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B&O's H8 wireless headphones offer stellar audio at a steep price
I'm pretty vocal about my love for Bang and Olufsen's BeoPlay H6 headphones. To me, they're the best wired set I've used in the last three years and they still hold their own against newer rivals, even though they've been on sale for two years now. That being said, you can imagine my feelings when B&O announced the wireless H8 back at CES. The best set of cans I've used in ages are now wireless? I couldn't wait to get my hands on a pair. By now, I've spent several weeks getting to know the new headphones, and I have to say, I'm not quite ready to ditch the old model just yet.
A look at two alternatives to those $200 Beats headphones
Thanks to Beats, there's no shortage of $200 headphones on the market. But what about cans coming from folks known for their speakers rather than their rhymes? Given their heritage in the audio space, I had high hopes for both the Klipsch Reference On-Ear Premium headphones as well as Polk's Hinge Wireless Bluetooth cans. At first glance, they're pretty comparable: Both are foldable on-ear models with plush carrying bags and tight iOS/OS X integration. As it turns out, the similarities fell away quickly once I actually put them on my skull.
Samsung's new wireless headphones are a worthy contender
Last summer, I spent some time getting to know the first four entries in Samsung's "Level" audio line. There's a new item this year, though: a wireless version of the original Level On headphones. In case you missed the first roundup, this model is an on-ear option, and it ended up being my favorite of the bunch. But with the bulk of the features being the same, is the extra $80 worth it to go wireless?
How I nearly became hooked on a $335 laptop bag
When I was first approached about checking out the WaterField Designs $335 Rough Rider messenger bag, it occurred to me that I've never written about something as decidedly non-technical before. Let's face it: When I plop down my case and begin unloading my work stuff, my focus has always been on the contents, not the vessel. But once the bag arrived, I realized this San Francisco outfit doesn't just peddle any old type of gear; its handmade leather goods (crafted in the US, to boot) are something truly special. Still, coming from a world of ultra-padded messengers, I was worried if it would be quite good enough to do the job. So I broke up with my cushy day-to-day bag and switched to this all-leather interloper to see how I'd fare.
Xiaomi's affordable Yi action camera versus the GoPro Hero
The first thing my Spanish mother-in-law asked me when she saw the Xiaomi Yi was, "Is that a toy camera?" With its lime-and-aqua-marine color scheme, it's not hard to see why she might think that. But no, it is not. In fact, Xiaomi's Yi camera raised a few eyebrows when it was announced recently. Here was yet another action camera that looked suspiciously like a GoPro -- but, at the equivalent of about $65, it was almost half the price of the market-leader's cheapest offering (the $130 Hero edition), with a spec-sheet that bested it on many key features. Importantly (perhaps more so for GoPro), the Yi camera has the backing of Xiaomi, a brand that's gaining traction in China. A market everyone wants a slice of. But does it really best a GoPro?
How I fit a 100-inch projector setup in my NYC apartment
You could call me a bit of a movie fan. I own hundreds of Blu-rays and DVDs, see an obscene amount of movies in theaters and have been podcasting about my obsessive media habits for the past eight years. Movies aren't just mindless fun for me; they're a way of life, a religion. So it was only a matter of time until my 50-inch plasma HDTV started to feel too small and the siren song of an in-home projector came calling. My only problem? I live in Brooklyn. And while my apartment isn't the shoebox you'd normally associate with NYC, it's still a tough space to visualize fitting a projector and a giant screen. This is the story of how I made that happen.
I regrettably designed my own glasses on a smartphone app
JINS is a glasses maker on a mission: to make glasses worth talking about again. That usually entails a dash of technology thrown in; a few years ago, for instance, the company dotted spectacle-selling vending machines across Tokyo. Yes, it's a Japanese company. Yes, they're also dabbling in smartglasses. But I'm not talking about any of that this time. No, I took a whole 10 minutes designing my own pair of glasses on the company's "Paint" app, and then a week later, I was wearing them. It's not nearly as elaborate as, say, 3D printing, but it does offer a relatively cheap way of making yourself a one-of-a-kind pair of glasses. And mine probably would have looked better, if I had even a single creative bone in my body.
A Bluetooth 'smart outlet' is cheap and simple, but also limited
The lights turn on and environment controls go into full swing as you approach. With a simple remote, you're able to bend appliances to your will. It's the ideal Jetsonian smart home and it's no longer the future; you can have it today. By picking up some connected switches and bulbs, it's easy to get your old-fashioned digs into space-age shape. The cost of admission can be a little steep, though, once you factor in the requisite hub required to tie many of these pieces together. Plus, it's not always a one-touch setup. Nyrius Electronics wants to cut out the complexity and high cost from this equation with its series of intelligent Bluetooth-connected devices. The company already offers a colorful smart LED lightbulb and it's expanding the line to include a new Smart Outlet that's currently in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign. This app-controlled outlet fits into standard three-prong sockets, letting you manage the power of plugged-in items with your mobile device. With a price tag of $40 each, it could be a viable solution -- especially if you're on a budget. Keep in mind, though, there are some inherent limitations to this type of design.
Does bigger mean better for UE's popular 'Boom' speakers?
It's taken me years to overcome my vinyl-based anachronistic tendencies. I've been particularly reluctant to buy digital music files; to me it's right up there with e-books -- spending good money on "virtual" products. Still, the accessibility of digital music and being able to stream wirelessly are more compelling than being a Luddite. So I began the search for a quality portable speaker. That ended two years ago after I tried the UE Boom. It quickly won me over with its design, sound quality and 360-degree speaker setup. I stowed it in my backpack's side pouch for long bike rides and could easily hear it over the wind. The speaker never sounded "boxy" either, with its omnidirectional output. This year, Ultimate Ears decided to pump up the specs, size and, inevitably, the price for its newest model, the aptly named Megaboom. I was curious to see how this would compare, since it seemed less portable. So I took the Megaboom (a pair of them, actually) for a spin to see how they stacked up.
Life with the Moto 360: has Motorola's smartwatch turned a corner?
When the Moto 360 first hit the scene, its reception was... mixed. That round display was eye-catching, but it couldn't make up for the smartwatch's all-too-short battery life and undercooked software. Times have changed, though. Motorola trotted out updates that addressed the 360's early problems, and the Lollipop upgrade gave Android Wear a new lease on life through custom watch faces and a few other useful tweaks. But does that mean it deserves a second chance, especially now that rivals like LG's G Watch R are vying for your wrist?
I tried to live with a high-end feature phone. I can't.
The feature phone. Still big in Japan. Still being sold in the millions. Still relevant, though? And does it even matter what a 30-something tech writer at a Western tech site thinks? Japan's large elderly population -- people who haven't even heard of Angry Birds, Gmail or Uber -- they're the ones sticking to their flip phones. Hardy, easy to use and cheaper than an iPhone. (If you need a primer on the phenomenon of gara-kei, you should probably read up on that here, but in short, it's how Japan's mobile phone market sped ahead with early technologies, then faltered when smartphone competition arrived.) So let's try using one. The best and newest feature phone available in Japan, no less. It's pitched as bringing the best smartphone features to the flip form factor. Is it better than a plain, old smartphone? Good lord, no.
Surviving a British winter with a not-so-smart thermostat
Just under a year ago, I had British Gas' Hive smart thermostat bolted on to my home's existing aged central heating system. The easiest thing to do would have been to just review it there and then, but if I'm being honest, it makes more sense to talk about a device like this when you've used it through a rough British winter. Having now endured one in my drafty, freezing cold Victorian house, I think it's the perfect time to start discussing it.
Upgrading my living room with the Sonos Playbar and Sub
For a long time now, I've been reading (and writing) about Sonos' audio devices, filled with jealousy toward anyone who could afford to spend more than just a few minutes with them. Sure, I've briefly tried them at trade shows, but to really judge the merits of audio gear like the Playbar and Sub, you need the proper amount of soak-time. Well, I finally got my chance. Over the last two months, I've been using the basically $1,400 pair ($699 each) in my living room to handle audio from my TV and also play a little music. With an easy setup and stellar sound quality, it's easy to become smitten with Sonos. Indeed, it didn't take long before I was hooked.
Olympus' OM-D E-M5 Mark II is a solid mid-range mirrorless camera
Camera manufacturers do a great job of not making your purchases feel obsolete after a year. Case in point: Olympus' OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera, which the company updated last month, more than three years after the original was introduced. I'm not saying the original is obsolete per se, but there's no doubt the new E-M5 Mark II is a godsend for people invested in the Olympus ecosystem. So what's actually new in this model, you ask? A lot, both inside and out, although it does maintain a similar look and feel to its predecessor.
This is how Astro does Xbox One headphones
It wasn't long ago you needed to buy a set of purpose-made cans if you wanted a pair of gaming headphones. Thanks to how the PlayStation 4's and Xbox One's controllers are designed, though, that isn't the case anymore. For Xbox, all you need to use your favorite pair of headphones with Microsoft's latest console is a $35 adapter. So how does a company known for its high-end gaming headsets like Astro compete? With the A40 Xbox One Edition. This $200 headset bests its adversaries, but faces stiff competition from an unexpected place: other Astro headphones.
I got a connected surveillance camera, but used it mainly as a puppycam
Over the last year and a half, I've used a few different connected cameras to monitor my home. This includes more popular offerings such as the Dropcam Pro, but I found myself ultimately unhappy with the yearly fee and the requirement to store video on Dropcam's servers. I've also played with a Foscam IP camera, but it seems like you need a network engineering degree in order to properly set them up (and let's not get started on how ugly they are). That's why I was pretty excited about the opportunity to spend some time with the $200 Withings Home HD camera. It was definitely a departure from similar devices and had that shiny, new-toy smell, too.
Taking laps with the Thrustmaster T300RS racing wheel
Let's get this out of the way up front: The market for the Thrustmaster T300RS is incredibly narrow. At $400 (the price of a PlayStation 4!) it's far beyond an impulse buy and demands you're taking every aspect of your living room racing experience Very Seriously. That's something I discovered when the company sent me a demo unit to try. You see, at Casa de Seppala, my couch sits about 6 feet from my 65-inch TV. In between those two are an area rug and a coffee table I got for $75 on Craigslist. It's an awesome setup for movies and every other game I've played, but when it came time to put the T300RS through its paces, I couldn't figure out if the wheel was ill-suited to my space or vice versa.
Fuji's premium telephoto zoom packs some serious punch
Fujifilm may still be a relatively niche player in the mirrorless camera field, but that's not stopping the company from putting out some serious lenses to go along with its well-regarded X-series cameras. With the $1,600 XF50-140mm zoom, Fuji's hoping to provide a professional-level, weather-sealed telephoto zoom that can compete with the legendary 70-200mm lenses from companies like Nikon and Canon. I spent a month with the lens to see how close the company came.
IRL: The M20 speaker isn't enough to make you choose Korus over Sonos
Back in 2013, I got to try out the Korus system of speakers, the V600 and the V400, and was impressed by their ease of use and audio quality. The one thing that was lacking was portability; even though the V600 can use six D-cell batteries and comes with a handle, I'm not exactly going to stroll around town with it on my shoulder. Enter the M20, a small speaker that not only hooks into the Korus system via SKAA, but can also connect to other devices via Bluetooth, squaring it against the glut of portable Bluetooth speakers already on the market.
Samsung's NX1 camera looks like a DSLR, but does it perform like one?
While companies like Sony and Fujifilm continue to stuff serious camera guts into smaller and smaller mirrorless bodies, Samsung's aiming to ape both the function and the form of modern "prosumer" DSLR's with its $1,500 NX1. With a rapid-fire 15 fps burst mode and 4K video support, the company's flagship interchangeable lens camera certainly boasts some high-end specs. I spent a month with Samsung's latest to see if it can match or even exceed the DSLRs it appears to emulate.