Bang & Olufsen’s Beolab 14

A beautifully designed HiFi audio kit that integrates into a multi-brand home entertainment setup

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All media – all the time

 

ARCHOS-704-WiFi-frontPersonal Media Players (PMPs) are a product niche that continues to struggle to find an audience because of their compromises between portability, versatility, capacity and screen size. The Archos 704 WiFi is the first device that may become the standard that others must emulate.Sleek and elegant yet purposeful with its brushed stainless steel cladding, flush but exposed screws, perforated speaker grills and deeply embossed lettering, it would look at home in the space shuttle flight deck. Archos’ decision to eschew most controls in favor of the gorgeous seven inch, 800 x 480 pixel touch screen enhances the machined feel of the device. Power up and fifteen seconds later you are playing videos, music and viewing photos stored in its 80GB hard drive. If this was all it did, it would be just a me-too PMP, however, this device has been anointed with WiFi so you can browse the web, wirelessly play media from your networked computers and even serve as a media server. Continue reading

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Broadband anywhere

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Whenever I am out of reach of a broadband Internet connection, withdrawal quickly sets in and lack of access to Google feels like I had part of my brain surgically removed. This is usually a problem on vacations, especially at my summer home. Having to live with a dial up connection is hard enough, having to share the phone line with all the laptop toting workaholic houseguests can make for an explosive situation. Fortunately, the relentless march of progress has given us cellular data service at broadband speeds, and the clever folks at Kyocera have figured out a way to share it out so I don’t have to fight for the phone line.

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Throwie – Electronic grafitti art


Graffiti art is ascendant, buoyed and legitimized by years of insinuation into the mainstream and six figure auction sales.  As with all things modern, even this most primitive of art forms – kids with spray cans and illegal access to brick walls started this whole thing – is now being aided by technology. Based in New York City, the Graffiti Research Lab’s mission statement is: “Dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source technologies for urban communication”. One of their most popular and populist projects to date has been the development of the LED Throwie, known also as the QTD (kew-tee-dee, get it?). Continue reading

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Text text talk

switch_back.jpgPay-as-you-go cell phones have usually been the most basic, bottom of the range handsets that you can get, out of style and devoid of features. As mobile phone providers ooze into every nook and cranny of the market, a couple of carriers dedicated to the pay as you go model are bucking the trend by adding high-style phones and high end features. The Kyocera Switch_Back from Virgin Mobile is one of their top models and optimized for messaging. Continue reading

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Twitter, twitter


In the world of social networking, websites can come and go as ever more fickle users surge through cyberspace as orderly as sheep scattered by wolves. Just look at Friendster’s precipitous drop from must-be-at status to tumbleweed-ridden wasteland and Facebook’s successful bid for growth by opening up to pretty much everybody. Twitter is the newest social networking site to spread like shrapnel over the web: a shared blog that is limited to one hundred and forty characters per entry (twenty less than a text message) posted on the web, over Instant Messaging or SMS’ed from your cell phone. Once you have convinced your friends to join, you all get each other’s posts. What this creates is a sort of heartbeat of what your friends are doing, in real time from wherever you are. In all likelihood Twitter ‘s popularity will peak, stabilize and erode as the wave of users washes out to the Internet sea again, but for now, it is likely that your friends will end up there and you will have to join if only so you won’t be left out. Twitter’s forté is simplicity and singularity of purpose, no lengthy profiles, no posting of pictures, no movies, and no music. Whether this will be enough to secure a place for itself in the future remains to be seen, you, however, have nothing to lose: join for free at http://twitter.com, just watch for your SMS bills. Twitter is also extendable via tools provided by the site if you have the programming chops, but even if you don’t, you can take advantage of the ultimate Twitter mashup, the hopelessly addictive Twittervision, which continuously pops real-time Twitter entries over a global map.

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