stone

If it were possible for a company to spoil its products rotten, Creative would be one of the guilty parties. We recently saw how it coddled its "Zen Wav" with a cushy dock, and now it's pampering the "Zen Stone Plus" with a portable speaker system.

Just look at the new "TravelSound"--it practically cocoons the MP3 player as it nestles safely in its perfectly sized dock, resting horizontally as if ready to take a nap. The speaker system will go on sale next month for $69, according to Fareastgizmos, though we're … Read more

I guess maybe the marketing folks behind Creative's Zen Stone music player, the company's answer to the iPod Shuffle, are consciously avoiding corny references to the word "stoned." But in this new TV ad for the little guys (via TechFresh), I definitely think the corporate-training-video soundtrack ought to have been replaced with some Pink Floyd. I mean, come on, they're music players, not elevator music players:

The whole thing kind of bears a slight resemblance to that "bouncy ball" Sony TV ad, which certainly set off a wave of imitators eager to make … Read more

In breaking news, Creative has announced a teeny tiny little screenless MP3 player that looks rather similar to the iPod Shuffle, only slightly larger and considerably glossier. Called the Zen Stone, this 1GB flash player sports a 10-hour battery life, a 0.0mm (0-inch) non-existent screen, support for WMA- and MP3-format music and it comes in six colors.

These specs may not sound immediately stimulating, but wait--this little chap is going to go on sale for 27.99 pounds (about $56). Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a price not even the homeless would balk at--it's half the cost … Read more

Idio is an online music magazine that launched late last year. Idio looks and feels like a paper magazine, with turning pages and some pretty slick-looking layouts. What's neat is that Idio isn't just made up of text and photos, there are also music and video clips embedded right into the pages. Users get content fed to them by an algorithm that selects articles or clips (it thinks) you might be interested in based on your favorite bands. Content comes from all over, either from blogs or music news feeds.

To drill down into your musical tastes a … Read more

We never thought we'd see competition for the diamond-studded "TrekStor i.Beat Organix Gold" but, unfortunately, we've been proven wrong once again. The "KVA P30" is another media player lined with diamonds, though in this case fake ones. So even though its cost and availability are unknown, we seriously doubt it will approach its rival's $20,000 price tag. It won't make up for its ersatz stones with higher-end features either: The player may have a 2.4-inch screen but can only store 1GB of video and audio, as BornRich says. But … Read more

Taiwan-based MSI did a nice job, or so we thought, with its "Crystal Collection" of luxury laptops released around Thanksgiving. Its designers, however, apparently thought that something was missing, but what? Why, more crystals, of course. Never be satisfied with anything if you can overdo it, we always say.

As BornRich notes, the company's latest line "takes the bling inside too" with stones around the touchpad in addition to the studded ring around its logo on the lid. The rest of the story remains the same, with the innards including an AMD Turion chip, up … Read more

It's behavior like this that gave rise to the phrase, "Everything in moderation." This "over-pimped" BenQ-Siemens phone, according to Gearfuse, will be auctioned at the IT Month conference in Taiwan. Those aren't real diamonds, so don't expect it to fetch million-dollar phone prices, but it does apparently bear the signature of a Taiwanese singer. Who would buy such a mini-monstrosity? Why, the owner of this beautiful Mercedes, of course.

The more high-tech we get, the more is seems we try to hide it. Maybe The Flintstones actually took place in the far future on Mars, and all those stone electronics were just to keep the Zen in their lives.

Here are more items to go with your wooden multimedia computer and wooden LCD.

Wood Contour offers computer peripherals in a variety of woods and "stone." Depending on the materials you choose, a USB keyboard, USB wireless mouse, and a 17-inch or 19-inch LCD monitor is about $3,775.

While the items are pricey, the options are plenty. … Read more

If it's possible to have a polar opposite to the "Hover Mouse," it would be this decidedly terrestrial Stone Age version reportedly from Russian designer Neko.

No, there's nothing terribly Crave-worthy about this Jurassic item, at least from a technology perspective. But given that we're often accused of being Luddites--OK, Neanderthals--we thought we'd beat our friends to the punch before they sent it to us. We doubt that it's solid rock, but it still achieves that fossilized caveman look that so many of us aspire to.

But if you'd rather go the … Read more