Non Bite Sized Bits of Bytes
Sounds of SummerBy Matt Hale
 |
| If you're headed to the beach this summer, treat your ears right | Photo/Flickr |
As a result of Apple’s early advertising for the original series of iPod devices, the telltale white earbud cords that now hang from everyone’s ears are the epitome of geek chic. Apple broke the mold again, replacing tired old black insulation with white insulation! The problem is that the drivers at the end of the cable are weak, tinny and prone to sounding so terrible at low volumes that you risk deafness to enjoy your favorite songs and albums.
For the risk to your hearing alone, I highly recommend spending a little extra cash after you buy your music player to replace your earphones with a set that have better harmonic balance, better seal with your ear and more reliable reproduction of tone and nuance at lower volumes.
 |
| A classic: Sennheiser HD 414s |
As a starving college student discovering new music through roommates, classmates and new friends, I didn’t have the budget to spend on audiophile-grade equipment, but I knew enough to replace my stock earbuds on both my MP3 CD player (a Diamond RioVolt SP250) and my first solid-state flash MP3 Player (a Sandisk Digital Audio Player).
The first set of replacements were Sennheiser CX300 earbuds. Unlike most stock earphones, these featured much smaller drivers combined with small, medium and large silicone sheaths fit on the drivers and fit snugly in the ear canal, to seal out outside noise. Before you even start your music, CX300 earbuds work to keep unwanted sounds out of your zen space. The CX300 carries a retail price of $59.95, but can easily be found online for $35 or less.
 |
| Sennheiser CX300 |
If you’re on a tight budget, these are a great pair of earbuds with decent, balanced sound. They’re not going to make any audiophiles happy, but they’ll be a major improvement over your iPod headphones. The original CX300 model does not include an in-line microphone for phone calls and Siri, but for casual music listening or a beach day, they’re excellent.
Graduating to full time employment and my brief flirtation with the iPod and Zune, I also decided to upgrade my portable music tech to something a bit more... refined. After a painstaking search with a modest, but respectable $100 budget, I selected the Shure SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones. Having used them for at least 4 years now, the earbuds remain an excellent device that provides consistently nuanced reproductions of my recordings at high and low volumes.
The earbuds come with 6 sets of sheaths to cover the drivers. 3 sizes of silicone sheaths and 3 sizes of foam sheaths made of the same material that earplugs are made from. The silicone for the SE110s is more rigid than the CX300 silicone, making the seal slightly less comfortable (and no, they’re not interchangeable), but only slightly. Where these earbuds shine is in the use of the foam sheaths which provide a perfect seal in the ear canal.
 |
| A good bet: Shure SE 110 |
The bad: the slightest movement of the cable results in rubbing noises translating up the cable into your ear. I don’t recommend using them for running unless you switch to the silicon sheaths.
So, go out and replace those lousy headphones that came with your phone or MP3 player. Your ears will thank you. Just remember these rules for shopping:
- Paying more for style is not a good idea when it comes to headphones. Chances are, readers of this guide will value sound quality over style, but when I see “cute” or “fun” looking earphones, I usually see junk as far as function is concerned. They’ll be marginally better than your original headphones, or maybe even worse.
- Spend a little more to get quality. The best part of the Shure earbuds is the fact that they feel great. They feel very natural in your ear, the cable feels very high quality and they came with a pouch that holds all the accessories and different sized sheaths to configure them for your ears. It even has a carabiner so you can clip it to your belt. The whole experience just screams “quality” and you’ll feel like it’s money well-spent.
- Go for the brands that have been around forever. I buy Sennheisers and Shures because the companies have been making quality audio equipment since 1945 (Sennheiser) and 1925 (Shure). Other good options include Bose and Klipsch. I’ve heard good things (pun-intended) about Ultimate Ears and Etymotic, but I don’t have first-hand knowledge to make any recommendation for their products.
---
By Matt Hale
 |
| It's not as complicated as it looks | Photo via Matt Hale for 10th StreetLA |
Shopping for the Perfect Home Theater System
Selecting a home theater system is a completely subjective process. The general guideline is to select a system that best compliments the type of content you view on a regular basis and meshes well with your perceptions of sights and sounds. Generally speaking, more money does result in better audio/video equipment, but that doesn’t mean that you should always buy the most expensive product available. The key is to spend what makes sense for your uses, your budget and your tastes. Hopefully, this guide will prevent you from getting ripped off by clever marketing and the promise of exceptional features that are sure to fall short of your expectations.
First, a few ground rules:
1) Try before you buy:
Because everyone perceives sound and color differently, an “expert” recommendation is pretty much worthless. If you read a review that says the TV you’re looking at is junk and you should get one that’s $500 more expensive, go see it for yourself in a store. Any brick-and-mortar store with a good sales department should even be able to hook up a demo player for just the screen you’re considering so that you don’t have signal degradation from the 100-way splitter they’re using to put the same content on all their screens.
The same rule applies to sound systems. Just because that home theater in a box has hundreds of 5-star reviews on Amazon and only a few 1- and 2-star reviews doesn’t mean it’s right for you. You’re about to unload hundreds or thousands of dollars on this gear, so make a good investment. Take your time and try the system in-store. Power user tip: bring a RCA -to-mini-plug cable (See Fig. 1) to plug your phone or iPod into the sound system. Play a recording you know really well; if it sounds great, you’re on the right track.
2) Fiddle with the settings at the store:
Brick and mortar stores tend to max out all the settings on screens to make them look big and bright and colorful. This is not how it will look out of the box and it’s not an accurate representation of the content-maker’s intent. Adjust the settings to simulate your home-viewing preferences. Warning signs: if that brightness setting is maxed out and the TV still looks dim, steer clear; if you have fiddled with the color settings for 20 minutes and everyone on screen still looks like an oompa loompa, stop trying and steer clear. There is a lot of junk in the TV marketplace.
Adjust the sound quality of receivers and speakers when you listen to your music sample. If you can’t get sharp trebles, defined midrange and deep bass, move on. You may have to spend a little more, but you’re going to regret the moment you compromised every time you listen to your stereo after that moment.
3) Research online before shopping:
Look up specs and reviews for TV and stereo models at the store you’re about to visit. Know which ones they carry in your price range and look for key deficiencies in the things you care about: bad bass, color over/under saturation, low brightness, picture gets digital blocks during action.
4) Know your standards
When you consider which Audio/Video Receiver to get, make sure it supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio in either 5.1 or 7.1 configurations. Complete systems that are THX-certified have been put through their paces by George Lucas’s technicians and certified for excellence. THX-certified speakers are known for well-reproduced bass, even at low volumes.
Setting up your new gear
Setting up your home theater is far less complicated than it used to be. In the 90s and early 2000s, You needed to have several different video and audio cables from each device running into your receiver and a duplicate set running from the receiver to your TV. I would love to tell you that you can install your new home theater wirelessly, but the technology just doesn’t exist to make that happen... yet.
I don’t want to spend too much time on the mechanics of mounting your TV and speakers. Every room has a unique set of needs and the process of mounting your hardware has more in common with home improvement than technology. You should always mount speakers so they don’t rattle or vibrate - they will ruin your listening experience and if they shake themselves off the wall, that can cause damage. Mount your “center” channel speaker as close to the center of the screen as possible. The point of that speaker is to carry the dialog of your movie, so it’s better when it sounds like the voices on screen are coming from the screen, not off to the side.
You will still need cabling, but recent inventions in home theater technology make connecting your devices much, much simpler. For your speakers, consult this guide from Crutchfield, which has an excellent summary of the choices in connecting your speakers to your A/V Receiver. Caution: Make sure that your red wires go to the red connections, and your black wires go to the black connections, at the speakers AND the A/V Receiver. If you don’t connect them correctly, they will be out of phase which cancels your bass and ruins your stereo “image.”
As for your components like your Blu Ray/DVD player, Cable or Satellite Receiver and MP3 Player, consider that nearly all of your audio and video sources will come from a digital source, be processed as a digital signal and convert to analog only when it is time to send them to the screen and speakers. You want to avoid making unnecessary conversions along the path from disc to screen; every time your signal converts from digital to analog, there’s a chance it will convert back to digital. This adds the potential for “transcription” errors between encoders and decoders and may diminish sound quality and we would NOT want that.
Given this reality, the best and most appropriate means to send your favorite movie from your Blu-ray player, through your surround sound and to your TV, is HDMI. HDMI stands for High Definition Media Interface and is a cable design that transmits Full High Definition video and Surround Sound along a single cable. It avoids digital-to-analog-to-digital conversions and makes installation much easier than the traditional cabling designs. If your device has it, use it. If it doesn’t, fall back to Component (video) + Digital Optical Out (Audio).
Adjusting settings to maximize sound and video quality
 |
| Paradise: found. | Photo/Matt Hale |
Here’s a step-by-step guide:
1) Measure the distance between your speakers and the most commonly used seating position.
Enter these distances for each of your speakers in the appropriate section of your receiver. Note that the distance is from your sofa to the speaker, not the distance from the speaker to the receiver.
2) Adjust “Dynamic Range” for the characteristics of your theater room.
Apartment dwellers and families with those who don’t appreciate random loud explosions every few minutes should select “compressed” or “low” dynamic range. This setting squashes the high-volume sounds and the low-volume sounds to the same sound space, so you don’t have a wide volume variation between soft-spoken dialog and the sounds of the cannons firing on the Black Pearl as Johnny Depp swings across the deck. Your neighbors/roommates/family will thank you.
If you have a relatively soundproofed room and friendly neighbors, set it to “full” or “max” dynamic range. This will more closely approximate a true theater experience, but you’ll have to crank up the volume to hear the quiet parts.
3) Set the “Crossover Frequency”
This one is tricky and depends highly on the nature of your speakers. Every system with a subwoofer must be configured to tell the A/V receiver which sounds should be sent to the speakers on the wall and which should be sent to the subwoofer. This threshold point is the crossover frequency. Once you set it, every sound lower than that setting will be sent to the sub.
The way I set it was to play a piece of music I knew really well, that had good deep bass and bright instrumentals. To start, set your crossover frequency to 80 Hz on your receiver and adjust the setting as the music plays. The bass should go to the sub and everything else should come from your walls. If you can pinpoint the position of the subwoofer by listening, you haven’t hit the right frequency. When the bass melts into the surroundings and provides distinctive elements of sound without overpowering everything else, you’ve got the right crossover frequency.
4) Adjust your screen
The two most important settings on your TV are Brightness and Contrast. Brightness should be set first and the easiest way to calibrate your screen is to set it with a flesh tone displayed. The flesh should look natural, not oompa loompa orange or ghostly white. Contrast should be set by maxing it out and then backing it down slowly until the parts of the image don’t bleed into one another at all. Once you hit that sweet spot, adjust the “Color” or “Saturation” setting until colors look natural, but not too intense. Sharpness should be adjusted minimally, if at all.
Once you have selected the right gear, the right hookups and the right settings, you’ll be ready to relax and enjoy your favorite movies, TV and music. As you find yourself frustrated getting all of this set up and configured (this is not a very straightforward process), remember one thing: The reason for all this work is so you don’t even notice all that gear on your wall. After all, the point of a home theater is not to revel in your technology, but to enjoy your favorite content in its purest, most accurately-reproduced form. Eventually, you’ll stop caring about the tech and start listening for nuances in your recordings and details in your favorite movies you missed at the theater. And you’ll be pleased you went through all this trouble.
What’s in a byte?
Let me let you in on a little nerd secret: It’s really easy to compare broadband connections when you break down the confusing math.
You know that binary code is a bunch of 0s and 1s, right? Well, 1 bit is one of those 0s or 1s. For example the binary number 00 is 2 bits, 001 is 3 bits, 0010 is 4 bits and so on. You just count the number of digits in the binary number. Stay with me, I’ll explain why this is important.
When you get up to eight bits, you have constructed a byte. So, the binary number:
01010010 = 8 bits = 1 byte.
When you shop for a broadband internet connection, speeds are measured in Megabits per second or Mbps. For example, a 10 Mbps connection lets you transfer ten million 0s and 1s in a single second. To calculate how many Megabytes per second can be transferred, simply divide by 8. That same 10 megabit per second connection will transfer 1.25 megabytes per second.
That means that to download all 6.95 megabytes of A-Ha’s “Take On Me” in 256 bitrate MP3, it will take 5.56 seconds on that 10 Mbps connection. Let’s call this the “A-Ha index.”
There’s a handy chart with the conversions for you at the end of the article.
[link]
---
The Case Against Apple
By Matt Hale
 |
| Who are the real drones? |
Although I have always admired and appreciated Apple for their contributions to technology, there is an exclusivity around their products that comes from their prices and a marketing-induced aura. To be fair, though, technology and geekdom is better off from Apple’s robust participation in the marketplace and it continues to play a critical role in tech history.
And I don’t want Apple to change a bit of what they’re doing (except maybe the patent warfare), because Apple is helping to make technology better. The company has demonstrated that it’s possible to make beautiful and functional devices, rendering obsolete the need to sacrifice form for function. I’ve often asked myself, Why keep resisting? The answer dates back to the launch of the first Macintosh.
In 1984, Apple debuted its now famous Ridley Scott-directed Super Bowl commercial announcing the Macintosh. The ad depicted a tank-topped revolutionary hurling a sledgehammer through the massive image of a propagandist on a screen. The ad was based not-too-loosely off of George Orwell’s 1984 and the automatons watching the projection were the corporate drones stuck using the boring old IBM-PC. 1
Apple, the startup from a Silicon Valley garage, had just declared war against one of the world’s largest companies and geeks around the world would take sides. With the ubiquity of cross-platform internet-based services, the platform war is pretty much over now, but the lasting implications of this conflict are social and cultural.
The target of Apple’s ad may have been conventionalism in computing, but the millions of IBM PC users depicted as mindless, brainwashed automatons, were people building, supporting and maintaining an increasingly important computing infrastructure and who were part of a counterculture of their own. The Mac launch became a controversial lightning rod within a tech community composed of people generally supportive of each others’ work. Here was upstart Apple saying, “You’re all doing it wrong.”
Was that genius? Hubris? It turned out to be both as the Mac was way ahead of its time, but not so incredible that it managed to dominate the computer marketplace. Windows, not Mac OS, is still used on 95% of all computers sold. So much for the revolution.
Apple clearly has struck a nerve with consumers who just want their devices to work. For this group, computers are an appliance, designed to perform some functions and then lay there and look nice when it’s not in use. Apple is brilliant at implementing incredibly complicated technology with an interface that makes it easy for grandma to use. There’s a button for every feature.
Where is the fun in that?
Most everything I know about technology, I learned from fixing it. Windows and its bugs, quirks and often painfully bad user interface meant that I had to think creatively to fix problems, learn, really learn how the internet works and how software and hardware interact with each other. That doesn’t mean that I can solve every problem or know technology well enough to invent something, but I know a lot more than my Mac-user brethren.
Apple devices show you a picture where PCs give you the pieces of a puzzle. Apple prides itself on how complete and whole its devices are where PCs embrace their chaotic, disjointed, egalitarian nature.
Apple makes the computers anyone can use, but PCs are way more democratic. Just go to the PC section at Fry’s in Burbank to look at all the different choices you have for designing a computer. There are literally hundreds of different PC designs and thousands of components to choose from. From a basic corporate desktop, to a high-end gaming rig, there are infinite choices to design and construct a computer to your exact desires. Buy any copy of Windows and install it, and suddenly it’s compatible with every Windows program and millions of peripheral devices.
You can still buy off the shelf too, but that choice is exactly the point. If you want a box that looks like everyone else’s, great, get one. If you want to build a creative, artistic, custom chopper of a PC, inspired by your favorite book or movie, you have the freedom to do that too. If you buy a copy of Mac OS X, it can only, ever be installed on an Apple product with a silver patina, glossy screen and lots of brushed aluminum. Twenty-eight years later, who are the automatons marching in lockstep with Dear Leader?
I’ve used Apple products before. I had an iPod mini and used iTunes for awhile. I’ve used Quicktime extensively and have attempted to use an iPhone. I’ve even sat down at length with a Mac and put OS X through its paces. It is impressive to use an Apple product. They are smooth, fast, slick machines that make you feel like you’re touching the future. But after the wow-factor wears off, I always feel like there should be... more.
The perfect way to sum up my anti-Apple bias is to explain my beef with the iPhone. I think the iPhone is great. It’s beautiful, the app marketplace is superb and you know that Apple is going to be supporting it for years. The only problem with every iPhone I’ve ever used is the keyboard. I can’t stand it; the buttons are too small and they’re in the wrong places. Could I get used to it if I spent enough time with it? Probably, but it’s critical to the use and enjoyment of the device and I just don’t like it. I would consider getting an iPhone, but you can’t replace the keyboard like you can on Android.
And that is just it: genius and hubris. The iPhone is a genius device with thousands of app developers ready to fill my needs and replace that keyboard, but because of the design of the iOS, it’s just not possible. Apple, in its hubris, has deemed its devices “perfect,” so anyone who would suggest otherwise, or has different needs or desires, should look elsewhere. So, I do.
I know that I’m approaching this subject from a unique perspective. Not everyone is going to want to poke around inside their computer case, take it apart, see what makes it tick and put it all back together again. For most, Apple products work just fine and that’s great. For me, it’s just not enough.
1 - Lost to history is the fact that the battle in 1984 was not between Microsoft and Apple, but between the IBM PC architecture and the Apple architecture. Microsoft was a small player in a crowded marketplace at the time, not the ubiquitous behemoth we all know (and love?) today.
[link]
---
6 Things You Need to Know About Android 4.1
By Matt Hale
In early July, Google hosted its annual developer conference, unveiling new products to a gaggle of tongue wagging techies looking for a peek into the Android future. The major product launches - the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Q home theater streaming device - were exciting enough and could portend great things for Google’s ever-expanding Android platform.
The most significant news for many Android users, however, was the launch of its next generation operating system called Jelly Bean.
Here’s what's new:
1) Project Butter: Users of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and a few other Motorola and Samsung models have experienced (with a few hiccups) the enhancements Google made from the earlier Android versions to the current 4.0, called Ice Cream Sandwich. Android 4.0 made the operating system feel “finished” in a way users of the iPhone and Windows Phone users bragged about. Project Butter expands on that polish and improves performance beyond anything they've accomplished to date.
With Jelly Bean, the performance gains are significant. There’s no lag between apps, animations are smooth and my Galaxy Nexus has experienced very few crashes. While these may seem like insignificant improvements, consider that the faster your phone completes simple tasks, the more time your battery has to relax and, hopefully, improve its duration.
But one of the most exciting developments is:
2) Offline Voice Typing: Even in major markets like Los Angeles, there are dead zones where coverage drops off and basic phone functions fail. Prior to Jelly Bean, voice typing to crank out an email or reply to a text message hands-free while driving required a steady data connection and had a lengthy lag between speaking and the words appearing. No more. The offline voice typing functionality virtually erases lag and allows for reliable voice typing even when between cell towers. One of Android’s most useful and advanced features is even better.
3) Auto Resizing Widgets: Drag a widget from the app drawer to the homescreen and it will automatically resize to fit the available space. Pretty useful when you configure your home screens.
4) New Beam Features: Most new Android phones are equipped with a Near Field Communications (NFC) chip that allows for quick wireless connections to be established between nearby devices. Google has expanded the functionality to allow image transfers between NFC devices and quick pairing with bluetooth headsets and media devices like Nexus Q, the newly released home theater streaming device.
5) Revamped Notification Menu: Android’s notification bar has been a mainstay at the top of screens since its inception. Different notification iterations have graced each new Android version, increasing its usefulness in giving us a glimpse at our incoming messages with a simple glance and a swipe from the top of the screen down. Now, the notification bar is even more convenient, as notifications expand when adjacent notifications are cleared. Five new emails? The Gmail notification displays each subject line, giving you more intel on incoming emails. Event come up on your calendar? Buttons now appear to dismiss the reminder and offer the option of emailing attendees to let them know you’re running late.
The best part? The new notifications look beautiful. Font sizes have been adjusted and background colors are a little different from Android 4.0 with a dark blue behind the persistent icons, dark grey behind the floating notifications and black behind the text making the interface look more consistent with the rest of the operating system. It just looks slick. Well done, Google designers.
6) Google Now: This is Google’s long awaited shot across Apple’s bow in the voice-activated personal assistant market space. There is a significant mystique and wow-factor around Apple’s popular and heavily-advertised Siri. What’s intriguing about Google Now is not that they’ve tried to mimic Apple's personal assistant app, though you can certainly call on the voice-activated system for basic facts and figures.
Instead, Google laid a foundation that could revolutionize the way we interact with our phones, inventing a new system that melds to our routines based on patterns we establish.
For example, your alarm wakes you up and Google Now, knowing your routine, displays the day’s weather and traffic between your home and your first appointment, recommending the fastest route. When you approach a bus stop or train station, Google Now tells you when the next coach will arrive and routes you to your next calendar entry (or home if there aren’t any left).
If the weather forecast changes dramatically, the weather tile pops into your notification bar to let you know what cold front or heat wave is coming. Tiles for nearby landmarks appear on your screen to let you know what’s around and let you check in on Google+, if that’s your thing. If you’ve searched for a flight, a notification will appear whenever its status changes, letting you know if you’re on time or if you should wait for a delay before heading to the airport.
Dodgers fan? If you’ve ever searched for them, tiles will appear to update you on games in progress, with links to buy tickets. And Google has only started tapping the wide expanses of the internet to customize our experience.
While the aforementioned features are now in place, imagine if Yelp or Fandango could plug into the Google Now infrastructure. Nearby restaurants and bars with four stars (or whatever quality you desire) could show their specials, letting you know where to go for happy hour. Movies playing soon could appear with a link to buy tickets. Useful at home, for sure, but incredible when you visit a new burg without a tour guide.
Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary
Does this make for a groundbreaking release that will change the smartphone market in the way the original iPhone did? No. What made Android 4.0 great, that “finished” feeling, is magnified and enhanced in Android 4.1. The release is less groundbreaking and more polish and shine. This is not a bad thing, as many of the Jelly Bean features feel so natural you’ll forget they were never there to begin with.But, if you’re like me and 350 million of my friends, Google has our web search history and knows a lot about what we do and what we like. Ignoring the “big brother” implications, Google is finally starting to leverage its enormous piles of data to create useful functionality that Apple and Microsoft cannot duplicate.
Is Google Now completely there yet? Definitely not, but this geek is looking forward to what the future holds. {July 16, 2012}
[link]
