hardware - page 15

Back in 2001, a freelance copywriter named Vinnie Chieco who was hired to help Apple come up with a name for their MP3 player took one look at the device and exclaimed: “Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL!” And thus, the iPod was christened.

Chieco was making a tongue-in-cheek pop reference to Stanley Kubrick’s transcendental sci-fi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a ship’s onboard AI, HAL 9000, makes an evolutionary leap after coming in radio contact with a monolith circling Jupiter. Acting erratically, HAL 9000 eventually lashes out, revealing a murderous new self-preservation instinct when his human charges want to shut him down.

Perhaps because HAL isn’t exactly cinema’s most touchy-feely computer, Apple wasn’t willing to embrace the association between 2001 and the iPod line. But now that HAL’s soothingly detached cadence and artificial intelligence capabilities have been mimicked by Siri, perhaps it’s time to revisit the connection with ThinkGeek’s new Iris 9000 voice control module that will let you Siri from across the room… or trapped on the opposite side of the pod bay doors rocketing through deep space.

Make HAL proud and help Siri touch the monolith. It only costs $59.99.

Maybe you’re not going to buy a pair of earphones based on the way they look; maybe you’d rather spend your moolah on a pair that came with exquisite performance. What if you could have both? In spades? Here you go: With their deep, bone-tingling bass and blue-blood looks and manners, the Klipsch Image S4i earphones ($100) is the Prince…of Spades.

  I arrived at this party pretty late — I’m probably the junior member here at the Cult of Mac, as far as Apple adoption goes. I haven’t discussed it directly with the entire staff, but I’m almost certain everyone else here had been using Steve’s gadgets long before I started.

My wholesale defection from PC to Mac finally happened in 2005, when I walked out of the Stonestown Galleria Apple Store, beaming, with a 12-inch iBook G4, never to return to the world of Windows. But the journey began two years earlier, when I met and fell in love with my first Apple product.

Yes, it was an iPod.

Review by Kelly Keltner

Let me begin this review by saying, while I’ve found some love for certain models, I don’t really care for most canalphones: They’re uncomfortable, and while I love the idea of plugging a foreign object into my ear and having that object deliver magical sounds just like an owl delivers a Howler, I usually wind up being disappointed with either the sound or the fit. So, with that in mind, it was time to try the Etymotic mc3 ($100).

This set, with a three-button remote on the cable and four sets of super-sealing, deep-seating eartips (two flanged, two foam), was now tasked with being tested by me. May the Force, that I’ll probably have to use to shove them into my ears, be with them.

I always feel like I should be wearing diamond-studded sunglasses, walking around in a silk bathrobe or drinking Cristal from actual Bohemian crystal whenever I sink a pair of V-Moda’s babies into my ears. This doesn’t have anything neccessarily to do with how they sound, but rather because V-Moda has a knack for creating earphones with exotic looks and a luxurious feel to them that also appeal to the other senses. And so it goes with the V-Moda Vibrato Remote earphones ($130).

So you’ve got your new iPhone 4S, and now you want to talk to Siri (and maybe friends) and enjoy some tuneage. Step one: Donate those pathetic white buds that came with your iPhone to your favorite charity, if they’ll take ’em. Step two: Get yourself a snazzy pair of microphone-equipped canalphones — earphones that fit snugly in your ear. Why? Because a good set of canalphones are the best accessory ever made for an iPhone; they’ll create a seal that will block out ambient noise while enhancing sound coming from the earphones, especially bass — which means better conversations with friends (or Siri), and better music.

Around $100 seems to be the point at which there’s a big jump in quality; also, most in that range are now equipped with inline volume controls (in addition to the play/pause and track-skip controls like the ones on Apple’s stock buds).

We’ve assembled an Apple Store’s worth of canalphones at that level, and we’ll be reviewing them over the next several days. Up first is Sennheiser’s MM 70 iP earphones ($100).

The latest piece of full-on AirPlay sound hardware is from the sonic wizards over at Los Angeles-based Audyssey.

Yeah, the Lower East Side Audio Dock Air ($399) looks more like a Lego brick than the outfit’s svelte South of Market dock we raved about earlier this year — but the new, six-speaker dock is filled with audio-techno-jargon like “passive bass radiators” and “Smart Speaker technology,” which is probably English for “this will blow you away, dude.” And of course, don’t forget the AirPlay.

Boy, those blue-shirted Apple employees must be going nuts just trying to keep up with all the different in-ear headphones out there. Still, can’t hurt to have a few more at the party — especially if they’re from a manufactrer with a rep for awesome bang-for-buck.

The ATH-BT03 (pictured above) is going to grab all the attention. It’s an $80 wireless Bluetooth headset that does the whole phone and music thing and looks wicked small.

Audio Technica’s other anouncement yesterday, the less flashy ATH-CK400i (jeez, their marketers must have attended the same fun product-naming class the marketing peeps at Sony did) is simply an in-ear set with an inline controls and a mic — but it’s priced at a measly $60.

In the tradition of artists throughout history, those proud iconoclasts at Apple who created the original Macintosh signed their creations for posterity. Inscribed into the inside rear panel case mold for the 128k, 512k and Mac Plus are the signatures of Steven Jobs, Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, Bruce Horn, Jef Raskin and the rest of the historic team.

Review by Jordan Trimas

It’s nice to know that when I get caught in the rain with my headphones on, I don’t have to anxiously hide them if I’m wearing the Monster iSport Immersion In-Ear Headphones ($180). Did your kid spill his Kool-Aid on them? They’re machine washable!

Is the G-Form Extreme Sleeve for iPad ($60) really and certifiably resistant to explosive munitions? Dunno. We don’t have access to C4, and our insurance company would probably refuse to cover us if we did. Also, we didn’t run over the Extreme Sleeve with an iPad in it or drop bowling balls on it, because we’re pretty sure these aren’t use-case scenarios most (or any) iPads would encounter.

What we did do, however, is run the little monster through rugged alpine and gritty urban environments, then compared it with other extreme-environment solutions for the iPad. Here’s how it did.

The Griffin AirStrap ($30) is another iPad 2 case that’s designed to help you maintain a secure grip on your precious tablet while you’re using it. It features a molded frame with contoured grips on each side, which are structured to protect the edges of your device.

On the back, there’s a neoprene safety strap under which you slip your hand to ensure you have a good grip on your iPad while you’re using. As you’d expect, the AirStrap also provides access to your device’s dock connector, speaker, headphone jack, volume rocker and mute switch, microphone, and the sleep/wake button.

Here it is folks. The new iPhone 4S. Although apple.com is struggling under the load right now, we’ve managed to grab some images for you. More as soon as we can get them.

Just like their older system, Zeo’s new Sleep Manager Mobile tracks your sleep patterns using a transmitter worn on the forehead while sleeping that relays your sleep state to a receiver. Only Zeo’s new gadget transmits the data directly to the iPhone.

Review by Kelly Keltner

Griffin’s Sport Armband for iPhone ($30) — a product name that fills my head with visions of iPhones running around the track (“Go, go, little 3GS! You can do it! You’re not too old!”) — allows you to get up and go without worrying about your iPhone. It’s a decent attempt at making workout clothing for the iPhone, but just as with those just-a-bit-too-tight yoga pants, there are a few bulges that might cause a few sideways looks in the gym.

I’ve never found a stylus for the iPad that I’ve really liked. Whether an aluminum tube filled with cheap capacitive foam, or something more beefy like Wacom’s official $35 Stylus, I’ve found that more often than not, iPad stylii are maddeningly unpredictable when it comes to registering the tip of the pen and where a pen stroke actually starts.

That’s why I’m blown away by this demo of the XStylus Touch by Hong Kong inventor Elton Leung. He’s noticed that all styluses have an issue with where the pen stroke starts, and he’s designed an incredible stylus that seems to register on the iPad at the exact pixel when it first comes in contact with the display.

Of all the Apple stuff I’ve ever owned, only an iPod Mini and my beloved 3rd-Gen iPod and maybe a few stickers have ever been stolen; I consider myself lucky. If MacBook Pros come with slots to keep them locked down, why not the iPad? Griffin says “why not, indeed” with their new TechSafe Case ($80).

Akitio’s pretty new alloy enclosure has a back full of inputs: eSATA, USB 3.0 and two FireWire 800 ports. There’s no way to jack in a Thunderbolt connection, though.

Review by Jordan Trimas

The JayBird Freedom JF3 ($99) Bluetooth wireless headphones are a successful attempt to build upon a paramount technological concept: take something good and make it great — or in this case, take a good pair of IEM headphones and ditch the cord. It’s like a musical bris without the rabbi — or the baby.

If you didn’t hear the news, Cult of Mac hit 100,000 Twitter followers last week. To celebrate, we hosted a huge giveaway yesterday on Twitter. Because some people were sad that they didn’t come away with a prize, we’ve decided to extend the celebration farther into the week and give readers a few more chances to win. Today we’re giving away a Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard for Mac. It’s one of the coolest new keyboards we’ve seen because you don’t have to keep spare batteries on hand anymore. If you want a shot at winning this beautiful thing here are the rules for today’s contest:

For those of you rueing the fact that your iPad’s Smart Cover doesn’t protect your sleek baby’s bum, here’re two new options from Belkin — one of which practically gives your iPad a whole matching ensemble.

Kosella think they have a slick new way to make stylus tips: Instead of using the rubbery tips of most styli, they’ve figured out a way to use a fabric tip that has tiny metal filaments woven into it in order to make it conductive.

Los Angeles-based TRTL BOT turned to Kickstarter for the latest project: A massive, multi-use iPad 2 case/stand called The Shell, with a nod to keeping an iPad safe during brutal use. Like when it’s in the hands of kids.

Seems like a formula for success: Take a fine, Napa leather iPad 2 case (like Sena’s Folio for iPad 2), add a compact Bluetooth keyboard and an executive touch or two, and the result is the  Sena Keyboard Folio for iPad 2 ($150) — an executive-grade miniature office.

We had high expectations for the Keyboard Folio. Sena just upgraded the keyboard, ditching an error-prone, rubber keyboard for a hard-shell Hippih Expression keyboard — and we were the first publication to receive one for review.

I love iPad 2 accessories that follow the guiding principles of the gadget they were built for. I mean, c’mon — d’you really want to lug around a case the size of a large waffle skillet just to have some keys to type on? Of course not.

The Logitech Keyboard Case by ZAGG for iPad 2 ($100) follows those principles to the letter: It’s light, super-functional and ultra-portable, just like the gadget it was made for.