Wednesday, March 12, 2014

drag2share: REVIEW: The Sonos Home Theater System Will Blow Your Mind

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/sonos-home-theater-2014-3

sonos home theaterSonos recently moved into the home theater space so that you can get surround sound in your living room.  

The Sonos home theater consists of a pair of the Play:1 speakers ($399), Sub ($699) and Playbar ($699).

You should also probably get the Bridge ($49) if you want to be able to wirelessly control each component. 

Setup

Getting started out of the box is pretty simple.

First, you need to plug in the Sonos Bridge adapter to your router, which allows you to stream music wirelessly from your speakers. Then you need to install the app on your Mac, PC, or Android or iOS device.

Once you install it, simply tell the app you want to add a speaker, press the volume-up and play buttons when prompted, and then you're good to go. Do that for each Sonos component. 

Software 

sonosThe user interface leaves a bit to be desired from an aesthetic standpoint. But it still gets the job done.

The left pane shows all of your connected speakers, the middle pane! shows w hat's playing and what's in your song queue, and the right pane shows your available audio sources. 

These audio sources include Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, Hype Machine, Rdio, Rhapsody and several others. The best part about the app is that it lets you create playlists featuring songs from any of those sources.

One caveat with the software is that sometimes we had to reconnect the Sonos components, but that didn't happen too often.

Sound

The Sonos home theater produces sound like you've never heard before. In fact, it may literally almost blow out your ear drums, depending on the size of your home.

The centerpiece of the home theater system is the Playbar, a beautiful, understated piece of equipment.

Sonos Play BarThe Playbar, which plugs into the back of your TV, is a three-channel active sound bar with nine amplified speakers. At 3.35 x 35.43 x 5.51 inches, it easily fits beneath your TV to serve as a considerable upgrade over your TV's built-in speakers. 

The Playbar has two important features, Night Sound and Speech Enhancement. Night Sound is great for when you want to watch TV late at night without disturbing your neighbors. Speech Enhancement is a solid option if you want to reduce the bass and improve the quality of speech. 

To get full surround sound in your living room, just place a pair of the Sonos Play:1 speakers nearby, and then pop open the app to detect additional components. 

If you want to get really crazy, just add the Sub component. The Sub has two force-canceling speakers and two class-D amplifiers. And trust us, Sonos is not kidding when it says the bass will shake your soul. 

Conclusion

The full Sonos home theater is an amazing product, but one that is more geared toward a homeowner with a lo! t of spa ce, or someone who likes to have people over to watch big events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics.

Depending on your living situation, it might make more sense to spread out the components throughout your home or apartment.

In my three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, I found that I don't need all of the components in one room. That's why I eventually moved the Sonos Play:1 speakers to a room closer to the kitchen, and kept the Playbar and Sub up front.

SEE ALSO: REVIEW: Google's crazy-cheap HP Chromebook 11 is pretty great

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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

drag2share: This Helmet Knows When It's Too Damaged To Protect Your Head

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-helmet-knows-when-its-too-damaged-to-protect-your-1541388908

This Helmet Knows When It's Too Damaged To Protect Your Head

Helmets made with a liner material called expanded polystyrene will protect your head during a ski accident, but need to replaced after the first major impact. Helmet liners made from expanded polypropylene, though, can endure multiple impacts before needing a replacement. Using a series of sensors inside its liner, POC's new Skull Orbic H.I. MIPS helmet can actually tell you when it's time to buy a new one.

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drag2share: You Can Now 3D Print a Model of Your New House

Source: http://gizmodo.com/you-can-now-3d-print-a-model-of-your-new-house-1541513335

You Can Now 3D Print a Model of Your New House

For most people, staring at blueprints is a real chore. Nobody really knows what all those little lines mean, and, wow, they're just so blue. Most importantly, however, blueprints make it hard for a layperson to comprehend what a space will actually be like in real life, which is a problem when you're building a house—or anything, for that matter.

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drag2share: Archos' 6.4-inch smartphone puts the buttons on the back

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/11/archos-64-xenon-hands-on/

When we talk about smartphones with buttons on the back of the case, most people's thoughts turn toward the LG G2. But now the French electronics outfit Archos has decided to follow in LG's footsteps with the 64 Xenon, a 6.4-inch phablet that puts both the volume and power buttons on the rear side. Packing a 1,280 x 720 IPS LCD display, dual-SIM slots and HSPA+ radios, it's clear that this is designed to square up against the likes of the Galaxy Mega, but with a much lower price tag of 200 euros (around $275).

As soon as you get this device in your left hand, you'll notice that the power button is in a great position, right next to your index finger. The volume buttons, by contrast, are meant to be reached with your thumb, but the positioning felt a bit awkward to us -- it's hard to grip the device while applying any pressure to these buttons.

In the performance stakes, we were reasonably impressed by the responsiveness of the quad-core MediaTek MT6582, even though it's a whole generation behind the chip in Archos' other new smartphone. The processor is accompanied by 1GB of RAM and a 2,800mAh battery, which the company promises should last you for a day on a single charge.

On the downside, we were disappointed to see that the company cut a big corner with the internal storage: it's offering just 4GB as standard, which isn't right given how much stuff you're likely to put on this handset. On the other hand, at least there's a microSD slot for storing more content. Still, we're looking forward to putting this hardware through its paces when it launches in April.

Sharif Sakr felt the buttons on his own back for this report.

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drag2share: Hacker Claims This Crucial WhatsApp Flaw Can Expose Your Messages in Minutes

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/DYucUkMsGZw/crucial-whatsapp-security-issue-2014-3

WhatsApp users should be careful when downloading Android apps. If you don't read an app's permissions attentively before installing, your WhatsApp chat history could end up in a stranger's hands, according to one IT specialist from the Netherlands. 

Bas Bosschert, a technical consultant with more than 10 years experience working with Linux and Unix, explained how developers can trick WhatsApp users into granting access to their entire message database. Since WhatsApp backs up messages on your phone's SD card, apps can easily access this information if granted permission to do so. This data can then be uploaded to the developer's personal Web server. 

Bosschert's blog post details how to create these types of apps. The Netherlands-based technical consultant says that if the code shown in his screenshots was added to an Android game, it could be used to extract a WhatsApp user's database.

"People would only see a loading screen when they started the game," Bosschert said in an email to Business Insider. "They wouldn't notice that their WhatsApp database has been uploaded."

Security concerns surrounding WhatsApp aren't new, but have been attracting more attention since Facebook acquired the text messaging alternative last month

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