Pure One Mini: Portable DAB radio

Posted in Radio by Conner Flynn on June 25th, 2008

Pure One Mini: Portable DAB radio
Pure has now released their Pure One Mini, a portable radio measuring just 130 x 135 x 60mm. It will give you 20 hours of portable listening when fitted with the optional rechargeable ChargePAK.

The One Mini will also give you FM reception, an input for your iPod so you can use ONE Mini as a portable speaker, up to 16 presets, a headphone socket and a USB socket for future upgrades. It’s available now in the UK for £40 or $79 USD in three colors to choose from: black, white or pink.

Speak-er concept has nice form

Posted in Concepts by Conner Flynn on June 5th, 2008

Speak-er concept has nice formI think we can agree that most speakers are just plain boring. Sure, there are exceptions to that rule, but not nearly enough. The Speak-er concept manages to say quite alot. We like it’s simple and clever design.

It’s designed to be an attention getter with it’s familiar shape and it’s hard not to notice it, halfway expecting text to pop up. It would probably be very appropriate if it displayed the lyrics of whatever you were listening to.

Sony Tubular Non-directional speaker

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on May 28th, 2008

Sony Tubular Non-directional speaker
Some good news for sound. The Sony Tubular non-directional speaker concept has now become a reality. The speaker is being released on June 20th, 2008 and it measures 325mm x 1845mm x 325mm and 12.5kg. The “Sountina” speaker is a transparent and organic glass tube that vibrates to expand sound a full 360 degrees.

You’ll get a frequency response of 50Hz – 20,000Hz, an input line, 13cm subwoofer speaker, 7cm medium speaker and the tweeter which is also made from organic glass. It’s priced at around €6500. If they add some color, every Jedi in the galaxy will be using them and matching colors to their lightsaber.

Wireless Floating Speaker for your iPod

Posted in iPod Accessories by Conner Flynn on May 27th, 2008

Wireless Floating Speaker for your iPod
It’s that time of year when you are going to want to be in the pool and you’re going to want some tunes too. There’s no need to mount your iPod on an oversized raft, when a smaller more Roomba looking thing like this will do. And even though it’s easy enough to have a radio nearby, it’s always much cooler to have your music floating around with you.

You won’t have to worry about your precious iPod drowning since this floating speaker is capable of wirelessly connecting to and streaming from your iPod dock. It will cost you $129.95 to have this bit of floating debri nearby.

Guitar amp iPod speaker

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on May 24th, 2008

Guitar amp iPod speaker
It seems that the guitar mania that has engulfed the geek world with games like Guitar Hero and Rockband is here to stay. So you may as well embrace it and get yourself this iPod speaker amp. You probably already have the Guitar Rocker and the catbox 360 after all. I’m sure this will make your life complete.

Just plug in your MP3 player and you are ready. It’s not just for your mp3 player either, you can also use it as a computer speaker. It has working treble and bass knobs and a 5-watt output. It can be powered from your computer via USB, or by using 3 AAA batteries.

Cute Munny speaker dolls

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on May 21st, 2008

Cute Munny speaker dolls
At first these cute speakers appear to be mass produced and expensive, but that’s not the case. They are actually home made by a Flickr pool member, Fungus Amungus. It’s probably one of the simpler DIY projects you could undertake, since you basically just attach the speakers to the head of a Munny figure.

The important thing is that they look awesome. There really isn’t much info on the actual specs of the speakers, but I want to see the design mass produced. They have a lot of personality and almost seem to be saying, “Can you hear me now?”, while also plotting your demise.

USB Smart Dog hub & radio

Posted in USB by Conner Flynn on May 8th, 2008

USB Smart Dog hub & radio
It makes sense to have man’s best friend on your desktop, serving your USB port and radio needs. Even if your robo-dog has a head that looks like it met a Mac truck head on. One rather creepy design aspect is that the head can be detached, giving you an instant portable radio with auto-scan from 88MHz to 108MHz.

Put it back on the body, and like a zombie reborn, it will turn it into a crappy computer speaker. It sports two USB 2.0 ports on each side.(If it spawns robo offspring, these are what they will suckle, getting precious mothers milk of USB juice.) $19.15 will get you this bizarre desk pet.

Alien Mini-Speaker is happy, creepy

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on May 7th, 2008

Alien Mini-Speaker is happy, creepy
It should be noted that I don’t trust anything that smiles constantly. Especially when it looks like this. The thing looks like it’s wearing some kind of gruesome death mask meant to be ironic when it kills you.

But if, unlike me, you find these little terrors cute, this Happy Alien Mini-Speaker can attach to your iPod, MP3, or MP4 player. With a USB rechargeable Li-ion battery, you can extend or retract its neck to change the volume. The speaker also features a 3.5mm stereo audio connector and comes in orange or blue. Get one for $11.90.

Egg Speaker charger concept

Posted in Concepts by Conner Flynn on May 7th, 2008

Egg Speaker charger concept
I’d like to officially say that this device is the last egg straw. There seems to be an overabundance of egg themed gadgets lately, and I think we might be abusing the whole egg thing. There’s the egg phone, wobbly egg speakers, even the egg mouse to name just a few. You gadget creators are driving me crazy with the eggs already!

Now for the latest…egg. The Egg Speaker Charger Concept device functions as a pair of satellite speakers when ‘hatched’ open, with its base functioning as a subwoofer. The base will also double as a dock for a compatible MP3 player, charging your device through induction.

Easter Egg Speakers wobble but won’t fall down

Posted in Speakers by Darrin Olson on April 30th, 2008

Easter Egg Tumble SpeakerWe’ve seen our share of portable speakers and so far our favorite so far has to be the X-Mini Capsule speakers, mostly because they are compact and they went wireless recently. Close behind would probably be the Easter Egg Tumbler Speaker. This device, like the X-Mini, pops open to extend out the chamber a little bit and add some more bass into the pint-sized speaker (or about as much base as you can expect from something like this.) It also comes egg-shaped and heavy at one end so that it can’t be tipped over when being bumped around on your desk

Each comes as a single speaker with an audio cable for input and a USB cable that powers and charges in the internal battery. No word on exactly how much juice the speaker puts out but we’re guessing 1W, and it’s pretty hard to say on the battery life if you wanted to use this with your media player.

Keyboard Pants with built in mouse

Posted in Apparel by Conner Flynn on April 23rd, 2008

Keyboard Pants with built in mouse
You know, I’m kind of at a loss for words regarding this one. I personally would never wear these pants which feature a built-in keyboard, mouse and speakers. For one thing, depending on what you are typing, it might look like you are enjoying yourself way too much if you know what I mean.

Some geek decided that he was tired of carrying around a keyboard and mouse, so he stitched them into a pair of pants, and even threw in a pair of speakers. I don’t know how they transmit to your PC, or where the batteries are. All I know is that they can not be comfortable. Crotch typing is not a sport I’d like to practice.

Speaker media cabinet hides your stuff

Posted in Furniture by Conner Flynn on April 14th, 2008

Speaker media cabinet hides your stuff
If you like recycling objects and have some extra time on your hands, then this Speaker Media Cabinet might be just the thing. You can store anything you like inside, though it won’t fit a body, you’ll have to continue using the old fashioned car trunk for that.

It would be a great place to store your entertainment media, like DVDs and console games. All you need is a pair of large junked speakers, several chopping tools, the usual array of nuts and bolts, and the will to succeed.

NES MP3 player and speaker mod

Posted in Nintendo by Conner Flynn on April 1st, 2008

NES MP3 player and speaker mod
Now this is a very awesome Nintendo mod. Not only did they turn the original NES controller into an MP3 player, but they went that extra step and turned one of the NES carts into a speaker. This is portable audio that’s sure to get some attention.

Who cares if the sound quality is crap. That’s not why you undertake a project like this. It’s for the glory. The deep down inside geek glory that burns inside like a raging storm. Here’s to you, unknown nerd who put in the hours and gave us this vision of NES awesomeness. We salute you.

Sega’s i-Spin speaker robot

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on March 31st, 2008

Sega’s i-Spin speaker robot
As far as robot speakers that could come alive and eat your face, I’d have to say this is one of the strangest I’ve seen. It’s the i-Spin Speaker Robot from Sega Toys. A world where robots evolved from eggs? This would be the result. He will dance to whatever the current tune being played is, and features connectivity to audio players thanks to a connecting cable.

As well as dancing and proclaiming itself the Egg-man goo goo g’joob, it will also respond to external audio and voice signals. He’s powered by 3 AAA batteries and comes in blue and pink. As we all know, the cost of eggs is on the rise, so that probably accounts for the price tag of $52.

Mickey Mouse speaker is all ears

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on March 23rd, 2008

Mickey Mouse speaker is all ears
If you love Mickey and want a pair of speakers to stick in your iRiver MP3 player, this might be for you. As you can see, he’s all ears as usual with his typical goofy grin. (What’s the deal with only having Mickey. What about Donald Duck? No one likes Donald?)

The stereo speaker measures 6.3 x 3.46 x 4.96 in, weighs about 21 oz, and connects to any music player using a 3,5mm stereo audio jack. Looks like it comes in silver only. You can get it from DealExtreme for $20.10.


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