Doug Aamoth…

Short Version: This good-looking, small internet radio receiver has the potential to fit right in with your home audio equipment. But those looking for a portable streaming audio device will want to look elsewhere, as the Myine Ira Wi-Fi Internet Radio is tied to its remote control and doesn’t feature built-in speakers.

Long Version:

The Myine Ira Wi-Fi Internet Radio marches to the beat of a different drummer when it comes to the crowded field of streaming audio hardware. And that’s generally a good thing — you need something to differentiate your product from all the others. Whether Myine’s done the right thing in producing a button-less receiver and audio output solely from RCA jacks at a $150 price point will ultimately be up to consumers to decide.

By forgoing on-device controls and built-in speakers, the Ira (internet radio adapter) is able to reside inside a 5.5- by 3.5-inch smooth black plastic housing. It’s a very nice looking unit, although it’s a wonder the company didn’t make the 1.75- by 2.75-inch white-on-blue screen larger since you’d likely be using this thing from across the room as it sits inside your audio cabinet. Small, non-color screen aside, though, the Ira is a looker.

The unit’s aesthetic appeal might be able to attract consumers interested in an internet radio solution for higher-end audio systems willing to pay a little extra for an attractive component but beyond the outward appearance of the device, there’s not much else to ensure the Ira a spot amongst other home audio gear.

Two things, in particular, hold it back: RCA-only output and a small, cheapie plastic remote. A gadget that looks this nice at first glance ought to have optical audio outputs and a headphone jack, and it certainly should come with a nice, sturdy remote seeing that it’s the only way to control everything.

Those gripes aside, everything else fares pretty well. Setup is Geico-like in its simplicity, audio quality is pretty good (though it’ll depend largely on your speakers), the wireless chip has an above-average range while maintaining a strong signal, and there are plenty of available stations — over 11,00 in all.

There’s also a podcast directory, which contains a near-endless selection of programs. And small though the remote may be, it’s really easy to use. There’s a nice “star” button right in the middle; hold it down and the station that’s currently streaming will be added to your list of favorite stations.

Conclusion:

The Ira’s ultimate downfall may be that it finds itself enmeshed in an identity crisis of sorts. Having no speakers and requiring the remote for everything places the device out of the reach of casual consumers while the lack of high-quality audio connections, reliance on a cheap remote, and a tiny, non-color screen may turn off audiophiles looking for a handsome internet streamer to add to their cabinets.

The end result is that the Ira falls somewhere in the middle of the casual audio consumer and the mid- to high-end music lover. Whether there’s an actual market in that space remains to be seen. As with many gadgets, the details may lurk in how the Ira is priced. At $150, it feels too expensive. At half that price, though, it starts looking like a much better deal for, say, your desk at work or a lower-end audio system setup.

Ira Wi-Fi Internet Radio [Myine.com]

If you thought that $300 for the ESPN Ultimate Remote was a tad too high when it was announced about a year ago, the invisible hand of supply and demand agrees with you. They’re now going for just over $100, which seems far more reasonable.

A built-in Wi-Fi connection and text messaging capabilities are the real draw here. While the remote will control all your AV devices like a good universal remote should, this thing’s built for sports fans with a 2.2-inch LCD that relays scores and stats in real-time for whichever game you’re watching along with TV schedules, weather, and news thanks to the click365 content portal.

ESPN “The Ultimate Remote” Universal Remote [Amazon via dealnews]

This NES-inspired mouse could probably be the hot-selling Wii of the mouse world if Nintendo ever decided to produce such a thing. I would buy one and you would buy one. Repeat that process until there’s a three-year supply shortage and, boom, the NES Mouse is what all the kids want, ladies and gentlemen.

Alas, the mouse you see here is made of nothing more than foam as a school project. The kid who made this better have gotten the coveted A++ for this design, lest we pronounce the entire education system as we know it officially dead.

Know what would be sweet? If it could be designed to somehow double as an actual NES controller for playing old ROMs. Nintendo’s cool with ROMs, right?

Nintendo Entertainment System Mouse [mousevomit.com via technabob]

In case you hadn’t heard, Ikea is on the solar bandwagon. After pumping $75 million into various environmentally-sustainable initiatives, we’re starting to see products trickle out. Aside from solar-powered garden lights — which have actually been availalbe from numerous companies for a while — you can also pick up a $20 solar desk lamp.

Will it replace your traditional desk lamp? Probably not. The thing takes 9 to 12 hours to fully charge and then provides about four hours of moderately bright light — between 300 and 500 lux. But the price isn’t too bad at $20 and you’ve gotta start somewhere, right? These little guys could actually come in handy in spots where you don’t have access to a power outlet — although you’ll need sunlight and if you have sunlight, maybe you don’t need a lamp.

Oh what the hell, at least they’re trying. And look at all the pretty colors!

SUNNAN work lamp, solar cell powered [Ikea via Crave]

Those of you holding out for a rugged touchscreen netbook/tablet might want to ask your kids where to find one. This PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop actually looks halfway intriguing.

Sure, it costs $600, but you get a swiveling touchscreen in a three-pound package that’s drop- and spill-resistant. And — AND! — “a free Walt Disney Windows XP Theme” to sweeten the deal. The company says that the computer is for children ages three to ten but maybe they’ll sell them to adults, too.

Aside from the rugged-ness, a built-in accelerometer, and the 180-degree resistive touchscreen, the innards of the PeeWee are pretty standard netbook fare: 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 8.9-inch screen at 1024×600, 1GB of RAM, 60GB hard drive, six-cell battery, webcam, and XP Home. There’s a three-year warranty instead of a standard one-year deal, so that’s something.

PeeWee PC [PeeWeePC.com]

Full press release:

PeeWee PC Unveils Durable PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop for Kids

Spill and drop resistant Laptop features PeeWee PC’s proprietary security suite, touch tablet with stylus, and a carrying handle

San Francisco, CA – April 29, 2009 – PeeWee PC (www.peeweepc.com), the leading manufacturer of computer products and accessories for children, is excited to announce the availability of the PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop. Weighing in at just 3 pounds, this tiny yet rugged, spill and drop resistant notebook is perfect for children aged 3-10. The laptop features the Intel® Atom™ Processor, a convertible rotating screen and touch tablet with stylus, a free Walt Disney Windows XP Theme, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam that rotates 180 degrees and is perfect for video chatting with moms and dads who have to travel.

PeeWee PC loads each Pivot Tablet Laptop with 10 age appropriate software and game titles for Pre-K, Early Elementary, or Upper Elementary students. PeeWee also includes its proprietary security suite on each laptop, giving parents full control of how and when their children use the laptop.

“We design all our computers to meet the needs of both our young end users and their parents,” said Oscar Ferreria. “This means creating products that are both fun and durable, but most importantly, safe. We all understand the drawbacks associated with giving children internet access, and there is no way any child should be browsing the internet without advanced security software.”

The PeeWee security software allows parents to limit how much time their children spend browsing the internet (on a daily or weekly basis), block inappropriate sites with any version of any web browser, take screen shots, view browsing history, and even control the laptop remotely. Additionally, the PeeWee security suite also allows parents limit the amount of time children spend gaming and protects the laptop by preventing children from changing system settings.

I’ve worked plenty of thankless retail jobs so I can sympathize with the grind but please, customer service people, check the boxes of stuff that gets returned to your store. A Nintendo DS box filled with rocks and newspaper was apparently returned to a Wal-Mart store in Florida, then put back on the floor TWICE, and sold to a mother who gave it to her son as a birthday present.

It gets worse. In what can be politely termed as a major roll-back in customer service, the woman contacted Wal-Mart to complain and was told to take it up with Nintendo, as if Nintendo has an assembly line full of rocks being shoved into DS boxes. Nintendo, of course, told her to take it up with Wal-Mart. And so we dance. Wal-Mart finally refunded the woman and gave her a $20 gift card after they discovered that the box of rocks had been returned by another angry customer and put back out on the floor.

So, to recap, some jerk buys a Nintendo DS, fills the box with rocks, and returns it to Wal-Mart for a full refund. Wal-Mart doesn’t check the box and puts it back out on the floor. Then a lady buys it and returns it because it’s full of rocks. She gets a refund and Wal-Mart puts the box of rocks back out on the floor. Another lady buys the box of rocks, tries to return it, and gets the runaround before Wal-Mart finally looks it up and sees that it’s already been returned by a previous customer who complained that she’d been sold a box of rocks.

I once bought a $300 PDA from a Fred Meyer store in Seattle only to find that the box was empty when I got to my car. Of course, the store thought I had gone out to my car, stashed the PDA, and come back in with an empty box. After arguing with a couple different managers, I finally got them to match the serial number in the box with the serial number of the PDA that was in the display case. If that hadn’t happened, I would have been out $300 and wouldn’t even have had rocks or newspaper to show for it.

Florida teen finds rocks in Nintendo DS box [Plugged In via Engadget]

If you have to wear a tie more than once a year, you might as well have a cool one. The iTie serves two functions: one, it has two little straps that attach to the buttons on your shirt so it doesn’t blow around, get dunked in your coffee, or, my personal favorite from when I used to wear a tie, get toothpaste all over it.

Second, it’s got a little pocket in it that can hold any crazy-ass thing you can fit in it — like an iPod, for example. Other items, according to the iTie website: business cards, credit cards, money, lighter/cigarettes, gum and mints, pens, and more.

They’re apparently working on a version with a pocket large enough to fit an iPhone or Blackberry. Sweet. Your tie is ringing, sir.

Pricing is around $50 and there are about a skillion different styles available. Yes, $50 is a lot for a tie but remember the part about the iPod and the no toothpaste thing.

The iTie [theitie.com via Likecool]

Samsung’s got two new portable camcorders coming out in July. The SMX-C14 will feature 16GB of onboard memory, expandable via SD while the SMX-C10 won’t feature any standard memory, relying solely on your ever-growing pile of SD cards.

Both camcorders feature Samsung’s Touch of Color (TOC) body coloration, angled lenses to provide for more natural shooting, over two hours of battery life, and H.264 MP4 video compression. Curiously, Samsung neglected to state whether the cameras shoot in standard definition or high definition, although the “S” naming convention for the model numbers seems to indicate that it’ll be standard 720×480 since the high-def camcorders all start with “H” — as in the HMX-R10.

No word on price, either, but they’ll be available in July. I’ll go ahead and guess $249 for the SMX-C10 and $399 for the SMX-C14. Don’t quote me on that, though.

Here’s the press release:

SAMSUNG FOCUSES ON ERGONOMICS WITH TWO NEW DIGITAL CAMCORDERS

New SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 Offer Industry-Leading Style, Design and Ease-of-Use

RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. – April 29, 2009 – Samsung Electronics America Inc., a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today announced the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10, two new ergonomically designed, compact digital camcorders offering industry?leading style and design. The new SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 also feature Samsung’s stylish Touch of Colorä (ToCä) finish that was first introduced in the company’s line of flat?panel HDTVs. With ToC design, a hint of color is naturally blended into the deep black body for an attractive crystalline appearance.

The SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 are ideal for the on-the-go consumer and offer an impressive 10x optical zoom paired with Hyper Image Stabilization to help reduce blurry footage. Both camcorders also feature a 230,000-dot, swiveling 2.7-inch wide LCD screen, which allows users to effortlessly frame their subjects and review their footage. Similar to the full-HD HMX-R10, the new SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 boast Samsung’s Active Angle Lens. This unique design helps reduce fatigue by allowing consumers to grip the camcorder in a more relaxed manner, easing the overall stress on their wrist and elbow. Unlike traditional camcorders, the relaxed grip also removes the LCD screen from the user’s line of sight, enabling them to always keep an eye on their subject while recording.

“The SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 are truly unique camcorders, starting with their eye-catching ToC design,” said Reid Sullivan, senior vice president of Audio/Video and Digital Imaging Marketing at Samsung Electronics America. “In addition to being ultra-compact, ergonomic and stylish, these camcorders offer a host of advanced, yet easy-to-use capabilities that encourage consumers to integrate video recording into their everyday digital lifestyles.”

The new SMX-C14 features 16GB of internal Samsung flash memory and is expandable via an SD/SDHC memory card slot. Thanks to H.264 compression, which drastically enhances recording times when used with standard definition video, users can record over six hours of footage directly to the SMX-C14’s 16GB of built-in memory. The SMX-C10 does not feature internal memory and requires the use of SD/SDHC media. Both the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 also offer substantial battery life, providing more than two hours and forty minutes of record time on a single charge.

The SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 also incorporate Samsung’s play-edit-sharing program called intelli?studio. The built-in intelli-studio program allows consumers to connect the camcorder to any computer via USB and edit and play their video without having to install supporting software. intelli-studio also facilitates the process of uploading users’ content to popular video?sharing Web sites. For added convenience, a one-touch “upload” button, available directly on the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10, provides a direct connection to YouTube™, further reducing the number of steps needed to upload footage. In addition, the camcorders also allow basic on-camera editing, including the ability to merge and split video files.

Samsung also enhances the video recording experience for end-users thanks to several unique features, including time-lapse recording, animated thumbnails and a versatile charging system. Time-lapse recording allows users to program the camcorder to record at a pre-set interval of one image every one, three, five, 10, 15 or 30 seconds. Time-lapse recording is especially useful for condensing extremely long events, such as rolling clouds on a sunny day, into a short, easy?to-view video.

Samsung’s animated thumbnail feature simplifies the way users search for video clips on the SMX-C14 and SMX-C10. Each video clip saved on the camcorder is represented by a small thumbnail on the LCD screen. When scrolling through one’s videos, each thumbnail will provide a short playback of the video file when highlighted by the user. The SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 also feature a versatile charging system. Users can either recharge the battery by connecting the camcorder to the supplied AC adapter or via USB while the camcorder is connected to a computer.

The SMX-C14 and SMX-C10 will be available in July 2009.

Wow, good double deal on Dell monitors. Take your pick of the 23-inch 1920×1080 S2309W for just $159 or the 22-inch version for $139.

Both feature DVI and VGA inputs, but you’ll have to use some of the money you save to buy a set of speakers as there aren’t any built in on either model. Still, nice big cheap monitors, eh?

Dell S2309W and Dell S2209W [Dell.com via dealnews]

If you like stairs and you also happen to like scooters but you can’t decide between a flight of stairs and a scooter, maybe you’ll find yourself in the market for this Pumgo thing. It’s a pedal-powered scooter. You know, for when pushing your foot along the pavement isn’t as exhilirating as pedaling.

In what amounts to a stair-stepper with wheels, the $299 Pumgo promises “a full body cardiovascular workout.” While I take issue with the “full body” part, you will indeed likely get a good lower body workout and, yes, you may find yourself out of breath as is customary with cardiovascular exercise.

Here’s a video!

If you grow tired of pedal-pumping, the Pumgo can also be operated as a run of the mill kick-style scooter.

Pumgo Scooter – The World’s First Pedal-Powered Scooter [Pumgo.com via BBG]