Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2005/10/31/mp3_toilet_gadgets/
MP3 toilet and other gadget essentials
Japanese manufacturer takes the p**s
Posted in Personal Tech, 31st October 2005 11:18 GMT
Tech Digest Tech Digest for the Register
Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, Bayraider keeps tabs on the best and worst of eBay and Propellerhead answers your PC queries.
MP3 playing toilet
Personally, I prefer the company of a Gary Larson compendium or an aspirational Sunday supplement when I'm on the loo, but if music is more your thing when you're doing your thing you might want to head over to Japan where they've just brought out this MP3-playing lav. There's an SD slot for adding your favourite toilet-friendly tunes, leaving you to decide if you need tracks of Bohemian Rhapsody scale proportions, or something altogether zippier like a Lemonheads track, or "Happy Birthday To You". Either way there's some unaddressed fibre issues you might want to look into. Check the video here
The £10 MP3 player
Struggling to afford the downpayment on a new iPod shuffle? Well, if things are that tight here's some good news. You can now buy an MP3 player for, get this - a tenner. The 24g Ebuyer Ecoman delivers all the usual features including MP3 playback and in-ear phones. What you don't get are rechargeable batteries – it plays for eight hours on one standard AAA battery – and any storage. You have to slip in your own SD cards, but seeing as 512MB SD cards sell for around £20 now that isn’t too bad a deal. If you are feeling flush you can opt for the £13 'MP3 Player with Expansion Slot' which also features a screen. Can it be too long before MP3 players drop out of your cereal packet? Yep the days when you’ll be crunching on your Cheerios and break your teeth on the iPod pico can’t be too far away. Get 'em here.
Bela Lugosi’s cape on eBay
According to this auction at one point in the 1930s, movie star Bela Lugosi received as much mail from female admirers as Clark Gable, despite being a.) over 50, b.) not much of a looker, and c.) famous mainly for playing horror movie characters. It's a funny old world. Anyway, the auction is a corker, as it's for a cape worn by Lugosi while filming 'Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein' - we assume the modern equivalent would be 'Dick & Dom Meet Predator', which we'd certainly pay to see. Bidding currently stands at over $14,500, yet it's not made the reserve price yet. Spooky.
PC tip of the day from Propellerhead
How to reply to emails while you are out
When you are out of the office, whether it's just for a few hours or a weeks holiday, it's useful to be able to reply to incoming emails to let people know you are away, and you will reply to their message when you get back. This facility is available in Outlook Express but it only works if the PC in question has an always-on Internet connection (or is connected to a network) and it has to be on with OE running for it to work.
Begin by creating your reply message, something like 'I am out of the office until Tuesday etc'. Click the New Mail button, type in your message and go to File > Save As, give the message a name and save it in a folder where you will be able to find it. Step two, go to Tools > Message Rules > Mail, click the New button and in the first box select 'For All Messages'. In the second box choose 'Reply With Message' and in the third box click on the underlined Message and direct it to your reply email. Click OK and it's ready to run, just remember to leave OE running.