Hasta La Gadget!

Among watchmakers, NOMOS Glaschütte is unique – it’s a relatively young watch company at around 20 years old, but it’s also one of the few in the world to earn the distinction of being a “manufactory,” which means it builds its own movements. That combination results in some watches that are exquisitely crafted, but also relatively affordable (in high-end watch terms, since it’s still nearly $5,000). The Tangomat GMT, a recent introduction and world timer that uses one of NOMOS’ most impressive movements, fits that description perfectly, and is easily one of the best watches I’ve ever had the pleasure of wearing.

Design

The Tangomat GMT features the same clean lines and Bauhaus-inspired minimalism of NOMOS’ mechanical Tangente and other automatic Tangomat watches, with a self-winding NOMOS Glashütte Xi movement. The dial is a cream-coloured affair with slightly raised printed black characters, blued steel indicators and an inset small second subdial with a finely textured radial pattern.

Additional dial features on this watch that are missing on other Tangomat devices are the current city window, and the home time zone display. Both are features associated with the GMT world timer functions of the watch; the city window shows you what time zone the main dial is currently displaying, and the home time zone window on the right hand side of the watch displays the current time wherever you primarily rest your head.

The Tangomat GMT is one of two world timers made by NOMOS, with the other being the celebrated Zürich Weltzeit. Both watches share the same movement, which is capable of keeping time in 24 different time zones, but the Tangomat cleans things up with a city dial that’s mostly kept out of view, save for the display window. The Tangomat is more understated, with cleaner, more mathematical lines, while the Zürich Weltzeit is a bit flashier, and more modern in its angles.

To me, the balance of minimalism, function and a bold, clean face make the Tangomat GMT a nearly ideal watch for general use. It’s perfect for evening wear with the black Shell Cordovan leather band it ships with, but can also work in much more casual settings, and is made even more suitable for everyday use with a brown strap. And of course, thanks to the world timer function, it’s also perfect for travel.

Movement

As mentioned, the Tangomat GMT carries a house-made NOMOS Glaschütte Xi movement, which offers a world timer complication that allows shifting of time zones with a single press of a button on the case. This moves the time forward in one hour increments, and also changes the city displayed in the left-hand subdial. Cities are identified mostly by the first three letters in their name, and you can also set your home time zone using an inset button on the bottom left side of the case, for which NOMOS provides a custom tool (though you’d be okay with a ballpoint pen, should that ever get lost).

Setting the Tangomat GMT is easy enough if you follow the provided instructions, and then it’s remarkably easy to switch between time zones, though you’ll have to do two laps each time to get back to your home city (24 time zones are represented by 24 different cities on the subdial). It may technically take less time to reset your watch each time you land in a new destination, but it’s nowhere near as fun, or as technically impressive. And for a blogger like me, there’s a bonus: you can keep track of the time in a distant city where there might be news or an embargo coming up, while still watching the clock at home on the small subdial to the right.

The NOMOS movement is a technical marvel, but it’s also been finely detailed with an eye to aesthetics. It’s a 26 movement with tempered blue screws, rhodium plating, sunburst finish on exposed metal surfaces and black gold perlage detail. You’d be forgiven for wanting to do nothing but stare at this movement through the sapphire crystal caseback, as it looks amazing, and is again probably the primary selling point of this watch for true watch appreciators. It can store around 42 hours of power reserve from the bidirectional rotor, too, so it’s not just a pretty face.

Bottom Line

NOMOS is a watch brand that seems to tend to attract young collectors looking for a manufactory movement with some fairly unique and modern styling, at a relatively affordable price. This Tangomat GMT, however, should appeal very broadly to collectors of all stripes, but especially to those who spend a lot of time in the air, and on foreign soil. Practically, it’s also handy for anyone who does business regularly with other time zones, but let’s be honest: you’re not thinking about buying a $4,570 watch because you’re a strictly practical person. The Tangomat GMT also promises a lot of delight to anyone who appreciates the engineering effort that went into designing and building its enthralling movement, and that’s the real reason to add this to your watch wish list.

The iPad Air features an impressively slender form factor and, thanks largely to its A7 processor and optimizations in iOS 7, it still manages to perform twice as fast and deliver just as much battery life as its predecessor.

Google has just launched the Nexus 5 smartphone, which is going to be the company’s flagship handset to show what a “pure” Android experience should be. The Nexus smartphone is always popular for several reasons: 1/ its price per performance is usually unmatched 2/ OS updates come faster since Google itself is managing them 3/ they are free of carrier-specific software and locks. Since we named the Nexus 7 tablet a “killer product”, the question is: can Nexus 5 reach the same heights in the smartphone space?

As expected, the Nexus 5 fulfills those promises, but you will see that details do matter and that it is extremely difficult to offer the absolute best experience, at half the price. Hardware-wise, the Nexus 5 is the fruit of a partnership between Google and LG, just like Nexus 4 was. As such, Nexus 5 looks a lot like the LG G2, but you will see that it is not quite an equivalent phone like Optimus G and Nexus 4 were. In this review, I will give you a sense of how it is to use the Nexus 5 in the real world. Ready? (more…)

Nexus 5 Review original content from Ubergizmo.

In the kennel of 3D printers, I’d equate the oddly-shaped and homegrown RepRap printers to lovable mutts. The Makerbot is a golden retriever, ready to please. And the $1,599 Afinia H-Series is a solid, scrappy Jack Russell terrier, willing to get dirty and able to take on all comers.

The H-Series looks like it was built by the same industrial design team that built the original metal-clad Apple IIs. The device is almost entirely self-contained and there are none of the familiar cables running up and down the various arms and cams. The print head is connected via a large wire ribbon to the control board and shielded by a 3D-printed plastic screen that keeps the .15mm print head protected. The spool sits on a fairly solid hook on the side of the machine and the plastic runs through a guide into the extruder. In short, there are very few visible moving parts, which is a good thing and a bad thing.

The H-Series is a great beginners’ printer and the rugged case makes it an excellent contender for a true classroom 3D printer. It looks and feels as solid as, say, an industrial educational microscope or similar lab gear and, given a choice, I’d far prefer it over a similarly outfitted but more exposed system like the many RepRap hardware. That said, the home hobbyist may be put off by the lack of visible access to the extruder and motors, two points of failure that often require maintenance. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get into the extruder and pull out broken filament, for example, but it’s definitely a bit of a hindrance.

As for print quality, it was a mixed bag but erred on the side of excellent. On very simple prints everything worked swimmingly. The .15mm size produces a smooth, solid print in objects that fit within the fairly limited 5-inch square print envelope. However, bigger objects are problematic as you have to slice them a bit to get them to fit and, unlike the Makerbot, you don’t have much room to print multiple objects on one plate.

In terms of torture testing the printer I came away sufficiently impressed, but if you’re printing very complex objects this is probably not for you. This is my printer torture test object. It’s 100 layers tall and consists of a number of very fiddly little shapes that throw off most printers. The Makerbot can barely complete this without artifacts. How did the Afinia do? The results, while not perfect, were more than acceptable given the price and the materials available. No amount of fine-tuning could force the printer to create a better version of this print.

The Torture Test model, on the other hand, printed just fine. In general the printer can produce some very solid output but it is stymied by the limitations imposed by additive printing and the problems associated with ABS filament.

Given that the H-Series is facing a number of competitors in the 3D printing space, it’s important to understand how this model stacks up. It has a very small build envelope, which could be problematic, but because we’re not talking about an industrial printer here this can be forgiven. It’s half the price of similarly outfitted 3D printers but you are limited to ABS printing and it only includes one extruder. However, because it’s quite small it’s far easier to store than other models and can sit unobtrusively on a desk where others systems hulk menacingly.

I ran into a few problems with the software, however, which should give Mac users pause. The OS X versions of the software worked intermittently and the app didn’t work at all on Windows 8. It works best on Windows 7, which I ended up running in a virtual machine on my Mac just to get anything to print.

Compared to other software packages I’ve used the phrase “Better than nothing” comes to mind when I look at Afinia’s solution. There is no interactive scaling – to scale an object you select a size multiplier (.8, 1.2, etc) and press scale. The same unintuitive system is used to move and rotate objects on the bed. However, when all you want to do is print something small it works just fine. The 3D printer software is often an afterthought and, while I wasn’t impressed by its utility, I was able to use it and print with it without much trouble.

Is this the 3D printer for you? If you’re an educator or home hobbyist, I think this is $1,500 well spent. Serious hobbyists may want to consider a printer that does PLA and ABS, however, and the build envelope is very small on this machine, thereby limiting what you can print in one piece. However it is very quiet, sturdy, and usable and I was very impressed with the build quality and utility. It’s not the best 3D printer out there, but in many respects it comes very close.

Click to enlarge

This article was written on August 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

Happy Blog Day! I’ve had this marked on my calendar for a few weeks now, and it’s hard to believe that it’s already here. So what is Blog Day?

It’s essentially a day where bloggers celebrate other bloggers. The goal is to have everyone recommend 5 new blogs that can be introduced to your readers. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, and so we decided to play along.

Note: We’re refraining from mentioning a lot of the mainstream blogs such as Download Squad and Lifehacker.

1. Kyle’s Cove – A great personal blog that covers both technology news and blogging tips. There’s always some fun conversations going on over there in the comments.
2. Firefox Facts – If you’re a Firefox fan then this site is a must. There are tips regularly being posted, and extensions are being uncovered that I didn’t even know existed.
3. Inspect My Gadget – I’ve only been subscribed to this feed a short time, but it’s already revealed some great software. I think this one is going to be a keeper.
4. How-To Geek – He frequently posts tutorials on performing things you may not have realized you can do with your computer. Tips are provided for Mac’s, Linux, and Windows, but a majority of the focus is on Vista and Ubuntu.
5. Freeware Genius – This is an amazing source of freeware. There are a few apps reviewed every week, and if you love free software this site will surely turn up some good stuff.

So go ahead and spread the word about Blog Day 2007! Still wanting to discover some more sites? Checkout what everyone else has posted, and drop a link to your own Blog Day 2007 posts in the comments (or just create a list in the comments). I look forward to seeing what sites everyone has to recommend.

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