spot cool stuff TECH
spot cool stuff TECH
You are hosting a cocktail party and want music—the same music—playing in your living room, your dining room and your outside patio. You want to control your music from a single source but don’t want to run wires all over your house.
The Sonos Multi-Room Music System is exactly what you are looking for.
Sonos is a modular system that creates a wireless network linking multiple speakers with multiple audio sources. With Sonos you can play a CD or an MP3 or stream internet radio and listen on any, or all, of the network’s speakers.
At least you can theoretically. As will all products we test, Spot Cool Stuff started out skeptical of the Sonos system; we were especially dubious of Sonos’ claim that this complicated-sounding speaker network would be easy to set up. Here’s what we found:
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spot cool stuff TECH
Amazon offers two “current” versions of its popular e-book reader: the Kindle 2 and, as of July 2010, the Kindle Graphite DX.
Both Kindles are among Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite gadgets, especially for traveling. But why? And what’s the difference between the two Kindle models? And which one is better?
For the answers, Dear Reader, continue on . . .
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spot cool stuff TECH
Stop motion animation has been around almost as long as cameras have. But Olympus took it to a whole new level when creating an Olympus PEN digital camera advertisement.
For the ad, Olympus took 355 photographs with a PEN camera and printed them out to billboard size. They then took those billboards and photographed them in an urban environment to tell a story. The result is a very cool, especially when you consider that no special effects were involved and that the whole ad was shot using a camera that costs around US$600.
The Olympus PEN, not incidentally, is a really excellent micro four thirds camera—it looks like a compact point-and-shoot digital camera but can accommodate interchangeable lenses. As much as Spot Cool Stuff loves the still photos the PEN produces (and we do!) were this gem-of-a-camera really excels is in taking HD quality video.
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The new screen is in itself a reason to buy an iPhone 4
The anticipation is over. This morning Apple CEO Steve Jobs officially unveiled the new iPhone. Which means Spot Cool Stuff is now allowed to release our previously embargoed information and share our first thoughts on what is will certainly become the world’s best selling smartphone.
So what are the key new features on the iPhone 4? And is it worth upgrading if you already have an iPhone? Read on:
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spot cool stuff TECH
spot cool stuff TECH
Today almost all laptops store data on one of two types of devices: a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD).
In almost every way the solid state drive is the higher quality of the two. Because SSDs use flash memory they are significantly faster than HDDs. They use no moving parts and so are more durable. Compared to HDDs, they are also a bit quieter and less battery-draining.
The problem is: An SSD is much more expensive than a hard disk drive. A good 500GB 5400 rpm laptop HDD will set you back a mere $60. A faster, high-end 7200 rmp HDD can be had for around $85. But a 500GB SSD? That’s a whopping $2,000 or more!
If only there were a drive with the speed of an SSD but with the price of a HDD, you may be wishfully saying to yourself.
Now there is: The Seagate Momentus XL.
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spot cool stuff TECH
Consumers are currently accustomed to seeing LEDs as the prime components of modern flashlights and Christmas tree lighting. But heretofore only specialty lamps have produced light from light-emitting diodes.
That will be changing over the next few months. LED light bulbs are coming to a lamp near you. An array of companies are launching LED bulbs that will fit into regular light sockets. And, unlike previously marketed LED retrofit bulbs, these will produce a light in the same color temperature range as incandescent blubs, 2,700K to 3,000K.
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