Hasta La Gadget!

It’s Wilson’s turn again to choose The 404 semi-weekly audio draft sponsored by Beck’s Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews 5000, so naturally we’re a little skeptical (but not nearly as skeptical as we are about the moon landing), but Mr. Tang comes through again with the beautiful music of Priscilla Ahn, a young singer-songwriter with a light, ethereal voice that drifts through the layered atmosphere of her acoustic folk melodies.

(Credit: Priscilla Ahn/Last.FM)

Like many of the artists featured on our Draft Pick, Ms. Ahn also brings several instrumental talents to her songs, incorporating her harmonica and even a kazoo on top of the gentle plucks of an acoustic guitar.

Today’s featured song, “Dream,” was recently featured in an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and with good reason: the layered harmonies make the perfect soundtrack to quiet, rolling landscapes…also, I think it’s pretty cool that’s she’s on Blue Note Records, the jazz label responsible for putting out albums by John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis.

She put out her first record last year called “A Good Day,” and is currently touring Japan and Korea before heading back to Los Angeles on August 1 to play at the Troubadour. Give her a listen and let us know if you’re in love with her as much as I am!

As usual, this episode is also jam-packed with current newz, including MCA’s YouTube announcement (get better soon!), Facebook self-love (not like that, dummy), and another Facebook story about the most EPIC PARTY EVER!

One final note: does anyone have the original text/code for our Wikipedia page? I know it’s been awhile, but somebody must have it, right? Our intentions are secret for now, but we definitely have a stew a-brewin’, so hit us up at the404(at)cnet(dot)com if you have a copy of it!

EPISODE 386

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Originally posted at The 404

Nokia 6760 Slider

(Credit: Nokia)

If you think this Nokia 6760 slider looks a lot like the Nokia Surge, you’re not mistaken. The 6760 is essentially a European version of the U.S.-bound Surge, with somewhat similar features. It has a full QWERTY keyboard and is optimized for …

Sorry, don’t expect anything like this.

(Credit: Joystiq)

Whether or not you actually want one, Joystiq is reporting that Infinity Ward (the developer behind most of the Call of Duty franchise) is helping design a branded controller to coincide with the release of Modern Warfare 2.

However, while you’…

Samsung’s latest Blu-ray HTIB features just about anything an all-in-one customer could want; in fact we’re not sure how you can even build a 5.1 system with rear wireless speakers and a Blu-ray player for $799. The HT-BD3252 of course supports the latest HD audio codecs like TrueHD and DTS-HD, and a mic for automatic calibration. Not wanting to leave anything out from its stand-alone players, Samsung has also included the same internet services like Pandora, Netflix and Blockbuster via the included WiFi dongle. Oh, and don’t forget the very important iPod dock, we mean, who would buy a HTIB in this day and age without one? Not us, that’s for sure.

Continue reading Samsung has a new Blu-ray HTIB with the HT-BD3252

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Samsung has a new Blu-ray HTIB with the HT-BD3252 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In April, innovative Spanish router maker FON launched the La Fonera 2.0 router overseas. Last week, FON announced the router here in the United States, calling it the “Fonera 2.0n”.

Retailers will begin selling the 2.0n router beginning in October for $99. As the name suggests, the router supports 802.11n, which is scheduled to be finalized in September.

The FON hook is the fact that it creates two parallel Wi-Fi connnections, one reserved for your private use, and the other open to the public. If you own a La Fonera router, therefore, those public channels are open to you when you travel, and your router is also available as a public hotspot for your FON buddies.

FON also claims that the new router contains an advanced processor that will help it sync connected applications running in the background, instead of waiting their turn for a single channel.

Some users might also be interested in the router’s ability to process some BitTorrent torrents (RapidShare and MegaUpload are specifically named) while saving the downloaded content to a user-supplied USB hard drive that can connect to the integrated USB hub. I was a bit worried about this when I talked to Hitachi about their $79 SimpleNAS device that transforms a USB drive into a NAS; it’s not clear whether the La Fonera requires you to reformat the drive or not. Still, for just $20 more, you’re getting a lot more functionality. You can also use the software to turn a 3G dongle into a shared Wi-Fi connection, according to FON.