Music

In some ways this speaker system is the polar opposite of the super-thin model just blogged. We're talking about direction this time, not dimension. Now that we've thoroughly confused you, read on.

Where the Final Sound model lies flat and immobile, the "TIME Five" from SpeakerCraft can be mounted flush on the ceiling but can "automatically drop down to a 15-, 30- or 45-degree angle and then rotate to aim toward any position in the room." With a remote control, the company claims, it can create a "theater in motion" experience.

We … Read more

If the world is truly flat, as the electronics industry would have us believe, then why do most speakers still have some dimension to them? Final Sound is trying to address that conundrum with its wall-mountable 300i series, which stands 4 feet tall but is only 1 inch deep, according to Shiny Shiny.

Final Sound says the speakers and two new subwoofer models can be used with any brands of audio and video equipment. If this dimension-less trend keeps up, we may all be disappearing into the nearest wall.

As the retail industry learned long ago, it's never too early to start targeting products at consumers--and that means kindergarten or younger. So which brand do you turn to? The gold standard, of course: Disney.

Following the Mix Max, mobile phones, DVD players and countless other products, the OTO music player from Japan's Run-At is targeted at the youngest of consumers with the Disney imprimatur. Newlaunches says the square-shaped MP3 device has no built-in memory and works only with Windows software. But it costs only $25 and bears the images of Minnie Mouse and Stitch in pink and … Read more

MP3 players have already become fashion items and, as they've shrunk to Lilliputian size, we were wondering how long it would take for them to be designed as jewelry. After all, why take pains to sew them into clothing when you can make a statement right on your body?

That's apparently the thinking behind the limited-edition MusiQ from BenQ, an aluminum-magnesium music player that doubles as a dog tag, complete with a metal earphone chain. Anything But iPod says a 512MB version of the player will be available in December for about $88, but pricing for a 1GB … Read more

It wasn't that long ago that mobile devices were pretty easy to distinguish from one another: A phone looked like a phone, a PDA looked like a PDA, etc. Today, everything could be anything, at least at first glance.

When we first saw this MP3 player from Germany-based Maxfield, for example, it could have been any number of gadgets or combinations thereof but--gasp--it just plays music. The "MAX-IVY" does display pictures on its 1.8-inch screen but has no video, camera or phone, according to Tech Digest. So why do we like it? Two reasons: It has … Read more

Note to Intempo: There's a concept known as too much of a good thing. That idea is apparently a foreign one to the company, which just began shipping its new monochromatic "I-Series" speakers apparently to match the iPod Nano's color spectrum, though it will work with other MP3 players.

This reminds us of the matching shirt-tie combos that were popular in the '60s and made a comeback in the '90s (as did everything else). You can mix and match, but that would kind of defeat the purpose. Once again, originality eludes designers in consumer technology.

CNET senior editor James Kim and his family are missing.

The 35-year-old Kim, his 30-year-old wife Kati and daughters Penelope (4 years) and Sabine (7 months) left their home in San Francisco last week on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest.

They were last seen on Saturday, November 25, in Portland, Ore., according to the San Francisco Police Department, which has opened a missing persons' investigation. They were driving a 2005 silver Saab station wagon with California personalized plates of "DOESF."

Those with information about the Kim family's whereabouts are asked to contact the SFPD immediately--at … Read more

Ah, cubic zirconia. How would underpaid journalists get married without it?

In August, Apple filed for a patent that would protect the use of zirconia as a casing material for a number of wireless handhelds, including a certain still-unannounced-but-geez-where-is-it product: the iPhone.

Apparently, zirconia is a good material for any small device that needs to transmit radio frequency signals--like cell phones--in that it is strong enough to protect the internal components but wireless signals can still easily pass through, according to Apple's patent filing, disclosed Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office and spotted by numerous Apple … Read more

Clearly, Swarovski crystals have cornered a market in consumer technology. We're not sure what market that is, exactly, but they've cornered it.

There's no disputing this fact with the introduction of these crystal-encrusted headphones, which Cool Hunter says were designed by DJ Donna D'Cruz in a variety of colors (shudder) for a mere $2,500. The phones are the latest to join Swarovski's unfortunately growing collection of mice, phones, laptops and, yes, refrigerators. Who needs a disco ball?