accessories

For quite some time, if you wanted to have headphones that looked like the characteristic white iPod earbuds but were somewhat unique, you had to rely on finding a pair that were maybe a slightly different color, or had some rhinestone "bling" adorning them. But now, earbuds appear to have finally caught up with their iPod-skin siblings: a variety of companies are now manufacturing nutty earbuds and add-ons so that you can junk up your listening apparatus just as much as your MP3 player itself.

Take these neon flashing earphones from Evergreen, featured on ShinyShiny. Not only do … Read more

If Steve Jobs pulls the trigger today at Macworld on Apple's long-rumored new video iPod, said to feature a color touch screen covering its entire front surface for PMP-like video viewing, DLO will be ready with a new TransDock car FM transmitter/charger cradle combo.

This new TransDock, which jacks into a cigarette lighter, has a cradle that completely exposes the front of the video iPod, on the current or the rumored model. The cradle also swivels 90 degrees horizontally for viewing wide-screen video on this maybe-maybe not iPod. Versions are available in black or white.

Even if Jobs … Read more

So maybe you don't have a recording studio in your basement. But if your musical ambitions go beyond playing "Freebird" on Guitar Hero, you might be interested in this new product from Belkin that's making its debut this week at CES. The TuneStudio, as it's called, might look like something like a Fisher-Price "My First Recording Studio" with its compact size and bright colors, but it's actually a pretty hardcore piece of equipment. You can plug in up to four audio sources (you know...mics, guitars, old-school beat boxes). There's a … Read more

This is a travesty. A total travesty. Gearlog has tracked down a good-looking, well-priced ($19.99) device that lets you listen to your iPod in the shower, but it's missing something. Sure, it'll keep your iPod nice and dry, and it even comes with a clock and a radio, but there's no microphone. All issues of personal hygiene aside, the only real purpose of a shower is to provide a singing venue in which tone-deafness can be slightly tempered by running water. I mean, duh, everybody knows that. And if you're enough of a music addict … Read more

We're continually surprised at the things we learn while assembling material for Crave. We had no idea, for example, that Karl Lagerfeld was such an iPod fanatic. So much so, in fact, that he has more than 100 of them, according to Sybarites, and has even designed an iPod trunk for Fendi. (Maybe he needs one for each new recipe he concocts.)

But if you're a simple person and just want an individual case, the uber-designer has created one made of leather and velvet with Fendi's trademark Zucca print. Regardless of whether it's your color, we'… Read more

UPDATE: For a complete hands-on evaluation and new pricing information on the George, check out the CNET review.

Macworld isn't until next week, but the cavalcade of new iPod accessory announcements is already getting started. Meet George: he's a high-end iPod speaker system with a built-in AM/FM clock radio, and he's the debut product from Massachusetts-based Chestnut Hill Sound. But what sets George (or is it "the George?") apart from the litany of similar products is its wireless remote. More than just a standard clicker, the George remote has a free-spinning knob and a … Read more

Even if the world is crumbling around you in a massive earthquake, there's no reason to lose your fashion sense in the rubble. You can still be the best-accessorized refugee in the bunker or tent city with one of these quake detectors from Japan's Ubukata Industries.

I4U News says these devices, which also double as smoke detectors, are equipped with sensors that will warn of temblors with magnitudes of 5 or more. (For those of you outside earthquake country, anything beyond 6.5 or so will likely give you religion in a hurry.) At $124 it's not … Read more

We've grown somewhat weary of iPod and MP3 accessories, as should be abundantly clear to anyone who reads this space regularly (all two of you). But everytime we're tempted to impose a moratorium, one comes along that we just can't resist. Today's example: the "i-Snake."

We don't know where to begin, but let's start with what we like: its name. Things start to go south in a hurry after that. One immediate question is its use--if there's an obvious one, we plead blind ignorance. Another point is its design, if it … Read more

OK, so it's not exactly "my" Zune accessory. More like CNET's first Zune accessory. Or at least the first one that seems pretty decent. (I'm sorry, but the cases I've seen so far seem to do nothing but add bulk to the already bulky Zune.) When first asked if I'd like to write up something on some Zune speakers, I was skeptical. After all, while I haven't been as vocal about this yet as with my aversion to the iPod, I don't like the Zune...not that I've given it … Read more