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More options for wireless (Bluetooth) earbuds/headphones

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day / By /

Following up yesterday’s entry on the DigiFi Opera S5 wireless earbuds, we thought it would be a good idea to give you a few more options for going wireless over your lobes.

Here are 4 more headsets, all Bluetooth that give you a chance to get rid of those pesky cords, well most of the cords anyway!

1st on the list is a set of headphones from Sony. The specific model # is DR-BT22. These on-ear headphones have a 30ft range, weigh under 3 oz, folds up can be used to take a phone call, and can control basic iPod functions from the headset. $96.

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Kodak Theatre HD Media Player

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day / By /

Kodak is the latest vendor to enter the media player market. They’ve named their product simply Theatre HD Player, although their website implies there may be more models to come.

The Theatre HD Player (we’ll shorten it to THP) connects to your HDTV (via HDMI if you’d like) and to your network either via Ethernet cable or 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

It can suck in audio and video from PCs on your network, Internet Radio, can play back iTunes & M3U playlists, as well as content from USB sticks that you can plug directly into the unit. It also has a mulit-card reader that supports SD, MMC, CF, MS, xD, and SDHC.

The THP comes with a remote and EASYSHARE software. At just $200, Kodak has a seemingly solid entry to the market.

Buy now!

More info from the manufacturer
Price: $199.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Sonos CR200, Wireless Controller

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day / By /

sonoscr200Sonos has a new product, a wireless controller for your Sonos system that lets you control all your music in any room from anywhere. The full-color, 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen CR200 lets you control any of your Sonos controllers. You can play your CDs, music on your computer(s) or even Internet Radio.

Let’s say you decide to come downstairs and had music playing in your bedroom, you can use your controller to turn that off and play it in the kitchen instead. You can browse through albums and stations, perform searches with the on-screen keyboard or build playlists.

Perhaps one of the most forward-thinking features is the ability to determine what Sonos zone the CR200 is controlling, so you can listen to different music in different parts of the house.

Buy now!

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $349.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

5th Generation iPod nano features video recording

1 Comment / Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day, Portable / By /

One of the new products announced at Apple’s event yesterday was the new iPod nano, now with a video camera and pausable FM radio. The new iPod nanos now have a polished anodized aluminum finish and comes in 9 different colors. But the most notable feature has to be the video camera that is paired with the larger 2.2″ screen (240-by-376-pixel resolution). Sync up the nano to your computer and it’s just one more step to sharing your video on YouTube, Facebook, et al.

The FM Tuner not only lets you listen to live FM radio, but to pause it for up to 15 minutes. You can rewind as well. Also included is the ability to tag songs that you like, so that you can look them up later on in iTunes.

The VoiceOver feature speaks the artist and song title to you, and the Genius feature in iTunes can help you put together cohesive playlists.

The new iPod nano comes in 8GB and 16GB sizes.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: 8GB: $149, 16GB: $179
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Sony Walkman turns 30

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Portable / By /

In a day of MP3 players that hold thousands of songs, some of which are so small you can swallow, the Walkman seems blocky and ancient. Yet, the Sony Walkman (and all of its various imitators) had such an impact on our music listening habits that the brand name still survives to this day, 30 years after it first appeared.

For an amusing, and still insightful, piece on how far technology has taken us, you read Scott Campbell’s (13 years old) review of a Sony Walkman.

Happy birthday Walkman!

HDMI 1.4 specification is out – new devices may appear next year

Audio/Video, Home Theater / By /

HDMI has a new specification, version 1.4, which will allow for 2 new things: bi-directional audio via an audio return channel and data transfer via the Ethernet spec. So that can mean even fewer cables. Of course, it can mean even more consumer confusion.

On the bright side, having an Ethernet channel built into the cable will mean being able to hook up your AV devices with each other and your home network without extra cables. Devices that support the new spec may be out as early as next year.

The HDMI 1.4 spec can be downloaded from the HDMI Licensing organization‘s (founded by a number of big name electronics manufacturers) website.

Press release.

Digeo rolls out a slew of new features for its Moxi HD DVR

1 Comment / Audio/Video, Home Theater, Books, Music and Movies, Home Automation, Networking & Internet / By /

Digeo has rolled out a slew of new features for its Moxi HD DVR. If you have a Moxi DVR, then you can get these new services via a software firmware upgrade for free.

If you don’t have a Moxi, then you’ll want to consider getting one, as here are some of the new features:
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Kindle 2 e-reader announced by Amazon

1 Comment / Books, Music and Movies, Gizmo of the Day, Portable / By /

Amazon announced version 2 of the Kindle today, which will ship on February 24, 2009. Kindle 2 has a slew of improvements over the first Kindle such as:

  • Just over 1/3″ thick
  • Light: 10.2 oz (less than a paperback)
  • 3G wireless (and Amazon pays for the wireless bill!)
  • Improved e-ink display: 16 shades of gray & easier to read in sunlight without glare
  • Greater storage: hold over 1500 books
  • Text-to-speech – books to audio
  • 25% longer battery life
  • Built-in Dictionary

You can pre-order your Kindle 2 right now. You may remember that the 1st Kindle was in such high demand that many people simply did not get theirs. Their orders will be automatically converted to Kindle 2s without any action or additional costs on their part.

Holiday Gift Ideas: Dell’s tech ideas sorted by price ranges

Cameras and Photo, Computers, Gaming & Toys, Gizmo of the Day, GPS, Holidays, Portable, Software / By /

In case you didn’t know, Dell sells way more than just their computers, primarily electronics, gadgets, and computer accessories, but as you well know, that’s a ton of stuff! Anyway, they’ve done a nice job of putting together a nice collection of gadgets sorted by price.

There are 3 price ranges: under $100, under $200, under $300 and everything else above that which they are cheekily calling “Ultimate gifts”. Products include everything from USB Flash drives, cameras, monitors, printers, MP3 players, laptops, GPS all the way to high-end big screen TVs.

Dell’s Hot Gift Ideas

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