sonolum

There are many ways to archive your old cassette tapes, or convert them to more modern digital audio formats, such as mp3.

The coolest way is possibly by using this specially designed cassette deck for the pc. The PlusDeck2c is used to "archive your old cassette tapes of 80s hair bands into digital media files for playback on your PC". It even fits right into place in your rack!

Here's more info

By the way, if you're interested in an easy way to do this manually, Alpha Geek has a good how-to article on archiving cassette tapes using cables from radioshack and freeware audacity editing tools.

The Apha Geek article is here.

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The Hug Shirt from CuteCircuit has been nominated by Time Magazine as one of the best inventions of 2006. This shirt brings haptic technology and wearable communication to the consumers wardrobe.

The wearer of the shirt receives a text hug from their loved one. The mobile phone notifies the shirt via bluetooth and the the shirt gives the wearer a hug!  

Cute Circuit says "the new design features a very comfortable mix of smart textiles, cotton and micro-fiber that make it very soft and pleasant to wear. And yes! Is completely washable!"

The Hug Shirt can be seen on the CuteCircuit site 

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Sonic Youth have released a new album, Destroyed Room. It's a collection of unreleased material and B-side tracks from their last twelve years.

Opening with a 10 minute soundscape, the album according to NPR "immediately grabs you on this and other tracks is Sonic Youth's signature bursts of noise. What keeps you listening are the shadings of emotion and feeling that emerge amidst all the fuzz and distortion".

You can read the review on NPR

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It had to happen eventually. Teachers and academics are noting that TXT lingo is creeping into assignments of teen students.

According to the Seattle Times, high school students are handing in assignments with shortcut words, such as 'u' or '4'. Even more concerning; the speed at which electronic communication is typically composed is also affecting the students ability to put thought into the composition of prose, according to the article.

Some college professors have observed similar patterns, so I suppose it is only a matter of time before some of the shorthand becomes widely accepted.

Read the article for more.

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Atrua Tehcnologies are a company that specialize in touch interfaces for mobile. They've recently announced a round of $9m in funding they've received from investors, including funding from Ericsson Venture Parnters.

It will be interesting to see where their latest innovation takes them. Form their press release, they mention mobile biometrics as a potential avenue of research: "Atrua’s focus on developing fingerprint recognition and touch control solutions optimized for mobile handsets continues to pay off".

But will their technology also focus on input and physical feedback? One of the backers is Mosen, who supply keypads and housings to major manufacturers.

Read the Atrua press release

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Motorola recently launched the MOTOFONE website, showcasing their latest device for the emerging marketplace.

Featuring enhanced audio, universal icon design, extremely durability and other key features, the phone was designed following extensive regional user research and enthnographic studies.

On the site you can hear the designers talk about their experience and design process. Richard Schatzberger was the senior creative lead on the proejct and Conor O'Sullivan was the sound design manager. The enhanced audio includes music and sounds that were inspired by non-western musical traditions.

Check out MOTOFONE

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It's hard to predict the future, especially when it comes to technology. An interesting article on the Economist takes a look at the history of mobile communications, beginning 130 years ago and asks where we go from here.

Asserting that in a decade's time "a typical phone will have enough storage capacity to be able to video its user's entire life", how will we be affected when the phone hardware becomes a substitute for our memory?

Will it be called a phone? What will it look like, or will it even be seen?  The phone of the future is discussed at the Economist

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A study has been released that shows how songbirds in numerous urban environments now sing higher than they used to. This has been shown for the first time to happen in multiple urban
locations, on a population-wide basis.

Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands observed the birds are adapting to increasingly pervasive noise pollution levels in the mid to lower frequency bands.

The sound of the great tits (they're birds!) were recorded and analyzed in 10 European cities. It has been shown that the younger birds are now learning to sing higher notes and are leaving out the lower notes altogether.

You can hear it for yourself on New Scientists' site:
the isolated song
the urban song
the forest song

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wouter Geense Design studio has come up with an interesting product for the truely mobile music user. The 2.5 cc turntable is a gas-powered DJ station from the Rotterdam design house.

The 2.5 cc turntable can be seen here.

wouter Geense are also the designers of the Tune 'n Radio, an FM radio that you have to finish yourself to be fully functional. The user can choose various household objects to create and tweak the antenna and knobs. Users also drill holes in the box and make other personalizations, according to their own style.

The Tune 'n Radio can be seen here.

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The wireless running sensor that is a co-branded initiative of Nike and Apple has been shown by scientists at the University of Washington to be vulnerable to invasion of privacy. The device can be made into a tracking device and interrupted to erode personal privacy, according to researchers.

The scientists 'hooked their tracking device up to software that automatically plots a runner's position on an online map, and sends an alert by email or text message to an operator, when the target comes within range'.

It is unclear how far-reaching the extent of their claims is though, since the range of the signal is just 20 meters. Perhaps this is easily combined with other covert wearable surveillance equipment for maximum portability?

At any rate, the more details of their work can be found here and their publication here.

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