CNet has a review of a new wireless connector that lets you send audio from your PC to your home stereo up to 100 feet away. The RCA Lyra Wireless RD900W is set with a transmitter that plugs into your PC via USB and a receiver that plugs via mini-plug (adapter available) to your home stereo, plus a remote control, all operating over 900MHz freq. Cost is just $100. What’s the catch? Well, they’re really limited – – there’s no display, so if you’re in another room, you’re using the remote blind. And why would you need it in the same room as your PC anyway? It’s really nothing that you couldn’t do with a simple FM transmitter. If you ask me, the current crop of DARs is pretty useless. Buy an X-Box with the new audio-networking feature ($40) or hack it yourself instead and you’ll have a lot more fun.
Update: Sorry — vague references to the x-box probably deserved more of a link; Microsoft has announced the impending release of new software for the PC and X-Box that will allow users to transfer music and pictures from PC to X-Box, allowing music playback through home theater, picture slideshows, and what we’ve all been waiting for — KARAOKE! While the X-Box has just an 8 gig hard-drive, it’s still capable of holding thousands of songs in MP3 or WMA format, and some clever hackers have managed to upgrade it. The announcement was made at E3 (a major video game convention) but the release of the software will not happen until September/October, by which time my prediction is that a new version of the X-Box will also be available, perhaps with a larger harddrive. For the full scoop, check C|Net.