Audio Visual Gear

The Synology DS211+ Review: A Pint Sized 2-Bay NAS with some Really Big Features

Image courtesy of Synology You can’t be too cautious these days about backing up your data. Time and time again friends, family and co-workers come to me about trying to recover pictures, music and documents on a failed or virus ridden drive. Some even have their small business data lost when the main computer goes down. My first advice to anyone is that they should get themselves some sort of backup device, whether it be Desktop Attached Storage or Network Attached Storage and some good software to automate the backups. I have wanted to upgrade my 2TB external drive to…


Headphone Accessory Review: Sinch Let’s You and Your Phone Go Tangle Free

  Cords and cables… they seem to be everywhere. and most of the time they are a tangled mess. Sure you can use a Bluetooth headset but they need to be recharged and Bluetooth is less than reliable at times. (I’m being nice.) The Sinch seeks to end the mess of tangle headphone wires that plague modern society. Using a unique design that includes two strong magnets it creates a “pocket” that can hold your earbud cord when wrapped around a device or when used in isolation. Let’s take a look at this rather unusual new accessory.     From…


The Sceptre 24″ E246BD-FHD LED HDTV / Monitor with DVD Player Review

When we built our house, for various reasons we decided not to put a TV in every room; we installed one 55″ LED VIZIO on the wall in the living room with all the home theater options, and we called it good. Well, sometimes the best laid plans don’t quite work out. Over time, we realized that it would be handy to have a second television as backup, so that the girls could pop in a DVD when we were watching something “boring” like the San Diego Chargers and Texas football games, or the Tour de France. Because this second…


Sennheiser MM450 Bluetooth Headphones Review

As I have been reviewing more and more audio equipment one thing has become clear to me: you get what you pay for in the sound department. True, every now and then a lower-end audio product may surprise you but, as a general rule, the more you pay the more features and audio-quality you are going to find. Sure, this holds true in most areas, but I tend to find it is more apparent in the audio department than in other places. That noted, I never imagine I would lust after a pair of headphones that cost just south of…


SigNote Adds Interest and Personalization to Your Pics Review

It has been a while since an iOS photo app caught my attention but SigNote did just that! It is a relatively simple app that lets you add personalization to your photos in just a few simple steps. It takes seconds to learn and can be tons of fun. Let’s take a quick look via a walk-through of editing a picture and then tell you how you can enter to win a free promo code. Here’s what it says about the app in the iTunes Apps Store: Ever thought about turning your photos into a piece of art? SigNote arms…


Saved by ‘Old’ Technology!

I have said it before and I’ll say it again – the iPod Touch is the worst iPod I have ever owned. Why do I say that? Because one of my main listening modes is in the car to and from work and between different offices, and changing anything requires you to look at the iPod Touch – and therefore away from whatever else you are doing! And as Carly mentioned here, that can be a very dangerous prospect. For a long time I used a second generation 4GB iPod Nano, but the screen slowly stopped functioning and then the…


The Skooba Design Cable Stable Mini Review

Even with so many devices going toward the microUSB “standard”, I can’t help but travel with a minimum of three different types of cables — and sometimes more than that. My phone uses microUSB, my iPad has its own Apple connector, and my camera is miniUSB. When packing, I also need to bring along the battery chargers for my camera and MacBook Air, along with a few other miscellaneous doo-dads. You may recall that I reviewed the Skooba Design Cable Stable DLX early last year; while I have found it to be an excellent solution when I need to bring…


Audio PlayerReview: The JLab Wave Waterproof mp3 Player

A few weeks ago we took a look at the Monster Cable iSport waterproof headphones. They are pricey but sound great and are, in fact, truly waterproof. They are machine washable!! If you don’t need the same level of audio quality but still want waterproof headphones JLab’s Wave headset is worth a look. While the Wave is not machine washable it IS waterproof and has the huge advantage of not requiring a separate mp3 player. You see, the Wave IS the mp3 player. It MAY look like a pair of in-ear headphones connected by a ridged neck wire but the…


Seeing Greater Things for New FishEyes Smarter Rod and Reel with Underwater Video Camera

I have to admit that many items I review do not receive much thought after I post their story, but after spending a short time with this new FishEyes Rod and Reel With Underwater Video Camera I realized here was an item with much broader usage. Sure, this is a unique product that every father needs to bring along on a fishing trip with the kids to enhance their experience while you do your best Bill Dance or Jimmy Houston impression, but I began seeing other opportunities for FishEyes. While it really only looks in one direction (down) as I…


SanDisk Brings Out the Sansa Clip Zip

While I do like iPods, I still love other MP3 players as well.  One of my favorites is the Sansa Fuze+ after the latest firmware update.  Sandisk also has made many other Sansas, and one of the Linux community’s favorite ones has been the Sansa Clip.  Just when I didn’t think the Clip could get any better, Sandisk brings out the Clip Zip, which adds some nice things to the Clip’s form factor. Stylish, Feature-Rich Player Delivers Affordable On-The-Go Music Experience   ·         Packed with features, including a larger color screen, compatibility with all major music formats, a stopwatch, an…


Music Diary Notes: RIM’s BBM Music Poses the Question: Perhaps Late is NOT Better than Never?

Imagine if back in 2006 someone told you that RIM was offering a music plan for the Blackberry that would allow you to get 50 songs per month, share them with all of your friends who also have a Blackberry, unlimited and on-demand. And that it would have cost $5 a month! You would likely have lamented that you couldn’t also get them on your PC or iPod … but would otherwise been pretty thrilled and signed up immediately! This was the time before the iPhone, before Spotify and Slacker, and when RIM ruled the enterprise phone market. This was…


Earbud Accessory Review: Acoustibuds and Acoustigrips

(Editorial note: Try as I might to get useful images of these products for some reason it just wasn’t happening. Therefore you will see mostly stock images in this review but they ARE representative of the actual products.) We’ve been looking at a lot of different earbud and headphone offerings lately. A number of them, like the YurBuds, the Monster Cable iSports, SkullCandy FIX earphones and the AblePlanet SI350 headphones are targeted toward use during active sports and exercise. We learned of two offerings from Burton Technology, Acoustibuds and Acoustigrips, that, while not audio products in and of themselves, seek to…


Six Degrees of Musical Separation

Last night I was listening to my iPod touch and an awesome song came on that I had never heard. I looked up the name and it turns out it was “All the World”  from the self-titled album Fauxliage. Having never heard of the group I did a quick Wikipedia search of the band. This is what I found: Fauxliage is a musical project made by members of the Canadian electronic music group Delerium (which, in turn, is made up largely of members of the seminal industrial band Front Line Assembly) and Leigh Nash in 2007. The vocals are performed…


Review: Griffin Beacon Universal Remote for iOS

It looks funny. It does exactly what it promises. And, at least for me, it is in the running for “iOS Accessory of the Year”. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit but I’m pretty serious about how cool I think this iOS hardware/app combination is. The Griffin Beacon is the universal remote on steroids. With this odd piece of plastic powered by four AA batteries and a free download from the App Store I have taken my Samsung HDTV remote, my TiVo remote AND my Apple TV remote and put them away. Now all I need is one of my iOS…


Able Planet SI350 Sport Earphones Review

Headphones… We’ve check out a bunch. Some have impressed us. Some… Not so much. So when a new pair of headphones come on the market we want to check them out. And when they come from a company we know we are even more interest. That’s the case here with the new offerings from Able Planet. Judie introduced Able Planet to Gear Diary readers in this post way back in 2008. Mike looked at pair of their gaming headphones in this post. And Judie checked out a pair of their headphones with active noise cancellation here. I met with the…


iFrogz Introduces Some New Headphones and Accessories

I work at a college and one of the things you see in almost every set of ears on campus is a set of headphones.  Our bookstore sells them all the time when students destroy their favorite pair of buds which is why they carry many different brands of headphones including some from iFrogz as well.  Today iFrogz has brought out a new line of headphones in the new iFrogz Audio brand.  They will also be bringing two more sets of headphones in the Ear Pollution line of headphones. The first set is a set of on ear headphones called…


Review: Vonage Time to Call App for iOS

I used Vonage as my main home phone service for a bit of time a number of years ago. I’ve since moved on to other solutions (Ooma), but I took note when the company released their new iOS app the other day. I know what you are thinking, “Another phone app for iOS? Who needs it?” Well think again, because I just made a call to Coach using my iPod touch and a headset, and here is what he had to say: “Sounds better than when my wife calls me on her iPhone and you are using an iPod touch….


Bongiovi Acoustics DPS (Digital Power Station) for iOS Rocks Your World

Want richer bass, higher clarity and an all around enhanced audio experience? Bongiovi Acoustics: Bongiovi DPS (Digital Power Station) technology has it. The technology is currently available in iHome dock stations and select Toyota models and, for the first time, Bongiovi’s technology is available as an iOS app. The technology “re-masters your compressed digital audio files at the source and then, using device specific profiles, optimizes the output for your listening device (headphone, speaker, earbud, etc).” I tried the iOS app and was rather impressed with the enhanced audio pumped out by my iPod touch and my iPad. As the company…


Review: AViiQ Portable Charging Station

The promise of converged devices like the iPhone was, among other things, the ability to travel light. Instead of needing to bring a phone, an address book, a music player, a note pad, a camera, etc., smartphones promised to replace all of that and be the only thing you needed to bring with you. Funny but, at least for many of us, that hasn’t happened. Sure, my iPhone DOES replace all those aforementioned items, but along with my iPhone I now carry an iPad, a Bluetooth headset and, at times, a second phone. And in order to keep them all…


Bye-Bye, Spotify

When Spotify finally came to the US I was quick to jump on it. I like using streaming, subscription music services a great deal. I like the flexibility. I love being able to download and listen to pretty much whatever I choose for a small fee each month. Sure, I already have a huge music collection but there’s a ton of music I want to hear that isn’t part of it and there are enough tunes that it would cost me a small fortune to purchase all of them. I tried Rhapsody for a while and while I got hooked…


Review: BlueAnt EMBRACE Wired On-Ear Headphones

photos by Kevin In recent years we have seen a proliferation of on-ear and over-the-ear headphones priced in the $200-$300 range. There are, of course, the Beats by Dr Dre. They are joined by the likes of the Denon AH-D 1100 headphones (reviewed here), the Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) P5 Mobile Hi-Fi Headphones (reviewed here), the V-Moda Crossfades (reviewed here) and many more. Is there room for yet another pair of headphones in the mix, let alone from a company that is known for its Bluetooth devices rather than wired-audio? That’s the question faced by BlueAnt with the release of…