Music

You know a design trend has gone too far when you start to see products like this. We like technologies encased in wood as much as anyone but, like fine furniture, it's got to be done right to be any good. Case in point: the "iDear" wooden speaker, which Red Ferret says can apparently be hooked up to a phone or media player through its USB connection. Regardless of what this keychain-sized speaker sounds like, it's just--how can we put this delicately--coyote ugly. And we don't mean that in a good way.

If simplicity creates good design, this is a perfect example. With so many MP3 speakers on the market, it's almost impossible to stand out. But this system from MoMA has managed to do just that, not by adding bells and whistles but by reducing its appearance.

The "Soundsticks II," as you can plainly see, has a transparent casing that lets you inspect its innards while enjoying "high-quality stereo sound for music, MP3s, movies, and games." Uber-Review says the bases of the speakers are easy to adjust, which is a good thing because you wouldn't … Read more

We almost couldn't bear to write this item because we're so sick of the image in the photo. We've spent more time staring down at the control panel of cardio machines like this than we can remember.

But Life Fitness, whose products we've become intimately familiar with, is taking a step that might lessen the agony at least slightly: It's adding touch screens that let you control your iPod without handling the device itself, according to I4U News. This may not sound like much but, if you're a regular at the gym, it could … Read more

How quickly we forget. A lot of gadget blogs are writing about the "Dolphin" underwater MP3 player as if it were the first of its kind. But fellow Craver Jasmine France reviewed a similar product, the "SwiMP3," almost two years ago. Which begs the question: How many underwater music players do swimmers really need?

The Dolphin does have a lot more storage its older counterpart--1GB vs. 128MB--and appears a bit smaller too. Perhaps its biggest advantage, however, is price: about $105, compared with the SwiMP3's $250 retail listing.

No matter what the price, we hope … Read more

The SXSW Music and Media Conference & Festival started in 1987 as a way for independent artists to promote themselves to music industry players, and back then, it had little (if anything) to do with digital audio. Fast-forward 20 years, when many emerging musicians are finding that digital downloads are an excellent way to get exposure. Though physical media is still the number one source of music for many consumers, countless industry insiders think that digital audio is the wave of the future. This and other factors likely contributed to the increasing presence of all things digital at SXSW. Naturally, … Read more

Regular readers of this space know that we're given to the occasional rant against silly special or limited editions, but this is one we can get behind: a "Blaze" MP4 player from Dutch company Sweex that comes preloaded with a trailer of Mr. Bean's Holiday. The player otherwise seems fairly unremarkable, available in 1GB black and 2GB pink for about $93 and $117 respectively. But there's one more thing--if you do buy one, you could win a ticket to the premiere of the movie.

The Barenaked Ladies, the Canadian pop group that's churned out radio hits like "One Week" and "Old Apartment" over the past decade-plus, might have a fan base that's slightly older than the average MySpace user. But that hasn't stopped them from gaining a particularly tech-savvy reputation: recently, they've become somewhat of anti-DRM figureheads. Their latest video, "Sound Of Your Voice," will undoubtedly add to that buzz. It doesn't feature the band at all, but rather a whole bunch of popular YouTube personalities lip-synching to the song. Among those featured … Read more

The Barenaked Ladies, the Canadian pop group that's churned out radio hits like "One Week" and "Old Apartment" over the past decade-plus, might have a user base that's slightly older than the average MySpace user. But that hasn't stopped them from gaining a particularly tech-savvy reputation: recently, they've become somewhat of anti-DRM figureheads. Their latest video, "Sound Of Your Voice," will undoubtedly add to that buzz. It doesn't feature the band at all, but rather a whole bunch of popular YouTube personalities lip-synching to the song. Among those featured … Read more

Usually when we see so-called luxury items, they're often fairly standard products that have just been plated in gold or covered in crystals--serving only to make them ugly, as well as expensive. A distinct exception, however, is the work coming from Russia's innovative Gresso.

The company came out of nowhere last fall with a stunning phone made of gold and African Blackwood, generating a lot of interest but offering scant details about features and availability. But now it's preparing to release an MP3 player made with similarly rare materials, and Gresso isn't being quite so … Read more