gadget news and reviews

CES 2009: Shure SE115 Headphones 3

During the Consumer Electronics Show, Shure announced a new set of headphones, the SE115. The series is their most affordable earphones to date, with a retail price of $99. Although these earphones are on the lowest-end of their lineup, they offer an incomparable listening experience versus most generic earphones that are included with most devices. The headphones are available in Blue, Pink, Black and Red to match different portable audio players. Shure has also packed more bass into these earphones will shrinking down the size of the unit. The earphones help eliminate background noise too help fully experience whatever you might be listening too.

Specifications Speaker Type:

• Dynamic MicroSpeaker II
• Sensitivity (at 1kHz): 105dB SPL/mW
• Impedance (at 1kHz): 16
• Frequency Range: 22Hz-17.5kHz
• Cable Length: 18 in. (45 cm)
• Warranty: 2-Years
• Price (MSRP): $119

As always Shure provides a kit with a variety of earpieces to ensure that the buds comfortably fit into your ear canal. The earphones have a modular cable which can extend from just 18 inches to 54 inches with the extension. Shure provides a 2 year limited warranty on these earphones, so rest assured that if they happen to fail or cause problems, you’ll be able to have them replaced. The headphone jack is a standard 3.5mm pin, which will fit into any standard computer, laptop, cd player, or digital audio player.

The earphones will become available for purchase in Spring 2009. Although the expect sale price is $99, it should be available for cheaper through many retailers. We’ll be getting a unit to review as soon as we can, so check back for a full review! Meanwhile checkout our review of the Shure SE110 and the SE210.

Links: Shure.com SE115

CES 2009: Haier Ibiza Touch “Sneak Peak” 2

During the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV, the PR folks at Haier had some upcoming goodies to show off. The one that I personally got excited about was the Rhapsody Ibiza Touch, which was unfortunately not completely finished, but the prototype was functioning quite well. So the big question might be “What sets this apart from the rest of those digital audio players?”. And Haier had an answer. This player is considered a social music player since it features WiFi. Owners will be able to download, purchase, or sync music wirelessly for one. But what caught me off guard was the built in browser and RSS reader. Users can browse to a webpage and instantly download a file, which can be played back if the player happens to support the codec. And the RSS syndication will allow downloading podcasts on the go without the need of a computer as a middleman. According to Haier both video and audio podcasts can be synced on demand or can be programed to check for new content and download automatically. It also has access to thousands of internet radio channels.

In terms of codecs, the Ibiza supports playback of DivX, H.264, and MP4 for video. For audio, it works with AAC, MP3, and WMA. It can also display JPEG and PNG images.

The Ibiza Touch has a 2.8-inch WQVGA display with vibration feedback, is available in 8GB to 32GB NAND Flash capacities, Bluetooth with stereo headphone support, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, a mini-USB 2.0 port, and much more. The battery life can withstand playback of up to 15 hours of audio, 6 hours of video, or 10 hours of streaming content over WiFi.

We don’t have too much more details, however we will try to get a hold of a unit for review in the near future. I personally am quite excited about downloading podcast wirelessly without the need of a computer and DivX support. Check back for more details!

Links: Haier Ibiza

CES 2009: Sony VAIO P Series Notebook +

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony announced the VAIO P Series Notebook. It is claimed to take the spotlight of being the worlds lightest 8-inch laptop. I had a chance to play with a unit and I have to admit it did look quite enticing. But the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t that it was just another portable laptop, but rather a memory of a very similar Sony product from about 10 years ago. It was called the VAIO C1 and featured 233MHz processor, 3.2GB HDD, and a webcam (image thumbnail below). But most importantly it retains literally the same form factor of the new P Series. Thankfully the P Series has come a long way in terms of technology with plenty of power packed under the hood while weighing just 1.4 pounds.

Sony VAIO P Series Specs:

• Processor: 1.33GHz Intel Atom
• Hard Drive: 60GB HDD, 64GB SSD, or 128GB SSD
• Memory: 2GB 533MHz DDR2
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Basic
• Graphics: Intel GMA 500
• Built-in Webcam & Microphone: Yes
• Keyboard / Mouse: Reduced Standard / Pointer
• Display: 8-inch 1600 x 768 LED
• Wireless: WiFi b/g/n & Bluetooth 2.1 & WWAN
• Expansion Slot: Memory Stick & SD Card slots
• Audio: Speakers and 1 Headphone Jack
• Ports: 2x USB 2.0 & Expansion I/O Connector

Read More

MacWorld 2009 Keynote 1

Prior to today’s keynote there were plenty of speculation as to whether Apple would roll out a iPhone Nano, new Mac Minis, or a new iMac. Unfortunately none of those happened. Launching some new innovative products would have been a great way to show the world that Apple can survive with Steve Jobs temporarily out of the picture; however they failed to stir up any excitement.

Phil Schiller, the SVP of Marketing at Apple, filled in for Jobs. He began by presenting a lot of new software applications that would soon become available to Mac users: iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09.

Let’s start with the applications included in iLife ‘09. The new version of iPhone features Facial Recognition, which will automatically scan through your entire library and tag people in each image once you assign a name to a face. Users will then have the ability to browse through their photos by “Faces” to find every instance that a person appears throughout your entire photo gallery. iPhoto will now also support Geo-tagging, which will take coordinates from GPS enabled imaging devices such as the  iPhone (or Blackberry Storm) and assigns locations to where they were taken. A built-in interactive mapping tool, based on Google Maps, will allow browsing through your photos by locating them as pinpoints on a map. Finally users will also have instant way of uploading images directly to Facebook or Flickr. Tagged faces will be tagged on Facebook while Geo-tagged images will be noted on Flickr. iMovie ‘09 and GarageBand ‘09 also received upgrades which add new functionality. iLife ‘09 will be included on all new Macs, but if you have an older machine it will become available for $79 this month. Read More