Peek Tech Blog

Unplug your headphones and listen to your iPod® music player in a brand new way with the AIR-SA20PK S-AIR™ PLAY wireless music system. This easy-to-use, plug-and-play system transmits your stored iPod music all over your home using the included S-AIR dock and two receiver/speakers. Engineered with S-AIR digital wireless technology, you can enjoy multi-room listening from your iPod player with up to 10 receiver/speaker systems (two AIR-SA15R included). Take command of your listening environment and enjoy your iPod music on one speaker while the other plays an AM/FM radio station. Included wireless remotes for the docking station and each speaker unit give you total control over the music. Additional features include a clock and alarm, plus an LCD to view track information. Expand this music system beyond two rooms by adding optional AIR-SA15R wireless speakers.

S-AIR™ Digital Wireless technology
Makes multi-room listening2 easy with the ability to transmit CD-quality audio from your iPod® player to up to 10 compact, plug-and-play receiver/speaker systems (two supplied).

Dual source, multi-zone capability
Allows your Dock to transmit separate signals to each AIR-SA15R receiver/speaker. For example, listen to your iPod® music on one speaker in your living room while the other speaker plays an AM/FM radio station in the kitchen2.

Composite audio/video out connection
Lets you connect the Dock to a television to view video content stored on your iPod® player on a big screen, or connect the dock to a home theater receiver to listen to stored music through your home audio system2.

Included wireless remote controls
Take total control of your listening environment with included wireless remote controls for your Dock and each AIR-SA15R speaker

After the usual round of leaks and speculation, Canon has announced the new EOS 50D  to replace the well-loved EOS 40D, just one year (and six days) after the 40D was announced itself.

As those leaked shots have already shown, the 50D looks pretty much identical to its predecessor on the outside, but bumps resolution up to 15.1 megapixels. The new camera also sports Canon’s latest Digic 4 image processor, which allows the 50D to maintain burst speeds of 6.3fps (vs. the 40D’s 6.5fps speeds) despite the increase in resolution, according to Canon.

Other key upgrades include a 4-level High ISO speed noise reduction function and a maximum ISO rating of 12,800, improved Live View shooting with a new Face Detection Live mode, a high-precision diagonal center cross-type auto focus point with f/2.8 and faster lenses, and an HDMI connection for displaying full high-res images on an HDTV.

Canon plans to ship the 50D in October for $1,399 body-only or $1,599 for the kit with the EF 28-135mm, f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens.

Diamonds really are a girl's best friend: At least, that seems to be the case for tennis star Maria Sharapova. She unveiled her limited-edition Canon Powershot Diamond Collection yesterday at New York City's South Street Seaport. Five consumers can win one through a nationwide sweepstakes. Each Canon PowerShot SD1100 is encrusted with 88 white diamonds (totaling 2.22 carats) around its lens.

Folks who were at the Bay Area Maker Faire may remember Lorin Parker and Electric Western. They were in the steampunk area, next to The Contraptors Lounge. Now the man who brought you the tube theramin and the steam-driven synthesizer is about to unleash his Phantastron kit on the world, a tube-based voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The video above includes the prototype for a ribbon controller that really demonstrates what this thing can do.

Over on the official Android Developers Blog, Googler Dan Morrill has news of what won't be making it into Android 1.0—a full featured-Bluetooth stack and data messaging via Google Talk API. Android 1.0 will work with Bluetooth headsets, but won't do other things like send files or link up to a PoGo printer, just like the iPhone.

Google Talk will be missing completely. Thankfully, the reasoning behind both decisions seems to make sense: Google Talk's security is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to function as the core IM service for a huge mobile platform as intended, and a full Bluetooth API simply isn't done yet, but both should show up in future iterations. Apparently any frameworks in the 1.0 SDK would be impossible to greatly change down the road, so it sounds like Google's taking the smart route and not rushing out inferior code.