I just walked out of the Samsung press conference, having had so much information pushed down my throat that I'm actually suffering from indigestion. Sammy's president and CEO Gee Sung Choi (pictured) dragged out the pom-poms to cheer on Samsung's #1 position in the worldwide TV market, and then ran down what to expect from these guys this year.
The bottom line: a lot. Most of the time, unsurprisingly, was spent on Samsung's TV lines, but mentions was given to their music player line, Blu-Ray, and IT products (monitors, printers, etc.). New versions of pretty much everything abound, so let's do a quick rundown.
Continue reading "CES '07: Samsung gives it the full court press"
Those darn iPods and Zunes are just too big. I want my music to fit easily in my pocket—heck, in my wallet. That way, I'll never be without the sweet, sweet melodies of the Bee Gees.
Walletex's Wallet MP3 Player (PDF link) is the answer to my deepest, darkest dreams. This credit card sized MP3 player is kind of like a first generation iPod shuffle—if you took it and smushed it under a rolling pin, anyway. Featuring controls for play/pause, forward, back, and volume up and down, the Wallet MP3 Player is also waterproof, dustproof, and temperature resistant. It's designed to be branded with company logos and used as a promotional gizmo. It'll come in capacities of 128MB to 2GB, with a 3-in-1 USB jack that handles charging, data, and audio. It can also be used as a flash drive.
If nothing else, the dustproof, waterproof, and temperature resistant qualities make this a pretty ideal choice for baby's first MP3 player (they start younger and younger these days, you see).
[via Digital World]
Here is my conclusion of the Hottie Amplifier, a guitar amplifier designed from the shell of classic chrome toaster: waste of a perfectly good toaster. I know pretty much zip about guitar playing, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether a solid state amp with a 6" Jensen "MOD" speaker, output jack, and powered by a 9-volt battery is worth $150.
[via The Red Ferret Journal]
All right, I'll be honest with you: I was totally prepared to poke fun (gently! always gently!) at The Song Sleuth, an electrical device that helps you identify bird species by analyzing their bird song, but then I discovered two things: 1) it's actually pretty neat technology, when you think about it and 2) the birdcalls are from the Cornell University Ornithology Lab's "world-renowned" Macaulay Library. And not only is Cornell my alma mater, but the Macaulay Library is named in honor of my friend's parents. I kid you not. So, er, that kind of took the wind out of my sails.
Instead, let me regale you with the details of The Song Sleuth. Using a directional microphone and signal processing, the device compares the detected song to an internal library of sound clips, and then displays to you a list of species on an LCD display, in order of likeliness. There are 160,000 birdsongs in the library (covering 67% of the world's birds) and you can download modules to load into The Song Sleuth that cover particular regions of the US, so you're unlikely to run into something in your backyard that it can't recognize.
The Song Sleuth runs on batteries and connects to your computer via a serial port. It runs for $299, but I have to break to you the disappointing the news that the current run is sold out. However, a second generation product is due to bow next fall (one hopes they've miniaturized it a bit), so start saving those pennies now.
[via Gearlog]
Looking for a way to bring your favorite Internet radio station into the living room without lugging your computer in? Meet Com One's Phoenix Wi-Fi/IP radio. The Phoenix doesn't need a computer at all; just an Internet connection via Wi-Fi. It's got a built-in pair of stereo speakers, but also connects to your home stereo via an analog output.
The Phoenix has eight programmable preset buttons and lets you bookmark stations and songs for future use. It handles MP3, WMA, uncompressed audio, and has support for Real Audio. There's also an alarm clock and support for Bluetooth, should you, I guess, wish to use wireless headphones or the like.
I must confess myself somewhat curious about the Phoenix's interface. Unlike conventional radio which broadcasts signals through the air, you have to seek out internet radio stations to listen to them. According to Com One, the Phoenix supports the "V-tuner Internet Radio" service, but also has an open API for third parties. I've never been a huge Internet Radio fan—too low a signal-to-noise radio for me, but if you find yourself craving it, you can snag the Phoenix for $249.
I've always fancied myself a bit of an air guitar fiend. The few attempts at which friends have made to teach me actual guitar or bass riffs have ended, for the most part, in unmitigated disaster and tears. I'm just too much of a delicate flower to spend the time building up the necessary calluses on my fingertips.
That's why scientists—actual scientists—have develped a T-shirt that can convert strumming and picking motions into music. Yes, my friends, an air guitar shirt. Researchers at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in computing, chemistry, electronics, music composition, and textile manufacture have combined their awesome powers to create this "wearable instrument shirt," which could one day enable all of us to live in our own personal Wayne's World.
[via Gizmodo]
Besides winning the award for longest product name, the Turbo Charge UPRICPP (as I've decided to call it), is actually quite a handy little device. Looking like an oversize tube of lipstick, it's a small tube that has room for a single AA battery (included). Pop that battery in and twist the bottom of the tube, and you'll notice the blue cap light up.
At the top of the tube is a small port for the numerous adapters included with the Turbo Charge—one for pretty much any brand cell phone you can imagine. Connect that side to your cellphone and instant power. It's a great idea, since I'm sure we've all been on the road without our cell phone chargers before; just leave the Turbo Charge in your bag, and wherever you can get a AA battery, you can add some juice to your phone. The strength of the charge is as good as the battery you put into it; so pop in some of those AA Lithiums, and you're bound to get a decent amount of charge.
My favorite extra is that the Turbo Charge also includes a little LED flashlight that you can plug into it. There's also a model that comes with an iPod adapter called the iTurbo, but the aside from the adapters, the two are interchangeable, so you can pack just one device with the correct adapters for iPod and cellphone. $20 will get you the TurboCharge with one adapter of your choice—$24.95 will get you all the adapters, or you can buy additional adapters for $2.95 apiece.
Wandering through the exhibition hall at the CES event was somewhat reminiscent of visiting the bazaars of ancient times. All around you, vendors hawked their wares, unashamed to snare you in innocuous-seeming conversations that turned out to be mere prelude to drawing you into their wonderful world.
Among the most interesting things I saw demoed was a system created by Hillcrest Labs. They mainly design software for embedded use in things like DVRs and media adapters, but they've also branched out into the connected field of remote control. They were showing off their new Freespace remote, which they claim is "the first pointer-based interactive media system for TV." What I saw of it was very cool, and far and away superior to the kind of interfaces you'll find in most set-top boxes nowadays. Besides just having a pointer-based system, it also uses metadata behind the scenes to let you navigate from, say, a movie to other movies featuring the same actor—or to the soundtrack for that movie.
I didn't get a chance to play with the remote (it was being used by someone else for, er, quite a long time), but what I saw was pretty cool. The picture above doesn't really capture it, so I took a short movie, which you can see after the jump. The Hillcrest rep assured me that they had deals in place to use their software, and when asked about Apple's forthcoming iTV device, he asserted that they didn't see it anyway as competition for what they're doing. Good news all around, media fans.
Continue reading "CES Unveiled@NY '07: Point and click coming to set-top boxes?"
