The NY Times has written a good review of noise cancelling headphones that compare to Bose, but cost less. The choicest Bose set run at $350.
Audio-Technica and Panasonic pairs get a good review, they run between $100 - $140. According to the author, the quality is as good as Bose. Read more here
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
With analyst reports coming in of the iPhone in production in Taiwan, the long-stirred rumours of the mac phone, or iPhone have changed from centering on 'if' to discussions of 'when' it will be announced. Dates of Q104 have been circulated on various websites. Foxconn's name has also been associated.
Reuters has a good article here.
This seems like a really cool gadget. The IFO 3000 Magnetic Display Unit allows you to float various objects in a magnetic field, such as a globe or a photo frame. Another cool object you can float is a mood light, an led globe that changes color over time.
I'm not sure if this is available in the US or not, but you can read about it here.
The WolframTones site allows you to generate your own ringtone in various musical styles by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them.
This comes from the work of Stephen Wolfram, author of A New Kind of Science. The site is an exercise of midi-math which basically means that the quality of the sound could be better, but it also means that you can easily send your generated composition to your phone and use it as a ringtone.
Access WolframTones here.
here's an example of data visualization using non-traditional methods of feedback, in this case textiles.
The REACH project demos a number of interesting concept prototypes that uses various materials to display information and augment existing communication techniques. These materials include 'cottons, woven linens, conductive materials, uv-sensitive textiles, thermo-chromic materials, & electro-luminescent wire'.
For more info, see the REACH page.
Nokia have announced details of a new bluetooth alternative, called Wibree. This solution is a more lightweight version of bluetooth and they aim to introduce it into smaller devices such as watches and other wearables. It can of course be used with mobiles too. Wibree will operate in the 2.4 gigahertz band range, allowing a link of up to 10 meters.
more about wibree here.
this is cool! usb-powered rechargeable batteries.. I definitely want to try these!
designed and manufactured by USBCELL
If, like me you're jaded by the mountain of information you face on a daily basis you may want to check out ZAP reader. It's a really cool online tool for reading things quickly. Simply copy and paste large amounts of text into the little box, press a button and away you go. You can experiment with different speeds also.
Check it out here: ZAP Reader
not so sure of the value here, but I thought it was an interesting concept. The ibrella is an umbrella interface to your i-pod. You can control various things on the device by interacting with the umbrella, such as opening it to play, shaking to skip etc.
more on the ibrella here
In Europe devices that transmit fm radio signals (such as the iTrip iPod gadget) are currently illegal. They can [theoretically] interfere with legal radio stations.
That position is set to change with new legislation that will legalize low-power transmitters. So everyone who already has one that they bought in the States can rest easy :) read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5180958.stm
The New Scientist's Barry Fox looks at the most interesting patents out there and has seen one recently that may turn out to be compelling from a digital audio and design perspective.
A California inventor has patented a way to make ornamental objects, such as vases or spheres, into speakers. The object is filled with a liquid that contains tiny particles of magnetic metal, which work with a powered magnet at the centre to create the vibrations neccessary to resonate the housing.
Imagine a club where the furniture, ornaments and decor (floors, mirrors?) actually projected the sound. Pretty cool, no? http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn9520&feedId=online-news_rss20
I recently purchased a digital camera. It's a 10 megapixel casio exilim and I love it! Great quality, easy to use, large screen. And it's surprisingly slim for such a high quality camera. What I really like is that I can use it for movies and voice notes too. The site is exilim.casio.com
I'm wondering if there's any good freeware or cheap video editing software out there?