Hasta La Gadget!

Add that magical material known as graphene to the list of things you can make with inkjet printers alongside OLEDs, solar panels, and light-bending metamaterials. Scientists at the Seoul National University used printers and a technique known as vapor deposition to leave a thin film of the graphite-based conductor on sheets of PVDF (poly vinylidene fluoride). By sandwiching the the PVDF between graphene electrodes and applying a current from a sound source researchers were able to create a flat and transparent loudspeaker that could be integrated into windows or screens. Don’t expect this low-power sound source to replace your hi-fi though — since it relies on the distortion-prone piezoelectric effect, it probably won’t sound much better than the earpiece on your cellphone.

Transparent graphene speakers printed with inkjets, lo-fi musical windows are on their way originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You might just think of FM radio as that thing you turn on when you forget to bring your iPod (or phone) in the car. Most of the music sucks, right? So why buy one? This is why. More »

The simple plastic SoundJaw makes a huge difference to the iPad’s shameful speaker

It would be hard to say anything good about the iPad 2’s speaker. It is tinnier-sounding than the surprisingly good speaker on the first iPad. It faces backwards, firing all sound away from you. It is far too easy to cover it with a hand or a Smart Cover and — worst of all — it is about the ugliest piece of design to come out of Apple since that stupid hockey-puck mouse that shipped back in 1998.

Luckily, there’s a fix. It’s called the SoundJaw, and it is a little plastic scoop that clips on to the bottom right corner of the iPad 2 and goes passively to work. The inventor, Matthew McLachlan, sent me one to test out.

Slip the SoundJaw onto the iPad and the transformation is dramatic. The widget scoops the sound from the rear-firing speaker and pushes it out of a small opening that looks like the return coin slot of an old-style payphone.

I showed it to The Lady and she said that it sounded “tinny.” This is true, but it’s not actually making the sound any tinnier — flip the iPad over and listen to it naked and the tinniness is still there. The SoundJaw just makes it louder. In fact, it also works as a kind of horn speaker, amplifying the sound as well as bending it.

With music, the shortcomings in the iPad’s speaker mean you probably still want to use an external speaker like the SuperTooth Disco. But for movies, games and general listening the SoundJaw is perfect. Dialog tracks that are indecipherable become loud and clear, and the sounds of grunting pigs and angry birds can’t be muffled by a mis-placed hand.

I see no reason to ever take the SoundJaw off. The Smart Cover closes just fine, and some slip cases also work with the widget still attached. It might not work in folio-style cases, but those of you who encase your slim, lightweight tablet in a thick slab of padded plastic or leather are a lost cause anyway.

And if you have an iPad 1, don’t bother. You can sort of jam the SoundJaw most of the way on, but it sticks out and makes no difference to the sound whatsoever.

Available now, the SoundJaw costs $20.

SoundJaw product page [SoundJaw]

See Also:

• Clip-On SoundJaw Fixes iPad 2's Terrible Speaker
• Speaker Dock Turns iPad into Tiny iMac
• Rumor: iPad 2 Has Bigger Speaker, Flat Back, Smaller Body

Speaker wire is expensive if you buy it at retail, cheap if you just use a spool of electrical cable, but always, always an eyesore. Sure, you can pull it through the drywall, hide it behind some curtains — or you can just go wireless. That’s the option Cue Acoustics will enable with its PS1 bookshelf speakers, shipping this August. They’re a high-end pair, each internally amplified and offering a 5-inch downward-firing woofer, 3.5-inch mid, and .75-inch tweeter, covering all the acoustic hotspots with fanfare. More important, though, is that each speaker can run with only one cable: power. Full details after the break.

Continue reading Cue Acoustics PS1 wireless speakers do audio over DLNA, we go hands-on

Cue Acoustics PS1 wireless speakers do audio over DLNA, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d think that making a speaker from hard, brittle porcelain would result in an equally splintered, frangible sound. Apparently, though, according to Joonsoo Kim and Jungyou Choi of Joon & Jung, it lends the sound a resonance, a “natural vibe and ambiance,” which lends music some properties of acoustic instruments.

This is the thinking behind their Natural Speaker, hand made from porcelain and a fagot-like bundle of sticks which produces a resonance chamber. The internals are shaped to allow sound to bounce around before exiting, and the exterior looks beautiful in un-smoothed, unglazed porcelain. This lovely video shows the hand-made construction (complete with an oddly violent reverse-smashing section in the middle).

If nothing else, these speakers look wonderful, and there’s something enticing about speakers that are individually tuned, no matter how serendipitous that tuning might be. The Natural Speakers can be ordered now. And the price? If you have to ask…

Natural Speakers product page [Joon & Jung via Core77]

See Also:

• Hi-Fido, A Dog-Shaped Ceramic Speaker
• Joey Roth's Ceramic Speakers a Sight to Behold
• High-End Hemp Speakers Are All the Buzz