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Ford USB Music Box adds mass storage playback, smartphone charging to AUX-enabled receivers
Sure, you've probably been leading a compact disc-less life in the living room and on the go for quite a few years now, but there's one place where optical media often remains the only option for on-demand tunes: your car. Now select Ford owners in Europe have an option accessing and controlling their smartphones, flash drives or other USB mass storage devices from an in-dash audio system. The USB Music Box connects to compatible audio and nav systems with an AUX input, and lives in the glovebox, center console or armrest, pumping tunes through your car's speakers with "great sound quality very similar to that of the radio." Last time we checked, FM radio has an equivalent bitrate quite a bit lower than your typical digital music file, so that's not exactly a glowing testimonial. Still, if you're desperate for a way to carry thousands of tracks in your car without filling the trunk with an array of sizable silver saucers, it might be time to toss aside the gloves and open up the Music Box -- assuming, of course, that you own one of ten recent models outlined in the PR just past the break.
Crank the core with this Gradius music box
This rare Gradius music box has to be one of the coolest limited-edition game-related items we've ever seen. It's not much to look at -- pretty much just a wooden box with the Gradius logo printed on it -- but it's a Gradius music box. It is a mechanical music box that plays Gradius music. We don't think we have to explain the amazingness of such an item.Specifically, it plays a 15-second version of "Farewell" from Gradius II GOFER no Yabou. We found an actual recording of the music box in action here. This item was only available as a mail-in offer to people who purchased three Gradius soundtrack CDs.We don't even get the opportunity to buy soundtrack CDs most of the time over here, and Japanese fans get to listen to those soundtracks as music boxes. Now we just have to ask ourselves: is the best fifteen seconds of Gradius music ever in a box worth $99?[Via GameSniped]
SoniColumn interactive sound installation
The SoniColumn -- an interactive sound installation that's one part sci-fi and one part Victoriana-- is the latest work from multimedia artist Jin-You Mok. Part of his MusicBox Project, the piece, as you can no doubt guess, consists of elements designed to mimic a music box in one form or another. The SoniColumn itself works through an array of touch-sensitive LEDs that each emit a unique tone when touched -- the budding musician can then turn a crank to rotate the column and play back his/her composition in its entirety. If you want let loose your inner Thomas Dolby, you can currently check out the SoniColumn at Bitforms gallery in Seoul, South Korea, or catch it's next appearance at Wired's NextFest in NYC come October.[Via Engadget Japanese]
