Filed under: Decor, Gadgets

Want all your bedroom furniture in one spherical space? Consider Karim Rashid’s Sphera bed which isn’t just a sleep experience in the round as it includes a 32″ television, optional theatre system, vanity mirror, LED-lights and bubbly holder to give your bed experience a variety of entertainment options. The bed is adjustable and of course the entire Sphera is customizable to your color and other preferences. Who needs a head board, armoire, trunk and side table when you have all this in one cozy, plush boudoir.

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Filed under: Speakers

There’s nothing like a postcard from the truly high end of audio to put things in perspective. With product names like “WATT Puppy” (back in the day, complete with cables called “Puppy Tails”), you might take Wilson Audio lightly. Mistake, friends — witness their latest assault on the low end of the audio spectrum, the “Thor’s Hammer” subwoofer. Dual 15-inch drivers housed in the 4-foot tall phenolic cabinet plumb the depths down to 15Hz, and the package comes in at a meaty 412-pounds (without the amplifier!). That’s right, your $21,000 doesn’t include an amplifier. But if you can afford this beast, we’re guessing that cranking one up in your listening room will shake loose the required coinage from your sofa. Might we recommend something along the lines of Bryston, perhaps?

[Via AudioJunkies]

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Via [Engadgethd]

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Popularity: 14% [?]

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Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray, HD DVD, Players, Sony

We’re not exactly sure what German retailer Saturn plans to do with any HD DVD players that are surrendered as folks waltz in to take advantage of its latest offer, but we suppose the refurbished section could receive a boost in inventory if nothing else. Judging by a recent flier from the store, it’s offering consumers a €150 ($221) discount on Sony’s BDP-S300 — which is overpriced at €499 ($734) — if they trade their HD DVD player in at the time of purchase. Also of note, we can’t seem to find if there’s any fine print about what HD DVD players are acceptable, but it is certain that this deal is only available overseas at the moment. Not a bad idea to get customers to jump ship, though.

[Via Blu-ray, thanks Bhargav N.]

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Via [Engadgethd]

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Filed under: Cable, New content

Not long after National Geographic HD showed up on Bright Home Networks in Tampa, Florida, it seems to have scurried northeast and hit the Orlando market along with four others. According to a new placard hitting certain Orlando-area subscribers, five new HD options will be available on Friday, and they are: Discovery Channel HD, Animal Planet HD, TLC HD, Science Channel HD and National Geographic HD. Granted, there’s not much there for the sports / drama fans to get excited about, but the carrier has promised some 50 more high-definition offerings over the next year and change. Bring ‘em on, we say.

[Thanks, Steven]

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Via [Engadgethd]

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Filed under: Dining, Gadgets

And I thought the Clover Coffee Maker was a spendy coffee apparatus! From Japan to the U.S., this siphon bar takes forty-five to ninety seconds to put a premium cup o’ joe in your hand. It can be found at The Blue Bottle Caf

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Popularity: 11% [?]

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Filed under: Industry, Fiber

Just months after Verizon celebrated two years of FiOS, and merely four days after celebrating the same for New York, the firm has found yet another reason to boogie down. After a “banner 2007″ and a presumably successful January 2008, the outfit has finally netted its one millionth FiOS Television subscriber. The milestone makes it the tenth largest cable provider in the United Says, and considering that Mediacom is holding down the nine spot with 1.3 million, we’d state VZW is well on its way into single digits on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, that other fiber-based TV carrier is aiming to hit the same mark before 2008 draws to a close.

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Via [Engadgethd]

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Popularity: 16% [?]

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Filed under: Industry, OTA

We’ve seen local broadcast stations get all up in arms over payments (or the lack thereof) from cable and satellite providers, and it seems that Canada’s CTVglobemedia is doing just that. According to a new complaint filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, it’s looking for “fair compensation” for carriage of its stations as audiences look for other outlets (read: internet) and advertising revenues sink. The media conglomerate even went so far as to state that it “wasn’t right” that “cable companies pay nothing for its signal, yet charge their customers to watch local news and programming.” Them’s fightin’ words there, and to be honest, it’s got a fairly good point.

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Via [Engadgethd]

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Popularity: 12% [?]

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Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray, HD DVD

Gartner, the fat lady of research firms, is singing HD DVD’s swan song this morning. Hiroyuki Shimizu, Principal Research Analyst in Japan, says in Gartner’s Semiconductor DQ Monday Report that, “Gartner believes that Toshiba’s price-cutting may prolong HD DVD’s life a little, but the limited line-up of film titles will inflict fatal damage on the format.” He goes on to call the recent price cuts “useless resistance” in avoiding the inevitable. What’s that, you coyly ask? According to Shimizu, “Gartner expects that, by the end of 2008, Blu-ray will be the winning format in the consumer market, and the war will be over.” With 5 of the 7 major studios now backing Blu-ray exclusively, Gartner’s certainty on the subject doesn’t appear to be much of a stretch.

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Via [Engadgethd]

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Filed under: Polls, Displays, Sports

Believe it or not, you’ve but eight days (and a few hours) to settle on where you’ll be watching Super Bowl XLII, and if the answer is your living room, is your current setup the one you’ll be running with? Around this time each year here in the US of A, retailers start cramming ideas in your head in order to convince you that your existing HDTV just isn’t cut out for “the large game,” so we’re wondering just how many of you are choosing now to upgrade? Oh, and if you’re sticking with whatever you’ve got, don’t hesitate to shout it out proudly in comments below.

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Via [Engadgethd]

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Filed under: Gadgets

Usually the term Fat lady isn’t one of endearment but the Morel company has given this moniker to their new floorstanding loudspeakers. The speakers are made of an outer layer of carbon-fiber composite with an inside fiberglass enhanced layer. The Fat Lady’s zaftig shape is the result of over two years of research and development to create extraordinary sound dispersion through the driver membranes without deflection and sound distortion. The speaker uses two 9″ woofers, a single 6″ midrange and a 1.1″ hand-coated soft dome tweeter. They are expected to cost around $20,000 a pair.

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