Now that the latest round of Apple buzz is fading in our ears, we have finally gotten an Apple iPod Hi-Fi ($349 direct) in for review.  PC Mag Audio Analyst Mike Kobrin has been playing with the new Apple Hi-Fi all afternoon--and it has been very, very loud. Not only does it sound really good, but even at maximum volume there was no distortion. And yes, this does hurt your ears.  As Mike puts it:

I cranked up the volume a few notches below maximum and I could feel the wind coming out of the two bass ports from several feet away—not to mention the remarkably low-distortion aural assault on my ears.

I was there. I felt the wind. This boombox can do weddings. You can read Mike's entire ears-on Hi-Fi review here.

I don't know about you, but I know what I'll be doing Sunday night at 8pm: watching the 78th annual Academy Awards! Of course I'm a little upset that I won't get to see what's happening on Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy this week, but seeing Johnny Depp and Christian Bale on my TV screen is way better.

And where would the swanky Awards Show be without tech swag? If only I could get my hands on the Oscar nominees' goodie bags! According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the goodie bags are estimated to be worth over $100,000, full of trips, massages, and tech galore. We won't know all of the products in the bags until the Show, but PCMag Reviews Editor Laarni Ragaza managed to get us a sneak peak.

One of the most popular products talked about to be included in this year's gift basket is Motorola's PEBL cell phone in a limited-edition gunmetal gray. I can just hear Paris Hilton now, "That's hot!"

Then there's the Vonage VTech Broadband phone system, similar to the ip8100 VoIP model which I'm sure celebs will find enough time to use (yeah, sure).

A sweeter deal are the swag bags from Global Green USA given out to celebrities who arrive at the Oscars in low-emission vehicles. Among those items is a solar-powered charger. [I can just picture Tom Cruise pulling up in a Prius with Katie at his side.]

And Drive Sync will reportedly be giving away GPS/car monitoring devices to the Oscar losers. [Is Daniel Radcliffe even old enough to drive?]

My thoughts on who will win:

Best Picture...Brokeback Mountain

Best Director...George Clooney

Best Lead Actor...Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Best Lead Actress...Reese Witherspoon

You may remember when David Coursey talked about the Ambient Orb: a round object that receives information and displays a color based on the data it receives.

I came across something similar: the Jellephish Mood Lamp. According to the product's Web site, "It uses processor-controlled digital LED technology to create an almost infinite palette of colors to satisfy your every mood." It really does look like a jellyfish too, doesn't it? It comes with a remote control that allows you to switch between the four preset modes of the mood lamp.

The different modes are:

*Static (select one color to display)
*Scrolling (continuously scrolls through the spectrum of colors)
*Sound to Light (lamp changes colors in time with your music)
*Pearlescent (a cool white light, with hints of red, green and blue)

It lasts about 40,000 hours, powered by an AC/DC adapter. Unfortunately, it's only available in the UK for now. Buy it for £79.99.

[Found via Coolest Gadgets]

I was finally able to get my hands on the new MacBook Pro. The box came in at 11 pounds, and the first thing I noticed is the amazing job Apple did with the packaging. I treated this piece of hardware like my Video iPod, delicately removing each piece. I was expecting to get the standard review unit everyone has gotten so far—a Core Duo T2500 with 1GB RAM. Instead, Apple surprised me with the T2600 (2.16 Ghz) and 2GB of RAM. I was overwhelmed.

The look and feel hasn't changed. The MacBook Pro is thinner and the LCD is brighter. It's still a scorcher, and I would recommend a pair of pants when it's on your lap. The Magsafe power adapter is Apple ingenuity at its best. There are LED lights on both sides of the Magsafe connector, so there is no wrong way to attach it. I simulated a trip-over-the-wire scenario. The adapter detached instantly, I didn't pull the notebook to the floor, and I didn't fall on my face.

The feature set had its up and downs, and performance is faster, but more like 1 to 2 times as fast, not the 3 to 4 times that Apple was preaching. Apple is still playing catch-up to certain 3^rd party software. All the universal applications worked like a charm. Microsoft Office ran nicely. The 2GB of RAM helped run Photoshop CS2, and even then, it didn't perform like it should. InDesign CS2 was a little slow. QuickBooks NUE 2006 ran smoothly, for a non-universal app. You can easily find out if an application is universal or not: highlight the application, go to the finder, and select "Get Info. If it says "Kind: PowerPC, then it's not universal. You can get the full list of universal applications here.

Overall, I like FrontRow, but the likelihood of me losing the remote is very high, being the clumsy person that I am. Integrating iSight is the best feature upgrade I've seen, other than the Intel Components, of course.

Final verdict: Buy if you're a regular user. Wait a couple of months if you're a media professional.

Back in December, I mentioned the iBoxer for Men. Well ladies, now you can parade around your house in just your boxers with a neat little pocket for your iPod. 

The Play iBoxer Solid Boxer is made of cotton and spandex, and can fit any MP3 player, not just an iPod, in the convenient pocket. Choose from five different colors: black, pink, turquoise, white, or yellow.

The iBoxer for Women is available in S, M, and L sizes for $19.00. And if you buy 2 iBoxers, you get three free iTunes downloads.

[Thanks to NewLaunches for the scoop.]

I went to the TiVo event yesterday in New York where they announced their new KidZone parental control features. The service itself is just a basic sandbox that creates an adults-only interface to the box. Pretty useful stuff, and a far more elegant than most current parental controls, but the really interesting part are the third party filters.

TiVo announced deals with the Parents Television Council and Common Sense Media to provide third party filters/recommendations for television content. Go to the PTC section and you can view all the PTC-approved programs and schedule them for downloading. The choice of these two groups for the launch is not accidental, the PTC is very conservative and Common Sense is more progressive. Check out their sites and you can see both these groups have a clear point of view on the world. The customization of KidZone lets you pick the group you agree with and basically share their programming choices.

Right now, this is all about helping parents make better choices about what kids programming, but this technology scales well beyond that. What about a Mormon Church- approved content? Or MoveOn.org-certified lefty programming? And what is Warren Ellis watching these days? More than just a DVR, TiVo could be come a platform for users sharing and, hopefully, discussing their programming choices. Like Flickr for video. The possibilities are endless.