jukebox
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American Burger Company installing iPod jukeboxes in eatery
Jukeboxes that play nice with your iPod have long since been available for your pool hall or living room, but John Tunney of American Burger Company feels the Apple-centric music machines would fit a bit better inside a tried-and-true eatery. Subsequently, the new Hicksville location sports a dozen Logitech mm50 sound docks, and allows customers to bring in their tunes and shows to distract them from quality conversation while scarfing down a burger. Apparently, the restaurant is hoping the honor system will keep users from blasting their tunes too loudly in public, and just in case you happen to forget your Pod when coming in to grab a bite, the bevy of plasma screens and open WiFi signal should keep you plenty occupied whilst chewing.[Via ChipChick]
N-NET's Juke Tower brings the bathtime fun
Sure, we've seen waterproof MP3 players a time or two (or more) before, but N-NET's latest is designed to not only withstand the brutal rain blasts typically dolled out in your average shower, but to look fairly dashing all the while. Of course, Aquagate / Stereo H20 owners need not apply, but for the vast majority of us rocking vanilla (read: speaker-less) showers, this looks like an excellent way to bring your tunes into the downpour. The glossy Juke Tower sports an all-white design, gets its shape from the likes of shampoo bottles, touts a down-firing speaker, and can handle up to 2GB worth of USB storage. Additionally, users will find an on-tube screen that displays the track number or time (no luck with ID3 tags), a wireless remote, and around 12-hours of battery life from a trio of AA cells. As expected, such a sexy, resilient device won't exactly run you cheap, as the Juke Tower (full shot after the break) will demand ¥10,500 ($88) when it lands later this month.[Via Impress]
Rock Box melds MCE jukebox with beer cooler
Talk about one-upping. No sooner than the cutesy soccer ball cooling station graced our eyes, MCE Integrations is upping the ante quite substantially with its latest cooler / jukebox hybrid. Partnering with Icehouse, this brew-lover's dream come true sports the tried and true jukebox allure, a built-in cooler for keeping the stash on ice, a flipout touchscreen HDTV, and an Aopen Mini PC to run the show. Current models are still running Windows MCE 2005, but the company promises that we'll see Vista Home Premium loaded on them later this year. Although we don't expect the Rock Box to be hitting any mainstream retailers in the near future, those looking to add yet another novelty to their game room or recently opened pub can snag the baseline unit for around $6,500, and for those abstaining from alcoholic intake, the cooler can be replaced by a subwoofer for some serious (and sober) room-rattling action.
Rock-Ola updates jukeboxes, adds hard drives and iPod support
If there's anything that improves just about any party, it's a jukebox. We're not talking about those wannabe media players that call themselves jukeboxes -- we're talking the bona fide curvaceous red-blooded American ones. Well, grab your quarters, because Rock-Ola -- one of the classic makers of such fine hardware -- has now brought its esteemed design into the modern age, calling it the "Nostalgic Music Center." The NMC is decked out with a 160GB hard drive for storing MP3s, a 15-inch screen, 360 watts of juice, a USB port, and will even cross-fade your tunes over its five speakers to get the party started. What about if you've already have a mess of tunes on your iPod, and you don't want to transfer 'em all? No problem: Rock-Ola's got you covered there too with its "iPod Series Jukebox," an update to the popular Bubbler model that comes with an iPod dock right next to the screen. We're not sure how much you'll have to pay for such heavy hardware, but they'll be on display at CES 2007 -- we hope to suss out the details then (and maybe rock out for a few minutes as well).
Archos 104 4GB digital audio player reviewed
Archos is no stranger to the portable audio player market, and while we've known about its 104 for some time now, PCMag has finally given it a good once over in the testing lab. Apparently designed to compete with other miniaturized devices like the iPod mini / nano and Cowon iAudio 6, the 104 sports a 4GB hard drive, 1.5-inch OLED display, and an enclosure that's about twice as thick (though just as tall) as the nano. Available in black, silver, or pink, the relatively bare-bones DAP didn't have a whole lot to showcase aside from its decent design. Reviewers noted that controls and menus were simple, yet effective at navigating through libraries, and did allow bookmarking to keep your place in those lengthy audiobooks. The inability to play any flavor of lossless format was a bit of a letdown, and although its "playlisting functions" were said to be "excellent," the included headphones were anything but. The unit took some serious criticism when the review team attempted to view pictures on the color display, and found the results to be "terrible," as "jaggies" distorted every photo they tried, even turning attractive faces into "scary sights." The biggest dig, however, came from the lackluster battery life -- by keeping the tunes rolling for only 11 hours, 50 minutes under "normal listening conditions," it fell several hours of short of expectations. The so-so player earned a well-deserved "average" rating, as the lack of extras (like an FM tuner) and poor display / battery performance really put a damper on things. But if your primary interest is keeping it simple, and you don't mind finding a charging port every 12 hours or so, you can snag the Archos 104 for a very competitive $159.99.
Pacific Rim Technologies' iPod-ready JukeBox Station
Okay, so you're terrified to even leave your own home with your iPod, let alone take it on a stroll downtown, which leaves you with a portable media player that's stuck in the house, right? If this is you, fret not -- Pacific Rim Technologies has crafted the ultimate in-home (or bar, gameroom, café, etc.) accessory for your little Apple with the iPod-ready JukeBox Station. Standing a full one meter tall and weighing in at 55 pounds, this 72 watt sound system could technically be lumped in as just another speaker station that's "made for iPod," especially considering the built-in dock connector and included adapters to suit every dock-rocking iPod ever produced. But alas, this device demands a bit more respect than the little guys; this beast has 5 drivers, including a 6-inch subwoofer, 2 mid-range speakers, and 2 tweeters, an LED lighting system to add that oh-so-familiar jukebox ambiance, "17 function IR remote," RCA / 3.5mm inputs for alternate DAPs, video-out, and even a lockable window to ensure the tunes don't come to an abrupt stop care of a desperate party-goer. While we doubt the overall quality here will be anything above average (it'll be sold through Target, which isn't exactly known for its high-fidelity offerings), we doubt the signal-to-noise ratio is the focal point here, and though this jukebox isn't coin-operated, it'll cost you $699 -- or 2,796 quarters -- when it drops in October.[Via iLounge]
Pantech's SKY IM U-MU110 1GB "Jukebox" clamshell
What do we know about Pantech & Curitel's new SKY IM U-MU110 clamshell (besides the fact that it has a tongue-twister of a model number)? Not much, unfortunately, as AVING is heavy on the images but light on the deets, so all that we can discern about this model -- two megapixel camera, 1GB of memory, EV-DO, external music controls -- comes from pics of the so-called "Jukebox" phone. Besides snapping photos and rocking tunes, pictures seem to indicate that the IM U-MU110 also makes voice calls. No word on such trifles as pricing or release dates/locations, but keep reading for another hot pic...[Via MobileMag]
Dell kills Jukebox players
Looks like Dell is throwing in the towel as far as their hard drive-based Jukebox digital audio players are concerned. DailyTech reports "stiff competition from Apple and others" resulted in the decision to discontinue the line, although they will continue to sell their flash based DJ Ditty player. From what I can tell, the Jukebox has already disappeared from Dell's product site, so it seems it might already be too late to jump on the now extinct players.[via digg]
Old Mac as a Jukebox
Macworld has a nice article up in case you are looking for something to do with one of your old Macs. I, personally, tend to cash in on the ebay sucker factor quickly and over charge for my old Macs as much as I possibly can. However, I might consider this old Mac as a jukebox solution next time I upgrade (although, I've been pretty pleased with the 200GB Hard Drive I have connected to my NSLU2 for streaming music to my Mac and then routing through my entertainment system via Airtunes).
