Just look at that robot face on the Brionvega RR226. Who wouldn’t be charmed by that retro 60s ‘design? Both the RR226 and its 1965 counterpart, the Radiofonografo RR126, earned the nickname “musical component robots” due to that face, with it’s dials and speakers.

But it isn’t all about looks. Brionvega is known for creating superior decks with quality components. This one is no exception, combining a phonograph, radio, record player and a CD/DVD drive. In fact, the new model looks like a copy of the original, aside from the inclusion of the CD and DVD drive. No word on price yet, but we probably can’t afford it anyway.

For those of you who like to have a home that is more bar then dwelling, consider this device instead of a jukebox. It will go great with your round pool table. The IntelliTunes Digital Jukebox. It features two screens and mounts on your wall. It doesn’t just play CDs.

It will also network with your computer so that you can play all of the music you have stored on it by remote control. On top of that, it sports a visualization screen for animations to play along with the music. Consider it a Mega iPod. What we’re talking about here is a built-in UltraHiFi 360 watt 2 channel amplifier and full windows XP functionality, wireless internet, online radio streaming, DVD drive and iPod/MP3 support all in one unit on your wall. Sweet.

How does Robin crank up the tunes while Batman is out cleaning up the streets of Gotham? With Batman’s boombox of course. While it’s not shaped like a bat-wing or anything, it has a strange shape that resembles a…bat-something or other, with colors that go more with the comic books then the movies.

Features include such things as a tuner with LCD display, the ability to play CDs, CD-R and CDRW format, dynamic bass boost, line-in for portable MP3, player support, and top load media. It’s not hard to imagine Batman entertaining Catwoman one night and as he goes to put on some soft romantic tunes, the sound of Robin’s hardcore heavy metal deafens him as it sends bats flying everywhere. After a moment he switches CD’s, but sadly Catwoman’s purr is now gone. Such is the sad and lonely life of the Batman. Sigh.

Many of us have a closet full of old cassette tapes that we haven’t seen since at least the mid nineties. Did you ever think that they could turn into something useful? Like a creepy and cool skeleton for instance?

Brian Dettmer is a man who knows what to do with old music. Melt it and let your music rise from the ashes as something undead. It’s especially appropriate if you use heavy metal tapes. Never throw anything away people. Instead, make it into something else. Imagine how much creepier it would have looked had he used VHS tapes.

If you are an aspiring musician who is having trouble keeping the beat, then here’s a new update on the metronome that will help. The BodyBeat is an electronic metronome that attaches to your fingertip and lets you feel the beat of the music.

The Peterson BB-1 BodyBeat keeps your beat on target by sending tiny little pulses down the wire to your fingertip. It’s a silent method of learning the rhythm that lets you concentrate on playing your music, instead of listening for clicks or watching for blinking LEDs. The Peterson BodyBeat retails for just under $100 USD. Money well spent to improve your jamming.

This boombox is an awesome mix of music and sculpture built into the body of a double bass by artist David Ellis. He incorporated a four-way stereo speaker system, two vaccum tube preamps, a Crown power amp, and a Behringer equalizer.

In case you’re wondering, there is no iPod dock, but it does come with one of the Apple players to provide a music source. You’ll have a hard time getting your hands on one, it’s limited to a run of only three systems. Which is just as well, since many of us don’t have a spare $15,000.

LocaModa and Touch Tunes are doing the nasty together and plan on having a monster love child. The idea is to hook up to 30,000 jukeboxes to social networks, allowing them to be controlled remotely by cell phones. The partnership allows users to let their handsets interact with flat panel screens powered by TouchTunes jukebox’s media server.

Social networks will display all interactions as data feeds. Online users can view and participate at their favorite locations. Is this taking social networks too far? Where does it all end? I don’t know, but it looks like that Jukebox is in the middle of a Bermuda triangle type deal. Hope it doesn’t disappear.

Any aspiring American Idol hopefuls that want to approve their voice but don’t like Karaoke, might want to try this device. Not everyone can afford a vocal coach, plus you probably shouldn’t inflict your voice on others.

This high quality dynamic microphone plugs into your laptop and uses software to measure your range and pitch. That way you can improve on it and hopefully try out in front of the Idol crew one day, only to have Simon tell you that your singing sounds like a drawn out fart. It has 20 tutorials and a tripod to sit on your desk, plus it comes with 12 songs and you can download more. It wll cost you $89.99.

According to a number of UK-based online sources, Paul McCartney has officially worked out a deal to bring the Beatles back-catalog to multiple music download sites including a $400 million agreement with iTunes to offer the tracks. All of the Beatles currently have works available for download through iTunes, but the likely most popular tunes have thus far eluded the mammoth music download service.

According to reports, albums including Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Help and the White Album could be available from iTunes on possibly other online services “within months”. Now that the deal has been worked out, officials for the Beatles are reportedly in the process of creating digital versions of the songs to be available for download.

Amazon today announced plans for an international rollout of the Amazon MP3 music download service to take place sometime yet this year. This announcement is probably the biggest threat to Apple’s mammoth iTunes to date as it likely to cause the reining media download leader to make some changes in coming months to keep up with the competition.

Once Sony BMG came onboard Amazon became the only online retailer to offer downloadable MP3′s from all of the four most major music labels that are all also DRM-free. Amazon MP3 now boasts over 3.3 million songs available with no restrictions on what player or computer the songs can run on, and no restrictions of how many places users can copy it to.

This Cassette looks like it could have come straight out of the 80′s, but it’s also an MP3 Player. It can be used as a stand alone MP3 player with headphones, or inserted into any cassette deck and played that way. It plays the music directly from the SD card that you put in it, so you can’t reverse/skip/etc. when the tape is playing. Pointless, but neat.

Of course if you want different tunes, just load another SD card in it. It will cost you $22 from Chinavasion, and some valuable dignity as you go back to using an old cassette deck. With this kind of backwards thinking, Chinavasion will have an iPod in an old 8-Track tape in no time.

We’re used to seeing our share of iPod docks, but this borders on the ridiculous. Okay, it crosses the border screaming and begging not to be deported. I think it goes without saying that this device is designed to charge your iPod while you discharge your own product, commonly known as an iLog.

It does more then charge your iPod in an inappropriate location, though. It features two USB ports and not only dispenses precious paper, but while doing so, will soothe you with music through four high-performance, moisture-resistant speakers. “Easy-to-use controls allow for one-handed navigation.” One word…Ewww!

Robert Radio announced the MP-Sound 41, a slick looking silver colored and compact portable digital radio with Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) technology. The Electronic Programming Guide lets you program the radio to record up to 12 of your favorite shows for up to a week in advance, so you won’t have to miss anything again. You can also use the EPG to store up to eight hours of recordings directly onto a SD memory card.

Some other features include a full screen display, easy “cassette key-style” navigation, which will give you pause, rewind, fast-forward, record and playback. You also get PausePlus, a clock function with up to 12 different alarms and a headphone jack.

Pioneer is offering a new line of products that should score big with DJs. In the old days you had to lug around crates of heavy records, but that’s not the case anymore thanks to technology. Their backs are grateful. These days being a DJ is much easier, but the life of the DJ is about to get better still thanks to the MEP-7000, unveiled today at NAMM.

The 4.3-inch LCD screen is the central hub and command center. Two OLED screens help with the functionality of the DVD mixer with pitch, playback and position information. It also has dual DVD drives and USB adapters that make it compatible with everything from MP3 players to flash drives to hard drives. If you want to expand the command center ability, just plug a PC into the unit and the PC and will cooperate with the other software.

With plummeting CD sales, the music industry has been looking for ways to make more money, despite the fact that they still make a nice profit from the sales of digital media. In between counting their millions and crying crocodile tears, they found an ally in MediaStreet, who have announced the vAMP Virtual Album MP3 Player. It weighs just 0.7 ounces, and claims to be the “smallest, thinnest, fully functional MP3 player” They have high aspirations for it. MediaStreet intends for the vAMP to replace the CD.

The vAMP comes loaded with songs from an artist just like a CD, and even has album art on the front of the MP3 player as well as track listing and liner notes on the back. Inside it has 1 GB of storage, which gives you room to put other songs on the vAMP as well as transfer the ones that are there to your computer.