bad

Place this one in the "interesting idea, bad execution" category.

Label With Green is a concept design by Shao Wei Huang, Chia-Yi Cho, Yu Pei Kuo, and Chung Kai Chiang that I spotted on Yanko. The idea is that you'd get a package of solar stickers, each of which powers a separate gadget component such as the display, speaker, keypad, camera, or solar battery.

Adding more stickers manually is supposed to make you more aware of how much power your device is taking up and presumably train you to adjust your behavior accordingly--whatever that might mean.

It'… Read more

Dynamic range compression isn't new, it's been used by recording, mixing, and mastering engineers for many decades. A little bit of compression is fine, but over-compression can sound downright ugly. Most of today's music, whether it's on LP, CD, the radio or iTunes is over-compressed. Most remastered CDs are over-compressed.

Before we go any further, I'm not referring to the lossy compression used in MP3s, or lossless compression used in Apple Lossless. They've got their own set of problems, but dynamic range compression is a very different predicament.

To the casual listener compression can sound "good," mostly because it makes the music seem louder and punchier, and once music's natural soft-loud dynamic shifts are squashed flat music is easier to hear in noisy environments like cars or over iPods. Compression reduces the need to adjust playback volume--because it's always nearly the same volume--loud.

Engineers worry that if they don't compress their recordings the music would seem too soft and low. That is, if a music listener went from really loud, compressed music to quieter, uncompressed music they probably wouldn't like uncompressed music--unless they turned it up! That way they would hear the music's natural soft-loud dynamics.

Unfortunately, that's not an acceptable scenario to most engineers or record labels. They're addicted to over-compression, it's a hard habit to break.

But the unnatural onslaught of compressed sound obliterates musical nuance, delicacy and emotional power. Compression's loud-all-the-time nature sucks the life out of music.

Here's a great video that demonstrates the evils of compression.… Read more

Apple's Safari web browser is one of the fastest available, with advanced Javascript handling and fast HTML rendering, which along with it's simple and straightforward interface makes it quite appealing. Sometimes, however, people are finding the browser (and web browsing in general) to be quite slow on their Macs.

There are a variety of reasons why web browsing can be slow and as such, if this happens you can do several things to help combat it… Read more

The Gateway KAS-203 home-theater-in-a-box was an exercise in poor design.

I gave it a 5 rating, the lowest CNET score I've ever "awarded" any product I've reviewed. I'll get to the best HTIBs in the next Audiophiliac.

I liked the Euro style receiver/DVD player and the powered subwoofer, but as soon as I heard the KAS-203 it sounded so bad I thought it was broken. A second KAS-203 sounded identical to the first one, so I concluded the first KAS-203 was representative of what people were buying in stores.

On paper at least Gateway's KAS series home theater systems stood out in a field crowded with chintzy, plastic designs. The KAS speaker package featured a bevy of interesting ideas and a subwoofer designed by Hsu Research, a high-value company known for its exemplary subs. The receiver/DVD player boasted the build quality and looks of a serious component, but slipshod engineering and substandard quality control resulted in the most poorly executed $699 HTIB ever.

The sound of the four 5.75 inch tall sats were bolstered by a large center speaker, 16.75 inches wide, 9 deep, and 5.25 high. Rounding out the system was a 17 inch tall, 100 watt powered subwoofer. The entire sub/sat system came in a black ash finish, definitely a step up from the standard sliver plastic HTIB fare. … Read more

A couple of days ago I blogged about possibly (hopefully) the world's most expensive speaker, Transmission Audio's Ultimate ($1,000,000 each), so I guess it makes sense to write up a dirt cheap speaker, Kikkerland's Woodchuck iPod/computer speakers.

Thing is, Kikkerland's Web site doesn't list the Woodchuck, but I see it's on Amazon going for $13.99 a pair. So I guess I can't complain too much, but the sound is so weak, bassless, trebleless, and dynamically compressed the Woodchuck is without doubt the lamest sounding speaker I've ever heard. Kinda sounds like the speaker in my Panasonic answering machine.… Read more

The headline on this Dvice post about Think Geek's Wi-Fi-detecting hat says the cap will make you "king of the geeks." And maybe it will. But you can have that title, my liege; I'd rather get dates.

Not to say your crown isn't cool, technically it is. I mean, it has a fully functional Wi-Fi detector built in. So while you may never know if you've found decent coverage (unless you're staring into a mirror), at least all the girls around you will know. But since they won't be talking to you, … Read more

A couple of weeks ago I got to attend a press screening of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" a week before the general American release. There was only one trailer before the film, and that was for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which launches August 6.

I have been to many press screenings, but I've never heard professional movie critics--my colleagues--heckle a trailer before. The movie looks amazingly bad in every way. That's why I'm not surprised Paramount is taking the viral route to try to gain public interest in what will no … Read more

I had a fairly good shop program in high school (what's up, Tumwater T-Birds!). Instead of making rickety chairs for our mothers to injure themselves on, or fire-prone wooden ashtrays, our class concentrated on technology. That's where I got to play with my first industrial laser, built my first robotic arm, and designed my first circuit board. It was pretty great.

But not as great as the work of this kid, who, as a side project, built a six-round, bolt-action, high-powered coil gun. For those who don't play video games, a coil gun is an electronic weapon … Read more

Disney and Asus have teamed up to do something others have been doing wrong for a long time: they've developed an affordable and functional portable kids' PC, according to USA Today. It comes in the form of a Netbook with an Intel Atom processor; a small, 8.9-inch screen; parental control options; and desktops with customizable themes that revolve around the likes of Cars, Toy Story, WALL-E, and Hannah Montana.

The Netpal Netbooks will have an unknown clock speed (our guess would be 1.6GHz-2GHz) and will have a 16GB SSD or 160GB HD based on parental preference. They'… Read more