Ovation iDea MP3 recording guitar

Posted in Musical Instruments by Conner Flynn on December 16th, 2008

Ovation iDea MP3 recording guitarImagine how many times great musicians have lost masterpieces just because they didn’t have a way to document it. That’s where the iDea guitar from Ovation comes in. It’s the first guitar to feature a built-in MP3 player for just such occasions. There isn’t much info on specs, but it probably has a decent amount of flash storage so you can record anything on a whim. It features a control panel on the side with an LCD display, mic input and a USB connection. It also has an easy to use 4-way controller for menu navigation. If that’s not enough, you get a set of basic EQ sliders for the bass, mid and treb.

It will let you record the guitar, mic or anything else that’s connected to the aux in jack. You can even mix those features together or use the pitch-stable variable speed playback option to slow things down for practice.

Scientists extract images directly from the brain

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on December 11th, 2008

Scientists extract images directly from the brainIn what could be the first step toward recording your dreams, researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor. That means it won’t be long before you can share your thoughts and dreams with others the way you share your flickr pics. They’ve successfully displayed simple images produced in the human brain on a computer screen.

The device converts electrical signals sent to the visual cortex into images that can be viewed on a computer screen. In the experiment, they showed test subjects the six letters in the word neuron and successfully reconstructed the word on screen by measuring brain activity. So, is this awesome or scary as hell? I vote scary.

Brionvega RR226 record/CD/DVD combo does the robot

Posted in music by Conner Flynn on October 16th, 2008

Brionvega RR226 record/CD/DVD combo does the robotJust 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.

Compose lets you record & write musical symphonies

Posted in Concepts by Conner Flynn on August 19th, 2008

Compose lets you record & write musical symphoniesImagine yourself a modern day Mozart. The only place you can clear your mind is out in the wilderness somewhere. You have the beginnings of a masterpiece in your head, but the problem is you have nothing to jot it down on. If you had the Compose Music Tablet, you could take it anywhere and get it all down. It’s only a concept for now, but surely creative types would be willing to pay for the convenience.

The pen is also a mic that you can sing into and then dock in the tablet to hear what you’ve got. You can also write music directly on the display and it holds a built-in library of classic tracks for the entire orchestra. Before you know it, you’ll be singing in a venue other then your shower.

IOCELL phone sends your conversations around the web

Posted in Telephones by Conner Flynn on July 27th, 2008

IOCELL phone sends your conversations around the webThe Iocell Contents Phone looks pretty cool, but it has a big mouth, like that one friend of yours. It doesn’t keep things to itself, since it contains within it a hard disk which can be used for sending your conversations anywhere on the web.

Sure, it has an awesome look and will give you music on hold, record your conversations and play background music while you talk, but just remember, even if you don’t own one, the person you’re talking to might own one. In other words, be careful what you say from now on. Good looking phones are looking to snitch on you to the internets and hang you out to dry. From now on I’m just saying yeah, uh-huh and bye.

CDs take a step backwards as 45RPM records

Posted in CD Player by Conner Flynn on May 9th, 2008

CDs take a step backwards as 45RPM records
Here’s a cool repurposing idea. It’s not very environmentally friendly, but it’s still awesome. You can reuse CDs as records. A guy named Aleks Kolkowski was at the UK’s Futuresonic festival last week and he brought his vintage record-cutting machine to carve sound tracks into old CDs and DVDs.

All people needed to do was bring an old disc and a sound file and he’d “overwrite” the CD with a track that can be played on a turntable. Pretty cool. Kinda pointless, sure, but it gives old turntables something to do.

Record radio stations to MP3s

Posted in Radio by Conner Flynn on April 30th, 2008

Record radio stations to MP3s
Here’s an useful gadget. It’s a radio with a removable MP3 player. With this device you can record content from the radio so you can listen to it from wherever and whenever you want. This should come in handy for fans of talk and AM radio.

Of course, similar devices for satellite radio already exist, and it does seem a bit odd that the MP3 player doesn’t include an FM tuner of its own, but it is what it is. An MP3 player docking in a radio mothership.


  • Page 2 of 2
  • <
  • 1
  • 2