The Gadgets Page

I’ve been waiting for wireless stereo Bluetooth to become an “actual” reality for years now. The A2DP stereo wireless protocol was developed years ago, but has only recently become ubiquitous amongst players and computers. First attempts at stereo Bluetooth headsets resulted in ridiculously large and uncomfortable headsets with poor battery life that were expensive and poorly supported by devices without an external dongle.

This has all recently changed. With A2DP support now available in iPhone OS 3, Mac OS X, and Windows, I can finally actually use wireless headsets. So I headed down to the Apple store to look at what could be purchased retail, and after looking at the options, I came home with the Altech Lansing BackBeat 906 headphones. I paid $99.

These headphones double as a Bluetooth headset with their built in Microphones. Noise canceling is good—they’re the best Bluetooth headset I’ve used, although I may be biased by hearing the call in both ears, which I like. Annoyingly, the iPhone switches the audio source back to the internal mic and speaker when you take a call while listening to the iPhone, so you have to manually switch it back while you “hello? Hello?” the caller to keep them from hanging up.

Styled like two behind-the-ear BT headsets connected by a cable that runs behind the head, they’re actually the most comfortable wireless headphones or headset that I’ve ever used. They have a silicon waveguide that directs the sound into the ear canal from external earbud style speakers, which is more comfortable than in-the-ear foam inserts. The only usability problem I’ve encountered is that leaning your head back against a pillow will cause the earbuds to move, just as with any behind-the-head headset. Unfortunately they’re too large to fit inside a motorcycle helmet.

Buttons are provided on the headset for call hook (left side) and audio controls (right side). Play/Pause is the main audio control button, with a lever for audio up/down. Holding the up/down lever for two seconds provides next/previous track, and the controls work seamlessly in iTunes and on the iPhone. The headsets come with a Bluetooth adapter compatible with all iPods that have dock connectors (as shown in the photo). iPhones can drive the headsets directly from the built-in Bluetooth and don’t need the plug-in adapter. Bluetooth range is about the same as any BT headset, which is to say you can use it in the same room as the source, but as soon as you round a wall, the signal drops out completely.

Sound quality is quite good–the best I’ve heard via wireless Bluetooth. Interestingly, it’s dramatically better with my iPhone than with my Mac (Unitbody Powerbook 17”) running iTunes. On the Mac, there are audible distortion effects irrespective of the compression level of the music or volume. It’s hard to understand why a completely digital audio stream would be affected, especially considering that I would think the codebase and hardware between the Mac and the iPhone are quite similar. It’s clearly the Mac, however, because on the iPhone audio is clean and crisp at all volumes.

For casual listeners, the Bass is good but not booming. You’ll definitely hear the bass line in 50 Cent’s Candy Shop. The ominous sub-aurals in Batman Begins are vivid, although not as lush as with Sony’s top of the line ear buds. Brass and synthetics are bright, and beats are crunchy and pop. You’ll like these phones.

No Bluetooth wireless headset will satisfy an audiophile. Distortion, bandwidth, and compression effects are all audible, and distortion at higher volumes can be distracting. Bass response lacks depth, and there’s a general flatness and lack of vibrancy and dimension across the dynamic range, leaving horns sounding especially brassy. Noise levels during silence are pronounced, as they would be on worn vinyl. The headphones can get quite loud—maybe a little too loud, but I’ve already lost hearing so it works for me. At peak volume, the distortion can be annoying. You’ll hear noise spikes in the attack of beat transitions and compression artifacts in the tail of white noise envelopes. Distortion at mid level volumes is only mildly apparent. These effects are apparent irrespective of the compression level of the source audio files (I tested up to 320kbps on my iPhone. Even uncompressed audio had distortion on the Mac, but I’m putting that down to a problem in a processing on the Mac since those effects are not apparent on the iPhone).

Fortunately, I’m not an audiophile, so love these little gems. They’re the best Bluetooth headphones I’ve heard and they’re they ideal mate to my iPhone.

I haven’t upgraded to a Blu-Ray player yet. I have a bunch of DVDs and I honestly can’t tell the difference between HD quality video on DVDs and HD quality video on Blu-Ray players. They look the same to me. Every time I walk into Best Buy, this video screeches and urges me to upgrade.

The problem with this video is that it’s FAR too similar to this one:

Only a few years ago, the movie industry screeched that DVD was the future of entertainment. Now that the future is here, it looks like they’ve changed their minds.

I’m NOT going to upgrade. I want to go on record saying that Blu-Ray is NOT the future of entertainment. The future of entertainment is going to look a lot more like NetFlix’s Instant Play feature on my Xbox than the Blu-Ray player on the shelf at the electronics store.

Quit screeching at me.

Via: Everything Is Terrible!: I’m not convinced…

I love this little television set from Sharp. It looks so Space Age!

When I was a kid, we had a portable television. Sometimes Carol would take it with her in the car. I remember her picking me up from school when I had to stay late and she had the portable TV in the car, watching it while she waited for me to finish with my after school activities.

Now, we can watch a myriad of shows on our cell phones while we wait in line at the grocery store or take walks in the park. It all reminds me of this Benny Hill song so long ago:

I’d like to take her portable TV set and throw it in the deep blue sea.
Why I’m so jealous of her portable TV set because it takes her mind off me.

Being able to take technology with us wherever we go is very helpful. I no longer have to be at my computer in order to answer my email. I no longer have to be at the stereo to listen to music. And I no longer have to be in my living room in order to watch TV. With great power, comes great responsibility. Use your portable television set wisely.

Check out this awesome video of Giorgio Moroder showing off his electronic music gadgets, including a vocoder, the predecessor of the auto-tune.

Dance Music God, Giorgio Moroder, is known to you. You’ve heard his music no matter who you are. It might just be that your favorite artist sampled his work for their song, or maybe you heard a movie score written by him. For me, “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer was the first song that remember hearing by Giorgio Moroder. You can find out more about him here:

• Giorgio Moroder – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I love to look at the toys that Giorgio Moroder used to make his music. By today’s standards, they are brutish and rudimentary, but he used them to make awesome dance beats!

Via: Discopop Directory – “If there’s a limit to computerised electronic music, he hasn’t found it yet.”

In an indescribably stupid move, Microsoft is taking pot shots at the iPod by claiming that to fill it would cost $30,000.

Firstly, they have hired Wes Moss, a supposed financial planner, to lecture me on the financial infeasibility of my iPod. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust any financial planners anymore. Aren’t they the fools who told me that keeping my money in my credit union savings account was stupid and investing it in the stock market was smart? Lucky thing I never listened to them.

Secondly, this financial planner is telling me that to fill my iPod with music, it would cost me $30,000. Of course, at a buck a song, it WOULD cost me that much to fill my iPod. But music isn’t the only thing I put on my iPod. I can also use it for movies, which fill up the capacity pretty easily. Using Garage Band and iMovie, I can fill my iPod with music and movies that I have created as well, so the iPod isn’t merely a repository for my music collection, it’s a bragging right to show off my work.

I find it ironic that Microsoft is suggesting a service that has been proven not to work on several occasions. Both Napster and Yahoo! Music have had similar services for similar prices and they are GONE now. Those months when I paid for the Yahoo! Music were pretty cool. I had whatever music I wanted to listen to, but now all that money I paid is gone and I don’t have anything substantial to show for it.

I don’t think Zune Pass is worth 15 bucks a month. I’d MUCH rather pay the $30,000 to fill my iPod because then I get to KEEP the music.

Via: Microsoft takes aim at the iPod

A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I went on a trip to Yellowstone. We stayed in West Yellowstone, and some of the hotels there were quite old. I snapped a photo of an old motel sign, advertising that every room had a color television by RCA.

This is not a unique sign. If you do a simple search on Flickr, you’ll find hundreds of hotel signs with the same RCA advertisement.

• Flickr Search: Color TV by RCA

These signs must have subsidized hotels somehow. Did RCA provide free or discounted television sets to motels that proudly displayed these signs? Maybe the hotel owners actually had to PAY to advertise for RCA just to compete. In the Fifties and Sixties, families saw the U.S.A. in their Chevrolets and they all had to sleep somewhere. Holiday Inn had first dibs, but I’m sure a hotel with the sign, “Color TV by RCA” was a good second choice.

Now, hotels and motels are quick to announce that they have free wi-fi or free high speed Internet. They are doing the same thing as they did fifty years ago to compete, just using a different gadget. When you plan your summer trip this year, remember the Color TV by RCA sign and laugh at the hotels that won’t give you Internet access without charging you ten bucks a day.

I found this ad from the Found in Mom’s Basement blog. It’s from 1969 and it really reminded me what it was like before the iPod.

It reads:

Why one out of four people into our music is onto our Stereo 8 Tapes.

Superb sound wherever you go.

Whether your head’s with the Airplane or Feliciano or the Original Broadway Cast of “Hair,” our Stereo 8 Cartridge Tapes get it right on – with sound that’s almost like you’re sitting in the studio at the original session.

Stereo 8 Tapes go where you go. A half-dozen cartidges fit in a glove compartment, trench coat, overnight case. They give you up to 80 minutes of uninterrupted music and instant push-pull operation.

Good reasons why one out of four people listening to our music today is listening to the Stereo 8 Tape.

Shouldn’t you be the one?

Just imagine! 80 minutes of uninterrupted music. Instead of 80 GB (or approximately 40,000 minutes), it was only 80 minutes.

Those 8-Track Decks had STYLE, though! Check out the eject on this one:

For the longest time, I used the Xtreme Mac Microblast next to my bed with my first generation iPod Nano. There was plenty of room on the 1GB drive to load up a few relaxing songs to lull me to sleep. Two iPods and an iPhone later, however, it was showing its age. The speakers buzzed and screeched something horrible, so I finally retired the Microblast and started using my iPhone next to my bed with a binder clip stand.

When I found the Cyber Acoustics Docking Speakers, however, it was love at first site.

I use it with my iPhone, and although I DO miss the landscape version of Night Stand, I love having my iPhone right next to my bed.

My biggest problem is that I have a VERY narrow night stand, so most of the normal sized iPod docks just don’t fit. Even the very small JBL On Stage Micro is too large. The Cyber Acoustics is just the right size to sit on my tiny night stand and give me enough sound for a soothing playlist of music.

I only paid 39 bucks for it at FYE, so I was worried that it would have cheap speakers that hiss and squeal, but instead, they are quiet and only make noise when I want them to.

The Cyber Acoustics isn’t an alarm clock or clock radio. It is ONLY speakers for an iPod or iPhone. Most iPods, including my 2nd generation iPod Nano, have a time and alarm feature of their own, so you don’t actually NEED a clock, display or alarm. You can even set them to play a specific playlist instead of an annoying beep.

I set my iPhone playing a soothing meditation track before I load up Night Stand and let it lull me to sleep every night. It works perfectly for that. In the morning, I’m awakened to a track I recorded using Garage Band of my dog barking.

I’ve owned my speakers for a few months now. I waited to write a review because I was worried that the speakers would get old and start making an irritating noise, but over the months, they have stayed quiet. I am now completely willing to say that I am totally in love with my Cyber Acoustic Speaker Dock. I hope you like them, too!

I love this ad for the Admiral Triple Thrill:

It reads:

Home Entertainment all in One Luxurious Console $499.95

From Admiral comes complete home entertainment to charm your family and guests. Magic Mirror Television brings you bright, steady, mirror-like pictures on a big 10″ direct view screen… the clearest pictures of them all! Super-powered by 29 tubes to assure dependable performance even in outlying areas. Receives all channels. New two-speed automatic phonograph plays standard as well as new LP (long play) 45 minute microgroove records. Here, too, is a powerful radio with the finest features in FM-AM as developed by Admiral. Truly a triple thrill… all combined in a breathtakingly beautiful cabinet that measures only 48 inches wide! See it! Hear it! Today!

It’s such a strange juxtaposition to compare this Admiral TV/Record Player/Radio with the E-matic Video/MP3 Player/Camera that I just reviewed last week. We now have the power to carry hundreds of songs, TV shows and photos in our pockets for a mere fifty bucks! When you account for inflation, our $50 now would have been worth $5.68 back in 1948 when that ad was made.

To all the gadget haters out there, we live in a WONDEROUS time!

Ad via: Found in Mom’s Basement: Two vintage ads for home electronics

The folks from Shaghal Ltd. sent me one of their 4GB E-matic Video MP3 players. I’ve had fun playing with it for the last few days.

In a spark of genius that not even Apple has achieved yet, the E-matic comes preloaded with a video showing how to use it. You can see the video here:

It’s a multi-function device that tries to be everything. I’ll review each function on its own.

MP3 Player

When compared to an iPod, the E-matic will never be able to compete. Apple has made adding music to an iPod so incredibly easy that everything else is clunky and difficult in comparison. When compared to other MP3 players, however, the E-matic is a perfectly functional device.

When plugged into a computer (I tried it on my Mac and my PC), it shows up like a USB thumb drive or an SD card. When you drop MP3s into the AUDIO folder, they are playable with the built-in MP3 player. Using Windows Media Player to try to add music onto the E-matic is definitely a mistake. It’s a much better idea to just add folders of music using Explorer (on the PC) or Finder (on the Mac).

Be warned that any music you have purchased with iTunes won’t work on the E-matic, even if it’s DRM-free. Apple wants you to use their MP3 players, you know.

Video Player

I was able to get the video player to work with .3GP, .AVI and .MP4, but not .WMV files. I was able to download an episode of Dexter from Bit Torrent, put it on the E-matic and watch it within minutes, which is MUCH easier than trying to get .AVI files to work on my iPhone. Transferring files from the computer to the E-matic takes longer than it would to transfer the same sized file onto an SD card, but the playback (especially with the .AVI files) was clean and watchable. Here is a glimpse of what the episode of Dexter looked like on the E-matic:

With big files like that episode of Dexter, there is some choppiness and pauses. I found it quite distracting to watch, but if you have fifteen episodes of Sponge Bob on the E-matic for your kid to watch while you’re waiting in the grocery line, I doubt that will be an issue.

The screen is bigger than the iPod Nano and about as clear as long as you have a good file to begin with. That is one thing that Apple does a little better; they make sure that the videos you do put on your Nano or iPhone look as good as possible.

Audio Recorder

There is a feature that lets you record audio, such as notes to yourself or a quick interview of a friend, etc. This feature is limited by the small microphone. The audio clips are recorded in .AMR files, and show up in the AUDIO folder on the E-matic. Transferring them to your computer is as easy as drag and drop.

Here is an example of an audio recording using the E-matic:

• E-matic Voice Recorder Test File

Camera

The camera is 640 X 480 and the pictures are choppy at best. Here are some examples of photos I took with the E-matic.

These photos where taken under the BEST lighting possible and they are still a little pixelated. The camera is good enough to prove that you saw somebody who looked like Elvis, but not good enough to prove that Elvis is alive.

See the rest of the photos taken with the E-matic here:

• Review: E-matic 4GB Video MP3 Player – a set on Flickr

Video Camera

The video camera records in 320 X 240. Not since my old Treo 650 have I had a video camera with this resolution. Here is a video that I took with the camera:

As you can see, this is good enough for kids or simple family shots outside in bright light, but if you try to film indoors, it will be too dark to see anything. The audio quality is also limited by the tiny microphone at the bottom of the unit.

See the other video taken with the E-matic here:

• Review: E-matic 4GB Video MP3 Player – a set on Flickr

eBook Reader

This isn’t an eBook reader so much as a way for you to read .TXT files. That’s great if you want to cheat in school using the E-matic. I’ve written in detail about that sort of thing here:

• Gadgets Page » How To Cheat With Your iPod

The directions for the E-matic are EXACTLY the same as what I wrote for the iPod, except you don’t need to enable the E-matic for disk use. That’s all ready for you to go.

This feature also might be good to store phone numbers, information, etc. that you might want to refer to. As far as reading a book using the E-matic, you could do it, but it would be an incredible pain in the butt because it doesn’t remember where you were last reading and you can’t resize the font for readability.

TF Card

There is a tiny slot at the bottom of the E-matic labeled “TF Card.” I tried putting in a Micro SD card and it fit. It popped out at an incredible force, but aside from that it sleekly fit in the E-matic.

To use the Micro SD card, you need to go into the TOOL section and choose MEMORY. When you choose it as a WORKSPACE, then you can record audio, video and photos onto the Micro SD card. You can also watch videos or listen to MP3s that you have saved on it.

In this respect, the E-matic also works as a great card reader for Micro SD cards. When you plug it into the computer the Micro SD card shows up as a different drive and you can use the E-matic to transfer files to the SD card as easily as to the hard drive.

You can get Micro SD cards with as much memory as 16GB, so just the purchase of one Micro SD card can change your 4GB E-matic into a 20GB device. I love the expandability of the Micro SD card slot!

Is It Worth The Money?

The E-matic is available at Wal-Mart for $49 and available on Amazon for anywhere from $54 to $63. Is the E-matic worth it? Hell yeah.

If you need something to entertain the kids, but you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on an iPod, the E-matic is PERFECT. You’ll have to work a little harder to get the files on the device, but if your kid loses it, you’re out fifty bucks instead of hundreds.

It’s also a great device to teach kids how to shoot video and take photos. The limitations of the camera do make it a little more difficult to get a good shot, but that is a great way to teach them about proper lighting and setting up a shot.

If you’re expecting the E-matic to take the place of your normal camera, however, you will be sorely disappointed. The camera on your phone is probably as good as the camera in the E-matic, if not better.

On the whole, however, the E-matic is definitely worth the fifty bucks. It’s best for kids, but if you just want to snap a few photos to remember things and watch a couple of videos while you’re waiting at the DMV, it’s great for adults as well!