GeekSugar

Roundup: Retro Love

CasaSugar — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:00:00 PDT

I don't know what I envy most about my mother's generation - the velour couches, sipping gin cocktails like water, wood-paneled station wagons, growing up watching American Bandstand in black and white, or the mod décor that made their houses homes. I have dreams of dressing my house up like days past and pretending I could do all of the above in Betty Draper fashion.

Dreams can come true these days, as designers are going retro in the most modern ways. While Jonathan Adler is doing his part to bring the once-fabulous look back to the chic masses with tweed chairs and needlepoint throws, I'm quite keen on the retro electronic accents that would make the RCA pup yelp for joy. This girl is about to put a record on.

Turntable Necklace: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:45:11 PDT

Vinyl fans take note: this little turntable necklace is a fraction of the cost of what you'd pay for a rare Motown B-side at $22, and it announces your love for vintage in a wearable two-inch-wide, laser-cut pendant made from white, black, and red acrylic. Best of all, it's totally handmade so you know you're getting something that was made with love. Vinyl holds a special place in my heart, which urges me to click the "Love it!" button below. What do you think?

Can You Guess How Much This Gadget Costs?

GeekSugar — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:30:54 PDT

This turntable may look pretty minimal, but that doesn't mean the price tag is small. Can you guess how much this high-end record player costs?

Take the Quiz

Vintage Geek: The Return of the Turntable

GeekSugar — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:30:32 PDT

As if it ever left? I love the sound of old records, and I love the look of an old turntable. I remember messing around with my grandparents' record player during the Summer - the music of Patsy Cline will forever remind me of my grandmother – and if I had room in my apartment, I would totally rock a deck of my own. Inspired by a recent trip to a record store, I have again fallen in love with the old players, and have coincidentally seen TONS of goods paying homage to them! Check out some of my favorites – from watches to shirts – that I've come across blazed with an old school record player!

Turntable Watch: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:45:10 PDT

I've admitted my very strong desire for a phone watch like Penny had because all I want is geeky, geeky watches.

I am usually on the lookout for watches that do something cool like teach me Japanese, but I have also fallen so hard for this Turntable Watch ($175). Its main draw for me is giving me the dorky desire to make a scratching sound every time I check the time, so it might be good for me, annoying for my friends.

What do you think of it?

Set Your Old Vinyl Free With A USB Turntable

GeekSugar — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:33:28 PST

Well add the USB turntable to the list of USB items I probably don't need, but sound really cool. The handy gadget allows you to liberate all your antiquated vinyl by connecting it directly to your computer.

Simply plug the turntable into the USB port on your PC (Windows or Mac) and use the included Audacity software to rip your vinyl directly to MP3 (or WAV format) for playback on all your newfangled devices like the iPod. You can even use the Audacity software to give your vinyl a digital facelift by removing unsightly clicks and pops. It costs $169.99. For more about the turntable, just

Professional quality turntable connects to your PC via USB
Rip your vinyl directly to MP3 or WAV format
Ships with Audacity software (compatible with PC and Mac) for removing clicks, pops, and other undesirable characteristics of vinyl
Audacity supports high-speed recording, then returns music to original playback speed
Audacity software includes ability to export to WAV and MP3
Anti-skating control for increased stereo balance
Support for both 33.33 and 45 RPM playback speeds
Plug and Play USB compatibility with both PC and Mac
Packaged with all necessary cables to interconnect with both a computer and stereo playback system

Website of the Day: Turntable.fm

GeekSugar — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:11:41 PDT

Add one more website to your daily tech addiction - Turntable.fm, a digital music site with a seriously social premise. While adding a social element to services has become ubiquitous, the social side of Turntable.fm is simple, and the reason for its popularity - share good music with friends and strangers in real time.

Sign up for Turntable.fm via Facebook friends already in on the service. Choose which music room to have your avatar enter based on the room's name; think of it as a virtual nightclub without strangers spilling drinks on your shirt. If nothing sounds appealing, create a room of your own and invite friends. Each room has from one to five DJs spinning, while the rest of the room's listeners "stand" in the crowd voting whether songs are awesome/lame, talking in a sidebar chat room, or queuing up songs from Turntable.fm's large music collection or their computer's music library. If you deem a song awesome, the DJ will earn points, which can be used to change the avatar, and most importantly, up the user's music credibility. About 140,000 users have signed up in the first month since Turntable.fm launched.

Everything about the service, so far, is free. Like Pandora, the site is able to legally function under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with a limit on the number of songs that can be played by one artist in the same hour. For the time being, international users can't access Turntable.fm, but for those located in America, hop in a room and discover new tunes.

Your Holiday Digital Music DJ Guide

Kelly Schwarze — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:30:56 PST

To save ourselves from listening to our mom's record collection on repeat during this weekend's family gathering, we're taking on DJ duties. Forget flipping discs on a boombox; hook some powerful speakers up to a laptop and sign into these online music services to keep the party moving with new and unexpected tunes.

Pandora - A classic, Pandora keeps us going through the work day with our curated stations. Due to copyright licensing, listening to songs by the same artist is limited, but the service does allow you to skip over song fails.
Turntable.fm - We're taken with discovering new music through this new online digital music service. Hop into a crowd-friendly room; the "I <3 the 80s" room is a good choice.
8tracks - Mixtapes make a comeback on 8tracks, which lets users listen to mixtapes created by the community. Listen to playlists based on artist or genre and follow users whose mixes you love.
Spotify - Check out what your friends are listening to and discover new tunes with this free music service. You can pay for upgraded and premium services to get wireless streaming on your iPhone too, which makes it easy to plug and play to whatever iPod dock your parents have lying around.

Click through for three more online music resources.

Turntable Phonograph: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:00:38 PDT

Pink gadget alert! This Turntable Phonograph from Brando is bubblegum pink, retro, and totally charming. So charming that I'm forgiving it for not being an iPod dock or MP3 player as well. This baby only plays AM/FM radio, but she also has a clock, alarm, a thermometer, and um, a hygrometer (I won't front - I had to look that up). Just 17 bucks, and it's also available in white, but this is the rare occasion when I'd actually pick the pink version (weird, right?). What do you think?

Transform Your Empty Boxes Into Instant Toys With Box Play

Anna Monette Roberts — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:32:27 PST

Kids tend to make toys out of the most amazing and unconventional items. One man's trash, is another kid's toy, so don't be so quick to throw out your empty boxes and containers these days. Box Play For Kids created a line of 100 percent recycled stickers ($4-$12) to fit over milk cartons, toilet paper rolls, and egg cartons, so lil ones can bring new life to what otherwise would be thrown away. Make bracelets or army binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. An old box can turn into a sushi bento box or a turntable. Like Rolobox - the wheels that convert empty cardboard boxes into vehicles - through an afternoon of play, these stickers subtly teach tots that recycling can mean more than placing garbage in a blue bin in the garage.