13,000 radio stations inside a thumb drive

October 21, 2008 at 9:52PM

$40 • www.aluratek.com

Aluratek's USB Internet Radio Jukebox can play music from more than 13,000 Web radio stations worldwide. Instead of forcing listeners to hunt down stations site by site, Aluratek's device stores station information and listening software on a USB thumb drive. Insert the Jukebox into your computer's USB port and you're set: An iTunes-like user interface allows you to search through thousands of stations. The thumb drive, which requires Windows 2000, XP or Vista and Internet Explorer 6 or higher, lets you search for music in 150 countries, by genre or geography (Kazakh rock, anyone?). You can also store selected stations to a favorites folder and search for the top 10 radio stations in each country. The Jukebox also finds and removes low-bandwidth broadcasts to ensure high audio quality, and it doesn't require any subscription fees.

A CINEMATIC IMMERSION

$700 • www.benq.us

Your Nintendo Wii wheel, nunchuck controller and thrustmaster glow-saber duo pack won't do much good if you can't see what you're battling. A TV is nice, but for real, battle royale contests, a projector just makes things so much ... BIGGER. BenQ's MP512 ST projector was designed with the Wii in mind. The 5-pound MP512 ST has 800x600 SVGA resolution and can project an immersive 55-inch image from 3.3 feet. It also comes with 2200 ANSI lumens and a 2000:1 contrast ratio. And while it may not be the best projector to display the subtle shading and shadows of the new Blu-ray "Godfather" DVD (though image quality is not substandard), this projector should do the trick for less visually demanding works, such as your Wii games.

NEW YORK TIMES

about the writer

about the writer