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Yamaha and KDDI put together a group of concept mobile phones with musical themes, including a trumpet, guitar, DJ scratch pad, and drums. [MobileMentalism and AkihabaraNews]
We were pretty easy on those early gen Blu-ray players, but now that the format has had some time to blossom, there's no excuse for a unit like the Yamaha BD-S2900 or its US$1,200 asking price. Lacking BD-Live or an Ethernet port to upgrade the firmware should be enough to keep you away from this already outdated machine, but you may want to note that it's also lacking a way to decode TrueHD and Master Audio (you'll need a fancy Yamaha receiver for that, surely) along with standard luxuries like gold-plated connectors. If you go with this new, pricier Pioneer (or heck, even this older, cheaper Pioneer) you're getting more features, and the PS3 is still a pretty solid choice, too. Read on for the back shot and the full press release.
We've seen this crazy motorcycle exoskeleton before, but its inventor Jake Loniak has just mocked up a video showing what it would be like in motion. Yeah, we're pretty damn impressed, but the guy gets cocky:
The Tenori-On is the zany Yamaha touch-based musical sequencer that caught our eye earlier this year, but this cool PacklSound1 iPhone app could very well be the portable version that puts us over the edge. It's a simpler version of the original US$1,200 Tenori-On box, but that didn't stop the designer from laying down a quick, catchy beat. Seeing it in action, makes me want it right now:
Unfazed by Nintendo's Wii Music going over like a lead balloon at E3, Yamaha has its own accelerometer-based motion-controlled music interface that look oh-so familiar. The slightly more adult-looking wands use three accelerometers to feed movements to music software on a PC, and the 2.4GHz wireless receiver can accommodate up to 24 wands at once. It seems as if Yamaha is developing these more for music therapy for the elderly and disabled than entertainment, which sort of puts Wii Music in whole new context. [Tech ON via Fareastgizmos]
The YSP line is my favourite soundbar because of the sonar-inspired tech it borrows from cold war subs. The YSP-3050 is a new 23-driver model, second best compared to the 42 driver YSP-4000. The upgrade from the 3000 now has a front mounted minijack in, and HDMI upscaling. Like the higher end models, these will provide glorious surround, but unless you wall mount, the speaker blocks a few inches of your TV. [Yamaha]
Tenori-on, the versatile light-up synthesiser we love so much, is now on sale in the US. It pricey at US$1200, but there are only 60 available so if you want it you better move fast. [Tenori-on via Crave] ... Read More »
Yamaha has teamed up with lighting experts Koizumi to create these home theatre speakers with built-in lighting. Each unit has three 25W halogen lamps that are remote control-dimmable down to 20% brightness, designed to reduce the contrast between your TV picture and the wall behind to "ease the burden on your eyes." So, a kind of one-colour, non-reactive ambilight then, but the effect they produce is pretty subtle and saves you from installing moodlighting.
This Yamaha Disklavier Piano could be the most advanced piano we've ever seen, and we've seen several (forced piano lessons FTW). Not only does it have Wi-Fi to download MIDI files onto itself so it can play back songs, you can record performances—with vocals and other instruments—as well.
Art Centre Pasadena student Jake Loniak has taken everything that is cool about exoskeletons and motorcycles and crammed it into this Yamaha-branded Deus Ex Machina concept motorcycle. The vehicle is powered by ultra-capacitors and doped nano-phoshpate batteries (similar to the ones currently used in hybrid cars) and it is controlled using 36 pneumatic muscles with 2 linear actuators set along a spine consisting of seven artificial vertebrae. Even the helmet is pneumatically attached.
