Hasta La Gadget!

Google Chromecast was a surprise addition to the company’s range of own-brand hardware, a $35 streaming stick that, wounds licked after the Google TV and Nexus Q fiascos, promises a cheap and simple way to get browser and streaming content on your big-screen TV. So instantly popular as to sell out online in minutes, and already commanding premium pricing on eBay, the Chromecast could be third time lucky to get Google into the living room. Does it deserve the hype, however? Read on for the full SlashGear review.

Hardware and Setup

Where Google TV left industrial design to hardware partners like ASUS, and the Nexus Q was a beautifully over-engineered orb of US manufactured aluminum, the Chromecast is an altogether more modest affair. A sturdy, if uninspiring, black plastic dongle that looks like an oversized USB key, its stunted lollipop shape has an HDMI plug on one end and a microUSB port on the other, the latter next to a button that’s the only physical control on the device.

In the box you get a short HDMI extender cable – more to accommodate low-profile HDMI ports that don’t leave space for the body of the Chromecast – along with a long USB cord and an AC adapter. You can power the dongle either from that adapter or, if you’ve got a TV with a spare USB port, from there instead.

From then on it’s pretty much hands-off from the hardware, unless you need to move it to another set (the power supply adds a little fuss, but you could still easily dump the whole thing in your bag when you’re traveling). Connectivity is via WiFi b/g/n though only using 2.4GHz, which is a missed opportunity since we’ve had better video streaming results with 5GHz networks generally.

Inside, you’re effectively looking at an Android phone, albeit a low-powered one. A Marvell chipset is its beating heart, paired with 512MB of memory and 2GB of storage, while wireless options include Bluetooth and FM alongside the WiFi, though they’re not currently implemented.

Actually hooking the Chromecast up to your WiFi network is done with the free app Google offers for Android, PC, and Mac. Beyond that, though, all control over media playback is done either within your browser (Chrome only, unsurprisingly) or through the streaming apps which support Google’s Chromecast standard; there are no “master remote” media controls in the setup app itself.

Software and Performance

In use, the Chromecast basically offers two ways to get content onto your TV: from apps that support it directly, or by “Casting” content from the Chrome browser. So far, only three titles actually fall into the former category – Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play – though the solid experience they deliver leaves us hopeful that more will follow.

Effectively, you use your Android or iOS device (the Netflix and YouTube apps for iPhone and iPad support Chromecast, just like their Android counterparts) as a remote control and browsing pane, while the Chromecast dongle handles the video. Sifting through the catalogs of content, hitting the “Cast” button, and then choosing which Chromecast you want to stream to hands over playback duties, leaving your device free for more browsing, building a playlist of YouTube clips, or even switching to other apps or off altogether.

Just as with the communal playlist vision the Nexus Q proposed, more than one device can line up content in YouTube using the “Add to TV Queue” feature. In fact, any device with Chromecast support on the same network as the dongle can send video to it; there’s no way of limiting who can send what, and to which display if you’ve got more than one Chromecast.

It works well, for the most part. We had a couple of glitches at times, but 720p video streamed cleanly and there’s the option for 480p or 1080p depending on what headroom your network has. Switching between Netflix, YouTube, and Google Play takes a couple of seconds, no more frustrating than regular source-jumping on your TV.

The other option is more buggy, but arguably more interesting. A new Chromecast plugin for Chrome on PC, Mac, and Chromebook allows you to stream whatever is in the browser (or, alternatively, mirror your whole display) onto your TV. Just as with the dedicated Cast button in the apps, clicking the extension opens up a list of Chromecast dongles on the same network.

Google Chromecast demo:

Regular webpages look great – though you’ll likely get black bars if the aspect of the page doesn’t match with that of your TV – and there’s support for HMTL5 and Flash, though not Silverlight. It’s screen mirroring, rather than the independent streaming in the YouTube and Netflix apps, which means that if you navigate away in the Chrome tab you’ll also lose your big-screen playback.

However, it works well for most services yet to support native Chromecast streaming, and in fact thanks to Chrome’s support for playing local music and video files, also means you can quickly throw your own content over to the TV. Dragging and dropping media files into a browser tab opens them up on the Chromecast, with support for MP4, AVI, and MKV video and MP3 audio.

The downside is the reliance that all has on local processing. You need a machine with reasonable crunching power to encode the Chromecast stream, and if you’re on a Chromebook then it’ll really need to be the latest Pixel if you want anything more than a jittery mess. There’s always the option to step down to 480p, but it’s beta functionality and performs as such.

The Competition

The world isn’t short on media streaming gadgets. Perhaps best known is the Apple TV, a $99 box to put not only iTunes content on your big-screen, but anything streamed from iOS or OS X using AirPlay. As a standard – and one baked in at OS level – AirPlay is more established than Chromecast, and it works with more apps and services, too, though you’ll have to be an Apple user since there’s no official AirPlay support for any other platform.

If it’s Netflix streaming you want, there are various boxes from Roku, Netgear, WD, and others. Most competitive on cost and 1080p streaming support is probably the Netgear NeoTV with a street price of $39, though you don’t get screen sharing with that; models with support for Intel’s WiDi screen-mirroring are available, but can be double the Chromecast’s price.

Wrap-Up

Google TV stagnated. The Nexus Q was (sensibly) axed before it had a proper launch. With the Chromecast, though, it’s hard not to be swayed. Yes, only a few native apps have Cast options yet, but the Chromecast is just $35. True, the browser integration can be unstable at times, but the Chromecast is just $35. The whole streaming system might be naive in places, but – in case you’ve forgotten – the Chromecast is just $35.

If you’re hoping to get your online content onto your TV, without stringing cables or splashing out on a digital media player (or, even more expensive, a home theater PC), then the Chromecast is one of the easiest ways to do it. It’ll take Google persuading developers and content providers to adopt its cross-platform streaming standard to push it into the mainstream, but even in day-one form the Chromecast has us convinced.

Google Chromecast Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this year we got our first look at Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM at CES, a lovely stark looking set of headphones made of metal and leather. Here in the summer of this year we’ve had our look and listen to the set, and right at the dawn of the multi-colored fashionable expansion to this headphone lineup – those are also on-ear while these MOMENTUM phones are over-ear. These are the black, and these are the ones you’ll see in wild right this minute.

Of course these phones are also available in Brown right this minute, and up through this week they’re still just existing in the two tones. But it’s the sound we’re wanting here, and it’s sound Sennheiser delivers. The following is true of this pair of headphones, no matter the color:

• Impedance: 18 Ω
• Frequency response 16 – 22000 Hz
• Sound pressure level (SPL) 110 dB
• THD, total harmonic distortion < 0.5%
• Contact pressure 2.8 N
• Load rating 200 mW
• Weight 190 g

The quality is tight – these phones offer a high-end, well balanced bit of sound with an emphasis (not too much, just right) on the bass end. These phones work just as well as a daily driver for a smartphone as they do for the deep darkness of a basement gaming PC experience.

The cord you’re seeing leading up to this set is one of two included in the box. You’ll be getting a carrying case with the set that holds all the gear you get here safe while you travel, and you’ll want both cords for the many uses they make themselves useful for. There’s one with a bendy tip, a plug with a joint in it, 3.5mm like the rest, this cord working with a remote as well – ready to work with Apple devices right out of the box.

The other works with a bit less flare, the both of them made with plugs for your mobile devices and massively powerful gaming PCs the same. There’s also an adapter in the package for connecting to a guitar amp, if that’s what you’d like to kick it with. The two cords in the box connect interchangeably to the phones, snapping in tight.

The phones adjust with a sliding bit of soft plastic keeping tight against metal, while the two phones are connected by a thin bit of red cord. These phones are made of an amalgamation of metals, leathers, and plastics, and they’re not going to be destroyed easily – but they’re not meant to be used out in the mountains or tossed around one whole heck of a lot either. They’re not rugged so much as they are de-facto prepped for looks nearly as much as they are for high-powered sounds.

The set are ringing in at $349.95 for the black edition we’re experiencing here, straight from Sennheiser. There’s a brown edition as well, and as mentioned above, there’s an on-ear edition of the phones headed to market soon too, in lovely tones for many occasions. Keep an eye out for the finer materials surrounding the sound.

Sennheiser MOMENTUM Black headphones Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The 23-inch Class 10 point touch LED IPS monitor from LG going by code-name 23ET83V-W is more than just a mouthful in name: it’s a rather fine piece of equipment made for today’s Windows 8-friendly computing universe. The LG ET83 has been working hard on our review desk for more than a week, becoming more

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The nightly recharge is a fact of life with most modern smartphones, and the HTC One is no different, but what if you could double your runtime and protect your expensive new toy in the process? That’s what Mophie promises from the Juice Pack for the HTC One, a combination external battery and hard case that, when wrapped around your phone, should let even the most ambitious power-user escape the tyranny of the charger. All that flexibility comes at a price, however: $99.95 and a considerably larger device in your pocket. Is the Mophie Juice Pack worth the compromise? Read on for our full review.

Hardware

Mophie has been making battery-cases for smartphones for years now, focusing on the iPhone and iPod touch; its line-up for Android phones is a lot smaller, with device-specific models only for the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S III (though the company offers generic portable batteries, too). The concept is straightforward, being a hard case that’s enlarged to accommodate a rechargeable power pack, that can be used to top up the internal battery in your phone.

For the HTC One, that means a 2.88 x 6.06 x 0.67 inch soft-touch plastic sled which adds 3.12 ounces to the weight of the phone (to compare, the One alone is 2.69 x 5.41 x 0.37 inches and 5.05 ounces). Black and silver versions will eventually be offered, to match the two finishes of the One itself, though only the black Juice Pack was available in time for our review.

More on the HTC One in our full review

Inside, there’s a 2,500 mAh battery, 200 mAh larger than the One’s own battery, charged from a standard microUSB port on the bottom of the case. That simultaneously charges the One, too, thanks to a pass-through microUSB connection which is plugged in when you slide the phone inside. It’s a snug fit, involving pulling off the Mophie’s top cap, slotting the One into the groove, and gently pushing it all the way into place; once the case is closed up again, there’s no wiggle or movement.

Although the sides and rear of the One are covered up, you still get access to all the ports and buttons. Pass-through controls for the power/standby key on top and the volume keys on the side are included – slightly oversized, which works well with gloved fingers, and the power button is IR-transparent so you can use the HTC TV remote control app still – and there’s a hole for the headphone socket too. The cut-out is big enough for most jacks, though if you’re using a set of headphones with an oversized plug, you might find the case gets in the way.

On the back, there’s a big cut-out for the UltraPixel camera and LED flash, along with a hole for the rear microphone. Flanking the microUSB port on the bottom edge are four connectors for a docking station (which we didn’t have to test). The only controls are a button to show battery status – using a row of four white LEDs – on the lower back of the Mophie, with a switch to turn on or off the flow of juice.

Usability and Performance

Make no mistake, once the One is in the Juice Pack you’re left with a big device. It’s almost comically large, in fact: the bowed back panel fills your palm, and while the soft-touch finish is pleasant to touch, the Juice Pack does make the One feel somewhat like the digital signature gadgets couriers tend to carry. If you’re in the habit of dropping your phone in your front jeans pocket, or your inside jacket pocket, you’ll immediately notice the difference.

It also feels like Mophie missed an opportunity to build some extra functionality into that expanse of plastic. HTC’s BoomSound speakers are usefully left exposed, for instance, and so a kickstand would have been an neat addition to prop the One up for hands-free video use.

Still, the Juice Pack certainly does what it promises to. Mophie recommends waiting until your One is at around 20-percent, and then flicking the switch to take the phone back up to around 80-percent; it takes more power to recharge a completely flat battery, or to top-up a battery until it’s entirely full. In our testing the Juice Pack took roughly around the same amount of time to recharge the One as the HTC adapter would.

In theory, you should be able to get a full recharge out of a single blast of the Juice Pack. In practice, following Mophie’s guidelines means it’s more like you’re doing a couple of periodic top-ups rather than going from zero to full. Still, with judicious control of the power switch and typical use of the One, we saw runtimes just short of the Mophie’s maximum 100-percent improvement.

Value

At $99.95, the Juice Pack isn’t the cheapest case or the cheapest external battery. If protection is what you’re after, there are far more form-fitting soft or hard cases on the market, priced from around $10; HTC’s own Double Dip Hard Shell for the One is $24.99, for instance.

Meanwhile, if you’re willing to sacrifice the integration, there are portable batteries with far more capacity than the Juice Pack provides. HTC offers the External Battery Bank (BB G600), for instance, a $50 block roughly akin to an oversized Zippo, and which – with 6,000 mAh to play with – could recharge your One twice before it needed topping up itself.

Then there’s the lifespan of the Juice Pack itself. Mophie rates the case for “over 500 full cycles” of 0-percent to 100-percent, after which point the battery inside “may provide less than 75-percent of the original capacity.” To be fair, that’s par for the course for any Li-Poly rechargeable battery, but it could mean that one day you’re carrying a heavy case that doesn’t really deliver in terms of a lasting charge. Whether that comes before the average two-year agreement is up, and you’re already thinking of getting a new phone, will depend on how much you use it.

Wrap-Up

There are cheaper ways to protect and charge your phone. A separate case and external battery will generally provide more runtime and a more easily pocketed handset. On the flip side, the best portable battery is the one you have on you when you’re running low on power, and the converged solution Mophie offers scores highly on that measure.

For some, the extra bulk the Juice Pack adds will be a deal-breaker. Certainly, it makes the One a big device, but if you’re a power-user the promise of up to double the runtime is a huge advantage, and we can’t really fault Mophie’s design for accommodating the One’s controls and features.

Mophie Juice Pack for HTC One Review is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After over a year of waiting, Belkin has finally released its Thunderbolt Express Dock. It was originally announced last year in January and was slated for a September 2012 release, but that obviously never happened. However, Belkin just launched the $299 dock yesterday, and we’ve taken the time to give it a good look-over and test it out for ourselves. Personally, as a MacBook Pro user who is constantly docking and undocking my laptop at my desk, I wanted to see if Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock would make the whole process easier. Let’s find out how it fared.

Design-wise, the Express Dock is made to blend in perfectly with Apple’s line of Mac machines. It rocks an aluminum unibody shell with black plastic panels on the sides and back, and just like a good mullet, there’s not a lot going on in the front, but there’s a party in the back — all the ports are situated on the rear of the dock. You’ll find an ethernet port, a FireWire 800 port, three USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports (which support daisy-chaining), and separate 3.5mm audio-out and audio-in jacks.

One of the two Thunderbolt ports is used to plug the dock into your Mac, but that’s all it takes to get access to all the other ports. Instead of having to plug all of your peripherals in one after another every time you dock your MacBook at your desk, all you have to do is plug everything into the Express Dock when setting it up, and then just simply plug in the dock into your Thunderbolt port. At that point, you’ll be all set to go. This fact alone I found really convenient as I didn’t have all these cables that I had to keep plugging and unplugging every time I wanted to undock my MacBook. It’s just one single cable and you’re good to go.

While the Express Dock will work for desktop Macs like the iMac and Mac Pro, it’s essentially meant for those with MacBooks, which don’t have a lot of options when it comes to ports, especially MacBook Air users. If you use a MacBook as your main machine and want more port options, the Express Dock is about the only convenient option out there. Simply plug in the dock into your Thunderbolt port and you’ll instantly have eight more ports at your perusal, which is pretty fantastic.

However, there are some caveats. The Express Dock doesn’t come with a Thunderbolt cable in the box, so you’ll want to make sure that you have one on hand in order to connect it to your Mac. Secondly, the Express Dock requires OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to take advantage of all its capabilities. The dock will at least work on older versions of OS X, and I was able to hook up a Thunderbolt display to the dock, but it wouldn’t recognize any of the USB 3.0 drives that I had on hand, nor would the audio ports work. However, once I connected it to a Mountain Lion machine, everything worked flawlessly.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the USB 3.0 ports on the Express Dock are limited to 2.5Gbps, which is almost half the speed of what it’s supposed to be at (4.8Gbps). We’re not exactly sure why this is, but it’s still much faster than USB 2.0, which Macs are still sadly stuck at (unless you have one of the newest models). I also noticed that the dock would get hot after a short while, including both ends of the Thunderbolt cable. Nothing exploded, thankfully, but it was always a bit of a concern after I had it plugged in for an hour or so and had tons of things plugged into it. It never got hot enough that I couldn’t touch it, but I was certainly surprised that it gets a bit warm.

Portability is another thing to consider, especially since the dock is catered towards MacBooks. The Express Dock is lightweight and can easily fit into a backpack to take with you. However, the power adapter that’s required to power the Express Dock makes the device not too portable-friendly. It’s about the same size as a typical laptop power adapter, which isn’t a bad thing, since they’re also made to be portable along with the laptop its charging, but if you were to take both your MacBook and the Express Dock with you on the road, you now have two bulky power adapters to deal with. The dock can certainly be portable, but it’s really up to the user whether or not lugging it along will be worth it.

In the end, Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock is the perfect companion to a MacBook power user. However, you’ll have to think long and hard about whether or not you truly need it, since it costs a whopping $300, so it isn’t just something that you can buy impulsively. There is a cheaper option available for $250, but that’s still a hard pill to swallow. Then again, if you’re like me and constantly find yourself docking and undocking your MacBook, dealing with a tangle of numerous wires at the same time, the Express Dock could be one of the best convenience products that you ever buy. Plus, if you’re rocking a MacBook Air and wish you had more ports at your disposal, the Express Dock is a good choice for that too.

Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock Review is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.