It’s Thanko time again. The Tokyo-based company, famous for gadgets like the USB-powered boob warmer, the USB eye warmer or the USB gloves, is now offering not one [JP] but two [JP] USB-powered, heated slippers – just in time for winter. I can’t decide which one is uglier, but maybe you can.

First, we have the Hot Slippers (pictured above). They are available in brown or grey and get the power they need to keep your feet warm through the USB port of your computer (Windows or Mac OS will work). Price: $23 per pair.

Then there are the Hot Room Shoes. I am not really sure what the difference to the Hot Slippers is function-wise, as these shoes are supposed to keep your feet warm via USB power, too. Price: $23 (available in M or L).

Thanko already sells both versions on their Japanese website. As the company closed their English store recently, you’ll need to contact import specialists such as the Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U to get a pair.

More Psystar news for you. We now know that the Florida-based company will have to pay Apple $2.68 million in damages over its little Hackintosh business. (That’s a partial settlement, not court-mandated or anything.) Go ahead and go to its Web site: everything is out of stock!

Of course, Psystar said it will appeal the decision handed to it that said it violated the DMCA when it installed Mac OS X on PCs.

The beauty of the settlement is that while Psystar has said, yeah, it’ll cough up the $2.68 million, it won’t do so until everything has been figured out. All appeals, all complaints, all everything.

Needless to say, this story ain’t dead yet.

Speaking of Hackintosh…

And after running into quite a Windows 7 nightmare yesterday trying to get my video card to scale properly on my new monitor, there’s no way in hell I’m going to run Windows 7 full-time when I finish building this PC. I’d rather sit here all day and get a Hackintosh up and running than deal with the Windows Device Manager ever again. (Maybe I’ll be a huge nerd and triple boot between Mac, Windows, and Linux?)

All I want to do is play Empire: Total War and Team Fortress 2 with more than 15 frames per second. Is that a crime?

Features

• iPod touch & iPhone compatibility
• USB syncing
• PC speaker mode
• 3.5mm aux in
• MSRP of $399.95

Pros

• Sounds great
• Can charge and sync iPod/iPhone
• Classic B&W look

Cons

• Likes to become unresponsive after syncing
• Limited on-device controls
• Top shelve is a dust and fingerprint magnet

The very first thing I noticed when I took this speaker dock out of the box was that this boy is sexy. Me like. But then again it’s a Bowers & Wilkins product so it better look the part. The iPod touch almost floats above the the concave chrome shelf and can be rotated into landscape mode for Cover Flow.

Even the small remote is classy and functional. It has basic playback controls along with a power button and input switch. The Zeppelin mini itself only has a power button and volume control. It really should have an input button as well. The moral here is don’t lose the tiny remote

Just like the original Zeppelin, this speaker dock is the best in its class. I put it up against the similarly-priced Bose SoundDock Portable and Altec Lansing systems and it clearly had better highs and lows. B&W put the good stuff in this little dock.

Actually the sound is pretty good for such a small package. Base comes through nice and full while the highs are crisp. It helps the rear-facing port if the speaker dock is placed in a corner or in front of a wall. But even when placed in the middle of a table, it delivers the goods.

The Zeppelin mini is nearly flawless until iTunes is involved.

This speaker dock is one of the few that can actually sync an iDevice and play back media via a type-A to type-B USB cable. It sounds great on the spec sheet, but syncing an iPod/iPhone often causes the speaker dock to freeze up and become unresponsive. Even when if iTunes is closed and the iPod is removed, most of the time the Zeppelin mini will need to be power cycled.

If iTunes doesn’t see the iPod though, everything works as advertised. You can easily switch the audio on the Zeppelin mini between playing back the iPod or media off the computer. But as soon as the iPod pops up in iTunes, everything goes to hell.

Conclusion

I’m torn here. I love the B&W Zeppelin mini’s sound and look. I’m even fine with the $400 price tag considering those two factors, but it just doesn’t work well when you try to sync your iDevice. Maybe the function would work better on a Mac than my Windows 7 machine or it’s something that can be resolved with an iTunes update. But I could see myself wanting to throw this thing into a wall if it was my main iPod syncing dock.

My advice here is to proceed with caution. Obviously the $400 price will turn a lot of people off anyway, but if it doesn’t faze you, buy the dock from a retailer with a good return policy. If it works for you or you don’t mind pulling the power cable after syncing your iPhone, keep it. If you get the urge to smash it like I did a few minutes ago, return it. But keep in mind that at least it sounds great, which is the most important factor when buying an iPod speaker dock anyway.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced any of this, but if you look at the paper trail we’re starting to see all the signs. In particular, Microsoft has posted some pretty heavy job listings for things like developers, localization testers, and program managers to start a big new project in July 2010. What is that new big project? Well, it’s all but confirmed that it’s going to be Windows 8. In fact, when you compare the job postings coming out now, and the postings that came out after Vista was launched, you’ll see an interesting comparison.

Have you run into the black screen of death in Windows 7 yet? I haven’t, but that’s probably because I only use Windows as a conduit to playing Team Fortress 2 and spend only as much time as I can in there. I also haven’t applied any security updates to it, and that may be the culprit.

So Microsoft has admitted that is’s looking into this mess. This mess, yes, is the black screen of death.

The glitch, as described by the BBC, “means that users of Windows 7 see a totally black screen after logging on to the system.” I cannot think of a more aggravating glitch.

The glitch doesn’t just affect Windows 7, either, with reports out there of it also affecting Vista and XP.

A security firm, Prevx, says it has the glitch can be triggered by as many as 10 things. Most fingers are pointing to the November 10 security update.

I’m trying to think when was the last time I saw a “(blank) screen of death” in Windows, or a kernel panic in Mac OS X. In fact, the last time I saw a kernel panic was at a computer lab in school in 2005.

So it’s been a while.

Some more Psystar news for y’all. You’ll recall that the renegade company was more or less shut down last week, slapped with an injunction and expected to pay Apple an awful lot of money. Put all of that aside for a minute, for there’s new news: Apple and Psystar have struck a deal! The deal, which ends a 17-month-long legal battle, means Psystar will stop selling computers pre-loaded with Mac OS X. This ends our long, national nightmare.

So here’s what happens: Psystar has to pay Apple a boatload of money; Psystar will stop selling PCs pre-loaded with Mac OS X; and Psystar may be allowed to keep selling Rebel EFI, which lets users instal Mac OS X on their generic PC. That’s pretty much it.

Or, in a single sentence, Psystar won’t be allowed to sell PCs with Mac OS X pre-loaded, but may be allowed to sell the $50 Rebel EFI, software that lets people instal Mac OS X on regular PCs.

Or, rather than paying for Rebel EFI, you can OSx86 your PC, which I may well do when I get around to building my PC in the coming weeks. I’m either running Linux or Mac on the PC. I’ll be damned if I have to run Windows 24/7!

Now to be fair, this is basically a netbook in an ultraportable’s body. You get a big 13.4-inch screen and decently-sized keyboard along with a 2.8-pound weight and a thickness of just 0.79 inches, although the innards include an older Atom Z530 CPU, dumpy GMA 500 graphics, and Windows Vista Home Premium.

Full specs:

• Intel Atom Z530 CPU at 1.6GHz
• 2GB of RAM
• 320 GB hard drive
• 13.4-inch LCD at 1366×768
• Intel GMA 500 graphics
• Draft-N wireless, Ethernet, Bluetooth
• Webcam, card reader, VGA out, 3 USB ports
• Weighs 2.86 pounds, 0.79 inches thick

MSI Microstar X-Slim 13.4-inch X320-037US [JR.com via FatWallet]

Features

• 2TB 7200RPM SATA II hard drive
• eSATA, FW800, FW400, USB 2.0 interfaces
• White LED strobe light
• MSRP of $349.99

Pros

• Fast
• Quiet
• Sexy

Cons

• Pricey

Design

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. This could be the best-looking external hard drive on the market. It looks amazing even if you don’t have a Mac Pro. It’s housed in an aluminum enclosure with a modestly-sized heat sink on the bottom and a very bright activity light that could double as a strobe on the front. At 2.6 lbs, it’s actually quite beefy, too. The backside houses the power rocker and all the ports: a Kensginton lock port, eSATA, twin FW800, USB2.0, and the power input. It’s just an external hard drive, folks. Really nothing fancy here.

Thankfully the drive is as solid as it looks. Each piece is milled from aluminum and held together with counter-sunk screws. It’s really quite beautiful and simple but you’ll void the warranty if you tear yours apart.

Performance

Speed and sound. That’s the name of this game. Who cares if it looks gorgeous but is as slow as a snail? So I ran a few files through each one of the interfaces and came away satisfied.

A 6.7GB file

• eSATA = 1:34 @ 71MB/s
• FW800 = 1:54 @ 59MB/s
• USB 2.0 = 4:27 @ 25MB/s

Those numbers are right on par with what a 7200RPM hard drive with a 32MB cache should do. Of course eSATA was the fastest but Firewire 800 isn’t a slouch either. For comparison, a USB 2.0 bus-powered drive transferred the same file in 4:48 @ 24MB/s.

Unlike a lot of other external hard drives, the G-Drive doesn’t make that much noise. I heard occasional clicks of the hard drive but it’s definitely one of the quieter drives I’ve heard. The solid aluminum enclosure and noise dampening feet are probably to thank for that.

Features

As the Mac-inspired design suggests, the drive is aimed at the OS X crowd, but it works just fine on PCs too. The hard drive comes HFS+ formatted and Time Machine ready, but the included software, or Windows’ Disk Management tool can easily reformat it to NTFS.

Surprisingly, given the $349 price tag, there isn’t any included backup software. I guess Hitachi feels most buyers are probably Mac users and therefore will stick with Time Machine. Still, some users might appreciate and use a basic backup software program.

Overall

The 2TB G-Drive delivers. It can hold a crap-ton of data and manages to keep its transfer speeds up with the best thanks to the fast Hitachi hard drive.  Plus, it looks great next to a Mac or a PC. Too bad the $349 MSRP sets it north of most other options and therefore out of sight for some potential buyers.

Product Page

A pico projector with Windows CE OS 5.0 on board? Yes, there are devices like that. Japan-based Lancerlink announced [JP] one of these today, the MPJ-104WCE. What you get is basically an LCOS (3M) projector with a mini computer built into it (the Windows CE is an English version).

The projector produces 10-30 inch pictures with 640×480 resolution and 10 lumens brightness. There are also two 0.5W speakers built into the body. But sized at just 138.5×58.5×25mm, the device also sports a Samsung ARM 9 processor at 400MHz, 64MB of internal memory (up to 4GB with an SD card), a USB port, an SD card interface and native support for MS Powerpoint, Excel and Word files.

It’s also possible to view PDFs directly from the projector. Video formats supported are WMV/MPEG-4, music can be played as MP3/WMA/WAV files and pictures can be viewed as JPEGs or BMPs. Lancerlink says the battery will work for 120 minutes continuously.

The MPJ-104WCE will go on sale in Japan from the middle of next month for $580. If you’re interested but live outside this country, you might want to contact the Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U if they can buy one for you.

So this is how the other half lives, huh? It must be nice to have a house full of $1200 remotes customized with user profiles and home automation controls. Yes, this remote costs $1200 and that doesn’t include installation and yes, you need it to be installed professionally. This isn’t a Harmony remote that can be set up in 10 minutes. But once it’s installed, holy cow, it’s effen amazing. I would call it the perfect remote, but I had two demo units die on me.

Features:

• Haptic feedback touchscreen
• IR, RF, and Wi-Fi controls
• Windows Media Center compatible
• Rechargeable battery
• MSRP of $1,199.99

Pros:

• Amazing build quality
• No limits on customization
• Touchscreen is perfect in size and function

Cons:

• It’s $1,200
• Most people cannot program it
• I had two units stop working on me

Review:

The first thing you’ll notice about the MX-5000 is the build quality. It feels like a million bucks. The buttons are smooth and hard with just the right amount of pressure needed to press them down. The screen is bright, sharp and very high-res. Even the charger screams high-end. It’s easily the best-feeling remote I have ever used.

But then I tried to set it up. The company offered to pre-program the remote before they sent it to me, but that insulted my inner nerd. I thought, “How hard could it be?” Well, after watching four online instructional videos from URC and spending about eight hours, I finally got the remote to communicate with my devices. But after that first, huge learning curve, I feel like I can do almost everything with the remote. I’m sure there are some super-macros that I don’t know about, but I managed to program the remote to control three AV systems (one via RF). I feel like all the CrunchGear writers could program the remote, along with a few of my nerdy friends. However, there is no way that the average Best Buy shopper could. Maybe the average MicroCenter customer.

The issue is that the setup program isn’t meant for the general public or the DIY crowd. It involves using IF THEN statements for macros and manually adding devices’ RF profiles. However, this type of programming allows installers complete control over how the remote controls each system. Anything is possible and installers are not tied down to a wizard.

Everything is customizable. You use pre-programmed themes or make your own in Photoshop. It’s totally up to the installer to create a pleasant user experience. I’m personally happy with how my UI turned out.

I found that backgrounds for the BlackBerry Storm are the perfect resolution, and this one looks great with the brushed look of the remote. My setup allows me to control three different AV systems in my house – not that I really need that ability. I added a dedicated TiVo button to one of the default layouts and it works great.

The remote also features a Wi-Fi chipset, which enables simple RSS feeds like sports scores, news, and weather to be displayed on the remote. And it can easily control a Windows Media Center PC. The info screens are nifty, but almost a novelty. However, the Windows Media Center control is the coolest function of the remote.

All you need to do is tell the remote the Windows Media Center computer’s IP address in the PC programming software and it works. The remote’s touchscreen displays common functions and the navigational pad controls the on-screen GUI. It works flawlessly and is the easiest way to control Windows Media Center with a remote that I have ever used.

But not everyone has the ability to hook up a Media Center PC to their TV. The remote can still access a PC’s music library and provide two-way communication. This means that as long as the PC is hooked up to an audio receiver, the remote can control and play back music and even display album art.

I would love to slap a large, “highly-recommended” sticker on the remote but I can’t because of the issues I had with the first two demo units. The first one just stopped working about two weeks after I got it and the other one stopped waking up when I picked up the remote. After disabling the motion sensor in the second demo unit, it worked fine for a while but eventually it started to freeze daily, which was resolved only by pulling the battery. But most of the review samples we get are first-run units so bugs can be expected. The third remote seems to be fine.

The only real downside to the remote besides the price is that most people will probably need a pro to install it. If URC can come up with a complete, but also easy to use wizard, there is a market for such a remote – even at the high price. It’s the complete package: candy bar form factor, totally customizable, Wi-Fi- and RF-enabled, and it feels amazing. There is a huge difference in quality and ability between this remote and the $400 Harmony 900, but unless you have cash to burn or a complicated A/V setup, there really isn’t any reason to spend the extra cash. Unless you want the best remote on the planet, that is.

Product Page

Today is Cyber Monday. It’s like Black Friday but with more indoorsiness. And while Black Friday is more of a brick-and-mortar, you’re-there-in-person type of thing, Cyber Monday is all online and there are far too many stores and deals to completely cover. Here’s a head start on some of the better deals from the bigger sites, though.

You’ll find pretty good deals at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Dell. Newegg, Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples have a few gems as well. Apple’s got a few discounts but only on accessories. Buy.com’s list is pitiful, as is Radio Shack’s. Target’s not offering a whole lot of electronics deals for some reason but there’s some decent pricing on other stuff.

Amazon.com

• 8GB iPod touch for $158 (link)
• Creative Vado HD camcorder for $89.99 (link)
• Garmin nuvi 260w GPS for $114.99 (link)
• Nintendo Wii plus $20 Amazon.com Gift Card for $199.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

BestBuy.com

• 19-inch 720p LCD TV for $159.99 (link)
• Garmin nuvi 205w GPS for $104.99 (link)
• 15.6-inch Acer Aspire Laptop with 4GB of RAM for $399.99 (link)
• EA Wii games for $20 off (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Walmart.com

• Nintendo Wii Bundle (system, extra controllers, game, accessory) for $249 (link)
• eMachines 15.6-inch Windows 7 laptop + extras for $368 (link)
• Sony Bravia 32-inch HDTV for $398 (link)
• 8GB iPod nano + accessory kit for $145 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Dell.com

• ST2410 Full HD 24-inch LCD monitor for $184 (link)
• 1.5TB Western Digital 3.5-inch hard drive for $99.99 (link)
• Inspiron Zino HD desktop starting at $299 (link)
• TomTom One 130 GPS for $79.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Newegg.com

• Intel Core i5 desktop with 4GB of RAM for $649.99 (link)
• ASUS 18.5-inch LCD monitor for $79.99 (link)
• Garmin nuvi 205 GPS for $89.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

OfficeMax.com

• eMachines 18.5-inch LCD monitor for $69.99 (link)
• Buy one, get one free on all ink and toner (link)
• Samsung 23-inch TV/Monitor for $249.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

OfficeDepot.com

• Toshiba T135-S1310 13.3-inch ULV notebook with 9-hour battery for $599.99 (link)
• Ativa 21.5-inch LCD monitor for $139.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Staples.com

• Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 for $29.99 (link)
• Acer 21.5-inch LCD monitor for $109.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Apple.com

• Monster Beats headphones for $269.95 (link)
• MoGo Talk for iPhone for $116.95 (link)
• Eye-Fi 2GB Geo SD Card for $53.95 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Buy.com

• TomTom One 130 GPS for $82.49 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

RadioShack.com

• TomTom XL 330-S GPS for $99.99 (link)
• Full list of deals here…

Target.com

• Full list of deals here…

Despite what the Internet said a few weeks ago, Microsoft tapped Family Guy to advertise Windows 7. The first one aired last weekend, but the video above and the one after the jump have just been posted to YouTube proving the partnership isn’t dead after all. Watch and enjoy, but don’t expect anything edgy and hip.

[via Gizmodo]

Maybe it’s just me, but this dual-screen notebook Kojinsha started selling in Japan today [JP] looks very futuristic (and very cool) to me. The main selling point is that you get not one but two 10.1-inch LCD screens in a compact body (size: 280×210×19〜42mm, weight: 1.84kg). And you can even buy the DZ6KH16E, which looks like a normal notebook when you use just one of the screens, if you live outside Japan.

The two sliding LCDs feature 1,024×600 resolution and LED backlights each. The notebook also has an Athlon Neo MV-40 (1.6GHz) with a RS780MN chipset and an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card, 1GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), a 160GB HDD, WiFi, three USB ports, a 1.3MP web camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, slots for SD/microSD/MMC/memory sticks and a digital TV tuner (which will work only in Japan and parts of South America) on board. Kojinsha says buyers can expect around 4.5 hours of battery life.

Kohjinsha started selling the DZ6KH16E in Japan today. People living outside this country can get the notebook over at Geek Stuff 4 U for $1,111.28 (Windows and other extras make it more expensive). But remember this is a Japanese device, meaning you’ll have to live with a keyboard with a Japanese layout.

USB 3.0 is just around the corner (kind of), and the first computer hardware manufacturers are getting ready to deliver products supporting the new standard (even though there were some backlashes along the way). Last month, Asus announced the world’s first USB 3.0 + SATA 6.0 PCI-E card. In May, NEC said they’re going to release the first USB 3.0 host controller.

And now Japanese computer hardware company Buffalo has announced [JP] the world’s first 12x Blu-ray burner, which supports USB 3.0 on top of that. The BR-X1216U3 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 but will burn your Blu-rays with “just” 7x speed in that case. You can only use it with a Windows machine (XP/Vista/7).

But actually there are no Blu-ray discs which could be used with a 12x burner and no USB 3.0-equipped computers out there at this point, but Japan is known to be a tad quicker than the rest of the tech world sometimes.

Buffalo says they will roll out the burner at the beginning of next month. Japanese street price: $460. The company hasn’t said anything yet about international sales.

Japanese stationery maker King Jim announced the Pomera DM20 [JP] today, an ultra-compact handheld device that’s based on a “less is more” concept. The so-called digital notebook, which is unfortunately Japan-only at this point, is only made for one purpose: It lets you make notes. No email, no web access, no gaming, nothing but writing texts or quickly jotting down your shopping list.

And apparently, the general concept did attract enough users, as the DM20 is a major upgrade of the DM10 King Jim started selling last year. The new model has a 5-inch TFT VGA screen (monochrome, 640×480 resolution), a 89MB of internal memory, a microSD and SDHC slot (SD: 2GB max., SDHC: 16GB max.), a USB port and (Japanese) cell phone connectivity. Its foldable Japanese QWERTY keyboard in the 145 x 100 x 33mm body is the main selling point.

King Jim will start selling the Pomera DM20 in Japan on December 11 for $380. You could ask the usual suspects The Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U to get one shipped outside this country but King Jim states the device is only compatible with Japanese Windows (it won’t work with Macs at all).

Watch this video to see how the Pomera DM20 looks in action:

The fun part is that both sides can use it as ammunition: “We sold more copies in a month than you’ve sold in ten years!” or “A month later and only 5% have upgraded? Either Windows 7 sucks or you’re all stupid, or both.” Good points all around, guys.

The total share of the net commanded by Windows 7 (and by OS X, as they’re currently tied) is around 5%. Windows in its various forms makes up 95% of web traffic, a statistic I found surprising. Windows’ total proportion has gone up a touch since the 7 launch, but that’ll likely revert soon as redundant installs and such are cannibalized.

Tokyo-based Cube Works, whose products regularly find their way outside Japan (example: the humping USB dog), has announced a mini Yoda figure (the little green guy from Star Wars) that you connect to your computer’s USB port. The power is needed to make Yoda’s cheeks blush and illuminate his light saber.

The mini Yoda requires Windows (XP or Vista), comes with an installation CD for some reason and runs only on computers with a 1GHZ Intel Pentium processor or better.

The figure is Japan-only, but you can pre-order it over at Geek Stuff 4 U for $65.52 plus shipping (leading time: end of next month).

Via Akihabara News

Although there are far too many items to list in a single post, here’s a look at what’s in store. Check Amazon’s Black Friday page each day for the full list of deals too.

Monday:

• Samsung LN52B530 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $1299.99
• Polk Surroundbar 360 for $399.99
• LG 37LH55 37-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV for $649.99
• HP Mini 10.1-Inch White Netbook (Windows 7 Starter) for $378.99

Full list of electronics deals here…

Tuesday (pricing not revealed yet):

• Magellan Maestro GPS
• Plantronics Voyager PRO Bluetooth Headset
• La Crosse Technology Digital Thermometer
• DJ Hero Bundle with Turntable (Xbox)

Wednesday (pricing not revealed yet):

• LG Blu-ray Player
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Xbox)
• Guitar Hero Smash Hits (PS3)
• Rapala: We Fish with Rod Bundle (Wii)

Thursday (pricing not revealed yet):

• We Ski and Snowboard (Wii)
• Tekken 6 (PS3)
• Sharp 32" LCD HDTV

Friday (pricing not revealed yet):

• Altec Lansing Computer Speakers with Powered Subwoofer
• Polk Bookshelf Speakers
• MartinLogan In-Ceiling Speakers

• Panasonic 46" 1080p Plasma HDTV
• HP 15.6-Inch Laptop
• Canon PowerShot 12.1 MP Digital Camera
• Panasonic 42" 1080p Plasma HDTV
• Dell Inspiron Mini Netbook with Integrated TV Tuner

• Nintendo DSi Bundle with 5 Pre-installed Titles
• Xbox 360 Bundle with 2 Games
• Xbox 360 Limited-Edition Console
• PlayStation 120 GB Bundle with 2 Games

There will apparently be sales on Saturday and Sunday, too.

Black Friday Calendar [Amazon]

Black Friday Deals Page [Amazon]

More Black Friday deals…

I’ve never heard of Waterfall Audio before. I think they qualify for one of my rules in the audio world though: if you’ve never heard of an audio company and they cost more than products from a familiar brand, it’s probably good stuff. Apparently the company made a name for itself a few years ago with a glass-enclosed speaker line. Who knew.

The latest speaker line, Serio, keeps the glass theme alive, but manages to shrink the package down to a satellite-style size. Too bad all that glass and square lines scream the ’90s.

I’m sure they are fantastic speakers. They better be for the price: $5,549 for a 5.1 system which includes a HighForce sub, $1,799 for a 2.1 system, or $249 each. The specs are good too: 150 watts max, 87 dB efficiency, and 180HZ – 20kHz frequency response. Each speaker is about the size of a CD jewel case and weighs 2 lbs.It’s just that they look like something that would have been found in Microsoft’s suits office around the time Windows 95 launched.

[Waterfall Audio via Electronic House]