In part 1 of our Entertain Yourself series we took a look at the Sony BRAVIA NX800 3D HDTV. It’s our pick for amazing picture quality, industrial design, and packs a wallop of future proof technologies to take you far beyond 2010. Tho the built-in speakers are a wonder in themselves we wanted dedicated speakers. Last year we came across the Jamo A 804 and have been in love ever since.
A beautiful television demands an equally beautiful speaker system. If you take a look at what’s available on the market, speakers are either 80’s industrial boxes or beautifully crafted modern exercises. The former is all performance with no thought to design and the latter is just the opposite, too much design with subpar acoustics. Is there a happy medium?
Take one look at the A 804 – it’s gorgeous! The piano black finish is accented with black leather; fluidic yet technical in appearance. The size is dominating but well suited to Sony’s new monolithic design aesthetic. It’s absolutely stunning and only enhances the entertainment area. Speakers don’t have to be hidden. They can be proudly displayed and the A 804 is more than capable of holding its own amongst the best hardware makers and designers in the industry.
Prior to installing the A 804, we were using a Yamaha Sound Bar which we LOVE. The simulated 5.1 audio system is just the ticket for something better than stereo. The A 804 can function as a single, double, or a full on 5+ speaker setup and it’s the versatility that’ll make any audio guru happy. Unlike other speaker systems, you don’t need a full blown out package to get massive sound. We only have two A 804’s and a subwoofer and we’re more than elated. You will need a receiver to drive the speakers. We’re using a Pioneer model but even when hooked up to a small Denon unit, the sound was full, crisp, and balanced between the high, mids, and lows.
The A 804 is a 3-way, bassreflex speaker. The rigid cabinet constructed from high-gloss, lacquered aluminum, steel and high-density polymer results in a stable, non-resonant cabinet with very clean sound reproduction. One of the secrets of the A 804 lies in its flow-optimized bass port, which delivers extremely clean bass, even at high volume. The silk dome midrange/tweeter is a Jamo developed co-axial unit featuring WaveGuide technology. The clever three-way construction of the A 804 produces a perfect sound dispersion pattern, giving you maximum freedom when positioning your flatscreen, surround system and sofa. Its hard to visualize but sit anywhere around the TV and you never hear the sound drop off. It’s continuous and rich from the farthest corner of our seating arrangement. Sitting dead center is no longer the hottest seat in the house. Everyone gets to enjoy the almost pliable audio experience.
Designer: Jamo (Buy it here)
So we all know that drafting increases fuel efficiency. Heck, I even saw an episode of MythBusters where they proved that following a semi suicidally close will increase your mileage dramatically. Of course, drafting is dangerous, stupid, and the risk vs. reward just isn’t there. Well, what if it was? Scientists in Europe are working on a system that would make drafting safe. Get ready to ride the road train.
The concept is this: have one vehicle leading (the engine if you will) and the other cars following behind electronically tethered together. When a vehicle wants to leave, the driver disengages the system, pulls out of the line, and the car behind pulls forward and fills the empty spot. If someone new wants to join the line, they simple pull up behind the last vehicle and engage the system. They are currently testing a system to Europe to make this a reality, using sensors and professional drivers to drive the leader cars. Once you engage the system, automated controls would take over and you relinquish control completely until you reach your destination.
[via Treehugger]
If you’ve ever gone down to the seashore and tried to pull mussels off rocks (and hey, who hasn’t?), then you’ll know how tenacious their holdfasts can be – although they can be tugged back and forth, it’s almost impossible to actually remove them. Recently, scientists at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces analyzed how the delicious mollusks are able to to achieve such a feat of natural engineering. What they discovered could find its way into human technology…
Tags: amino acid,
Engineering,
Polymer
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Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 2:00pm by Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine
Topics: Uncategorized
As a new bride, it was expected from me to know how to manage all the household chores. The spoilt brat that I was, I didn’t even know how to iron clothes. Yes, the expected happened I burned many of my husband’s shirts, mainly because a telephone call or a whistling pressure cooker would grab my attention. I’d leave the iron right on the garment and come back to a gaping burnt hole! The Roly Poly Iron would have saved me a lot of clothes thanks to a built-in weight mechanism.
What the added weight to the handle does, is that it rocks the iron back to a standing position, when not pressed down.
Gripping the handle triggers off the surface sensors to roll the weight within, forward. And when you release your grip from the handle, the weight gently rolls back, moving the iron to a standing position.
Roly Poly Iron…way to go!
Designer: Wonkook Lee
By Chris Scott Barr
While not the first video game in existence, Pong was the first widely-successful video game and is responsible for kick-starting the video game industry. It’s natural to want to pay homage to this gaming legacy in a variety of ways. We’ve seen a few Pong clocks in the past, but this is the first DIY kit I can recall coming across.
Not only does this purchase net you a cool clock that will make you the envy of your geeky friends, but it gives you a fun little project. It’s a fairly simple kit that even a beginner should be able to tackle in 2-3 hours. There’s just something about the satisfaction you get when you assemble something like this on your own (even if it did come from a kit). The going rate for one of these is $80, but unfortunately you’ll have to be patient. It looks like everyone else wanted one to, as they’re currently sold out.
[ Adafruit ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]
http://www.geekalerts.com/animated-pong-clock/
