music

How to Convert Cassette Tapes to MP3s for Free on a Mac

3 Comments / Books, Music and Movies, Tools, DIY, Home, Office / By /

My wife recently was deep cleaning and ran across a few tape cassettes that she remembered she really liked and asked if I could convert or digitize the tapes to MP3s for use in iTunes and on her iPhone. I figured it wasn’t a big deal so I told her I could before I thought through the process (that’s fairly typical for me). In any case, converting tapes to MP3s using a Mac ended up being simple enough. After the jump, you can read my step-by-step how-to on converting cassette tapes to MP3 on a Mac.
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Interface your Guitar to your Computer via USB

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

guitar to usb linkHere’s an inexpensive way to get your guitar ‘hooked up’ to your computer (PC or Mac) – a Guitar to USB interface. Plug your guitar’s output into this, and then plug the USB cable into your computer.

It comes with a PC software driver and has this variable speed playback function, so you can slow down those tunes to learn. It also has a headphone jack so you can hear your jams.

Buy now!
Price: $9.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Spracht AURA BluNote Bluetooth Speaker & Speakerphone – stream your music from your phone

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

If you’ve managed the migration of your music from your MP3 player over to your phone, but would like to hear it from a speaker instead of through headphones, then this Bluetooth speaker may be just for you.

The Spracht AURA BluNote speaker lets you stream your music via Bluetooth from your phone. Includes bass boost and ‘stereo widening’ feature.

It stores up to 8 BT profiles, so your friends can pair their phones with it [wonder what happens when you try to compete to use it?!] It can also be used as a speakerphone.

Buy now!

More info from the manufacturer
Price: $92.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Mvix updates Ultio media player – Ultio Pro can now record with DVR

2 Comments / Audio/Video, Home Theater, Books, Music and Movies, Gizmo of the Day, Networking & Internet / By /

mvix ultio pro mx-880hdMvixUSA has updated their flagship media center product, the Ultio, to now include DVR (digital video recording) capabilities. The Ultio Pro plays back Blu-ray quality 1080p hi-def video, photos, and music on your high-def TV via HDMI and stores it all on its internal hard drive which you can get as large as 2TB.

And now, the Pro can record video on the fly from your cable/satellite TV, your camcorder or from DVDs, instead of acting just as a repository. The Ultio Pro is a virtual Swiss Army knife of video, image and audio formats including: mp4, avi, iso, asf, wmv, flv, mkv, rm, ts, mpg, vob, mp3, wma, aac, ogg, flac, jpg, bmp and gif. To see the full list, download the Formats PDF from MvixUSA.

And of course, the Ultio Pro plays back media from your network and the Internet, including from your computer and from services liks Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and more.

Buy now!
Price: $169 without hard drive; $384 with 2TB drive. (You can buy the barebones version and insert whatever sized drive you’d like.)
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Novation’s Launchpad is a next-generation musical instrument/DJ

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

novation launchpadThis was too colorful, interactive and cool looking not to feature – the Novation Launchpad built together with Ableton is a 64-button grid that you use to create and control music. The buttons can be set to do anything really – play notes, trigger sequences and much more.

Launchpad comes with Ableton Live 8, but can be used to control other music software as well. You’ve got to take a look at the video to see what we’re talking about here: …

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Apple to buy music streaming service, LaLa

2 Comments / Audio/Video, Home Theater, Networking & Internet, News / By /

LaLa is a music streaming service that I’ve been toying with lately. I quite like the interface; they’ve done a great job with it. They also have an interesting business model in that they charge 10 cents for every song that you want to add to your ‘collection’, which you can then put into playlists. There are also free ways to listen to music as well and you can buy MP3 versions for  $0.89-0.99 in most cases.

Turns out that Apple likes what LaLa is doing and have decided to snap them up. I wonder whether this will be an autonomous subsidiary or integrated into iTunes in some manner. My guess would be for the latter.

Netgear Stora – store, backup, share and stream your music, photos, video and data

2 Comments / Computers, Gizmo of the Day / By /

As consumers generate or collect an ever-increasing amount of digital content in the form of photos, music and especially videos, home storage solutions are growing in popularity. But what’s also becoming more important is that this content is accessible from anywhere and not just in the home. Netgear is one of the companies trying to solve this problem, and one of such product that fits the bill is the Stora MS2110.

The Stora has a very consumer-dedicated website that shows off all of its sharing and streaming capabilities, such as:

  • share your photos and videos with your friends
  • access your files from the Internet
  • stream music to your phone
  • push photos to your Facebook or Flickr accounts
  • Back-up your PCs and/or Macs

The Stora can hold 2 SATA hard drives, so you can mirror the data if you’d like for more protection. It ships with one 1TB drive for lots of initial storage.

Just one word of warning. Some of these features, particularly the sharing/access-over-the-Internet is only possible with a premium $20/yr service via Netgear’s Stora service. See the differences in features here.

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)

Speedo Aquabeat – Waterproof MP3 Player

2 Comments / Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day, Miscellaneous / By /

Speedo Aquabeat

I do enjoy a good relaxing trip on my $multi-million yacht, listening to my music whilst basking in the glorious sunshine, that is until my iPod gets wet and dies on me… Yeah right. But the point is, it could happen and Speedo have engineered solution to this (or, most likely, a gizmo so people can listen to music whilst swimming) – a waterproof 2GB MP3 player that doesn’t actually look ugly! 2 GB of storage should keep you entertained for long enough with about 500 songs on it and has a nice subtle look to it, where most other waterproof devices can have very tacky color schemes and patterns.

The AquaBeat easily attaches to any swimwear items, and will float to the top of the water if dropped and comes in shades of green, pink or black. You also get all the usual usability as you would get with any other standard MP3 player.

Buy now!

Price: TBA
(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)

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