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 ]

Thanks, internet, for giving in that special way that only you can do. In a short break from fun buys, let’s take a look at what our future gadget inventors are up to these days. Remember the Science Fair? Solar system dioramas, spurting volcano models, and lots of construction paper… but these days, seems the kids are digging a little deeper to find out the big truths, like:

Crystal Meth: Friend or Foe?
What’s My Dog’s Favorite Color
Garlic: the Silent Killer
Fat Man to Mars
and… wait for it… EXTREME WOOD

Shake your head for yourself over at photobasement.com.

Unless you’ve been living under or rock (or are desperately hooked on the theory that the world is flat and circled by ship-devouring monsters), you’re probably awed again and again by the new views of Earth that technology has afforded us in recent years. From NASA’s Visible Earth to Google Earth, accessing celestial images of our world has given us a new appreciation of this beautiful blue marble, and ways of looking at it that decades ago we would’ve never thought possible.

So in the spirit of wonder, raise a glass for EarthDesk 4 from Xeric Design, a gobsmacking desktop view of the world (for PC and MAC). Available for immediate download, EarthDesk replaces your current desktop picture with a dynamic image of our planet that continuously updates throughout the day/night. The image is a snapshot of the globe, full of real-time clouds (you can even track hurricanes and typhoons), accurate sun, moon and city lighting, eleven different map projections and moonlight shading that can be turned on or off. EarthDesk uses the same Atlas database technology as Time Palette, providing the application with detailed geographical and time zone information for 10,000 cities throughout the world, and will automatically update your desktop when waking from sleep or moving locations. EarthDesk also features enhanced satellite, political and natural maps, plus it allows for user customizations, like cloud transparency, twilight shading, even centering your map on a certain city or having the map follow the moon/the sun for movement tracking.

This is an absolutely gorgeous offering from Xeric — download yours today!

The worst thing about wearing glasses? No, it’s not being called “four eyes” — we’re not twelve anymore. It’s when your specs get screwed up and you’re forced to shell out $150+ for new frames and another $100 for the lenses. Nuts to that. It’s these inflated prices (seriously, this stuff is made of plastic, Tupperware cranks out more sculpted product at a fraction of the cost) that force you to wear the same tired frames everyday, furiously scrubbing and buffing to smooth over months of cloudy crap, pretending like it doesn’t bother you that the stupid things start slipping off your nose when you bend forward.

So thank goodness for clever friends who are willing to take one for the team and order a whole bunch of new prescription glasses off of the internet (because we’re skeptical by nature and not willing to throw good money at bad product, sometimes you have to outsource the research). Zenni Optical sells complete prescription eyeglasses, frames and lenses, starting at $8. Seriously, $8. And the best part? It’s totally legit! The new glasses have been tested against the old ones and, wouldn’t you know, they’re just as good, if not better since they’re new and not yet grimy and gross. The site has literally thousands of fun frames to pick from, everything from regular reading glasses to sunglasses, so why not splurge? Call your optometrist to get your current prescription, order a handful of funky frames from the website, and get excited to start having more eyewear options — heck, start color coordinating with your outfit du jour, why not? They’re EIGHT DOLLARS. Sit on them, scratch them, throw them out the car window; the thought of losing or scratching your glasses suddenly isn’t so scary.

Thank you, internet. You’re the marvelous shopping mall that keeps giving and giving.

Converse may be responsible for bringing on this wave — a couple of years ago they launched a feature on their website that allowed chuck-lovers to pick and choose colors and patterns to create their own unique shoe. Vans followed not long after, and now Nike’s come on board with a section of their website called NIKEiD where you can build and buy your own shoe, selecting from their infinite collection of styles.

Just browse through the styles to select your favorite, and in the bottom left corner you’ll see an option that lets you START BLANK. Click the white canvas and away you go! Modification features include the selection of colors for each element, from the stitching to the swoosh; you can even get really adventurous and upload your own personalized design for the heel tag, or have letters stitched in instead. Final price? Curiously in-line with the stock versions — my personalized Nike Shox Rival Premium iD shoe came in at $120, the same price as it’s equal off-the-shelf style, the Nike Shox Rivalry Premium. Guess this means “they didn’t have a color I liked” isn’t a valid excuse anymore.

We’ve all got a few friends and family members that haven’t quite yet hopped onto the technology train, right? The kind that prefer VHS tapes to those newfangled discs and still transfer the bulk of their communications through the postal service. I’ve got one uncle that will still respond to my emails with typed letters mailed to my house days later; not sure how this is easier than simply hitting “reply”, just seems to be his way.

eSnailer has come up with a free tool to take a step back and send your digital messages the old fashioned way: using their portal, you’re able to address your own envelopes and type up letters that the company will then mail out free of charge to all of your throwback fiends. “Free? Nothing’s ever free!” Ok, yes, you guessed it — there are some advertisements you’re subjected to on the backend after hitting the submission button, but that’s worth the price of a stamp, isn’t it?

[via geeksugar]

Honestly, we thought it might be an intentionally off-the-wall op-ed piece when we first started reading Ashley Phillips’ latest article on the ABC News website titled “iPhone Fever: Not Everyone Buys the Hype“. With the iPhone release looming, it’s natural that reporters far and wide would grab at any straw to capitalize on the loudly beating media drum of Apple’s latest juggernaut, but as Ashley strapped in for her wild opine ride (with the assist of one wacky analyst) the critical go-kart seems to have veered wildly off the sensible course, crashed through a few logical barriers, and started racing the garbage truck.

In short, aside from a few odd critiques (she’s disappointed that the iPhone doesn’t support Flash or provide GPS service (because, you know, every other phone out there does, right? Let’s throw in a bottle opener too, I saw that on a gadget once somewhere), worries about the poor consumers that will surely be trampled and mugged at stores nationwide the day of the release, and raises concern about the glass screen being broken), the really rancid meat of this article is focused on the safety issues surrounding the iPhone. Specifically, what will happen if your children dare to use them.

Ashley joined up with Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group and didn’t bat an eyelash when offering up this choice observation:

“A lot of kids are going to get this phone. Kids do a lot of ['blind'] texting on their phones” without looking at the screen, sometimes while they’re driving, Enderle said. “With a touch screen phone, you have to look at the screen.”

Enderle believes it’s possible that teenagers could get into accidents while using the phone and, rightly or wrongly, many parents could end up blaming the manufacturer.

“One of these children is going to end up in someone’s trunk,” he said. “Often it’s the vendor that’s held accountable.“

Is this just public bone picking because someone didn’t get to participate in the beta testing, or are they really convinced there’s an iPhone/child abduction connection in the works? Maybe it’s time to switch to decaf and put away the tin foil hat.

For more entertainment, check out the ABC comment page for plenty of “you crazy!” feedback.

We ooh’d and ahh’d when Google Maps announced the satellite view on its mapping system back in 2005, and wasted hours flying the world over with Google Earth. Mapping technology has given us a lot in recent years, offering the opportunity to virtually discover the world from the comfort of a laptop. Last week, when Google released their new Street View feature that allows users to view more in-depth, street-level information on certain U.S. maps, we quickly scrambled to check for real images of our own homes and frequent haunts. In true internet form, it only took a few hours before the new tool became creepy.

Nevermind the detail to which you’re able to zoom (I definitely was able to spot my old boss sitting at his desk in a San Francisco office building), it’s what you’re able to catch people doing that’s making the news this week. Internet surfers far and wide with too much time on their hands are reviewing the captured images from San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami with a fine pick and unearthing some laughable — and disturbing — photos of people caught in the act. Using Google’s Street View feature, people are coming together to collect their own street view sightings over at LaudonTech, a gallery that continues to grow with new submissions posted daily. Next time you’re picking your nose in traffic, just remember: Google may be watching.

Skype is planning a nice gesture for users on May the 13th, Mothers Day. They will be sponsoring a day of free “global calling”, meaning calls within the United States and Canada will be free for the duration of the day.

On another note, a stat report entitled the “U.S. Residential Voice-Over IP Market Dynamics and Market Tracker” have calculated over 10.6 million households now regularly using VoIP applications, with Skype taking the majority of users.

I don’t know how the Unites States and Canada make this a “worldwide” promotion, but all the same - take advantage of this sweet offer and give your Mom a call this Mothers Day.

Via [UneasySilence]