B&W MM-1's

B&W is an old-school speaker manufacturer, and they've applied the same skills and history to computer speakers - the MM-1's.

 

These have been extensively reviewed, so here are the salient points;

 

• externally powered
• USB sound input (which utilises the on-board DSP)
• cabled output in case you want to run headphones
• a remote control (which integrates into iTunes)

 

They are phenomenally clear, with powerful bass which is amazing given the lack of a satellite sub-woofer. They're also attractive and fit in well if you're running any Mac.

 

A good purchase indeed.

Klipsch Image Audio X10i in-ear headphones

In-ear headphones are great; they're discrete, sound is generally good because its right there (no dispersion loss), and your skull is an awesome natural amplifier. Problem is, there are so many different varieties out there, its hard to tell which ones are decent.

 

I had a pair of Sennheiser CX-300's for a long time, and they were awesome. I had an opportunity to try something different, and ordered a pair of Klipsch's. These headphones are bar none the best in-ear headphones I've tried. They're ridiculously priced, but the audio quality is unparalleled. The controls on the cable are also very convenient, esp. when you can't reach your device to control pause, increase volume, etc.

 

Due to their design, they do attract quite a bit of gunk quite quickly (ew), but they include a fancy paper clip to clean them, so guess I'm not the only one.

 

Highly recommended!

 

PS. The provided case, while very pretty, isn't very durable and certainly won't last in a backpack filled with other stuff.

Sennheiser RS-180 wireless headphones

I'm a little fussy about the headphones I use; I've always been a fan of Sennheiser, and bought my first pair of over-ears from them - the PX200's. Besides for coming with the most ridiculous case, they are pretty good, and currently serve use as the resident bedside headphones.

 

They're light, relatively inexpensive and let enough noise in without affecting audio quality - useful for night-time listening. I had a pair of canal-ear style CX300's (excellent value for money) and CX400's (not worth the price difference and far too short a cable), but needed something for the office (see here for the current portable cans). I bought a pair of HD515's, but found the cord a real PITA on a desk; wires everywhere, too long, too short, etc, etc.

 

So I bought a pair of RS-180's for use at home; its sat on the shelf for a year, but the cord hassles at work forced me to try this out; I am truly amazed! These headphones are not only comfortable and attractive, but the cradle looks like a piece of art, and thanks to the Kleer technology in use, audio reproduction and quality is amazing.

 

Range is pretty good too; I can go for about 50m line of sight before encountering artifacts. Highly recommended!

 

PS. Price wise, they're outrageous. But so are good hearing aids ;-)

Android Market now available in SA!

One of my longest standing gripes with Google is the lack of availability in South Africa of paid market-apps! An announcement was made that clarifies that; the full Android market is coming to SA.

 

Brilliant news, and about bloody time!

Xoom running Honeycomb 3.1

I've managed to hack Honeycomb 3.1 onto the Motorola Xoom I am evaluating. The highlights that are outlined are all implemented, and to summarise;

• its faster
• screen transitions are smoother
• Adobe Flash seems to have less impact on the device
• Stock system widgets are now resizeable - duh!
• Most importantly, the e-mail client now actually deletes mail from IMAP servers

 

Its an incremental upgrade and should have been called 3.02. But hey, marketing.

Motorola Xoom review

There are notoriously few decent Android tablets around, and the first tablet-

optimised version called Honeycomb, running on the Motorola Xoom, was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011.

 

I lusted after it immediately, but actual release was only in April 2011. To make matters more complicated, the tablet was launched in partnership with Verizon, which meant a US-centric launch plan. I managed to acquire one, and have spent two weeks with it. I also ordered the Portfolio case, an official accessory.

 

Pro's for the Xoom;

• It doesn't run iOS
• It can multi-task
• It runs a tablet-specific operating system
• Its CPU is dual-core
• It can run for 8 hours continuously

 

Con's however outweigh the pro's;

• There are so few Honeycomb-optimised apps that its not worth buying specifically
• The official case will damage the device over time, and forces you to have it open when charging
• The power button is at the back - very silly place for a power button
• The few apps that do exist require you to be in the US to buy them - pretty useless if you don't live in the US or UK
• Its heavy
• Its expensive

 

Its disappointing, but on the weight of the device (literally) and the lack of optimised applications, I'd have to say that Google missed several really good tricks here. The software is severely buggy (e.g. the e-mail client can't delete mail from an IMAP server), and the lack of a decent app ecosystem makes this a dead duck.

 

In comparison to an Apple iPad (the original), the decision to go with this device was marginal; with the iPad2, you'd have to be an idiot.

Assertion: Most iOS apps exist to work around shit browsing

So I've got an iPod touch. And had an iPhone 1G (which sucked), a 3G (which sucked), a 3GS (which sucked a little bit less) and a 4 (which sucked the most because of the rubbish signal and battery life).

 

I also borrowed and used an iPad for about a month, as a laptop replacement. I therefore feel adequately exposed to comment on them. What I learned from all these devices that in spite of the gazillion apps that are in the Apple Store, most of them are simply to work around and/or circumvent the frankly shit browsing experience and/or lack of Adobe Flash that exists on these devices, and none of them multi-task properly.

 

I regularly see my colleagues and family showing me apps that frankly only exist to work around functionality that should exist with a proper ecosystem. And the app update process is simply a nightmare, if you mix/match store accounts.

 

Is it just me, or is that simply disingenuous ?