disguises

Change your voice and add sound effects easily

MorphVOX Pro is a voice changer application with sound effects and background tracks built in. (There is a free application called MorphVOX Junior from the same publisher if you want to evaluate the software.) The MorphVOX Pro software is aimed at those who want to communicate online either with a change in voice characteristics, or with different effects applied. The $39.99 software installs easily.

The MorphVOX Pro has two interfaces. The Studio interface is divided into five panes, one each for selecting preconfigured voices (Goblin, Shade, Cyborg, etc), pitch and timbre controls, sound effects, voice effects and a graphic … Read more

More than meets the eye: New, gadgety Transformers

The Transformers are hitting the big screen this July 4, and that means a whole lot of merchandising going on. Among the hordes of Transformers toys are Hasbro's Real Gear Transformers, a series of toy electronics that turn into robots. Remember Soundwave, the Transformer that became a tape deck? This is the next generation. Click for a slide show of all six Real Gear Transformers, plus the real-life gadgets we think they most resemble.

Whatever it is, it's really small

The other day we were complaining (yes, again) that electronics manufacturers sometimes seem determined to disguise their products, making them look different devices altogether. Well, we're apparently not alone.

Mobile Magazine makes a similar observation about the "Neo 808i" phone, which it says looks more like a media player because of its landscape screen. Even more notable, though, is how many features it crams into its diminutive frame. Among those are a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3 and MP4 player, FM radio, 128MB of memory, 3D graphics and Bluetooth connectivity. All this in an almost-miniature case that … Read more

Yet another trend: gadgets incognito

It's been noted repeatedly how difficult it is to tell what a lot of new gadgets do, based on appearance alone. But looking at various items that are coming to market these days, we have to wonder if some companies intentionally want to design products to look like something they're not. Check out the photos with this item to see what we're talking about.

This media player from Japan's Sunconnection at first looked just like a camera to us, at least on one side. But when turned around, as Akihabara News notes, the passionately named "… Read more

A Webcam goes on sale, incognito

The most noticeable feature about this item is that, by looking at it, you can't tell what it is. When we first saw a photo of Microsoft's LifeCam NX-6000, we thought it was a USB drive. (On second thought, it's not gold or bejeweled, so it's obviously our mistake.) Then when we found out it was a camera, we thought it was one of those 007-vintage spy gadgets we always wanted as a kid.

But it's a Webcam, and one made for a notebook at that, so it doesn't look anything like its more … Read more