Daniel Raffel’s Favorite New Geek Stuff Of 2010
Daniel Raffel is a former Yahoo product manager and a newbie entrepreneur. A year ago we asked him to write a guest post telling us about his favorite new products, projects and features of 2009. The post below is an updated list of his favorite new geek stuff from 2010. Looking back at 2010, I’m particularly struck by the quantity and quality of new projects that launched. Just when I thought I h
“Def Jam Rapstar” Raises the Roof Just Short of Greatness
SingStar or Guitar Hero for hip hop and rap is an obvious idea, but nobody’s done it right — or really at all — before today. Now PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii gamers have Def Jam Rapstar, an intriguing mash of hip hop sensibilities and social media savvy.Def Jam Rapstar is better than 2004’s Get On Da Mic (the only other release in the category) and leaves little to be desired for rap
From Accelerate 2010 In Singapore: List Of “Asia’s Top 50 Apps”
Earlier this week, I attended Accelerate 2010 in Singapore, a two-day tech and mobile industry event that attracted no less than 2,000 international attendees. Organizer and major telco SingTel (which boasts around 350 million customers worldwide) offered up a slew of presentations and panels. But giving in to my penchant for discovering Asian startups, I will just focus on Accelerate’s so-called
Sony's last cassette-blastin' boom box is precisely how Ruff Ryders roll
Sony may not shed a tear for the 3.5-inch floppy disk when it meets its maker in March, but you'd better believe the company's crafted a retirement plan for the format that propelled it to fame: the compact cassette. To be fair, the CFD-A110 CD / cassette boom box above isn't actually a new product -- it's a relabeled CFD-A100TV from 2003 minus the nigh-obsolete analog TV band -- but if you'r
The 40 Best Branded iPhone Music Apps of 2009
Music apps are a huge category of apps, and 2009 was a huge year for music apps. Music Ally sums up the year's biggest music apps for us here. 2009 was the year of the App Store, as Apple passed the two-billion downloads milestone for its store. The year also saw labels and artists jumping onto the bandwagon with their own branded iPhone apps. The most successful, like Smule's I Am T-Pain (picture
Arkeg Drink-n-Game Cabinet Hides 55 Beers Behind Breakout
The latest installment of the Arkeg Drink-n-Game is one glorious machine. While it will cost you $4000, the arcade cabinet hides a sixtel, or 1/6 scale keg, that's kept icy cold for your consumption. The Arkteg features a 24-inch 1080i LCD that's powererd by a Dell GX260 SFF—a bargain bin PC that can handle any MAMEing you have in mind. With the PC core, you score extras like Wi-Fi, DVD playba
Microsoft Songsmith's Corny Musical Infomercial
video Microsoft's Songsmith software, which creates Casiotone-style beats to match whatever off-key warbling is optimistically sung into a mic, finally has an ad as corny and annoying as the software itself promises to be. I know I've been clamoring for an amateur low-budget musical from Microsoft, because why should Phil's Discount Used Lawn Furniture of Blueball, Pennsylvania have a monopoly on my inv
Sega's Disco Karaoke Machine Twirls Its Disco Ball, Connects to Cellphones
Two things set this Sega Hitokara karaoke machine apart from the rest: it's connected to a cloud-based database of 43,000 songs via cellphone and it's got a whirling, light-up mirrored disco ball. Ohboyyes. Granted you'd have to be a fan of both karaoke (you strange person) and cheezy disco lighting, but what the heck—it's a neat gizmo, with built-in mic and speakers. But it only c
Kmart Black Friday Ad Leaks
Here's another Black Friday ad, this time from Kmart. Sort of slim pickings, but there are some decent deals to be had here. Some of the highlights are an Element 32" LCD HDTV for $399.99, a Samsung 42" PN42A400 Plasma HDTV for $699.99 and a Nextar X3-03 Text-To-Speech GPS System for $79.99. Hit the jump for the full list to see if anything is gonna make sitting in front of a Kmart at 4 in the mor
Tomy Hi-Kara karaoke cube is world's smallest
Filed under: Portable Audio Sometimes it's best to not ask why. In the case of the Tomy Hi-Kara, which they claim is the world's smallest karaoke machine (unless others have something to say about it), we will simply list off some specifications and dimensions then allow you to judge amongst yourselves, because, really, yeah. The Hi-Kara measures just 2.75 x 2.75 x 2.75-inches in a cube format wit
HP Pops a Pair of Notebook Refreshes for Pre-CES
It's an HP kind of night, apparently. The HDX Dragon, its beastly 20-inch gaming notebook, gets a shiny new gamer-worthy 1080p res screen: The world's "first 20.1-inch WUXGA XHD Ultra BrightView widescreen display." To pump all those pixels, the middling old GeForce Go 8000 video card is tossed in favor a 512MB 8800M GTS and the processors are spec'd upwards. Topping out the HD goodness is Blu-r
Sony: Sony NWZ-A818BLK Video Walkman now Packing 8GB
Sony has boosted the memory size of its Video Walkman up to 8GB. Available in four colors—white, black, silver and metallic pink, the NWZ-A818 still isn't the most beautiful machine on the block. Specs, price and shipping date after the jump.Operating System Windows XP, SP2 or newer Format MP3, WMA, AAC-LC, Linear PCM10 Frequency Response 20 - 20,000Hz (when playing back data file, single sig
Lip syncing Tengu adds some merriment to your USB port
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Portable Audio We know, you're probably on your third USB hub by now, but even if this forces you to purchase an entirely new machine in order to cram one more USB-powered whatchamacallit into it, it's simply a must. Meet Tengu, the USB lip syncer that politely sits beside your machine until it gets wind of nearby tunes, after which its face lights up and the digital mo
Cellphones: David Pogue's "Geek to Me" Show Airs Tonight
video Set the TiVo! David Pogue's new show Science Channel show, which he writes and stars in, starts tonight. 8 pm on the Science Channel! Every Fri for 6 weeks. Also on Discovery HD starting June 7. It's going to be like a 30 (60?) minute version of the funny videos we link to on the NYTimes every week. There's a video after the jump, with a mossberg-ish funk track for the video's opening soundtrack
CMTech K7, Is That Karaoke In Your Pocket?
The CMTech K7 is not a phone. That took us a while to actually believe, since it looks like a phone. But it's not a phone. That said... The K7 is billed as a pocket Karaoke machine, since its TV out can make an instant party anywhere with a television and a fifth of tequila. But for the shy, its 1, 2 and 4GB sizes still playback MP3s and video, and an FM radio serves as backup for when you are
MusicJam With Your iPod, Be Famous or Not
Slip that iPod into the MusicJam, plug in the included microphone and your guitar, and you have yourself a $229 recording studio. It even has XLR inputs, tipping its hat toward professionalism. If you're not looking for even 15 minutes of fame, there's also karaoke software included. Too bad it's not waterproof—it would be a perfect shower karaoke machine for our aqua-crooning editor
All Giz Wants: Shower Karaoke Machine
When Lisa Napoli of the NYTimes asked me what fantasy gadget I wanted most, I didn't hesitate. I told her I really wanted a shower karaoke machine. Santa, please make me a waterproof karaoke machine, with built in shampoo and soap holder. With an LCD, and wifi that can stream (heh) new tracks down from some buying service. And the microphones should have pitch change, so I can sing both the Dia
Roland's Karaoke Music Keyboard / Digital Hub
Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Nintendo, and others want to turn your living room into a Web-enabled entertainment center. Roland wants to make it into a full-featured karaoke parlor. Their new "VIMA" keyboard is a bizarre mash-up of digital piano, digital media hub, and karaoke machine. Plug in your iPod, hit center cancel to remove vocals, plug in one or two mics, and the keyboard transforms into a kar
Live from WWDC 2006: Steve Jobs keynote
Filed under: Features 8:23AM PST - Alright everybody, we're kicking off over here at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Be sure to book mark this URL, as even though we're doing a little pre-game coverage now, this is where it's all gonna go down when Steve takes the stage at 10:00AM. 8:25AM - Appleprechauns!9:11AM - Still waiting! Someone started a group chat at http://www.gabbly.com/http://ww
CAVS IPS-11G iPod Karaoke
The tides have turned. This is not an accessory to the iPod, but the iPod is an accessory to this. The CAV IPS-11G is an ultra-portable karaoke machine that would be terrific at drunken festivities. This karaoke player has a dock that can fit any of the dock-connecting iPods. It can also support any kind of USB storage. Plug the biznatch into your TV, hook up some microphones, lets the alcohol flo
Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Sony's PlayStation 3 E3 event
Filed under: Features, GamingStill waiting in line. We are still making our way over, stay tuned ...4:36 - The line is moving. According to EuroGamer, Hideo Kojima is "stuck in the queue." Should have something for ya soon ...4:42 - We are sitting down, getting ready to go.4:49 - Everyone's still filing into Stage 15 on the Sony backlot. Everyone's expectant and the mood is generally upbea
Music Thing: Scrambled Hackz
Filed under: Features, Misc. GadgetsEach week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment: It's like Karaoke gone wrong. You sing into the mic, but something very different comes out of the speakers. It's a jerky, warped version of MC Hammer trying to sing what you sang. Scrambled Hackz is a cobbled together mixt
Music thing of the week: The Electric Kazoo
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that’s coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment: Buying presents for music geeks is almost impossibly hard. If you’re determined, there are a few simple ground rules: 1) Anything made by Moog, Oberheim or Sequential Circuits will make anyone happy. 2) Built-in loudspeakers are not a mark of quality. 4)
Gizmodo Gallery: Amos Latteier
“Prosthetic Ass” (Latteier, 2000) Interview/Article by Jonah Brucker-Cohen In the world of creative interventions into popular technology, projects that make us question how we consume and use digital devices are often those that maintain our attention. Using this credo as a starting point, Toronto, Ontario-based artist, Amos Latteier creates work that explores the lighter side of technology. P
GIZMODO Gallery: Amos Latteier
“Prosthetic Ass” (Latteier, 2000) Interview/Article by Jonah Brucker-Cohen In the world of creative interventions into popular technology, projects that make us question how we consume and use digital devices are often those that maintain our attention. Using this credo as a starting point, Portland, Oregon-based artist, Amos Latteier creates work that explores the lighter side of technology. P