Online - November 26, 2007

Your Lips Are Sealed

Tengu the Lip-Syncing Gadget

No matter how true, “loving wife, devoted mother, accomplished lip-syncer” does not make a good tombstone inscription.

So leave the nonvocal stylings to Tengu.

When plugged into your computer’s USB port, the wee gadget’s LED face reacts to sounds by lip-syncing them — whether it’s a cough or your Cars Greatest Hits album. A comforting presence, Tengu has all the good qualities of a coworker (quiet, likes your music) and none of the bad (sharing of “ideas”/germs).

Now let’s not kid ourselves. Tengu, though cute, has no brain and therefore no prior knowledge of the melodies it mouths. So it won’t be winning prizes on Puttin’ on the Hits anytime soon. (Also, that show was canceled twenty years ago.) You may even find yourself thinking, “Heck, I could do better than that. I have done better than that.”

But we’d take that thought to the grave if we were you.

Available online at compact-impact.com.