Hasta La Gadget!

Does the world need another AirPlay speaker? Cambridge Audio thinks so, and the new Minx series of streaming media players is the result: the Minx Air 100, on the SlashGear test bench today, and its doubly-powerful Air 200 sibling. It’s not hard to see where Cambridge Audio got their style inspiration from for the Air 100, either: it looks a whole lot like a Sonos PLAY:3, though the functionality is different. Rather than focus on multi-room use, the Air 100 instead positions itself as an individual hub for all gadgets musical, whether that’s AirPlay, Bluetooth, internet radio, or something more old-school. Read on for our full review.

Hardware

Happily, while the Air 100 looks like a Sonos, it also has similarly high build quality. The speaker grill covers the entire bowed fascia, though the Air 100 does offer more on-device controls and connections than its Sonos counterpart. Up top there’s power and volume keys, along with buttons to switch between Bluetooth and aux-in sources, as well as five preset keys for internet radio stations. If you’ve ever been frustrated by having to reach for your phone or tablet to manage a Sonos stream, the direct controls on the Air 100 could save you some time.

On the back, there’s an AC power input, bass control knob to adjust the lower frequencies, a WPS button for easier pairing with compatible routers, an ethernet port, “service port” that Cambridge Audio warns shouldn’t be used by owners, a 3.5mm aux-in port, and L/R RCA inputs for a CD player or other analog source. The Air 100 comes with a compact remote which can be used to tweak volume and bass, as well as flip between sources and up to ten internet radio presets.

Inside there’s a 100W amplifier and two 4-inch balanced mode radiator drivers, along with a WiFi b/g radio and Bluetooth. The Air 100 also supports Apple’s AirPlay, for direct streaming from iPads, iPods, and Macs/PCs running iTunes, while the Bluetooth aptX, SBC, and AAC codecs are supported for higher-quality streaming from other phones and tablets.

What you don’t get is any sort of docking station. There’s no way to physically connect your iPhone or iPad to the Air 100 to recharge it, though that does mean that there’s no messing with different 30-pin/Lightning dock connector plates and cradle adapters.

Usability

The Sonos-esque looks are deceiving. There’s no grouped playback support from the Air 100; unlike, say, a collection of PLAY:3 units, you can’t hook them all together and syncronize playback of a single track. Instead, each Air 100 is controlled in turn, either from the local buttons, the bundled remote (which is on the flimsy side, but functional), or the free iPad, iPhone, and Android apps.

Setup is straightforward, initially requiring you to connect your computer to a WiFi network hosted by the Air 100 to access its browser-based settings page and punch in your usual wireless network credentials. Then, you can access it via its IP address from any browser on the network; alternatively, you can go for a wired ethernet connection direct to your router, or hit the WPS button if your router supports it.

Cambridge Audio stores ten default internet radio presets to get you going, but changing them is a matter of opening up the MinxAir app on your phone or tablet and browsing through the list. Stations are sorted by location or genre, or you can search, and there’s a list of recently played streams along with shortcuts to your phone’s music app and Shazam, the app that identifies what’s playing by its musical fingerprint. If you’ve a Spotify account then you can stream tracks from that, too.

It doesn’t have to be internet music sources, however. Hit the Bluetooth button and the Air 100 automatically goes into pairing model; then it’s just a case of choosing the speaker from the list on your mobile device, and then starting playback. AirPlay works in a similar way, with the Minx speaker showing up as an AirPlay device from the menu in iOS or iTunes. We were quickly able to funnel music over to it from an iMac and then from an iPad mini.

Finally, there’s the analog options. If your media player doesn’t have Bluetooth, then you can hook it up to the 3.5mm input with a regular cable; the RCA inputs are ideal for a set-top box or CD player. Pressing the analog button switches over to those sources, though the Air 100 will automatically flick over to AirPlay or Bluetooth if those connections become active.

Performance

There’s a surprising amount of sound that comes out of the Air 100, given its 13.9 x 7.2 x 4.6 inch dimensions. Cambridge Audio calls its speaker technology “Balanced Mode Radiator” (BMR) but the important thing is that there’s an impressively broad soundstage during playback, though as with all single-box options the Air 100 lacks in stereo separation.

You don’t get an active subwoofer (and there’s no support for plugging in an external sub), with the carry-handle doubling as the passive bass output. Still, with some judicious tweaking of the bass knob we were able to coax low level sounds out that matched what the mids and trebles were doing, and comfortably fill a room with music without encountering distortion. Up next to a PLAY:3 we noticed a lack of the top-end sparkle that the Sonos achieves with its dedicated tweeter, but the Air 100 managed a healthy mid section with some nice stabs of bass along the way.

Wrap-up

At £329, the Minx Air 100 finds itself more expensive than the £259 PLAY:3 but competitive against other AirPlay speakers. In the case of the Sonos, you trade the potential for multi-room support and the slickness of Sonos’ remote experience for Bluetooth and native AirPlay support (though it’s worth noting that Sonos enabled direct playback of local iOS music with a late-2012 controller app update). The PLAY:3 also lacks the analog inputs; you need to step up to the £349 PLAY:5 if you want that.

Against something like the Libratone Zipp (£329), however, the Air 100 looks very solid indeed. It lacks the battery support of the Zipp, but makes up for it by throwing in Bluetooth. That makes the Cambridge Audio speaker a lot more interesting for cross-platform users, who aren’t entirely committed to Apple. The Air 100 js also more powerful and delivers a more fulsome sound than the smaller Zipp.

Yes, we’d still head straight to Sonos if we had any ambitions to outfit multiple areas of a house with music, but for bringing audio to a single location – whether kitchen, bedroom, or office – the Minx speaker covers all the bases in a convenient way. The physical controls make it user-friendly for those uninterested in digging into a smartphone app, while the iOS and Android app compatibility, as well as the presence of Bluetooth, suits it to a platform-agnostic household. It’s that versatility which gives the Air 100 the edge over other AirPlay systems.

Cambridge Audio Minx Air 100 Review is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Time was, if you wanted a wooly column of wireless musical pleasure, you had to train a sheep to stand upright and sing. Libratone‘s new Zipp, however, changes that: a wool wrapped portable speaker delivering not only Apple’s AirPlay but a tweaked version intended for the wide open spaces that the Zipp – or sheep, for that matter – might go frolicking in. Read on for the SlashGear review.

Hardware and Design

Libratone has been pushing its brand of quirky fabric-clad simplicity for a few years now, and the Zipp follows in the footsteps of the Beat we reviewed last year with more wool wrapping. A 10.2-inch tall, 4.8-inch diameter cylinder, the 4 pound Zipp has a whimsical leather handle and can be dressed up in one of eight different colors of outer sleeve.

These range from the sober – black or a pale grey – through to the more eye-catching, such as bright red or purple; each has a simple zip fastening running the length of the speaker. Libratone will offer individual Zipp models – in grey or red – at Apple Stores for $399/£329 apiece, or in three-pack boxes with either black/blue/red or black/pink/yellow covers and a single speaker for $449/£369. Additional covers are available from Libratone direct, priced at $49.95.

Under the Italian wool lurks the latest version of Libratone’s FullRoom sound technology, here paired with a single 4-inch bass driver and two 1-inch ribbon tweeters driven by 60W of digital amplification. Although that may sound like a 2.1 setup, Libratone insists on calling it “360-degree” audio, with no front/back or left/right, and the same quality of sound no matter where in the room you’re sitting.

That’s the same promise as the Libratone Beat, but whereas that model was stuck within cable range of a power socket, the Zipp can join you in the garden or on the go. An internal rechargeable battery means the Zipp can go entirely wireless, with Libratone claiming up to eight hours of runtime if you plug in your source direct, or half of that if you’re using AirPlay.

It’s not the smallest portable speaker, but it’s also not the most difficult to transport; certainly it’s easy to tote around the house, while we could see it getting packed into a rucksack with your next picnic too. The leather carry handle is a neat touch, and feels sturdy enough to swing the Zipp from; it also masks the majority of the ports and buttons on offer. While the power button and volume keys are on the top of the speaker, under the strap there’s a USB port, aux-in input, LEDs for battery and wireless status, a WiFi button, and a PlayDirect/Setup button.

PlayDirect

What’s PlayDirect, you ask? That’s Libratone’s alternative to AirPlay, based on Apple’s system’s little-discussed device-to-device WiFi support. Rather than demanding both iOS or OS X gadget and the Zipp be hooked up to the same wireless network, a direct connection can be established between the two. Unfortunately, because iOS doesn’t support simultaneous PlayDirect and WiFi internet access, using the out-of-the-box settings you’ll find your iPhone or iPad loses its data connection when you pair it straight to the Zipp.

That’s fine if you’re content to play back nothing but music stored locally on your phone, but an issue if you were hoping to stream music from Spotify, Pandora, or similar services. Libratone provides instructions to work around it (basically assigning a static IP address to the iPhone/iPad’s WiFi connection) but you can only then stream from internet services if your device has a 3G/4G connection. WiFi-only iPads are out of luck.

Of course, you can use AirPlay as normal, as long as there’s a WiFi router in-between to connect to – a distinct possibility in your home or garden; less likely when you’re at the beach – and hooking the Zipp up is straightforward. You can either plug in your iOS device via USB and have the Zipp suck the WiFi settings out, or you can navigate to the speaker in your computer’s browser and punch in the relevant details that way. Switching between AirPlay and PlayDirect is a simple matter of hitting each button on the Zipp, with it taking under a minute to reconnect; however, if you roam out of range of PlayDirect, it can take a power cycle of the speaker to get it paired up again.

It’s also possible to connect an iOS device via USB and play back music that way, and the aux-in port takes a stereo audio input from any external source – whether it’s your Android phone or an old Discman – you might have lying around. Still, the emphasis is most definitely on Apple’ ecosystem; you don’t get Bluetooth.

Performance

We used to have generally low expectations of portable speakers: battery powered generally meant mediocre sound. Since then, though, we’ve seen several attempts to supercharge mobile music, and so the Zipp has plenty to live up to. The most obvious rival is probably Jawbone’s BIG JAMBOX, though slightly smaller than the Libratone and eschewing AirPlay in favor of Bluetooth.

What the Zipp has as its main advantage is an active bass driver, rather than the passive bass radiators of the BIG JAMBOX. With that, the Libratone system sounds a whole lot more rounded and complete: trebles and mids are bright and broad, while the bottom end is enthusiastic but without the imprecision that can affect passive rivals.

Libratone is keen on its 360-degree sound concept, and it’s certainly less directional than traditional speakers. Where Sonos’ PLAY:3 works best when firing forward, into the body of the room, the Zipp can fill a space with less concern to its actual placement. On the flip side, though, there’s no way to pair two Zipp units together for actual stereo playback – as you can do with Sonos speakers – and the Zipp generally blurs the stereo channels together.

A companion iOS app allows for remote selection between seven different EQ presets – neutral, easy listening, soft, rock, jazz, movie, and live – with a separate setup tab for choosing between different placement positions. You can tell the Zipp whether it’s on a floor or a shelf, on a table, or outdoors, and even specify the distance from the walls and other more precise factors. Battery life came in at around the four hour promise from Libratone when we streamed from an iPad over PlayDirect.

Wrap-Up

Apple is pushing away from speaker docks and focusing on wireless audio, and the accessory industry is eager to oblige. Such systems have generally been more expensive than traditional, wired docks, but that’s also encouraged manufacturers to dress them up and make an altogether more “premium” experience.

On that front, the Libratone Zipp makes a convincing argument. The hardware is solid and distinctive, and the wool covers, though initially seeming gimmicky, make more sense when you think about being able to easily replace scuffed, ripped, or otherwise damaged sleeves that may get battered around while you’re on the move.

Most importantly, though, it sounds great. It may lack the simultaneous multi-room playback option of systems like Sonos, but it’s far more portable; that iOS doesn’t make coexisting PlayDirect and internet data connections straightforward is a blip on usability, but it’s one that will hopefully be addressed with new firmware. Unfortunately there’s no chance of adding in Bluetooth, which means the Zipp is unlikely to gain any great following among the Android faithful.

At $399 it’s a hundred bucks more than a BIG JAMBOX, but to our ears the audio performance is well worth the extra cash. Broad compatibility with Apple devices and appealing design make the Zipp a solid pairing to your iPhone or iPad, with the reassurance that it won’t be left behind when the next range of iOS devices appears.

Libratone Zipp Review is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

By far the best scene in Expendables 2 is when Dolph Lundgren kicks a bad guy in the face off a balcony, casually shouting “Goodbye!” in the process. It’s an utterly ridiculous and over the top moment that caused me to burst out laughing, and it’s exactly what the movie needed more of.

The intentions of the movie are relatively clear: to be the ultimate action flick by cramming in all those actors you used to like in all those movies you used to like decades ago, mixed in with a dash of more recent talent for good measure. The posters and marketing for the movie boldly proclaims who to expect (Willis! Schwarzenegger! Li!) and yet not a single frame of the movie shows all the actors together.

This movie does have a very loose and tired plot, but the plot is irrelevant, because you’re here to watch old people mow down entire armies with very large guns. Here’s the thing: it doesn’t really work. There are only really two big action set pieces in the movie – one at the beginning and one at the end, with brief flirtations in between – and thanks to janky editing and pacing, they feel rushed. The director is so intent to make sure he fits all his eye candy moments in that he doesn’t give the audience any time to savour the action, and the use of bad CGI ultimately that nothing has any impact.

Characters disappear and reappear at random. Jet Li is in the film for approximately four minutes at the beginning before leaving and never coming back, yet has third billing, according to IMDB. Chris Liam Hemsworth is set up to be a disgustingly likeable hero: he left the Army because they shot his dog (seriously), he can run up hills really fast, and he’s a pretty good sniper to boot. He’s dispatched during the first act in order to set up some sort of half baked revenge plot for Stallone. Some terrible dialogue is muttered at his funeral (“Why is it that the good people who deserve to live die, but the bad people who deserve to die live?”, or words to that effect.)

Crews and Couture have maybe one or two lines in the movie. They’re mainly there to shoot people. Chuck Norris shows up for around three minutes to shoot people too. He makes a Chuck Norris joke because he’s Chuck Norris, and we’re supposed to laugh, but we don’t, because that meme died years ago. Bruce and Arnold share a particularly cringe worthy exchange. At least they get to shoot people out of a moving SMART car for a couple of seconds.

The only two people who are having any fun in the movie are Lundgren and Van Damme. Van Damme is clearly enjoying playing the bad guy, hamming it up with insane body language and gestures while wearing wraparound sunglasses and a leather coat in just about every scene. Lundgren clearly realizes that this isn’t a movie to be taken seriously, and also recognizes that people think he’s a bit weird, playing to his strengths and getting a few laughs in the process.

All the other actors in the movie are unsure of how to play things out, resulting in a tone that’s neither worthy of a good or bad-good action movie. Stallone in particular looks fairly bored throughout the whole affair. His extremely dodgy mustache gives a great performance, at least. The only time he really lights up is during his exchanges with Statham, but let’s face it: they’re both going through the motions.

My expectations for the Expendables 2 were low, and yet I still left disappointed. Ultimately, the problem is that it has no charm. It’s a movie designed to tick all the boxes on a financial sheet (famous action stars,  explosions, more explosions), without any passion involved in the film making process by just about… well, anyone. I don’t want something of this calibre to be a good movie, but I do want it to be entertaining, and the film just doesn’t provide nearly enough entertainment.

The Expendables 2 Review is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung’s D8000 was our TV of choice back in 2011, and the company is hoping to repeat its success with the new 2012 flagship, the Samsung UN55ES8000. A 55-inch behemoth, though with strikingly delicate design, the ES8000 ticks just about every box you’d expect for a modern Smart TV, and then some more after that. It also has a hefty $3,749.99 RRP, so can the quality live up to the cost? Read on for the SlashGear review.

Hardware

Handsome and imposing: Samsung’s 2012 design language involves plenty of silver metal and narrow bezels, allowing the LED LCD panel to speak for itself. The stand does away with the splayed legs of the last-gen model and replaces them with more discrete curving bars, though the ES8000 is no less stable for it.

The screen itself measures – on our review model – 55-inches and runs, unsurprisingly, at 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution. Overall, the set is 1.2-inches thick, excluding the detachable stand (that’s 8.3-inches deep) and stands 30-inches tall and 48.4-inches wide.

Even those with multiple external sources to hook up should have no issues connecting the ES8000. The ports are arrayed in an L-shape along the lower left side of the rear of the set, emerging parallel to the back so as to keep things flat and slim. There are three HDMI, a VGA, component, two sets of composite, three USB 2.0, optical digital, DVI and PC audio, and RF inputs, along with ethernet and integrated WiFi. If we were being picky then we’d liked to have seen a fourth HDMI, preferably side-mounted for impromptu use. Samsung bundles four pairs of active shutter 3D glasses.

There’s also what Samsung refers to as its “Evolution Kit”, a new addition for 2012 models. In effect a – currently empty – expansion bay, the idea is that as Samsung releases new features it can retroactively upgrade its existing models with the use of plug-in boards. Of course, as a new idea it’s untested, and so we’ll have to wait to see if it addresses upgrade anxiety along the line.

For the best results, it’s still sensible to ignore the integrated speakers in any TV and rely on a proper surround sound system – or at the very least a solid 2.1 setup – if you want your ears to be as well-treated as your eyes. Still, the two 10W down-firing speakers on the ES8000 aren’t the worst we’ve heard. There’s also a webcam on the top edge, built into a discrete bump, and flanked by two microphones.

Remote Controls

Samsung includes not one but two remotes with the ES8000, along with a discrete joystick-nub on the right edge for controlling the set up-close. The regular remote is long and thin, encrusted with buttons for navigating menus and channels, controlling volume, attached DVD/Blu-ray/DVR boxes (via HDMI link) and is backlit for nighttime use.

The second “Smart Touch Remote Control” is far more interesting. Shorter than the regular model, it pares back the controls to the bare minimum: there are volume and channel scrolls; power, home, timer and source keys; back, voice control and number shortcuts; all around a trackpad surface. With it, you can swipe your way around menus, but thanks to its integrated microphone you can also give the TV voice commands. We’ve covered that comprehensively in our Samsung Smart TV hands-on.

There are also some non-standard options for those who want even more control. The free Android Smart View App runs on phones and tablets, and as long as your ES8000 is on the same network – either wired or wireless, since the TV has both options – you can control it from your touchscreen. There’s also a Samsung wireless keyboard, which gives you full-sized text input as well as media control buttons with a Bluetooth connection, though we did not have that as part of our review package.

Samsung Smart TV Voice Gesture and Face Recognition hands-on

Performance

Samsung’s 2011 D8000 impressed us with its panel quality, and we can see ourselves recycling the hyperbole for the 2012 ES8000. Brightness is generally even, though there’s a little bloom around the edges, but it’s the accuracy of the colors and the detail that particularly wow. The default settings tend toward the over-saturated, as usual, but after spending some time adjusting them we were very pleased with how accurate flesh tones and other hues appeared.

Samsung quotes a meaningless dynamic contrast ratio – 30,000,000:1, no less – but the D8000 handles itself with aplomb. Whites are clean and pure, while blacks are almost as inky and saturated as we’re used to from Samsung’s AMOLED phones. There was no blurring in fast-moving scenes or sports.

Obviously there’s 3D support as well, using Samsung’s preferred active-shutter technology. That rapidly obscures and opens each lens alternately, matching the TV’s own flicking between frames intended for each eye. It works well, and we were able to watch 3D movies back-to-back without the sort of eye-strain headaches that can often result from poorly-synchronized content. A nice touch is that Samsung charges just $19.99 for each subsequent pair of active-shutter glasses, a far cry from the early days of $50 or more.

Of course, few people rely solely on live TV and DVD/Blu-ray for their entertainment these days, and so Samsung has built in multiple options for the internet age. Scroll through the (somewhat busy and intimidating) menu and there are options for VUDU, Hulu Plus, Netflix, MLB.TV, Pandora, Ustream, CinemaNow, MTV Music Meter, YouTube and more, some of which require a subscription to access. You also get a web browser, Facebook and a “Fitness” app that replicates a little of the Wii Fit experience.

It’s a mixed bag of usefulness – we can see Netflix and Hulu Plus being of most use to most owners – though the navigation experience itself can be sluggish and frustrating at times. We particularly liked the Skype support, which turns the ES8000 into a huge video conferencing system. Audio quality from the microphones by the webcam proved surprisingly clear, even when we were sat across the room. Samsung offers numerous downloadable apps through its own app-store to augment the Smart TV experience, though as it’s the company’s own system rather than, say, Google TV, it’s questionable how many third-party companies will come onboard.

Wrap-Up

Samsung’s ES8000 is a worthy update to its predecessor, and the company demonstrates its edge over much of the competition with the Smart TV functionality. Is it worth the humongous RRP? That’s a null point, given retailers are already discounting it by more than $1,250. You’re still paying a lot for a TV, but it’s less than the D8000 was at roughly the same point in its lifecycle, and that strikes us as a comparative bargain. The more unusual control options are mixed in their usefulness, but the core range of streaming and on-demand content choices are hugely impressive and broaden the ES8000′s appeal beyond the usual TV, movies and gaming.

Samsung UN55ES8000 55-inch Smart TV Review is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.