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Music Vortex Speakers

Designer Eric Zheng’s Music Vortex (XI) is a container that produces vehement vibrations of water via resonance. It allows one to watch what music “looks like” instead of just listening.

The device’s built-in metronome enlarges music rhythm to stable vibration and produces pretty ripples through the vibrating perch in the middle. Beautiful dazzling light radiating the passion of the music throughout the water. Volume is adjusted by turning the 3nod switch located in the middle as well. Though this is just a concept, the idea is pretty novel and would likely be a real conversation piece. What do you think?

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Written by Trend Spotter on May 28, 2007 | No Comments

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Apple Files Lawsuit Against Sex Shop

Nowadays it seems as though everything is getting the i makeover. Ever since Apple unveiled the iPod in October 2001, it has become one of the most popular portable media players on the market. And with its popularity came the popularity of all things “i.”

Another product getting ‘i’ enhanced is the iGasm, a vibrator by Ann Summers that connects to any music device through a headphone jack that will…you guessed it…vibrate to the beat.

Needless to say, Apple wasn’t overly enthused about this new product which uses the company’s recognizable ‘i’ in its name. But what really irked them was the fact that the iGasm’s ads were practically identical to the signature Apple silhouette ads. According to the Product Reviews Net, Apple is now threatening to sue Ann Summers for using this image for her iGasm advertisements.

Written by Trend Spotter on May 28, 2007 | No Comments

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Joox.net

Joox.net (Image courtesy Joox.net)

Joox.net is clearly meant to compete with the new Joost streaming video service but they seem to have one slight advantage at the moment. While Joost has gone out and legally secured their content Joox.net doesn’t seem too worried about the law and has amassed a pretty impressive collection of movies and TV shows available as streaming Divx files.

The site does use the Divx web player (as opposed to Flash) which means you’ll have to install it if you haven’t already. And unfortunately it also means Joox.net doesn’t work with the Nintendo Wii’s browser either. The videos aren’t exactly DVD quality but compared to other streaming sites like YouTube it’s like watching a 4K digital print. The list of available films contains plenty of B-movie titles but there are also quite a few flicks definitely worth watching. (Blade Runner for example.) And if there’s any doubt regarding the legality of Joox.net you can also watch the second half of Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End if you missed it in theaters this past weekend. For those who prefer TV the site also has a pretty up-to-date collection of popular shows if you missed them the first time around.

A quick WHOIS search of the domain reveals that Joox.net is based out of Sweden which could mean the site will keep operating for at least a bit longer before it inevitably gets shut down.

Written by Trend Spotter on May 28, 2007 | No Comments

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Toshiba’s In-Car HD DVD Player

Toshiba Automotive HD DVD Player (Image courtesy Tech-On!)

While the battle over high-def disc formats wages on in the home Toshiba appears to be making a preemptive strike at the automobile market. At the ‘Automotive Engineering Exposition 2007′ the company showed off a prototype in-dash HD DVD player they’ve been co-developing with Alpine Electronics.

I’m not sure if the unit included a pop-up HD LCD screen but without one it seems kind of pointless to use an HD DVD disc in the first place. But I guess with newer movies being released to the HD DVD format people are starting to amass collections they will eventually want to use on the road.

Toshiba is hoping to actually release the player sometime in 2008 and is no doubt also hoping the HD DVD format is still a contender in a years time.

Written by Trend Spotter on May 28, 2007 | No Comments

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Royal Canadian Mint Unveils $1 Million Coin

Royal Canadian Mint $1 Million Coin (Image courtesy Reuters)

If you’ve ever visited Canada you’ll know the $1 and $2 coins they use can be a bit annoying since they tend to weigh down your pockets. But as usual it’s the millionaires around the world that suffer the most. A few weeks ago the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a giant gold coin with a face value of $1 million CDN.

Weighing in at a pocket-bursting 220.5 pounds (or 100 kilograms) the extra-large pizza-sized coin is claimed to now hold the record for the world’s largest and highest denomination. It’s also the purest ever produced with a 99.999 percent purity level. Oddly enough with the current price of gold the coin is actually worth twice the $1 million face value which makes it seem like a pretty good investment as long as you’re willing to break the law and deface or destroy official currency.

Understandably the coin is being produced in a very limited quantity so don’t expect to stumble across one in your change bowl some day.

[ Spare any change? Canada unveils C$1 million coin ] VIA [ Geekologie ]

Written by Trend Spotter on May 27, 2007 | No Comments

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Gaming Is 40 Years Old – Do You Feel Old Yet?

Most of today’s Xboxers, wii-meisters, Playstation players and portable video game junkies flip on their consoles and handhelds with little knowledge of the gaming legacy that came before them. This month marks the 40th anniversary of the day Ralph Baer, a German-born inventor who fled to America from fascist Germany, built and played the first home-video game. While I didn’t know much about Baer’s “Brown Box” before reading Magazine’s retrospective, Console Portraits: A 40-Year Pictorial History of Gaming, I can’t help but get a little nostalgic for the days of Atari, Nintendo and even Gameboy.