duet

Move over Dr. Dre; we have legendary crooner Tony Bennett to thank for this week's giveaway. Yep, you read that right. We're talking about the one and only Anthony Dominick Benedetto.

Bennett has teamed with Koss, a longtime maker of audio products, to create the Tony Bennett Signature Edition Stereophones in honor of his 85th birthday and the recent release of Duets II. The CD features Bennett singing his greatest hits with such artists as Lady Gaga, Queen Latifah, Natalie Cole, Willie Nelson, and the late Amy Winehouse.

Bennett first donned Koss headphones in the early '60s. Fifty years later, his comfy-looking Tony Bennett Signature Stereophones come with the standard 3.5mm plug, as well as a 6.3mm plug converter, enabling them to adapt to different systems. The headphones fold flat for storage in an included durable cloth-covered case so you can easily tote them along when you leave your heart in San Francisco--or anywhere else. … Read more

To consider the plight of the modern woman, all you have to do is read the plaintive experience of a Gizmodo writer who went on a date with a man she discovered to be the world champion of Magic: The Gathering Player.

So how can one not be both relieved and delighted that a group of dedicated designers in San Francisco has created the Crave Duet USB vibrator?

Fox News stepped out to relay the buzz surrounding this machine.

The Crave team, entirely unrelated (as far as I can tell) to CNET's Crave blog, is attempting to enter a market gap by offering what it calls "discreet, compact luxury vibe."

For myself, there are very few places in which a luxury vibe ends up being both discreet and compact. The Four Seasons is not compact. And one could hardly describe my local Starbucks as discreet.

I am sure, therefore, that quite a few humans, both men and women, will be fascinated by the idea of luxury portable pleasure.… Read more

On Call runs every two weeks, alternating between answering reader questions and discussing hot topics in the cell phone world.

Q: I saw that the long-awaited Interphone study finally came out. I'm concerned about the issue and was looking forward to the findings. Given its mixed results, have you changed your position on cell phone radiation? - Jose

A: As you note, Jose, the International Agency for Research on Cancer finally published the results of its Interphone study on May 17. The $24 million study attempted to determine whether long-term cell phone use leads to an increased risk of … Read more

In the land of iPhone clones, the Duet W002 is the "cloniest" we've seen. Not only is it the same general shape as the iPhone, but also its menu design, even down to the icons, is a rip-off of Apple's device. In this case, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery. Emulating and building on someone else's successes is one thing, but it's quite another to offer no ideas of your own.

Like the Duet D888 and D8, the W002 has two SIM card slots, yet that remains its sole highlight. Average performance … Read more

CNET reviewed the JBL Duet II PC speakers earlier this year and had some good things to say about them, though we did think they were a little short on bass. Now we got our hands on the step-up model, the Duet III, which offers the same design but the speakers are blown up in size by about 25 percent.

The package includes zeppelin-shaped speakers measuring 4.6 inches by 4.6 inches by 12 inches (the Duet IIs are 10.5 inches tall). Their fronts have a metallic silver mesh (read: cloth) covering the speaker grilles while their backs … Read more

Back when we first saw the Duet D8 on the Beyond E-Tech Web site, we pegged it as an iPhone clone. After all, it looked a lot like Apple's device so we were intrigued by what it might offer. But after some study, we realized someone had photoshopped the iPhone's menus into the D8's frame and our interest began to wane. And now after putting the D8 through its paces, we can report that it's not worth much of a look at all.

Like the Duet D888, the D8 offers the welcome ability to make calls … Read more

The Logitech Squeezebox Duet was given an enthusiastic Editors' Choice award when CNET reviewed it back in March of 2008. But the audio streamer is a two-part product that's heavily reliant on Wi-Fi (both the iPod-like remote and the base station communicate to each other--and your home network--wirelessly). And many users have experienced a problem wherein the Controller (the remote) fails to reconnect to the network or recognize the Squeezebox base station after "waking up" from a period of inactivity. The issue has been widely reported online, from CNET's user reviews to Logitech's own support forums. … Read more

We promised it to you last month, and here is CNET's first review of a dual SIM card cell phone. We know the Duet D888 from Beyond E-Tech is not the first dual SIM phone ever, but it is the first one we've reviewed. Even better, it is the first dual SIM card phone widely available in the United States. You can get it for $199 from National Geographic and Cellular Abroad.

With the D888, you can make calls and send texts from two numbers on the same handset. Outside of a few usability quirks, the arrangement works … Read more

iPhone clones (or iClones) are a dime a dozen, but this model caught my eye. Sold by Houston-based Beyond E-Tech, which also produces the Duet D888, the D-8 only would confuse someone who's been living in a bunker for the last three years.

It's about the same size as the iPhone, but the display is much smaller (2.8 inches) to make room for a calling controls, a dedicated music player button, and what look like soft keys. And to be honest, while the D-8 apparently has an accelerometer, I'm not even sure the 65,000-color display … Read more