| Beyond Angry Birds (Part 1) |
| Tablets are for fun and surfing, and the humble PC is for work, surely? There's logic to that statement, but in the same way that the PC is a great gaming platform, the humble Android tablet or Apple iPad can be used in a more productive way. |
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| Matrox DS1 - The Very First Thunderbolt Dock |
| Thunderbolt, a high-speed interface developed by Intel for Apple, is pretty much promised when it released in Spring 2011. In addition to abundant broadband, a goal that could benefit the idea of one single strand replacing many cables, simplify bunch of desktop's wires. |
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| Add Freeze Frames To Your Projects |
| Whatever your reason for freezing the action, the Freeze Frame tool is a new addition to Final Cut Pro X and enables you to create a freeze frame from any of your project clips in just a couple of clicks. All you need to do is file through this straightforward nine-step tutorial and annotation and you’ll be adding another professional finish to your Final Cut repertoire. |
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| Fine Tuning RAW Images |
| When you import RAW images, Aperture tries to make the image look good quickly, and makes automatic adjustments based on the camera you used. This can be fine for many images, but it can make the image look too colorful. If you do additional image editing it can lead to fake-looking photos. |
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| HP Envy 27 - Beats Audio Computer Monitor |
| There are now scores of 27in monitors, which vary wildly in price. The Envy 27 is fairly pricy, costing $150 more than many other 27in displays, but HP claims the price is justified by the screen’s appearance, image quality and built-in speakers. |
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| Panasonic Smart Viera LED TV TX-L32E6B |
| The 32in Viera TX-L32E6B is the first TV in Panasonic’s 2013 range and, because it’s the smallest, it’s likely to be one of the cheapest. It has an overhauled interface, integrated Wi-Fi and all the features you’d expect from a more expensive set. |
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| Samsung UE40F6400 - A Highly Capable LED TV |
| Smart TVs are great, but some of their best features, such as catch-up TV and on-demand video, are often hard to find or difficult to navigate. Not so with Samsung's UE40F6400.This 40in, 3D TV has a huge selection of online services accessible from a gorgeous, easy-to-use interface. |
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| Withings Smart Body Analyzer WS-50 |
| Withings makes a range of smart phone connected health devices, including scales and blood-pressure monitors. The latest is the Smart Body Analyzer WS-50 scale which can communicate with Android and Apple tablets and smartphones via Bluetooth. Unlike Withings' previous scales which can be configured using your PC - you must have a smartphone or tablet to set up the WS-50. J |
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| Y-Cam HomeMonitor - A Secure Home Security Camera System |
| Setting it up is simple and we didn't need to install any software on our PC to get started. Instead, everything is managed using a web interface which worked flawlessly on our PC and tablet. Every step is clearly explained and illustrated in the instructions. |
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| Hidden Tricks For Evernote |
| Evernote is a brilliant free note-taking tool. At www.evernote.com you’ll find versions for just about every computer, smartphone and tablet. Whether you’re keeping a journal or planning an event, the great joy of using Evernote for keeping records is that it’s cloud-based and cross-platform. You can make notes on one device and access them more or less instantly from any other. |
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| ISOkinetik Modular 1.5 Turntable - Turning The Tables (Part 2) |
| Because I have a feeling that the sub-plinth is doing a great job of absorbing and isolating vibrations from the main plinth, I decide to try out something with loads of bass – some J S Bach organ music! My recording of Michael Murray playing Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor on Telarc DG-10049 fits the bill perfectly. |
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| ISOkinetik Modular 1.5 Turntable - Turning The Tables (Part 1) |
| The Modular 1.5 is designed to be fully customizable and upgradable so that it can be built according to the user’s budget and personal taste. It can be purchased with a full range of enhancements and upgrades fitted, or it can be supplied as an entry-level unit, which can then be upgraded in stages, as funds permit. |
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| Raidho C1.1 Stand Mound Loudspeaker - Vanishing Point (Part 2) |
| The midband is this speaker’s real tour-de-force. It is wonderfully open – no small thanks to that treble unit, which reaches down lower than many. There’s little sense of listening to two drivers at the same time, as they cross over so well to provide a searching and insightful window into the mix. |
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| Raidho C1.1 Stand Mound Loudspeaker - Vanishing Point (Part 1) |
| There is, as we all know, no such thing as a perfect loudspeaker. It all comes down to physics, whose laws are immutable and not even the design team of a high-end speaker company with a vast development budget can change them. The problem is that with only a small cabinet, small speakers can’t produce realistic bass. |
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| Headphones Test - Sound And Fury (Part 1) |
| A great set of headphones is more than just a device to play music on. For many it’s an escape; an escape from reality, from the noise, cacophony and mundane drudgeries of life. |
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| Headphones Test - Sound And Fury (Part 5) |
| Sifting through the 17 headsets that we got, we were a bit disappointed at the overall quality on offer. Take the CM Storm Sirus S for example; it seems to have a lot going for it, a funky design, an excellent control pod and a true 5.1 driver setup. |
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| Headphones Test - Sound And Fury (Part 4) |
| When we started with the portable wireless category we were amazed at how similar the products were. Of course we don’t mean sonically similar but rather the build, design and overall quality. What was even more disappointing was that there was nothing that stood out from the herd. |
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| Headphones Test - Sound And Fury (Part 3) |
| Starting this category with a crackle and pop is the K271 MKII – a true blue reference set from the AKG stables. Being studio monitors they’ve got what you’ve by now come to expect from cans in this class – long replaceable and superlative comfort. Apart from this there is an auto-off mechanism which switches off the music as soon as you take them off. |
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| Headphones Test - Sound And Fury (Part 2) |
| When we sent out our sourcing mails to various manufacturers and distributors we didn’t specify a lower or higher limit. Expectedly, we got some really awesome gear. In this first price based category we got some very interesting entrants. |
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| iRadio - Latest Music Stream |
| Apple Inc. has signed deals with two major music labels for the rights to stream their songs but is still negotiating with a third music label, which could delay Apple's plans to announce the iRadio service next week at the company's developers conference. |
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| Timestep T - 01 MC Phono Stage - Time Machine |
| An unashamedly hobbyist company, Timestep is run by the affable Dave Cawley, who designed his first phono stage in 1981, and more recently has been involved in the manufacture and distribution of the ANT Audio Kora phono stage. This prompted him to produce the T-01 MC, and it’s fair to say the two aren’t philosophically that different. |
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| Elac BS 142 Jet Loudspeaker - Standard Deviation (Part 2) |
| Black Ash cabinets and the promise of bass made me think of Violator by Depeche Mode, and I was not disappointed. The BS 142s sound larger than they actually are, and in a blind test you’d scarcely believe that pounding beats that run right through tracks like Police of Truth were coming from a pair of five inch woofers. |
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| Elac BS 142 Jet Loudspeaker - Standard Deviation (Part 1) |
| Defining new boundaries, Elac’s BS 142 compact stand mount speaker is a two-way design that unusually offers a ribbon tweeter, instead of the standard-issue fabric dome normally found at this price. This type of tweeter should give smoother, cleaner treble than is available from some of the other methods of construction, as well as extended frequency response which carries on well beyond the bounds of what is normally considered to be audible. |
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| Fix Volume Control Problem |
| Most of your music collection probably resides on your desktop computer or laptop these days. Ensure you enjoy it to the full by ironing out playback issues and customizing the volume levels for when you're using headphones or making a Skype call. We also explain how to stop system sounds ruining your musical pleasure. |
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| Head Audio Canalot DAC Headphone Amp/Preamp - Space Oddity (Part 2) |
| The Canalot is a curious device – not quite one thing or the other and whether it is an ideal product for you will rather depend on the rest of the system that you want to integrate it into. The performance over digital is impressive with a sense of life and naturalness that is enjoyable and easy to listen to for long periods of time. |
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| Head Audio Canalot DAC Headphone Amp/Preamp - Space Oddity (Part 1) |
| Not content with bouncing back from extinction, DAC’s have been assuming the functions of other products of late. First, they started sprouting headphone sockets, and thus a volume control. Then the volume control began to control the line output as well as the headphone socket, creating a digital preamp. |
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| Sondek LP 12 - The One And Only (Part 2) |
| Eighties mods continued the theme, making the deck sound ever more neutral and better resolved. The plinth was braced more stiffly (53,000), the sub-chassis strengthened (54,101) and the suspension springs stiffened. |
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| Sondek LP 12 - The One And Only (Part 1) |
| In the great scheme of belt drive turntables, the Sondek was an elegant evolution of thinking first seen in the original AR deck, and crystallized in the Thorens TD150 – offering a precision of construction and attention to detail that few have matched since its launch back in 1973. |
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| Adobe Photoshop Touch - Get Photoshop On Your Phone |
| Adobe Photoshop is such a powerful and complex photo-editing program on PCs, that squeezing it onto a phone and tablet app seemed impossible. But the Photoshop Touch app for tablets, which launched last year, works surprisingly well, because Adobe did a great job designing the app’s interface for touchscreens. |
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| Arcam FMJ A19 Integrated Amplifier - Jumping Jack (Part 2) |
| Rhythmically, Kraftwerk’s Tour de France Soundtracks Etape 3 is a pretty stern test of any amplifier’s grip of a loudspeaker, and the Arcam impresses in many ways. While it proves so generous low down that at high levels one was often on the verge of thinking this is going to end in tears – with the amp descending into a glop of low-frequency chaos – actually it never does. |
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| Arcam FMJ A19 Integrated Amplifier - Jumping Jack (Part 1) |
| One fateful moment back in 1984, when A&R Cambridge product planners were wondering where next to take their excellent and hugely popular A60 amplifier; someone had the bright idea to make the ‘Arcam’ Alpha. As well as the shortened name, it introduced a new design language, with a molded gunmetal grey fascia and a taller case, plus a new price point of under $225. |
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| Beautiful Systems Mcintosh/ Art - Big Mac |
| Boasting 450W into loads as low as 2ohms and tipping the scales at a mighty 64kg, the MC452 is a monstrous powerhouse of an amplifier and one that ensures that headroom in this system will be broadly unlimited. |
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| Digital Audio - Rip It Up! (Part 2) |
| The first tune was Miles Davis’ So What. The listeners all agreed the AAC version was poor, many talking about it as sounding like “a cardboard copy of the music” or “just plain terrible”. Moving to the CD-quality FLAC things got much better, with our listeners beginning to immerse themselves in a far more three-dimensional sound. |
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| Digital Audio - Rip It Up! (Part 1) |
| As for the best format to rip music into there was some disagreement. The purest format is WAV as it needs the least amount of processing, but FLAC is easier to handle as it provides metadata (artist, album name, artwork etc.). It also offers a reduction in the amount of disc space taken, without removing any data from the file itself; it compact the data rather than compressing it. |
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| Kobo Aura HD – E-Reader For The Most Eager Readers And Books Lovers (Part 2) |
| If reader manufacturers’ purpose is to have “disappear” hardware, said Serbinis, that will burden on software. Kobo’s users have known what they expect here. Start Aura and you will be welcomed by a homepage having cover of your most recent book, together with percentage read and left time. On the right of these, there are two more latest books displayed in a quarter of the size. |
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| Kobo Aura HD – E-Reader For The Most Eager Readers And Books Lovers (Part 1) |
| On the top the device, you can see a specialized button for preinstalled front light. It borrows light technology of Glo – the best ComfortLight technology in the group really makes us surprised when it was launched in the first time, there is equal distribution all over the screen that in some cases Barnes & Noble and Amazon can only dream. It is interesting that the light flickers a little bit at first but once lighting, it is hard to defeat. |
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| Super Test Stereo Amplifiers - Sonic Boon (Part 5) |
| Naim’s Nait 5i has also kept its five stars, still impressing us with its solid, weighty sound, particularly in the lower frequencies, and its handling of dynamics and rhythm. However, its more forward sound gives it a noticeably smaller soundstage to that of the Arcam, and at $359 more, that’s a considerable difference in price. |
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| Super Test Stereo Amplifiers - Sonic Boon (Part 4) : Pioneer A-70, Rotel RA-12 |
| The front of the A-70 looks equally well-made, if rather busy, with dials and buttons that match an equally busy remote. The five dials control input selection, volume, bass, treble and balance, and there are buttons for selecting between speaker setups, a ‘loudness’ button for added punch to low-volume playback and a ‘direct’ button for bypassing the tonal controls. |
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