Yamaha reinvents the digital piano

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

The Avant Grand sounds like the real thing. (Credit: Steve Guttenberg) Digital pianos aren’t new, but Yamaha’s Avant Grand is a very different kind of digital piano. Since Yamaha has been making fine “real” pianos for more than 100 years, its knowledge base is deep.

Ultracompact E50 (Credit: iriver) Q: I’m looking for a good replacement for my obsolete MP3 player, but I’m just tired of seeing the iPod that everyone has.

Give your iPod Touch some recording muscle

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

The Alsesis ProTrack now works with the Apple iPod Touch. (Credit: Alesis) If you’re in the market for a high-end, portable, audio recorder, but don’t have the ducats for something like the Sony PCM-D50 , the Alesis ProTrack may be just the thing

(Credit: (via Boing Boing) ) First off, massive geek respect to anyone who’s managed to hold on to their “Empire Strikes Back” AT-AT Imperial Walker from childhood. But it takes a geek visionary to tastefully slap a boombox into the side of one and paint the thing K.I.T.T

Cowon shows off D2+ MP3 player

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

The Cowon D2+ offers improved sound and an updated touch screen graphic user interface. (Credit: Cowon) Details on Cowon’s new D2+ touch screen MP3 player have been revealed on the Korean version of the company’s Web site. As the name implies, the D2+ is an improvement on the …

Indecent Exposure 37: Infinite excess

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Contests in context, when infinity isn’t infinite, and things that make us cranky. Listen now: Download today’s podcast Episode 37 Today’s links: News Fastest Nikon DX Lens Epic Edit’s complete guide to photo backup

DXG doubles up on compact HD camcorders

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

(Credit: DXG) While there have been no shortage of vertical-style mini HD camcorders at CES 2009 (see announcements from Kodak , Sony , and RCA ), there haven’t been any pistol-grip mini HD camcorders, mainly because the most recognized maker of them, Sanyo, didn’t have any announcements at the show. But …

Updated at 8:25 p.m. PST with preliminary test results, and at 10:36 p.m. PST with another photographer’s results.

(Credit: Sony) I’m sure there are still people out there that want to record standard-definition video directly to DVD. Sony, however, has made its latest DVD Handycams sort of bridge products between the past and present. The DCR-DVD850 (available in February for about $430) is a new “Hybrid Plus” ..

Pocketable flash-based SD camcorders from Sony

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

(Credit: Sony) With specs similar to the hard-drive-based SR-series Handycams, the decision to go with Sony’s new SX-series standard-definition camcorders comes down to whether you want a slightly more compact body and potentially better battery life and reliability or more storage for your money.