USB gadget revives those dusty LPs

Those of us who hammered out high school papers on this doodad called a typewriter used to listen to these shiny black things called records. Sometimes we'd even have to hike 10 miles in the snow just to hear a little Joni Mitchell! Times were tough.

Thankfully, our sister site CNET Asia has alerted us to a little gadget that makes it surprisingly easy to transfer those dusty LPs straight to a digital music collection. Just plug the 12-pound Ion USB Turntable into a USB port, fire up the Audacity software for Mac or PC, and start porting in that Ted Nugent! No special drivers needed. The USB turntable has a DJ-compliant pitch slider and an anti-skate mechanism for those older albums that are sitting around reminding you just how long it's been since you slow-danced to "Freebird." The turntable also includes a trial of Bias Soundsoap 2 for cleaning and restoring vinyl.

There are, of course, a number of other solutions, such as the Teac GF-350, for converting LPs to CD or MP3, but the plug-and-play turntable is just so simple and compact. It will, however, cost you about $150 online, more than other USB tchotchkes like heated slippers or USB missiles.

(Photo: CNET Asia)