While most people are still focussing on Christmas and New Year lets not forget CES 2014 is not far away and it looks like it is going to be another battle of the big screen TVs. We already saw some crazy TVs at IFA 2013 and this trend is continuing with Samsung and LG both … Read more
ChromeOS has been mainly reserved for laptops until now. LG has decided to try and buck this trend by announcing the LG Chromebase, a 21.5-inch ChromeOS powered all in one desktop. The display is 1080p IPS LCD which hides an Intel Celeron CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD inside. You will also find your … Read more
Vivo is not particularly a household name in the UK but it is one of a few Chinese companies that are churning out some mightily impressive phones. Vivo has just announced the Xplay 3S which is an Android phablet that is the first device to feature a 6” (2,560 x 1,440) display, which works out … Read more
We don’t often feature projectors on this blog, but we recently got to review the the Elmo Box-i T350 portable LED projector. This is a somewhat unknown company to consumers because Elmo established itself in the education market, but is now looking at targeting consumers with this portable gaming projector. Unlike your normal home theatre … Read more
Last updated: April 24th 2017 I have recently done a fresh iMend review that you can find here. I was recently contacted by iMend to review their repair services for Mobiles and Tablets, which I gladly took up to get an old iPhone 4 repaired. With the cost of devices increasing each year, along with … Read more
We have been covering more and more on home automation and smart homes recently, it certainly looks like it is going to become a big thing in 2014. Google has now been rumoured to keep tabs on their energy use and adjust accordingly. As part of a project reportedly dubbed EnergySense, the hardware itself seems … Read more
Today we were most excited when we received a package from Tado containing their smart thermostat which is similar to the Nest. However the Nest is not available in the UK at the moment so Tado is getting several months head start before the Nest launch. If you are not aware the Tado is a smart … Read more
GTA Online has had a bit of a patchy start but we are finally starting to see some decent updates. Rockstar will be launching a new update this week which will unlock race and deathmatch creation tools. Using these tools, players can set up custom race and shootout jobs to play with friends and publish … Read more
** Thank you to everyone that entered, the winners are Anthony, Matt, and Andrew, they have all been contacted and replied to the emails so we hope to have the prizes sent out today (Monday 23rd December) ** Our friends at Kensington have kindly donated a Keyfolio Exact and 2 x Comercio Hard Folio Cases to … Read more
We have reviewed a few tablet cases recently and today we have the Kensington KeyFolio Exact for you. This case ups the ante quite a bit and is a folio style case with a bluetooth keyboard which currently retails at £119.99 on the Kensignton website. At nearly £120 this is not aimed at your casual … Read more
As part of our reviews and articles on smart homes and home automation we have been given a HD wireless internet security camera from Ucam247 to review. Consumer CCTV has had a boom over recent years with lower costs of camera and most home owners having fast home broadband with WiFi, as well as increasing … Read more
Three created its Feel At Home offer a while ago, where Three customers can use their contract minutes, data and texts in selected countries. Well today it just got a whole lot better with the USA being added to the list. On top of the USA, Three also added Sri Lanka and Macau, and the … Read more
Many of us are neglecting the trips to the cinema in exchange for putting our feet up in front of our own home theatre. With improvements in the technology constantly appearing, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to cool new features and upgrades. But what is the next big thing for home cinema … Read more
Amazon has become an unstoppable force over recent years, and even with bad press they seem to be getting bigger and bigger. One of the reasons behind their growth is innovation which can sometimes seem a little eccentric.
This time Jeff Bezos has revealed that the company have developed drones that are capable of carrying 5 pounds (2.26KG) to your home within 30 minutes.
86% of Amazons packages fit this weight criteria and the drone will sit at the end of a conveyer belt waiting to pick up your package and then carry them up to 10 miles to your home.
Obviously there are a whole bunch of obstacles to overcome before this becomes reality, the main one being flight regulations from the corresponding countries they are rolled out too. Also it would likely be restricted to the most populous of cities that are within the 10 mile reach of an Amazon fulfilment centre. Health and safety issues will also come into play, and no doubt working out how to avoid people trying to steal the packages.
We can’t wait to see the final service in operation though.
Following our trip to Liverpool last week for the press even and launch of the new JBL Synchros S700 headphones, we have had chance to check them out for a few days and see how they sound with music other than live acoustic sets.
In case you missed our previous posts the S700 headphones are the result of over a years worth of scientific research by JBL into what makes a headphone sound good, previously no other company has approached the subject in a scientific manor and there has been no consensus on what is the best sound for headphones. The result of this research was that people actually preferred a neutral sound rather than with excessive bass.
As part of the research, JBL also wanted to come up with a way to make headphones sound more like you are listening to music as it was designed to be listened to, and that is via stereo in a reference level room taking into account the natural resonance of the surroundings. With headphones the sound is play directly into your ears so it is not being bounced across multiple surfaces giving an immersive effect or a sense of direction. Therefore with the Synchros S700 music can (optionally) be played through a DSP which alters the sound to mimic being listened to in a natural stereo environment. This technology means that the headphones have to be powered and they are use a lithium ion battery which is charged via the headphone cables.
Our initial impression of the headphones was that they are exceptionally well built, they are very sturdy, quite heavy and made up of a cast aluminium with leather ear cushions, we found them really comfortable though extended use they did make our ears a little hot. They come with 2 sets of cables, one for Android and one for iPhone, as well as a nice carry case. Overall these have a very premium feel to them.
During the press even we got to listen to them during a live performance from Jonas and the Massive Attraction. When switching between passive and SoundStage we found the SoundStage to be quite impressive with it actually making the performance sound more like a live performance. During the following days we have had chance to listen to them with a wide range of music from Rock, Electronica, Hip Hop etc, and unfortunately we found the LiveStage to be slightly less impressive, we found that bass seemed to be reduced and it felt slightly unbalanced. In passive mode the headphones do seem to be surprisingly bass heavy considering JBL says they are supposed to be more natural sounding, and it is possible this is why we were less impressed with soundstage the second time round as we are just used to everything being so bass heavy nowadays.
With the headphones in active or passive we found them very capable, they handled everything we through at them without any distortion, even with the heaviest bass tracks we could find the headphones played them comfortably and everything sounded quite powerful, in passive mode bass was really deep in places which we think will appeal to a lot of younger people (contrary to JBLs findings).
Overall, even though we were not 100% sure if we preferred LiveStage or passive these are excellent headphones with a ultra premium feel that you are not going to be disappointed with. You can currently get the Synchros S700 headphones from the JBL store for £299 which is expensive, but if you are looking for some premium headphones that are going to last you several years we don't think you will be disappointed with these. JBL also offer a 30 day return policy so you are free to try them out yourself and decide how much you like them.
So far 4k has not really reached the PC Monitor market with the exception of the excruciatingly expensive (but amazing) 31.5” Asus PQ321QE at £3k. Now it would appear that Dell are looking at getting into the 4k market, though strangely rather than releasing a 4k version of their 30” Ultrasharp range they are planning … Read more
