We round up five easy-to-use cell phones that could be good picks for senior citizens looking for a new phone. The phones feature bright screens, large fonts, and sizable dialpad keys. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20014681-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
It’s been a good, long while since we visited the upper rungs of Shure’s in-ear monitor lineup (about four years, to be exact), and for good reason: the E500 / SE530 was already a stellar product that the company was understandably in no rush to replace. Of course, for the heart-stopping $500 they commanded, buyers had every right to expect aural perfection — just as they do with the new SE535 that replaces them. Price? Still $500, of course. Read on to find out exactly how Juno Reactor sounds after you’ve been relieved of half a grand.
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Shure SE535 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple invited members of the press Wednesday morning to a special event scheduled for Sept. 1. Rumor has it that Apple is preparing to announce a major revamp for the Apple TV and upgrades for the popular iPod Touch, according to multiple reports.
The event will kick off 10 a.m. at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts theater, where Apple has held its annual iPod event for several years.
Citing two anonymous sources, Bloomberg claims that Apple will introduce the new products along with a new iTunes rental service for TV programs, as Wired.com’s Epicenter reported Tuesday.
Repeating previous rumors about Apple TV, Bloomberg said a new version of the device would cost $100 and include a smaller hard drive, as it will be designed primarily for streaming content from iTunes. Other reports have claimed Apple would rebrand the device iTV and ship it with its mobile operating system iOS, which could potentially mean the television device will have an app store to enhance its functionality.
Bloomberg’s report also claims Apple will announce an upgraded iPod Touch, sporting a high-resolution display like the iPhone 4. Previous rumors suggested that, like the iPhone 4, the next iPod Touch will include dual cameras.
Apple’s annual September event has for several years been devoted to iTunes and iPods. It would make sense for Apple to unveil a new Apple TV at this year’s event, because a TV-streaming media service would likely be accompanied by a new version of iTunes capable of online storage.
It’s also likely that Apple will release a software update for iPad customers, iOS 4, which will bring multitasking capability and other features to the popular tablet.
Updated 11 a.m. PDT: The event has been confirmed for Sept. 1, not Sept. 7 as Bloomberg originally reported.
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Photo: Steve Jobs introduces iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010
Jon Snyder/Wired.com
You might think it was already dead, but sales for the Barnes & Noble Nook (both B&N-branded hardware and multi-platform software apps) are booming.
The company’s web stores are doing great, too: B&N has a bigger share of the market in digital books (an estimated 20 percent) than it has in physical books.
That’s pretty good considering the Nook’s only been available for nine months, and the company still generates more revenue selling hardcovers and paperbacks than anyone, including Amazon.
Surprised? It’s easy to think about e-reading as a two-horse race, with Amazon’s austere text-centric Kindle facing off against Apple’s “magical” iPad, like PCs vs Macs or Protestants vs Catholics. And it’s true, Barnes & Noble lost money this past quarter, partly because it’s still sorting out its messy relations with its investors.
But Barnes & Noble is for real, and isn’t going anywhere. In the religious analogy, the Nook might be, I don’t know, Judaism, trying to adapt to a newer world while holding onto its traditional community.
Barnes & Noble has consistently gone for a hybrid strategy: providing touch and text, tightly integrating e-sales with its existing stores while also selling the Nook at Best Buy, letting its books be read on the Nook as well as other platforms. B&N’s apps for PC and Mac are arguably best-in-class (bonus points, too, for getting its Mac app out way before Amazon’s). The company is doubling down on (and rebranding) its apps for mobile devices. And it’s drawing on a solid base of neighborhood customer/members and university bookstores. Even as Amazon cuts its prices and diversifies its models to match the Nook, it can’t match Barnes & Noble’s deep reach into the real world.
According to B&N, its members with Nooks have increased their spending by 20%. The company’s building and staffing Nook boutiques in its stores. The idea is that you’ll go buy the Nook in the store, learn how to use it in the store, browse through titles (for free) in the store. And by the way, you might also want to buy some coffee, have lunch, pick up a photo album — all goods with better margins than books.
If the Kindle offers the promise of books anywhere at once and nowhere in particular, the Nook keeps alive the idea that books have a place. And the best place, Barnes & Noble thinks, is in one of its stores.
Photo credit: orb9220/Flickr
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First announced earlier this year, the Symbian smartphone focuses on multimedia with a slight nod to business users. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20014677-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
Gear4, the UK-based audio gadget maker, has just announced the SoundOrb Aurora docking station, which provides more than just great sound: It also delivers ambiance. That’s because the SoundOrb comes with a wireless subwoofer that includes a color-changing ambient light. Its LED technology can provide a constant shade or cycle through more than 16,000 different hues. The subwoofer can go anywhere within 100 feet of the base.
The dock itself uses Digital Signal Processing technology with two psychoacoustic sound algorithms, letting the listener enjoy music and movies in virtual wide stereo or virtual surround sound modes. The system will go on sale in the U.S. in October for a list price of $349.99.
Wait till you hear what this little box does. Yesterday, Western Digital introduced the WD Livewire–Powerline AV Network Kit, which lets you turn your existing electrical outlets into high-speed Internet connections throughout the house. The kit works with the WD TV line of media players, so you can stream HD video to your home theater, transfer large files, or play multi-player games without running network cables around your home.
The WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit delivers data speeds up to 200MB per second, more than enough for glitch-free 1080p HD video on up to seven different devices. Set up is plug-and-play: plug one of the two adapters into your router and an outlet, then plug the other where you need access to the network. It’s available now for $139.99 list.
You might remember the EasyBloom, a computerized plant sensor that launched in 2008 and told brown-thumbs everywhere what they should do to keep their plants healthy. EasyBloom is owned by PlantSense, and soon it’ll be known as PlantSmart. That’s because PlantSense has just signed an exclusive arrangement with Black & Decker that will put PlantSense’s EasyBloom technology in a line of Black & Decker gardening tools.
It sounds like this is nothing more than a name change. PlantSense will manage the Web component of the PlantSmart sensor, and it looks like the PlantSmart is identical to the EasyBloom. After the sensor monitors growing conditions in an area, the online software finds matches from its database of 6,000 plants. Look for the PlantSmart this fall for $49.99.
Calling! In Gmail!. It’s been rumored for a little bit, but now it’s here. Merged. You can make phone calls from Gmail (without going to your GV page). And they’re free to the US and Canada. More »
A week after it received after it received approval to begin pilot training, Boeing is opening its 787 Dreamliner simulator to CNET and other journalists. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-20014628-76.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Cutting Edge/a/p
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