Nokia Storyplay wooden e-reader for kids

Posted in ebooks by Conner Flynn on November 1st, 2009

Nokia Storyplay wooden e-reader for kidsWe adults have the Kindle and the Nook, along with other e-readers. But what about the kids? It’s the kids who we want to get reading. Nokia is at least thinking about the children.

The Storyplay e-reader is a new take on storytelling and reading. It will feature Elmo from Sesame Street on a removable paper book that’s attached with magnets. The reader has two screens. One will display Elmo and his antics, while the second screen will display a live video screen. (Displaying what?)

Log Radio is what it sounds like

Posted in DIY by Conner Flynn on October 18th, 2009

Log Radio is what it sounds likeLooking for a radio that both Ewoks and hippies can endorse? Here it is. The Log Radio. A wooden wonder device that looks like the escape pod that R2-D2 and C-3PO took to Tatooine. It’s from designers Solène Le Goff and Christophe Gouache.

The radio is powered by solar or wind-up. It should work for a good long time until Squirrels start living inside or your senile dad chops it in half for the fireplace.

Wooden iPod speaker bags

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on August 28th, 2009

Wooden iPod speaker bagsLooking for a reusable bag so that you can be environmentally helpful? These wooden iPod speaker bags from Japanese artist Yoshihiko Satoh are perfect. They function as actual bags and play music from your iPod while they carry your goods to and fro.

They’re available in dark wood or maple and will cost about $335. Sure, that is one expensive iPod dock, but just think of all the geeks you will impress while you’re out and about pumping tunes. Plus you aren’t contributing to still more plastic bags in landfills.

USB retro wooden speaker

Posted in USB by Conner Flynn on August 5th, 2009

USB retro wooden speakerThe USB Retro Wooden Speaker / MP3 Player Cube sure brings back memories. This is what gadgets looked like in the old days kids. Retro and wooden. Just insert a flash card or USB drive, and it plays back MP3 files through it’s two 3-watt stereo speakers.

It even sports vintage buttons that can skip tracks and pause and comes with a bundled remote. This retro speaker is also rocking a 3.5 millimeter auxiliary input and a built-in rechargeable battery.

Wooden 2 GB thumb drive with Post-It Notes dispenser

Posted in USB by Conner Flynn on February 5th, 2009

Wooden 2 GB thumb drive with Post-It Notes dispenserThis 2GB thumb drive is encased in White Oak. It’s basically a Jenga game piece with tiny little Post-It Notes glued on. It may not look like much, but at least it combines two items that take up room on your desk into one device.

The only problem is that when the Post-It notes run out, you’re stuck with a wooden flash drive that somehow finds it’s way into the Jenga box to mingle with all the other pieces, only to be lost forever since no one plays that stupid game. The notes, being an odd size can’t be replaced easily. All for $30.

JVC’s HP-DX700 wooden headphones

Posted in JVC by Conner Flynn on January 22nd, 2009

JVC’s HP-DX700 wooden headphonesIf you’ve wanted to get in on JVC’s high-end wooden headphones, but lacked the extra thousand bucks required, here’s some potential good news. This pair should be a bit more affordable. The HP-DX700 boasts a frequency range of 5Hz to 30kHz, with 64-ohm impedance and 101dB per mW.

We’d like to tell you more, but those are all the specs we have. Users of such high-end woody ear-gear will tell you that the wood gives the sound a richer, warmer tone. And while JVC hasn’t revealed a price or release date as yet, we don’t know how much you’ll save over the previous DX-1000, but the wait should be worth it.

Wooden MacBook case is exactly what it sounds like

Posted in MacBook by Conner Flynn on January 19th, 2009

Wooden MacBook caseThis plain looking wooden case has been designed for the MacBook and the 15 inch MacBook Pro. It is what it says it is. A wood box to put your laptop in. The tree that died so you can tote around your MacBook in style will surely thank you for it. Anyhow, carrying around a rigid wood box with your laptop inside isn’t exactly all that stylish or hip, or comfortable I would imagine. Think of the eventual splinters.

The inside is even lined with leather, so now the count is up to one dead tree and one dead cow. It’s not that I’m against wood and leather. It’s just that you, our awesome readers, deserve something better then a plain old box lined with leather. No word on pricing. I mean, what do you price a box? Boxes are everywhere. So is leather. Whatever the price, I’m sure it will be way more then it’s worth.

Montegiro’s Legno luxury wooden turntable

Posted in Turntables by Conner Flynn on January 13th, 2009

Montegiro’s Legno luxury wooden turntableIsn’t it ironic that some of the most beautiful turntables have shown up long after the days of vinyl? If only we had had such beauty back in the days of records. Germany based company, Montegiro, has a new high-end audio system in the form of the new Legno turntable.

It uses bamboo as well as high-grade steel to produce beautiful music from your old vinyl collection. The company decided to use a bamboo chassis because of the wood’s stabilizing and resonance-damping properties. There are also four adjustable and high-grade steel feet with rubber O-rings. The Montegiro’s Legno luxury wooden turntable is now available for a mind-blowing $13,240.

Yamaha gets wood with new iPod docks

Posted in iPod Accessories by Conner Flynn on October 2nd, 2008

Yamaha gets wood with new iPod docksGot wood? Yamaha does. Yamaha Japan announced the TSX-120 and TSX-130 iPod docks, both with a soft wood finish. The TSX-130 seen above comes with USB connectors and a CD-drive which supports playback and recording. Shared features on these units include an amplifier output of 15W × 2ch, 2 x eight cms speakers, frequency response of 60Hz ~ 20kHz, FM tuner and remote control.

Sure, nothing new here, but look, wood! They may match your style and even if they don’t, they’re bound to match that Atari you have lying around.These should hit Japanese stores in early December if you want one for X-mas. The TSX-120 will sell for about$ 300, while the TSX-130 will be about $ 400.

Wooden animal USB drives get no respect

Posted in USB Flash Drives by Conner Flynn on August 26th, 2008

Wooden animal USB drives get no respectCould we really not come up with a better way to violate these animals via USB? Apparently not, and I have no better suggestions to offer as far as the placement of their uh, receptacle. Poor guys get no respect at all. Just living out USB life day after horrible day, like a having perpetual proctology exam as time slides toward infinity.

You can thank Japanese company Marubeni InfoTech. This is their line of wooden USB drives. Each features a 1GB storage capacity and you get five animals to choose from: dog, pig, elephant, hippopotamus and a swan, available in maple or walnut. They’ll cost you $73. Is there an organization for the ethical treatment of wood animals?

Singulum wooden notebooks sport ivory & gold keyboards

Posted in Notebooks by Conner Flynn on June 4th, 2008

Singulum wooden notebooks sport ivory & gold keyboards
German manufacturer Singulum, has some new luxury notebooks with cases made of high quality wood. The sort of high-end wood that you would normally find on violins. They’re available with ivory and 24 carat solid gold keyboards. The whole Richie Rich luxury design is nice sure, but they also have some advanced tech specs like a core 2 duo processor, Windows Vista, Ehternet, DVD recordable (dual layer) with a 15.4inch screen.

It’s all hand made from one block of wood, and every piece is apparently processed with a special production tool, making each notebook unique. I don’t know. I think the violin probably looks better in this particular wood. But if you have money to blow and really need to show off, you don’t care what I think, so go ahead and buy your tacky overpriced notebook.

Wooden nixie clock is totally tubular…dude

Posted in Clocks by Conner Flynn on May 29th, 2008

Wooden nixie clock is totally tubular…dude
I’m not going to make any wood jokes. No jokes about having your tubes tied either. I promise. We have a soft spot for these wood Nixie clocks. They just blend the modern with the old so nicely, you can’t help but fall in love with them. They just have style and they fit in anywhere you can think to put one.

You have to buy it as a kit and put it together yourself, but hey, that just gives you something to brag and be proud about when it’s finished. If you aren’t that handy and don’t think you can handle putting together it’s 115 parts, I guess you’ll just have to admire it from afar.

JVC to launch wooden ear buds

Posted in Earbuds, JVC by Darrin Olson on December 26th, 2007

JVC HP-FX500 Victor ear buds made of woodJVC has some new ear buds set to launch sometime early in February that employ a little more natural materials than most with the housing made out of real wood. Birch wood, to be exact, was the material of choice for the designers of these $130+ ear buds. After all, real wood wood works well to encase larger speakers so why not use it for really tiny ones too?

The HP-FX500 ear buds don’t skimp on performance either, according to JVC. The buds use hybrid drivers, a damping gel inside to reduce jittering and help with noise cancellation, and they have a sound range from 8Hz up to 25kHz. Also, like most ear buds, they come packaged with a carrying case and multiple sized rubber tips to fit different sized ears.

Zen Stone of Wood

Posted in MP3, Media Players by Jeff on August 25th, 2007

Zen Stone carved out of woodIt would appear that someone was paying more attention in their high school shop class than myself. Captain Odegard of the anything but ipod forums has managed to create a zen stone… out of a felled tree. Made out of pine, the good captain shaped and molded the Zen and then Burned the lettering and control buttons in with a hot knife.

Coming in at 8.25 X 5.5 X 2 inches the device most certainly won’t fit in your pocket, but i would imagine it attracts more attention than its little brother. And as a side note to Creative, sorry gentlemen the internal components are not that of the zen stone due to the steep price in Norway. The wood stone tries to make up for it’s size by providing four times the memory of it’s plastic counterpart via a 4GB SD …





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