The Walkman has certainly come a long way since that bulky cassette player. Yes, I still have one on the back of my closet, but it probably won’t get as much play as the NWZ-W252, which is Sony’s newest entry into the classic line.

This one-piece MP3 player is part of the W series, which means it’s water-resistant. However, this is the first MP3 player in that series (the rest are headphones). In other words, you have absolutely no excuse not to do five miles in the rain — unless you consider laziness to be a valid excuse.

Aside from technology, Walkman design has also really evolved. The NWZ-W252 features a wrap-around neck design not just for the headphones, but for the entire device. The whole thing wraps around your head!

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Do you have an ugly TV? I’m not talking about one that distorts Evangeline Lilly or makes Christina Hendricks look flat chested. If that sounds like your TV, you might have a Poltergeist issue. Instead, I mean those ones that look like a severe wire hazard, ones that could catch ablaze at a moment’s notice and take out three surrounding neighborhoods.

If that sounds like your hot mess, ZVOX may actually have a prize for you. The company just kicked off an “Ugly TV” contest.

In case you aren’t familiar with ZVOX, the company has made quite a name for itself creating single-wire products. Get it? So if you’ve got a nest that could be housing a family of squirrels, ZVOX wants to see it and possibly give you a ZVOX Z-Base 550 home theater system to solve your cable clutter problem.

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Yeah — it’s hard to believe that someone would want another monthly fee, paying 10 bucks for streaming music that they can’t even keep. However, people have actually been shelling out $15 for the privilege of Rhapsody. At least those thousands of fans should be happy to hear that the service has sliced its price.

In a move to keep on rocking, the service just announced plans to cut $5 off subscription prices, which will make unlimited streaming $9.99 per month.

That’s great for existing subscribers and anyone else thinking of making the leap. Still, it’s hard to believe that in a world where millions of music fans are still pirating up a storm (yes, they are), this music service is managing to stay afloat. Good for them.

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Could you be loved? Or at least love Bob Marley-branded electronics?

We are used to seeing the Rastaman’s face emblazoned on T-shirts, college walls and weed paraphernalia worldwide. Now, Marley will soon grace a line of consumer products made by HoMedics.

The venture is a HoMedics/Marley family joint (no pun intended) titled The House of Marley. The initial products will include boomboxes, docking stations, ear buds and headphones, with the intent to develop other categories in the future.

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We’ve heard that music can calm the savage beast, but this just seems kind of ridiculous. Pet Acoustics has come up with My Pet Speaker, a speaker system that’s specifically designed for our animal friends.

Now don’t get crazy. We don’t expect Bandit to belt out Black Sabbath or relax to the soothing sounds of Yanni. It’s actually designed for human counterparts. However, while you are cranking out the crap rock, the system tweaks the sound so it will be less sensitive on the ears of dogs, cats and horses — in case you have any of those curled up on your living room couch.

We get it. High and low frequencies that we don’t notice so well can scare pets from the living room. Our dog actually prefers the bed anyway, so what’s the problem?

Those that truly love the animal kingdom can also add the Pet Acoustics Application for the iPhone. It’s $1.99 at the App Store and includes multiple tracks composed for you and your pets. Hmm… suddenly, Yanni doesn’t seem so bad after all.

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Joe Scilley used to be an interior renovator, and then he started making incredibly beautiful custom turntables from recycled and reclaimed wood.

On March 14th, Oakland-based Scilly debuted his Audiowood decks at the city’s FiveTen Studios and put a number of different designs on offer, including pieces made from redwood burl and walnut.

One visit to Scilly’s Audiowood site though and it becomes quickly apparent that these one-of-a-kind turntables are selling out fast. However, he’s also available for custom-order work.

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I feel the need to start off this post by disclosing the fact that I am an audiophile of sorts and I did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling about the idea behind this product right away. That being said, it turns out the people over at InAir Technologies are on to something here. How do I know, you ask? Just the other day I walked out of my downtown office building only to see an unsuspecting guy listening to his iPod while riding a bicycle, cruising up to an intersection where I could clearly see an SUV quickly approaching with the driver on a cellphone. I wanted to yell “look out” but what good would that have done?

The driver of the SUV slammed on the brakes but it was too late, the man on the bike went for a nice ride right up onto the hood but, only for a second, before sliding down onto the ground. I stood there in awe of the fact that they were both completely clueless and I remember thinking how easily this whole thing could have been avoided. It couldn’t have been more perfect timing as I knew the AirDrives were at home ready for the test.

Now that I have bored you with my ”you had to be there” story let me cut to the chase. Unlike traditional ear buds which fit snugly into your ear to block outside sounds, the AirDrives comfortably wrap around the back of your ear while hovering right outside of the ear canal. This means that you still get plenty of volume all while allowing you to stay aware of everything around you. If the guy on the bike would have only known!

The best way I could possibly explain the sensation is that it sounds as if someone is constantly following you around with a great quality boombox. Not only are these earphones perfect for busy urban areas but they also have a children’s version made with your kids health in mind. These earphones do not directly channel the music right into your child’s head (or adults for that matter) thus preserving their young developing sense of hearing.

The comfortable and seemingly durable design has a frequency range of 20-20,000 Hz and sensitivity of 98db at the source with 80db at the inner ear. The four foot cable also has a convenient volume control built right in, making volume adjustment on the fly a lot easier than reaching into your pocket or band to fumble with a digital wheel volume.

The child version retails at around $49 while the adult version is a cool $79. Check out AirDrives.com for more info.

Forget about everything you have ever known about home audio entertainment, the Squeezebox Duet Network Music System is here. If you are a true fan of music you are probably sick of downloading mp3’s at a buck a pop and regular old commercial filled FM radio… especially if you know about all Internet radio has to offer. With quality Internet streams from the the likes of Sirius and Slacker the Logitech Squeezebox is all you will ever need for home audio entertainment.

With it’s sleek interface and stylish looks Logitech’s Squeezebox Duet will allow you to access millions of songs from Internet radio or even your own play lists. All of the music is CD quality, and controlled through the easy to operate handheld device. The best part of it all? With one system, Logitech gives every member of the house the flexibility to listen to their own music.

Configuring this personal DJ could not be more simple. All you have to do is grab one little firmware download, setup your network information, and optionally enter your login information for your favorite user service. It should be noted that Logitech has relationships with the Internets top music providers such as; Radio IO, Radio Time, Live 365, SHOUTcast, Sirius, Pandora, Rhapsody, Slacker, MP3tunes Music Locker, Live Music Archive, and LAST FM.

At $399 this product may seem a bit pricey but, with all of that money you would have otherwise spent on CD’s or .mp3’s this gadget will more than pay for itself.

[ Via SiriusBuzz ]

Heads up, Apple — there’s a new cowboy in town, and its name is Ripserver. Taking an Apple-ish design nod for all things sleek and shiny, this new unit (set to officially release on March 1 but available for pre-order now) lets you store, rip and serve in one tight little package. With an aim to make the process of ripping all of your CDs as simple as possible, Ripserver is a true standalone piece of conversion storage — no monitor, no keyboard, just plug the unit into your network connection and your files are at your fingertips, quickly converted by inserting your CDs into the slot loading drive for a full disc rip in minutes (you can even adjust the MP3 options to set your own bit rate).

The embedded operating platform runs on Linux with an integrated UPnP server and USB access for direct access from computer to peripheral and back again. Ripserver is available in two different storage sizes — both 500GB and 1TB — and is compatible with any media player or device that can network share. Reserve yours now for £599 – £699 directly from the manufacturer’s website.

…or at least for hapless mid-level musicians that can’t manage to fine-tune by ear. In fact, many new musicians abandon their attempt at playing simply because they can’t properly tune their guitar/bass/violin and nothing seems to sound right. When my friend gave me a guitar years ago I quickly learned that the trick was to first get the low E string on pitch and then tune each remaining string relative to that tone — then I found out that my low E was as in-tune as a wailing cat. So what’s a starter to do?

Pick up the eNote Clip-On Digital Chromatic Tuner to take all of the guesswork out of your notes. The eNote works in one of two ways: first is the Mic mode that monitors the sound of your instrument and lets you know if you’re in tune or not. If you’re on point, the display shows the note in bright green display; if you’re off, the display turns red. Simple, right? But if you need even more perfect guidance, the Clip mode — attaching directly to the neck — monitors the vibration of your instrument directly, and features a 360 degree rotating display so you can keep monitoring as you play without constantly stopping to check that you’re in tune. Because the display is backlit the monitor is bright enough to read anywhere, even on the darkest stage. The eNote normally retails for $39.95, but you can pick one up over at Elevation Music for the low low price of $19.75.