planets

Finally, speakers that aren't afraid of a little color

For all the innovative, unusual and creepy designs we've seen in loudspeakers--not to mention expensive--it's surprising how boring many high-end systems can look. It's reminiscent of the PC industry, which lived in a beige and gray world until Apple came along with the first iMac.

Urban Fidelity is one company that's apparently learned that lesson and has responded by selling a line of "Duevel Planets" speakers online for "hip music lovers, not tweaky audiophiles." Not only do they come in neon colors, according to Audio Junkies, but the German-made loudspeakers are … Read more

Buy a newspaper, get the new Prince CD

Next Sunday, Prince fans in the United Kingdom will be able to get a new 10-song CD, Planet Earth, simply by buying a newspaper.

The Mail on Sunday has bundled CDs several times before, and they usually have sold about 2.5 million papers with these promotions. By way of comparison, the top-selling album this year reached sales of only 1.7 million copies in the U.S. as of July 4. So this is a no-brainer for Prince: he immediately gets his music into the hands of 2.5 million people, some of whom might then buy concert tickets, … Read more

Signatunes: Add music tracks to your e-mail signature

Last week FoxyTunes rolled out a cool new feature called Signatunes that lets users add whatever music they're listening to as their e-mail signature. Users with the latest version of Foxytunes get access to a button that integrates into supported e-mail and blogging services. Clicking it inserts a small link that lists artist and song information. This link goes straight to the song's FoxyTunes Planet page--a helpful service that aggregates artist information from various music reference sources on the net, and in many cases includes a preview, or free streamed version of the track.

I had a go … Read more

PlanetOut gets new investors

Struggling PlanetOut said Monday that it has struck a deal to raise $26 million in new funds from private investors.

The publicly traded company, which runs the PlanetOut and Gay.com Web sites, as well as Out and The Advocate magazines, has seen its revenue drop and its losses widen in recent months.

Among those investing, as noted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is Bill Gates' investment arm, Cascade Investment LLC. Other investors include Special Situations Funds, SF Capital Partners, PAR Investment Partners and Allen & Co. The investment is coming from the sale of roughly 22.8 million shares of … Read more

Light-up planet balloons for your over-the-top home planetarium

What is it with these astronomy gadgets that aim to recreate the cosmos inside your living room? I totally dig some of them, like the laser star projector, but some others just go way too far. These are the Furawito floating lamps made by the Japanese company TakaraTomy, and they're a little bit excessive, to say the least. They are, essentially, helium balloons that happen to be shaped like the earth and moon, with LEDs to make them glow. Yeah, totally unnecessary. They cost about $27 apiece--waste of cash.

Plus, you'll need to replenish the helium. That sounds … Read more

News Roundup: UPS Delivery Intercept, YouTube Mobile, McCain's MySpace punk'd

UPS re-direct service goes live. Ever missed a package because it got delivered to your house or apartment while you were at work? UPS has introduced a new service called Delivery Intercept that lets you redirect, hold, and return a package en route, avoiding such mishaps. ( CNET News.com)

YouTube to launch mobile site. The popular video-sharing site is readying a version of its site optimized for mobile viewers. The only reason there hasn't been one sooner is an exclusivity clause with Verizon, from a deal inked last November for Verizon's V Cast service. (via GigaOm)

Google Pack expanded. … Read more

The Freewebs forum widget is handy

Freewebs is a Web site creation and hosting service that's been around since 2001 and has served more than 17 million registered users. Besides hosting photos, blogs, and user profiles, they've also got a group of customizable widgets that can be added to any site or social networking profile. This morning, they rolled out a widget that lets you host your own discussion right on the page, complete with admin controls that can be accessed without having to go off site. In fact, users can register, reply, and browse through threads without ever leaving the widget.

We've … Read more

A clock-orrery mashup may be more trouble than it's worth

The pages of Crave have seen many a strange clock recently. In fact, we may or may not have imposed a moratorium on writing about creative clocks, even the kind that wake you up with bacon. But this one, featured on Technabob, is really worth a mention because of its sheer convolutedness.

Basically, this Japanese clock, which doesn't even look like a clock, is modeled off that classic old astronomy gadget called the orrery. A number of little aluminum "planets" circle a central body, and you decipher the time by "reading" the position of the … Read more

Seven free chat apps to get in touch with other users

Last time we covered services that required no install or downloads to get a chat going. Today we're looking at seven embeddable objects and extensions for your browser or Web site that give you some additional features over those services:

Weezu is a small extension for both Firefox and Internet Explorer that creates a cartoon-like chatting area on the bottom of your browser. Users get their own avatars, and the interface is completely skinnable. Like some of the services we covered in the first chat roundup, Weezu requires no registration to get going.

Me.dium. This plug-in lets you … Read more

Tiny IM with Planet Minibox

Planet Minibox gives you an embeddable shoutbox you can put anywhere on your blog or Web site. Visitors can leave a message or strike up a conversation with others in real-time. Think of it as a mash-up of comments, instant messages, and a full-fledged forum. What separates a Planet Minibox shoutbox from others is the tabbed interface that lets you strike up private conversations with another user simply by clicking their name.

Despite its fairly simple user interface, the administrative back-end of Planet Minibox is quite advanced. If you're comfortable with managing user accounts, your Planet Minibox doubles as … Read more