WESC Headphones

First impressions of the WESC headphones are good.  They are light weight with a nice quality feel to them.  The extenders are smooth and easily operated with a nice sheathed lead which will really reduce the tangle problems you usually get.  For extended distances you are given a 3.5mm female to male extender.   The colour choice are great, funky and fun and definitely got my attention when “browsing”.

When playing music the sound is loud and clear with reasonable to good bass definition.  The tight fit around the head keeps outside sound to a minimum and whilst at high volume there is some sound “leak” it’s pretty good and wouldn’t annoy anyone in an office environment.

Overall they are good.  There are options ranging from £40 to £100 and obviously sound improvment grows with price.  I’d love to test out the “Alp Horn” model but given the price and the inability to test these in the shop I wasn’t going to put out the money for them.  Anything over £60 for a pair of head phones requires on site testing and without I’m not going to bother.  I made that mistake with a £300 pair of sennheiser headphones a number of years ago.

You can see more of their products at: http://www.wesc.com/stuff/986

Jim.

Zune HD

Boy do I want to get my hands on one of these (the new Zune HD)!  I can’t really justify the cost considering I have an iPhone but the HD device with music and good compatibility to things like Napster (which I still somehow subscribe too) make it a really desirable device.

It’s looking like they are not available in the UK as of yet and with a price tag of $219 in the USA you can bet that a similar number, in £ will be the price.  Probably a nice £199.  Still, it looks stunning and if ONLY it contained a phone!

Find out more about the Zune here: http://www.zune.net/en-us/products/zunehd/default.htm

Apple’s rumoured iTablet at $999?

Engadget posted a story about Apples rumoured tablet which will ship in February 2010 for a eye watering $999.

I have an iPhone and indeed a Macbook Pro (old generation) and whilst I do appreciate the Mac hardware I also run Windows on my Mac  I just can’t understand how Apple are going to charge an almost identical amount for a tablet as they would for the macbook..  Personally I’m waiting on the TechCrunch CrunchPad and although it’s going to be a fairly limited device in terms of horse power it’s built on Linux and thus will become an utterly hackable and at a $400 price tag it’s much cheaper.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/15/apple-tablet-rumors-strike-back-9-6-inch-with-hsdpa-coming-feb/

XMI X-mini II Mini Speaker

Some time ago I bought this little GEM.  The X-Mini speaker is about the size of a slightly over-sized golf ball.  You can unscrew the central part to create a slightly taller version which allows the base to ring through much more clearly.  It’s an EXCELLENT little speaker and put with an iPhone or a laptop on holiday it’s brilliant.  The sound is loud, clear and whilst not perfect it takes the usual laptop sound and seriously improves upon it.

The internal battery life for this speaker is big - I’ve charged it once or twice in a few months of ownership with a reasonable use between each charge.  Charging is done via a small 5V USB connection.

I picked mine up for £20 but I noticed Amazon is now making these available for £13.99.  If you’re looking for a decent smaller portable speaker then this is good.

Max Value USB 2.0 to Widescreen SVGA Adapter (MV42431)

USB2 to SVGA

This week I bought the “Max Value USB 2.0 to Widescreen SVGA Adapter” from Amazon.  £31 for a additional monitor extension is not bad value and allowed me to have three monitors working together, one for code, one for email and firebug and the other for a browser.  So far the product is doing fairly well though it basically kills Windows 7 Aero feature but I suspect this is more a driver issue than hardware.

Overall the device is good.. It’s small, easy to install and does the job. It’s not fast, it doesn’t have the best picture but I didn’t buy it for this reason. Overall I’m pleased and it increased my productivity - but not as much as the transition of one to two monitors.