DealWithTech

Looking for a new pair of earbuds?  Look further.  The PineApple Electronics Vibrating Earbuds have to be the most dull earbuds I have ever had the discrete pleasure of listening to.

Their whole gimmick is that they vibrate in your ears to the music.  In theory,  it “sounds” like a great idea, but in reality they make a mockery of sound reproduction with their muddy as all hell bass and almost non existent treble and mid range.

They actually look really nice and are fairly lightweight.  They also boast a 100% waterproof feature because they don’t have any earholes.  They use the new fangled “Bone Conduction” technology to deliver the sound and it sh(bl)ows.  I have reviewed bone conduction underwater earphones before and the sound really suffered because of it.  I understand the reason for incorporating this tech into something that is designed to work underwater, but for something like this, which doesn’t need bone conduction for proper sound, I just don’t get it.

The buds are easily marked and come with three different sized inserts.  The cord is split and is really too long for its own good.  With no clip it tends to hang all over the place and gets in the way of trying to do anything active.

The main problem with the vibrating feature is that they pretty much vibrate out of your ears.  They are also really ticklish and make you feel like there is something itching at your inner ear.  Every once in a while I enjoyed the vibrating bass, but it was really more annoying than anything.

The sound was really hard to find anything positive about and it really seems as though the designers just dialed out the treble and mid range and cranked the bass without really paying attention to the specifics.  All my MP3’s sounded drab and uninspired and I was really disappointed in they way these earbuds performed.

If there was some way to tighten up the sound and make the earbuds stay stable in your ears then I’ll have some thing different to say about these.  I’m giving them one star because they do what they say they do, vibrate.  You’ve been warned.

Pros:

• They vibrate
• Lightweight

Cons:

• Downright bad sound
• They vibrate out of your ears
• Overpriced
• Cord is way too long

Buy the Rumble K Earphones for $80 here!Similar Posts:

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Cresyn C750E In-Ear Stereo Earphones Review;

Maximo iM-590 Earphones Review;

Neil Poulton is known for some jaw dropping industrial design, so when they once again teamed up with Lacie to bring us the Sound² Speakers I was more than pleased with outcome, aesthetically speaking of course. But, as they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover.  So do the LaCie Sound² Speakers live up to all their meant to be?

Place these speakers next to any computer or on any desktop and you’ll sure to adhere some European cache.  Aesthetically the rounded speaker design complemented my desktop’s rather square facade – square desk, square monitor, square laptop – you get the point. The bottom of the speakers are fitted with two rubber feet to prevent them from rolling around. One small jostle though and they tend to overcome their rubber threshold and go into a roll; I almost dropped mine onto my floor a few times.

On the back of the control speaker – the one with the amp – there is a volume knob that reminds me of a truck driver’s steering wheel or a salad spinner. Turn on the speakers and a hidden LED emits a blue hue from inside. The range of the turning circle of the volume knob is pretty short as are the speaker’s amplitude, but more on that later.

Since the LaCie Sound² Speakers lack a sub, one speakers plugs into the other and the master speaker plugs into the computer or MP3 player. As for inputs you’ve got your choice of 3.5mm headphone jack (they’ve included a cord) or USB. While the 3.5mm headphone jack is a nice option for iPhone’s and player’s alike, using the USB port produced more normalized audio that didn’t distort as much and sounded more balanced overall. If you so opt you can power the LaCie Sound² Speakers off the USB plug alone, but adding the external AC adapter results in much more power (i.e. volume).

And this is where the review goes a bit south. The LaCie Sound² Speakers lack significant amplitude. Sure there only 30 watts, but I’ve used other 30 watt speakers before and they were louder and sounded better. At high volumes the the Sound² speakers tend to distort and lack the bass and fidelity for any music genre. At lower volumes, though, they’re relatively dynamic and can probably best be described or suited for those in an office environment – you know, where you can’t crank your tunes.

Oh and another thing: the AC plug is short, like awkward short. Anyone who has plans to place these on a desktop will have to strategically place them close to an AC outlet. While I appreciate the built in USB plug, a removable version would be nice to help me declutter my already rats nest of a desktop.

At $100 I can hardly recommend the LaCie Sound² Speakers as a resolve to your desktop audio needs. Aesthetically they score some big points but at the end of the day they’re all looks and no brawn.

Pros:

• Cool design
• Volume knob doubles as a cord spindle

Cons:

• Just ok sound quality
• Poor frequency range – no bass
• Tend to roll off the table if slightly jostled

You can grab them from here for $83 before shipping.

Either April fools has come early or I drank my fair share of snake oil this Halloween, because the WOS (Wall Of Sound) Speaker is one bad ass looking iPod speaker dock system.   Stuffed inside this 102 kilo (225lbs) behemoth are 28 elements (I guess that includes the speakers as well) and a tube amp for pitch perfect sound.  It measure 3′ x 4′ x 1′ (HxWxD) and boasts a 40hz to 20,000khz (I think they mean 20,000hz)  frequency response.

The first iteration has sold out, but you can plunk down $4,495 to get in line for the next build.

[via Cultofmac]

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On to some not so exciting news.  JVC kicked out a new entry level Blu-ray player today, the JVC XV-BP11.  For $200 you get HD playback, AVCHD compatibility (what some HD camcorders record in) and a USB input.  Yup, far from exciting, but hey, it’s entry level.

JVC XV-BP11 Features

• Playable Discs: BD-Rom, BD-R/RE, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Audio CD, CD-R/RW
• Playable Formats: AVCHD, WMV, JPEG, MP3, WMA, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital plus, Dolby True HD, DTS, DTS HD Master Audio/Essential
• Connections:
  • Video: HDMI V1.3, composite
  • Audio: Analog L/R, coaxial, HDMI V1.3
  • USB Host (front panel)
• Convenience Features: Quick loading, cinema zoom (x16), parental lock, slim design

JVC Announces Popularly-Priced Blu-ray Player

New XV-BP11 player offers AVCHD file playback.

WAYNE, NJ, October 28, 2009 – JVC today announced the availability of a new entry-level Blu-ray player. The new JVC XV-BP11 is a truly versatile high definition player, offering playback of high definition Blu-ray discs, plus playback of the AVCHD format, the high definition format widely used for HD camcorders, including the JVC HD Everio line.

JVC XV-BP11 Features
Playable Discs: BD-Rom, BD-R/RE, DVD-Video, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Audio CD, CD-R/RW
Playable Formats: AVCHD, WMV, JPEG, MP3, WMA, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital plus, Dolby True HD, DTS, DTS HD Master Audio/Essential
Connections:
o    Video: HDMI V1.3, composite
o    Audio: Analog L/R, coaxial, HDMI V1.3
o    USB Host (front panel)
Convenience Features: Quick loading, cinema zoom (x16), parental lock, slim design

The new JVC XV-BP11 Blu-ray player is available immediately for $199.95.

Still trying to figure out how to make your iPhone a tad greener and all the while not cluttering up your desktop?  The Regen’s Renu solar panel is a modular system that charges on its own and when the time comes, can be placed in one of their two docks to charge up the iPhone.  That means you don’t have to expose your iPhone to direct sunlight, potentially harming the phone’s fragile components.

Renu currently offers an iPod dock, which just does the usual or you can opt for the more expensive but heavier featured Sound Dock, which includes a set of speakers and a slot for Regen’s Renu solar panel, providing up to 8 hours of sound or power to your iProduct of choice. The Renu solar panel takes about 3.7 hours to charge in direct sunlight outside and 7.3 hours of ‘direct sunlight indoors’.

Regen’s iPod Dock and Renu Solar Panel will ship next February for $249, while the Sound Dock will ship April 2010 for $149 (that price doesn’t include the $199 Renu Solar Panel).

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Amazon has the Creative Labs 70SB072000000 Xmod USB Sound Card for PC & Mac for $20 + $5 S&H = $25 shipped! This little USB plug turns your music into a concert hall, or should I say it makes it sound like a concert hall and then some.

Amazon has the Creative Labs 70SB072000000 Xmod USB Sound Card for PC & Mac for $20 + $5 S&H = $25 shipped! This little USB plug turns your music into a concert hall, or should I say it makes it sound like a concert hall and then some.

Dr. Dre’s attempt to reconstruct the “entire digital music ecosystem” has me thinking about the discerning group of consumers that drink sound in like a connoisseur with a fine wine. In other words, audiophiles .

Read the whole story on Gizmodo

Twitter, Facebook, and LiveJournal have all been experiencing outages (Twitter) and slow-downs (Facebook and LiveJournal) all morning according to the New York Times (and, well, our own experience along with countless other sites and users around the internet). From the sound of things, it appears to have been a DDoS attack (those seem to be going around lately ), but it only serves to highlight the risks of cloud computing we’ve mentioned in the past

Read the whole story on Lifehacker

Following the trend of pretty much every other audio company, Bose’s SoundLink is their first wireless streaming speaker. But oddly enough, instead of using Bluetooth or wi-fi, Bose opted to go with an RF USB dongle for data transfer. The $550 speaker can transmit through rooms and walls (obviously), comes with a 3.5mm auxiliary jack and has a rechargable battery that lasts 3 hours

Read the whole story on Gizmodo