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Latest Gear Live Videos
Bleeding Edge 081: CES 2007 Video: Monster 5.1 SuperDisc DVD Music
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: CES, CES 2007, Features, Home Entertainment, Music, Science, Videocasts, Videos,
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - Windows Media
Read More 
| The Bleeding Edge
Gallery: Bleeding Edge 081: CES 2007 Video: Monster 5.1 SuperDisc DVD Music
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Chat Diva Barbie Gets Her Groove On
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Toys,
Having to compete with Bratz is just too much for every little girl’s old friend Barbie. So Mattel has dreamed up an anorexic-looking Chat Diva Barbie. The doll can move to and lip sync to your music and is compatible with your PC, iPod, or any audio MP3 player with a headphone outlet. She and buddy Teresa also chat on included cell phones, and each doll comes with 3 pre-programmed song clips. She may not look like Celine Dion, but you can make her sound like her and be the star of your next office party. Barbie and her friend Teresa are available at retail stores and online for $29.96.
Read More | Mattel via Sci Fi Tech
Gallery: Chat Diva Barbie Gets Her Groove On
HD Radio Makes Local Debut
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Home Entertainment, Internet, Music, Transportation,
Walking into last week’s NAIAS, we received a rather tacky-looking plastic card emblazoned with the words “Discover It!” “It” turned out to be HD Radio, the future of music. The FCC has approved this as the new standard but most experts predict that the service will not become commonplace until about 2010. BMW is one of the few companies that is offering it as an option now.
With HD Radio, stations will have the ability to offer several different programming selections on the same frequency with no more snap, crackle, and pop of current radio reception. On the other hand, if you are on the edge of a station, you probably won’t hear it at all. Although HD Radio is already available in about 900 stations and free to the public online, receivers are not, and a quick survey of them were priced at ~$249.00 on the low end.
Read More | HD Radio
Gallery: HD Radio Makes Local Debut
NAIAS 2007: Sync Goes Silent
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Corporate News, Internet, Misc. Tech, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Transportation,
The Ford Focus will be one of the cars being issued this fall that will feature Sync, and they are keeping it on the downlow. We couldn’t get a price, (“It will blow away the competition,”) any pictures of it in a vehicle, or even mention the name of the dude who was telling us what we weren’t supposed to know. Maybe Microsoft is saving the info for the CES. All we were told/shown was that Ford has the exclusive rights until 2008, that it will play and/or recharge your iPod via USB, interrupt your tunes if you have an incoming call, and has text message/voice recognition capability.
Read More | Ford
Gallery: NAIAS 2007: Sync Goes Silent
Andru, Sparky, Nate, Jesse, and Chris get to hang at the CES this week, and since some of us had to keep the domestic front safe, Photographer/Artist Mike Wrathell and I decided to get on the action at this year’s NAIAS (North American International Auto Show), even if North American International is a contradiction in terms. Entering the Cobo Center we found Sirius and XMR on each side of the main doorway, and all we got was this lousy key chain. That product placement was rather clever of them, considering most of the cars we saw either already have or will soon be offering optional satellite capability.
Gallery: NAIAS 2007: Sirius VS. XMR
Chub City i-Playaz - Welcome to the Hood
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: CES, CES 2007, Misc. Tech, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Toys,
Enough of the cutesy iDogs and iFish. How about a Jada Chub City i-Playaz who can move and groove to your MP3 player or CD tracks? With his interactive sounds and lights you can mix your own tunes with beat and scratch buttons. Featured at the CES 2007, Chub C. stands 5.5-inches, has audio in and output jacks, and needs 4 AA batteries (not included) to jam. He’s available for $20.99 at Target and other retailers.
Read More | Jada Chub City via CES 2007
Gallery: Chub City i-Playaz - Welcome to the Hood
Apple Announces The iPhone, Widescreen iPod, Internet Navigator
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Music, PC / Laptop, Portable Audio / Video,
We have been waiting for this one for quite a while, and Apple delivered on the iPhone rumors that have been making the rounds for the better part of a year. The iPhone is more than just a phone though - this is the next generation iPod, a portable version of OS X, and a portable Internet navigator. Let’s first look at the hardware features.
The new iPhone features a 3.5-inch widescreen tough-sensitive display. The screen is a 320x480 at 160 ppi - that is an absolutely amazing feat, as 160 ppi is going to be gorgeous. The phone itself is 11.6 mm thin, and features a 2.0 megapixel camera, quad-band GSM/EDGE, EiFi, and Bluetooth 2.0. Battery life will be 16 hours for audio, 5 hours for talk time, video, and web browsing. Even cooler still is the built-in proximity sensor, which recognizes when the phone is on your ear so that it turns off the screen to save power. The accelerometer senses when the phone is tilted into a portrait or landscape display, and changes what is seen on the screen as appropriate. Lastly, there are ambient light sensors as well.
On the software side of things, the iPhone runs a specialized version of OS X, with the promise of support for full desktop-class applications. The phone also has SMS session support, which looks to have an iChat-like interface. This allows you to follow an SMS conversation back and forth on one screen. The three way calling support on the phone looks to work easily and seamlessly - if you have two calls going at once, simply hit the conference button, and both calls are brought together. Safari is built in, touted as the first fully usable HTML browser on a phone, and it features on-the-fly zooming that reminded us of the Wii Opera Browser. Photo management is top notch, and the phone even support Dashboard widgets as well, allowing for a whole host of software application possibilities that haven’t even been thought of yet.
Apple also announced support for Yahoo! IMAP email, which will be PUSH email similar to what you find on the BlackBerry. Google Maps is also integrated into the phone in a snazzy way, and that includes satellite map support.
The iPhone is going to be offered exclusively through Cingular in the US starting in June, and hits Europe in the fourth quarter of 2007, followed by Asia in 2008. The 4 GB model will be available for $499 with a two-year contract, while the 8 GB model will sell for $599 with two-year contract. Once it passes FCC approval, the phone will be available for purchase from both Cingular and Apple.
Apple has created a great interactive site that lets you see exactly how a bunch of the iPhone features work, which you can check out below.
Read More | Apple iPhone Product Page
Gallery: Apple Announces The iPhone, Widescreen iPod, Internet Navigator
MacWorld 2007: Apple Announces Apple TV
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies, Music,
Steve Jobs has just announced that iTV has become Apple TV. For those keeping count feature-wise, this thing has USB 2.0, WiFi, HDMI, Component, digital audio, etc. It also has a built-in 40GB hard drive, allowing you to store content directly on the device. Steve made sure to note that the Apple TV is powered by an Intel chip, along with an 802.11 b/g/n wireless antenna. While we were hoping for 1080p support, we knew it was a long shot. However, we do get HDTV support at 720p. The Apple TV can sync with one of your computers, but can stream content from five others. The interface is very close to what you see in Front Row, but obviously upgraded. The Apple TV ships in February, and will retail for $299 USD - available for pre-order now.
Read More | Apple TV Product Page
Gallery: MacWorld 2007: Apple Announces Apple TV
CES 2007: TiVo Plays Rhapsody
Posted by Chris Cardinal Categories: CES, CES 2007, Features, Home Entertainment, Internet, Music,
Good news for Rhapsody subscribers: (Such as myself.) We’ll soon be able to play Rhapsody content through TiVo. This is actually really great for people who want to push every single one of Rhapsody’s 3 million song selection through to their home theatre system’s stereo. You’ll be able to access your shared library, so songs you flag on Rhapsody over Tivo will be automatically added to your PC song library. This will be available soon through Tivo and likely represents a huge potential gain for Rhapsody, since they’ll be getting a great deal of free advertising pushed straight to millions of Tivo subscriber households.
Now, let’s see a discounted Rhapsody rate with Tivo subscription, eh? (No firm release date, but we’ve heard Q2 2007 from the Rhapsody folks.)
Gallery: CES 2007: TiVo Plays Rhapsody
iMedia Ergonomic Chair Awarded CES 2007 Honors
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: CES, CES 2007, Design, Home Entertainment, Movies, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,
Plug your iPod into this CES 2007 honoree. Empower Technologies’ iMedia ergonomic chair features 5.1 Digital Surround Sound with 5 speakers, a 10-inch woofer, a 505W RMS 6-channel amp, Dolby ProLogic decoding, a wireless remote, and 4 digital and 2 analog inputs for connection to video and game systems, and DVD players. The chair has a tactile transducer so you can not only hear the beat, but also feel it. We’re thinking it looks pretty cool, but we are waiting for the Empower ottoman to go with it.
Read More | Empower Technologies via CES 2007 Awards
