Music

With the iPod clothing business practically all sewn up (sorry), the cottage industry seems to be turning its sights to the Pottery Barn crowd. But while products like the iCushion appear destined for the living room, the Mi speaker pillows--which come in neck or rectangular shapes--can be taken with you on a plane or car ride. Chip Chick points out that the red cushions even match Bono's iPod color scheme, though Hammacher Schlemmer notes diplomatically that they'll work with any MP3 player too.

Cue the Deep Purple. Air guitar, that time-honored musical tradition generally best left for performances in garages and basements, has just gotten a big boost from technology.

Scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation have created a T-shirt that adds a real-life sound track when wearers strum their imaginary instrument.

Textile motion sensors embedded in the shirt sleeves detect motion when one arm bends and the other fake-strums. They then send the information to a computer that interprets the data and plays it as a series of guitar riffs.

Fortunately, the contraption is wireless, so there are … Read more

Reuters says that Papa Steve Jobs has agreed to let six airlines (Air France, Continental Airlines, Delta, Emirates, KLM, and United) provide iPod hookups to their in-flight entertainment systems as of mid-2007. The hookup would let you watch iPod-stored videos on seat-back monitors, thus allowing frequent fliers to avoid watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest four times in a month.

We might find this news compelling if we weren't so disappointed that Zune release day didn't bring a rumored (but we admit, extremely unlikely) release of the "true video" touch-screen iPod.

The Phoenix IP Radio is a rather horrid-looking thing in an iPod'ish way, but it's definitely onto something: Portable, battery-powered internet radio streaming via built-in speakers and with no PC involved.

Just the fact that the Phoenix runs a Wi-Fi transceiver and its own amp & speakers on 4 AA's inspires a certain admiration. It has 8 preset station buttons, just like a car radio, and is also an alarm clock. Stream support includes ASX (Windows Media) and PLS (Shoutcast) playlists.

I don't imagine it sounds great with 2 watts of audio power trickling out of … Read more

When Stephen Colbert launched his "Green Screen Challenge" a few months ago--encouraging fans to fill in the background of a video of himself running around with a "Star Wars" lightsaber--it was kind of a dorky novelty, much like Colbert himself. Now, brainy indie-rock act The Decemberists are jumping on the bandwagon. The five-piece Portland, Oregon-based group, best known for accordion-filled sea-shanty rock and lyrics full of words that you haven't seen since the SAT, has teamed up with MTVU for its own green-screen challenge.

Here's the lowdown, thanks to music blog Stereogum: The Decemberists … Read more

We know what you're thinking: Another MP3 player, this one built into a watch. Big deal.

That's what we thought at first too, until we looked a little closer this "FMP3 Watch" from Tokyo's RareMono Shop, which we learned of through Gizmag. What caught our eye is this USB-equipped watch's ability to record audio from a variety of sources with or without a computer, then play it back wirelessly through your car stereo and other systems with an FM transmitter controlled on the wrist.

And, unlike some other watch devices, it actually tells time.… Read more

When Stephen Colbert launched his "Green Screen Challenge" a few months ago--encouraging fans to fill in the background of a video of himself running around with a "Star Wars" lightsaber--it was kind of a dorky novelty, much like Colbert himself. Now, brainy indie-rock act The Decemberists are jumping on the bandwagon. The five-piece Portland, Oregon-based group, best known for accordion-filled sea-shanty rock and lyrics full of words that you haven't seen since the SAT, has teamed up with MTVU for its own green-screen challenge.

Here's the lowdown, thanks to music blog Stereogum: The Decemberists … Read more

This is one of those products that can either be really hot or really stupid, depending on how it's being used and by whom. We sadly think we'd fall into the latter category, so Fujitsu's "Turn Table PC" will probably remain a concept for us even if it does go into production as promised in the next couple of years.

Still, we can look, can't we? The laptop's unique design, as described by OhGizmo, features a cover that doubles as a touch-sensitive LCD panel that allows you to control your MP3 player. The … Read more

Given the types of headgear on the market these days, you'd think everyone was either trying out for the Olympics or trying to kill themselves in some type of "extreme" activity. For the record, we at Crave are not in either camp.

We are, however, very much into creature comforts. Like hats. Especially in the winter. And what better way to fend off the cold than to do it while entertaining oneself with a built-in MP3 player? The Audex Padded Hat made by Burton and Motorola, which we found on Gearlog, is our kind of roughing it: … Read more