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OrigAudio Beets headphones redefine KIRF: Keepin' It Real Fibrous (video)
We've seen plenty of Beats-focused KIRFs in our time, some better than others. Few, however, play quite so directly on the name as OrigAudio's Beets. For $25, adopters get a set of headphones that bear little direct resemblance to Dr. Dre's audio gear of choice, but are no doubt bound to impress friends -- at least, up until they see a root vegetable logo instead of a lower-case B. Thankfully, there's more to it than just amusing and confusing peers. Every purchase will lead to a donation of canned beets (what else?) to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. For us, that's reason enough to hope that Beats doesn't put the kibosh on OrigAudio's effort. Besides, we could use some accompaniment for our BeetBox.
BeetBox drops a beat with a side of Raspberry Pi, and other plant puns (video)
Sometimes the plays on words are unavoidable -- in fact, they form the very heart of Scott Garner's recent musical creation. His BeetBox turns six of its namesake root vegetables into drum pads through SparkFun capacitive touch sensors, all of which are controlled by (what else?) a Raspberry Pi. Cleverness goes beyond the core technology and food jokes, as well. All of the circuitry and audio equipment is hidden within the wood box, making it look more like a horticultural project than machinery. We don't mind the lack of production plans when there's source code available; we're mostly curious as to what in our garden would make for a good rhythm section. [Image credit: Scott Garner, Flickr]
