Watts Archive

  • Best Buy’s Insignia Brand to Offer Audyssey

    Best Buy’s Insignia Brand to Offer Audyssey

    Posted on June 22, 2010 | No Comments
    Best Buy's bargain brand, Insignia, is offering a new 5.1 home theater system with Audyssey technology, yes, Audyssey. We love Audyssey.

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  • iFixit Breaks Down the Mac Mini

    iFixit Breaks Down the Mac Mini

    Posted on June 16, 2010 | No Comments
    Our friends at iFixit have taken the new Mac Mini apart to show us it's insides. From the looks of it, it was a pretty easy break down, with not too many parts inside. And, it looks just as good inside as i does out - in true Apple fashion. Here are the highlights:

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  • Cellphone radiation law to help, confuse San Francisco consumers

    Cellphone radiation law to help, confuse San Francisco consumers

    Posted on June 16, 2010 | No Comments
    Oh San Francisco, you and your progressive ways. The city just passed a law -- a first in the US -- requiring retailers to post the Specific Absorption Rates (aka SAR, the rate at which at which energy is absorbed by the body) in no less than 11-point font right next to any cellphone being sold. Sounds good as far as consumer education goes, right? And a functioning democracy demands an educated and informed elecorate. But here's the thing: the jury's still out (just pick your favorite dangerous / not dangerous study to fit your belief) on the effect of radiation at levels less than the 1.6 watts per kilogram threshold set by the FCC. As such, CTIA spokesman John Walls has a point when he says that highlighting the SAR levels might confuse consumers into thinking that some cellphones are safer than others. In other words, consumer education needs to go much further than any retail-shelf placard could possibly communicate. Well, at least the law will keep us safe long enough to walk out the door and trip over a hippie.

    P.S. The image above is from the "Get a Safer Phone" (note the wording) rankings provided by the Environmental Working Group.

    Cellphone radiation law to help, confuse San Francisco consumers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Tearing down the Apple A4 processor

    Tearing down the Apple A4 processor

    Posted on April 6, 2010 | No Comments
    Kyle at iFixit and his buddies at Chipworks straight up tore into the A4 chip that appears in the Apple iPad. The chip is an ARM processor with a small RAM package made by Samsung. The processor itself is made entirely by Apple although it is based mostly on the original Samsung processor made for the iPhone. Other interesting points include the possibility of an onboard GPU, the same one powering the iPhone, namely the PowerVR SGX 535. This means while the screen is bigger the graphics aren't much faster. The iPad also has 256MB ram and, most important, the CPU "sips" power.

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  • DIY: 500 LED Extreme Flashlight

    DIY: 500 LED Extreme Flashlight

    Posted on March 28, 2010 | No Comments
    So you think you’ve got a bright flashlight. You got nothing! This guy built his own, with 500 LEDs (which consume a shockingly low 50 watts when it’s powered up. This guy is so good, he wasn’t just content to build the most ridiculously bright LED flashlight in the world, oh no. He also built [...]

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  • AMD working on actual netbook chipset, not due until next year

    AMD working on actual netbook chipset, not due until next year

    Posted on March 11, 2010 | No Comments
    AMD is finally looking to get into the netbook game for real. Forget about the thin-and-light NEO chipset that’s been out for a while—we’re talking about an honest, netbook-specific chipset based on the company’s Fusion initiative that’ll blend power-sipping CPUs with ATI graphics. The platform will draw between 10 and 15 watts of power and will be designed for screens 12 inches and smaller.

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  • Thunder 30 amplifier from Orange

    Thunder 30 amplifier from Orange

    Posted on March 6, 2010 | No Comments
    Stage aesthetics all contain a common trend. Generally, the equipment should be seen as little as possible, leading to pretty much every guitar amplifier in existence being black. Orange Amplifiers said, “To hell with all that nonsense” and proceeded to create some of the most visually offensive and sonically powerful amps on the market. Their [...]

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  • Pioneer outs the low-priced, surprisingly competent VSX-820-K and VSX-520-K AV receivers

    Pioneer outs the low-priced, surprisingly competent VSX-820-K and VSX-520-K AV receivers

    Posted on March 1, 2010 | No Comments
    Pioneer's latest home theater receivers aren't amazing. They're not jam-packed with all crazy one-off audio modes or loaded to the gill with connectivity options. But that's fine. It does HDMI 1.3, works with an optional $99 Bluetooth streaming thingabob, has enough power, and supports the main HD audio codecs. Oh, and they're only $229 and $299.

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  • Samson announces 2 new portable speaker systems

    Samson announces 2 new portable speaker systems

    Posted on February 3, 2010 | No Comments
    The gap between consumer audio and professional audio can be rather daunting. Large speakers require large amplifiers and large mixing desks and all sorts of convoluted patching bays. Another inescapable side effect of these professional systems is that they also require large, sweaty men to haul everything around, and some know-it-all engineer to make it [...]

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  • MSI Wind series netbooks go multi-platinum. So here’s another one.

    MSI Wind series netbooks go multi-platinum. So here’s another one.

    Posted on January 26, 2010 | No Comments
    MSI has sold millions of their Wind series of netbooks. Let’s all give them a round of applause shall we? But what does this mean for you guys? Good things, as luck would have it. Instead of some useless, commemorative award, they roll out the U135 model. And unlike most “Yay us!” products, this one [...]

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  • The JVC XS-SR3 iPod speaker dock plays audio via a series of tubes

    The JVC XS-SR3 iPod speaker dock plays audio via a series of tubes

    Posted on December 16, 2009 | No Comments
    JVC is still at the iPod speaker dock game but at least its latest offering bucks the norm and is actually different. Bonus points for that. The XS-SR3 features tubular speakers that are supposed to help simulate surround sound. The dock also holds the iDevice either vertically or horizontally, just like the B&W Zeppelin Mini [...]

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  • miSoccer iPod dock: The first of many World Cup-related odds and ends

    miSoccer iPod dock: The first of many World Cup-related odds and ends

    Posted on December 10, 2009 | No Comments
    Yeah, get ready for an awful lot of World Cup-related nicknacks in the coming months. We saw the official ball, adidas' Jabulani, last week, and this week… an iPod dock. Yeah, it's a bit of a drop off.

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  • The Serio speakers from Waterfall Audio are stunning (and expensive)

    The Serio speakers from Waterfall Audio are stunning (and expensive)

    Posted on November 20, 2009 | No Comments
    I've never heard of Waterfall Audio before. I think they qualify for one of my rules in the audio world though: if you've never heard of an audio company and they cost more than products from a familiar brand, it's probably good stuff. Apparently the company made a name for itself a few years ago with a glass-enclosed speaker line. Who knew. The latest speaker line, Serio, keeps the glass theme alive, but manages to shrink the package down to a satellite-style size. Too bad all that glass and square lines scream the '90s.

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  • Altec Lansing announces Rock Band speakers

    Altec Lansing announces Rock Band speakers

    Posted on October 21, 2009 | No Comments
    Why be a video game rockstar if you can't hear it? Have you always wanted to put your foot on something while you power chord-ed your way to stardom? For those of you who are using the stock speakers in your TV to play Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or Harmonica Hero, first off, shame on you.

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  • Is that a data center in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

    Is that a data center in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

    Posted on October 15, 2009 | No Comments
    With word that MySpace has swapped traditional hard drives for solid state drives, this "prototype" portable data center from a pioneering Dell employee may be a sign of things to come. This is a pretty marked departure from the shipping container data centers being constructed by Google, Sun, and seemingly everyone else. This datacenter-in-a-briefcase is not an actual product (yet!), but just something this guy threw together in his garage.

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