The new THX idea was to ensure that home theater buffs heard the same quality and levels of audio as those sound engineers. Most people now about THX through logos on certified hardware. The implication of buying THX certified gear is that you get that sound mixing room environment. Any home theater enthusiast will know this simply isn’t the case. Simply buying THX certified equipment does not guarantee good sound, there are many other much much more important things that need to be right than the certification on equipment (for example room acoustics). THX certification brings to the table hardware that meets a consistent, minimum set of standards. To get good sound you need to use them in the right way and have good room acoustics.

According to AnandTech article THX Certified HDTVs – Useful or Just Marketing? the THX goal has mutated again. The article tells how the THX certification business works and what it means for TVs. THX tries to define a listening (or, in the case of HDTVs, viewing) experience, rather than just a set of hardware specs. The very act of doing that makes the company somewhat controversial. Since the logo program is a major part of THX’s revenue stream, obvious potential conflicts can occur. What does it mean when THX certifies an HDTV and does it matter anyway? What does the THX mode in an certified HDTV do? Read the article and make your own conclusions. The implications of a THX logo are perhaps stronger than the actual end result.

Image source:

http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/product_matrix.html

Earlier some hifi people have built hi-fi stand made out of IKEA Lack side tables, but now the world is ready for 19″ networking equipment racks. Check LackRack home page for more information on how to build your own very cheap 19″ rack system. The page also tells that also Ikea LACK coffee table and Ikea ODDA night table have right dimensions and can be easily converted to cheap 19″ racks.

Image source: http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack

In earlier blog post there was information that Ayre DX-5 bluray player was a modified Oppo BDP-83 blueray player. The repackaged device with new power supply changed the price from $500 to $10000.

Now there is another similar case. Now it looks there is even less modifications.

AV Rant #163: Bacon Wrapped Vegan blog posting says that Lexicon BD-30 looks like Oppo. Audioholics article Oppo on the Inside, Lexicon on the Outside shows that inside Lexicon BD-30’s beautiful chassis there is Oppo BDP-83. The article says that according to the reps at the show, Lexicon had merely taken components of that player and tweaked them to make it their own – adding technology and making improvements to what was a good basic building block. What a load of hogwash. The article claims that Lexicon actually put a full Oppo BDP-83 INSIDE of a chassis, slapped a label on it and is shipping it for $3000 more. Don’t take our word for it, however, check out these pics. Where they went wrong, however, was when they simply lifted the Oppo BDP-83 player and threw it into their own chassis without making any performance enhancing modifications – despite claims to have done just that. What they’ve done doesn’t seem to even begin to justify the exorbitant price markup

We live in a world where everyone is building products with other peoples parts. It is just not possible to design and manufacture many electronics devices (even very possible) from “ground up”.
For most companies it’s simply not cost effective to produce their own DVD / BD players or other very complicated digital audio/video device. So the high-end manufacturers that make this kind of devices need to take some shortcuts and use ready made components. What they are now doing on those examples doesn’t seem to even begin to justify the exorbitant price markup. Has high end industry become to state where High End is just repackaged consumer electronics with huge price markup?

Symbian, maker of the the world’s most popular mobile operating system, has just completed the transition to a completely open platform months ahead of schedule. While the kernel was opened up last year, the entire platform is now open source, primarily under the Eclipse Public License. By putting Symbian fully in the public domain, the Symbian Foundation is pitting it against Google’s Android.

Sources:
Symbian Opens Up
Symbian Completes Transition To Open Source
Symbian.org

But don’t expect anything to change anytime soon because operators are making good money on this as people are buying the product well at the current pricing. Those of us who pay for flat-rate, all-you-can-text plans don’t worry about cost of single text message.

A lot of “bad” fibers can be traced back to dirty connectors. You can see the dirt with microscope. But usually it is always easiest just to clean the connector every time you suspect it could be dirty. So always clean the fiber before plugging it into an interface. Cisco document Inspection and Cleaning Procedures for Fiber-Optic Connections gives you a lot of information on fiber connector cleaning.

WARNING: Remember to check that no power is present in the cable before you look at it in a microscope ­ to protect your eyes! The microscope will concentrate any power in the fiber and focus it into your eye with potentially hazardous results. Some commercial fiver microscopes have laser safety filter in them but this DIY model does not have it.

Nexus One is the new HTC Phone, with a Goggle name on it, with the newest Android Software, and powerful hardware inside. Nexus One’s hardware estimated to cost $175 article tells that Google’s forthcoming Nexus One smartphone is composed of components worth about $175, according to a tear-down conducted by iSuppli. That price is just for components, it does not include other expenses such as manufacturing, packaging, and software. The cost of the raw ingredients of a phone does not take into account the R&D, design and testing that must happen. And there is always the marking costs.

One very interesting part of the article is the table that lists the complete list of hardware in the Nexus One, including the prices for different components. This is interesting reading for everybody interested in what is inside this gadget. The most expensive component is Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor ($30.50). It runs the Google’s Android 2.1 operating system.

So it looks like the cost of making the phone is about the same as the iPhone 3G S ($178.96 BOM). Nexus pricing is not so different from the iPhone, so margins for the phone as Apple is famous for high margins.Those are the normal industry margins for high end smartphones when they are new. When the models get older, the prices tend to drop and margins fall unless the manufacturing is optimized. Just for reference check this Nokia N79 Eco Mobile Phone terdowns.

Image source: Nexus One: “Web meets phone” video

There seems to be hype that about Tuesday’s expected launch of the first Google Phone. That news actually made to start writing this article. Nexus One review will give you all the details to know about this phone. According to this unauthorised review on Engadget, it’s nice, but only really a sleeker version of the Droid. It is powered by the latest version of Android (2.1 “Flan”). Read those reviews and you can see what to expect. Let’s see if Google succeeds for the benefit of creating a real competition for iPhone. Is Google trying to push Android just forward or is Google wanting to take control over the way you buy mobile phones?

Some people expect that Google wants to flip the USA mobile carrier and distribution market upside-down, becoming the place you go to search for and buy a mobile phone. You select the phone before you even pick a carrier, number, voice and data plans, or extras.

That could be new in USA, but not new to mobile markets in Europe. For example in Finland you normally used to go to buy the phone from shop, and then picked up the carrier operator you wanted to use. And you can do it freely nowadays also. Other option (became available few years ago as it became allowed to combine phone and service) is that you buy a package from operator where you get the phone and call plans at monthly fee. After paying the fee for 12-24 months (depending on plan), the phone is yours and you are free to use any operator you want with the phone.

Besides phones there seems to be interests in running Android operating system on other devices also. The expected application list goes like phones, GPS and computers. According to Gizdomo article Do You Really Need a Microwave or a Washer-Dryer Running Android? there are some developers whowant to give Android the power to control our washer-dryers and ovens and printers. Touch Revolution NIM1000 module (demonstrated at CES) is an Android-based module that is designed to control all kinds of appliances. Do you need your microwave to be a kitchen command center? This reminds me a bit of the old dot.com era where almost everyone tried push Java everywhere and Microsoft pushed Windows CE to every device out there.

The main points in talk are that designing a home theater amplifier is a paradox. The amplifier should be cheap to sell well. On the other hand it should be expensive to be well made (it is a very complex device). The amplifier should be designed quickly (so that it is not outdated when comes to quickly changing markets) but the design should be free of bugs. The amplifier should have all the newest features in it, but it should also be as simple as possible to sound good and be easy to use.

Image source: Arcam AVR600 web page