Gibson Guitar continues their reign as the leader in guitar and music technology when they announced their newest guitar, a self tuning and adjusting guitar, aptly named the Robot Guitar. With a touch of a button, the Gibson Robot Guitar automatically tunes to the key you select. You can actually see the knobs on the head of the guitar turn as each string is tuned. Not only do you get automatic key changes but the guitar constantly adjusts itself to remain in tune. You can play for hours and still have perfect intonations.

From the press release:

1. The Gibson Robot Guitar eliminates tuning problems for guitarists. It automatically tunes to standard A440 tuning.
2. It also allows players to access six commonly used altered tuning presets at the push of a button. These tunings were used on many well know hit songs, giving players easy access for the very first time.
3. The Gibson Robot Guitar allows the guitar to be intonated in seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or change in weather conditions.
4. Finally, with the locking tuner, single string changes or changing the entire set of strings are an automated breeze.

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Very cool. The Phonofonics II dock takes sound from your earbuds, and blows it up to 55db through the ceramic horn, without the need for external power. “Upon connecting active earphones to the Phonofone their trebly buzzing is instantly and profoundly transformed into a warm, rich and resonant sound,” says the company, and the volume is “roughly the maximum volume of laptop speakers.” This will run you $875 for one of the 200-unit limited edition product made by Science & Sons. I don’t think as as much about the actual sound volume and quality as the coolness factor of having it.

via NewLaunches

This set of iPod speakers is different to the 1,029,345,234 other products out there. It’s the same size as a bike water bottle, so you can drop it in the holder on your frame. It has a small remote control that fits on your handlebar, so you don’t crash looking for the skip button when embarassing tracks come on.

There used to be this guy in Cambridge who used to bike around playing heavy metal. Me and a friend used to sit in the park, watching him go round and round, looking like a roadie for Iron Maiden. If you want to be that guy, bring it up to date, and play decent music.

The USB Doorbell connects to your computer via USB letting you choose your favorite song clip, sound effect, or any other sounds. Once you choose your audio clip, the USB Doorbell will store and 30-second WAV or MP3 soundclip to be played every time someone rings your doorbell. A think a nice clip from Scarface would go over nicely… $100 at ThinkGeek.

Via Crave

Quite a few Apple employees have had their hands on iPhones for some time now. Rumour has it that they were banned from taking them out in public until half way through May, but it looks like that’s all over now. The guy pictured above was snapped on the Caltrain, which runs between San Francisco and San Jose, using an iPhone. One of the comments on the Flickr image suggests that it may be Mike Matas, an Apple employee.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t post an image like this because of privacy issues, but anyone who gets an iPhone out in a geek-heavy commuter train should suspect that they’d end up on Flickr before the train even pulls up at the station. Anyway, they’re coming out soon, so you can all get your hands on one. Well, maybe not all. :: Flickr, via Gizmodo

Creative has just announced their new Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook, the ExpressCard audio upgrade for notebooks. It features line level and digital optical inputs/outputs as well as microphone and headphone jacks, plus the option to connect 5.1 or 7.1 surround speakers via the optional docking module. Also cool is Creative’s X-Fi Crystalizer technology, that restores detail and quality lost during compression to MP3 and DivX. Creative

Want to be at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco? Well now you can! Sorta. If you get a spot on the server, iPhoneAlley.com (WARNING: this site MAY BE DOWN at times) will be streaming audio of the famous Apple keynote live. Also get some more visual event coverage via MacRumorsLive.com

WDDC 2007 Start Times:
7:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
1:00PM - Eastern
5:00PM - GMT
6:00PM - London
7:00PM - Paris
2:00AM - Tokyo (June 12th)

TechEBlog have a feature on the worst iPod knock-offs ever, including the iBob, iAbomination and iShell Mini. With the saturation of the market though, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before owning a cheap counterfeit iPod is a kitsch-cool statement for hipsters.

Digital Info Technology has created a new device that turns any flat surface into a speaker. It’s called the Nimzy Vibro Max. Once you hook to audio sources like a laptop or MP3 player, place it on any hard flat surface and you’ll hear the audio powered by 20W. Would be something nice to impress your friends with and just to hear them ask “where are the speakers?” Get it for £80 ($160 USD) at Widget.

When you see a location on the map, do you ever wonder what it might sound like there? Well soon you’ll be able to hear the sounds of the world thanks to Wild Sanctuary which has stacked up over 3,500 hours of recordings.

Wild Sanctuary owner Bernie Krause has spent over 40 years accumulating different sounds from around the globe. Audio of cities, glaciers and forests are among the collection.

Krause says, “A picture tells a thousand words, but a sound tells a thousand pictures.” This upgrade to Google Earth will be available after the Where 2.0 conference on May 29th.

Via The Register