Archive for November, 2006
I got a link to an eBay auction for the model above. My first thought was something like “It’s made of glass, I wonder if it could be used as a crack pipe…”
It’s not that I have anything to do with such substance use, I just got a vision of a picture of someone smoking crack from a gun. Sort of anti-drug campaign thing. Maybe not that good, not unlikely that it already has been done… but I see it as a sign that some part of my creativity is coming back. I’m getting more and more ideas. It feels good. But…
The problem is that I lack the motivation to actually create something from those ideas. Probably related to that depression thingy, it makes makes procrastination very simple. Then that inability causes more frustration and so the downward spiral spins on… any suggestions on how to get of one’s arse and get stuff done?
November 28, 2006 at 11:19 pm · Filed under General
I finally got a good reason to buy a pair of new phones, and after seeing a couple of reviews pointing them out as a good value choice I decided to try the rather obscure Cresyn brand.
Lets start by trying to work out the price. I paid 245 Swedish Kronor, which is about $35 US or €27* at today’s exchange rate. The reason I mention that first is that these Cresyn phones don’t sound a bit like it – if I hadn’t known the price, I’d probably guessed it to be at least twice as much. They have that quality of… well, having been designed to really play music well, rather than just make it sound good.
One of my main problems with phones is that I listen to a very wide variety of music, ranging from mellow, acoustic stuff to the upper extremes of metal and hardcore, and I have had trouble to find something that can cope with it all. But these phones handle it all admirably well. Acoustic guitars and crisp voices come out clear but still with warmth, and at the harder end the phones keep the definition even during the most extreme blasts of sound, making the experience no more painful than the bands intended. Simply amazing, especially considering the cost I mentioned.
Another thing I’ve noticed with earphones is that they often need to be cranked up to a certain volume before they sound good, but in a silent room these Cresyns provided a good sound with the volume on my player set to 1. I’m pretty sure most eardrums are grateful of the fact that you only need enough volume to cancel out the background sound. Something that also helps in that area is the design. I suppose they are pretty standard as far as in-ear phones come, with three sizes of silicone rubber tips to ensure that they fit most ear canals, but it works well.
The cord is of the asymmetrical kind that hangs over the wearer’s neck, and the length from the short (left) phone is about 0.5 meters, plus a one meter long extension cord. This is for the black/metal version I got (also available with red “stems”) There’s also a white/silver necklace version that is held together by removable clips so it can be used as a regular cord as well. I also think the clean design looks quite nice, the straight stems might look uncomfortable but they are well out of the way thanks to the shape of the driver housings. Besides the ear tips and extension cord the package also includes a pouch made of neoprene-like material. Not really useful, but more useful than the molded plastic cases that often come with earphones since it’s large enough to also hold your average size flash memory-based music player.
To sum this up, I’ll say that Cresyn LMX-E630 delivers excellent sound at a bargain price. With an exception for bass-hungry club music freaks its rich but balanced sound will probably appeal to most kinds of listeners looking for something in a reasonable price range. After only four years since the launch of the brand Cresyn is still quite obscure, but if they keep the quality at this level they might have a bright future.
*Markets are quite different, so for comparison with some popular products the price is about twice that of a pair of Koss The Plug at the webshop where I bought my phones, and a third less than the iPod in-ear phones at Apple’s Swedish online store.
Tags: Cresyn, ear phones, gadgets, Music, review
November 26, 2006 at 2:38 am · Filed under Computing & techiness
Researchers experiment with “evanescent coupling” as a way to wirelessly recharge mobile devices. I think that sounds like a brilliant idea. As soon as it is ready it should be written into international standards before people go around proprietizing it and we end up needing to have one wireless recharger for each device, like AC-adapters…
I can imagine a load of uses. Not only for devices like phones and media players – the ones you take out of your home – but for all cordless devices as well as those that could be. Imagine never having to replace the batteries in your remote controls. Or not needing to have base stations for toothbrushes, shavers and landline cordless phones all over the place. My cordless mouse would be even better if it didn’t have to be recharged.
Then there’s probably more than a few stationary that could use it, for example a smoke detector that feeds off wireless power would be able to keep its battery safely charged all the time. Would work for clocks as well, in many cases even for corded ones like clock radios that only need power to make some noise a few minutes a day.
I guess it would have to be limited to low power/short use devices or all the power in the air would make us face the same experience as a psychopathic kid’s hamster in a microwave oven, but there are enough possibilities to make wireless power as useful as a regular, old-fashioned outlet power.
And imagine the resource savings, I just got inspired to put my phone and the charger on the scales, and the charger weighed in at twice the weight of the phone, and that’s a clunky three year old low-range phone. What a freaking waste – not only the materials themselves, but also the costs and effects of shipping them across the globe.
Oh, and I bet it takes about three weeks from the breakthrough until someone puts the first “always ready to please” sex toys on the market. ;)
Tags: gadgets, tech, thoughts
November 19, 2006 at 1:56 am · Filed under Computing & techiness, General
