MP3 Aloud

The Imo Resonance Speaker is kind of false advertising, it is, for one, not a speaker at all.  The Imo is an MP3 player with 2GB of memory.  The speaker part of its definition is understandable though, with its one special gimmick.

The Imo can play music aloud whenever it is placed on a solid surface.  Pick it up and the sound goes away, but it back on your desk and the music begins again.  Pretty novel actually.  At a little over $45 it’s kind of pricey for only 2GB, but that doesn’t diminish the fun factor.

iTunes University?

iTunes has become the home to audio lectures from professors at universities across America. “Learn anything, anytime, anywhere” is the site’s tagline for its compilation of educational downloads.

Available with or without an iPod, iPhone, iPad or even a Mac, simply download iTunes and listen to lectures from over 600 universities including Stanford, Yale and MIT. In addition, video and PDF files along with other media types are available for some offerings.

Geek Sugar has 11 other ways to get free classes online. It’s really amazing what is available out there.  I wonder how long before most universities begin offering an online version of their degrees.

Listening like a Doctor

Antrepo Design has gone where I’m surprised no one has gone before.  The company has recently introduced stethoscope headphones.  The headphones come in three fluorescent colors as well as classic white and black.  Instead of actually having a stethoscope head on the phones that portion plays as the headphone jack for your MP3 player.  Nice design.  I don’t know how well they’ll stay in your ears if you use them during workouts though.

Back in Black

The Wii is the game console of the moment. With its motion controls and Nintendo only games the likes of Mario, the Wii’s latest innovation is less revolutionary and more aesthetically focused. The Wii has finally taken a new look. This summer (August to be precise) the Wii will be coming out in black. The new look was announced in June.

If you don’t already own a Wii now you’ll have a choice. It’s not quite the variation we see in other consoles or MP3’s, but it’s a step in the right direction. We all love variation. There’s no word on if the black Wii will come with any hardware upgrades, but don’t worry, the Wiimote and the Nunchuck will match the black console as well.

Deliciously Musical

The new ipod shuffle is small and kind of lacking in Apple’s usual showy design department.  A small silver brick that you could lose just as easily as you can buy one.

While much has been said about the design and the problems related to the ipod shuffle the fact is the bland little baby opens itself up to the design creativity to everyone else outside of the apple network.  Chocoshuffle is just one such bit of designer brilliance.  The ipod case is just as delicious as the name makes it sound.  Basically you can dress your ipod as a lovely little piece of chocolate rather than as a sleek silver glob (this is much more cute).

The Chocoshuffle comes in dark chocolate, white chocolate, and strawberry chocolate.  Just remember, just because this makes the new ipod shuffle a bit more interesting it doesn’t make the thing any less easy to lose.

Play Music

Lego has really hit the ground running with it’s digitized products recently.  From mini speakers to cell phones the brick look just never gets old.

Now there are two new brick modeled gadgets on the market.  The lego MP3 player and the lego boombox.  With 2 GB storage and color display the MP3 players are pretty cute (especially with a $39.99 price tag).  They look just like you could have put them together all by yourself.

The boombox on the other hand isn’t quite as builder friendly, as it’s designed to look like a singular brick in and of itself (though a rather large one).  It plays both the radio and CD’s and has a digital clock.  Priced at $39.99 as well the only decision you’ll have to make is whether you need your music to travel with you or not.

Play it Outdoors

Summer’s coming and it’s time to examine the new music scene outdoors.  Household music systems aren’t quite as rugged (or as exercise enticing) as a basketball hoop.

Spalding has recently released its iHoop .  It’s a combination basketball hoop and outdoor stereo system. Though the name obviously caters to ipod users the sound system should work with most MP3 players.  The hoop contains an ipod compartment and control center in the hoops base, where the built in speakers also reside.  The only catch is that the music is not battery powered, so an outdoor outlet is necessary to fully enjoy some warm up music before a pick up game.  It makes more sense than trying to practice free throws with any MP3 player clipped onto the waist band of your shorts.

Traveling Music

It’s another portable speaker, but this one is attempting to be especially fashion friendly, and cute.

The music balloon (currently only available by order from Japan) is a portable speaker that looks like a clowns nose attached to a white wire.  It’s simple in that all you need to do is plug the speaker into any headphone jack and you have music.  Let it dangle, swing, whatever, as you listen without the aid of headphones.

The music balloon comes in any of five different colors for personalization and added cuteness.  But this speaker may have to stay in Japan and stay cute for the almost ridiculously high price of $80.

Speaking Small

Lets be honest, some portable speakers aren’t all that portable.  Well, the X mini has a new design, and new features, and remains pretty mini, and pretty portable.

The X mini II is slightly larger than the original X mini, but with features to match.  It can be charged through a USB connector cable, can boost volume of laptops, MP3 players, and phones, and (if you get your hands on more than one you can chain them together to get especially pumped sound.

With a small globe esque design the X mini II is backpack friendly, which is exactly what a portable speaker should be.

A Reading Voice

Scanners are incredible, color photos, signatures, articles, all can be duplicated.  Yet, can a scanner go beyond the visual? Beyond saving a file to creating one?  The answer is yes.

The Book Reader V100 is up and running and ready to create MP3 files out of the written word.  It’s a simple and silent way to create your own books on tape.  I can’t say anything about how nice the digital voice will be to the ears, but it’s a start.  Think of the possibilities?  Get me a scanner that can copy my comics into video files and then you’ll really have something .