Philips Tapster won't hit retail stores

Philips' sleek and unique stereo Bluetooth headset, dubbed the Tapster for its slick touch-sensitive controls, garnered early praise from press and even took home an iF Product Design Award. Sadly, the gadget will never grace retail shelves, and while Philips elected not to enlighten us as to why, I think I have an idea: It doesn't work.
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Android 1.6 installer released for Zii Egg developers

A few months back when we had a hands-on with the Zii Egg, a Creative spokesperson said the company would provide the Google Android operating system after the device ships. Well, things appear to be going according to plans and, as promised, Zii Labs, the wholly owned subsidiary of Creative, has released the Android 1.6 installer for developers.

For those not in the know, the Zii Egg is positioned as an OEM product, so users may never actually see an official Creative-branded Zii Egg. In layman terms, the handset is simply a shell for developers to work on Creative's Plaszma platform. The Egg resembles the first-generation iPhone and supports multiformat HD video playback, HDTV output and accelerated OpenGL ES. It also has a scalable ZMS architecture that's supposed to be more efficient, while delivering a more media-rich experience on the device.

The developer edition of the Zii Egg is available from Zii Labs.

Sonic fabric neckties actually make music

The music may be horrible, but if you rub a tape head over these ties you can actually hear jumbled sound collages recorded from the NYC metro system. This is possible because the ties are 50 percent audio cassette tape.

If you have US$90 to spend on one of the ties, and you are willing to sacrifice an old Walkman for the project, you can make this a fixture of your formal wardrobe. Of course, walking around with a broken Walkman asking everyone to rub you with it is not recommended.
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Apple morphs iPod touches into POS handhelds

Since 2005, Apple stores have been ringing up purchases with wireless handheld point-of-sale terminals. This always felt a little odd partly because you never see a register, but mostly because the devices run Windows. Not anymore!

Apple is in the process of retiring its massive fleet of Windows CE handhelds, made by Symbol Technologies, with custom-designed iPod touches. The initial announcement made this sound like a self-satisfied, gloating move by Apple, during which it happily--and publicly--ditches its clunky, ugly, jury-rigged handhelds for sleek, shiny iPod touches. But judging by these photos nabbed by AppleInsider, this isn't quite the case.
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iAudio E2 now available, tackles iPod shuffle

Is the iPod shuffle just a little too boring for you? If you like your MP3 players small, cheap, and stylish, but prefer actual buttons to Apple's odd headphone-clicker voice navigation, the iAudio E2 from Cowon may be just the thing--that is, once someone can explain to us how it works.

On sale for the first time today, the 4GB iAudio E2 is priced at US$64.99 from Jetmall. The key-ring-shaped MP3 player is 1 inch wide by 2.5 inches tall by and 0.3 inch thick, and is meant to be worn on a necklace. Like the iPod shuffle, the E2 is an audio-only device, but tackles a different range of audio formats (MP3, WMA, FLAC, Ogg, WAV).

Like most MP3 players out of Cowon, the real clincher is audio quality. A total of 8 JetEffect audio enhancement presets are included (BBE, BBE VIVA, BBE VIVA2, BBE Mach3Bass, BBE MP, BBE Headphone, BBE Headphone2, BBE Headphone3) to squeeze your music for all its worth. A built-in voice guide is used to browse and select from the sound enhancement presets.

It all sounds great in theory, but there's no telling how well the E2's navigation works until we get our hands on it. At least it looks like there are a few real buttons, which might make up for the confusing hieroglyphics on the front. Right off the bat, though, I have to say that 11.5 hours of battery life isn't exactly dazzling. Also, lack of AAC support is going to be hard to swallow for iPod expats.

Via CNET reviews

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