I love the YSP series soundbars from Yamaha, but two points: their prices, and fact that you can’t table mount em without blocking the bottom part of a flat panel. The Japan-only YSP-500 has only 18 individual sound beam drivers as opposed to 42 in the YSP-4000. It’s also only 24-inches long, will fit easily under a TV and costs only $647. It support “Dolby digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6″ and as Paul Strauss notes, you need a sub to really get the most out of this soundbar. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of HDMI inputs. If YSP wants to go mainstream, Yamaha should bring this setup here. [Technabob]
If you are anything like me, your cell phone takes a beating. If you’re not sitting on it, it’s getting scratched in your pocket, and if it’s not getting scratched you’re dropping it in the toilet. The SaY concept phone may not be able to withstand a good toilet dunking, but it’s rubberized exterior should be able to handle just about anything else you can throw at it. If the SaY was an actual product, it would also feature an angled keypad for better ergonomics, a 4-megapixel camera, and a pair of stereo speakers that are intentionally designed to resemble a dead cartoon character. A nice touch…I think.[Blue Map Design via Yanko]
Now that the Zune 2 features and services are all known, we should look ahead to what’s coming in Zune 3—at least, what we want to come in Zune 3. It’s not to say that we’re not satisfied with Wi-Fi syncing and Windows Media Center content support, it’s that, well, it’s capable of so much more. Here’s what we want in Zune 3:
This here is some fancy wallpaper that’s heat sensitive, changing the pattern when the radiator comes on. It’s a pretty sweet idea, and it looks cool, although I wonder if it goes from all to nothing like in these pictures or if it just stays in a halfway-there middleground most of the time. If that’s the case, which is likely, then no thanks. Hit the jump to see it with the radiator off.
If you’re expecting to be undistracted by the smooth, seamless lines of your PS3 as you faux jam on your Guitar Hero III controller to “Cult of Personality,” get ready for some eyesoreness. Since GH’s controller doesn’t work with the PS3′s built-in Bluetooth, there’s going to be some donglage hanging from the PS3′s USB ports, taunting you with their non-conformity. Admittedly, not a huge deal unless you’ve got aesthetic OCD, but if you’re at the multi-platform crossroads wondering which to buy, this little design boo-boo should help nudge you one way or the other. [Game Life via Kotaku]
Although the ASUS Xonar U1 may look goofy, it promises quite a lot of features in its cone-shaped body. Among them are a high quality digital to analogue converter, EAX and DirectSound hardware acceleration, 5.1-channel audio, a bundled array microphone, ambient noise suppression up to 20db, and a built-in headphone amp. No pricing or availability yet, but only Vista and XP support seem to be included. Sounds pretty great for laptops without decent hardware processing on board (which constitutes a good percentage of laptops out there). [Laptop Logic]
White is the new black is the new white, as Art.Lebedev anounces the Optimus Maximus is going to be blanco—not negro—at launch. Better or worse? [Optimus Project]
China’s Ocean Leader Development isn’t known for their cool MP3 players, but this PMP comes with a disappearing 1.8-inch TFT display, which means it only shows when necessary. Other than this, it’s a standard player with FM radio, built-in speaker, MP3/WMA/AMV support, e-Book functionality, and a circular control pad. We’re not saying we want this disappearing screen to be integrated into an iPod or a Zune, we’re just saying it’s one of those things that makes you go “Hey, that’s neat,” before you put it back on the shelf. [Made In China via PM PToday via Gadget Venue]
I found the skull-poundingly monotonous drum beat combined with a complete lack of voiceover and “oh my, you’re dumb, home viewer” finger-pointing a teensy bit annoying. But! It’s super easy to follow and it looks simple enough to build your own ghetto stun gun, so much so that I might whip my own up to put my four-year-old cousin in place when she’s bothering me by acting like a small child. [Metacafe]
The all-in-one desktop model seems to be the consumer honey pot these days, what with both the iMac and the Gateway One (among others) satisfying user’s unification needs with one shiny, slick package. This Xtreme XN1, from notebook maker Xtreme, seems to follow along the same lines with a fairly decent spec sheet and a large-sized monitor. Basic versions have a 19-inch display and a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, but you can pimp it all the way up with 1TB RAID, 1.3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi, 22-inch display, GeForce Go 7600, 2.93 GHz Core 2 Extreme, HD DVD drive and Dual Digital TV Tuners. Price starts at $1489 for the 19-inch and $1599 for the 22-inch. [Xtreme Notebooks via Crave]
