18 posts tagged “stereo”

The Voyager Pro from Plantronics is a bluetooth headset designed for heavy business users, with a bigger size but better performance and battery time.  It has 2 noise cancelling boom microphones, one of which is used to collect sound for ambient noise analysis.  Great for blocking out wind noises.  When you mute the mic, a message only you can hear will tell you that the mic is muted.  Leo is loving the Calisto Pro from Plantronics, and this Voyager Pro sounds promising to him.

DGW in Surround Sound
Leo's new mixer from Telos, the Axia, will be capable of outputting surround sound called Dolby Headphone, and he wonders if listeners would prefer that.  How about good old Quadraphonic sound?

A TerraTrike for Leo
Leo has been sent a Terratrike (after Dick and Leo talked about it in Episode 815).  Leo took delivery of it during Maxwell's House last week.  Leo is going to review it in about 2 weeks' time.  It might end up as Abby's new transport, or TWiT's special limousine service.  Take a sneak preview of it here.

Better Laundry Rooms than Home Theatres
Kevin Sweeney from Grand Junction, Colorado has written to defend Dick about the Earth Day series, the Wonder Wash and the Countertop Spin Dryer (Episodes 818, 819).  He cannot believe how stoically Dick put up the abuse Leo dished out about them.  A lot more people have laundry rooms than have home theatres, and not everyone can afford the Mini E (Episode 811).  Kevin for one is going to give the laundry gadgets to his wife for their 20th wedding anniversary - and their final, add Dick and Leo.

Great Dinner Options
Dick went as a special guest to a convention called Boys And Their Toys.  On his way to the hotel, the young limo driver assured Dick that he had chosen the right hotel, because his dinner options would include Burger King, Taco Bell and White Castle, and the subway is just around the corner.


Listen to Episode 829
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The i-Ride and Stroll-A-Tune are really the same thing.  They're add-on amplified stereo speakers for your bike or stroller.  It mounts on to any handle-bar and bicycle frame, and connects to any player with a standard headphone jack.

Early Christmas
Leo plays the Festive Letters Jingle by mistake, and it just happens to suit the wife of a particular listener who can't wait till Christmas.

A Fan, Naturally Speaking
Brian Drake, who wrote in Episode 394, uses voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking.  While recommending DGW on a message board and mentioning Dick's and Leo's names, he found that the software spelled the names Laporte and Debartolo correctly.  These are not very common names and Brian thinks Dick and Leo have a fan working at Dragon.

Working For An Airline?
Dick tells a story of how they got hold of an old telephone number of a defunct airline (Capital Airline, Dick thinks) and started answering calls.  It was all rather zany.


Listen to Episode 638
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From 1994, Sony made this SRF-X90 Monocular Sports Radio.  It was a 8x magnification monocular made for live sports viewing, with an AM/FM stereo radio.  The idea was you could watch the sports event while listening to radio commentary through the earphones, complete with AVLS (automatic volume limiter system).  Water-resistant.  Worked on one AA battery.

One of these is available on Amazon UK at the time of writing.

Folding the Omelette
Dick once showed on Regis a set of Börnschaft copper-bottomed pots, all for $20.  Instead of folding the omelette, Dick folded the frying pan, live on TV.

WTHII Game Show
In response to Leo's question whether WTHII could make a TV game show (Episode 610), Michael Richardson writes in to say that there was already such a show, Liar's Club.  You can watch clips from the show on YouTube, such as this link.


Listen to Episode 620
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The HD100 from Radiosophy is an HD Radio receiver for the home, developed by Bill Billings and Sue Nail.  The "HD" in HD Radio originally stood for "hybrid digital".  Now it doesn't stand for anything.  It offers digital signals, so that there is no drop-off, hiss or degradation of sound quality.  You either get the signal or you don't.  Although HD here does not formally stand for High Definition, the technology does offer better sound quality, so that FM frequencies deliver CD-quality sounds, and AM frequencies deliver analogue FM stereo sound quality.

Each HD Radio FM frequency can accommodate more than one channel, so that you can select different streams or channels of programming even on the same frequency.  Also called Multicasting.  To check what HD radio stations are available in your area, go to iBuiquity.

The HD100 supports HD radio FM/AM and standard analogue FM/AM frequencies.  It has an internal antenna and includes external antenna connections.  You can scan for HD radio stations, with or without analogue radio stations.  Pre-set up to 5 FM stations and 5 AM stations.  The LCD screen delivers data features offered by HD Radio, including song info, traffic and news alerts, sports scores, weather forecast, etc.  It's also a clock, with the usual alarm, sleep and snooze functions.

It's A Gas
Dick has sent Leo a link, discovered by listener James Baldwin, to the Mad "It's A Gas" Recording on YouTube, but Leo has failed Dick again.  To listen to the recording, go to Dick's home page, or the blog post for Episode 568.

Keeping a Land Line
Bob Harris, who previously wrote in Episode 512, suggests an alternative to keeping a land line, in response to Dick and Leo's discussion in Episode 562.  For those who have phones which need to be electrically plugged in, they can use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).


Listen to Episode 577
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The iSoniCast enables wireless streaming from your iPod to your home stereo or other powered speakers.  Monster Cable calls it a "wireless audio bridge".


Connect the base station to AC power and to your home stereo and to one of the audio inputs of your home stereo (via the mini-jack to RCA cable provided).  Plug the transmitter into the iPod (which draws minimal power from the iPod), start playing and the music will be streamed by 2.4GHz wireless technology (with a bandwidth of 4 Mega-bits per second) to the base station receiver.  The iPod doubles up as a remote control.

Mad Currency
Randal Schwartz, Perl expert, co-host of FLOSS and long-time fan of DGW, came across an entry on Wikipedia about fake denominations of US currency and found that the Mad currency (3-dollar bill) which Dick talked about in the past (see, e.g. Episode 121) has made its way into that entry.  Dick goes on to describe the Alfred E Neuman postage stamps that Mad used to make.

Spork Cartoon
Dick and Leo mention in passing a spork cartoon which listeners have written in about.  Leo says he is going to save it for the Letters Section, but naturally he forgets.  While we wait for Dick and Leo's memory to come round, here's one which is pretty good, by Jakin J Waldock.


Listen to Episode 567
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Neuros produced the MPEG4 Recorder 2 for converting videos into MPEG4 for playback on portable devices such as the iPod and PSP (Episode 49).  It has now come up with the Neuros OSD (OSD standing for Open Source Device, Linux-based) with far more functionalities.  It is a video recorder for all your videos, and a bit of a media centre.

It makes use of the analogue hole to transfer the input video into digital form, on to your choice of external storage (such as a USB hdd, flash drive, memory cards or NAS).  Hook up the Neuros OSD between your video source and the TV (using RCA jacks), connect your storage to the Neuros OSD, and start recording into MPEG4.  You have a choice of 2 resolutions: 320x240 at 30fps for playback on portable devices, and 640x480 at 30fps for playback on TV and PC.


It is also a very capable playback device for audio, video and still photo, supporting many media formats, including mpeg4, mov, wmv, flv, avi (including Dvix and Xvid), mp3, ogg vorbis, wma, flac, jpg, bmp and gif.  You can choose your playback source from an USB-connected storage, or any memory card in the built-in card reader (supporting most major memory cards), or from any networked source via the ethernet port (such as your NAS or even the internet).


Its firmware is upgradable, and the software includes built-in automatic software update capability.  Because the device is based on open source software, Neuros also encourages open development of additional features for the OSD.  Comes with a remote control, an IR Blaster, and RCA cables (European models include SCART adapters).

Automatic Podcast Generator
Dick and Leo lament the missed opportunity of getting a push-button automatic podcast generator, while Leo was away in Tasmania, from Ludwik Trammer, DGW's official statistician, database compiler, RSS feeder, general factotum and all-round nice guy.

Missing Feature
Girl Geek Myra Joyce (who wrote in in Episode 495) referred to the letter read in Episode 526 about the Canon Pixma iP4300.  To her disappointment, the CD-label printing capability is enabled only in models shipped outside of the US (which could be enabled for US models but only with some dismantling and reassembly of the printer).

The Ultimate Toaster
Leo has come up with an idea for the ultimate toaster.  It can print any image you want on your toast.  A toast before it's even made and one destined for the Gadget Warehouse.

Listen to Episode 546
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M-Systems was one of the first companies to introduce a USB flash drive.  Dick got his 16MB DiskOnKey at a press event, but Dick cannot now remember when, though he suspects it might have been in the late 1990's.

CNET reviewed an 8MB DiskOnKey in June 2001, which was one of the first USB thumb drives which did not require a special driver, as long as the operating system had native USB support.  Overclocker Cafe reviewed the product (available from 8MB to 128 MB) in March 2002.

There was also a lot of controversy over who owned the patent to the technology, for which you can read the article on Wikipedia.  M-Systems was acquired by SanDisk in 2006.

No Stereo Please!
Assen, who listens to DGW at work with one ear to DGW and another to the outside world, pleads with Leo not to record DGW in stereo, as it may interfere with his surreptitious routine.

Listen to Episode 545
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A stereo combo complete with amplifier, AM/FM radio, speakers and a turntable, from Brookstone.  On the front panel of the iConvert is a USB port, where you can plug in a USB thumb drive, and an SD/MMC card slot, where you can insert a flash card, to convert your 33⅓ or 45 rpm vinyl records into MP3 files and store on to your flash memory.  Choice of encoding bit rate from 32 kbps to 256 kbps.  No need for a computer.  You can also connect it to your home stereo system via the line-out.

The iConvert is a cheaper option than the Crosley Songwriter in Episode 229 (which plays 78 rpm vinyls and cassette tapes as well, but records directly on to CDs).  Another option often suggested by Leo and mentioned in this episode is the ION USB Turntable (TTUSB) which is even cheaper, and plays 78 rpm records, but needs to be hooked up to a computer.

Dick also refers to the iConvert in Episode 6 of Don Reisinger's The Digital Home Podcast, and talks about many other things, including, naturally, Mad.

Dane and Dean
Recently Dick has been calling Dane Golden, TWiT's Editor-in-chief, a different name - Dean.  That hasn't dented Dane's enthusiasm for the show, who has recently posted a YouTube video of an old footage of Dick on the 50th Anniversary of Mad Magazine.  Read Dane's blog on InsideTWiT.

Favourite Days of the Week
B Schwartz writes to Dick to say that his favourite days of the week are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  He also asks Dick to forward the following email to Leo: "My favourite day of the week is Tuesday!"

Listen to Episode 529
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Read Dick's Write-Up

Leo was sent the MOTOROKR S9 along with the MOTORIZR Z8 from across the pond (Episode 380).  The MOTORIZR is not available in the US, but the S9 is.  It's a pair of bluetooth stereo headphones, particularly good for listening to music.  Works with any phone or bluetooth device supporting A2DP.  The battery "bulge" is behind your neck, so you don't need to look like a borg, as Leo puts it.  Comes with red or black lining.

Music playback, volume control and call-answering can be done via touch-sensitive controls next to the earpieces.

Wait-For-Dick Jingle ...
... or perhaps a Wait-For-Leo-To-Play-The-Jingle Jingle would have been more appropriate.  Dick has to answer the door for a UPS/Fedex delivery.  This is the moment we've been waiting for since Episode 346, when Paul Minshall made the Wait-For-Dick Jingle, only to have Leo spoil it for us.  Dane Golden has obviously declined to edit out the long wait, to let us have a fly-on-the-wall experience.  At least Leo redeems himself by giving us a a good farce.

Dyson Airblade
Dave Gross from Blackpool, England writes in about a hand dryer that blows out air at a phenomenal speed which Dick mentioned in passing in an earlier episode.  On a recent trip to the Eden Project in Cornwall, Dave saw one of those in the men's room.  It's the Dyson Airblade.  For a picture of and a link to the Airblade, see Episode 394.

A Men's Room Story
Dick has a story to tell about an NBC man with an umbrella.

Listen to Episode 417
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