vase

DIY Weekend: Protect your precious flowers with Ewoks

What's cute and fuzzy and ready to defend your precious flowers to the last petal? Why, an Ewok Village flower vase, of course.

For barely $10, supplies from your local arts and crafts supplies store and your own backyard or neighborhood park can help you show off your Star Wars street cred. In the final installment of our Crave series based on projects from Bonnie Burton's "The Star Wars Craft Book," a crack team of crafters fights for what's right by turning a common glass jar and some twigs into an Ewok village flower vase. … Read more

Scream loudly and carry a big vase

Good thing the Shouting Vase wasn't around back when news anchor Howard Beale urged viewers to open their windows and shout, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." That famous scene from the movie Network would have really lost its punch with this thing.

The plastic jug, which weighs less than half a pound, is all about muffling your screams, not broadcasting them. Reportedly popular in Japan, a culture widely known for discretion, it's designed to fit over the contours of your mouth and absorb your shouts, emitting a … Read more

A speaker for the RCA Dog, if he had an iPod

If retro is indeed the future, at least where design is concerned, then this item may be destined for immortality. The "Phonofone II" amplifier--excuse us, "sculptural audio console"--is a ceramic rendition of the gramophone done in iPod white, GeekSugar says. That's no coincidence, as it's been designed specifically for use with said media player (though we suspect it'll work with other MP3 devices as well).

What's even more unusual, however, is that it works by way of "passive amplification" through the player's earphones and therefore requires no external … Read more

Chinese vase packs a mean woofer

You heard it here first: The next trend in home media gadgets will be on the dinner table.

It started in Japan a few months ago with the "Supper Sound System," which hides speakers and other media gear in fake bottles, cups, and other dinnerware. Now, URBoom has modified its "Boom" system to include a Chinese vase that houses a 25-watt subwoofer to complement its 2.1 speakers, according to Shiny Shiny.

We're already anticipating the next addition, which seems inevitable: an LCD dinner plate.

The poetry of big-screen TV displays

How do companies decide what images to show on their huge TVs at trade shows like CES?

"You look for stuff that's challenging for a display. Fast motion, snow," said Bruce Tripido, senior director of the marketing entertainment products division at Sharp Electronics. "If you see images that don't move much, you know their screens can't handle it."

After you see a few hundred displays, however, they begin to blur together and form a new visual art form. It's a commentary on our times really. Here's what I saw in a … Read more