People of a certain age will remember that, at one time, Creative Labs was the only name that mattered when it came to PC sound. Sadly for the company, the PC market has dried up substantially. So it began to focus more on MP3 players and other audio devices. A tricky area, given Apple's indisputable dominance.

And that brings us to the WP-350 headphones. Designed to be paired with phones, MP3 players - including both Apple's and Creative's devices - they offer Bluetooth connectivity and a few other tricks, for about ?90.

Comfortable and practical

The 350s are light, which is good, but they also keep a pretty decent grip on your head, which is incredibly important if you don't want to be picking them up off the floor all the time.

There are some buttons located on the right-hand earpiece. These are pretty useful, and with these being Bluetooth headphones, support on phones is pretty universal too. There is a phone icon, which allows you to trigger your handset's voice dialling feature. It also acts as the power button, and pressing it for an extended period when you turn the headphones on puts them in to Bluetooth paring mode.

As you might expect, there's a play/pause control, which comes in handy when you don't want to unlock your phone to pause the music. There are also track forward/back buttons, which worked flawlessly with our Samsung Galaxy Nexus, using the default music player.

Underneath, you'll find a pair of volume controls. These work differently depending on the device you're controlling. On Apple hardware, they generally control the master volume. On other devices, it's a little less clear. But the result is the same: changing volume.

We found that, even when worn for more than an hour, the WP-350s were comfortable. The tight band can make them feel a little bothersome on sensitive ears, but they're nicer to wear than heavier, wired headphones. The soft pad didn't seem to make our ears too hot, something that can be a problem with larger models too.

The headphones are charged via a mini-USB socket, making them compatible with most phone chargers. This is a really smart move, and one that is likely to see people actually using these headsets. We really hope this is a sign that the proprietary charger is dying a death.?

Bluetooth and hands-free

In addition to being Bluetooth headphones for music, the 350s also have a small, discrete microphone. This means that you can use them to make and receive calls. Doing so was easy on our Galaxy Nexus. Press the call button, say the name, and the phone calls that person.

That all works really well, and we had no trouble with voice recognition, and the in-call volume was certainly loud enough. However, we found that it was quite a low-quality affair. We used the Skype call-testing service to check - as we do with all such headsets - on the quality, and found it to be some of the worst we'd heard. Even just listening to speech via our phone was subject to far more distortion that we would expect.

None of this is a disaster, the system is certainly usable, but we're getting used to the likes of Plantronics making very high-quality headsets, and it's spoilt us slightly. And as we use Skype a lot, we really like having that extra quality that sadly, these headphone can't offer.

It is worth pointing out that the headphones support the aptX system. This should lead to increased audio quality with devices that support it. The problem is, a lot of us are using older Bluetooth devices that don't. It should help in the future though.

Sound quality

Obviously, the quality of these headphones varies wildly depending on the device you use. We tried them with an iPod Touch, and Samsung Galaxy Nexus and one of Creative's own MP3 players, the ZEN X-Fi3. EQ settings on the Apple and Samsung devices meant we could tweak the sound to our taste.

There's certainly a lot of bass on offer here, should that be your poison. You can also overdo that part of the audio spectrum, giving a booming sensation that's not entirely pleasant. But setting the EQ up sensibly will yield some impressive results, and we quite liked the sound overall. There was some distortion on specific tracks, but it wasn't a problem in most of what we listened too.

When partnered with Creative's own MP3 player, we felt they were a little weedy sounding. The X-Fi doesn't have quite as many EQ options, and that meant we were more or less stuck with some preset controls, none of which really made a huge difference. We could live without the low end, but these headphones also seemed a little too bright. Certainly, the sound on the Creative WP-350 is never flat, the ultimate goal of all decent headphones.

Verdict:

The Creative WP-350 headphones aren't the cheapest we've seen. They're decent enough, but far from the best-sounding earphones we've ever used. They do have plenty of bass, and with Bluetooth the audio quality is never perfect anyway.

But these will certainly appeal to certain musical tastes more than others - electronic music works well, classical will probably not be as pleasant. The added microphone and their ability to work as a hands-free system is very handy though, and it works well enough for phone calls, but dedicated hands-free headsets are generally better when you need higher-quality voice calls.

Tags: Audio Headphones Creative Bluetooth Bluetooth headsets

Creative WP-350 Bluetooth headphones originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:30:00 +0000

If, like us, you love to cook, but like some radio-based company in the kitchen, you'll most likely be interested in the OxxDigital Classic. A DAB+ and internet radio with support for podcasts and a few other nice tricks.

You might not have heard of Oxx Digital before, which isn't a surprise, as the Danish firm is only just getting a foot in the door here in the UK. If you want one of its products, the main supplier is Amazon.

Design

There's a lot to like in the simple design of the Oxx Digital Classic. It's available in a selection of colours, the one sent to us was white, but there are also black and blue versions.

From the front, it looks like any radio from the past 60 years. There's a single speaker, a couple of dials and a few push buttons. There's a digital display though, which marks if out from the "retro" style in which it's been designed. Obviously, such a modern instrument is necessary in an internet and DAB radio.

Around the back, there's a mix of modern and less-modern sockets. There's a line in and an Ethernet socket. Up on the top of the radio, there's a telescopic aerial, something that hasn't changed much, if at all, since FM was launched.

The case itself is a plastic, but it's premium stuff and it feels very solid when you pick it up. Oxx tell us that the cabinet inside is made of wood, for the best performance. You can see an emphasis has been placed on sound quality too, because there's a bass port at the rear and the case has clearly been constructed to make the radio sound more powerful.

Modes

While the design is a little different to a lot of DAB radios, the functionality is very similar. The Oxx Digital Classic connects to your home network either wirelessly or via the rear-mounted Ethernet jack.

As well as listening to DAB, or DAB+ stations, you can access one of the thousands of internet radio stations listed via the vTuner database. There are also podcasts from lots of global providers of such things - BBC radio, is a great example.

You can also connect to your home network and stream music from your PC. We used Windows Media Player for this, but it will work just as well with any DLNA compliant device, including, no doubt, many modern smartphones and tablets. All of which increases your entertainment options a huge amount.?

DAB+

There has been all manner of hatred pouring down on DAB radio stations since they launched some time ago. Audio quality is a bugbear for many, who claim that data rates are too low via the service and that audio can sound quite nasty.

A lot of this is unnecessary hysteria. DAB certainly isn't perfect, but on most music stations, the bit rate is high enough to deliver a very nice sound, especially on a small radio like this.

For those haters though, there is DAB+, which offers a quality improvement over normal DAB. It's unclear if the UK will move its stations over to this system - a lot of older DAB radios would be useless if they did this - but the support is built in to the Oxx Digital Classic in case it does eventually happen.

Why use DAB or FM at all?

With Internet radio on board, there's a pretty powerful argument that you don't actualy need to use FM or DAB ever again. And there's considerable truth in that, because these days, pretty much every local radio station in the UK broadcasts online too. That means that instead of being restricted to, say, London's stations, you can tune in to some hard rock from Glasgow.

Of course, streaming radio does have an impact on your data consumption. So if you're on a heavily capped internet tariff, then you're likely to run in to problems. That said, audio-only feeds are much less data intensive than video, so you're very unlikely to run in to any major problems.

And, even better, with the internet, you're not restrained to just what's on now. The OXX allows you to access an array of podcasts too. For us, the number one use of this feature is to catch-up with Radio 4 shows. This is all done via the radio's search function, and it's easy to find what you're looking for.

Sound quality

One of the things we noticed about the Oxx Digital Classic was that it's not the loudest radio in the world. It does, however, have enough punch to fill a small room with sound. So for kitchen use, or in the bedroom, it's perfect. Larger rooms might cause a problem, but this radio is very much aimed at people who want to dance to music while they lay down a lasagna, and for that, it's ideal.

The other advantage of its limited volume, is that it remains in perfect control of its sound, right the way through the volume dial. Crank it up to the max, and the sound is as tight and controlled as it is at the low end. This is brilliant, and cements the idea that this is a high-quality radio in our minds.

But, we have to say, we were blown away by the sound quality. There's a fine balance here, with bass being just deep enough to impress, but without damaging the overall sound quality. Both DAB radio and MP3s streamed over the network sound amazing. Speech on Radio 4 was crisp and very clear, something not all radios can claim. Whatever you're using this little radio for, it's bound to impress, quality wise.

Minor problems

Given the choice, we would improve the LCD screen on the Digtial Classic. It has two problems that we noted. The first is that it's quite dim, even on its maximum setting. In a dark room, or at night, it's fine. Throw a bit of sun in to the equation though, and it becomes pretty hard to see the screen.

Then there's the angle. In all likelihood, you'll have this radio on a surface that's below eye-height. To really see the screen, and to search for podcasts or select a radio station, you have to bend down. This is fine, of course, but it's not as convenient as it could be. On a Sonos, you do get the advantage of using a phone app to select radio stations. Here, that's not possible, which is a shame.

These are small quibbles though, and otherwise, the radio was a delight.

Verdict:

Supporting DAB+ means that the Oxx Digital Classic is ready for the future. The support for internet radio and podcasts means you'll never be bored when you're in the kitchen - or wherever you end up putting this cool little radio.

The sound quality is stunning, and although the power is a little less than we'd hope, it's still loud enough, and the quality means makes it a joy to listen to.

At ?130, it's not super-cheap, but there's enough here to warrant considering it. If you love the styling, and want something that sounds great, we'd say this might be the radio for you.

Tags: Audio DAB DAB+ DAB Radios Oxx Digital Classic + DAB

Oxx Digital Classic + DAB originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

iPod speakers?fall into two categories, they are either bog standard and fairly cheap, or they attempt to be iconic in their design. Sometimes this division is so great that they polarise potential customers into thinking it is either the best-looking thing in the world or the most fugly thing they have ever seen.

The Bayan Audio Bayan 7 sits, as you might have gathered from the picture, in the second of those two camps coming with a striking design.

"Interesting" design

The design starts with a large, square, box with a further four speakers on the front, mounted into a large sheet of clear Perspex.

Fo those who like tech specs, the Bayan 7 has a 120W power output through its twin amplifiers, a 5-way?2.1-channel stereo speaker setup and an 8-inch subwoofer for deep bass control. Then there is a pair of 2-inch mid-range and a 1-inch tweeters. Its frequency range is 30Hz - 47kHz.

The 7 is available in black or white, but whichever you choose, you end up getting a wall of speakers and docks with a big box behind it. The Bayan Audio Bayan 7 is more akin to a microwave than your usual iPod speaker.

That presents its own issues, in that it will take up most of a sideboard, and certainly be too big and too heavy for most shelves - ?something to bear in mind if space is at a premium.

Size aside, design, as already mentioned, is something that you'll either love or hate. It's certainly striking, causing plenty of conversation to everyone we've shown. Personally we're not so sure it works. We prefer the more subtle lines of the B&W Zeppelin, but each to their own. We're sure the designer loves it.

Performance and sound quality

Get past the "kooky" design and you can start to enjoy some of the more unusual features of the Bayan 7. Like the two docking station slots on the front allowing you to charge two iDevices at the same time. Which means both you and your other half's iPhone can be charging together.

As well as being charged, you can switch between the two iThings via the accompanying remote control although that's as far as it goes. Would-be DJs: there are no fading options.

Each dock is designed to accommodate the array of iPods and iPhones on the market, but if you've got a iPad it won't fit without blocking the speakers above.

If you haven't got an iDevice, then you can still play with the addition of a Line-in around the back, and for Android tablet users there is a USB charging slot as well - a nice touch.

The remote, as you would expect, allows you to control volume - although we found this to be pretty slow to respond - and if you are using an iPhone or iPod you can skip through tracks and other standard playback functions.

While the remote has a bass and treble button, but no visual feedback on whether these were working, we couldn't notice any audible difference even after pressing the buttons violently to change the settings.

One thing we did notice was that, for some reason, the volume control wouldn't work correctly with our first-generation iPod touch. Annoying.

With the volume controls buried at the back out of quick reach - a strange decision - you'll have to control playback and volume either via the remote or with the Apple device itself.

So, what about the quality??Not surprisingly the Bayan 7 sounds really good. The speaker combination gives a clear sound, coping well with both bass and treble on the tracks we played via an iPod touch and iPhone 3GS we had in the office.

We tested a range of music from Adagio for Strings (Platoon Soundtrack), to Daft Punk, to more challenging tracks from NoFX and TaTu - All The Things She Said.

Sound is crisp and clean compared to the Zeppelin - which offers a more base-heavy feel. Volume is loud enough to fill a medium-size room comfortably.?

Verdict:

The Bayan Audio Bayan 7 sounds great, but with a design that isn't likely to be everyone's cup of tea. It's also one that will most likely be just too big to fit anywhere in your house, unless it's a mansion.

But if you lived in such a grand abode you would probably go for something a lot more impressive, leaving us with very mixed feelings for the Bayan 7.

We actually like the dual iPhone charging station idea for the iPhone or iPod friendly family, but it isn't enough to seal the deal for the microwave-sized music-monster.

Tags: Audio Speakers Bayan Audio iPod speakers

Bayan Audio Bayan 7 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Back at the end of 2010, Pocket-lint got its hands on a Blue Microphones THX-certified Yeti USB mic and was extremely impressed. For its ?129.99, it offered studio quality audio capture at a fraction of the price of a professional equivalent. It was a podcasters' dream. Until now...

The company has upped its game further, with a refreshed, higher-end version of the mic, the Yeti Pro. Weighing in at ?229, it's not cheap, but neither are its talents.

Blue Microphones claims that it is the world's first USB microphone to offer?24-bit/192 kHz digital recording resolution with an analogue XLR output, and is therefore as comfortable in an amateur podcaster's bedroom as it is in a bone fide recording studio.

It comes with a similar weighty adjustable stand to the normal Yeti and can also be hung from a boom, but it adds a separate analogue stereo path to a proprietary analogue to digital conversion chip in order to keep captured audio pure when fed through into a top class mixing desk.

Like its older brother, it also offers numerous multi-pattern recording modes to select, each with their own unique properties. There's a switch on the back that can be set to record in stereo,?cardioid, omnidirectional or bidirectional, each of which giving a different ambience as well as being able to pick up sounds from multiple directions.

If you're on your own, for example, you'd perhaps stick to stereo, where your voice would hit either side of the mic and be separated in your recording software of choice. If you have guests sat around a table, however, you may want to choose omnidirectional, so that everybody's speech is picked up evenly. In short, it's as versatile as you'd like.

The other knob on the rear is for gain control, but we found it worked best at dead centre and volume should be controlled in a recording suite.

The volume control on the front is for attached headphones, should you be so inclined, and the mute button is handy if the microphone doubles for Skype or such like.

In use is where the Blue Microphones Yeti Pro comes into its own. The audio quality that can be?achieved?by this consumer device is staggering. Having worked in radio and TV in the past, we can safely say that, with the right software, professional standards are not just achievable but consistently so. Indeed, any loss of clarity you'll find comes from a conversion of lossless audio to an mp3 for podcast duties, not the mic itself. And that's through USB. Hook it up to an analogue desk or preamp via the included XLR cables and bravissimo!

You only get stereo through analogue but it proves that the "Pro" ain't just for show.

The Yeti Pro is compatible with both PC (Windows 7, Vista or XP, with 256MB RAM minimum) and Mac (OS X 10.6.4 or higher, with 256MB RAM minimum) and is plug and play. It's available now.

Check out our sound test recorded on the Blue Microphones Yeti Pro below...

Or you can download the small mp3 file here (right click and save)

Download (mp3)

Competition

Pocket-lint is also offering one lucky reader the chance to win their own Blue Microphones Yeti Pro USB microphone. All you have to do is follow Pocket-lint on Twitter (@Pocketlint) and?retweet this hands-on test including the hashtag #plyeti.

We will draw the winner from the qualifying tweets after the closing date of 3 February. The successful candidate will then get the mic, simple.

Please ensure that you read Pocket-lint's terms and conditions, and we must point out that this competition in only open to entries from the UK and Ireland.

Good luck.

NOTE: The competition is now closed, you can carry on retweeting this fine hands-on if you like, but you will no longer be in with a chance of winning the Yeti Pro.

The winner of the Blue Microphones Yeti Pro USB microphone is (as drawn completely by random from all the qualifying tweets)... Dum, dum, dum...?@lexplex_. We will be contacting you shortly via Twitter (direct message) in order to get your details. Congratulations!

Tags: Blue MicroPhones Audio PC accessories Blue Microphones Yeti Pro

Blue Microphones Yeti Pro pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:38:00 +0000

Audio specialist Pioneer has announced that its latest network audio players; the Pioneer N-50 and the Pioneer N-30, have landed on UK soil.

Both of the players come rocking Apple's AirPlay wireless streaming magic right out of the box and they are both DLNA 1.5 certified as well.

There are apps available to control the setups too, for both Android and iOS - that's if you don't want to get busy with the supplied remote control and the onboard 2.4-inch QVGA colour display.

These players will handle most music that you chuck at them, including top-end digital audio files such as 192kHz/24-Bit FLAC and WAV files, and they're both packing a high-accuracy master clock, "which minimizes time-axis errors resulting in highly precise clock performance".

Direct USB playback is available on the front and the N-50 also packs an asynchronous USB DAC, allowing direct connection with your PC, eliminating the need to fire up your home network. The N-50 also ramps things up with gold-plated RCA jacks and a tougher casing designed to reduce noise, as well as boasting hi-bit 32 audio processing skills too.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi aren't standard though unfortunately - you'll have to shell out for additional adaptors for these features.

The?Pioneer N-30 and Pioneer N-50 are available now priced at ?349.99 for the former, ?150 more for the latter.

Tags: Audio Pioneer N-50 Pioneer N-30 Pioneer Streaming

Pioneer N-50 and N-30 network audio players steam in the AirPlay fun originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:16:20 +0000

The UK's streaming music arena could be set to welcome the arrival of a heavyweight contender by way of US giant Rhapsody.

Rhapsody has just announced its European expansion through the acquisition of?Napster International, following its takeover of the Sean Parker founded company in the States back in October.

And, although the company is stating that it will operate the Napster service in Germany and the United Kingdom, how long before it ditches the Napster name (as it has Stateside)?

Not long, we'd imagine - meaning a full-blown global war with Spotify. A war of music though, not weapons - just like John Lennon would have wanted.

Rhapsody is backing the Napster brand for now though, stating that "it is widely recognised, based on an independent brand awareness study". Napster subscribers will be migrated to Rhapsody’s infrastructure in March and their music libraries will stay intact.

"We have always been and will continue to be committed to offering music fans the most flexible, comfortable way to consume and discover music – wherever and whenever they want," said Thorsten Schliesche of Napster International.?

"The acquisition is another important milestone. Combining Napster International subscribers with Rhapsody’s massive base in the US will further strengthen our position as the leading music subscription service."

Spotify may have something to say about that though.....

Tags: Audio Streaming Rhapsody Napster Spotify Digital music

Rhapsody takes the fight to Spotify with European Napster buy-out originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:35:54 +0000

Pure Music, the Spotify-rival from the digital and internet radio specialist, is now live in the UK, with a free month trial available for a limited period.

Building on the success of its FlowSongs platform, Pure Music has again teamed up with 7Digital for access to its extensive catalogue. This time around though, there's no need to pay for individual downloads.

For ?4.99 a month Pure Music offers unlimited streaming across multiple devices. There's a web-based player on its Lounge website, mobile apps (iOS and Android) and, of course, the service is available on the company's internet connected radios - of which there are nine. There's no caching at the moment, but this is coming we're told (for an additional fee).

All of the usual ingredients are there such as playlists, recommendations, the ability to share tracks via social networks and so on. One differentiating factor from Spotify is the tagging service, as was introduced with FlowSongs. This means that when listening to the radio and you hear a tune you like you can tag it and then explore the artist and stream the relevant material.

Colin Crawford, Pure’s director of marketing said: "Pure has a very broad customer base and Pure Music has been conceived to appeal to the mass market and offer music fans a simple way to find, discover and enjoy any music they want directly on their favourite listening device.

"Forget the hassle of downloading and ripping - just search and enjoy. Both intuitive and easy-to-use, Pure Music has been designed to be at the heart of Pure’s expanding and market-leading range of internet-connected radio and audio products."

The service works on 3G and Wi-Fi and there are no limits to the amount of devices that you can hook-up to your account.

The Pure Music subscription service is now live for UK users and will be rolled out internationally as the year goes on.

Tags: Audio Online Pure Pure Music Streaming Digital music

Pure Music now live in the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Despite reports suggesting that the Sony Walkman brand was a dead man walking, the brand continues to crop up - most recently in the electronics giant's homeland of Japan with the launch of the new E-Series PMPs and a couple of speaker docks to boot.

Starting with the Walkman media players, the NW-E062 and the NW-E063 have landed (throw a K on the end of these model numbers and you've got a mini 1W speaker stand included) and are 2GB and 4GB media players, capable of churning through your MP3s, WMAs, ATRACs, Linear PCMs and AACs tunes, with an FM radio on board too.

They pack noise cancelling tech, with 98 per cent of ambient noise cut out, and also boast high frequency playback thanks to the DSEE technology on board.

Measuring just 34.8 x 77.5 x 9.1mm and weighing 37g, the new E-Series devices are slighter than the NW-E050 models and they also pack a 1.4-inch TFT display and a 24-30 hour playback time depending on whether you've got the noise cancelling switched on or not.

As well as the new players, there are a couple of new docks hitting Japanese shops too -? the RDP-NWG400B and the RDP-NWM7. The former is a Bluetooth speaker with a 20W output and 2.1 channel setup and the latter is a portable affair, with a 4W output.

No word on a UK release as of yet, we'll let you know once there is.

Read

Tags: Audio Sony sony walkman Sony Walkman NW-E062 Sony Walkman NW-E063 MP3 players PMPs

Sony Walkman alive and well in Japan originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:38:45 +0000

Sony has updated its dinky B160 Walkman with a new design and different colour options. Called, unsurprisingly, the Walkman B170, the new device also features the Bass Boost button and a belt clip for joggers, and the company's "three minute charge for 90 minutes play" promise.

Also like its predecessor, the new device weighs a mere 28g and offers up to 18 hours of listen time on a full charge, but adds a new colour matched LED that pumps along with the music. It can hook up directly to a PC or Mac via USB and doesn't need any file transfer software to add music, you can just drag and drop files into its folder.

Sony's Zappin search technology is present, which offers small snippets of tracks as it scans through them and you can press the "Zap" button at any time to listen to the full track. And there's a sound equaliser and voice recording functionality on board.

The Sony Walkman B170 will be available in black, red and blue (cyan) and in 2GB and 4GB flavours from February, starting at around ?30.

Tags: Sony Audio MP3 players Walkman Sony Walkman B170

Sony bass boosting Walkman B170 coming in February originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:03:57 +0000

CES wouldn't be CES if there weren’t companies out there breaking records. If corporations weren't lauching the biggest, fastest, thinnest or simply the first, then they wouldn't be happy. As it goes, neither would we.

With all the claims and counter claims as press conference follows press conference, it can be rather tricky to work out just who managed to crack and hold onto each accolade as the feats of engineering roll in. So, with our eagle eye, we've looked back down at all of our 214 individual pieces of coverage on the event and, now that the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Centre have finally shut and the counters and recounters have been satisfied, here are the the CES 2012 record breakers according to Pocket-lint.

Laptops

The whole show in Vegas 2012 felt like it was dedicated to laptops this year with every man, woman and dog digging up an Ultrabook to hold aloft to the crowd and swear an oath upon. If you want to take a look at them all, then check out our dedicated Ultrabooks of CES page, otherwise, read on for the ones that count.

THINNEST ULTRABOOK IN THE WORLD - Acer Aspire S5

Technically speaking, the Acer Aspire S5 was and still is the thinnest Ultrabook in the world but that's only because Samsung has refused to class the razor thin Samsung Series 9 laptop as an Ultrabook at all. Other than the S5's extremely slimline 15mm profile, there's the usual SSD storage, Intel Core processor and a choice between HDD and SSD in case you fancy defeating the whole purpose of having an Ultrabook. Read more

FIRST ULTRABOOK WITH THUNDERBOLT - Acer Aspire S5

Ok, perhaps not of such major importance and, again, it's only a record by virtue of the fact that Apple has decided not to bother with the Ultrabook title for the MacBook Air. All the same, the Acer Aspire S5 is the first Ultrabook to come with the high speed I/O port that is Intel's Thunderbolt technology. At up to 10Gbps transfer speeds with entire Blu-rays able to shift from A to B in under 30 seconds, it's a rather useful tool to have. Now all you need is something that's compatible at the other end.

THINNEST LAPTOP IN THE WORLD - Samsung Series 9

It might not be an Ultrabook but it's certainly a laptop and a bloody thin one at that. At just 12.9mm thick and with only 1.16kg in ballast to worry about, it's a waif of a machine. Throw in all the RAM, CPU and SSD mod-cons plus a 9.8 seconds boot up time (1.4 seconds from sleep) and a?HD+ SuperBright Plus screen with 160-degree viewing angle, and it just about manages to make laptops sexy again. Read more

TVs

You can normally bet your house on seeing either the biggest TV in the world at CES or the thinnest or, more usually, both. CES 2012 saw neither. So, what records did the AV world set in Vegas this time around?

BIGGEST OLED TV IN THE WORLD - LG 55EM9600?& Samsung OLED

OLED TVs have been around for a while now but commercial availability has been a tricky thing to find. All the same, both LG and Samsung look to have cracked it this year with the arrival of equally world record breaking 55-inch sets that should be up for sale by the end of the December 2012. Naturally, with pictures stunning and panels super thin, you can expect to pay an arm and a leg for them when they do turn up. LG hands-on | Samsung hands-on

BIGGEST ULTRA DEFINITION TV IN THE WORLD - 84-inch LG UDTV

Ultra Definition is the name that looks like will stick when it comes to selling the public the next generation in screen resolution. UDTVs are what's known as 4K2K (3840 x 2160px) and what's rather special about this one is that it works as one of LG's Cinema 3D systems too. In other words, it supports passive 3D with half the resolution coming to each eye. In effect, you end up with full 1080p 3D visuals without having to go with the bother and expense of alternate shutter glasses. Read more

FIRST TRANSPARENT TV - Samsung Smart Window

Imagine a world of see-through monitors, windows that are interactive and car windscreens that relay all the information on the screen rather than the dashboard beneath it.?Now imagine that, rather than the stuff of science fiction movies and pipe dreams, the technology that will allow this to become a possibility is going into production in just 20 days. Sure there are military and industrial versions of this kind of thing but this is the first time we've been inches away from the home of next Tuesday.?Read more

Printers

Hold your horses. Don't you dare skip this section. Yes, printers are the third most dull category of gadgets after fax machines and, worst of all, scanners but we wouldn't be writing a section of world record breaking printers if there wasn't something pretty sexy to say about them, right? Right.

FIRST HOME 3D PRINTER - Cubify

3D printing has been quietly around in the industrial sense for a while but now the ability to turn 3D computer designs into actual models by laying down layer upon layer of printed substrate will become a reality in the home as well. 3D Systems will be selling the Cubify 3D printer for $1,300 by the end of Q1 2012. Pretty soon you'll be able to scan in your own designs too. Read more

Tablets

We didn't see the crazy rush of tablets that we saw at CES 2011 just after Android Honeycomb came out but that doesn't mean that there were no significant moves in this space. When there's tablets involved, there's always records to be set.

FIRST TABLET WITH BUILT-IN JOYSTICKS - Razer Project Fiona

Project Fiona is a PC gaming tablet which is set to make up for all that's bad about flick 'n swipe. It's a?hybrid PC/tablet but with all the meaty titles thanks to the?Intel Core i7 inside. There's a full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch, a?3-axis gyro, a magnetometer, an accelerometer,?Dolby 7.1 surround sound,?Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 but, most importantly of all,?physical control options with integrated dual game controllers and ultra-precise analogue sticks. Read more

Phones

It's normally Mobile World Congress in February where most of the big phones news arrives but there's always one or two manufacturers that simply can't help gushing the goods a month earlier in Vegas. 2012 happened to see quite a few record breakers here too.

FIRST QUAD-CORE PHONE - Fujitsu Tegra 3 phone

With no official name yet, that didn't stop Fujitsu giving the world a taste of the first Nvidia Tegra 3 handset to arrive on the market. Details are light at the moment. We know it's an Android handset running 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, we know it's made by Fujitsu, we know it's got an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor and that's about it. Follow the link for some nice shots of it running RipTide GP. Read more

THINNEST PHONE IN THE WORLD - Huawei Ascend P1 S

For a while, it looked as if Fujitsu had grabbed itself another gong by claiming the prize of the thinnest smartphone in the word with the ES IS12F at just 6.7mm, but the rug was pulled from under it with the arrival of the 6.68mm thick Huawei Ascend P1 S. It runs Android ICS, comes with?Dolby Mobile 3.0 a, 4.3-inch display with a 960x540 resolution, a 1800mAh battery and all sorts of other top line specs. Read more

HIGHEST RESOLUTION CAMERAPHONE IN THE WORLD - HTC Titan II

We'll forego the discussions of how much it actually matters for the moment. The fact remains that a 16-megapixel sensor represents the most pixel-packed there's even been on a smartphone before. Eight has pretty much become the standard on a top notch device but the Windows Phone 7 operating HTC Titan II has blown those out of the water. With a 4.7-inch screen,?1730mAh battery and 4G connectivity, that's not all that's impressive about it either. Read more

FIRST SMARTPHONE WITH OPTICAL ZOOM - Polaroid SC1630

Camera with a phone? Phone with a camera? It doesn't really matter. The fact remains that you can make calls, send texts, browse the web and play games on the Polaroid SC1630. It also happens to house enough space and photographic credentials for a?3x optical zoom lens offering a range of 36-108mm (in 35mm terms). There's also a 16-megapixel CCD sensor doing the work which equals that of the Titan II. Read more

Camcorders

Canon, Sony and Panasonic were probably the three who made the most noise in the camcorder space with their handycams all seeming to pack either Wi-Fi, 3D or both at CES 2012. However, it was someone else who led the pace in Vegas and will forever go down in the record books.

WORLD'S FIRST 4K CAMCORDER - JVC?GY-HMQ10

JVC has been working on a low-cost 4K resolution camera since 2007, and it seems to have finally managed to make it a reality.?The ?3,300 camera boasts an 8.3-megapixel sensor that produces video with a resolution of 3840x2160. That's very slightly less than a full-blown 4K digital cinema camera will shoot but it's over the resolution you'd end up seeing projected, digitally, at your local cinema.?The camera has a non-removable f/2.8 lens, which includes a 10x optical zoom, and you record onto SD card at a rate of 144Mbps. Read more

Gaming

CES isn't E3 but there were still a couple of interesting amusing developments in the gaming world at Vegas in 2012. So were any of them record breaking? Oh yes.

FIRST U.S. ARMY ENDORSED GAMING KIT - From CTA

Quite what the army get out of it is one thing (more recruits, a load of cash?), the point is that you can now strut about your living room putting your foes down the way Uncle Sam intended. The top of the tree has to be the Move-compatible assault rifle but there's also a backpack, on-ear headphones and even a headset with a throat mic to enjoy as well. Read more

MOST STORAGE ON A CHAIR EVER - X Rocker Pocket Chair

Ok, this one's a total guess but we were seriously impressed with the amount of gaming kit you could tuck into this $100 piece of furniture. It's more of a beanbag shaped like an armchair than anything but what's great is you can fit about the same amount of games boxes, discs, gamepads, guitar controllers, drumsticks, drinks and just about anything you could think of into the pockets, zips, holders and compartments on the sides as you can in an entire bookshelf and cupboards. Read more

Tags: Audio Phones Laptops CES2012 Features Tablets Cameras Camcorders Televisions Printers

CES 2012 record breakers originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:45:07 +0000

Geneva Lab thinks it has a stylish enough Bluetooth speaker option to set it apart from the ubiquitous competition by way of the GenevaSound Model XS, which has just been announced by the Swiss company.

The suave-looking clamshell style travel speaker comes in white, black or red and each model boasts a piano-lacquered HD composite.

Tech-wise, it packs a 2.1 speaker system with two 1-inch tweeters and one 2.25-inch woofer hidden within its diminutive chassis as well as digital amplifiers for optimal audio performance (or an analogue amplifier when in FM mode) with a 12W (2x3, 1x6) output and a frequency range of 80Hz to 20kHz.

Each speaker is individually powered and chambered for "accurate acoustics" and there's a rechargeable lithium battery with more than 5 hours play-time. As well as Bluetooth, aux-in and FM radio, the Model XS also offers a digital clock with alarm, an LED display and backlit, touch-sensitive controls.

Out this month, the GenevaSound Model XS will cost you ?179.

Tags: Audio GenevaSound Model XS Bluetooth speakers Geneva Lab

GenevaSound Model XS Bluetooth speaker wants to travel in style originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:40:00 +0000

Although it's been beaten to the punch as the first manufacturer to release Android-specific headphones (by Klipsch), Philips is, to our knowledge, the first to offer an entire range of, what it calls, Made for Android headsets.

The range includes two sets of ear buds, some earhooks and a pair of cans, all of which coming in at reasonable price points, and all featuring full remote control and in-line microphone for Android devices.

Better still, they each offer full functionality for a large number of Android handsets and tablets, regardless of manufacturer, as they are linked to a free application that will be available on the Android Market. This app can be told which specific device you own, and will therefore ensure that the user can programme their headset with music management capabilities - such as?play/pause, previous track, next track, fast forward, fast backward and volume control - while call management features are present too. There will also be the ability to launch the app from the on-cable remote.

The application also offers some audio equaliser properties, and different sound modes. It is compatible, at present, with phones and devices from HTC, Samsung, Motorola and LG.

The cheapest headset is the Philips SHE7005A, a pair of in-ear buds that will retail for $29.99 in the US (as Pocket-lint saw these at CES in Las Vegas, we're still to be told of the UK prices). They feature?8.6mm micro-efficient speakers and passive noise?isolation.

For those who run or go to the gym, the Philips SHE8105A buds are similarly specified but have earhooks to keep them more firmly in place. They also come with a 24k gold-plated plug for an "ultra-reliable" connection, and weigh in at $39.99.

As a step-up model to the SHE7005A pair, the Philips SHE9005A earbuds offer?10mm high performance speakers, a "premium" metal housing to reduce vibration, the company's proprietary?Comply foam tips to improve comfort, and an anti-tangle fabric cable. They cost $49.99.

Lastly, the Philips SHL9705A headset is of the headband/can variety, and comes with?40mm speakers, on-ear memory foam cushions,?aluminium?outer ear shells for durability (and decent aesthetics, from our showing), and they fold flat for easy storage. They come in at $99.99.

All of the Made for Android range will hit stores in Q2 - that's spring in modern money.

Tags: Philips Audio Headphones Philips Made for Android Android Philips SHE7005A Philips SHS8105A Philips SHE9005A Philips SHL9705A CES2012

Philips Made for Android headphones coming for spring (pictures) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:49:00 +0000

Everybody who's anybody in the hip hop scene these days has a company churning out headphones with their name on them. Actor/rapper Christopher Brian Bridges, aka Ludacris, (see what he did there?) is no exception and has been the man behind Soul Electronics and its fittingly chunky cans since records began (see what we did there?).

All has been going fairly smoothly, it seems, because, at CES 2012, Soul branched out away from personal audio into audio that is very public indeed. The Soul Party in a Box is a big, old speaker system with a handle on top that rather stretches the definition of the word "portable". It looks like a cross between an amplifier and the TDK Boombox that arrived in 2011.

Within the body are stowed eight speakers facing every direction you need - two 6.5-inch subs, a couple of 3-inch midrangers and four 1-inch tweeters. The effect is that it's really, really loud. The company claims there's enough to fill any room. We claim that that's understating the output of this thing by a long shot. Turned up not even to full volume, this thing drowned out the entire show at CES and nearly shook our boots from feet right where we stood.

There's a dock connector on the front for pod or pad as well as AirPlay connectivity or Bluetooth if you're not using an Apple device. You can also use the USB or 3.5mm line in for a hard connection and there's an FM radio too. What's really rather nice though is that the 5.8GHz radio inside is a two-way affair and means that you can link and synch several Parties in a Box together.

To top it all off there's some colour changing lights around the side and a microphone option to bug people with as you show off any rapping skills you think you might own. Don't quit the day job.

As far as power goes, you've got the choice of batteries, mains and even using a 12V car adapter too. It's set to arrive on the shelves in June 2012 and will set you back around $1,000.

Tags: Audio Soul Electronics CES2012 iPad acccessories iPod accessories AirPlay Soul Party in a Box

Soul Party in Box pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:35:00 +0000

We caught it as a prototype at IFA 2011 in Berlin, but it wasn't until the Android-running Sony Walkman Z series hit CES that it became a reality and a chance for Pocket-lint to go hands on with this suped-up media player.

A match up of the iPod touch, this?dedicated Walkman device offers a 4.3-inch display and runs?Android?2.3 Gingerbread. Sure, the quality of games might not be as good as on iOS, but the added screen size will certainly come into play. On the plus side, the Nvidia Tegra 2 SoC inside makes whatever games that you do end up with running smoother than a cashmere codpiece.

Sony’s software reflects what we’ve seen previously on its new tablets - the S and the P - with some of the same features evident in the video player, letting us skip through scenes of a movie and the option to share it with the TV via DLNA or via the HDMI-out.

On the music front, a dedicated Walkman-logoed button on the side launches you straight into the music player and the quality of the S-Master amp inside seems to be better than your average smartphone. Headphones, of course, make a massive difference but there was a certain balance and richness of sound that we couldn't help find impressive.

What was a touch annoying on the music playback front was the difference between the music app that Sony wants you to use and the music app that comes with Android as standard. Both sound the same, ultimately, but it's a touch confusing in terms which is which and when you're using them. It might be worth uninstalling the standard version and selling yourself to the Sony UI.

We understand that a media player is going to be missing the phone app, but taking away the camera seems a bit unnecessary. Instead, you get an okay set of built-in stereo speakers but it's probably not worth the trade off. The real wind-up, though, is that, for some reason, there's no micro USB to charge through and instead you get some proprietary nonsense. And we thought Sony had given that up a few years ago when it dropped those silly memory cards.

The Sony Walkman Z will be available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB sizes and each comes backed up with the company's Music Unlimited service for discovery and streaming.

Tags: Audio Android Sony Sony Walkman NWZ-Z1000 Sony Walkman Z CES2012 Media players

Sony Walkman Z pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:15:00 +0000

Over in Vegas at CES 2012, Altec Lansing unveiled the Live 5000, a wireless speaker that builds on the success of the inAir 5000 that was unleashed back in September at IFA.

Whereas the inAir used AirPlay to wirelessly play back your tunes, the Altec Lansing Live 5000 simply uses your home's Wi-Fi connection to hook up to your audio playback devices. It is controllable from iOS, Android and desktop applications and delivers music from the web's "most popular content providers".

It uses AL's Live controller app to setup up a central playlist of your tunes. Rather than have your music sent to the cloud, it is streamed directly from each device's local library of music.

The tear-drop shape, we're told, is to provide a better sound with a more natural path for sound waves due to the non-parallel walls. There's also a tri-amp platform in place, along with neodymium tweeters, 3-inch kevlar mids and a long throw subwoofer.

"Now more than ever, there are so many different ways to experience the music we love, and it doesn’t matter if it’s from the cloud, from our individual libraries or even from our friends’ phones," said Brendon Stead, co-president, Altec Lansing. "Whether it’s for personal listening or for a party, the Live 5000 is the device that brings your music mosaic and lifestyle together in complete harmony."

The Live 5000 will cost $499.95 Stateside when it lands in the summer. We're told a UK release is coming too. You can also hook up multiple Live 5000s should you wish.

Tags: Audio Altec Lansing CES2012 Speakers Altec Lansing Live 5000

Altec Lansing Live 5000 wirelessly beams in originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:59:00 +0000

In a quiet, top floor room of a Las Vegas hotel sat the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 12 when Pocket-lint went to pay it a visit at CES 2012. At a section of the show with incredibly well sound-proofed walls and particularly comfortable furniture it stood in both of the colour schemes available.

This silver and tan or grey and black AirPlay portable speaker system is, funnily enough, a delight to behold - as, of course, the majority of B&O kit has been over the years. What's nice is that the Beolit 12 won't really divide opinion in terms of style like some of the more recent speakers to have hit the market from the great Danes. The BeoLab 5 might be incredibly functional and a work of art but there's definitely some pretentiousness in its looks that won't fit everyone's home. Not so with the Beolit 12. Any home, anywhere, anytime.

At 2.8kg, it's a pretty solid unit. You wouldn't want to carry the thing around all day but it's certainly portable enough thanks to the?full-grain, Italian leather carry strap and 8-hour Li-ion battery tucked neatly away in the push to open door towards the base. You can still connect to the mains if you wish and there's also an Ethernet socket, USB for charging your iPhone and 3.5mm jack along with the?Wi-Fi a/b/g/n credentials.

What adds that extra dollop of super smooth is that you can't see any part of the?two 2-inch full range tweeters or the 4-inch woofers at all. It's all hidden behind a uniform, anodised, aluminium grill, slightly reminiscent of the front of the Mac Pro desktop computer.

So, how does it sound? Well, good. Very good. We didn't have the world of time to play with it and we'd like to test a few different sources but its beauty isn't just skin deep, as indeed should be the case for a piece of kit that will set you back at around ?600.

The Beolit 12 is the first product under a new B&O sub-brand known as B&O Play. Aiming for high quality but portable sound, it seems to have fit the mission statement very nicely indeed. It'll be available in the next couple of weeks online as well as endorsed by Apple.

Tags: Audio Bang and Olufsen Play Bang and Olufsen Beolit 12 CES2012 Bang And Olufsen Photos

Bang and Olufsen Beolit 12 pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:08:00 +0000

The very best gadgets of CES 2012 is what we bring you at Pocket-lint, but this page right here is even better. It's the best of the best, the best-est, the tip top, the A-No.1 As far as the hottest gadgets of world's largest consumer electronics trade show goes.

Throughout our time in Las Vegas this year, the team will be updating this page with the devices that really catch our eye. So, if we think something has a bright future, is highly original or just gets our geek juices flowing for some unknown reason, you'll find it here. These are the hottest gadgets of CES 2012 and the ones we think you should be taking notice of.

?

Acer Iconia Tab A700

We all went "ooh" when the?Acer Iconia Tab A200 was officially announced earlier back in December but then went "boo" when we found out it was a Tegra 2 machine and not a much anticipated Tegra 3 flavoured one.?But our Kal-El Iconia expectations look set to be met with the Ice-Cream Sandwich-packing Acer Iconia Tab A700 now confirmed as a quad-core device.

The Android 4.0.1, 10.1-inch tab boasts a Full HD 1080p resolution and what appears to be SIM, micro-USB, micro-HDMI and audio jack fun too. There's a camera on the back, purportedly a 5-megapixel one that can shoot HD video, but we couldn't get that confirmed. Read more | Hands-on

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Fujifilm X-Pro 1

Take the hugely successful retro-styled, APS-C sized sensor camera that is the Fuji X100, give it a mount for interchangeable Fujinon lenses and you've got yet another red hot gadget from CES 2012.?The Fujifilm X-Pro 1 is a 16-megapixel machine with the added benefit of Fujifilm's now familiar EXR technology.

In terms of glassware, it's reported that the X-Pro 1 will get three prime lenses - an 18mm F/2, 35mm F/1.4 and 60mm F/2.4?macro. The other thing to note about the X-Pro 1 is that it offers a hybrid viewfinder similar to the highly acclaimed one in the X100. Read more

?

Griffin Twenty

The heat from the Griffin Twenty is all about the fact that it can turn any speakers into AirPlay ready ones saving you the chore of having to upgrade if you want to stream your music around your house. The new gadget uses an Airport Express to capture the AirPlay stream, decodes it, then sends the lossless, amplified sound through any speakers connected.

The Twenty comes equipped with a power connection and mount for Airport Express and features a 2.1 channel sound system with 20W output per channel, as well as offering users the chance to plug in a powered subwoofer with an automatic active crossover at 80Hz. Hands-on

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Lenovo X1 Hybrid

A clever idea from Lenovo makes for a laptop that can provide far greater battery life for day-to-day tasks than a normal, Windows-based PC. For things like surfing the net, watching video or writing documents you just put Windows in to sleep mode, and switched to a Linux-based OS.

The system works using not just an Intel CPU, but also a dual-core Qualcomm processor too. Using a processor like this obviously cuts power consumption enormously, and while you won't be able to run games and other Windows applications, it's ideal when you need a bit of stamina from your laptop.

It's nice and slim too, making for a laptop that has all of the advantages of a Windows-powered computer, but with some additional benefits too. Hands-on

?

Ion Audio Guitar Apprentice

iPad owners will, no doubt, have been waiting for this for some time. It's just amazing it's taken this long for someone to invent a guitar shaped case for the iPad. Of course, the idea here is that you can play guitar on your iPad, whilst looking like some sort of idiot at the same time.

The good news is, for a modest 65 quid, you do get a bit of kit that, when linked to an Ion application, can teach you how to play the guitar. It does this with lights that illuminate where your fingers need to be. Is it a serious tool, or a money-wasting gimmick? We'll investigate when it eventually launches in the UK. For now though, at least it takes pretending to be Slash to a whole new level. Photos

?

Huawei Ascend P1 S

Had you read this article yesterday, we might have been telling you about a different phone here. But the current champion in the "world's?slimmest?phone" stakes is the Huawei Ascend P1 S, which is a lot?thinner?than that?clumsy?name. But, with a depth of just 6.68mm, it certainly is a tiny little thing.?

There's a 1.5Ghz dual-core TI processor here too, and 1GB of RAM, so it's diminutive size shouldn't mess up its performance at all. The phone will also ship with Android in its Ice Cream?Sandwich?flavour, which is a relief, as a phone this slim deserves a full-fat OS. Hands-on

?

LG 55EM9600 OLED TV

OLED TVs are something of the tech industry's unicorn. They're exciting, but pretty much mythical. Until now that is, because LG is finally showing of a 55-inch TV, beating the previous record set by Sony of 11-inches in a production model.

What's more, the asking price of $8000 (?5188) sounds like a bit of a bargain to us. Although it's not cheap, compare it to the launch prices of LCD and plasma TVs, and it stacks quite favourably. And with OLED offering super-fast refresh rates and amazing colour, this could be the start of something very exciting.

Of course. OLED has a lot of quirks too. Panels are said to have a short lifespan, and their vivid colour might look good on demo loops, but how will it look showing an episode of Eastenders? Hands-on

?

Sony Xperia S?

Sony might have some troubles at the moment, but in phones it seems to have finally cracked the winning?formula. The Xperia S proves this by rocking up at CES with a 720p HD screen, 1.5GHz processor and built-in storage of 32GB. It also has a little bit of clear plastic that makes it appear as if it's in two pieces.

But design gimmicks aside, we have a lot of love for this phone already. It looks stylish, cool and subtle. It's also likely to be one of the first phones to do away with the Sony Ericsson name. It is not, however, going to be one of the first phones of 2012 that has Ice Cream Sandwich but an upgrade is promised this year. Read more?

?

Nokia Lumia 900

Considering the Lumia 900 might not come to the UK, we're still as excited as children on Christmas day about it. Many of the things we'd change about out 800 have been tweaked on the 900. Gone is the USB flap, added is a new, wide-angle video camera on the front and the screen is just that little bigger and sexier.?

It's a 4G LTE phone too, which means super-fast surfing where those networks are in place. Happily, the UK and Europe should start seeing support for these speeds soon, but until then, the main advantage of the Lumia is just for the Americans - explaining why it's on sale there, not here. Hands-on

?

Panasonic VT50?

Since the Pioneer Kuro went the way of the Dodo, we've missed having an ultimate plasma TV to drool on. The good news is, Panasonic continues its quest to bring Kuro technology to its Viera screens. Last year's VT30 was already one of the best TVs we've seen, and the VT50 looks even better. You'll be able to get this TV in both 55- and 65-inches so you might want to start clearing space now.

There is THX 3D certification, a stunning one-piece glass design and a new kind of remote that is designed for the new "smart" TV features that are common on new TVs. You'll also get built-in support for Skype, Netflix and YouTube, which should help when there's nothing good on the telly. Read more

?

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook

If you could marry a laptop, then we have a feeling that we'd tie the knot with the Dell XPS 13 in a rush wedding in Las Vegas. Sure, it might only last a few years, but we'd have a blast thanks to that carbon fibre and aluminium body. It's got brains, as well as looks too, with a choice of i5 and i7 processors 4GB of RAM and a choice of 128 or 256GB SSD drives.?

The XPS 13 will be available from March, and while it's not the first Ultrabook we've seen - we've been around the block you know - it certainly looks like the prettiest yet. Hands-on preview

?

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Ultrabook

As names go, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Ultrabook has to be one of the worst yet. Sure, it's not as bad as the model numbers that come stamped on some TVs, but as a clumsy pile of nonsense it's right up there. But that hasn't put us off this?intriguing?machine. It's an Ultrabook, with all that involves, but it also has a twisty screen that allows it to be used as a tablet too.?

Let's be honest here. It's not going to upset the iPad apple cart too much, is it, but as an idea for a different kind of Ultrabook, it's a pretty good one. Lenovo has form here too, it's done laptops that convert in to tablets before, and they're always pretty decent. Hands-on

?

Samsung's transparent smart window

Look at your window. Now look at the Samsung smart window. Now look back at your window, and cry at how boring and low-tech it is. The idea here, is to turn glass surfaces in to information points, and places for you to watch video as well as maintain your privacy.?

Samsung says, you won't be able to see on from the other side, so people who enjoy being naked in the privacy of their own home need not worry. Like all concepts, this is doubtless a long way off, but we can't wait. Read more

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iPro wideangle lens for iPhone

The camera on the iPhone is very good but there's always room for improvement, or room even for a little more picture. Which is where the iPro comes in. It gives you a choice of two lenses. One a normal wide-angle and the other a fairly extreme fisheye.

The kit is $200 in the US, but it's expected to be available globally soon. Hands-on

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Intel Medfield Atom Android smartphone?

Intel has been left out of the smartphone market, and that must hurt. After all, it's used to being king of the processors and suddenly it's being overtaken by the likes of Qualcomm. Our first impressions were good, the phones seems powerful and there's a lot of potential here.?

Of course, most users won't care what processor powers their phone. Do you know what's in your handset?running?the show? But even so, it brings more competition, could help speed phones up and should certainly drive prices down. Hands-on

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JVC?GY-HMQ10 4K camcorder

4K production isn't new, certainly this is how digital cinema has worked since it first started. But for a home camcorder aimed at normal people, costing just a few thousand pounds, it's quite an advance.?

JVC says editing and watching 4K footage is straightforward, although you'll need a quick computer. The camera shoots to SD cards, so storage is cheap, and if you want to step down to 1080p, that's no problem either, as the advanced optics mean you'll get superb quality. Read more

Tags: Audio Phones Televisions CES2012 Laptops Tablets Gaming Cameras Features

Hottest gadgets at CES 2012 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:35:00 +0000

You may have read on Pocket-lint about the launch of the Monster iSport in-ear headphones back in August, and as it happened we managed to get hold of one of the first pairs to hit UK shores. Well, over in Vegas at CES, the iSport buds have had a shiny yellow makeover, all in aid of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which aims to serve people affected by cancer and empower them to take action against the world's leading cause of death.

Once again, we got up close and personal with a pair and, just like the originals, they look fantastic. They boast a patented in-ear clip design that is designed to fit nicely with your ear's inner curve, rather than fixing over the top.

It's a bit awkward getting them in the first time, but once you've cracked it, it's a doddle. The iSport also comes with a load of buds and clips of all manner of shapes and sizes so you're bound to find a pair that fit.

Music quality is great as well thanks to a tight audio seal to keep your tunes locked up in your ear and there's also noise isolation on board, which seemed to do the job when we tested the original's out last year

Controlling playback on your phone is easy, as the iSport have Monster's ControlTalk function that works particularly well with Apple devices. With iDevices it will not only let you answer and make calls, but also give you media controls as well.

Monster teamed up with RadioShack for the launch of the new iSport Livestrong branded in-ear headphones. They are sweatproof and washable, and?it's not only music fans that get to benefit from these new earphones as a portion of the proceeds from sales will go to the famous cyclist's charity.

They will be available at RadioShack in the US, starting in February 2012, for $179.95. A UK launch is planned for later in the year - the original iSport buds cost ?130, so expect about the same.

Tags: Headphones Monster Audio Monster iSport CES2012 Earphones

Monster iSport Livestrong earphones pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:04:00 +0000

We at Pocket-lint are big fans of Pure and its ever-growing range of DAB and internet radios. But the Pure Sensia, so long the flagship of the range, left a slightly sour taste in our mouth.

It wasn't that we didn't like the Sensia. We loved it in fact. Well, we loved everything apart from the two key aspects that defined it as a device; its touchscreen and access to The Lounge portal. To say these were bad would be under doing it.

Luckily, Pure has got its act together on The Lounge front, with the latest version much more user friendly than before (and soon to include the excellent Pure Music) and, after a quick go on the just launched?Pure Sensia 200D Connect at CES, we're convinced our touchscreen woes are now behind us.

As well as the improved interface and controls, the 200D also brings USB recording to the party - making it easy to swipe your favourite tunes or podcasts direct from the airwaves - and the speakers have had a tweak too, now delivering 30W RMS of digital sound via its DSP tuned high efficiency class-D amplifiers.?

We laid eyes on the white and black versions, both packing the re-designed Pure logo, and we're told that there may even be extra colour schemes coming soon. Sound quality seemed good but it was hard to tell amongst the barrage of booth noises emitting around the Las Vegas Convention Centre's North Hall.

The Pure Sensia 200D Connect will be available in the UK during the first quarter of 2012 for ?249.99.

Tags: Audio CES2012 Pure Pure Sensia 200D Radios

Pure Sensia 200D Connect pictures and hands-on originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:46:00 +0000

Parrot has revealed its new Zik headphones designed by Phillipe Starck, which bring together a massive amount of audio technology in smooth, standout styling.

And when we say packed with cutting edge tech, we mean it. First off, the Zik headphones are touch activated so there are no obtrusive buttons ruining the design, swiping the panel vertically will set the volume, or swiping it horizontally will skip music forward/rewind.

Bluetooth connectivity, noise cancellation and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) are par for the course - the DSP giving a "Parrot Concert Hall" effect, with the music coming in front of you.

The introduction of NFC into the headset is further evidence of the innovation that's gone into the device as, to our knowledge, it's the first time the tech has been used in headphones. Basically all you need to do to connect your NFC-phone is to tap it to one of the ear pieces - that's it. Admittedly the tech isn't ubiquitous on all phones, by any means, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.

Further innovation comes in the form of a noise cancelling sensor that monitors your jaw's movements making your voice that little bit clearer for the person on the other end of a call, whilst there's also a sensor for pausing your tunes when you remove the headphones from your ears; replacing them and the music springs back to life.

These could really be a big hit, if punters are prepared to take a hit on their wallet, come launch sometime in 2012.

Tags: Audio Headphones Parrot Parrot Zik NFC CES2012

Parrot Starck-designed Zik headphones bring NFC to your ears originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:13:00 +0000

Griffin has launched a couple of iPhone/iPad accessories that should appeal to iOS music makers, as its MidiConnect and StudioConnect should bring flexibility to any musician working with the OS and its GarageBand software.

MIDIConnect joins Griffin's GuitarConnect Pro in providing compact, input solutions for iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. StudioConnect is basically a tracking, editing and overdubbing companion for GarageBand. The desktop unit serves as an all-in-one interface for audio, MIDI-In and MIDI-Out as well as a charging dock for the iPad device.

?"GarageBand has put powerful audio production tools within reach of any musician with an idea and an iPad," said Mark Rowan, president of Griffin Technology. "We've made it easy to connect your real instruments with GarageBand and control every aspect of your project."

The multipurpose StudioConnect?for iPad combines both audio and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) recording into one compact device that also simultaneously charges the iPad. StudioConnect should make recording music on the iPad more of a pain-free process, and in Griffin's words: "give aspiring musicians a chance to produce professional sounding recordings".

MIDIConnect will be available this spring for $79.99. StudioConnect will be available in February for $149.99

Tags: Audio Griffin Griffin StudioConnect Griffin MidiConnect iPhone accessories GarageBand CES2012

Griffin StudioConnect and MidiConnect for iPhone play well with GarageBand originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:04:01 +0000

Bang and Olufsen, better known for high-end audio installations, have announced the launch of the B&O Beolit 12, a premium iPhone speaker.

The new speaker is the first product to be launched under a new sub-brand, known as B&O Play. B&O Play will focus on high-quality portable audio-video products, which the company says are designed "for the digital generation, at a more accessible price point".?

With an RRP of €677 or $799 (?580), it's a tad more expensive than your average Gear4 iPhone dock, but we guess that accessibility is a subjective concept. Fortunately the Beolit 12 oozes luxury at every possible point and has been designed to ensure you get a cracking portable speaker.

It features a full-grain Italian leather carry strap and a solid anodised aluminium speaker grill which wraps around the device seamlessly, giving it a minimalist but sophisticated design. Different colours will be available, although it is initially launching in grey.

The top is finished in rubber and designed to be non-slip, so you can safely place your iPhone on the top when charging or playing music. Oh yes, it's AirPlay compatible too, and although you can connect other devices, this is very much Made for iPhone (or iPod, or iPad).

Internally you'll get a 120 Watts class D power amplifier driving two 2-inch full range tweeters and a 4-inch woofer, said to comfortably fill a medium-sized room.?

The Beolit 12 is designed to be portable so comes with an internal battery that is said to give you 8-hours of playback (with wireless switched off) and will charge your iPhone (or other device) thanks to a USB port hidden down the side.?

In terms of connections you'll get the USB, a 3.5mm line in and an Ethernet port as well as Wi-Fi a/b/g/n. It measures 230 x 150 x 188mm and weighs in at 2.8kg.

“Once people listen to their portable music through the Beolit 12, they will wonder why they ever did it any other way”, said Tue Mantoni, Global CEO of Bang & Olufsen.

The B&O Beolit 12 will be available from January 2012 at B&O stores (including online) and will be available through the Apple Store.

Read

Tags: Audio Bang And Olufsen Bang and Olufsen Beolit 12 Apple Airplay AirPlay Speakers iPod docks iPhone Apple CES2012

Bang and Olufsen launches Beolit 12, a premium portable iPhone speaker originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:15:24 +0000

Pure has revealed its update to the Sensia; coming in the guise of the Sensia 200D Connect, this followup should deliver some upgraded performance on the older model which Pocket-lint found to be just a little off the mark.

In short, the radio uses Wi-Fi to allow users to stream a wide range of audio including a shed load of songs through Pure Music; music stored on a home computer or network storage device, as well as internet radio stations and digital and FM content.

And there should be an? improvement in performance over the older model, which, we hope, will come from the processor which ups the power and should make things that little bit zippier. This is especially important as the user interface, once a slightly clumsy affair, has been redesigned which will hopefully make accessing the radios online features easier. This coupled with the power boost should give the Sensia 200D Connect the edge it needs.

In terms of sound quality, the Sensia 200D Delivers 30W RMS of digital sound via DSP tuned high efficiency class-D amplifiers and in-house custom designed full-range speakers. And all, or most, of the radios main functions can be controlled through a bundles remote.

You won't have long to wait for this one: it should be on shelves within first quarter of 2012 and will come in black and white finishes for ?249.99.

Tags: Audio Pure Pure Sensia 200D Radios Internet radios CES2012

Pure Sensia 200D Connect: The second coming originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Sony has announced a number of new docks, aimed at people who don't own Sony products. The iPhone, iPod and iPad capable docks are designed to be acoustically precise and stylish as well as powerful.

Sony claims that its S-Master Digital Amplifier and DMC technology allow you to "fill a room" with delightful sound. Unless you like Florence + The Machine, where it promises to fill the room with hateful noise. Even so, the room will still be full of sound, and that's impressive from such small speaker docks.

Each of these new docks can accept wireless music too, either via Air Play and Bluetooth. So no matter what phone or MP3 player you have, it's quite likely you'll be able to send music to these docks, without the hassle of cables. The RDP-XA900iP and RDP-XA700iP both have Airplay, but only the 900 has Bluetooth. They are also single-box 2.1 channel units - if such a thing is possible. The RDP-X280iP and RDP-X200iP don't have Airplay, but both have Bluetooth built-in. They are two-way speaker systems, rather than having an integrated subwoofer.

Sony says that the "dual passive radiators" make "explosive bass" and give the DMC-equipped speakers something that normal docks don't have.

The flagship RDP-XA900iP has 200 Watts of power at its disposal. It's finished in black fabric that doesn't impede sound, and accented with some attractive silver trim to give it the look of a device that's at place in any room, no matter how cool. The RDP-XA700iP is a lot less powerful, at 60 Watts, but it still has the S-Master amp and DMC for powerful, but controlled bass.

The X280 and X200 both offer 40 Watts of power, more than enough for a smaller room. The X280 also has a built-in battery, which can manage up to 6 hours of music on a single charge. All these docks are available from May 2012.

Tags: Audio CES2012 Sony iPod iPod accessories iPod docks

Sony announces wireless speaker docks originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:29:00 +0000

We first got our hands on Sony's Walkman prototype?at IFA in 2011. But at this year's CES the company has finally announced an expected retail date, and estimated US pricing.

The Z100 players come in three capacities, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB. They should be going on sale - according to the Sony website - at the start of March. The UK site has no dates as yet, but confirms at least one model is coming to Blighty.

The smallest capacity model, the 8GB NWZ-Z1040, costs $250 (?161), the mid-capacity NWZ-Z1050, 16GB player is $280 (?180) and the largest, the NWZ-Z1060 at 32GB is $330 (?213).

Sony says that the S-Master MX digital amplifier is designed to reduce any unwanted distortion and noise, and will produce a wonderful clean and clear sound. There's a quick launch W button that takes you straight to the music interface, and the player can play music based on your mood, which it manages through categorising music into "channels".

To compete with Apple's Airplay, the Walkman Z series can send video, music and photos to a DLNA compliant TV or other device. This is good news, as unlike Airplay, it doesn't require that you re-invest in a lot of new devices, as DLNA is as old as the hills, and quite widespread now.

Predictably, Sony will also provide access to its Music Unlimited application, which will allow users to buy music through the Sony-branded store. Sony mobile phone users will be aware of this service already, no doubt, and it is rather good, if a little pricey. As this is Android-powered, you also get access to hundreds of thousands of pretty decent third-party apps too, through the Market.

Tags: Audio Sony CES2012 Android Walkman

Sony announces Z series Android-powered Walkman originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:15:00 +0000

Monster has announced that it is to team up with RadioShack for the launch of the new iSport Livestrong branded in-ear headphones, which are specifically designed for athletes and enthusiasts.

However, the design of the headphones might not be everyone's cup of tea as they "boldly feature Livestrong's iconic bright yellow on both the cable and earpieces".

Being headphones designed for the sportsman, they are sweatproof and washable and feature a variety of innovations that set them apart from all others. One of these is the the nagging problem of in-ear headphones that slip out during strenuous use. Monster deals with this through a patented in-ear clip anchor system, which fits the curve of the inner ear securely.

Monster's iSport Livestrong headphones also feature the Company's ControlTalk, an innovative in-line control system that gives users music and movie playback control of their smartphones.

And it's not only music fans that get to benefit from these new headphones, as a portion of the proceeds from sales will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which aims to serve people affected by cancer and empower them to take action against the world's leading cause of death.

They will be available at RadioShack, starting in February 2012, for a suggested retail price of $179.95, followed by rollout at other retailers later this year

Tags: Headphones Monster Audio Monster iSport

Monster iSport Livestrong headphones give you charitable beats originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:57:00 +0000

CES might be in full swing now, but that hasn't stopped Sony from suddenly announcing a bunch of new in-ear headphones.

The range features four sets of high-quality earphones, designed with quality in mind. There are four pairs with iPhone and iPod in-line remote controls, some washable sports headphones, a wireless bluetooth pair and a new, battery-box-free noise cancelling set.

Meet the Balanced Armature

But the key to all these headphones is the new Balanced Armature. These are a quarter of the size of a normal earphone driver but still deliver the same sensitivity, in a minuscule package. Sony points out that, these new drivers can be specially tuned to respond to specific frequencies. And, you could have more than one unit per earphone, giving you Hi-Fi speaker style separation of bass, treble and mid-range audio.

Sony also says that the sealed design means these headphones leak less sound outward, so don't annoy people near you. And, as part of the same design, they also keep external sounds out, reducing the interference and audio tedium of everyday life.

The XBA range has four specific models, designated XBA-1 and up to, surprisingly, 4. These numbers also indicate how many BA drivers the earphones have. The XBA-1 features one, the XBA-2 has two. You get the picture. The configuration varies though, so the two driver, XBA-2 has an armature aimed at delivering punchy bass. The XBA-3 has high, mid and low drivers and the XBA-4 offers drivers that deliver full-range, high-end treble, mid-range and a "subwoofer" for very deep bass.

The XBA-1iP, 2iP etc are all the same, but add that much-loved in-line iPhone remote and microphone. Good if you've got an iDevice, less interesting to everyone else.

Noise cancelling and Bluetooth

Perhaps most exciting though, are the XBA-NC85D noise cancelling headphones. These are the first in the world that don't feature a bulky battery box. Instead, the space savings of the new Balanced Armature mean that you get a single driver, noise cancellation chip and a rechargeable battery, all tucked away in the earphone.

What's more, this tiny battery pack manages to power the headphones for 20 hours before running out of juice. You can't argue that's impressive miniaturisation.

The XBA-BT75 bluetooth headphones have a similar design. Their electronics is built in to the earpieces themselves too. There's room for the Bluetooth antenna as well as a battery that can drive the cans for three and a half hours on one charge. Not a massive time, but enough to see you through a nice long run. The headphones will go on sale in April this year, pricing has yet to be announced. We will, of course, bring you reviews as soon as we're able.

Tags: Audio Headphones Sony CES2012

Sony announces 11 new sets of headphones originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:01:00 +0000

Any queries on Klipsch's 2011 venture into the world of AirPlay have been firmly answered at CES 2012 with the launch of three more digital music machines for the home, each featuring Apple's wireless solution.

The Klipsch Stadium, pictured above, is a 2.1 table top sound system designed to bring a high performance audio output for the more casual device that is a portable music player. Within the brushed aluminium cabinet sits dual 1-inch tweeters and 3-inch woofers backed up by a set of 5.25-inch subs to breathe bass into your music.

As with all the Klipsch products announced today, they can use any local wireless network to play music streams from iPads, iPhones and iPods without the need to dock, unless, of course, you want to. On top of that, you can also beam your beats using the iTunes software from a PC or Mac. Failing all of that, there's also a USB port for direct connection.

If you'd rather have a whole table rather than just the table top, the Klipsch Console is designed to be a 2.1 sound system as well as a furniture centrepiece; a bit like sideboard, by the looks of things. Underneath all that shiny, black paneling is more proprietary technology than you could shake a stick at including opulent sounding features such as titanium domes, high compression drivers, Cerametallic woofers and woven fibreglass subs.

As well as the AirPlay goodies, the idea behind the console is that it can act as a centre and sub for a 5.1 system, so there's all sorts of media connections including HDMI and optical.

Lastly, is the non-pictured baby of the bunch known as the Klipsch RoomGroove Air. A more compact music system, it powers dual 1-inch tweeters and 2.5-inch woofers and a tuned port enclosure to chuck out the bass.

The RoomGroove and Stadium will arrive for sale in the Autumn of 2012 with the Console to follow by the end of the year.

Tags: Audio Klipsch CES2012 AirPlay Stereos Home Cinema

Klipsch gets more AirPlay with three digital music solutions originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Speaker manufacturer Otone Audio has developed a new range of desktop speaker systems that have been tweaked in order to appeal to Britain's apparent love of particular types of music genre.

The innovative new system is the culmination of Otone Audio's "years of experience in the audio industry" as well as the work carried out with top designers on the continent and leading businesses in China.

What this means is that the speakers have been tuned to the British market, with the company carrying out extensive research in the UK? and then refining them accordingly. Whether this is just marketing hype or not isn't clear yet, we'll have to wait to get our hands on them to say for sure, however the company states that the speaker systems "better complement the more bass-centric sounds of dance, hip-hop and rock found in the UK market".

Gareth Thomas from Otone Audio explains: “By tightening up the bass drivers, which in turn reduce their response time, the drivers in our systems can move [in and out] faster and respond in sync with the [faster] beat of the music."

And not content with tuning speakers specifically for the music on this fair isle, Otone Audio continues with the bold claim that: "Otone provides better audio clarity and quality than any other directly competing sound system on the market at the moment, achieving this with equal or better sound at a lower price point than our rivals."

Still, all the speakers in the range look pretty smart, so let's hope the sound is mirrored by the decent design.

The speakers should be available by the end of January 2012.

Tags: Audio Speakers Otone Audio PC speakers

Otone Audio brings custom bass speakers to Britain originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:34:00 +0000

Purehas announced the Contour 200i Air, a powerful and stylish wireless audio system with Apple AirPlay that allows the user to play their music wirelessly via a PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch without the need to dock the device.

There is a growing trend for wireless audio devices such as this coming to market so Pure should definitely find a space for this docking station.

The Pure Contour 200i Air connects to the uyour home network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and produces 36W RMS of digital quality sound which should deliver a decent listening experience. The DSP corrected, high-efficiency audio amplifiers and custom designed 3.5-inch dual full-range speaker drive units should also deliver decent clarity.

The docking station can also connect to the free Pure Lounge app which enables access to tens of thousands of internet radio stations and on demand content - as well as Apple Airplay.

"Some day we’ll wonder why we ever had to physically connect devices, and Apple AirPlay is leading that behavioural seachange. There is nothing to beat the convenience of sitting back in your armchair to control your music collection with your iPad or iPhone, while the music itself is played beautifully and powerfully by Contour 200i Air."

At an SRP of just ?199.99, the Pure Contour 200i Air not only supports wireless streaming, but also includes a dock for iPad, iPhone and iPod for charging as well as music playback.

Tags: Audio Pure Pure Contour 200i iPod docks

Pure Contour 200i Air announced packing Apple AirPlay originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:10:38 +0000

Griffin has launched a new device at CES in Las Vegas that will allow you to turn any speakers into AirPlay ready ones, saving you the chore of having to upgrade if you want to stream your music around your house.

The new gadget, called the Griffin Twenty, uses an Airport Express to capture the AirPlay stream and decode it, then sends the lossless, amplified sound through any speakers connected to it.

The Twenty comes equipped with a power connection and mount for Airport Express and features a 2.1 channel sound system with 20W output per channel as well as offering users the chance to plug in a powered subwoofer with an automatic active crossover at 80Hz.

Users will be able to connect to the Airport Express' S/PIDF optical output with the included fiber optic cable, or via the spring-loaded right and left channel connectors. There is also a RCA subwoofer connector.

Griffin has yet to set a price for the new gadget, however expects in to be available in the UK shortly.

You can find out more at Griffin's website

Tags: CES2012 Griffin Audio Griffin Twenty AirPlay

Griffin Twenty makes any speaker AirPlay ready (pictures) originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:23:00 +0000

Ferrari?fans listen up. Logic 3 has teamed up with Ferrari to launch a range of Ferrari-branded?iPhone speaker docks?and headphones so you can show your love for the brand when it comes to listening to your favourite music.

Ferrari by Logic3, announced at CES on Monday, comprises a range of earphones, headphones and speaker docks that celebrate Ferrari without going all out red, well not too much.

On the speaker front there are two models in two very different ranges - the Ferrari Cavallino Collection and the Scuderia Ferrari Collection.

The first is influenced by GT road cars and take their design inspiration from the "premium textures and materials" found in the Ferrari cars while the Scuderia Ferrari Collection is inspired by the competition, speed, and technological innovation of the Ferrari F1 team and therefore is a bit more brazen carrying the bright yellow Scuderia Ferrari badge.

The Ferrari?Scuderia FS1 speaker dock

The Ferrari team has been closely involved with Logic3 throughout the entire process, ensuring the marque’s characteristic style, design and personality are captured within every product.

So what do you get? Well the Cavallino GT1 (pictured top) is a speaker dock that comes with a 250W RMS class HD AMP in a multi speaker unit with a 6.5-inch (165mm) subwoofer. In addition to an Apple dock connector, the GT1 also features wireless Bluetooth connectivity for Android and Windows-based devices. Priced at ?399 for an extra ?100 you'll be able to get Apple AirPlay support. The iPhone docks via a sliding tray where the prancing horse is if you are wondering.?

The Scuderia FS1 on the other hand, is a 2.1 Speaker Dock offering 120W RMS class HD Amp with twin passive bass radiators and Bluetooth. Like the GT1, if you are will to spend a further ?100 on top of the ?499 price tag you'll get AirPlay support.

If speaker docks aren't your cup of tea, then you can also get the prancing horse in your ear with a range of earphones and headphones also being announced.

There are four models within the Ferrari Cavallino range and a further five in the Scuderia Ferrari range with the latter showing off the bolder colour scheme.

The Cavallino range consists of the T350 (?299) over-ear headphones which include active noise cancelling, the T250 (?249) on-ear headphones, and the G150 (?149) and T150 (?149) earphones, which feature something called TFAT, which stands for?Thin Film Acoustic Technology,?and noise isolating technology.

The Ferrari Scuderia?P200 On-Ear Headphones

The Scuderia Ferrari headphones and earphones range consists of the R300 (?249) over-ear headphones, which offer active noise cancellation, the R200 (?199) and P200 (?199) on-ear headphones, and the S100 (?99) and R100 (?119) earphones, which feature TFAT and noise isolating technology.

The P200s, if you are a Ferrari fan, will be on the ones you'll want.

The Ferrari by Logic3 collection will be available from April 2012.

Tags: Audio iPhone docks Ferrari Logic3 Speakers Headphones Earphones

Ferrari iPhone docks and headphones show your love for beautiful sound originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:51:00 +0000

Samsung has announced a new audio dock, which brings with it Samsung's hybrid vacuum tube amplifier tech, aiming to blend the efficiency of solid state digital amplifiers with the natural sound drawn from traditional vacuum tubes.

Along with the valve-amp sporting DA-E750 there is the DA-E670 which lacks the tech, but along with its bigger brother they are the first docks on the market that support both Apple and Galaxy S devices; both will be shown off at CES 2012 in a few days.

Russell Owens, head of AV, Samsung UK, said, "Listening to music, individually or in a group setting, is one of the most personal and valued forms of entertainment. As the most awarded AV brand in 2011, we wanted to create a new audio product that is unique, highly-functional and beautifully designed that puts audio quality to the top of people’s expectations of convenient music regardless of the?type of portable?device they store it on."

Apart from the dual format of the docks the other big selling point is the hybrid vacuum tube tech, which will only be available on the DA-E750. This packs in the 100W hybrid amp and connects to a 2.1 speaker system with subwoofer.

It's a nice idea, however as the attributes of sound produced by valves over modern transistors is somewhat subjective it may prove tricky to see, or rather hear, a clear difference. As the DA-E670 only gets a 40W amp a side-by-side comparison won't be on the cards either.

The two units also have some nice connectivity included, both getting wireless audio file playback through AllShare for Samsung Galaxy devices and Airplay for Apple devices, or via Bluetooth.

Tags: Samsung Audio iPhone docks Samsung Audio Dock CES2012

Samsung Audio Dock brings valve amp sound to iOS and Galaxy S mobiles originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:07:00 +0000

How much would you spend on earphones? Is your budget ?20, ?50 or ?100? How about ?400? Well, if you want these Audeo PFE 232 earphones we've got in our lug-holes right now, that's how much you you'd have to fork out. It might seem like a lot, but as you'll find out, there are a lot of reasons you should consider it.

From the packaging, you might be fooled in to thinking there is not much different about these headphones. They go in your ear, which is standard - earphones that go elsewhere have little or no effect, it seems - and they look like most other pairs of cans we've seen. So what's going on here to justify that asking price?

Clever, very clever

Well, for one thing, it seems that Phonak has thought of just about everything. With most headphones and earphones we've used it's entirely possible to spend ?80 and have them break a few months later. Most smart companies offer some sort of lifetime warranty, but we're inclined to just move on when this happens.

Phonak has a different approach, because these headphones have a replaceable cable. It sounds like such a small thing, but given the only way most headphones fail is through a broken cable, it's just about the smartest idea we've ever seen applied to earphones. Of course, it's not unique, but it's quite rare.

In the box you get a second cable, but it doesn't have the iPod/iPhone inline remote and volume control. You might prefer this if you're an Android or Windows Phone user, or if you have an MP3 player that doesn't do a million and one other things. But if nothing else, it's a good backup if anything does go wrong with the other cable.

This isn't where the clever ends either. Because also supplied in the box are a set of passive filters. These are tiny - really, really tiny - little caps that fit into the very end of the headphones, just before the foam/rubber tips. These clever little things will alter, subtly, the sound you hear.

Quality is what counts

You want to know that your ?400 is going to get you something to blow your mind. And these Audeo 232s really do offer that. In spades.

Headphones generally fall in to two categories. Those which sound good, but do so through altering the sound to give a little boost to bass. A lot of people favour bass-heavy response, so this is a good trick for headphones to pull as it implies quality - although, in fact, this isn't the case. The other aproach, is to give a flat sound, the recreates what was originally put down in the recording studio. The Audeo PFE232, happily, fall in to this camp.

This clarity gives you access to every facet of the track you're listening to. Sound is so clear that you'll notice things that you'd never hear on a set of speakers, or through inferior head- or earphones.

For example, we listened to Oaklahoma Town, by Josh Gabriel and Winter Kills and there is an incredible amount of extra information to take in. Even the crackling, at the end of the track, is more involving and clear than anything we've heard by speakers. It makes for a much less confused sound, and we were sold completely.

To assist with the skill of these earphones, we opted to use the foam tips. These aren't to everyone's taste. They are, however, exquisite at blocking external noise and keeping you and your music in a wonderful bubble. If you do hate them, then some more traditional rubber ends are provided too. These are a little easier to keep clean, and can be washed if they get any ear wax on them.

There's plenty of power here too. The isolation helps with that, but at 75 per cent of the iPod's maximum power we found more than ample, and there was still more than enough power at lower volumes as well.

EQ might be to your taste

The flatness and clarity of these earphones means that they do a minimal amount to change the overall sound you'll hear. The passive acoustic filters will change that, but if you stick with the ones that come fitted, you'll be getting a very clear and flat sound.

On our Nokia Lumia 800, which sounds great but has no EQ, these headphones were a delight. Giving a sound that, despite being flat, wasn't boring or lifeless. There was so much detail in this audio that we nearly jumped for joy.

Hooking it up to an iPod touch, with the EQ set to push a little more low end, they really came alive, delivering what, to us, was the perfect sound. A little enhanced bass, but while still maintaining a level of detail that most headphones would really struggle to provide.

We applaud this though, because it means that you, as a customer, will be able to get the sound that you want. The filters supplied offer another route, should you want to take it, and fitting the black set will give a boost to both the high and low ends.

The price hurts

We adore these earphones. With the right music player - one that you can tweak the EQ slightly - they produce an out of this world sound. They are so clear, undistorted and pleasant to listen to, once we had them in, we never wanted to take them back out again.

But, there's no doubt ?400 is a lot of money. But then there's no doubt that these earphones are the best we've heard, and can compete in terms of clarity, with open backed over-ear headphones that cost twice as much. We've no doubt that your decision to buy will be a difficult one, even people with plenty of money might double-take at the price label.

Verdict:

If you do decide to take the plunge, you will be amazed by these earphones. Their comfort is second-to-none, and the flexibility and longevity offered by the replaceable parts really should mean that these earphones will last you for a very long time indeed.

There are cheaper Audeo headphones out there, so if ?400 is just too much, consider a cheaper pair as you're unlikely to be disappointed.

Tags: Audio Headphones Earphones Phonak Audeo Phonak Audeo PFE 232

Phonak Audeo PFE 232 earphones originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:29:10 +0000

Sonny and Cher. Lennon and McCartney. John and Taupin. Slijngaard and Doth. Just some of the famous musical duos that will be remembered throughout history.

And now, possibly, you can add Gibson and Onkyo to that list after the guitar giant opted to acquire a?majority of Onkyo USA and form a strategic partnership with the audio specialist. The deal will also see Onkyo making an investment in Gibson Guitar Corp. and each company's CEO taking a seat on the opposite one's board.

"This partnership has significant positive implications for Onkyo?as we are always seeking ways of creating new value," said Onkyo CEO and president Munenori Otsuki.

"Gibson is a leading global company?with a massive fan base, best-in-class?products and superior marketing?skills. Coming together in this?way opens the door for amazing opportunities for both companies and, more?importantly, fans of Onkyo and Gibson."

Gibson chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz added: "While people may be listening to?more music, they are listening to it primarily in a severely compressed format. The aural disparity between a real?system and compressed sound is vast, and as a?result, they are simply not?hearing tremendously rich sounds. With Onkyo, our goal is to bring the same exceptional?experience artists demand in the studio to a larger consumer base."

We at Pocket-lint love Onkyo's superb audio kit and we can't wait to see the first fruit of this strategic partnership hit the shops. A Gibson guitar with a built in AV receiver... ridiculous - but yes please.

Tags: Audio Gibson Onkyo Biz Mergers

Gibson and Onkyo form strategic partnership originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:01:00 +0000

If you bought your little prince or princess an iPhone for Christmas and are worried that they are going to blow their little eardrums listening to Justin Bieber on full whack, or walk in front of a bus because they're engulfed in some classic Professor Green then fear no more - because the Etymotic ETY-Kids3 child friendly earphones are here to save the day.

The revamped kid-safe buds have been announced ahead of a CES launch and pack a couple of key pieces of safety tech to keep your little 'uns protected.

The first is a noise-maximising function that allows youngsters to listen to 3 or 4 hours of music a day at full volume without causing hearing damage and with background noise blocking on board to stop them complaining that the sound is too low.

The second function is the Awareness app from Etymotic that listens to the users' surroundings and mixes any noise louder than normal background sounds directly into the earphones, so kids can hear traffic, announcements or any other important sounds.

The 3 in the name represents the three-button control and a mic designed for use with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad - and it's been given the official Apple thumbs up too. There's also a non-3 version without the control and mic.

No word on UK pricing as of yet, but the Etymotic ETY-Kids3 will hit Stateside shops at the end of this month, priced at $79, or $49 without the controls.

Tags: Audio Etymotic Earphones Dad

Etymotic ETY-Kids3 child friendly earphones announced originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:17:00 +0000

The digital music landscape is shifting with the increasing popularity of streaming services such as Spotify but digital download purchases continue to grow.

The digital music boom is highlighted by the 2011 figures which show that digital album purchases increased by 24 per cent year-on-year, with 26.6 million sales. Physical album purchases are still the dominant platform with 86.2 million sales in 2011, but that is a drop of 13 per cent and the two combined represent a decrease of 6 per cent.

And when you consider that digital album sales were just 6.2 million in 2007 - it's a clear indication of a shift in focus.

The digital music age and services such as iTunes have meant that it is no longer necessary to purchase a complete album. Instead, pop-pickers are able to do literally that - pick just the tracks that they want from a collection.

That aspect is made clear by the fact that 98 per cent of the whopping 177.9 million single sales in the UK in 2011 were digital - the fourth year in a row the number has increased. The figure has more than doubled from 2007 when it stood at 86.6 million.

However, the BPI still isn't happy and has once again complained about the ubiquitous piracy options afforded to UK music fans.

"While other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our government is taking too long to act on piracy, while weakening copyright to the benefit of the US tech giants," said Geoff Taylor, the BPI's chief executive.

"The UK has already fallen behind Germany as a music market. Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again - a creative crunch that will destroy jobs."

Back in October, the BPI asked BT to block the The Pirate Bay amid these concerns.

A spokesman for the UK Department for Culture Media and Sport said: "We will continue to work with industry on how they can better tackle online piracy but this is not an issue that ISPs or rights holders alone can deal with".

Read

Tags: Audio Digital music iTunes BPI

Digital music boom can't halt album slide originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:21:20 +0000

Remember, remember the fifth of November? No? Us neither - in fact (possibly due to hitting the Christmas sherry a trifle early) we don't really remember November at all. It's just like a hazy dream.

But, a quick look on Wikipedia tells us that November was the month that voters in?Egypt went to the polls for the first round of voting in?parliamentary elections despite violent protests, a month of flooding in Thailand and a month where Silvio Berlusconi finally resigned as?Prime Minister of Italy?to make way for an emergency government to address the?country's economic crisis.

And, trawling through the Pocket-lint archives shows us that it was also a month that....

Year in Review:

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The Xoom 2 xoomed in

Called the, tricky to say, Droid Xyboard over in the States, we Brits were obviously seemed too dim to be able to comprehend anything more vocally challenging than the Xoom 2. Oh, and the Xoom 2 Media Edition too, of course, the big sequel's little brother. Much less fanfare than the original, the Honeycomb fun landed just in time for the Christmas shoppers. Read More.

Cameron, Obama and pals picked up a naff tablet

We all know that David Cameron likes to chill out with his iPad and that Barack Obama likes to keep it real with a BlackBerry but over in Cannes for the sixth meeting of the G20 heads of government, the only official tech action was on Archos G9 tablets. The 10-inch 101 G9 tablet were given out to "the Heads of State and government members of G20 states, the delegation and the journalists attending the summit". Angry Birds is probably the reason we're still in a global economic mess. Read more.

GTA V got us all excited

Would it be set in fictional California or New York? Would old characters return? Would there be multiple playable characters? All these questions were whizzing through our minds before we saw the official teaser trailer for the fifth Grand Theft Auto instalment. The trailer answered only one of them though, which was a pooper. Looks cool though.? Read more.

Panasonic's Evolta Iron Robot completed the Hawaii Triathlon

The Iron Robot completed the race, inside his 168 hour objective as well. Actually, three robots did - but we're not calling foul play. It took a total of 166 hours and 56 minutes to complete the 230km triathlon challenge. Not exactly world record pace but Evolta is only about 6 inches tall, so give him a break. Read More.

We parked the BlackBerry Porsche phone

RIM is reportedly struggling to shift regular priced BlackBerry smartphones. So why they thought a ?2000 device was needed is anybody's guess. But that’s the amount of pocket money you’ll have to have saved up to afford the BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone, which packs a stainless steel frame hewn from a single block of metal and has a hand-wrapped leather back. Read More.

A kid friendly tablet hit the market

And a budget friendly one to boot. The Karuma PlayBase came wrapped in a shock-absorbent silicone cover to prevent damage from drops and also protects against rain, spills, dirt, scratches and screen marks and packs some pretty nifty tech too, for less than ?170. It won't survive a dip in the bath though, we can assure you of that. Read More.

Apple admitted yet more battery woes

iOS 5 is a serial battery killer. That was the general consensus of fanboys everywhere, and the opinion of Apple too it seemed as the Cupertino collective stated that "a small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices, we have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks." We're still waiting for a decent fix though...Read More.

The Pirate Bay's ship hit choppy waters

"We would not tolerate Counterfeits 'R' Us on the High Street - if we want economic growth, we cannot accept illegal rip-off sites on the internet either," said the CEO of the BPI, Geoff Taylor. "We hope that BT will do the right thing and block The Pirate Bay." It didn't - but later on in the month Google removed multiple file sharing websites from its search engine. Sites like The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, 4Shared and Torrentreactor, along with many others, no long appeared in Google Instant or auto-complete searches. The web, it is a changing. Read More.

Steve Jobs made it as a comic

Comic book hero that is. A book dedicated to the life of the late Apple CEO was released digitally, and was available on Android as well as iOS devices. Steve Jobs: Co-founder of Apple, hit the Comixology Comics application for both operating systems and was a 32-page look at the man's many achievements in biographical form. A graphic novel version of the book was also available, as were Kindle and Nook ebooks. We can't wait for the Robert Rodriguez movie adaptation. Read More.

Google blurred Streetview and Parklife

"I get up when I want, except on Wednesdays when I get rudely awakened by the Google Street View trike." Not an actual lyric from Blur's 90s classic, but we're sure it would have been had Damon Albarn been born 15 years or so later than he was. And that's because the Big G went off-road to bring us its latest Street View escapade - this time into some of the world's green and pleasant lands. That's right, we're talking parks. Six of them in fact, spanning three continents. Read More.

And ushered in a new Gmail

The Big G also had time in November to get the decorators in for a little Gmail spruce up. In came customisable page sizes, new density options, streamlined conversations and access to profile pics. And out went our ability to navigate it without issue. That came back though luckily. Read More.

But couldn't get it all right

One Gmail success story and one major cock-up. After waiting for ages for the Gmail app for iPhone to turn up, it finally arrived on 2 November. Only to be pulled hours later as it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when opening the app. It was back again 16 days later though. Its story has been a real rollercoaster of emotions, with highs and lows; tears and laughter; all culminating in an eventual rebirth - a little bit like a phoenix, but without the crispy bird. Read More.

Netflix set sail for Blighty

At last, after months, nay years, of speculation Video on demand giant Netflix finally confirmed that it was coming to these shores, with a UK service all set for an early 2012 launch. And it's got some big players on board; MGM, ITV, Lionsgate and the BBC amongst others. Lovefilm is on the ropes, we'll see if it comes out punching next year. Read More.

Tegra 3 geared up for quad-core fun

It had been on the cards for month but November was the month when Kal-El finally got real. No, not that Kal-El, but the codename for Nvidia's Tegra 3 chip. The new Nvidia mobile processor features the first quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU designed to bring the maximum level of power and performance to a mobile device, with a fifth companion core for things like video and low power applications. Sound boring? Okay then, how does - beefy power, super graphics and low battery use on your gadgets sound? Good, we know. Read More.

Adobe proved Steve right

It looks as if Steve Jobs was right after all. Remember the open letter that the late Apple CEO penned back in April 2010? Amongst other things Jobs said: "Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers" and that "Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices". In November, Adobe finally agreed. Read More.

Sky celebrated an important birthday

Everyone likes a birthday suit and Sky's HD boxes are no different. To celebrate 10 years of Sky+, the satellite broadcaster commissioned limited edition designs for its 1TB Sky+HD box from 10 different designers, including a saucy Agent Provocateur one. Read More.

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WH Smith tried to take on Amazon

Tried and failed we should say as the Kobo Vox hasn't exactly been met with much love. We all know of the hot Amazon product that it bears similarities too, but that's a Fire that Kobo is clearly not yet ready to burn. Read More.

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Apple took your tunes cloud bound

iTunes Match finally tuned in in the States (it would hit the UK a few weeks later) bringing you a one stop solution to all those dodgy tunes that you pinched from Limewire back in the 90s. The idea is that it checks the songs you have in iTunes and then instantly backs those tracks up in the cloud. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you to listen to anytime, on any iDevice, and Apple says that, with 20 millions songs available, it should have most of what you’ve got. It's proved a bit hit and miss to be honest. Read more.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare smashed records

Step aside Star Wars, take a walk Lord of the Rings and do one Harry Potter - there's only one entertainment franchise that can claim to be the most successful of all time and it's the third Modern Warfare instalment. It shifted an astronomical 6.5 million copies in the UK and the US on launch day alone meaning $400 million in revenue in just 24 hours. Ker-ching indeed. Read More.

Tags: Tablets Phones Videos Features Year in Review Internet Audio Gaming

Year in review 2011: November originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

In the middle of November, Pocket-lint reported on the fact that, due to a faulty battery, Apple promised to replace first generation iPod nanos. However, back then we were of the understanding that the replacement model would also be a first-gen device, only one that worked.

Reader Mike Blackery, though, has informed us that his knackered iPod nano has been replaced with a newer version, and that it is actually a brand new, sixth generation equivalent. Plus, where his old one was 2GB, he is now the owner of an 8GB device:

"If you remember," says Mike. "Apple promised to replace faulty 1st Gen iPods that (might) have a faulty battery. I sent my 2GB iPod back to Apple about 5 weeks ago and was advised by email this morning that the replacement had been despatched yesterday.

"It arrived this morning by UPS," he adds. "And I was shocked to discover that Apple had replaced it with a brand new 8GB Gen 6 iPod nano!"

He doesn't let on whether or not he's pleased with that, but we suspect so. It's certainly more than we would have expected.

Pocket-lint has also sent a faulty first-gen player back to Apple. We'll let you know how we get on... We want a MacBook Air at the very least.

Tags: iPod Apple Audio iPod nano

Knackered 1st Gen iPod nano replaced with brand new model originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:26:36 +0000

It's the end of the year, but before we get too excited about what's to come next, lets take a breather, let those mince pies break down and glance back at 2011.

In the big wide world, June saw the strange death of Jackass's Ryan Dunn and the legend that was Peter Falk but nothing so tragic, fortunately, in the world of technology. So what was going on in Pocket-lint's pages?

Year in Review:

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MacBook thief caught by app

Joshua Kaufman began a blog when his beloved MacBook was stolen from him posting photos of his computer's new owner in all sorts of situations and positions all thanks to an app called Hidden. Eventually Oakland police caught onto the website and managed to catch the criminal. And return the laptop to Joshua too. Read more

It's right here, ray

Sony Ericsson announces the high end but compact Xperia ray smartphone with an 8.1-megapixel camera, Bravia Engine and Reality Display all packed inside a 100g chassis with a 3.3-inch screen. In fact, it turned out so tidy that it made Pocket-lint's best five mobile phones of the year. Read more

Mitsubishi go super-wide

Further proof that East Asia is both completely nuts and yet far in advance of anything we can dream up in the West was once more served up as Mitsubishi Electronics showed of a 16:3 aspect, wall-mounted display for showing off your panoramic shots. Of course. Read more

iPope

"Dear Friends, I just launched?News.Va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI". So read the very first tweet from the Pope on his iPad, no less, to mark the launch of the Vatican's multimedia website. Religion 2.0. Read more

LG mystery phone

While T-Mobile was showing off its wares to come at an event in London, Pocket-lint spied a rather unique looking device that no one ever seemed to get quite to the bottom of. Not seen since, was this an American exclusive? Was it the LG Flip II, the LG Maxx Q, or possibly even the LG Q or LG Optimus Slider? We never found out, but that second touchscreen in the middle of the keyboard was certainly very interesting. Read more

Korea goes future shopping

Tesco in Korea decide to treat locals to a taste of shopping in the 21st century by pasting the walls of the subway with flat representations of supermarket shopping shelves. All customers needed to do was use the QR codes to select which goods they wanted and it was delivered to them just after they got home. Read more

Google takes on Facebook

What started as a fairly innocent redesign in early June 2011 turned out to be the first sparks of a full explosion for Google in what has become the company's take on social networking - Google+. While not everyone was able to access the service until September, Pocket-lint certainly managed to scope the new Facebook rival's pages and at least explain what Google+ actually is?to those that were not privy. Read more

Apple in 'big trouble'

Technology editor at NBC's Today Show Paul Hochman told all those gathered at the?inaugural Forward with Ford Futuring and Trends Conference in Dearborn, USA, that, despite Apple's huge success, that it was in "big trouble" because of its closed system way of operating. Cue much commenting. Read more

Brush with the future

When we went hands-on with the Nokia N9 back in June 2011, little did the world realise that we were looking at the very same slick chassis that would later be boasting Windows Phone 7 rather the MeeGo no-go OS that didn't proved so popular. Read more

Daleks for sale

The online Aladdin's cave of amusements and geekery that is Firebox quite often comes up with some pretty interesting high ticket items for the masses to have a giggle at and for the few to actually buy. All the same, we couldn't fail to be impressed when it began selling full size Daleks for ?3,000. Read more

E3 games show takes place in LA

The gaming world came together in its annual look at what's to come in the shape of top titles, word from the three console giants and a fair few interesting accessories like this blacked out gas mask used to create that little bit more tension when trying to find an underwater monster in the game Deep Sea. Read the story and read more of Pocket-lint's E3 2011 coverage

€4,700 Android phone

That's what Tag Heuer decided to charge for the croc-clad handsets launched in June 2011 - and they didn't even run Gingerbread! Still, at least we could be thankful for the 5-megapixel camera and 3.5-inch screen - oh, and the label, of course. Read more

Fastest printer in the...East?

Printers may not be that exciting but LG and Memjet managed to spice things up a little in June when they created the world's fastest printer that managed to print at half the cost as well as twice the speed of its nearest rival. Read more

Google noodle

Google saluted what would have been the 96th birthday of guitar legend Les Paul by coming up with probably the best Google Doodle since the Pac-man one. The playable guitar logo spawned all sorts of fan versions and videos of people playing well known tunes with everything from the Star Wars theme to the Star Spangled Banner. It's still up there if you want to have a go. Read more

Gillette shaves giant Federer

It's debatable as to whether it was clever but Gillette's June viral campaign was certainly big. Taking one of its sports star personalities, the company decided to manicure a piece of English countryside to look like Roger Federer's face from the air. The next trick was to cover its chin with 1,000 litres of foam and shave it with a mower. Read More

iOS follows suit

Apple turned the tables on the norm at its WWDC event in June 2011 when it announced and detailed the next version of its mobile and tablet software to come later in the year. iOS 5 pleased Android and iPhone users alike by adding touches like the Notifications Center and free chat service iMessage. RIM might not have been too happy. Read more

You know, for kids

LeapFrog showed that all this tablet business didn't have to be for grown ups when it launched both the LeapPad computer slate and a version of the Kindle called the My Own Story Time Pad too. As ever, Pocket-lint was on hand to snap some shot. Read more

Streaming revolution rolls on

Marantz became the latest high end audio brand to embrace digital music when it released two AirPlay compatible, MP3 enhancing AV receivers complete with USB port and an HDMI too. Read more

How Mario was created

The people over at Dorkly.com came up with a much better version of how Mario came into existence in a spoof video they created showing a meeting between the 8-bit Italian and his agent. Given the chance, we'd probably stomp on a turtle too. Read more

Mango Landing

Windows Phone 7 took its second sally to the mobile market in the shape of the fruity sounding update called Mango. We first got our hands-on of the software to be launched later in the Autumn and brought you the details of what those changes would look like nice and early, like.?Read more

Tags: Tablets Phones Videos Features Year in Review Internet Audio Gaming

Year in review 2011: June originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

It's the end of the year, but before we get too excited about what's to come next, lets take a breather, let those mince pies break down and glance back at 2011.

In the big wide world, March saw the tragic events of the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and, worse still, in Japan - the latter of which resulted in the tsunami disaster which saw over 15,000 people lose their lives and a country left with a nuclear disaster to contend with. With the world turned in sympathy and support, technology quietly got on with its business as best it could while our thoughts went out to the factory workers in Japan's northern industrial regions.

Year in Review:

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By Heck!

World famous hack modder Ben Heck showed off his latest piece of home made computer craft and explained how you too can turn your Xbox 360 in to a 1970s Atari 2600. Read more

Queue mayhem

With the launch of the iPad 2 in shops in March, the flagship UK Apple Store in Regents Street was once again the focus of attention with over 300 punters queuing to get their mitts on the latest and greatest from Jobs Inc. A policewoman scratches her head and wonders why they didn't pre-order online. Read more

Fangry Birds

March 2011 was about when Angry Birds fever reach its pitch. We'd already seen cakes, soft toys and more levels and merchandising than you could possibly imagine. Then there were the fan movies with this spoof trailer probably the best of the lot. Is this some sort of game to you? Read more

A laptop, a tablet...a lablet?

Asus took a twist on proceedings by introducing an Android Honeycomb tablet device that comes equipped with a detachable keyboard to offer the best of both worlds for those sitting on the fence between business and pleasure. Pocket-lint went hands-on. Read more

Gadgets at the ready

The mobile technology event in Florida kicked off known as CTIA. Americans found out what tablets and phones they could look forward to in the coming months while Pocket-lint went hands-on with everything from Samsung's assault on the tablet world (as pictured with the 8.9 Tab below) to the next dimension with the HTC Evo 3D. Read our CTIA 2011 coverage

3.141592...

We celebrated Pi Day by taking a look at some of the very first machines specially built to calculate the irrational number to as many decimal places as possible. The ENIAC machine managed to get to over 2,000 digits in 1949 but required an enormous room and 70 hours of work to figure it out. Read more

Still working...

Nokia made it pretty clear that it had no intention of letting go of the developing world market that it had so neatly cornered by announcing the Nokia X1-00 feature phone for just €35 that will last you a whole 61 days on a single charge. Read more

...in a living room far, far away...

Proving once again that fanaticism is far more powerful the the ordinary, earthly boundaries of actual good taste, custom install specialist Acoustic Innovations created a $100,000 Star Wars home cinema set up including a 107-inch cinema screen and actual walking talking models of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Read more

Roads...

Pocket-lint got behind the wheel of the future as we cruised around the Geneva Motor Show 2011. After all the in-car consoles, Wi-Fi solutions and heads-up AR integration, it took a few hours to find just which part of the show floor we'd left our jaw upon.?Read more

Through the lens

At the time only in its conceptual form, Sony showed off its equally confusing and intriguing high end camera technology in the shape of the single lens translucent camera. It was a matter of months before the first models hit the shelves but what seemed a little out there has become something frighteningly impressive in tests. Read more

Spoti-hi-fi

Onkyo and Spotify announced a partnership in March to bring the music streaming service into the living rooms of users everywhere beginning its long grapple to drag itself off the computer. The first Onkyo hardware to carry it was the?Onkyo TX-NR609 AV receiver picture below. Read more

Winning!

Charlie Sheen hit Twitter after his extraordinary TV interview not long after losing his job on the TV show Two and a Half Men. It didn't take much time for people to tune in. The Hollywood bad boy currently boasts nearly 6 million followers today. Read more

Locker shocker

Quite out of the blue, Amazon launched a cloud storage system with free locker space for all. Those lucky enough to live in the States were also treated to the Amazon Cloud Player which allows users to stream their stored music on any computer and any Android device over the Internet. Read more

Spoof Wars

Brit comedy duo Nick Frost and Simon Pegg took a little time off on the set of Paul to appreciate the desert and use their location to shoot a little project of their own. A bicycle helmet here, some gold spray paint there and very quickly they had themselves a remake of a classic scene from Star Wars. Read more

See cheese

Pentax revamped its idea of bringing fascias to compact cameras back in March with the arrival of the Pentax Optio RS1500. The camera comes with a selection of pre-designed clip on covers as well as five sheets for you to make your own. Not too shabby with HD video recording too for just ?89.?Read more

Play Games

The Sony Ericsson Xperia play became the first Android smartphone to offer something significantly different from a run of the mill top handset by adding much needed hard joypad controls to the mobile gaming experience. We went hands on to take a good look at each of the launch titles. Read more

Camping pitch

Import Export Archetecture decided to show off its quite bizarre and certainly unique solution to sleeping alfresco in the city. It was the Pocket-lint news team that decided that the Urban Camping Project would be just the ticket the for next time the Apple Store queues hit. Read more

Nintendo 3DX?

As the games flooded in to use the 3D experience of the Nintendo 3DS, Japanese cos-play model/photography Julie Watai launched a package of her own saucy slides compatible with viewing in the added dimension. A taste of the future, perhaps? Read more

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Red machines in full effect

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Pocket-lint grabbed Liverpool legends Ian Rush and John Barnes for a chat at the launch of Hyundai's Boot Shoot iPhone app. It turned out that Stan Collymore and Phil Babb were the geeks of the group back in the day.?Read more

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SpenceBox

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Professional "extrovert" Louie Spence was on hand in Central London to crown Britain's Got Talent's Kevin Cruise as the Dance Central Spring Dance-off champion. Yeah, we're not sure how this happened either. Read more

Tags: Tablets Apps Phones CTIA2011 Apple iPad 2 Car And GPS Features Year in Review Cameras Videos Audio

Year in review 2011: March originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

It's the end of the year, but before we get too excited about what's to come next, lets take a breather, let those mince pies break down and glance back at 2011.

In the world outside of tech, the Irish were busy taking to the polls for a General Election, football fans everywhere were mourning the retirements of possibly the greatest moustache-wearing right-back of all time, Gary Neville, and North Korea was warning that it would take military action against South Korea...again.

But February 2011 will really only be remembered for one thing.....

Year in Review:

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Google plays its part in Arab Spring

And the Big G was on hand to help out those Egyptian protesters. Egyptian authorities had banned the use of Twitter as the protests against president Hosni Mubarak intensified but Google used the SayNow service to let Egyptians tweet via their phone lines. "We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time," said AbdelKarim Mardini, Google's product manager, Middle East & North Africa. Let's hope it did. Read more

Apple whips up iPad 2 frenzy

The iPad 2 rumour mill actually began life at 10.07am (PST) on 27 January 2010 - exactly one minute after Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPad. So imagine the frenzy of fanboys worldwide when they saw this, the first official confirmation that the second coming was upon us. How we couldn't wait to see the Retina displayed, super sequel to the original unleashed. Oh.... Read More

MWC unleashes the Samsung Galaxy S II

A February round-up wouldn't be complete without tipping our cap in the direction of Barcelona and the Mobile World Congress expo. And undoubtedly, with the benefit of hindsight, the star of the show was Sammy's latest flagship smartphone which went on to sell by the bucket-load (buckets capable of holding millions of smartphones that is). A phone so exciting it literally made Pocket-lint's Dan Sung spew his guts up. Read More

And a rather podgy Galaxy Tab 10.1

But MWC wasn't a complete rip-roaring success for Sammy. Oh no. Despite the fact that the company has expo goers cooing at its latest tablet - the device actually proved to podgy and its 599g weight-load was trimmed to 565g for launch, with 2.3mm of thickness shaved off. We have an inkling that a certain Cupertino based tablet launch may have had something to do with the prompt redesign. Still, it was plane sailing for Samsung with the 10.1 after that..... Read More

The PlayStation phone finally gets its game on

After years of speculation and months of intense rumour mongering the PlayStation phone finally became a reality....kind of. Rather than the PSP-like phone that we were all hoping for, Sony Ericsson actually chucked out a fairly standard Android smartphone with some PlayStation controls botched on. Definitely a let down. Read More

HTC's tablet ambitions get off to a Flyer

Or rather, it didn't. Whilst fandroids across the world getting all hot an flustered with a barrage of Honeycomb flavoured tablet releases, HTC decided to throw out a 7-inch Gingerbread machine, albeit a very HTC Sense-tastic one. And one that came with a pen. Read More

LG banks on 3D for Optimus range

LG went 3D mental at MWC. Aside from launching the LG Optimus 3D, it announced the UK version of the T-Mobile G-Slate - the LG Optimus Pad - which, rather than packing a screen that allowed you to watch 3D without glasses, outputed in anaglyphic 3D. That’s right, whilst the company’s 4.3-inch Optimus 3D smartphone gave you the 3D experience without glasses, the tablet required you to don a pair of blue and red glasses, like people have been doing for over 100 years to get the 3D experience.Read More

The Facebook phone finally dials in....sort of

Like the PlayStation phone, a Facebook handset had long been the material for techno folklore, existing only in our minds. That was, until the INQ Cloud Touch touched down. The Facebook-centric Android phone put to rest a rumour trail as long as Facebook’s reach although Facebook was quick to stamp on any "official" Facebook phone suggestions. Read More

Murdoch tries to prove he's not out of touch

Rupert Murdoch had a funny old 2011 and, in the grand scheme of things, the launch of The Daily; an iPad newspaper, probably won't score too highly on his cock-up-o-meter. But it hasn't exactly been a hit (just a quarter of the subscribers anticipated) and is further proof ($580 million for MySpace, anyone?) that Uncle Rupert is out of touch with the modern media. Read More

Sky crosses the pond for Atlantic action

February was the month when Sky Atlantic hit our screens and we haven't looked back since. We haven't been able to you see, our neck stiffened after sitting through a Sky +ed session of Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men and The Sopranos all in one long week where we didn't get changed out of a dressing gown and ate only Honey Nut Loops straight out of the box (with water, we had no time to buy milk). Read More

Nissan plugs its Leaf into the UK

Electric cars, no longer a novelty item, arrived in Blighty on a cold and wet day in Sunderland when the first shipment of Nissan Leafs for Europe arrived on board the (energy efficient, of course) City of St. Petersburg carrier. We didn't check the weather that day, we just guessed it was cold and wet - this is Sunderland we're talking about here. 27,000 pre-orders worldwide proved the Leaf had gone mainstream. Read More

Microsoft and Nokia, sitting in a tree......

Would it buddy up with Android, would it sell out to RIM or would it just go pop? The answer was none of the above actually as Nokia decided to walk down the Windows Phone path with Microsoft forming a "broad strategic partnership that will use their complementary strengths and expertise to create a new global mobile ecosystem". Indeed. So far the only fruit is the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 and we await the revolution. Read More

But it's not all good news for Windows Phone 7

Bad news followed good as Microsoft had to pull the first Windows Phone 7 update for the Samsung Omnia 7 and Samsung Focus, after users of the new smartphone found the update was buggering up their handsets. Luckily, Microsoft got it all sorted eventually and we all looked forward to a Mango-flavoured future. Read More

HP's big Palm ambitions seem so long ago

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear as the brothers Chuckle would say. What seemed such a significant launch only months ago quickly turned into one of the biggest tech balls-ups in recent memory. HP hasn't killed webOS as such, more like emotionally scarred it so badly that it will probably never recover. What a waste of talent. Read More

iPlayer fun for iPad arrives

Our favourite iThings got all cosy in February, meaning that we could finally catch up on Bargain Hunt without disturbing Mrs Pocket Lint whilst she slept. No 3G fun at launch, which was a bit of an inconvenience for when out and about, but this has since been rectified. Be nice to have a download option on board as well... Read More

Nikon unleashes a barrage of Coolpix cams

Nikon went Coolpix launch crazy with not one, not two, not three....we're bored of that - it was nine. Nine new Coolpix cams all in one hit. It was like a tidal wave of cameras, only smaller and less wet. The highlight of the bunch was the Nikon Coolpix P300, designed to take on the Canon PowerShot S95 although we also liked the price-tag of the L23 compact...just ?50 or so. Read More

MacBook Pros Thunderbolt in new features

Thunderbolt and lightning very, very frightening. At least for our wallet as Apple ushered in the latest generation of its top end notebook line. Packing the new Thunderbolt I/O technology, the 13, 15 and 17-inch models also included a FaceTime webcam for the first time and boosted CPUs. ?999 - ?2.099 mind, so not cheap. Read More

BlackBerry Curve tickled pink for Valentine's Day

Not content with rubbing Apple's nose in it by releasing a couple of white handset variations when Cupertino Computers was struggling to do so, Research in Motion also arrived at the table with another coloured device - a pink version of the BlackBerry Curve 3G that hit the Carphone Warehouse in time for Valentines day. So, if your lady loved a bit of RIM-action then you knew exactly what to get her. And if she wasn't up for that, you could have got her pink BlackBerry Curve 3G instead - boom, boom.

Read More

Pocket-lint pins its hopes on Android

We always knew that Mobile World Congress 2011 was going to be a big year for Android and Google told us that there were, in fact, 86 Androids appearing at the show this year. But wait - we're not talking about phones or tablets, but Android collectable badges! That's right, we got our hands on these limited edition Android pin badges and couldn't help but go "aww". Read More

Tags: Tablets Phones Videos Features Year in Review Internet Audio Gaming

Year in review 2011: February originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

The Klipsch Image S4a are specifically designed for Android devices, which makes them something of a rare breed. "Made for iPhone" has been around for a number of years, but "Made for Android" hasn't. It's only really in 2011 that we've seen the move to accommodate Androider's needs through the likes of the Philips Fidelio AS851.

The Klipsch Image line does also cover those Apple products, as well as generic PC uses, coming from a line of headphones that are no stranger to quality, so we have high expectations. But will these meet the demands of the discerning Android user?

Design

The Klipsch Image S4a are designed with a bend in the body. This means the in-ear element is slightly angled from the body of the headphones. Although we've seen more substantial cable connections on headphones, the s4As feel solid enough. The bodies are light but feel like they will withstand a certain amount of abuse.

The earphones can be worn in two ways, either conventionally by plugging straight into the ear, or with the cable looped over the top of your ears. The latter route fits the angled design of the monitors, so they fit into the recess of your outer ear, rather than projecting forwards.

Looping the cables over your ears also means increased stability and this is suggested as "sport fit". There is a slider on the cable that can be used to reduce cable movement and keep everything in place. However this may not be the most practical, as the in-line mic and controller is then held tight against your neck and isn't as easy to get to.

You get a range of different tips in the box, special oval tips designed to increase comfort over long periods, which should help you get the perfect fit for your lugholes.

Don't worry, be Appy

There is a control button on the Klipsch Image S4a, which uses a series of presses for different actions. This isn't all natively supported by Android, however, so to unlock the full potential of these headphones you'll have to download an app. Inside the packaging you'll find a QR code.

Strangely this QR code doesn't take you to the app it's asking you to download, but to the Klipsch website, so it's not really worth the effort. However, searching for Klipsch on the Android Market works fine.

This app then enables the button controls, and lets you customise various features. You can have a default music app that launches when you connect your headphones, you can set what a double press does and so on, as well as defining the speed of a double press. This is well worth doing, as initially the double press wasn't detected for us - lightening fast, you see. Conveniently there is a "custom" setting that will detect the speed and set the app accordingly.

After that, things work as they should. You simply use the headphones and everything works. Should you decide not to use the app, you'll find that you probably only get play/pause functions, but essentially, the headphones work perfectly well with other devices. Should you also happen to have an Apple device, you'll find the single button works as it should, but obviously there are no volume controls.

Despite the lack of proper volume controls, volume can be changed on your Android device with a long press of the button. This cycles through different volumes, so whilst it isn't as direct as simply pressing a button to step up or down a notch, the end result is more or less the same in an round-about sort of way. The Klipsch app also lets you define maximum and minimum volumes, as well as the starting volume, so you'll never find yourself deafened.

Sweet beats

If you've never used oval tips before you might find them a little unusual, but we didn't have a problem fitting or wearing them. They were comfortable, although at times we had to give them a wiggle as they felt they were a little too deep into our ears. They did an excellent job of isolating external noise however, which is the more important point.

That sets up the Klipsch S4a to a great start, leading onto great all round performance. Klipsch have something of a reputation for great headphones and that's true of the S4a too. Bass is handled with skill, making these a good choice if you enjoy a lively low range. But this isn't to the detriment of mid and high range. It's a sound profile that we like very much. They perhaps aren't the most accomplished of in-ear headphones when it comes to clarity, but they leave us little to complain about.

The volumes they will produce is certainly louder than we'd ever want to listen to, so we're grateful the app can be used to set a limit. They're also more affordable than some at ?89, which sounds like a sweet deal.

Verdict:

Good performance and an app that really helps, the Klipsch Image S4a are a set of headphones that will do your Android device proud, whilst not sacrificing compatibility with other devices.

That said, we did note that they didn't work properly on the Samsung Galaxy S – something we've experienced before and something worth checking before you part with your cash.

The lack of a proper volume control is also a bit of an irritation in reality. Although the single button press gets you where you want to be, having used the S4a for about a month, we're left wishing for a regular volume rocker.

Definitely worthy of consideration if your music device of choice is Android-powered.

Tags: Audio Headphones Klipsch Klipsch Image S4A Android

Klipsch Image S4A originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Pocket-lint has teamed up with Sonos to bring you the chance of winning a Sonos PLAY:3 wireless HiFi as part of our Pocket-lint Xmas Spectacular.?

The Sonos wireless HiFi system that includes one Sonos PLAY:3 and one BRIDGE. The Sonos PLAY:3 was recently named ‘Best Home Entertainment Device’ in the 2011?Pocket-lint Gadget Awards.

The Sonos PLAY:3 is a compact, all-in-one player with Sonos HiFi sound. It offers an easy way to listen to and stream all the music on earth to all corners of your home. Whether from your iTunes collection or popular music services such as Spotify and Napster, there is something for everyone. The system can be controlled with free Sonos Controller Apps for Android (phone or tablet), iPhone, iPad or PC.

The prize will also include a Sonos BRIDGE so the winner can enjoy the PLAY:3 in a different room to their router- or can easily connect up other Sonos players to use at once.

All you have to do is follow Pocket-lint (@Pocketlint) and Sonos (@Sonos) on Twitter and then retweet this or any story with the hashtag #plxmas. The competition will last just 24 hours after which a winner will be drawn on 21 December at 11am. The winner will be announced on Twitter.

So what are you waiting for? By this time tomorrow you could be the proud owner a new Sonos music system.

This competition is now closed.

Congratulations to?@TheHenryFrancis on winning the Sonos system!

Tags: Audio Sonos Sonos Play 3 Competitions Pocket-lint

The Pocket-lint Xmas Spectacular - Day 16: Win a Sonos Play:3 and Bridge originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

MP3 players are great but, on a long winter’s night, it’s hard to beat a proper hi-fi. Good hi-fi systems cost money, people. They always have, and a ?50 iPod dock just won’t cut the mustard in comparison. Naturally, there’s plenty to choose from out there, so to guide you along the way we’ve come up with what we feel are the best hi-fi systems that money can buy and something to suit almost every occasion.

To keep things real, we’ve glossed over anything beyond ?3,000 and tried to remain in the realms of the affordable. Some require separate speakers - a bonus if you already have a decent pair - some come built-in but all offer the kind of audio experience to bring serious sonics to the cast-off convenience of the iPod generation. Oh, and beard-scratchers beware. We will be talking wireless streaming.

BEST FOR MULTI-ROOM

Sonos Play:3 (?260)

Using your smartphone to create playlists from your PC or Mac to then spray around different rooms in your house is exciting enough, but the Sonos Play:3 all-in-one music player has more than multi-room to offer. Able to use either an iPhone, iPad or Android-based smartphone or tablet (running 2.2 or higher, such as the HTC Flyer, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Sony Tablet S), the Play:3 can be controlled using the Sonos Controller app that’s itself a thing of beauty. Gorgeously designed and quick to swipe around, it’s able to fetch tracks from Spotify, Last.fm and any radio station broadcasting on the web as well as your own iTunes library.

Recent updates have added AAC+ codec support as well as access to your Spotify Inbox.?Available in black or white and strapped with three integrated speakers and three digital amps, the Play:3 is, in some ways, a step backwards from the meatier ZonePlayer S5, but its much cheaper price suddenly opens the Sonos concept to more of us.

Happily, set-up retains simple - just connect each Play:3 to the web via a broadband router and download the app. The only snags are that at least two Play:3s are needed for multi-room (though the Sonos app experience alone makes a single Play:3 worth considering), while a Spotify subscription is going to be hard to resist.

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BEST FOR VALUE

Onkyo CS-545UK (?299)

If you're after a basic hi-fi with a nod to the digital world, Onkyo’s rather retro micro system might be for you. With DAB, FM and AM tuners built-in, the CS-545UK stays old school with a CD tray but goes wildly modern with an iPhone dock (a separate, wired affair), USB slot for playing MP3 files and - rare additions indeed - both a composite video output and a subwoofer link.

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There are no apps or AirPlay and the steadfastly 1970s-style remote control and small LCD screen can be a tad irritating if you're trawling through either a USB stick rammed full of files or an iPhone’s internal menus. You end up having to be sitting pretty close to the CS-545UK to see what's going on. But, with acceptable quality sound that’s helped by a Super Bass button, this makes for a great compromise option that falls just below the Marantz Melody Media if a traditional hi-fi design is what you're after. A package including speakers costs around ?100 extra.

BEST FOR LOSSLESS MUSIC

Cambridge Audio Sonata NP30 (?400)

Not only a network music player but also the only lossless music streamer with 24-bit support, the Cambridge Audio Sonata NP30 is one for the audiophile of the future. It?can stream lossless files in full 24-bit/96kHz studio quality, which are most typically offered in the FLAC or WAV formats, and on Cambridge Audio’s innovative UuVol service. An attempt to club online music services together, UuVol is a hub for 20,000 radio stations, Aupeo, Live365, MP3Tunes and BBC iPlayer Radio as well as music stored on a UPnP-compatible networked device in a home, such as a Mac, a PC and NAS drives.

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Of course, there’s a UuVol app for that which does away with the need for scrolling through loads on information on the NP30’s tiny LCD screen. Unfortunately, the app only works on an iPhone and iPad.
There’s no CD player or DAB radio included in the NP30 - see elsewhere in the brand’s Sonata range for separate units - and speakers must also be added, but the NP30 makes for a great first step into high quality hi-fi with a thoroughly modern bent.

BEST FOR APPLE AIRPLAY

Marantz M-CR603 Melody Media (?449)

Owners of Android smartphones, look away now. The Japanese audio wizards at Marantz have created something of a first - a traditionally designed, compact hi-fi with networking and Apple AirPlay.?We may have recently witnessed the first Android docks from Philips, but how about lossless audio streaming from an iDevice? Now that’s what makes a truly modern hi-fi, though there’s plenty more going on behind the scenes on the aptly-named Melody Media.

Equipped with an Ethernet LAN port for networking duties, the Melody Media can stream from both a PC or Mac (it uses the DLNA networking protocol) as well as from NAS drives, Napster and Last.fm and also builds-in FM/AM/DAB tuners and a CD player.?The unit comes alone, so a couple of decent speakers will have to be sought out, but once that’s done the audio quality from good sources is simply awesome. Its digital amlifier also proves adept with lower quality streamed tunes.

BEST FOR BEDSIDE TABLES

Vita Audio R4i (?549.99)

More a music machine than the luxury DAB products the British brand is known for, Vita Audio’s white or walnut R4i offers a deep hi-fi experience.?Measuring 255mm back to front, it's the cabinet’s meaty size that ends up its major attraction. Whopping bass is the result - something that can't be said for most tabletop products be they DAB radios or otherwise.

Forget streaming. The R4i is all about iPhone. There’s a dock on its top beside the confusing-at-first RotoDial control knob (which is detachable should you want a remote control) and it will charge while playing, but inside are also FM/DAB/DAB+ radio tuners. While it's the subtly-designed CD player in its front that lend it hi-fi credentials, it’s the R4i’s 80W amplifier that give it real audiophile appeal. There’s also a USB slot for playing MP3s from a memory stick,

BEST FOR LARGE KITCHENS

Meridian Audio M80 (?900)

Here’s a high-end choice with something extra, and we’re not talking about its unusual elliptical design. Hidden inside British audio brand Meridian Audio’s M80 flagship tabletop music player is a disc tray that plays not only CD but also DVD. Considering the price, some might say it should play 3D Blu-ray too but, while the M80 can’t be described as good value, it's brilliant at what it does.

Achieving 80W of power and some delicious low frequency sound, the M80 is perhaps the ultimate in build quality and sound at this size, and despite it not indulging in streaming or much else in the way of digital trickery (besides a DAB radio and an optional i80 iPhone dock), its subwoofer-powered sound quality is hard to resist.

Tags: Audio Hi-Fi Features Marantz Sonos Sonos Play 3 Onkyo Onkyo CS-545UK Cambridge Audio Cambridge Audio Sonata NP30 Marantz Melody Media Vita Audio Vita Audio R4i Meridian Audio Meridian M80

Best compact Hi-Fi systems originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:51:00 +0000

Pocket-lint has teamed up with Libratone?to bring you the chance to win a Libratone Live Airplay wireless speaker as part of our fantastic Pocket-lint Xmas Spectacular.

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift with a difference, look no further as Libratone brings you the Libratone Live, an Apple Airplay wireless speaker.? Scandinavian designed and covered in the finest and softest Italian cashmere, the Libratone Live is a high-end wireless speaker, a perfect way to add ambience to a games room or living room and small enough to blend in, yet power enough to fill the entire room with sound.? Libratone Live is a versatile and powerful Airplay?sound system for iOS devices and computers.

With the liberation of sound having always been Libratone’s mantra, the newest member of their product family offers full AirPlay?support, allowing audio to flow freely, without wires or a loss of sound quality.? The inclusion of AirPlay technology in Libratone Live is supplemented by high-end audio components usually seen in much more expensive units.

An output of up to 150W makes Libratone Live a powerful sound source. The five dedicated amplifiers and advanced digital signal processing capabilities gives users precise bass and crystal clear treble. Additionally, the patented FullRoom-technology provides the listener with a room-filling soundscape with the tweeters and midrange drivers dispersing 360 degree sound which makes Libratone Live play like an acoustic instrument.

All you have to do is follow Pocket-lint (@Pocketlint) and Libratone?(@Libratone) on Twitter and then retweet this or?any story?with the hashtag?#plxmas. The competition will last just 24 hours after which a winner will be drawn 20 December at 11am. The winner will be announced on Twitter.

So what are you waiting for? By this time tomorrow you could be the proud owner a new Libratone Live Airplay wireless speaker.

This competition has now closed.

Congratulations to @CallumCollie on winning the Libratone Live!

Tags: Audio Competitions Pocket-lint Libratone iPod speakers

The Pocket-lint Xmas Spectacular - Day 14: Win a Libratone Live speaker originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Spotify has come bearing gifts in time for Christmas - free Spotify Premium accounts for one and all. Well, free for 30 days at least.

The music streaming giant is offering a month's worth of its pay service for anyone who fancies some ad-free music action and has stated that, just like the real thing, it will work across multiple devices.

So, if you're in charge of the office party's Christmas playlist, or you fancy rocking out to some of your favourite tunes come New Year's Eve, then now looks like the perfect time to take Spotify Premium for a quick spin.

It's been an incredibly hectic 2011 for Spotify. It is a year that has seen the company get friendly with Facebook, the long awaited US launch, the revelation of Spotify apps as well as a revamp, all-new Spotify Radio.

Sign up for you free trial now over at spotify.com/uk/freetrial.

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Tags: Online Audio Streaming Spotify

Spotify Premium free trial lands in time for Christmas originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:30:57 +0000

Bayan Audio, a division of Radiopaq, has announced the Bayan 7 - a high end iPod docking system that it hopes will rival the likes of the B&W Zeppelin, the Arcam rCube and the Bose SoundDock 10 in the audiophile iDevice speaker arena.

Looks-wise, we've a feeling that the Bayan 7 will be a bit like a techy Marmite. Its quirky design, with dual docks, may appeal to some - but we're well aware that it may strike horror into some design purists.

What you can't argue with is the spec sheet though, and the attention to detail. It has a 120W power output through its twin amplifiers, a 5-way 2.1 channel stereo speaker setup, an 8-inch subwoofer for deep bass control, a 2-inch mid-range and 1-inch tweeters. Its frequency range is 30Hz - 47kHz.

The engine room is all housed within a 12mm solid wood casing for better clarity and less distortion and you can switch from one dock to the other at a touch of the svelte looking remote control. There's also an aux-in around the back, and USB-in too, although sadly no wireless option as of yet.

Pocket-lint was given a demo of the iOS friendly dock, comparing it to some of its competitors and we have to say that we were blown away by its quality. Although we'll reserve our complete judgement until we've given it a comprehensive going over. So keep your eyes peeled to the site for a full review some time soon.

Available from 15 December direct from Bayan Audio, the Bayan 7 will cost you ?299.

Tags: Audio Bayan Audio Bayan 7 Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin Arcam rCube

Bayan 7 turns up the volume to rival B&W and the gang originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:12:00 +0000

Klipsch has introduced noise cancellation into its headphone range for the first time, with the super stylish Mode M40 cans. And, it has included an in-line microphone and volume controls for iPhone, iPod and iPad users.

The 'phones are made of the same durable material used in high-end eyewear and come with a cloth covered cable, more often seen on home hi-fi gear. The ear cups are made of leather, and the active noise cancellation system employed can run for up to 45 hours on a single battery.

Unlike some other headphones, such as the Beats by Dr Dre Studio, the Mode M40 also work, even when there is no power for the ANC, albeit with no cancellation effect. This is important for those on long flights who have no access to spare batteries.

Each earpiece includes a 40mm woofer with active crossover, while a 15mm tweeter provides clarity for high frequencies. Frequency response, therefore, is?20Hz - 20kHz.

Input impedance (@ 1kHz) is 32ohms, while sensitivity?(@ 1mW, 15mm) is 97.5dB. The whole shebang weighs just 356g.

Compatibility for the three-button in-line mic is wide-ranging across iDevices, including iPod nano (from 4th generation), iPod touch (from 2nd generation), iPhone 3GS and 4, and both iPads. Do note that the iPhone 4S is not currently listed as being supported, but we've been reliably informed that it does work. We've tested a few rival microphones on the 4S, and rather than answer calls, they access Siri, so this comes as great news.

The Klipsch Mode M40 headphones are available for ?299.99 from www.klipsch.com, Amazon and individual stockists. Check the company's website for more details.

Tags: Klipsch Headphones Klipsch Mode M40 Audio

Klipsch Mode M40 noise cancelling headphones: Take to the skies in style originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:26:37 +0000