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Testing the Best Audiophile-Quality Headphones
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:45:54 -0500
Our friends over at Sound + Vision rounded up six of the best-sounding over-the-ear headphones out there. Put away your packaged Apple "White Plastic Circles of Pain" earbuds--these will fill your earholes with some of the finest-quality audio on the market. The headphones include some of the best offerings from Sony, Grado, Sennheiser, and Audio-Technica--definitely worth a look if you're serious about your music.
We Christen Thee the Pentax BananaCamera
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:20:26 -0500
Pentax just announced their cheerfully-colored K-01, an interchangeable-lens compact camera. It's sort of in the same category as the Sony NEX-7, which we love: it's the size of a point-and-shoot, but it has an APS-C sensor and the ability to swap lenses like a DSLR. Compared to the NEX-7, it's quite a bit cheaper, and you get access to Pentax's roughly 25 bajillion (science.) available lenses, but it's also larger and does not have a viewfinder. On the other hand, yellow. Read more at PopPhoto.
Amazon's Kindle Fire Is Blazingly Fast for a Mobile Device
Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:35:00 -0500
And everyone else better catch up
After last year’s flood of largely indistinguishable Android tablets, it’s natural to glance at Amazon’s wildly different Kindle Fire and think “iPad killer.” But although the seven-inch tablet’s $200 price tag will do plenty to draw attention (and sales), the Fire, at its core, is little more than a video-ready e-reader. Even if it won't lay waste to the iPad, it could have an equally profound influence: The Fire sets a new ultrafast standard for how future mobile—and perhaps desktop—devices surf the Web.
Today’s typical mobile browser is a tease. Tap a link, and the first elements of the page zip into view. But then the progress bar crawls as the handset's processor struggles to load the remaining page elements—videos, images, even text—over limited cellular or Wi-Fi connections. Things get backed up in a load queue. On the iPhone 4S, for instance, it takes six seconds to load the 160 elements that make up the Pop Sci homepage. And even as faster 4G networks expand, richer Web languages such as HTML5 will make pages ever more bulky and slow.
The Fire’s browser, Amazon Silk, approaches the problem in a novel way. Silk shifts most of the processing duties to Amazon’s cloud servers (a.k.a. Amazon Web Services, or AWS). Those servers provide many times the processing power of the Fire itself, so they can pull information from the ethersphere and store, or cache, the data from several sources at once. They also optimize full-resolution elements, like photos and video, for a smaller screen; a three-megabyte image becomes 50 kilobytes, a 1080p video becomes 480, and so on. AWS processes all the elements of the page, and the server then preassembles it for the Fire and sends it to the device as a single stream. Popsci.com should load in no more than a few milliseconds.
Although the Fire is the first device to browse this way by default, it most likely won’t be the last. Both Apple and Google have servers large and powerful enough to process every page the way Silk does. (Smaller mobile browsers, including Opera Mini, have used similar setups in the past, but none of them has ever had as wide an audience as Amazon.) Furthermore, Silk’s coding ingredients are off-the-shelf—including HTML5 and JavaScript—so there’s no proprietary code to stymie competition.
At this point, there’s little to stop Amazon or potential copycats from making fast server-based browsing the new standard. But until they do, the mere fact that Silk exists makes us hopeful that the days of impatiently waiting on the Web will soon end.
Setting Up a House-Shaking, Multi-Room Stereo System
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:15:15 -0500
Hi-fi for the Wi-Fi crowd
Wiring up a home audio system is the past. Why bother, when there are so many great wireless options out there? Here's a quick guide to the kinds of unplugged music gear that can transform every room in your house into a neat, powerful listening chamber.
SPEAKER
The 100-watt MN5000 serves as both the amplifier and central speaker in a multi-room sound system. Over Wi-Fi, it combines songs on a user’s hard drive with music from Pandora and other services into one mega-library. With a phone app, listeners can browse the catalog, choose the rooms in which music will play (the MN5000 syncs with other Altec gear), and adjust volume.
Altec Lansing MN5000 $500
WIRELESS ROUTER
D-Link’s Amplifi prioritizes music and video streams so they’ll play without sputtering, even if a bandwidth-heavy task, like a photo upload, is running at the same time. Outside the house, the Amplifi provides remote access to music. With an MP3-loaded hard drive plugged into the router’s USB, listeners can play songs through a cloud- based smartphone app.
D-Link Amplifi HD Media Router 3000 (DIR-857) $170
SMARTPHONE
The HTC Rezound comes with the sharpest screen of any phone (342 pixels per inch, to be exact)—handy when navigating Altec’s remote-control app or reading liner notes on the 4.3-inch screen. When used with headphones as a media player, the Android handset’s audio equalization is pre-tuned for the deep bass of most pop and hip-hop.
HTC Rezound $300 (with two-year Verizon Wireless contract)
COMPUTER
HP’s Phoenix has enough storage (160 gigabytes to start, in speedy SSD form) to hold an entire music library, enough power for users to mix and edit their own original songs, and a one-gigabyte graphics engine—ideal for rendering high-def games and video. All the while, the liquid-cooled tower can easily handle continuous audio streaming to Altec's speaker.
HP Pavilion HPE Phoenix $1,150
Apple's New iBooks App for iPad Aims to Replace High School Textbooks
Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:56:02 -0500
This morning at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Apple announced their newest version of iBooks, with a major twist that's designed to remove it from its position as a late-entry contender in the Kindle vs. Nook ebook battle. Instead, Apple's focusing on education, with the eventual aim of replacing paper textbooks with iPad versions.
The new version of iBooks frees the app from its prior restrictions--now it can boast video, audio, interactive multitouch controls, and all kinds of new annotations. That's key to Apple's idea of the future of textbooks, which will look more like our friend Theodore Gray's amazing periodic table app The Elements than a static PDF.
But text is still a major part of the new platform--these are textbooks, after all. You'll be able to read them in portrait or landscape, and make notes and annotations with digital stickies. Maybe the coolest part of the entire project is the automatic note-card creation: it'll combine all of your stickies automatically into digital versions of 3x5 note-cards for self-quizzing. Of course, there'll also be interactive quizzes throughout the book/app.
Apple already has the big three textbook publishers on board (that'd be McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Pearson, who combine to take 90 percent of the K-12 textbook market). But what's interesting is that Apple is starting out targeting high schools. The books will be cheaper, yes--textbooks will cost $15 or less--but shelling out for iPads is still a ridiculously expensive prospect for an American public high school, so hopefully there'll be some kind of (major) discount for schools.
There'll also be a new platform for self-publishing, called iBooks Author, for Mac OS. According to the New York Times, it'll require "no programming knowledge" and will mostly provide templates for prospective textbook authors to use.
iBooks 2 is available now for iPhone and iPad, though the textbook features are iPad-only.
Artificially Intelligent Thermostat Automatically Creates a Climate Schedule for You
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:36:57 -0500
And it looks great. Greater than we'd ever expect a thermostat to look, at least
Programmable thermostats help save money by resetting the temperature when homeowners are asleep or away. But setting them up can be painstaking, and 89 percent of users never get them out of manual mode. The Nest thermostat requires almost no setup and teaches itself when to adjust the temperature.
It starts by building a schedule. For the first week, users change the temperature normally. The Nest notes their preferred at-home temperature, say 72°F, and also determines appropriate “away” temperatures—60º in winter and 80º in summer, for example. To account for conditions outside, the Nest checks the weather over Wi-Fi, and its indoor humidity sensor tells it when to kick in the fan for comfort. If everyone leaves, a motion sensor signals the processor to activate the away setting.
Even small tweaks can save cash. A change of a single degree from the preset program can reduce power consumption by 2 to 5 percent. The Nest also has a ZigBee wireless chip, so it can work with smart meters to turn on the A/C or the furnace when energy is cheapest.
Big Batteries Give Electric Yard Tools the Power to Compete with Gas-Guzzlers
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:59:25 -0500
A brave new world of li-ion landscaping
While battery-powered yard tools are quiet, efficient and hassle free, they rarely pack the same power as their gas-consuming counterparts. But new electric yard tools with bigger batteries have muscle that rivals their gaseous brethren.
THE TREND
Battery-powered backyard tools have typically topped out at 18 volts—plenty for light work but not nearly enough for cutting fat branches, trimming dense grass, or blowing piles of wet leaves. Manufacturers are now introducing 36-volt lithium-ion-powered tools that can handle those more-demanding tasks, often as well as gas-powered ones can.
THE BENEFIT
Without a combustion engine to deal with, users will never have to clean up gasoline spills or winterize the fuel system. They’ll also never fuss with ripcords and finicky engines, since electric tools turn on instantly. Battery-powered tools are much quieter, too. Because they don’t idle, they make noise only when in use, which can make for happier neighbors.
Leaf blower: Most blowers draw air through vents in their sides and force it to turn 90 degrees before blowing it out, an inefficient route that wastes power. Instead, the Stihl blower pulls air from a rear vent and channels it straight out of the nozzle, saving energy. On its highest speed, users get 385 cubic feet of air per minute, comparable to gas-powered blowers. Stihl BGA 85 $500
Chain saw: Even months after charging, Oregon’s lithium-ion-powered chain saw will start instantly. It can cut a three-inch-diameter branch into 250 slices on one charge. And if it senses too much stress, it shuts itself off, preventing wear on the motor. Oregon PowerNow CS250E $500
Lawn trimmer: Black & Decker’s latest edger is 28 percent lighter than a gas model. Users can run it with less power for touch-ups or more for overgrown weeds and can cut a mile of lawn edges on a single charge. Black & Decker Cordless String Trimmer/Edger LST136 $170
Gallery: Interactive Gym Equipment to Make You Sweat Smarter
Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:57:57 -0500
Working out can be boring, and sometimes the easiest way to get moving is to be entertained. But new interactive gym equipment brings real-world workouts to your basement, making your home training more fun and more effective.
See the gallery.
The Goods: January 2012's Hottest Gadgets
Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:08:20 -0500
A 3-D scanner, cellphone LoJack, an ultra high-tech guitar, and much more
Every month we search far and wide to bring you a dozen of the best new ideas in gear. These gadgets are the first, the best and the latest. Check out the gallery below to get the first look at what consumer technology has brought us this month.
Click to launch our guide to this January's best gadgets.
How to Get Yesterday's Games on Today's Mobile Devices
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:09:18 -0500
An emulated arcade in your pocket
Fans of classic video games have long been able to mimic old game systems on their computers using apps called emulators. Now, smartphones and tablets can also run them. With the right emulator and game files (downloaded separately), virtual versions of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis and other consoles—as well as dozens of vintage arcade titles that can’t be found as standalone downloads—will be available anywhere.
1. FIND EMULATORS
The Android Market has several emulators, but some of the best ones exist in a separate app marketplace called SlideME or as a mobile app. Search for “yongzh” (the name of a software developer) on the site or app to get the emulator files. Apple generally doesn’t allow emulators in the App Store, so you’ll need to jailbreak your phone or tablet. Go to Lifehacker for instructions. Once the device is ready, the icon for a new app store called Cydia will appear on its home screen. Note that some emulators have confusing names [see table below].
2. GET ROMS
The next step is to find game files, called ROMs, and transfer them to the phone or tablet. Start by checking Emuparadise and CoolROM. If these sites don’t have what you’re looking for, Google the title of the game and the word “ROM.”
On Android, ROMs can be stored on an SD card or internal storage. On iOS, many emulators have an integrated Web browser for downloading ROMs. For others, connect the iOS device to a computer and transfer them manually. An application such as iExplorer, (free) will let you access your device’s file system and copy ROMs via drag-and-drop. The location to place ROMs varies depending on the emulator, so consult its Help files. Once the games have been transferred, open them in the emulator and start playing.
3. ADD A CONTROLLER
It’s generally easier to play with an external controller than a touchscreen. Emulators for iOS let users pair (via Bluetooth) a Nintendo Wii Remote or a controller designed for mobile gaming such as the attachable iControlPad ($63). Simply turn on Wii Remote support in the emulator and follow the onscreen prompts to pair the controller. On Android, gamers can download Bluez IME to pair controllers to a phone. The free app tells Android that the controller is an input device and helps set up the buttons.
#emulators
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font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
width:100%;
border-collapse:collapse;
}
#emulators td, #emulators th
{
font-size:1.2em;
border:1px solid #f37022;
padding:3px 7px 2px 7px;
}
#emulators a
{
font-weight:normal;
}
#emulators th
{
font-size:1.4em;
text-align:left;
padding-top:5px;
padding-bottom:4px;
background-color:#f37022;
color:#fff;
}
#emulators tr.alt td
{
color:#000;
background-color:#f79f6a;
}
THE BEST RETRO GAME EMULATORS
Original System
Android
iOS
Atari 2600
Ataroid
2600.emu
NES
NESoid
NES
SNES
SNESoid
SNES4iPhone
Sega Genesis
Gensoid
Genesis A.D.
Game Boy and Game Boy Color
GBCoid
Gameboy4iPhone
Sega Game Gear/Master System
Gearoid
iMasterGear
Nintendo 64
N64oid
N64iPhone
Sony PlayStation
FPSe
psx4iPhone
Note: all of the iPhone apps are available from the Cydia app store--just search for their names. All Android apps can be found through these links on SlideMe.
