Why should you be excited, then? Well gadgeteers, both players feature high quality playback of music files, including FLAC and WAV, up to 192 kHz/24 bit. Sweet. But oh, that’s not all.

We’ll get you started with the N-50 which has dual transformers and USB/Optical/Coaxial digital inputs to work alongside the RCA and Optical/Coaxial outputs. Additionally, (and quite fantastically) it can support internet radio and iPod files, so, whatever format it’s in, and no matter how far it’s embedded within the deepest, dankest and darkest corners of your computer’s musical collection, then it’s likely to play for you. It is very good like that. Is there a catch at all? Unfortunately, yes; you do need an additional adapter for wi-fi compatibility… wait… wait… it’ll be okay. Read on and feel comforted by the horse’s mouth… no wait, that’s really not right. Ah yes, feel reassured by some info straight from the source… better.

Technology and Product Information Manager at Pioneer Europe, Philippe Coppens says: “Audiophiles now want to enjoy audio playback from their whole music library as well as online media, in the best possible sound quality. Keeping that in mind, Pioneer’s network audio players were developed to offer a new listening experience, giving access to music files wherever they are stored —PC, NAS, HDD, iPod/iPhone/iPad, or USB— as well as internet radio programmes from around the world.

“For the N-50, we have further integrated asynchronous USB DAC functionality and DSP processing, along with the parts and construction to make sure the requirements of even the most demanding audiophile are met.”

What about the N-30 then? Well, err, dear audiophiles, it’s not quite as good as the slick N-50, but it still does a top-notch job. Yeah, it lacks the dual transformers and digital inputs (excluding AirPlay and DLNA, of course), and the iPod compatibility, but otherwise carries out the same functions as its “big brother” model.

These luscious new Pioneers are available in black now, priced at £349.99 for the N-30 and £499.99 for the N-50.

[Source: Pioneer’s new Airplay-enabled Network Audio Players]

The tagging feature utilises Shazam to quickly identify the song you’re listening to and then stores the result in the user’s area of the Pure Lounge (thelounge.com) site. The track can then either be purchased and downloaded, through their tie-up with 7Digital, or simply used to find similar songs or other tracks by the same artist.

In addition to tagging and recording (which works via an instant record button or manually setting a start date/time and duration), the Sensia 200D also provides access to ‘Pure Music’. This is a cloud-based on-demand music service which costs £4.99 per month and keeps any purchases synchronised between your other Pure music systems, your PC/Mac as well as via an Andriod or iOS app.

Sensia users can also use the colour touchscreen to view weather reports or station slideshows (dependant on broadcaster), engage with Twitter and Facebook, keep up to date with selected RSS feeds or view photos stored locally or via Picasa. The unit provides 30W RMS of digital sound and additional features include an input for an iPod/MP3 player; two fully featured alarms; countdown timer; sleep timer and a headphone socket.

The 200D continues to build on its predecessor’s user friendly approach to digital radio and streaming music – a world which can be quite bewildering for newcomers. We felt one area for future improvement would be to provide an EPG (electronic programme guide) for the DAB side of the product – which would make better use of the unit’s new recording ability.

The Sensia 200D Connect will be available in the UK during the first quarter of 2012 with a recommend retail price of £249.99.

[Source: CES Unveiled – Pure Sensia 200D music system]

Powermonkey-eXtreme Portable Charger

The powermonkey-eXtreme certainly lives up to its name. It’s got a massive 9000mAhcapacity Lithium Polymer battery – 6x the size of the one you’ll find inside the iPhone. Speaking of, the unit is capable of recharging most 5V devices – which includes the iPhone and Garmin Edge 800. It can power standard mobiles 12x over.

It’s also got two ports – standard USB for phones and a DC outputs (at 2.1Amps max) to support the Apple iPad and other tablet computers. It’s also IPP67 rated, so it’s waterproof for 30 minutes up to 1 metre – and shock resistant.

And the eco bit? It has a huge solar panel built-in, which you can connect via Velcro to a rucksack to keep you charged on the go. Perfect.

Water Powered Atomic Clock

Buy here

Do you remember opening a present only to be disappointed by a need for batteries? Well, fear not, because here is a clock powered by water. That’s right, just H2O. Pour in some water and the hydrogen cell will react, turning the water into power.

The clock then synchronises via radio to the atomic time centre, so everything stays on-time as well as being power-free. There’s an alarm, thermometer and calendar as well, but who needs those bits?

Chameleon 6 in 1 Solar kit

Buy here

The Chameleon is a six in one solar toy set that’s perfect for indoctrinating the youth with green ideals.

You can create six different solar powered models that come to life when exposed to sunlight – a boat, car, windmill, plane, dog and a standing fan (see? It’s practical, too.).

Water Pressure Powered FM Scan Shower Radio

Buy here

Instead of relying on high-tech hydrogen conversion or the power of the sun, the water-pressure FN shower radio is powered by thrusting, surging water. From the tap.

Simply hook it up to the faucet of your shower and the water will pump through, turning a turbine and generating enough power to listen to your favourite tunes.
It’s also got a built-in rechargeable battery so it keeps playing even after the shower stops – perfect for drying yourself off while dancing. It also means that the last station and volume level are automatically stored after use ready for your next shower.

Santa Eco Torch

£3.99

Buy here

Squeeze the handle to generate light. What? It may not be the latest gadget, but it’s Christmas-sy.

[Source: Eco-gadgets to fill your Christmas stocking and your heart]

From the Beeb’s Radio 4 to France’s RTL, the Orange Liveradio app adds a further 11,000 radio stations from across the globe to a Squeezebox user’s catalogue of radio stations. For those who are unaware of the assets of the Logitech Squeezebox, this compact network music player enables users to enjoy digital music on their computer and the internet. Without the need of wires and supporting almost every format, including AIFF, AAC, WAV, Apple Lossless, FLAC, WMA and MP3, digital music collections and radio stations can be enjoyed anywhere in the home.  Squeezebox experiences can be controlled by a user’s smartphone or tablet with the Logitech Squeezebox Controller app.

In adding the Orange Liveradio catalogue to its range of apps, Logitech has created more opportunities for the discerning digital music fan. As well as creating an additional 11,000 radio stations to its index, users can access more podcasts from providers all over the world.

We’ve all had moments when we’ve heard a track we instantly love but don’t know the artist or group who are singing it. This annoying feat of listening to music can be rectified with the Orange Liveradio app, which gives users access to all the associated information supplied by the radio stations, such as song titles and artist’s names.

If Squeezebox embraces your music listening desires you may be excited by the Squeezebox/Orange Liveradio collaboration and want to check out further information on this “exciting step in the evolution of Squeezebox”, visit www.mysqueezebox.com. Or you could join other Squeezebox geeks and sign up to the Logitech Sqeezebox forum at www.forums.slimdevices.com

[Source: Orange Liveradio team up with Logitech to ‘evolve the Squeezebox experience’]

Not only can the Eton Raptor be a much needed companion providing you with the usual entertainment, news and music a radio can, as well as charging your phone, without the use of batteries, but it also doubles up as a LED torch, altimeter, barometer, compass, alarm clock and even bottle opener. For anyone who has ever spent a night camping on the face of a mountain or has even been to a music festival, you will realise that the items mentioned above are often as essential items as a tent, particularly the bottle opener!

Not only does this multi-faceted device provide virtually everything you will need in the great outdoors and is an emergency did occur – i.e you can’t find your bottle opener – but it is rugged, waterproof, rubberised and has a IPX4 splash proof rating, which can withstand a direct, constant shower for up to five minutes – An imperative feature of any device meant for the outdoors in a British summer.

Concealed behind a protective rubber flap, owners of the Eton raptor will find a USB output that will enable them to charge gadgets, such as mobiles and a headphone socket and audio output also cunningly hidden, which means users can play music from an iPod or mobile without obtruding the ears of other campers!

In short, for a mere £99.99 you can turn your outdoor camping ventures into a ‘home from home’ experience with the help of the Eton Raptor.

[Source: Eton Raptor: Taking the ‘ruggedness’ out of camping!]

Having said this, if you are after a portable, stylish and affordable radio, you are reading the write review, as with the Parabola portability, affordability and being ‘pleasing to the eye’, is at its core. Its most remarkable feature is its unique rounded shape which cleverly doubles up as a handle. The Parabola’s large and sturdy handle makes it ideal for carrying, which together with its optional battery feature, means Magicbox’s latest radio is tremendously portable.

Simplicity and ‘un-complication’ is also another component of the Parabola, offering a desirable alternative to many of the complicated and ‘too technical’ radios currently littering the DAB radio market. An uncomplicated set up means users can start enjoying a vast choice of national and local DAB/FM stations within seconds, whilst displaying the station’s name rather than frequency supports the Parabola’s notion of being user-friendly.

All the usual features we have grown accustomed to in a modern radio apply with the Parabola, which benefits from a headphone socket, a fully functioning clock and a dual alarm with ‘snooze’ option.

Being available in a range of five colours including silver, gold, green, red and blue, the Parabola DAB radio would make a stylish addition to a number of different rooms within a house, to suit the different tastes of each family member.

But the best thing about the Parabola radio is most definitely its price. Costing just £49.99, radio listeners can enjoy the usual features of a radio, but with a greater sense of style, freedom and uncomplicatedness. Whether it’s ‘too hot to handle’ remains to be seen.

[Source: Parabola DAB radio: Stylish, portable and cheap]

With this knowledge firmly on-board, Magicbox, a manufacturer of affordable DAB radios and other communication devices, has launched the Minuet – a simple, affordable and funky DAB radio, comparably fantastic for both adults and children.

Available in both black and pink – to cater for either gender – this stylish yet simple and uncomplicated radio provides access to up to 250 commercial and 34 BBC radio stations. Although it has to be said that part of the fun of ‘playing with’ a radio, is meticulously moving the tuning dial, painstakingly trying to find more radio stations before spending another half an hour trying to fine-tune a station to make it relatively audible. DAB radio’s predisposition to have the time, date and stations automatically added, arguably takes some of the fun out of searching and seeking out some unregulated pirate radio station, being illegally transmitted off the Caribbean coast.

Nonetheless DAB radio has simplified this process and in doing so have, in actual fact, made radios much more ‘child-friendly’. Maintaining its child-friendly status the Minuet displays information about the digital station on a bright and backlit, two line display, which displays station names in alphabetical order rather than by frequency – another educational attribute. Although the information displayed does not stop at the station’s name, as also provided on the vivid screen, is data about signal strength as well as information about each individual station.

Being equipped with a headphone socket will also delight your children endlessly as they will be able to listen to their music privately, without the interfering ears of Mum and Dad monitoring their listening habits.

At just £29.99, I think the Minuet DAB Radio would make an excellent birthday gift to educate and entertain the kids.

[Source: Minuet DAB Radio: Put simply, it’s child’s play!]

And fill the room it does. For something so small (it’s smaller than two tins of beans on top of each other or 15 cm if that’s how *you* measure things), the Magicbox Tower has an impressive bass-y sound, far less tinny than other iPod alarm clock docks I’ve come across. I’d happily use the Tower as an speaker without ever troubling the FM radio or alarm clock functions. The Tower is also surprisingly well built and has a nice solid feel to it. I didn’t drop my review unit (honest) but if I did, I’m pretty sure it’d be ok.

This multipurpose unit acts as an alarm, DAB/FM radio, iPod docking station and iPod charger and is compatible with all generations of the iPod and iPhone. The radio is also excellent, coming as it does, with an old fashioned telescopic metal aerial, instead of a wire which I’m used to seeing. Bundling in DAB radio is also a great addition at this price level and a nod towards the more advanced iPod docks on the market that come with amazing streaming capabilities (if you have the cash, look into the £200+ dock market and prepare to be blown away). There are also bundled station presets and you can scan for available stations.

The Magic Box Tower is about £70, placing it at the higher end of the alarm clock dock range. However for the price you get a DAB radio and a pretty amazing sounding iPod dock.

[Source: Magicbox Tower iPod alarm dock review]

But it’s from Breville, and it looks really cool, I proclaimed. They still weren’t convinced. However, my first impressions out of the box were of a very solidly built good-looking piece of kit – with shiny steel body and glossy black sides. There’s a hint of retro about it, with the round speaker in the side and the silver knobs for on/off/volume and store/search.

Turning it on revealed it to be even more stylish than I first thought – the digital display showing the radio stations glows bright green, while the on light when you’re toasting is a cool blue. More reminiscent of a stylish hi-fi than a kitchen gadget.

The toaster itself is well constructed and works well – the two adjustable toaster slots are wide enough to toast muffins (the English kind) and crumpets, as well as your average slide of daily bread. It also offers defrost and reheat settings. Those good looking glossy black sides do get rather warm when toasting though, so be aware if you have smaller children.

So, on to the radio. If you’re still not sure why you could want this multitasking gadget, the idea is to save on the number of plug sockets you use – a good idea when the average kitchen is crammed with electric gadgetry goodness.

So how effective is it? The built-in FM/AM radio has ten preset radio channels: for FM radio you’ll need to pull up the aerial – just make sure it doesn’t sit over the toaster slots then they’re on. You can set your favourite channels by turning the ‘store’ button quickly and it will search for the next strongest signal. Then simply hold in the store button until it beeps. FM stations were easy to find, which is more than I can say for AM stations, and the panel doesn’t tell you which station you’re on, which is a bit of a let down. But as an occasional radio for the kitchen it works okay. If you’d rather have your own tunes you can plug in an MP3 player (no lead supplied).

All in all, anyone who has digital radio might be a bit disappointed with the quality and functions available on the Breville toaster, but as it comes in at about the same price as any other upmarket toaster (£49.99) and looks so good, the radio could be viewed as an added bonus.

The Breville “2 Slice Radio Toaster” is £49.99 from the likes of Argos and Amazon.

For more information head to www.breville.co.uk

[Source: Breville toaster radio: Breakfast gets a musical accompaniment]

Well now there is a new kid on the block. Though given its cube-like design one might say there is a new block on the kind. Although one probably shouldn’t. Logic 3’s i-Station TimeCube is tiny and designed to fit snugly on a bedside table. The design harks back to the chunky plastic alarm clocks of a bygone era, as does the massive shiny LED that dominates the front of the device.

The big chunky buttons that adorn the device carry out a variety of functions, such as adjusting volume, tuning the FM radio, or hitting that all-important snooze button. The snooze button also dims the bright red screen, useful if you want to cut down on glare. The buttons give off a nice satisfying click, which is good when adjusting in low light conditions. Or when you are half-asleep. The LED has a slight odd viewing angle – if you move it to extreme positions to the side, or above your eye line it becomes hard to distinguish. But at conventional viewing angles things work fine.

Sound quality is respectable. Like the TIME you probably couldn’t rock a party just using this, but it is more that adequate for the average sized bedroom. And the 3.5 mm dock allows other PMPs to join in on the fun.
At only £39.99 from an online retailer near you the i-Station TimeCube is definitely decent value for money and would probably make a great christmas gift for at least one person you know.

[Source: Logic 3’s i-Station TimeCube review]