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Review: Aerial7 Sound Disk Beanie headphone-hat »
Short Version : The audio is only passable (at least at speed) and the fit questionable, but hey, these do just what they set out to do: put some headphones in a decent hat. Feels a little weird to plaster my face all over the front page like that, but hats without heads in them are even less photogenic than I am. Features: Several styles to choose from (this review is for “Cotton T Black”) In-line mic for iPhone/Blackberry Low-profile headphone drivers Regular 3.5mm jack Pros: Hey, they work Hat is decent quality, fairly warm Easy to set up and remove (handy for washing) Cons: Sound quality not so good White cable not so hot against black hat, or going to non-iPod device Tight fit can make headphones press against ears too hard Full Review: I have to say that when I first tried these out, biking about a mile over to the Central District, I was pretty disappointed. I found the fit too tight and the sound tinny. But a friend tried the hat on and pronounced it perfectly comfortable, and on the way back I played a different playlist and found that they really didn’t sound so bad after all. I mean, let’s be honest here. You’re going to be walking, running, biking, or skiing while listening to these, and if you can make out the lyrics over the wind rush, that’s better than nothing. And while they weren’t beating my eardrums with their bass or allowing me to marvel and their crisp highs, they did sound clear enough once I got the alignment right. The hat itself is a plain cotton, quite decently made, with a red patterned interior that showed as a sort of rim. It fit snugly — almost too snugly for me, but I tend to prefer looser knit caps. Why I didn’t review a knit one is beyond me. But this one was a bit tall and narrow for me; it fully covered my ears and still had a little poof at the top. Not Smurf levels of poof, but enough that I felt I had to pat it down. I wore it during a cold snap a while ago here in Seattle and it did all right, though it took forever to dry out when I got rained on. The headphones themselves are touted as having a flat design, which is true, but then again so do most headphones once you take the padding off. Yeah, there’s no padding on them at all except for the millimeter-thin material making up the inner lining of the headphone pockets in the hat. That can be pretty rough on your ears if you have a helmet pushing on them or if they’re just not aligned over your ears just right. In the next generation of this product I’d really appreciate a little bit of padding in the headphone pocket. The sound is what you’d expect from a plain pair of traditional headphones — something you’d pick up at a drugstore for $15-20. They’re loud enough if you want to push them and I didn’t hear a lot of distortion, but there wasn’t too much clarity either. But the fact is I could hear my music perfectly well while zooming around on my bike, so really, mission accomplished there. I’m not expecting a high-fidelity audio experience while trucking down to the coffee shop. Conclusion : I think $60 is a little steep for what they’re offering. However, if you do spend a lot of time on the slopes, for instance, or riding your bike around, and want to listen to music or talk on the phone, this is definitely a simple and workable solution. I’d go with the knit version, though. Product Page
Last Minute Shopping: Gift Guide Roundup »
Still haven’t gotten all those holiday gifts? You still have a wee bit o’ time left. Whether you’re planning to run out to a brick and mortar store or you’re willing to test the limits of expedited shipping, here’s a quick rundown of ideas and info from our gift guide. Public Service Announcement: Holiday Shipping Deadlines Gift Guide 2009: Netbooks Gift Guide 2009: Portable Media Players Gift Guide 2009: Peripherals Gift Guide 2009: Smartphones Gift Guide 2009: Pocket Camcorders Gift Guide 2009: Headphones Gift Guide 2009: Gaming Consoles Gift Guide 2009: Wireless E-book Readers Gift Guide 2009: Toys Gift Guide 2009: Gifts for the Technologically Impaired The 5 rules of HDTV buying Bag Week Review Round-up CrunchGear 2009 Holiday Gift Guide
America the beautiful: Mother calls 911 because her kid was playing GTA past bedtime. Yeah. »
Gotta love cops. A woman in Boston got mad at her 14-year-old son for being up at 2:30am playing Grand Theft Auto . (At least the kid wasn’t smoking dust in the street at that hour.) In fact, she got so mad that she called 911 for help . You know, “You have to help me. My son is up in the middle of the night playing video games! I don’t know what to do!” The cops responded, no doubt aggravated that they had to deal with this garbage, by saying, “Calm down, ma’am. Just put your dumb kid to bed.” That’s not an exact quote, but you know that’s what they were thinking. The woman, Angela Mejia, feared that her son was addicted to video games . Rather than throwing the kid’s PlayStation into the Charles like a normal parent would do, she waffles, baffled that her son is acting out by having the audacity to stay up late and play games. And who knows: maybe this kid is absolutely miserable, and the time he spends playing video games represents his only outlet. That certainly sounds familiar. It’s like, I could see the mother being upset if her son ran with gang-bangers, but staying up past his bedtime to get in a little GTA ? Doesn’t sound like too big a problem to me, and certainly not worthy of harassing the 911 operators. As if they don’t have actual emergencies to respond to!
Super Smash Bros. hits Wii Virtual Console »
For those of you who have graduated from college in the past decade, you may want to relive the glory days of playing Super Smash Bros. until 4AM, except this time you’ll just skip an entire day of work instead of a morning class or two. On the plus side, at least you live in a marginally cleaner apartment now. Yes, for many of us Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 was right up there with Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64 as far as massive time sinks are concerned. If you’ve got a Nintendo Wii, you can now download Super Smash Bros. for 1000 Wii points ($10). Go ahead, it’s not like you’re all that busy at work now anyway. Everyone’s already mentally checked out for the rest of the year. Super Smash Bros. [Nintendo.com] Press Release
Wii Maracas perfect for Maraca-based games »
The product description says it all. “With the Maracas for Wii you can enjoy those Maraca based video games as if you were actually celebrating a big fiesta!” Ah yes, all those Maraca based video games. Let’s see, there’s… Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Maraca Maraca Kart Resident Maraca 4 Maraca Band Maraca Hero World Tour Samba de Amigo (actually real) New Super Maraca Bros Maraca Sports Resort Maraca Fit Lego Maracas Call of Maraca: Modern Maraca Super Maraca Bros Brawl …and countless others I’m forgetting. Only $11, too! Wii Maracas [Amazon via Toys for Child ]
Dual USB port charger is tiny, cheap »
This might make a good last-minute stocking stuffer, although I’m not sure if it’ll get to you in time. It’s a little USB power plug with not one, but two (!!!) USB ports. Looks like a dynamite travel accessory. It’s got a five-volt output pushing 1000 milli-amps to each port. The price is nice, too, at only seven bucks. Dual Port USB Power Mini Charger [USB Geek]
Review: Panasonic 360 Degree Quick Iron »
This is an iron that promises to increase your ironing speed by up to 25% thanks to a symmetrical titanium soleplate, which allows you to iron forwards, backwards, left, and right with ease. It doesn’t make ironing any more exciting but with a street price of around $40, it’s a solidly-built and attractive iron if you’re in the market for one.
Volvo to bring C30 plug-in concept to the North American International Auto Show »
Just as tablets will be all over CES , nearly every auto manufacturer will probably have a plug-in hybrid or fully-electric car at the NAIAS. Of course there are the already-known models from GM, Toyota, Fisker, and Honda. But Volvo announced today that it will also a C30 electric concept to show off. There isn’t really anything to get excited about though. The C30 concept has a range of only 93-miles, top speed of 81, and takes eight hours to charge from a 230-volt source. The only thing it has going for itself is that it’s good looking. A limited run of 150 vehicles will hit Swedish streets in 2011 to test out the concept. Hopefully Volvo doesn’t pull a page from GM’s history book and take a decade to produce the second generation.
“Butterfly Touch” from Packard bell sounds weak but looks sweet »
When you give your product the name “Butterfly Touch,” you’d better get ready for some teasing. I mean, I understand that it’s supposed to evoke the touch capabilities as well as the swiveling, tilting screen, but what you’ve ended up with sounds like someone petting a bug. Good thing the product itself looks pretty cool. It’s basically a high-end netbook (from the EasyNote line) that converts into a tablet, and I have no problem with that. It looks solid : nice design, textured body, multitouch trackpad. I4U seems to think the display is multitouch, too — but there’s a stylus there and I don’t think 11.6″ multitouch displays are cheap enough to put in netbooks. We’ll see. The EasyNote Butterfly Touch will probably be Euro-only first, and should cost about €600
Australian firm developing Doom-like 3D surveiallance system »
I imagine there will be less shooting in the surveillance system. Pretty fascinating story coming out of Australia this fine day. (Well yesterday. Or time zones. I don’t know.) A research outfit there has won a AUS$1.01 million grant from the government to develop a 3D surveillance system that has been described as “ Doom -like.” Someone call Anthony Cumia, he could use something like that. The system is designed to protect ports from all sorts of chicanery. You load up the port with 40 to 60 16-megapixel cameras, which then send the 3D data to computers that are manned by, you, trained professionals. Rather than send a bunch of armed agents into the nooks and crannies of a port, you have a technician in front of a computer monitor who spends all day scrolling around a 3D representation of the port. It’s cheaper and more effective. Win~! via Slashdot