Take any stereotypical image you have of some inner city residents walking down the street in the mid 80′s wanting to share some of their favorite music with the rest of the world. In today’s world, we have things such as mp3 players, smartphones capable of streaming all kinds of content, and wireless headphones to aid in our sonic sharing. Those residents of Chicago circa 1982 however have nothing but a box and some beats.

The now iconic image of late 80′s life in the big cities illustrates just how important music was both as an entertainment medium and as a way to send a message. Walking down the street with the biggest, best sounding boom box meant you had power and/or money.

Walking around with a box big enough to house a small horse isn’t going to cut it these days. Instead of 5-10 songs on a cassette, tech savvy consumers of the year 2009 and beyond want at least 1,000+ songs in the palm of their hand. While the Rad Blaster 2GB miniature boom box/mp3 player won’t hold 1,00 songs, it is none the less a cool concept.

Is $59.99 too much to ask to bring a bit of the good ‘ol streets back into the forefront of your minds once again? I’ll let you decide that one. It would make a pretty cool stocking stuffer you know…

Gear Diary

Do you ever find yourself in the situation of wanting to share a song with a friend find sharing an ear wax laden bud too gross and the devices built in speaker (if it even has one) just not enough? There are plenty of options out there for those finding themselves in such circumstances. With an already saturated market, why not throw in another choice. Choices are king, right? With that in mind, the Portable Stereo offers up enough connectivity options that no matter the source, you should be covered. With inputs for 2.5mm, 3.5mm, SD cards, and a USB slot, just about any gadget you can think of really does fit.

Audiophiles and audio purists best stay away as quality is sacrificed pretty heavily in the sense of portability and convenience. But such individuals wouldn’t buy such a gadget in the first place as even their “portable” rigs cost upwards of thousands of dollars. If you can look past the mediocore sound quality and enjoy the portable speaker for what it really shines at — extending your audio enjoyment to others no matter the source — then this might just be the perfect stocking stuffer for you.

Purchase the Portable Stereo for $16.69

Thanks Frank

If you’re like most humans, you engage in the fairly normal routine of bathing. How much or how long varies from person to person, but a simple dip beneath the H20 molecules is something that benefits you as well as everyone else that has to smell/see you. One fun pastime of bath/shower time is singing a tune. Why does bathing give us the urge to sing? I’m not quite sure, though I’m not a scientist so I wouldn’t have the slightest clue in where to start such an experiment.

Typically gadgets/electronics and water don’t go together at all. When they do meet, disaster is guaranteed to happen. Listening to music whilst in the shower can be done by turning up the radio in another room, or placing a radio in the bathroom, away from any water. But there’s an even easier “cuter” way. The iDuck Wireless Waterproof Speaker.

The iDuck isn’t the first wireless water proof speaker. It is the first such speaker to gain the acceptance of your children though. I mean it’s cool. I kind of want one. Operating the speaker is as easy as you would expect. Simply plug in your audio source to the egg-looking dongle and get ready to enjoy wet, wireless tunes. According to the seller, CuteBitz.com, the iDuck can venture up to 10 meters from the mother duck…um…egg before audio cuts out. Be ready to invest in batteries though because the iDuck consumes 7 AA’s total — 4 for the duck and 3 for the egg. Yikes. It’s a wonder Mr. Quakers/iDuck floats!

Does £27.95 (~$47 USD) sound like too much for a noisy plastic duck who eats batteries and longs to be your friend? At near $50 it does require a bit of thinking. Anyone with kids sold?

• Purchase the iDuck

Pocket-Lint

Like many of the LEGO themed gadgets we’ve seen pass by us here at GS, the LEGO Earbuds are sure to appeal to that select group of “big kids”, those of you who never quite grew up. I’m sure a fair amount of you have bins chock full of those little plastic building blocks. If your friend, family member, co-worker, or even yourself find yourself getting all giddy over these LEGO Earbuds, you may want to go ahead and pick up a couple pairs. Colors include: black, red, blue, pink and white. Ensuring you get the proper fit comes by way of four included sets of different sized tips.

While the style and ability to conjure up memories of years past are strong selling points, as with many gaggy/novelty gifts, the main purpose of the gadget is often lost and left behind. In this case, sound quality is probably a bit lacking. Though it’s worth noting the manufacturer claims “decent” sound quality. Because sound quality is subjective, we’ll reserve a final judgement until we get a listen. For now, price and availability date elude us, though, it can’t be that long until you can cram some nifty LEGO earbuds into your head. Ready to be a kid again?

SlashGear > DAP Review

Interval Waterproof Headphone System

Those of you serious about music/podcasts and have a panache for swimming or excercise are in for a real treat.  H2O Audio released three new headsets, the Surge Pro (earbud headphones), the Surge Sportwrap (headphones that wrap around the neck) and the Interval Waterproof Headphone System, all which were designed to handle being submerged to 12 feet of water or even “heavy perspiration” while providing exceptional sound.

And those of you who are using the 3rd gen iPod shuffle will be happy to know that the Interval Waterproof Headphone System was designed to protect and provide specific controls for that iPod.  And the cherry on top is that the Interval Waterproof Headphone System includes the Surge Pro earbud headphones.

So those of you looking for more options for when you are working out or swimming, check out h2oaudio

Courtesy of ipodnn

Winter time can pose certain complications for gadget wearing foe. For example, while many walkers wear ear buds as their audio ear input of choice, easily slipping under most headwear, some prefer larger, more bulky styles. Obviously, these larger styles don’t always fit under headwear or simply look incredibly dorky. Thankfully a solution has entered into the arena by way of the iHat. Now I know the iHat is not the first contestant to vie for your hard earned cash in this niche, however, it is one of the more normal looking and functional options. As you can assume, the claim to fame for the iHat is that it keeps the stock beanie/winter hat form factor while implementing some audio beaters in strategically located places. In comparison to other styles of audio accessories like these that instead leave your head exposed, the iHat will keep you head nice and toasty while allowing you to keep the music blaring away in your head. As far as compatibility goes, a standard 3.5mm jack ensures that pretty that pretty much any device with an audio out/headphone jack will work with the iHat.

Perhaps the best part is the price — $25. Not too shabby in the least as many hats this style, especially designer hats can easily approach and surpass $25 while the iHat does everything those hats do plus going the extra mile and providing audio. Of course, for $25 and wrapped in a hat, don’t expect to be sonically blown away by quality. Still, $25, a warm head, and happy ears are might tempting. Are you hovering over the buy button yet?

• Buy the iHat

Source: Dvice, 7 Gadgets

If you like mashup gadgets, that is gadgets that try to impress by blending in multiple technologies, the wooden speaker-clock will surely be added to your list of must have gadgets. These wooden speakers look pretty normal to the naked eye, that is until your fire them up and see the digital clock shining through the wood. While it isn’t a particularly hard task to achieve, seeing any kind of light shine through wood causes one to do a double take just because it isn’t that common.

The two models, the Evergreen DN-WSP1802 (two-speaker) and DNWSP1406 (single-speaker) wooden speakers both feature a 3.5mm audio connection giving your universal connectivity with pretty much any device with an audio output. Sadly, these little wonders are only available in Japan for now meaning you’ll have to pay a pretty nice shipping fee — possibly even more than the modest $25 price tag. Gadget love knows no bounds…

[Product Page]

Source: Geeky-Gadgets, CrunchGear

Nothing says class and sophistication like a cute little monkey head blasting whatever it is that you call music into the open air. While some people use boring and more reserved styles of self expression through speakers, you aren’t one to sit back and blend in with the rest of normalcy that is called life. No, you expressive fiend you, you grab life by the horns and blare your music loud and proud through the Monkey Head Speakers and their 2W of output power. After blaring has come to an end, recharging these unique speakers can be accomplished via USB. As long as your device as a 3.5mm audio jack, you’re good to go, putting these little monkeys to the test time and time again. So round up your couch cushions, find some nickels and dimes and head on over to USB Geek with $10 in hand so that you can break from the everyday mold that encapsulates so many of us. Godspeed.

Source: Geeky-Gadgets, Coolest Gadgets, Craziest Gadgets

The iPhone 4G Nano was released in a multitude of different colors as to let people express themselves through their gadget favorite gadget. While it isn’t entirely new for Apple to release a product in a rainbow of colors, it is rather uncommon in the gadget world as a whole. Usually manufacturers will go with only a few colors in order to keep manufacturing costs down. Some popular colors of this lesser choice model include black, silver, and black. Radius Products’ “TruTune” earbuds look to break the mold and buddy up with Apple’s latest iPod Nano by coming in 9 matching colors. Radius claims the utmost sound quality and style. Given the fact that they’re only $19.99 I would question the quality claim as earbuds that low in price simply don’t have the goods to bring the sound. However, style wise they don’t look half bad at all. In fact they are rather attractive for a pair of earphones. Users who like randomness could even have a mix and match color scheme between their iPod Nano and TruTune headphones. The sky is the limit. Almost. So if your ears aren’t quite golden in that you can’t notice the difference between a 128Kbps mp3 file compared to a lossless FLAC file and you long for style more over function, the TruTunes may be exactly what you’re looking for. Yay or nay?

[Product Page]

Cnet