Good to bad from tubes to cubes

(Credit: IXOS)

IXOS is one electronics maker that, from what we've seen so far, will always keep us guessing. It boggles the mind to imagine how a company that can produce something so elegant as its iPod speaker tube can also be responsible for the "Disco Cube."

But Tech Digest says the blinking phenom, which made its debut last holiday season, is back for another performance in models updated for the newest generation of media players. It must have something to do with the natural bond between iPods and '70s dance-floor lights.

While we're generally in favor of music-playing cubes, this one doesn't exactly inspire geometric admiration on our part.Yet we do admit that, in the cube genre, you could do a lot worse.