Lisa Katayama

Headphones inspired by Thriller

These awesomely Thriller-esque headphones made their debut at the Nokia design competition this year. Rumor has it you can get your own pair at the Nokia store in London.

Update: Gizmodo tells us they have a pair on display at Giz Gallery in NYC right now.

[via Shiny Shiny]

Rob Beschizza

The contempt commences at 3:20

The introduction of the ROKR, from CNET's vault. [via Daring Fireball]

Rob Beschizza

Walkman NW-A84

Sony's NW-A840 has a 2.8" OLED display and is 7mm thick. I like the physical controls, unfashionable as they may be, when it comes to PMPs: when listening, I'm typically looking at something else (e.g. the road) and don't want the distraction of having to look at a touchscreen.

Source [Sony Insider]

Rob Beschizza

ZuneHD launched, apparently

Microsoft's ZuneHD is obviously an excellent gadget: small, beautiful and high-end. But the service is broken on launch day, making it impossible to access pretty much anything on a device that can't do anything interesting or new without this access. The marketplace is inaccessible ("Try again later") and my first two hours with it have been an exploration of "unknown" errors like C00D11CD, which could be a DRM failure, a full Zune, a full hard drive, or a network error (that's a bingo!)

I was able to get the Zune 4 software installed, at least, so am able to copy music to it that I already own. Sounds great.

Update: It's fixed! Things are downloading right now.

Update II: It's not fixed! It lets me see the apps and stuff and I can click "download," and it tells me its "100% downloaded," but then it changes its mind and says Can't Download. I'll click on some more stuff and see what happens.

Update III: At last! Apps are now IN COLLECTION. This stuff wouldn't be that big of a deal were it not for the fact that the service side is where the magic is. (Moreover, the ZuneHD doesn't do anything out of the box, not even appearing as a removable drive: it must be sync'd to a Windows PC first and updated.)

Lisa Katayama

It's only rock and roll with Norah Jones

In case you haven't heard already, Norah Jones was the surprise musical guest at the Apple announcement this morning. I love her red guitar, the black roses on her guitar strap, and the red heels. So classy.

Lisa Katayama

Three new App store games worth checking out

At the Apple announcement today, Jobs invited several game makers up on stage to introduce some cool new App store games that exploit unique features of the iPhone/iPod Touch. Here are my three favorite examples:

1. Madden NFL 10
EA's oh-so-popular football game is finally available at the App store. Cool feature: you can draw plays with your finger on the screen and then watch your fave team execute them.

2. Nova
Gameloft's first-person-shooter pits you against aliens in a mission to defend humanity — if you play it on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can set your sniper mission to your choice of music.

3. Riddim Ribbon
Tapulous, the company behind Tap Tap Revenge, is a new rhythm racing game. Tilt the phone to follow a race track and bust out remixes of Black Eyed Peas songs.

Lisa Katayama

Photos of Steve Jobs and his new Nano

Here are a few pics of Steve Jobs announcing the new Nano and its sweet new features at this morning's Apple event, taken with my G10. (Not bad for a point-and-shoot!)

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Lisa Katayama

Jobs returns to announce new iTunes, iPhone OS, and Nano with video

Steve Jobs made a surprise comeback at the Apple event in San Francisco today, announcing an upgraded operating system for the iPhone and iPod Touch, a new version of iTunes, and new generations and pricing for the Touch, the Shuffle, and the Nano.

Much to the disappointment of many fans, none of the new products include a still camera; however, the fifth generation Nano, which goes on sale today, has an integrated video camera with speakers so you can shoot and watch videos instantly. Two other key announcements made today were the iPhone and iPod Touch's new OS 3.1 and iTunes 9, both available online now.

In addition to the video camera, the new Nano has a pedometer that can be synced with Nike Plus, an FM radio, and a voice recorder. It's available in seven colors at $149 for the 8GB version and $179 for the 16GB. Apple also unveiled a new and improved Shuffle in five new colors with the option for multiple playlists, a voice that speaks to you about battery life, and controls integrated into headphone wires. The new Shuffle comes in a $59 2GB version, a $79 4GB version, and a limited edition stainless steel 4GB version sells for $99. Also announced were new pricing and a faster graphics for the iPod Touch (8GB at $199, 32GB at $299, and 64GB at $399). The original iPod retains its $249 price point, but now holds 160GB instead of the previous 120GB.

iTunes 9 has several new exciting features including media sharing, an on-screen app manager, and a redesigned Store. Genius Mixes, an extension of the music recommending Genius function, creates playlists from the iTunes library based on songs that go great together. Syncing has been improved, and a new interface for managing iPhone and iPod Touch apps allows users to drag and drop and rearrange apps on-screen from the iTunes app. Media can be shared through Home Sharing, which allows up to five computers in one house to copy the contents of their iTunes libraries freely. Finally, the new Store has a cleaner looks and and two new features, iTunes LP and iTunes Extra, which provide photos, liner notes, exclusive interviews, etc for music and movies, respectively.

The iPhone's new OS 3.1, which is available today at the iTunes store, will include a Genius function for Apps that recommends apps much like how Genius in iTunes recommends music. It also includes Genius Mixes, peer to peer gaming, and ring tone downloads.

Jobs, who has been absent from the last couple of Apple events due to health problems, prefaced the announcements by confirming that he had had a liver transplant five months ago. He thanked the donor — a twenty-something year old who died in a car crash — for his generosity.

Apple has sold 30 million iPhones in just over two years, with 1. 8 billion apps downloaded from the App Store. Jobs claimed the Nano is "by far the most popular music player in the world" with over $100 million units sold. Similarly, iTunes, which is now available in 23 countries, is the number one music retailer in the world, with 8.5 billion songs sold on 100 million accounts with credit cards.

Lisa Katayama

BBG's Live-Tweeting the Apple Event today

It's that time again, one of those rare few days of the year when all gadget bloggers leave their home offices and head out to downtown San Francisco to bask in the excitement that is... an Apple event! This year, I'll be joining the flock too, congregating with the rest to see what's in store. Our heads are filled with important questions that will only be answered in the secret no-video-allowed conference room in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts between 10 and 11am — Will the original iPod go extinct? What will the new Nano look like? Could this be the debut of the enigmatic tablet? Will Steve Jobs make a comeback? Who could the musical guest possibly be at an event titled It's Only Rock and Roll? And perhaps most importantly, who will live blog the fastest? Will it be Gizmodo or Engadget or Ars or GDGT or.... well, it definitely won't be us, because we're not live blogging it, but I will be live-Tweeting the important details — plus some random trivia, factoids, and observations on the whole fiasco — from ground zero. So keep up-to-date by following me on Twitter or checking back here for updates to this post. Join me as the mysteries unfold — it's gonna be fun!

Follow our live-Tweetage of the Apple event

Lisa Katayama

Building in Shanghai made out of CD cases

The Shanghai Corporate Pavilion, which will be part of the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, has a facade made from thousands of plastic tubes that were originally CD cases.

[via Inhabitat]

Lisa Katayama

Kindle Hacking: It's a "lovely little Linux box"

I took this photo of a Kindle 2 hacked by Jesse Vincent at Foo Camp this past weekend. Apparently, aside from being a popular e-book reader, the Kindle is like Lego for Linux geeks. Here's Jesse's description of what we're looking at:

What you see there is a Kindle 2 with the Ubuntu 9.04 port to ARM running in a chrooted environment. On the screen you see xdaliclock in front of an xterm with the remains of a "top" command and a few mildly embarrassing typos.

To open up the Kindle, I used the USB networking debug mode Amazon left hanging around when they first shipped the Kindle 2, a statically linked telnetd and a cross-compiler to bootstrap myself. From there, I built a daemon that can convert DRM-free PDFs and ePubs into something Amazon's reader on the Kindle can deal with.

After that, I started to get curious about what else might be possible. It only took a few evenings to get a moderately usable Ubuntu environment running.

Mostly, the Kindle is a lovely little Linux box. Getting X working took a bit of hacking, but everything else "just works" with very little configuration.

Steven Leckart

HOWTO Make A Cheap Version of Muji's CD Player

Ariel Schlesinger put together a guide on how to fabricate a cheap, homemade version of the wall-mounted CD player Nato Fukasawa designed for Muji.

Per Ariel's directions, here's everything you need:

a CD-player with an access to the batteries compartment from the front (disc side),
a pair of portable speakers that have a built in amplifier,
a pull cord light switch with a cotton thread,
circle cutting knife. for nice circle cuts.
epoxy glue, cardboard glue and some wires.

Or you could buy the original for $178.

David Wertheimer

Review: Sennheiser's IE8 noise-isolating headphones

I spent much of the summer staring at the Sennheiser IE8s in anticipation. They're the second-most expensive headphones in my possession, at $449, and as the owner of two other pairs of Sennheisers, I wanted to savor the moment.

I spent considerable time just opening the package. The IE8's presentation is out of this world: several layers of foam surround the headphones and their brushed-metal, slide-open carrying case, which has dedicated spots for each earbud, a cord winder, four additional hooks for storing spare ear cushions, and a slot for the cleaning tool. The case has a pop-out compartment in back which, I learned, is used to hold one of those silica-gel packs to keep the headphones dry. The IE8s actually shipped with a silica gel pack in shrinkwrapped plastic that is meant for consumer use.

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Lisa Katayama

Portable iPod speaker looks like a cute bag

Artist Yoshihiko Satoh designed this cute little iPod speaker, which looks and functions as a small tote bag. It's the modern, minimalist equivalent of carrying a boombox around.

[Product page via Spoon & Tamago]

Rob Beschizza

S-series walkman out

Sony's S-Series Walkman is available at its online store. At $109 and up, it comes with some cool features: a big exterior speaker, FM radio with a recorder, and voice memos. Comes in black, pink, red and lavender. [Sony Style]

David Wertheimer

Review: Shure's SE530 headphones and faith restored

Let me start this review with the conclusion: Shure's SE530s are solid high-end performers that will satisfy anyone who likes clear acoustics and strong highs and lows.

Whew! I feel better. I've been riddled with guilt since posting my disappointment in Shure's SE310s. The SE530 is the most expensive model in my roster and, at $549, I was pretty much expecting greatness.

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Rob Beschizza

Sony assaults Kindle with new touchscreen 3G reader

Sony's recently-announced new lineup of Readers was launched this morning in New York. The top item: a "Daily Edition," offering similar 3G wireless capabilities to the Kindle alongside a 7-inch touchscreen display. It'll be out in December, for $400--cheaper than Amazon's own large-format model, the DX.

Two other models will also hit 8,500 stores nationwide in the coming weeks: a basic $200 pocket-sized reader, and a $300 touchscreen edition that lacks the built-in wireless connection and giant display of the flagship model.

A touchscreen, useful for scribbling notes or turning "pages" by hand, isn't offered on the latest Kindles. Moreover, Sony plans to differentiate itself by embracing open formats, in contrast to Amazon's aggressive and much-criticized DRM scheme. Sony earlier responded to Amazon's missteps by cuddling up with Project Gutenberg, the online repository of public domain texts. An always-on internet connection to Sony's online library gives these moves sharper teeth.

The new models will be fully compatible with Apple's OSX as well as Windows, unlike previous editions that offered only basic file transfers on the Mac unless customers got additional third-party software.

It also announced a social networking site for readers, WordsMoveMe; a partnership with the New York Public Library; and a range of pointless accessories.

Sony has achieved something remarkable: it's delivered exactly what was wanted of it, in timely fashion, at a competitive price, without losing its way on the design front. This Christmas is going to be a good one for electronic Reader gadgets.

David Wertheimer

Review: a week with the Etymotic ER-4 microPro

We've reached the point where I can dwell on positives: the last three headphones in the queue--from Shure, Sennheiser and Etymotic--represent the best headphone technology in the industry.

These are the flagship products of their companies, and it shows. Pick up any of these headphones and you'll find amazing tonal separation, unerring clarity, faithful sound reproduction and a superlative listening experience.

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Lisa Katayama

New Justin Timberlake fragrance looks like an MP3 player

Justin Timberlake's new men's fragrance for Givenchy is called Play, and the bottle looks like an MP3 player. The design, according to the web site, is inspired by "mobile multimedia gadgets, those quintessential objects of modernity and style that have become both everyday objects and icons of our era."

[Play by Givenchy]

Lisa Katayama

Review: My two favorite sport headphones for running

I've been running a lot lately, mostly because I committed myself to running a half-marathon after a BBG story I wrote four months ago. On shorter runs, I listen to music or nothing at all. On longer solo runs, I listen to podcasts, usually This American Life or Studio360, because they're long and very engaging. I've tried several kinds of headphones made specifically for sport use or otherwise designed to withstand sport conditions, and have found that the Philips-Nike Sport Flow headphones and the Sennheiser MX 85 are my favorites.

Let me start by saying that headphones, in general, can be really annoying while you're running. The cord gets tangled with my arms or flaps around in front of your face, the earbuds fall out, and in strong wind conditions they tend to make a swoosh-swoosh noise in my ear canal that often results in me flinging the headphones away, only to pick them up and hold them in one hand the whole time to avoid tripping over them.

The Sport Flow headphones are a collaborative product that Philips and Nike made to be as unnoticeable as possible &mdash and it works. The rubberized earhooks are super lightweight and they allow the earbuds to sit in place by my ear holes without feeling overly invasive. They're white, so it goes with any outfit. And perhaps most importantly, they come with a little white cable managing disc for winding unused lengths of cord around that clips onto a shirt sleeve or collar so the cord doesn't get in the way. The Sport Flows are $25 on Amazon.

Sennheiser's MX 85 sport earphones have a different design &mdash they have what the company calls a twist-to-fit system, which basically means that the earbuds wedge into a secure spot between the top and middle of the outside of the ear to prevent too much movement. The two things I like the most about the MX 85s are the color combination &mdash gray and orange! &mdash and the sound quality. Songs were much crisper but not as loud compared to the Sport Flows, and I was able to hear my music slightly better in windy conditions with these. The MX 85s have a longer right earbud cable than the left so that it's easier to sling behind the neck while running. However, the clip that comes with it is shoddy and kept falling off while I ran along Krissy Field. These are listed as $70 on Sennheiser's web site.

Rob Beschizza

First-gen iPod now available at Apple Store

Get your 5GB iPod for MAC today! [Apple Store via TUAW]

Photo: Jennie Woo

Lisa Katayama

Headphones have two birds sticking out of them

Part of a series of objects by the Dutch art collective Idiots featuring stuffed dead animals. Taxidermy + found objects = creepy cool animal art.

[Idiots main page via Dezeen]

David Wertheimer

Review: Audio Technica ATH-CK7 headphones

This is the second BBG review of Audio Technica headphones, following the active noise canceling ATH-ANC3s (which I loved). In contrast, the ATH-CK7 are a noise-isolating set. They proved to be a very good product, and an instructional one.

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Rob Beschizza

iPods in Bikini Bottom

Joel Johnson got back from an underwater adventure--a journey enhanced with the help of a waterproof iPod case, H2O Audio's iDive300.

Scuba diving is about minimizing distraction, but you wouldn't know it from looking at a scuba diver. ... So why would you want to add an iPod? Because, like all those seemingly superfluous bits of tinsel, sometimes music is exactly the tool a diver needs to make a mundane dive as otherworldly as the very first splash in the water.

H2O's iDive300 Case Review: An iPhone Deep Beneath the Briny Sea [Gizmodo]

Lisa Katayama

Bluetooth speaker shaped like a bird cage

This wireless speaker system by Japanese design studio Nendo is shaped like a bird cage and plays music via Bluetooth from any computer or cell phone. It can hang from a ceiling or sit on a table.

Nendo's main page [via Dezeen]

David Wertheimer

Review: JVC's HA-NC250 noise-canceling headphones

Most of my headphone reviews for BBG this summer have been robust explorations. I'm learning all about the different ways headphone manufacturers approach audio, and the pros and cons of their methodologies.

Now, JVC I know all about. I've watched their TVs, I've listened to their stereos, I even had a JVC boombox as my shelf system in college. JVC's stuff is as you'd expect: consumer-grade, well-executed, accessible, decently equalized, sturdy. Y'know, JVC.

So here I am with a pair of JVC noise-canceling headphones. I installed the noise canceling unit's battery, put on the headphones, turned on my music, and broke into a huge grin.

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Steven Leckart

SanDisk Puts Its $$$ Where Its Slot Is [Yet Again]

SanDisk's $100 Sansa slotRadio player we reviewed previously is another attempt to convince us to adopt the music/media "format of the future" — which is, of course, the company's microSD card.

Last year, you may recall SanDisk launched a huge print marketing campaign that featured billboards of people next to the phrase "Sally found her slot" (yes, I know). The idea was simple: First make consumers understand it's possible to pump music into a phone via memory card. (OK, we got you)... Then try to get them to purchase albums on individual, 1GB cards... for $15 a piece. (Uh, no thanks!).

First of all, if you ask major labels what the real format of the future is, they probably won't say the microSD, but CMX.

Secondly, they're pushing a proprietary player and mix cards with 1,000 songs culled from the Billboard Charts, as if that's appealing on any level.

Here's what's completely asinine about this (and forgive me for re-stating much of what Joel's said previously):

1) A lot of people don't want to hear just 1,000 "hits." They want 10,000 micro-hits. Why not give it to them? That's right, storage is very expensive and hard to come by... Oh wait, no it's not.

2) NO ONE wants to carry and organize potentially hundreds of little microSD cards. Yes, they are small, which makes 'em easier to cart around, but even easier to misplace. Let me buy music digitally (with awesome bonus content/videos, etc.), so I can shove the files I want to hear onto a 32GB card.

3) Instead of zero onboard memory for $100, you can get an iPod Shuffle with 4GB of space for $79. If you don't like the idea of random tracklists, then you can spend $150 for an 8GB iPod nano. Hate Apple? You can pick up an 8GB Zune for $110, which is $10 more than the Sana SlotRadio and won't require you to fuss with physical cards.

Good luck, SanDisk!

[via Uncrate]

Rob Beschizza

Twelve Vintage Walkmans

Vince Veneziani points us to a dozen of Sony's classic cassette players. Some of them are pretty unremarkable, but this one--the first--is one of the best. [Oobject]

David Wertheimer

Review: two tough weeks with the Shure SE310s

First, an admission of bias: I love Shure. I had a pair of Shure's E3c noise-isolating headphones for two years, and boy did I adore them. Great loud or soft, comfortable, able to make a transcontinental jet flight whisper-quiet while listening to jazz one tick above mute--bliss. I think I blew out one of the drivers before running them over with my bike, but I didn't mind. Bygones.

So I was ripe with anticipation when Shure shared their SE310 headphones (as well as their top-line model, which I have not reviewed yet). Could these be the replacement I'd been seeking?

My heart got heavy when I discovered the truth: I don't love the SE310s. What's wrong with me? I want to love the Shures. I want to recapture my lost joy.

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Lisa Katayama

Customizable ceramic kitchen radio

Check out this ceramic kitchen radio from the designers at Israel's Studio Lama. The greatest thing about it is that you could decorate it any way you want.

[via Dezeen]