies--Microsoft in particular--do the same thing, but Sony sometimes seems to cling to its technologies long past the date where it makes business sense. Sony invented Atrac for its MiniDisc, but as MP3 players became popular, Sony tried to push the format into the new world of discless players. Those first Sony portable players didn't support MP3. This helped a down-on-its-luck company with no consumer electronics … Read more