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The best bookshelf speakers for most stereos
By Chris Heinonen This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. To find the best bookshelf speakers for your stereo system, we considered hundreds of models, narrowed the field to 19 finalists, and then had a three-person listening panel put each through its paces with a wide variety of music. After 90 hours of work, the ELAC Debut B6 speakers came out as our top choice because they sound more like a live performance than anything in this price range.
Behind the scenes history of MeeGo reveals Nokia's abandoned tablet and Verizon N9
Finnish site Taskumuro has produced an incredibly detailed behind-the-scenes history of Nokia's wonderful, yet doomed, MeeGo OS. Talking to current and ex-employees of the phone maker, it learned that a tablet (codenamed Senna) and CDMA Nokia N9 for Verizon were both in development before Stephen Elop killed the project dead around the time of the "burning platform" memo. The report also claims that the company's decision to develop Maemo (later MeeGo) in tandem with Symbian led to a developer turf-war, that the Swipe UI was cooked up at the 80/20 Design Studio in New York and the team had planned an Apple-esque strategy of releasing a single phone every year. If you'd like to learn more (and about how the original article was translated from Finnish into English in under 10 hours), head on down to the source links. [Thanks, Masa and Justus]
Nokia kills N9-00, its first MeeGo handset?
We've been hearing this one for awhile now, primarily around the Twitterverse thanks to Eldar Murtazin. Now Reuters has jumped in with a couple of sources close to the company claiming that Nokia has ended development of its first MeeGo handset, presumably the device pictured above. It's not all bad news though. Reuters tosses in a bullet claiming that the next MeeGo device could be unveiled this week, meaning Nokia's highly anticipated event on Friday or even at Mobile World Congress next week. Of course, Nokia has never gone official with any handset, only saying that the first MeeGo device will be a 2011 event (after missing the planned 2010 launch). So really, this is a lot like saying something that didn't exist still doesn't exist. Nevertheless, it jibes with what we've heard that the N9-00 QWERTY slider (aka, RM-680 codename "Dali"), leaked with gusto back in August, has been scrapped as a consumer device with all emphasis now on releasing the N9-01 touchscreen slate, dubbed "Lankku" (Finnish for "plank" or "board") internally. Just another reason for "Nokia CEO" to continue trending on Twitter. No, really. [Thanks, Tuomas]
Marantz Reference gear in the Carlyle hotel spoils you for clock radio
While our typical hotel coverage involves HDTVs and/or special programming, we'll make an exception for the Marantz/DALI audio setup getting dropped into the Empire Suite of Manhattan's Carlyle hotel. We won't make any guesses about what the rack rate is for the duplex suite in the swank hotel, but it's got to be cheaper than the audio system, which combines four MA-9S2 mono amps, an SC-7S2 preamp and SA-7S1 SACD deck from Marantz's Reference lineup with a pair of DALI MEGALINE III speakers. All told, that's about $47,000 of Marantz gear and another cool $60,000 for the speakers, all to deliver good old two-channel. Might we suggest staying in and ordering room service?
DALI's bold-sounding LEKTOR 8 speakers garner a positive review
You might not have noticed from the press shot of the LEKTOR LCR on-wall speakers, but the Danish DALI company's coated paper woofers have a deep red color to them. Based on the review at Audioholics, the treated paper used in the foorstanding LEKTOR 8's 8-inch woofers isn't just for show. Striking a contrast to what we've heard from other, more well-known Danish speaker companies (like, say, Dynaudio), the LEKTOR 8s turned in a big and bassy performance. That's not a slight on either company, and it's nice to know that you can have both Danish styling and bigger sound if that's what you're after. The wood grain vinyl wrap was the highest quality the reviewer had ever seen, and the metal accents definitely give the LEKTOR 8s a touch of class you'd expect at $1,800 per pair. Hit the link for the full review and seek out a nearby dealer if your interest is piqued.
DALI likes to shout, intros LEKTOR LCR on-wall speakers
Danish loudpseaker outfit DALI (Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries) is getting in on the on-wall speaker game with its LEKTOR LCR speakers. Don't bother looking for metal drivers in the front-ported cabinets, the dual 5-inch woofers are paper (a.k.a. "wood fiber") and the 1.1-inch tweeter is soft dome. The 7-inch deep speakers will reach down to 52Hz, which is about par for on-walls and should make integrating them with a sub pretty straightforward. If you've got a spot on your currently-quiet walls, you can pick these up now for €299 ($403).
This is your iPod on drugs, any questions?
If this is what Russian artists Aristarkh Chernyshev & Alexei Shulgin see when they look at their iPods every day, I would suggest a medication adjustment at the earliest opportunity. The sculpture version of a giant, warped iPod is fully functional, although you'd have to be relatively immune to eyestrain and vertigo if you wanted to use it on a regular basis.Do you have a favorite iPod or Mac-themed work of art? Drop a link in the comments or add the 'tuaw' tag to a Flickr photo and we'll check it out.Thanks Aaron![via MAKEblog]
