You’ve gotta love these speakers that look like giant iPod earbuds. Unless your last name Bunyon or your first name is Green, these jumbo earphones will have to sit on your desktop instead of in your ears.

Part of the new lineup of whimsical products from Fred & Friends, these gargantuan earbud speakers are sure to draw looks sitting there alongside your laptop. They get their 500XL moniker since they’re about 500 times the size of a pair of iPod earbuds.

If you just have to have a pair, you’ll have to hold your breath for just a little while, since pricing and a release date haven’t been announced yet. (You might want to check with Perpetual Kid, since they’ve been known to carry much of the Fred line).

[via UberReview and Mike Ballan]

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The Nintendo DS Lite might be the most successful portable gaming console ever, but it won’t win any awards for pumping out lots of volume. This add-on snaps around your trusty DS Lite and gives it a serious boost in the audio department.

Gametech’s Sound Shell DLite adds on bigger amplified speakers to your DS Lite, but also adds some significant bulk in order to house the larger speakers and a battery compartment to power them.

The DLite isn’t just about sound. It’s actually designed as a protective shell for your faithful gaming companion, and has a built-in stand too. The Sound Shell DLite retails for ¥3,200 (appx. $30 USD).

[Game Watch via DS Fanboy]

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This slick-looking device clips onto your car’s visor, giving you seamless hands-free calling for your mobile phone. Bluetrek’s SurfaceSound Compact uses NXT flat-panel speaker technology to provide plenty of volume and clear calling quality using a Bluetooth connection to your phone.

The flat speaker/microphone is perfect for use with the iPhone or any other phone with Bluetooth wireless headset connectivity. The SurfaceSound Compact has a built-in rechargeable battery which can run for up to 15 hours (or 22 days standby) on a single charge. It can be charged using an included car charger or via a USB cable connected to your computer.

SurfaceSound Compact’s $100 MSRP seems a bit high to me, but I was able to find them for under $70 over on MobilePlanet.

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Alienware is showing off their latest high-end server, designed for use in home theaters and media rooms. The system contains everything you need for controlling your digital media in one slick aluminum box.

The Alienware HD Media Server (HDMS) comes in a dramatic brushed aluminum, rack-mountable enclosure, and provides a powerful HTPC under the hood. Powered by a smokin’ fast Intel Core 2 Quad core processor, the HDMS provides plenty of storage using a hot-swappable RAID 5 array with up to 4-terabytes of disk. 

In addition to a standard slot-loading DVD/CD writer, there’s a dual-layer Blu-Ray/DVD±R/W/CD-RW burner available as an option. The HDMS comes with a complete set of tools for managing your media files and offers high-definition DVR capabilities for recording and playing back content at up to 1080p resolution. 

There are a plethora of audio and video outputs including Component video, VGA, DVI/HDMI, digital audio and 7.1 surround pre-amp connections. The beast has two built-in CableCard compatible tuners, and can support a set of external tuners for recording up to four simultaneous video streams. Network connectivity is achieved using a pair of Gigabit Ethernet LAN connections, or via an optional 802.11N high-speed wireless connection.

The system is available only from custom installers at this point, so be prepared to drop some serious dough if you want one.

[via SlashGear]

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This old-fashioned looking alarm clock has a digital secret beneath its cover. It lets you take a custom audio clip and use it as your wake-up sound.

Just hook the battery-operated clock up to your PC via a USB cable, install the included software, and copy sounds directly to the clock to customize your alarm to your own preferences.

The programmable MP3 alarm clock comes with 30 pre-selected sounds including everything from frogs croaking to chirping birds to a roaring motorcycle. But the real fun begins when you use your own custom sound effects. It can hold alarm sounds up to 50 seconds long, and can be set to automatically repeat if you want.

You can grab the MP3 alarm clock from GeekStuff4U for about $37.

One of the most popular computers from the 1980s, the Commodore 64, is having a minor renaissance as an electronic musical instrument. The C64’s audio chip is famous for producing an array of warm, familiar 8-bit beats and blips.

As a result, the trusty C64 has become a popular platform for “circuit bending”, which is hardware hackers’ terminology for taking old technology, applying circuit modifications to output audio or video effects that the original device wasn’t necessarily designed to produce.

Now you can own your own circuit bent C64, without any electronic know-how. The circuit bending wizards from Bighead Electronics have made this extremely limited edition pre-modded C64, appropriately called the Bent64. 

The system comes completely loaded Paul Slocum’s Cynthcart, a custom program which helps the heavily modded Commodore produce a wild cacophony of retro noise as you press keys on the keyboard

The Bent64 is a ready-to-go electronic musical instrument, capable of cranking out 3-note polyphonic analog sounds, applying effects with a “whammy” tuning knob, and even stereo support if you can wrangle a second sound chip and install it in the provided socket. The Bent64 can even output a psychedelic light show through a composite video output, so you’re ready to rave out of the box.

Oh yeah, it’s still fully functional as a standard C64 with the flip of a switch before you boot up. So you’d better brush up on your Commodore BASIC.

[eBay Auction Page]

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I don’t know what’s in the water this week, but I seem to have a serious music theme going on here. Do you like to play piano? Got an iPhone? Well, if you happen to have jailbroken yours, you can now turn it into a musical instrument.

iPhone developer Mister Aardvark has just released iAno, a true multi-touch piano simulator for the iPhone.

The simulator offers a complete four-octave keyboard (you jump around the keyboard using the arrows at the top of the screen), with polyphonic sound allowing up to five keys to be played simultaneously. its loaded with real piano samples, making it sound just like the real deal.

Aardvark plans on adding additional features such as a complete 88-key keyboard, switchable sample sets, recording and playback, as well as support for loading .MID tracks and playing them back.

[Installing iAno via QJ.NET]

So what happens when you take the system sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98 and carefully arrange them in a music sequencer? Something pretty unexpected, I’d say. This is truly a case where the whole is definitely greater than the some of its parts.

UK electronic music hacker Robbi-985 managed to take the usually annoying system sounds, painstakingly sequence them with ModPlug Tracker and turn them into a composition that’s actually not half bad.

While it’s certainly no Beethoven’s 9th, it is pretty amazing that he managed to get all those sounds to work so well together.

I can hardly wait for the Vista version to come out.

[via Cynical-C via Neatorama]

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If you don’t already have a compact stereo for your iPod, you might want to check out this beauty. Featuring a natural looking cherry-veneered wooden cabinet, Versaudio’s Vers 2X certainly stands out from the crowd of plastic docking stereos which are a dime a dozen these days.

The Vers 2X offers room-filling sound thanks to a pair of 3-inch full-range speakers, powered by a 20-watt per channel (peak) class-D amplifier. The dual ported enclosure helps to produce extra bass boom despite the cabinet’s relatively small size ( 11.5″ W x 5.6″ H x 5.6″ L).

The $149 system includes adapters for playing and charging most iPod models including: iPod Video, iPod Nano, iPod mini, iPod, iPod classic, iPod touch and even the iPhone. There’s also a universal dock for other MP3 players. The Vers also includes a slick brushed metal 14-function remote control, which lets you control volume, change tracks, switch playlists and more.

As an added bonus, Versaudio takes an environmentally-friendly approach with their products. The 2X is built using wood farmed from sustainable plantations, assembled using screws instead of glues, and even comes packaged in 100% recycled and recyclable paper.

[Product Information]

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Can’t get enough of the sound of your own voice? This desktop bird plugs into your PC and parrots back what it hears.

The electronic parrot offers up an array of random phrases, plucked from the words it overhears, all the while gesticulating its mechanical wings. Just plug Polly into your computer’s USB port, and your fine feathered friend will get to yackin’ and flappin’ toot sweet. You can grab these birds from Thumbs Up UK for £19.99 (appx. $39 USD).

I’d love to get my hands on a bunch of these to recreate Disney’s Tiki Room in my cubicle.

Damn, now I can’t get that song out of my head.