Jeff Cutler's Gadget Report

It’s February and it’s cold out. I don’t ride the scooter when it’s chilly and that allows me – like most people – to listen to the radio while I drive my car. Trouble is, I’ve run out of radio stations. They’re either too sports-talk based, or too chock full of ads.

The real solution for driving in the car and enjoying the radio is either attaching your own music player to your speakers or finding a way to capture radio programs you want to hear and saving them for when you’re driving.

Well, Livio has done just that with the Carmen by Livio. Essentially, the unit lets you grab songs, programs and even radio broadcasts straight from your computer that you can play in the car. Let’s take a look at how it works – and how well it works.

—By the way, I had a chance to play with and review another Livio Radio product. See that review here.—

Right out of the box, you’re ready to go. With software for both Mac and PC, you just attach the unit (only slightly more bulky than a cellphone car charger) to the USB port on your computer. The Carmen shows up as a drive and includes all the software necessary to save music and radio station broadcasts onto the 2GB internal drive.

The software worked seamlessly and choosing a station to record was pretty easy. You do have to choose from stations that broadcast via the Internet, but those are more and more prevalent these days, so finding programming isn’t hard. I like to grab podcasts from NPR and other stations, so for me it was as easy as dragging the MP3 file over to the Carmen and putting it into a folder.

Next stop, the car.

The Carmen works just like the old FM transmitters everyone used to have for their iPod. Find a clear station at the end of the dial and set the frequency on the Carmen to that same station. Then either use the remote (included) or the buttons on the Carmen to navigate folders or click over to programs.

The cool thing is being able to pause playback and jump ahead to skip commercials. The unit also allows you to plug into an external jack in if your stereo system has that feature. It makes the broadcast easier to hear when you’re on a long trip and the FM station you’ve chosen to piggy back on gets fuzzy.

I also liked that the Carmen head swivels to make it easy to read and operate the buttons. It also keeps the unit out of the way of beverages – since my little Scion xA has a cupholder right beneath the 12V lighter plug.

What’s my overall thought on the Livio Radio Carmen? I like it. It’s short money – I’ve seen it between $30 and $40 online. It’s portable. And it holds a purported 45 hours of audio (your mileage may vary if you put higher-quality MP3s on board).

If you’re looking for a neat little gift for someone, want an entertainment alternative when traveling in the car, or just like having the ability to stop and start your programs – this is a fantastic little gadget.

**Livio is allowing me to give the unit away to one lucky reader. To qualify to win, just leave a comment here AND post a link to this post on your blog or in your Facebook or Twitter stream. I’ll draw from all entries on April 1.**

As a journalist, there are lots of people vying for my attention and by extension, the attention of my audience. When that happens, folks (marketers mostly) are inclined to give you little toys and gadgets and schwag to entice you to say nice things about their products. With ethical journalists like me, it doesn’t work. If a product is crap, I’ll tell you.

In some instances, if the giveaway is really cool, the product falls out of view entirely. That’s the case with the schwag in this video. Please ignore the fact that I nearly cut off my head in it. And be aware that Fuse makes other things – or markets other products – than the little propper in this video.

As you realize, I have a few projects that require quality audio. These include…

http://nomx3.com

http://alifeofplay.com

http://bowlofcheese.libsyn.com/

And I also do a lot of remote consulting for clients via Skype and other online telephony applications. SO, I’m not entirely unbiased when it comes to finding gadgets that will help me communicate – or broadcast – more clearly.

In the realm of folks who I’ve relied on consistently are the BlueMic people. I’ve used their products in my presentations and I used them regularly in my podcasts and video shows. Which is why I was so excited to see them again at Tuesday night’s CES Unveiled event.

Adding to my excitement was their new lineup of audio broadcast devices including a pro-level tabletop microphone they’ve dubbed the YetiPro.

They also brought out some other higher-end recording accessories for your Flip and they’re working on a new Mikey for the iPhone 4.

Aside from being a little odd about naming their microphones after snow creatures and products (I use the Snowflake microphone at home and my NomX3 co-host Mike Langford uses the Snowball microphone), they have consistently delivered quality items.

Later in the show, I’ll get to play with the newly released models and will get you an evaluation on their fit and function when it comes to producing audio for your shows or just for talking to friends via VOIP.

Stay tuned!

The one thing that makes visiting Las Vegas in the dank, cold of January worth it is the people you get to see. Yes, it snowed here the other day. Second time in six years that I’ve seen snow in Las Vegas, and I’m pretty certain I can get this weather at home in Boston.

But weather aside, the familiar faces of colleagues and tech luminaries contribute to make traipsing around a monstrous trade show more fun. A smile here and some quick catching up serve to soften the reality that we’re all in a convention hall digging for stories about the latest technology.

On both accounts, last night at the CES Unveiled event at the Venetian was no different. I ran into more than my share of famous and familiar faces including pool shark Molly Wood from CNET and Tom Merrit, the host of Tech News Today on the TWIT Network. And I also said hi to product reps from companies like iHome, Sharper Image and Technocel, among others, who have some cool stuff on the pedestal for this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

For instance, Sharper Image has finally taken steps to shake off the pain of their plummet and bankruptcy three years ago to emerge from the ashes with more vigor. According to Anthony Koperski, their national sales manager at Homedics (Sharper’s massage and wellness arm), the company is more focused now in bringing some great products to market – especially in the areas of home electronics and massage.

Koperski showed me a table full of iPod- and iPad-ready gadgets that the old Sharper Image might have been proud to offer. He also said that the little conference table at Unveiled wasn’t nearly large enough to show all their items. So I’m planning to go by their booth later this week to get photos and do a full review.

The iHome table was similarly packed with electronics…

…and also packed with people vying for position. From a media standpoint, I believe CES is pretty much opening their doors to anyone with a blog and not being as selective as they have in past years. But that’s a topic for a separate post/rant.

The last company I ran into last night was Technocel. They’ve got two products – the Micro USB Battery Boost and the Universal Travel Charger Plus. But what got me to remember their booth and the company name wasn’t the products, but the fact that they’re being represented at CES by people from Brookline, MA.

The BigFish marketing team was on sight and I saw some familiar faces from the Boston Social Media and tech scene. So, it all wraps together and you can’t avoid it. No matter where you go or what you’re doing, you’re bound to see folks who make you smile and help make any place familiar.

What’s the oddest event or place you’ve run into a familiar face?

Having attended a numerous iterations of CES, I’m less inclined to attend a lot of the company press conferences on the schedule. That said, this IS the year of the tablet – past predictions non-withstanding. And one of the major players in this space is ASUS.

They, along with MSI and then the big brands, were one of the original firms to bring netbooks to the mainstream and continue to do so. But as I write this in a hot convention center room with hundreds of other journos, I expect that we’re gonna see multiple types of tablets unveiled today.

I’ll upload photos of the devices we see in a later post. This is just my prediction.

If you’re in the market for a computing device, would you want a tablet? A netbook? And from what manufacturer?

More coming shortly.

Not really at CES yet, just arrived in Las Vegas. Tomorrow I’ve got a few press conferences and will live blog those as well as the CES Unveiled event in the dinner hour.

But for starters, here’s my lavish hotel room on the Las Vegas Strip…

I won’t be spending a ton of time here, but it is nice enough to prepare breakfast or a meal if I need to get some work done away from the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Where do you stay when you’re in Las Vegas?