Product tests

Look inside Logitech Squeezebox Boom

White paper: Logitech Squeezebox Boom audio design is an interesting in-depth look behind the design of an all-in-one network music player from one of its lead designers. This device includes amplifier and speakers and other music player electronics in one box. One of its lead designers tells the story. Image source: http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/product_matrix.html

LackRack

This is a really neat trick I just read about. LackRack is the ultimate, low-cost, high shininess solution for your modular datacenter-in-the-living-room. Its low-cost and perfect fit are great for mounting up to 8 U of 19″ hardware, such as switches (see below), or perhaps other 19″ gear. Featuring the LACK (side table) from Ikea,

High end vs. consumer electronics

All the good ideas have been gone in high end AV industry? Why work hard for something original when you can just license it and use your brand to warrant charging huge extra for the same electronics? Are high-end brands just becoming marketing and no real engineering or quality benefits… In earlier blog post there

Open Source Symbian

When Nokia bought Symbian in 2008, nobody had any reason to believe their thoughts were anywhere near Open Source. Parts of the Symbian platform have been Open Source for quite some time and other portions have slowly been released. Symbian, maker of the the world’s most popular mobile operating system, has just completed the transition

Text message ripoff

Everyone knows that movie popcorn is one of the biggest ripoffs, right? It turns out that movie popcorn carries a 600 percent markup. The biggest ripoff: text message beats movie popcorn article tells that the text messaging has a much bigger markup. Text messages themselves, are just tiny blips of data being transferred to and

DIY fiber optic microscope

Fiber optic microscopes are used to inspect connectors to check the quality of the termination procedure and diagnose problems. A well made connector will have a clean, smooth, polished and scratch free finish. There is not be any signs ofcracks, chips or fiber not even with the ferrule front. The magnification for viewing connectors can

The anatomy of a modern audio-video amplifier

A modern Audio-Video amplifier/receiver (AVR) is an exceedingly complex piece of consumer electronics, requiring expertise in many aspects of analogue and digital audio and high definition video, plus considerable software skills. ‘The anatomy of a modern audio-video amplifier’ lecture by John Dawson from Arcam for Audio Engineering Society UK is an interesting talk on engineering

Cool Computer Keyboards

Computer keyboards are peripherals partially modeled after the typewriter and designed both for the input of text and characters and also to control the operation of a computer. Keyboards can arrive in many shapes or sizes. 14 Cool Computer Keyboards for Geeks shows you a set of extraordinary and interesting computer keyboard designs currently available