1 Oct

I swear, it’s not a blog…

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Sticky posts |

To whom it may concern.

So it seems if you want to say something on the internet you need a blog…
With this personal website, (because I swear, It’s not a blog…) I would like to bash things I don’t like and hype things that I think is awesome. I might also publish totally irrelevant stuff, you know, just because nobody can moderate it. My site, my rules and I am tired of forums and community’s. My goal with this website is to try stick to generate posts that are timeless. What I mean with that is even though it by definition is a blog, I want the posts to be useful to read even when they are old and someone stumble onto one. Because of this I will probably not post every day or about things that don’t mean anything tomorrow.

Oh right, you need a portrait photo also. I had and old but awesome picture here but was told I needed to update it!

28 Oct

The Leaked Ashley Madison Database is Now Used For False Framing

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Business, Lifestyle, Media & Internet, Social | Tags :, , , , , , , , , , |

ashley-madisonI’m gonna assume that everyone already know about the recent hack against the Ashley Madison affair dating website. If not, you can catch up on it here.

The hacked and leaked database contains the usernames and email addresses of roughly 32 million members on the website. About 15,000 of the members are registered with official .mil and .gov email addresses. As you can understand, this opened up a hell of blackmailing and flaming against people who where exposed. I can’t really say that I feel sorry for them though.

However, a huge secondary problem has grown from this hack and leak, and I will explain why. What most people don’t know is that the original version of the hacked and leaked database is off the grid for a while now. What remains online right now is 2 kinds of modified versions of the database.

The panic spread and censoring began
The first kind of modified database version that almost instantly surfaced was several censored versions, where some usernames and email addresses had been removed from the database. The different new censored versions has been re-uploaded again to many new locations. This is of course done to try cover up who was actually in the original database, and simply denying that they where in it to start with. I mean, who can prove that they where not added to the database after it was leaked?

The false framing and blackmailing
The second kind of modified database version is where ill-willing individuals or organizations have been adding usernames and email addresses to the database, which did not exist in the original database. When that has been done, they have re-uploaded the database to many new download sites, using it as a way to blackmail people for a profit. The same goes here, who can prove that they where added, and would you believe the excuses from a suspected cheater? You wouldn’t believe how many falsely framed people that rather pay up than having to deal with explaining how they ended up in the database.

Now, obviously I can’t link to any examples of these modified databases because of legal reasons. But if you are curious about it, then TOR Network is your friend.

Tell me what YOU think!

 

 

27 Oct

The Inflated Success of Android Explained

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Business, Electronics & Gear, Media & Internet | Tags :, , , , , , , , |

OS-market-shareIt’s time for some education by JFTB. As you can see on this graph, the most recent mobile OS market share report by IDC shows that Android has a market share of 82%. (Source: idc.com) These are absolute fantastic numbers! But they are also vastly misleading, and today I will explain why.

As I wrote about in this article, Android is an semi-open OS that can be installed on almost any device you want. While iOS is a hardware specific OS and only runs on Apple devices. The reason that Android is so flexible is also the cause of these inflated market share numbers.

Because Android is capable of being installed on almost any device at a very low cost or even none at all, we see a huge selection of Android capable hardware on the market. This also means that there’s a massive amount of low end, china produced, absolute crap devices which is hardly usable, that runs Android.

If we look at the mobile device market share based on brand, we can clearly see that Samsung with 21,4% market share, is brand-market-sharethe leading brand. Apple takes a 2nd place with 13,9% market share. (Source idc.com) Samsung as a vendor has a huge lineup of models, ranging from $65 low end devices that are barley passable as a “smart phone”, all the way up to $900 high end desktop class performing devices.

We have to keep in mind that all the low end devices are included in the market share statistics. When we compare this lineup of models to what Apple offers, Apple only keep 3 models to choose from in their lineup, and all of them could be considered as high end, as they do not have any low performing budget alternative like Samsung and many other brands have.

top15-android-devicesSo how do we make this comparison fair? Well, we could take a look at what are the top 10 most popular and most used Android devices, regardless of brand? I made it fair and included all Android devices that has 1% or more in market share, and ended up with a top-15 list of devices, which can be seen here. (source: appbrain.com) As you can see, the list is dominated by Samsung devices, but even Motorola has a 1,9% market share among the top-15 most popular Android devices. If we sum this up, the actual Android market share of usable devices with up-to-date hardware is 26,5%.

 

By now I am sure you understand that the initial number of 82% Android market share is vastly inflated by insignificant and useless budget devices. I mean today you can buy a $24 china manufactured no-name tablet that runs Android, but how usable is it?

So in my opinion this inflated market share number would be like comparing this:

Market share of RED cars
All brands of RED cars: 96%
Mercedes RED cars: 4%

So, tell me what YOU think?

 

 

 

26 Oct

Version Fragmentation May Become The Death of Andriod

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Media & Internet, Science & Technology | Tags :, , , , , , |

OS-vs-AndroidToday JFTB takes a look at an increasing problem in the mobile device OS version fragmentation.

I want to put aside all fan-boy arguments and just take a look take a look at some facts.

Apple is both famous and infamous for their strict framework, while Android earned the reputation of an more “open” platform, even if it’s still restricted. Apple has very early identified the risks of free choices and that the wishes of the end users is not always for the best in the long run.

The “openness” of Android now seems to slowly creep up behind to bite themselves in the tail. Apple has a very strict device and OS version life cycle policy which ensures that almost all users will have the same experience on their devices. While looking at Android, many users complain they can’t use the same features as someone else, or install an app that a friend has. And why is that?

Well, to start with you can run Android on almost any device you like. It’s a very versatile OS. This brings a lot of possibility’s to the platform. While looking at iOS, you can “only” run it on an Apple device, which limits your choice of hardware. While both options has it’s pros and cons, I truly believe that the freedom of hardware choice is going to be the death of Android in the long run. And here is why.

android_screenThis picture illustrates the screen resolutions for all known Android devices today. As you can see we have a couple of dozens of screen resolutions and ratio aspects to consider. How easy do you think it is for an app developer to tackle this? Do you think he can make the app fit well on all devices? (Source: opensignal.com)

Next picture illustrates the same thing. All resolutions for all iOS devices. Which OS doiphone_screen you think it’s easier to develop an app or game with high device compatibility for? If you’re an app developer business, which platform would you pick? I have personally tested quite a few Android devices, everything from $100 budget devices to $900 high end devices, and I have stumbled onto app incompatibility issues many times, but never on an iOS device.

The next issue at hand is the actual OS version life cycle management. This issue is also based on the same facts as previous example: The amount of different hardware available to the platform and the OS. I can go down to my local hardware dealer today and buy myself a brand new $300 dollar Android budget android fragementphone that runs Android 2.3. How ever, if i buy an iPhone I will always get it with the latest OS. Also, because there’s so many manufacturers of hardware that can run Android, there’s no real version life cycle management for Android. The picture to the left illustrates all active Android devices today and what version OS the run. As you can see, only 23,5% of all active devices run the latest version of Android. (Source: android.com) As a developer this means you have to do a lot of compromises when developing an app for Android. This issue is also increasing every year, making the fragmentation wider for every new device and every new version of Android.

If we takeios-fragment a look at iOS and Apple with it’s strict life cycle policy, we can clearly see the benefits of hardware specific OS and version life cycle management. With 61% of the users running the absolute latest version and a total of 91% of the users running a supported version of the OS, which platform would you chose to develop for? (Source: apple.com) Not only are these great numbers, they also increase for the better every year compared to Android. Meaning the version fragmentation on iOS gets smaller every year, while for Android the fragmentation gets worse. If this fragmentation of versions and screen resolutions for Android gets to run wild for another few years, what do you think will happen? Comment below what YOU think.

12 Sep

Ubisoft Ignores a €750,000 Offer On A Dead Game

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Business, Gaming, Media & Internet | Tags :, , , |

ubisoft-the-mighty-quest-for-epic-lootI have followed and played the game Mighty Quest For Epic Loot by Ubisoft for a few years now. I first started playing it in Closed Beta, then I had a break and came back when it was in Open Beta. I have probably spent thousands of hours playing this game and have always been a huge fan.

The game has big potential, but due to many issues with the organization around the game development, Ubisoft has always struggled with an ever decreasing player base and an angry community.

Since 2 months back the development of the game has come to a complete stop and no updates are being made anymore. With many people in my professional network, I came to learn that the Lead Director of the game has quit and moved to another project. Along with that, the rest of the development team went under an internal performance review which resulted in relocation and/or termination of some or all of the team. My sources also informs me that there is no budget set for further development of the game. This means that even though it has not yet been announced, the game will very likely be shut down or just left to be as it is.

Meanwhile all this was happening, I have been working closely together with 3 very successful virtual entrepreneurs who are specializing in online gaming and virtual investments. I approached them with the concept of the game and some ideas on how to make it better and also very profitable. For a few weeks we talked back and forth about ideas around the game and how it could be improved and how the new business model would work.

The 3 “dragons” agreed with me, and I agreed to be the driving force since I am the only one of us 4 that has vast knowledge about the game. After many discussions around the business model, the current state of the game, future potential and terms of our offer, we decided to contact Ubisoft with an offer,

The 24th of August 2015, we mailed Ubisoft’s chairman and CEO Yves Guillemot and explained that we are interested in a partnership and to buy 51% of the ownership and rights to the game. On the 29th of August 2015 we updated Yves with our offer of €750,000 for 51% of the rights and ownership to the game, and also included a rough draft of our terms on the partnership, which we left open for negotiation. We explained that our offer stands until the 11th of September 2015.

As of today, the offer has expired, and we have not heard a single word from Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot.

Game Over.

5 May

Rolex gold watches is a waste of money!

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Lifestyle, Watches & Horology | Tags :, , , |

Rolex-submariner-goldToday I want to point out something very obvious that no watch enthusiast or collector never mention. I want to show how big of a scam the watch industry make out of precious metal watches. Now I am not saying that Rolex is a scam or that it is a bad brand, but let’s have a look at Rolex Submariner for this example.

The all steel Rolex Submariner with date feature retails today for around €7.200. The very same Rolex Submariner in 18K gold retails for around €26.000.

These two models of watches has the exact same Rolex caliber 3135 mechanical movement with the exact same features. The price difference between these two models are €18.800 and the only difference is that one is made from high grade stainless steel and the other one from 18K gold.

NRolex-Submariner-Steelow, not only is the stainless steel version a lot cheaper, but as a tool watch it is insanely much more durable than the 18K gold version. The €18.800 gets you about 750 grams worth of 18K gold on the market today. The 18K gold Rolex Submariner weighs in at roughly 180 grams including the movement and all other non-gold parts. This means approximately 140 grams of 18K gold at most, which is about €3.600 in market value.

This means you are paying an €15.200 extra premium just for the fact that the watch was manufactured from 18K gold instead of stainless steel. That is A LOT of extra spent money for just manufacturing costs. With this in mind I would rather buy the steel version Rolex Submariner and spend the saved $18.800 on gold bars for future investment. They are more likely to go up in value and over time make enough money to buy another steel Rolex.

Using the Rolex Submariner is not even the worst example. Go look up the Patek Philippe Nautilus in steel versus 18K gold and do the same comparison, it’ll blow your mind.

23 Dec

One Late Night: Deadline – Download NOW on Steam

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Media & Internet | Tags :, , , |

steam-greenlight-one-late-night-deadline The long anticipated game One Late Night: Deadline has now been released on Steam! I have played this game during development beta and this is without a doubt the best game in it’s genre that I have played! Get it now on Steam!

29 Nov

You can help to make “One Late Night – Deadline” get on Steam

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Media & Internet, Social | Tags :, , , , , |

steam-greenlight-one-late-night-deadlineThe long anticipated followup to the original release One Late Night has now entered Steam GreenLight. If you by some unfortunate reason have missed the sneak peaks on One Late Night: Deadline, you now have a chance to play this game very soon! All you need to do now is to vote for it to hit Steam! Follow the link below and VOTE for One Late Night: Deadline.

If you haven’t played the first release, you can still get it for free at www.onelatenight.com

For more info on the followup One Late Night: Deadline, visit http://deadline.onelatenight.com or check out the FaceBook page

Steam GreenLight VOTE LINK HERE

 

26 Jun

Espresso House, the secret to why they are so successful

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Lifestyle, Social | Tags :, , , , , |

espresso-house_seiko_beatsI have been a decent and loyal customer at Espresso House for around 8 years or so. I have probably spent thousands of Euros on coffee and sandwiches there, and considering in what rate Espresso House expands, so has millions of other customers done also.

So what is it that makes Espresso House such an successful business? Well first of all they obviously have a winning product! Who doesn’t like coffee, salads and sandwiches? They have a simple but well thought out concept which they manage to keep standardized down into the smallest detail.

But is great coffee and nice sandwiches enough to make an successful cafe business, you ask? No, it’s not! In the title I was implying that there’s a secret to why they are so successful. Well guess what, it’s not a secret! But even so, many businesses seem to operate like this “trick” is the best kept secret in the world. What am I talking about? SERVICE! The people working at Espresso House are helpful, friendly, service minded and they smile! THIS is why they are successful, and the management of Espresso House has understood this, they know that a service minded staff will make customers come back! The survival of every business is depending on your customers, so they should be your number one focus. Being service minded and helpful is the smallest but most important investment you can do in your business.

17 Jun

Understanding the concept of time and how universe works

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Lifestyle | Tags :, , |

breitling-chronomatI am sure that anyone who knows me in person have not missed that I am a huge wrist watch enthusiast. I am pretty sure that I drive my wife insane with all my talk about watches. And because I am such a big enthusiast, I very often get the question what it is that makes me so into watches. Why I like watches so much is because of several different reasons. Some of these reasons are easier to understand than others, which is why I do not expect for everyone to understand it fully. In this post I will try to explain why.

Before I begin I just want to explain that I see myself as a “SBNR” person, meaning: Spiritual But Not Religious. However, it is not important to me what everyone else thinks of me, you may call me religious or fanatic, I don’t care.

Understanding the concept of time can be very complicated and not everyone put much thought into what time really is. To some people, time is just something that tells you when you need to go work in the morning, for how long you have to wait for the bus, or how to measure when your breakfast egg is boiled to perfection. To some people, time is money, and to others time may be the difference between life and death.

The importance of time was recognized many thousands of years ago by the ancient Egyptians, who where the first to divide the day into 12 segments (hours) which was measured using the movement of the sun. And since then, not much have changed in how we keep track of time, other than pure precision in the devices that we use. That is totally amazing to me, the time keeping system that was invented several thousands of years ago is so well designed that nothing needed to be changed. What really blows my mind is that nobody really knows exactly how the 12-hour system was invented or who the inventor was. Just another day at the office, inventing time keeping, researching astronomy and building some pyramids. Oh well…

To me, time is the single most powerful component of all existence. If the concept of time did not exist, nothing else would exist either. Time is larger than universe and larger than the unknown force that some people call god. Even if universe collapsed and ceased to exist, the concept of time would still stand as the only remaining component. Time is the heartbeat mechanism of the universe. Everything in your convenient modern society is based on time keeping. Computers, engines, phones, trains, electricity… EVERYTHING is based on a clock frequency. Even the expansion of universe itself is based on time lapse.

Time is a hard concept to understand, because time is both limited and unlimited. Time itself is unlimited and can never run out or stop to exist, while events in life and other existence can in fact run out of time. Once you understand this, you may also realize that universe is very limited in time, and just a temporary state of something that is much bigger than universe. Yes, I realize that it is hard to imagine something that is bigger than universe or even imagine that universe is in fact not endless.

I could keep going on this philosophical track, but for now I think I have given you a small seed of thoughts on what time means to me.

Wrist watches is my favorite time keeping device because it is symbolic of what time means to me. I prefer the analogue and fully mechanical watches as I am totally fascinated by the delicate and complex, yet reliable construction some movements offer. I also see a symbolism in taking care of a mechanical watch, winding it to make it run, because it reminds me that if you stay passive in life, no progress will be made.

Last but not least, I think that a wrist watch can be a nice piece of design jewelry. I appreciate a well built and nice looking watch as an accessory, but also as a symbol and statement of who you are. I love the variety of materials, designs and finishes and I find great enjoyment in studying other peoples watches that they wear, and try to figure out who they are and why they picked that watch in particular. A persons watch tell a lot about their attitude and standing in life! My only problem with this hobby of mine is that some of the nice pieces that I am interested in costs ALOT of money!

I hope that some of this makes sense to whom ever might read it. Even though time is unlimited, don’t forget that YOUR time is limited. Make the best of it! What does time mean to you?

21 Oct

Part 2: HRT Stage, a compact audio system with high-end capabilities?

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Music & Movies | Tags :, , , , , |

HRT_stage_002Earlier this year I auditioned a brand new compact audio system from HRT called Stage. Back then it wasn’t even released yet, and the system I auditioned was only a production prototype. HRT has been everything but modest in the marketing of Stage, and claim that people have compared the performance of Stage equal to systems in the $20.000 USD segment. But when I auditioned the production prototype it barley passed as a $100 USD computer speaker system.

Seven months has gone by since then, and now HRT Stage is in the production line and has been released to the stores. Once again I was invited by the Swedish HRT concessionaire for a private demo in their hotel suite during the recent hi-fi exhibit (HiFi Mässan 2013).

The visual design is still the same, simple but futuristic looking. The whole system is a 3 piece kit, a pair of speakers and the main unit, and comes in either white or black. The speakers doesn’t come with any front grills and the drivers are visible at all times. Many people might not like that, but personally I think it looks very good. The main unit (The amplifier and control unit) is an awkward, nonstandard measurements cube which might be hard to fit into a stereo rack or a media bench since it really doesn’t match anything else. The main unit contains everything needed to run the system; DAC, Pre-amp and a 2×70 watt power amplifier. The main unit can also later be upgraded with a wireless streaming module. Both the main unit and the speaker cabinets are made of plastic, but even so, the build quality feels sturdy. HRT themselves tell us that they have chosen this type of plastic because of its properties. The two speakers are each equipped with three units of 3-inch long throw bass drivers and a single 1-inch textile dome tweeter. The system is specified to play in the frequency range 45-20000Hz +/-3dB. Even though the bass drivers are only 3-inch drivers they pack a lot of punch, and as you can tell by the above photo, they have a huge magnet structure.

HRT’s hotel suite was a great listening room! Standard size, perhaps 200 square feet (18m2), ordinary 3 seat couch and more or less nothing on the walls. It resembled of my own listening room at home. We played through some of the same songs that I had played last time I auditioned Stage (See my previous post for play lists), but also a few new. It didn’t take many minutes to hear that this time it was a completely different system playing compared to the prototype. Not even in the same league. The sound stage is huge and convincing, right there in-your-face, which I personally like. The highs is a bit softer and more forgiving compared to what I usually prefer, but very crisp and easy to like. The system packs quite an amazing punch in the mid bass considering its small size, but doesn’t produce much deep bass, obviously. But hopefully, nobody who choose a compact audio system with small stand-mount speakers expect them to rumble the room with deep bass. The whole sound character is open and clear with a somewhat smooth sound that suits well as an all-round system. Whatever changes HRT did from the prototype to the final product, they did it right!

While we were playing songs on the system, I was asked if I think I can get a better system for the same money? I said I am convinced that you can get the same or even better for the same money if you go out and hand-pick components yourself, but then you need to know exactly what you are doing and go through all the hassle of matching and searching for components yourself. So as a complete system for €1100 Euro, ready to use out of the box with cables and all, I must say that HRT Stage is a hard to beat system in it’s class. It’s compact, easy to use, upgradeable and relatively cheap. HRT has also announced that they soon will be releasing a matching bass module for Stage. And when they do, I believe this will be a very competent system which will attract a wide customer base. I am hoping to get my hands onto the bass modules very soon to make a review about them. Until then, peace!

 

16 Oct

The biggest mistake men do at the gym

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Health & Fitness, Lifestyle | Tags :, , , , , , |

deadlift_failIn a previous post I talked about that many women don’t lift heavy enough weights to get the results they are looking for. On the other hand, men are stupid in the complete opposite way. The biggest mistake men do at the gym is trying to lift too heavy weights too soon.

Men in general are big show-offs and lift with their ego to impress their friends, but most importantly to impress girls. This stupid behavior is defeating the whole purpose of lifting weights; to get stronger and healthier. I see it every week at the gym, guys lifting too heavy and completely out of form. I am not saying I am better in anyway, because I used to do this too.

You need to take a step back, stop for a while and ask yourself what it is you are training for, and what is your goal? Getting stronger, gaining muscle? Oh really? It’s not going to happen as long as you lift with your ego or train for someone else. Lifting too heavy and out of form kills your gains, limits your progress and will cause sustained injuries. It is going to be all pain and NO gain!

Yes, you should of course go as heavy as you can, push yourself to the limit every time, but make sure that you are in control of the weights and not the other way around. If you can’t lift the weights in a controlled motion, then it is too heavy! When you let go of your ego and take back the control, then you will progress!

(The photo of the deadlift guy was borrowed from pinterest.com)

15 Oct

Upcoming game release, One Late Night – Deadline

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Media & Internet | Tags :, , |

one_late_night_deadlineEarly 2013, the innovative “one-man” game developer Black Curtain Studio released a game called “One Late Night” which I wrote about here.

The game is free to download and play, and have had over a million downloads. The game developer explains that this release is just a sample of what is yet to come.

Just 6 months later the developer revealed concept and alpha screenshots from an upcoming sequel; One Late Night – Deadline, on their Facebook page. The sneak peak updates are getting more frequent and the screenshots looks completely amazing! Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more updates!

 

15 Oct

The biggest mistake women do at the gym

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Health & Fitness, Lifestyle | Tags :, , , , , |

girl_barbell_snatch

If you’re a woman, did you ever find yourself saying: “I don’t wanna get big and bulky, I just want to get toned”? Yeah? Thought so… And with that goal in mind, most women go to the gym and do some cardio on the treadmill, maybe some spinning classes and some light weights or machines. Well, guess what? Doing that will NOT get you toned. It’ll burn energy and it might eventually slim you down a few pounds if your diet is in place, but in the long run you are going to end up looking thin and weak and looking anything else than toned. I am not saying that this is wrong, because exercise is always good, but I’m saying it’s wrong if your goal is to get toned!

It is much harder for a woman to gain muscle mass than it is for a man. A woman basically have to work twice as hard as a man to even gain half the amount of muscle mass. For a woman to pack on serious mass takes years and years of dedication and extreme discipline. So what I am saying is, if you want to look toned, go to the gym and lift heavy! Lift like a man! Go hard on the dumbbells and free weights, get yourself a trainer and ask him to teach you how to lift heavy. Go all-in every session and don’t be afraid of the big weights and the heavy lifting, because I promise; You will not wake up one day and look big and bulky by accident! Gaining muscle will make you burn more fat, add more definition and most definitely make you look toned.

 

(The photo of Abi doing snatch was borrowed from pinterest.com) 

8 Mar

HRT Stage, a compact audio system with high-end capabilities?

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Music & Movies | Tags :, , , |

HRT_stageI have had the exclusive opportunity to audition a completely new compact audio system which is targeted towards the high-end audiophile enthusiasts. In fact, it’s so new that at the time when I write this article it is not even out on the market yet. The system is a product from HRT – High Resolution Technologies, a California based company that has become well known for their lineup of affordable and high performing D/A-converters.

The system, called “Stage” is a 3 piece compact audio system including one pair of very slim stand mount / bookshelf speakers and a main unit which powers the two speakers. HRT has just started to market the system, and so with a very confident attitude, claiming that HRT Stage will compete with any audiophile grade system for up to $20.000 USD. A very bold claim considering that HRT Stage will retail for around $1.000 USD in America and about €1.100 Euro in Europe.

I met with the Swedish HRT concessionaire for an exclusive audition of the system. He explains that the “Stage” main unit includes not only a 2×70 watt amplifier to power the speakers, but also a USB DAC, an advanced DSP(**) (Digital Signal Processing) and EQ (Equalizer) that is fine-tuned and optimized to make the small speakers sound much larger than they really are. He further explains that it is the DSP(**) within the main unit where much of the magic is happening and what makes this system unique.

The design is simple but futuristic looking and the system comes in either white or black. The speakers have no front grills and the drivers are visual at all times. The main unit is an awkward, nonstandard measurements cube with no visible buttons, displays or indicators what so ever. Input and output for power, speakers and USB is located on the back of the cube. The main unit reminds much of an active subwoofer, with some heat sinks visible on the back. The whole idea of the system is to be controlled from the signal source, which most likely will be a computer. The two speakers are each equipped with three 3-inch long throw bass drivers and a 1-inch textile dome tweeter and plays in the frequency range 45-20000Hz +/-3dB. The build quality over all sends me mixed signals. Both the speaker cabinets and the main unit is made of plastic with a rough textured finish, which to me both looks and feels very cheap. Sadly it feels more or less like any other cheap computer speaker system. But when looking inside the speakers we see bass drivers with cast frames and an absolutely huge magnet structure, larger than on most 6-inch drivers.

I was playing the system with a Macbook Pro as signal source connected through USB. My music media was lossless tracks from iTunes but also Spotify Premium using “Extreme” quality setting. I started out playing tracks from a long mix playlist that apparently was put together for the purpose to demo the system. The mix playlist contained mostly instrumental, acoustic and singer-songwriter tracks, and was obviously hand-picked to emphasize the strongest features of the system and really show it off from its best side. Nothing wrong with that! The sound stage is impressive, large and full, giving you a very good feeling of presence. Even though the speakers are small, they do have some bass, the frequency response is definitely there, but because of the obvious physical size limitations it’s never really solid or full.

After I had been playing around for a while with the mixed playlist that was given to me, I switched to my own selected tracks that I enjoy myself. I started out with listening to a few tracks from Fink – Distance and Time. Fink, being the same type of singer-songwriter music like the tracks I just played from the demo playlist, sounded like he was right there singing in person. While playing well recorded electronic music, such as Infected Mushroom, Lulu Rouge and Roisin Murphy, the music is really there, straight in your face and around you. It’s large and three dimensional but far from accurate and neutral. It is very noticeable that the built in Digital Signal Processing(**) and EQ, without a doubt do “something” to the music. I’ve listened to other systems with “Virtual Surround Sound” from 2 speakers before, and usually the sound feels very fake and artificial. HRT Stage does this much better but it still feels a bit artificial at times. The sound stage did at times feel too polished and clean.

With this in mind I moved along to play some rock, metal and gothic. I wanted to hear how HRT Stage delivers music that might not be so perfectly recorded. First I played some studio recorded tracks from artists such as Sick Puppies, Halestorm, Lacuna Coil and The Browning. This time it’s even more obvious that the system tries to prettify and clean up the music that is delivered, it really takes the edge away from electric guitars making it sound more like a kitten rather than a tiger. Where you’d expect it to be somewhat rough, metallic and in-your-face it is now instead smooth like silk gloves. And with this genre of music, that is not a good thing. Last, but not least, I played some tracks by Within Temptation from the live album Black Symphony. Being a live recording this album already has the live feeling to it and sounds completely awesome on most decent stereo systems. HRT Stage totally destroys the entire sound stage by making it shrink way back against the wall, ending up sounding muffled and exhausting to the ears.

Conclusion

I’d like remind everyone that all systems have their advantages and disadvantages. HRT Stage delivers a very unique sound and shows off its strongest advantages together with well recorded instrumental, acoustic and vocal music, but does most definitely not play all music well. This system is not neutral or transparent in any way and it does tweak and color the music, for both better and worse. Make sure you audition this system with your own music before you decide to buy. It might blow your mind and suit you perfectly, or it might totally destroy your listening experience.

I want to finish off my conclusion with rating the HRT Stage from two perspectives. The first perspective is where HRT want to target this system towards high-end audiophiles to compete with any system for up to $20.000 USD. From that perspective I want to keep myself short by simply saying: No, not going to happen.

The second perspective is when we compare HRT Stage to similar systems within the same physical size and price range. Personally I would want to use a subwoofer with this system, but seeing HRT Stage for what it really is; a reasonably small and easy to use compact audio system, it is actually a great system together with the correct music.

**Update: Since HRT Stage is a completely new product and the fact that it is not even released yet, also means that there is a lot of specifications and features not yet revealed. When I auditioned HRT Stage there was mentioning of an integrated DSP. Today I learn that there is in fact no DSP at all in the system, just the built in USB DAC. The sound characteristics that HRT Stage deliver is all a result from the combined components of the system in whole. The drivers, the cabinets, the included amplifier and DAC and so on. HRT themselves assure us that there is no other signal processing going on inside the system.

Update 2: The Swedish HRT concessionaire, has now also clarified that there is no DSP in the system. Further he explains that this was a misunderstanding between him and HRT.

UPDATE 3: Read part 2 of this post here

21 Jan

One Late Night – A horror game experience, Free download

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Media & Internet | Tags :, , |

one_late_night-startscreenA few days ago the one-man game developer Black Curtain Studio released a new game called “One Late Night”. The creator himself calls it a short immersive horror game experience. The whole scenario takes place at an office where one night when working late, strange things start to happen.

The game is really well made with realistic details, objects and textures. Many of the furniture and equipment in the game is stuff that I see every day at my own office, which is very cool. Over all the game is short but very exciting with a unique idea that leaves you wanting more. I could easily play hours and hours of this game and really hope that it will be expanded in the future.

The game is for free and available for Windows, MacOSX and Linux. You can download it here:

http://www.onelatenight.com/

The game is also up on ModDB where you can rate and comment the game and also chat with the creator. http://www.moddb.com/games/one-late-night

3 Jan

Jawbone BIG Jambox, mobile wireless speaker

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Lifestyle | Tags :, , , , , |

jawbone-big-jamboxI swear, it’s not a review… No but seriously, I am not going to get in depth or too technical with this article, I just want to mention this awesome product.

I was looking around for some mobile speaker system that I could stick into my backpack and carry with me for times when I don’t want to use regular headphones. Like to the park, the office or the hotel and so on. It seems the demand for mobile speakers is big now days because there’s alot to choose from. And trust me, the past few weeks I have tested every single one I could find at all my local retailers. The other day I spent almost 3 hours at one retailer testing and listening to at least 12-15 different mobile speaker systems. The sales guy there looked very disappointed when I left without buying anything after having spent several hours in the store! But anyhow…

I had a few criteria’s when looking around for this product; I wanted it to be truly wireless. I also wanted it to be rechargeable; I don’t want the hassle with buying and changing battery’s. And last but not least I wanted as good sound quality as possible but still be able to fit it in my backpack. Most of the really tiny pocket sized alternatives sound just like that; tiny, so I ended up looking at the slightly larger alternatives where the selection gets a bit narrower.

Jawbone-BIG-JAMBOX-inside-lookI ended up getting the Jawbone BIG Jambox, which is pretty big for a mobile speaker but still very much portable. The BIG Jambox currently retails for about €250 which might scare off the average casual consumer, but let me tell you, the BIG Jambox destroys competition completely. Keeping in mind that the BIG Jambox is truly wireless, portable and relatively small, it delivers a huge sound stage and can play pretty loud. Even though the bass won’t knock the wind out of you, it definitely packs a good punch for its size. The build quality is really impressive and the whole device is covered with a protective metal mesh and feels very sturdy. The battery lasts for around 15 hours of listening time and the BIG Jambox pairs up with any bluetooth capable device. I have used it with my iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and my PC for music and movies and it easily fills up a normal size room with maintained sound quality. If you’re in the market for a powerful bluetooth speaker, this is it!

For more information about features and specifications, please visit Jawbone’s website on the link below.

https://jawbone.com/speakers/bigjambox/overview

Here’s a video where they do a teardown of the BIG Jambox.

28 Dec

Training VS smoking during work hours

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Social | Tags :, , , , |

Smoking

I do weight lifting and cardio workout three to five times a week. Two days a week I do my training during office hours. Theese occations I’ve been going to lunch 45 minutes earlier then normal to do my workout right before my regular one hour lunch break. This means I’m away for a total of about 1 hour and 45 minutes for lunch and workout. Doing this twice a week basicaly means that I steal one and a half hour of office time. I have a cool and understanding boss, so we have an agreement about this routine, because he understands the value invested in this time and how it returns in health and wellness. Besides, I usually compensate this weekly one and a half hour of borrowed time by doing some work in the evening or an hour at the weekend.

Recently someone was questioning this privilege and how it’s motivated that I should be allowed to steal (borrow) one and a half hour of work time every week to go to the gym. And here comes the comedy. The person questioning this routine is a smoker…

Ever since then I have been observing smokers in general and their routines and come up with some conclusions. I have been counting a very low average, feel free to comment below if you think I am off by my numbers, but here we go. I calculated that the average smoker smokes 12 cigarettes a day, and I am pretty sure this is an low estimate. Dividing the 12 cigarettes evenly across the persons awake time would place about 6 of those cigarettes during office hours. I’m gonna remove another 2 cigarettes from the work hours because I assume that one or two will be smoked during a lunch break or so. Leaving us with 4 cigarettes that will be smoked each day during work hours. I estimated each cigarette to take about 5 minutes to smoke and added another 2,5 minutes for going outside to smoke and then going back inside again. A total of 10 minutes per cigarette. A pretty fair estimate I’d guess? Four times a day this is 40 minutes in total daily, 3 hours and 33 minutes weekly.

So what do you say guys, is it fair that the “three and a half hours of poisoning himself” guy complain about me taking one and a half hour to workout?

21 Nov

The forgotten features of iPhone

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Music & Movies | Tags :, , , , |

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of iPhone, I have had every single model except for the very first one. You may also know that I am a hi-fi enthusiast with a picky taste, and years back before iPhone existed I was a big fan of iPod. I loved that awesome mp3-player, had it with me all the time. As a matter of fact I wore several iPods out completely, that’s how much I used them! In my pocket I always had my iPod and my cell phone, which back then was everything from Nokia to Sony Ericsson. I did try some of the Sony Ericsson Walkman edition cell phones but I was never really impressed by the music sound quality. So when apple released a cell phone iPod I was hooked. A few weeks ago I upgraded to iPhone 5, obviously, and was amazed by that they somehow managed to improve the sound characteristics even further compared to the previous 4/4s models. Okay so the old Apple iPod/iPhone headphones are really horrible, a sad excuse for a pair of headphones to be honest. But now they even managed to make the included headphones decent! All Samsung vs. Apple, Android vs. iOS flame debates aside, iPhone is truly an awesome portable audiophile grade music player! And this is what I claim to be the often neglected features of iPhone, the actual music reproduction capability. Why is this completely forgotten and over looked?

15 Nov

EA Origin Hacked, but everything is fine!

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Media & Internet | Tags :, , , |

The past few days people that are using Origin, a service from the computer game giant EA, Electronic Arts, reports that they can’t login to their accounts anymore.  All over Internet people are complaining that they have had their game accounts compromised and taken over, but EA Origin says that there’s no reason to believe that there has been an intrusion. At the writing moment my own Origin account works, but my colleague’s account has been hi-jacked. EA should just go on and secure this issue rather then investing so much time into trying to dodge the obvious.

10 Feb

10 key advices to build explosive strength

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Health & Fitness | Tags :, , , , |

With this article I want to share some advices that have helped me to build up strength. This is not intended as a complete guide to success nor is it a how-to guide for beginners. It’s just 10 good advices for you if you are already “on your way there”.

 

• Achievements and the feeling of winning
Set up several realistic short-term goals every week, make it 3-4 different ones that you must complete. Short-term goals are at least as important as long-term ones because you will get the feeling of winning much more frequent. Set up weekly goals such as increasing 2KG shoulder press this week, or this week I will not eat any sugar.  Write them down in a journal or on a blog, make them your personal challenges and check them off with a comment or a gold star or something when you have completed them. Then set new goals next week in the same manner. This way you will constantly keep pushing yourself to reach new levels of strength both physically and mentally. You will be rewarded with the feeling of progress and winning.

• Team up!
Get a gym partner; preferably someone that is stronger than you but it’s not absolutely necessary. Working out with a partner will automatically make you put slightly more effort into your workout and you can spot each other while attempting to increase weights on your exercises.

• Be systematic and efficient
Always plan your workouts ahead. Choose your exercises strategically, write the exercises down on a piece of paper, select the order they will be executed in and visualize them in your head. Do 5-7 exercises every workout and spend no more then 1 hour doing them.

• Mix it up, part one
Shuffle your workouts. Don’t re-use the same old routines to often. Rotate and mix the exercises in your workouts every week and don’t find yourself get stuck in a “comfort zone” where you do the same old workout with the same old weights week in and week out. If you stay in the comfort zone your strength will also stay there.

• Mix it up, part two
Shuffle your sets. Do three weeks of lifting 5×5 (5 sets with 5 reps), then two weeks 4×7 (4 sets with 7 reps) and one week 3×10 (3 sets with 10 reps), rinse and repeat. Lift as heavy weights as possible but make sure to still be able to finish the sets. Every now and then (once a week) try for a weight increase in a few exercises with assistance from your gym partner.

• Kick-start your workout
After you’ve done your normal warm-up on the treadmill, bike or cross trainer, always start your lifting workout with a leg exercise like squat, lunge, leg press, leg extension or similar. Starting your workout with activating the largest muscles in your body will kick-start the production of endorphins, adrenaline and get the blood pumping which will fuel and boost the rest of your workout.

• Explosive high energy output training
Do circular workouts (Superset) to increase heart rate, burn fat and get more work done in shorter time. If your workout for the day contains 6 exercises, then select and group them 3 and 3. Once you have done that you execute them back-to-back without any rest in between. Perform exercise A to B to C and then back to A again and repeat until you completed all the sets in this circle. Then do the same for the next 3 exercises.

• Put your heart into it!
Do short but intense cardio sessions 3 times a week. With short I mean at least 15 minutes but no more then 30 minutes at the time.  My personal favorite is the cross trainer but the treadmill and bike is also good. Start out slow the first 2-3 minutes and then increase intensity and speed 3-4 times spread out during the session. The last increase should reach your maximum intensity, which you should keep on doing the last few minutes of the session. Alternatively do 30-60 seconds intervals where you really push it for 30-60 seconds followed by 30-60 seconds slow pace and then push it again. If your shirt is not soaked with sweat by now you did not do it intense enough! A strong body requires a strong heart.

• Fuel the engine
Eat what you need, no more, no less. Over eating and bulking makes you fat and slow, heavy cutting of calories makes you weak and tired. Finding your base calorie need and consumption is the hard part, consult a real Personal Trainer and have him or her make a plan for you. You don’t need to bulk and over eat to gain muscle mass, and you don’t need to starve yourself to get lean. If you eat enough to fuel your base calorie need, plus what you spend on working out you will gain muscle mass, period. If you are looking to lose some body fat you should rather increase the energy output then heavily cutting your intake, provided that you’re not already over eating and are over weight because of that.

• Recovery
The magic happens when you sleep. It’s when your body is at rest as the recovery and muscle building factory inside you opens up for business for real. Get no less than 8-9 hours of sleep every night and do no more than 3-4 weight lifting workouts per week. Resting days are very important for muscle recovery and repair. It is not at the gym you build the muscles; it’s when you sleep! Without proper rest your muscles will not have time to fully recover and grow and you will not increase in strength.

 

 

3 Feb

Apple iTV LED TV gesture control patent document revealed

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Media & Internet | Tags :, , , , , |

I have uploaded a copy of the document containing Apple’s patent application for gesture control. This document more or less confirms the gesture control features that we will see in iTV which I wrote about in this product prediction article. Download the PDF document here US20110261213A1 (PDF)

2 Feb

Apple iTV, 40 and 50 inch LED TV with gesture control

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear, Media & Internet | Tags :, , , , |

It’s time for some JohnnieFromTheBlog Apple product predictions. Last time I wrote about iPhone 4s in this prediction article. This time I want to talk about the rumored Apple iTV television set. Now keep in mind, even though I do have some reliable sources here and there, most of this article is pure speculation.

I think we will most likely see two models, either a 40- and a 50-inch or a 42- and a 55-inch. Both models will have the most recent Apple TV media device built in and obviously run iOS. Apps and add-ons will be downloadable from appstore, and some existing iPhone and iPad features such as Siri will be included out of the box. The hardware will be powered by an Apple A6 quad core processor from TSMC, and except for features such as wifi and Bluetooth it will have 64 or 128 GB of flash storage. The internal storage will mostly be used for downloaded apps and such, but also for media caching.

Now as for panel technology, rumors point towards OLED which I don’t think will be the case. Instead I think we will see a 4K QFHD backlit LED panel with the resolution of 3840×2160. This panel will still be extremely thin and lightweight even if it is not as thin as OLED. It will also have a 2-lens 8MP iSight camera integrated which except for FaceTime and such will be used for remote less gesture control making you able to pull down menus, using apps, browse photos and music all with just hand gestures in the air from your couch.

Further I expect nothing less then full integration with MacOS/iTunes, iPhone, iPad and iPod. I am assuming we will be paying a premium price at somewhere around €3000-€6000, but I truly believe it will bring value for the money.

Oh, and the picture above is obviously a concept picture.

UPDATE: I have uploaded a copy of the document containing Apple’s patent application for gesture control. This document more or less confirms the gesture control features that we will see in iTV. Download the PDF document here: US20110261213A1 (PDF)

14 Jan

Oppo BDP-93 Audiophile grade Blu-ray player

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear | Tags :, , , |

I assume that every multimedia enthusiast out there has taken notice of the acclaimed Oppo Blu-ray players. If you’re here reading this, then you are probably one of them. The current lineup of Oppo players consist of two models, the BDP-93 being the standard player and the BDP-95 which is the fully featured high-end version. I will link you to the Oppo website below so that you can compare them both. The Oppo lineup of Blu-ray players are by many considered to be the best performing players on the market. In fact so good that a few other brands use the whole or parts of Oppo’s players to make their own. I have had the pleasure to recently test the BDP-93 myself and thought I write something about it.

The BDP-93 is a refined and upgraded successor of the popular BDP-83, which was Oppo’s very successful first generation Blu-ray player. A factory-unlocked region free BDP-93 retails at writing moment for around €800 euro, while the flag ship model BDP-95 goes for around €1350.

Already at the first look of the BDP-93 I think it’s a pretty good looking device. It only comes in black, but it’s very stylish with a black brushed aluminum front panel that looks much better in person then it does in pictures. The build quality is nice and the chassis feels sturdy and solid. When I power up the unit it is completely quiet, no noise what so ever! It’s not until now I realize that the BDP-93 is totally free from cooling fans, something I personally appreciate a lot, thumbs up for that. When I go back online to investigate I find out that the flag ship model BDP-95 on the other hand do have a cooling fan onboard, which according to rumors is quite noisy too.

Before I go on I will assume that the Oppo BDP-93 to be used mainly in two different scenarios. One of them will be as a video processor and digital audio transport integrated into a full home theater solution where the BDP-93 is connected via digital link to a home theater receiver/processor. In this scenario the home theater receiver/processor would be decoding the audio for a 5.1 or 7.1 configuration. The other scenario would be using the Oppo BDP-93 as a stand-alone dedicated media player in a stereo hi-fi setup. In this case the Oppo BDP-93 would do all the video and audio processing and downmix the 5.1/7.1 digital audio to a 2.0 analogue audio signal connected straight to a stereo amplifier. The later of these two scenarios is how my setup looks like.

Loading a disc into the player feels like loading a disc into any budget disc player, the mechanics is plastic and so is the tray and it makes some plastic-mechanic noise. However, BDP-93 makes up for that in load time. Even though it doesn’t load the disc and get to the menu nearly as fast as my HTPC does, it is far much faster than any other dedicated Blu-ray player I have tried, very nice indeed. The remote control is also made of plastic with rubber buttons and weights almost nothing. While entering the menus and selecting subtitles, making settings and such I straight away notice that the remote control leaves much to wish for. The good news is that when I used a Logitech Harmony universal remote the BDP-93 itself responded in a rapid manner, so it’s just a cheap remote, nothing serious.

As for movie playback, well, I’m going to make this simple: The Blu-ray image quality is amazing! It by far outperforms my Intel Sandy Bridge based HTPC in color, depths and the clearness of the image. Everything is in perfect balance and razor sharp. This is what they are talking about, no doubt about that! Playing DVD with upscaling is not equally impressive. It looks okay but nothing out of the ordinary. Sadly there’s no DVD upscaling user changeable filters or options what so ever. This doesn’t bother me so much though since it is in fact primarily a Blu-ray player . Besides Blu-ray and DVD the BDP-93 play all sorts of video file formats such as DivX and Matroska MKV and it does it well. I did run into an occasional MKV that I ripped with MakeMKV that did not play on the Oppo BDP-93 even though it worked fine in VLC-player on my HTPC, but I have no idea why. The vast majority of files I played on the BDP-93 worked just fine though. BDP-93 also plays a wide variety of audio formats. It plays normal CD’s, SACD and DVD-audio but also audio file formats such as flac, mp3, wma and many others. I have stumbled into issues with flac support on other devices before where it takes time to buffer or skip tracks and other kinks, but not with BDP-93. It plays flac fine, skips track nice and fast. I played media files from both eSata and USB with success from drives formatted with FAT, FAT32 and NTFS, but other advanced file formats such as EXT, MacOS Journaling, or exFAT did not work. Media streaming over network seems somewhat limited as only DLNA server streaming is supported without any possibility to stream media from SMB or NFS shares. However, DLNA worked perfectly and the BDP-93 automatically detected my DLNA enabled NAS.

I want to talk a bit about sound quality. Ever since Oppo released their first generation of Blu-ray players there has always been a “NuForce special Edition” of their players. With this edition the company NuForce, which are well known in the hi-fi world, has created an upgraded audio module for Oppo’s players. An upgrade that they say substantially increases the audio performance of the player. Also while lurking the web (Google) you will find several different DIY’s and/or companies that make and/or sell modifications and audio upgrades for the Oppo lineup. Why is everyone so eager to modify and upgrade the audio performance in their Oppo’s?

Well, here’s the catch… It’s needed! For being such an awesome Blu-ray player it sure performs poorly when it comes to analogue audio output. Now please remember that I conducted this test using only the stereo analogue output from the BDP-93 directly connected to my stereo amplifier, no other sound processing in between. Obviously most BDP-93 users will connect the player via digital link, may it be optical or HDMI, to their home theater receivers/processors that will be providing a way superior DAC/audio processor to handle the signal, hence they will never have this problem. But the rest of the people who intend to use the BDP-93 as a stand-alone player for their 2.0 stereo and TV may not be satisfied with the sound performance.

While watching a Blu-ray movie I didn’t at all reflect over the sound quality, in fact it was quite all right. It was as I started to play music CD’s and flac files when I first noticed how things didn’t quite sound as they do with my transport and DAC. I am not saying it sounds bad, but it’s not good either. The sound image is missing some detail and feels somewhat flat. There’s a quite noticeable roll off in the bass and nothing really sticks out, it’s just “there” but nothing more. From what I understand the BDP-93 does not have a dedicated stereo DAC but uses the same 5.1/7.1 DAC while decoding CD audio. The big brother BDP-95 does not only have a dedicated stereo DAC but it also has a much more expensive one. Hence I guess the BDP-95 performs better as a CD-player. As a test I wanted to take out the digital signal via optical cable and let my Cambridge Audio DacMagic do the analogue converting. This worked great as long as I played stereo audio or any audio files with 2.0 channels. When I wanted to play a Blu-ray using my external DAC I found out that the Oppo BDP-93 does not support digital 5.1/7.1 to digital 2.0 downmix. Only digital 5.1/7.1 to analogue 2.0 mode is supported. So unless you have an external DAC/audio processor that can downmix 5.1/7.1 you have to settle with Oppo’s internal audio decoding.

However, I realize that the BDP-93 is indeed a Blu-ray player, and with that in mind it’s by far one of the best I have seen so far. If you’re on the market for a hi-fi audio player, this isn’t it, but if you are looking for an awesome Blu-ray multimedia player with lots of bonus features, then look no further.

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-93/

http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-95/

 

4 Aug

Copter, military grade screen protection for iPhone

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear | Tags :, , , |

The selection of protective gear such as display films and covers for your phone is now days almost endless. One of these bit more spectacular products come from a brand called Copter, which make the bold promise of “Life time warranty” on their product. Nice! The product is a protective film which is applied onto your phone to function as a slim and almost invisible coating. Apparently the Copter screen protector material is “military grade” of some kind and originally used for coating helicopter rotor blades with, hence the name. The application kit comes either in a full body or a front only version and includes a spray can of application liquid, squeegee, a small micro fiber cloth, instructions and the actual protective film.

I bought the iPhone4 full body kit which retails for around €25. The front only kit retails for about €12 if you prefer that. Applying the full body kit was pretty easy, at least on the iPhone 4 since it’s basically just 2 completely flat surfaces. The actual mounting process took me about 30 minutes in total for both sides, but then I was very careful and accurate while doing it. After that you have to leave it to dry and harden over night before you can put it in your pocket.

The final result turned out pretty nice even though it’s not completely “invisible”. The fit is perfect and if you took your time during the application process to make sure there are no bubbles or dust underneath the protective film, it will be hard to see that it’s there. The touch and feel of the phone is totally different with the protective coating and I did not like the somewhat rubbery feeling it gets. The touch screen response is not affected in any way and works just as fine as without the Copter film, but sliding your finger across the screen as you often do on an iPhone, generates more friction and also a slight rough feeling. With the full body Copter film on the iPhone it makes the whole phone less slippery and provides a much more secure grip, but also makes the whole phone sensation feel less luxurious.

The protective functionality is great and I was deliberately trying to make scratches on the surface with keys and coins without any damage done what so ever! When I had been using my iPhone with the Copter film for a few weeks, taking the phone out of my pocket surely 20-30 times a day, the protective film slowly started to peel on the corners. When that started to happen it didn’t take long until the corners started to collect pocket lint and peel even more. Up to this point I had been using it for about 3 weeks and I was expecting it to last much longer than that. Over all I think the product is hyped and overpriced. The idea is good but poorly executed.

http://www.copter.cc/

 

 

28 Jul

KEF Q-series speakers

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear | Tags :, , , , |

British speaker brand KEF last year launched their new and improved Q-series speaker line. According to KEF themselves the Q-series is built around the experience that KEF learned from building the state of the art Concept Blade speakers. KEF Claims that the Concept Blade speakers are “The leading edge of acoustic technology” which sets the expectations very high for the Q-series. The Q-series includes a total of nine different models: two bookshelf models, three floor standing models, two center channel models, one wall mounted dipole ambience speaker and one subwoofer. I will link to them all separately at the end of this post. As usual, I went to audition them and had the opportunity to listen to the biggest bookshelf model Q300 and the middle model of the floor standers which is the Q700.

The two models I listened to are reasonably priced at €600 for the Q300 bookshelf speaker and €1250 for the floor standing middle model Q700. The biggest floor stander Q900 which I did not audition retails for around €1600 while the smallest bookshelf model Q100 retails for €500. This wide selection of model sizes and prices makes it possible to easier match the size of both your budget and your listening room.

The build quality on the Q-series is good and the cabinets feel very sturdy. KEF has gone back to the conventional straight line box construction on the cabinets rather than the curved back and sides which the iQ-series had. This will most likely make the cabinets easier and cheaper to manufacture, but also obviously increase the enclosure volume which will result in deeper bass.  The wood imitation finish looks kind of cheap and only come in 3 dark and boring colors, Black Oak, Cherry and Walnut which will be hard to match in many modern homes. I’d really love to see them in colors such as Light Oak, Light Mahogany or White lacquer.

I started out with listening to the Q300 bookshelf model which has the 6.5-inch Uni-Q driver array equipped with the 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter in the center of the driver. The Q300 soundstage is wide and detailed with everything in perfect position. The midrange and treble is perfectly balanced to each other and play with a stunning resolution. The low frequency response is amazing with powerful and tight bass that is almost physical without breaking up or sounding strained. The Q300 sound and act like they were much bigger than they really are. I see no problem what so ever for the Q300 to fill out even pretty large listening rooms.

Switching to the floor standing Q700, which is equipped with the exact same 6.5-inch Uni-Q array driver as the Q300. Additionally the Q700 has a 6.5-inch bas driver mounted in between two identical looking 6.5-inch passive radiators. The Q700 cabinet is a sealed enclosure which is divided into two chambers inside and each chamber is vented with a passive radiator instead of a bass reflex port. One of the passive radiators is used for the chamber with the Uni-Q driver and the other is used for the chamber with the bass driver. The Q700 sound much like the Q300 mostly because they use the exact same Uni-Q driver with the same tweeter. The biggest difference however is that the Q700 are much more physical and powerful because of its dedicated bass driver and bigger cabinet. They really impress with their massive yet firm bass which feel like they could tear up the demo room I was in. The midrange is in a way just slightly fuller on the Q700 then the Q300 which may be because of a bigger enclosure for the Uni-Q array.

I really enjoy the KEF Q-series judging from the Q300 and Q700. They’re engaging and alive and I never felt that I would get tired of listening to them. Other than the slightly dull finish I have absolutely nothing negative to say about them. In its price range I think there will be very few alternatives that will measure up to the same performance and sound quality as the KEF Q-series and I really recommend that you audition them if this is the price range that you are looking into. In fact, I might even get the Q300 for myself!

Bookshelf
KEF Q100: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721549
KEF Q300: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721551

Floor standing
KEF Q500: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721553
KEF Q700: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721552
KEF Q900: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=720402

Center channel
KEF Q200c: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721550
KEF Q600c: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721555

Dipole
KEF Q800ds: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=726091

Subwoofer
KEF Q400b: http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?e=721554

18 Jul

Dali Zensor, budget line speakers that delivers

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear | Tags :, , , , |

Dali, also known as Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries recently released a new series of speakers called Zensor. The new Zensor series is supposedly replacing the previous concept-series in the Dali entry level segment. The Zensor lineup includes one bookshelf model called Zensor 1, two floor standing models called Zensor 5 and Zensor 7 and a center channel speaker called Zensor Vokal. Currently there’s no subwoofer released in the Zensor series but my guess is that there will be at least one subwoofer just like there was in the concept-series. As usual, I went to audition them!

Considering the price on the Zensor models I must say that the build quality is absolutely amazing! The drivers have baskets made of stamped steel and sport a quite big ferrite magnet. The picture below shows the tweeter and the 5-inch driver. Even though the cabinet finish is vinyl veneer wood imitation they definitely look and feel much more expensive than they really are. They are available in black ash or walnut finish and the front baffle have high gloss piano lacquer. All models are 2-way constructions and they all share the same 1-inch textile dome tweeter. The bookshelf speaker has a single 5.25-inch bass/mid driver, the two floor standers each have dual 5.25-inch or dual 7-inch bass/mid drivers and the center speaker has dual 5.25-inch bass/mid drivers.

My local Hi-Fi dealer had the Zensor 1 and the Zensor 5 up for demo while the Zensor 7 was not in stock at the moment. I started with the bookshelf model and was quite surprised about how big and self-confident they sound! The bass from Zensor 1 is far from massive but they do pack a lot more punch than I had expected. In a small stereo setup you could very well manage without a subwoofer if you don’t crave the night club bass levels. The treble and highs are somewhat soft and rolled off but other than that the whole sound image and character is open and well balanced. Switching to the floor standing Zensor 5 instead and you right away get the same sound character, only a bit larger soundstage and a lot more power and deep bass. I can only imagine the authority that the Zensor 7 would perform with. Over all I am very impressed with the sound and the performance of the Zensor series. The Zensor’s really deliver good performance and value for the money and I highly recommend you give them an audition if you are looking for a good all-round speaker for decent money!

The retailing prices are as follows:

Zensor 1 (Bookshelf) €200 http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=923605
Zensor 5 (Floor standing) €500 http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=923606
Zensor 7 (Floor standing) €600 http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=927835
Zensor Vokal (Center) €200 http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=923607

15 Jul

B&W PM1 high end mini monitor

Posted by JohnnieFromTheBlog in Electronics & Gear | Tags :, , , , |

B&W has very recently released a new high end mini monitor called PM1. The PM-series is placed in between the mid class CM-series and the flagship Diamond 800-series and will for now only feature this single mini monitor model. At writing time we don’t know if or when there will be a floor standing PM-model, but with the XT-series discontinued I am guessing there will be.

The B&W PM1 is 2-way mini monitor with a 5-inch Kevlar mid/bass driver and a 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter which is housed in the same top mounted nautilus tube as used in the 800-series. Except for the actual Nautilus tube the tweeter has nothing in common with the expensive Diamond tweeters in the 800-series but resembles more of the tweeter in the middle class CM-series. The 5-inch mid/bass driver is apparently the same as used in the CM1 model*. The cabinet is built around the Matrix bracing system and the front baffle and the top is molded in one piece from some sort of plastic composite. The build quality is amazing but personally I am not very fund of the design on these. The B&W PM1 retails for around €2.000 and Bowers & Wilkins themselves tell us that we should think of PM1 as a smaller version of the discontinued 805S.

I had the opportunity to audition the PM1 in a good listening room together with the massive Denon PMA-2010AE integrated amplifier. The PM1 have a wide and convincing soundstage and handle bass surprisingly well for its size. There’s not much deep bass to talk about, but the low-mid is accurate and powerful. The treble is detailed and the midrange is smooth and open, delivering the music with a very pleasant and somewhat warm character. Bowers & Wilkins compare PM1 with the 805S monitors but personally I think they sound much more like the CM1 model. The PM1 are great speakers, but with the price tag at €2.000 and the fact that they perform and sound only slightly better than the CM1 which retails for €700, I would probably choose the CM1 instead.  But if you really want that last extra little micro step up from the CM1 or really love the design and have no problem with the €2.000, then I definitely recommend the PM1.

* Correction: I have been enlightened with the fact that the 5-inch driver in PM1 is not at all the same driver as used in CM1. The PM1 driver has apparently undergone several improvements during the development of the PM1.

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