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Ed Hardy headphones hope to ink up your ears
Celebrity headphone endorsements are very à la mode right now, and we've seen Ed Hardy's trademark tattoo stylings defacing gadgetry before, so, if you were the one lamenting the glaring omission that was Hardy-branded cans, then he obviously got your letter. The new "Stereo" range evidently refers to the two designs available thus far: Skull and Bones for the over-ears ($66), while your in-ears get some Tiger power ($29). The in-ears also feature a microphone, presumably so you can call for help from the fashion police. Both are available now.
Ultrasonic screwdriver sniffs out carbon fiber damage, planes book a check-up with The Doctor
Lighter planes means less fuel, means less money and, hopefully, lower ticket prices. Carbon fiber reinforcements are a major part of this plan; both Boeing's latest bird and the double-decker Airbus make liberal use of the light and strong composite. However, they're not without their own dangers; minute amounts of water can get into the carbon fibers, which then form ice at high altitude, damaging the fiber structures. This sort of miniature damage is -- unlike aluminum versions -- very difficult to spot. Embarrassingly, the engineers' best bet to detect the ruined fibers until recently was to tap on the composite structures with a small hammer and listen for a hollow noise that would signpost water damage. EADS, which depends on carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) for its own Airbus fuselage, has now created an ultrasonic gun that can detect this damage. This sonic screwdriver is able to detect and visualize these invisible problems by bouncing sound off the plane's surface and, well, it's like that hammer test, but a heck of a lot more precise. The company hopes to ready the device for regular use by the end of next year.
FCC tells advertisers to CALM down, lowers the volume on commercial breaks
Pretty soon, you won't have to scramble to lower the volume during noisy commercial breaks -- that's if you even watch live TV. After making its way through Capitol Hill, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (or CALM) -- which aims to keep the sounds coming out of your flat panel even-keeled -- has just been adopted in a ruling by the FCC. Starting next December, ads and promos will have to remain in-step with the audio levels of scheduled programming. While the affected parties have a full year to get their acts together, the main burden of enforcement lies with broadcasters and MVPDs like Comcast and Verizon FiOS. So, come next holiday season, you'll be able to tune in and tune out without being blown away.
Fanny Wang lets you make your headphones as ugly as you want
Making it big in the headphone industry isn't always about sound quality, sometimes you just have to be loud. The folks at Fanny Wang have that covered, offering up some wildly colored cans to help them "break through the noise," as they put it, of the headphone market. Users can customize the outfit's 1001, 2001 and 3001 model headphones on the firm's new interactive website, picking and choosing colors for seven distinct parts, including the cord. Orders take about three weeks to assemble and ship, Fanny says, giving you just enough time to snag some colorful cans before the holidays. You know, in case someone on your list is looking for something sort of like those ColorWare tinted Beats, but with a bit of actual color. You can find Fanny's fancy press release after the break.
HTC Rezound available now on Verizon for $299 on contract
Maybe you were one of the lucky few who skirted the system to get an early bird delivery of HTC's latest 4.3-inch handset. But if not, there's no day like today to seize upon Verizon's retail and online stores to sign yourself up for the Dre-approved Rezound. Big Red's offering this Sense 3.5-laden beastie and its red-and-black motif for $299 on contract right now. It's a 4G LTE affair, so prepare to chuck that 3G-only connection and snuggle up to a new data plan. Ready to claim those custom earbuds as your own? Then hit up the source below where the augmented mobile audio awaits.
Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: headphones
Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. We imagine many a PMP or smartphone will be changing hands this holiday season -- iPhone 4S or Galaxy Nexus, anyone? And what better way to accessorize your brand new mobile gadget than with a set of headphones? Fret not audio lovers -- we've rounded up nine of our top picks that we think you'll really enjoy while on the move. We're talking headphones that'll let you control your playlists and chat with friends, all without exposing those precious new gizmos to the harsh winter elements. It's all just past the break, so what are you still doing here? Click on through to the other side!
The Air Force will give you $150,000 to blast its weeds with a laser
With the holiday season just around the corner, the Air Force has been busy compiling its yuletide wish list, and it's got some pretty strange requests. Included on its latest call for small business innovations is a curious proposal for a project called "Floral Disruptor – Directed Energy Weed Abatement and Prevention Tool." According to Air Force documents, this project calls for "a device that uses directed energy technology to prevent and abate unwanted plants (weeds) in areas that require control or defoliation." Translation: a ray gun to blast weeds. Turns out, the Air Force spends a handsome chunk of cash each year on weed control -- so much so, in fact, that it's willing to pay $150,000 in grant money to anyone whose device can "deter, disrupt, deny, or degrade the desired objective." Private companies have already begun testing devices that annihilate weeds with lasers, microwave radiation and even sound, which is why the Air Force feels confident that the approach can bear fruit. But before you start entertaining fantasies of mass botanical killings, keep in mind that the government will only accept solutions that don't "target personnel or wildlife." As a Force rep explained to Wired, the idea is to develop an eagle-eyed contraption that lessens its dependence upon costly chemicals and pesticides. Besides, have you seen the Army's front lawn? It's immaculate.
LG flexes its pre-CES design muscle with a cubey AirPlay dock, svelte 3D HDTVs (update)
LG has a habit of creating gadgets for everyday use with super-thin and ultra-sleek designs. This year, the company was recently awarded a whopping 12 Innovation Awards for CES 2012, which notably included very light details on three of its upcoming Smart TVs and its cubey Powerful Sound AirPlay-enabled speaker dock. Among the displays are two 55-inch HDTVs, dubbed LED Cinema 3D LM8600 and Nano Full LED Cinema 3D LM9600 -- both are listed as sporting "LG's narrowest bezel and ultra-slim Clear Screen design," but the Nano variant is said to offer "brighter and smoother" picture quality. For the plasma lovers out there, LG's also let details loose on its PM9700 -- a massive 60-inch 3D HD Plasma display, complete with a Magic Motion remote. For those on the audio side, that cubey AirPlay speaker is said to pack 80-watts of power and a 2.1 stereo speaker array, along with an obligatory iDevice dock on its top. We'll let you know if we catch a glimpse of the new gear at CES, but in the meantime, you'll find details in the press release past the break. Update: LG has requested that the images be removed, sorry folks.
HTC Rezound starts shipping early because you can't stop the Beats
When HTC took the wraps off the Rezound, it tipped us off to a November 14th launch for Verizon's Beats Audio-branded device. Now, it appears that those of you who jumped on the pre-order bandwagon are getting premature access to the red-and-black-tinged goods, with some units arriving as early as today. How'd this come about? Well, it seems a few eager beavers lucked out during the purchasing process, selecting overnight delivery and receiving the phones tout de suite. We can't promise you Big Red's still honoring this ordering quirk, but don't let that stop you from trying your luck. We have a feeling Dr. Dre would approve.
HTC Rezound hands-on (video)
As expected, the HTC made the Rezound official at today's event in New York. Also, as expected, this is one multimedia-centric phone we're looking at here, starting with its big and bright 4.3-inch 720p Super LCD display. Despite its decently large screen size, the phone is surprisingly light and feels nice in the hand. Unlike Motorola and Samsung, however, the company wasn't all that focused on thinness with the Rezound, and the thing rocks a slightly convex back -- not unlike the HTC Vivid on AT&T, which has a prominent hump on the back cover. However you slice it, though, it's a great looking phone. The company clearly put some though into the appearance of the device, with its textured back featuring red accents -- a clear reference to the company's partnership with Beats. If you read our review of the Sensation XE, you know HTC's design philosophy didn't change much in its journey across the Atlantic. HTC Rezound ad pays Verizon stores an early visit, soonish launch likely HTC confirms security hole, says patch is incoming HTC Vivid review Unfortunately, the company wasn't showing off those custom Beats earbuds for our demo, and we had to settle for an over-ear pair -- naturally, we rocked a little Dre on the thing. As you'd expect, the sound is extremely bass-heavy. You can thank Beats for that, no doubt. Interestingly, HTC apparently didn't devote all that much time to the volume buttons on the side of the device, which aren't quite as responsive as we'd like. The music continues to play, even as you launch other apps, which can be bit a distracting when you're trying to stream a video using the phone's LTE radio. For the record, that video loaded quite quickly. The latest version of Sense (3.5) -- last seen on the HTC Rhyme -- runs smoothly here, thanks to the 1.5GHz dual-core processor inside. Flipping through home screens is breezy, as is launching the camera app the company talked up during today's event. The Rezound is coming at you on Verizon November 14th for $299. Until then, have a gander at our gallery of preview shots and rock out to a hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-138373%
HTC Rezound shows off its Vigor with leaked press shots, Beats Audio demo, HD video samples (update)
HTC's set to unveil its newest mobile creation in a just a few hours, and you can bet that it's likely the 4G LTE-enabled Rezound seen above. In the past few weeks, we've seen a purported pre-release unit and even some colorful renders, but today Pocketnow has snagged what appears to be the first official press shots of this rumored 1.5GHz device. The leaks don't stop there, though, as videos of the Rezounds's Beats Audio capabilities and HD video-chops have recently popped up on YouTube -- this courtesy of user worldofjohnboy, who's had his hands an early-run unit for some time now. Questions still remain regarding any official specs and that supposed November 10th release date on Verizon, but we'll surely find out in just a few hours. In the meantime, you'll find the trio of aforesaid videos just past the break, and more info at the links below. Update: And just like that, the videos have been removed from the interwebs. [Thanks, Florian]
Pepsi's 'Sound of Football' project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video)
One one side of the field was a team of former pro soccer players. On the other, a squad of visually impaired amateurs. The two sides laced 'em up, stretched out their quads and went head to head in a scrimmage, though the matchup was a lot more even than you might expect. It's all part of something called the "Sound of Football" -- the latest experiment from the Pepsi Refresh Project. The idea was to level the playing field, so to speak, by forcing both teams to play a match using only their ears, and a pretty nifty tracking system. Created by Tracab, this system was comprised of 16 cameras covering the entire pitch (including two stereovision cameras placed at mid-field), and used jersey colors to distinguish the home team from the away team, and to identify the referees. This set up, which was deployed during the last World Cup, essentially tracked the position of each player in real-time. This information was then funneled into an iPhone attached to each player's headset, and converted into a surround-sound landscape, using an app created by a company called Society 46. Unique sounds were assigned to both the ball and the goal; turning your head in the direction of one goal would produce one sound, facing the ball would result in another. This allowed each player to get a better idea of his surroundings and of his spatial positioning, though, as many of the pros found out, it wasn't quite as easy as it looked. The designers of this system are now looking to use their technology in other, non-sports arenas, in the hopes of helping the blind and visually impaired "see" more of the world around them. Check out a pair of videos on the match and the technology behind it, after the break. [Thanks, Martin]
Soundfreaq's Sound Stack Bluetooth speaker sports dual subwoofers, $400 pricetag
Soundfreaq doesn't release speaker systems often, but it's safe to expect something spectacularly sexy when it does. Such is exactly the case with its latest audiophile-aimed creation, the Sound Stack wireless speaker. The company is toting this $400 Bluetooth-enabled HiFi rig as a "2.2" speaker system, thanks to its DubSub design -- a duo of active subwoofers pump out lowend in an effort to complement its two other "full-range" drivers. Soundfreaq's also packed this puppy with its UQ3 processing to keep the soundstage wide despite the unit's size. Better yet, downloading a free Remote App (available on Android and iOS) unlocks the system's FM radio -- perfect for when you're feeling nostalgic. If that wasn't enough, the Sound Stack's also loaded with an iThing dock and a USB input, both of which can be used to re-juice your devices while streaming. If your Gadget Acquisition Syndrome is already kicking in, fret not, the Sound Stack is available for purchase now. You'll find more details past the break.
Yamaha's ruggedized PDX-11 iPod speaker dock lets you blast beats beyond your block for $100
If its past offerings have been any indicator, Yamaha's no stranger to pumping out attractive speaker docks for iDevices. Not surprisingly, the company's managed to pour that design sense into its latest ruggedized portable system, the PDX-11. This octagonal unit features a 4-inch woofer and a 1 and 3/8-inch tweeter that can be powered by six AA-batteries, allowing for up to eight hours of on-the-go sound. Up top, you'll find a 30-pin connection base for your iPhone or iPod, and there's also a 3.5mm jack around back to play nice with other PMPs. Notably, the speaker's metal carry handle and grill should keep it ready for a mild amount of city-slicking abuse -- and in a choice of blue, white, green or black, we'd imagine it'll look extra fresh doing so. To sweeten the deal further, a remote is included for extra control options. If you're ready to take your tunes to the outdoors, the PDX-11 is available now for a block rockin' hundred bucks. You'll find full details at the source link below.
iHome iW1 AirPlay wireless audio system finally available now, again, sort of
Remember back to September 26th when iHome's iW1 AirPlay speaker was supposed to be available? Curiously, the company's website continually listed the $300 system as "coming soon" (at least the times we checked), leaving iOS and iTunes users yearning for this cable-free audio ware in the proverbial dust. Now, a full month later, iHome has again announced the release of this flagship wireless speaker, even though it's still out of stock itself. According to the company, a quick trip to an Apple Store, Best Buy or Crutchfield should let you snag one, although, the latter's site won't have any until November 3rd. Here's to hunting -- and waiting for the smaller iW2 and iW3 units to get proper release dates. Full details in the press release after the break.
Twelve South BassJump 2 USB Subwoofer now available, further bumps your Mac's thump (update)
At a glance, one could confuse Twelve South's BassJump 2 for a 2011 Mac Mini -- don't be fooled though, this USB subwoofer aims for sound that's anything but. Much like the original BassJump, this guy's aimed at aiding MacBook speakers by adding extra low end boost, and employing proprietary software to keep it in all in check. Improving on the original, however, the BassJump 2 pumps out eight extra decibels of volume and comes with "remastered software," notably featuring iMac and Thunderbolt Display support. If it piques your fancy, the BassJump 2 is now available for about $70 -- much like a pair of utilitarian Grado headphones (or similar), but we digress. Full press release past the break. Update: For clarification, the BassJump 2 is physically identical the first. According to Twelve South, its updated software is the key new feature and can be downloaded for free if you already own a BassJump. [Thanks, Brendan]
Westone's 4 R-Series quad-driver IEMs pack Acoustic Symmetry, cost $500
Remember those impressive Westone 4 in-ear monitors that came out late last year, priced at a whopping $450? Well, the company's ready to best itself again -- and have audiophiles open their wallets a bit wider -- with its new 4 R-Series. This latest set is relatively similar to the 4, still packing Westone's EPIC cable (now detachable) and four balanced armature drivers, but will set you back an extra fifty bucks in the name of Acoustic Symmetry. Westone claims the 'phones achieve an "extremely tight tolerance of +/- 2dB between earpieces," meaning your sound should be extra consistent from both buds. The 4 R-Series buds are expected to arrive before the year's out, so in the meantime we'll just direct you to the PR past the break.
Sony PS3 Wireless Stereo Headset review
Logitech unveils Wireless Headset, Boombox for tablets, smartphones and Radio Raheem Sony PlayStation Vita debuts in Japan on December 17th, partnering with NTT DoCoMo for 3G (updated) Bose BT2 Bluetooth headset cruises through the FCC, unsurprisingly mum on specifications Oh hey, Sony, how nice of you to join the party! The console gaming headset party, that is (no, Bluetooth earpieces don't count). Over a year ago the company had us yearning for a PS3-oriented headset after letting loose its duo of Ultimate Weapons headgear for PC gamers. Then in May, a glimmer of hope shone upon us when its PS3 Wireless Stereo Headset was announced for the DualShock-wielding gamers -- and priced at a modest $100. There's no doubt that this playing field's been blanketed with a saturation of wallet-tempting selections (we're looking at you MadCatz, Turtle Beach and Astro), but Sony's official kit has a few tricks up its sleeve for a potential home run. Despite the moniker, it's capable of virtual 7.1 surround sound and displays onscreen status reports exclusively when used with a PS3. We spent a few fragging-hours over PSN to hear how well we could pin-point our enemies with sound to keep the kill streaks coming. You'll find out the answer by hitting that "read more" link below. %Gallery-134840%
iHome iW1 AirPlay wireless audio system review
/ Believe it or not, it was way back at CES that we first caught an in-person glimpse of iHome's flagship AirPlay-enabled audio system -- a guy dubbed iW1. We've seen a steady trickle of AirPlay devices announced in the time since, but the iW1's been one of the earliest to splash down for the fall season. Priced at a moderate $300, it's a potential option for A) those who aren't keen on smacking down at least double the Benjamins for systems like the B&W Zeppelin Air or Libratone's Live or B) an alternative to other wireless systems like the similarly priced Sonos Play:3. Despite the iW1's low(ish) cost of adoption, though, it's packed with a bevy of tantalizing features (including app support, capacitive controls and a rechargeable battery), and a classy appearance, to boot. We put this modern-age boom box through its sound-reproducing paces for the past few weeks (much to our neighbors dismay). So, if you want to find out whether or not the iHome iW1 will pack a bang for your buck, hit that "read more" link below for our full review. %Gallery-134652%
Magnetic Cello almost makes it cool to play the cello (video)
Say hello to the Magnetic Cello, the perfect companion to your magnetic drum kit. Crafted by college student David Levi (AKA "Magnetovore"), the instrument vaguely represents a traditional cello in structure, but the similarities pretty much end right there. To play it, for example, musicians use not a horsehair bow, but a magnetic rod that produces a voltage within an attached coil (the "bridge," in this case). Its "strings," meanwhile, consist of resistive ribbons connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator, allowing users to manipulate volume with the magnet-bow. The result sounds surprisingly cello-like, though Levi says he's still tinkering with its tone and playability. Waltz past the break to see the beast in action for yourself, or find more details in Levi's provisional patent application at the link below.
