Beats Tones Down the Bass With its New Solo2 Headphones
Following the announcement that Apple was acquiring Beats Electronics, the audio accessory company is not slowing down, announcing a new version of its most popular set of on-ear headphones. The new Beats Solo² offers a new physical design and improved acoustics that promise to deliver “a wider range of sound and enhanced clarity.”
An early review from Engadget suggests the new cans tone down the bass, providing a “more balanced” sound than other Beats headphone models that often are criticized for their bass-heavy sound.
Well, the best way I can describe the sound here is “more balanced.” Don’t get me wrong: There’s still plenty of bass when tunes call for it, but you can also clearly pick up other elements — things like hi-hats, snares and others all seem to stand out more when compared to previous releases.
Besides the improved audio quality, the Beats Solo² has a sleeker, more polished design that makes the headphones comfortable to wear, says The Wall Street Journal.
The new design, which echoes the more expensive, over-ear Beats Studio, is sleeker, with no visible screws and higher quality materials that offer a more premium feel than the predecessor. Acoustics have been improved, too. The ear cups now sit at an angle that’s far more comfortable on your ears—especially after hours of wear. The new ear-cup design also blocks out more background noise.
Now that Apple is acquiring Beats, these Solo² headphones may be among the last models released by Beats as a standalone company. Going forward, Apple will oversee the design and marketing of Beats’ future products. As part of this transition, Beats will sever its long-term relationship with design firm Ammunition, which is responsible for the design of the Beats’ current lineup of headphones and speakers.
The new Beats Solo² headphones are available now for pre-order from Beats’ website and will arrive in retail stores beginning June 1. Pricing for the model remains the same, with the Solo² costing $199. It is available in a variety of colors including pink, blue, gray, white or red.
Intel’s “Moorefield” 64-bit chip expected to be announced at Computex conference
We’ve previously seen 64-bit processors in phones, thanks to Apple’s iPhone 5S. The time is near for Android devices to follow this trend. At the upcoming Computex conference on June 4th, Intel is expected to unveil their new chip, codenamed “Moorefield”, a 64-bit chip designed to run devices 8-inches and smaller.
The chip is also known as the quad-core Atom Z3560/Z3580 and offers a leg over the competition. The main draw to this chip is that it takes up a smaller footprint, making it much easier to fit into smaller devices, and it runs much cooler than its competition. It also supports its own XMM 7260 LTE modem, which supports download speeds up to 300 Mbps.
We’ll most likely see this chip heading to smaller Android tablets with LTE support, but there could always be other options for the chip. Let’s wait and see what happens on June 4th!
Source: CNET
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Sunrise Calendar for Android exits Beta, brings new web view
You can now download Sunrise Calendar from the Google Play Store!
For those looking for a great calendar app for your Android, you’ve probably seen our recent coverage on Sunrise Calendar. It’s a relatively new calendar app for Android, and up until today, has only been available as a public Beta. Overtime, the Sunrise team has been incredibly helpful with feature requests and bug fixes. The time has finally come for the app to exit Beta and enter the Play Store.
If you’re unfamiliar with the app, Sunrise Calendar is a beautiful app that supports Gmail, iCloud, and Exchange accounts. It gives you a month view towards the top, an agenda view towards the bottom, and allows you to swipe over easily to get to the 3-day view. It also gives you weather information and Smart Icons, both of which adds a nice, unique touch to the interface.
Sunrise for the desktop
Along with the official release of the Android app, Sunrise is coming to the web. You can use the web view by visiting calendar.sunrise.am, or downloading the Chrome extension. The web view has basically the same look as the Android app, but includes a handy full-content view and different time zone support. The desktop and Android app will also sync automatically, making your life that much easier.
If you have yet to try Sunrise Calendar for Android, now is the perfect time. It’s beautiful, functional, and one of the best dang calendars we’ve ever used. With the new web interface paired with the official Android app, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better all-around calendar experience. Download it from the Play Store today!
Have you tried Sunrise Calendar? What did you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Sunrise
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Editor’s Picks: 15 of our favorite Android apps and games (May 28)
Welcome to the Editor’s Picks, where we have filed through various apps and games in an attempt to curate a list of 15 of the best to present to you! We find it to be our duty to help you determine what is worth downloading on to your precious device, and what will just waste your internal storage. We can’t get all the amazing apps into one story, but we hope that we’ve gotten the most useful/entertaining/etc in this list!
For a more comprehensive selection, we are constantly posting to our social media networks. So feel free to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ to keep up with our latest app suggestions!
PLEASE NOTE THIS ARTICLE IS SPREAD OVER THREE PAGES
Timely Alarm Clock
Timely is an alarm clock not just for one device, but another, and another! Unlike most alarm apps for Android you can sync Timely to several of your devices, and set the alarm form the device of your choice. When the alarm goes off, you simply press “snooze” on the device closest to you, and all the devices the alarm was set for will “snooze!”
The app is beautiful, and has a great sense of style. It will be a welcome addition to your device that you won’t want to get rid of! Its elegance only adds to its infinite usefulness. Trust us, you will always need an alarm clock, Timely just does it better than the rest.
Peek
Peek is an app that was originally derived from the custom build Paranoid Android. It is similar technology to Motorola’s Active Display in that it brings up notifications based on your movement. If the sensors pick up movement, the screen lights up to display whatever notification you may have.
This app is extremely helpful for those times you miss a notification, and take a quick peek (ha, get it?) at your phone to check it. It saves time and hassle! The only downside is that because it doesn’t use hardware specifically meant for the process, it does eat up a bit of battery utilizing the sensors. However, for such a handy app we can hardly count it down for such a thing!
You can find an article over the Paranoid Android version of this app here.
Monument Valley
Do you like a little optical illusion with your Android games? Well so do we, and luckily Monument Valley is here to provide! Monument Valley puts you in the character of Ida, a princess who has entered a dream-like world where she travels from point to point in an attempt to solve puzzles. Ida has no voice or face, so you are somewhat left to fill-in the blanks with her story!
The game has beautiful graphics, and an ethereal soundtrack that help to keep you entranced in the puzzle-solving levels. All of the stages are designed extremely well, and genuinely fun to play. Monument Valley does the puzzle genre justice, and is deserving of its $3.99 price tag!
Lux Auto Brightness
Most Android phones of today are equipped with an auto-brightness feature, but do they really work the way they should? Lux Auto Brightness would argue that they don’t! Lux brings a competent brightness control to your phone that, given the right adjustments, can really do your phone some good!
Stock auto-brightness can often be fidgity and unreliable, but Lux is not this way. Lux will effortlessly transition between light and dim situations, and go even beyond that. The creator even gives you the option to request a refund within a week of your purchase of the app if you don’t like it! Not to mention there’s also a “Lite” version for those who need it. Try it out and see the difference for yourself!
Fives
Flappy Bird seems to have become the new rating for how frustrating a game can be, and Fives comes through in the same vein. Modeled after the popular iOS game “Threes,” Fives uses the same basic concept. It is a puzzle game where you combine similar numbers. For example, you can combine 2 and 3, but not 2 and 2, or 3 and 3.
The basis sounds simple enough, but trust us it is not! The game can quickly become frustrating and confusing. It definitely fills the hole that Flappy Bird left in us as far as frustrating games go, therefore Fives makes a good substitute until it is brought back!
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LG has a 6″ Quad HD phone display up its sleeve
LG announced its new flagship LG G3 just 2 days ago, a device sporting a beautiful 5.5″ QHD display 1440×2560 in resolution (cca 534ppi), marking the companies first phone with a QHD display. That apparently isn’t enough for them.
Head of LG for Display technology announced in an interview that 600 and 700ppi displays are within reach. He also said that it would take LG’s competition significant resources to catch them up, considering this would place them far ahead. LG will showcase its 6″ Quad HD display at the SID 2014 expo in San Francisco, a display whose pixel density will be around 491, which would still place them on top, considering it’s above any 1080p display on the market.
SID 2014 will take place in San Francisco June 1-6. If you’re a pixel junkie or you just like to see beautiful panels reach the market you’ll definitely appreciate this.
VIA: PhoneArena
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T-Mobile to disrupt industry yet again on June 18
If there’s one thing you can say about T-Mobile it’s that they don’t sit still very long. Come next month, The Un-carrier is set to announce yet another change in their services. T-Mobile has scheduled a June 18 Un-carrier 5.0 event based around the concept of “We don’t play it safe and sound”. It’s hard to say for certain what they have up their sleeves this summer as there’s been little talk of new strategies as of late.
What would you like to see T-Mobile announce at the June 18 event?
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Beats’ new Solo2 headphones sound way better than they feel
After the news broke yesterday of Apple officially acquiring Dr. Dre’s headphone and music streaming business, Beats isn’t putting the new product announcements on hold. The success of the brand is without question, and its most popular set of cans just got a refresh. This is the Beats Solo²: a redesigned on-ear model with re-tuned audio that does quite a bit to combat the “too much bass” argument.
Let’s start with the sound, shall we? As I’ve already mentioned, Beats touts “updated and improved acoustics” that boast “a wider range of sound and enhanced clarity.” That summary is pretty much spot-on. When I unboxed the Solo², I was quick to queue up some bass-heavy tunes to see if the company would remain consistent with its affinity for the low end. Well, the best way I can describe the sound here is “more balanced.” Don’t get me wrong: There’s still plenty of bass when tunes call for it, but you can also clearly pick up other elements — things like hi-hats, snares and others all seem to stand out more when compared to previous releases.
As recently as the Pill XL, the extra bass was great for some genres, but just seemed to muddy others. That’s not the case here. When switching from hip-hop to metal, and then on to something mellower, like bluegrass, each tune I threw at the headphones came through clearly and with a wider range of tones than existing efforts. Those looking for a truckload of bass will still get it when a playlist demands, but folks who prefer a myriad of styles in their music libraries are catered to as well.
Where Beats didn’t excel with the new model is comfort.
Where Beats didn’t excel with the new model is comfort. I’ve never been a fan of the way this brand of headphones feels when I wear them, and unfortunately, the Solo² is more of the same. Despite a new headband and ergonomic, pivoting earcups, the headphones still feel like they’re pinching in on my head — a feeling that gets uncomfortable about 15 to 20 minutes into a listening session. That’s a common criticism of the Solo HD set, too. This new model is 45g (1.6 ounces) heavier than the Solo HD, and while it’s 25g (0.88 ounce) lighter than my usual (albeit more pricey) B&O H6 set, the way the headphones take hold makes them feel a lot heavier. There’s new material wrapping the earcups to help dissipate heat though, and that tweak was quite noticeable after several minutes of listening.
In terms of aesthetics, the area housing the iconic circle logo on the outside of the earcups is concave and the leather-esque material meets the plastic on the inside seamlessly. That bunched-up hemline is no more. There’s still a color-coordinated in-line remote for toggling tracks, adjusting volume and taking calls, but only on iOS devices. The center play/pause button was all that worked with both Spotify and Google Play Music or answering calls on my Moto X. Finally, the cans still fold in on themselves just like the previous version, should you feel the need to toss ‘em in a bag or the included carrying case for transport.
If you’re looking to update from the latest model, or opt in for the first time, the Beats Solo² headphones are available for a $200 investment starting today. As you might expect, there are six color options (gray is pictured) to match your smartphone, wardrobe or football cleats.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
Source: Beats Electronics
Germany turns to 3D printed food to help those who can’t swallow
See that meal up there? All of it was crafted on a 3D printer. Smoothfood is a project designed to provide better meals for both the elderly and sufferers of dysphagia — an inability to swallow food. The process requires freshly-cooked ingredients to be pulped like baby food, before being mixed with a secret additive mix and regurgitated by a modified Foodjet 3D printer. The meal looks, and even apparently tastes, the same as it did before the process, but simply melts in the mouth instead of choking whoever would eat it. Smoothfood can currently create meals with Cauliflower, Peas, Chicken, Pork, Potatoes and Pasta, with more foodstuffs coming at some point in the future. We’re slightly nervous that we’re going to have to try some of this at a forthcoming trade show, so let’s hope it’s all as tasty as its creators claim.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Munchies
Source: Smoothfood, Biozoon, Foodjet, PERFORMANCE
Real-world Mario is kind of a creep…
You know how some things you expect to be sacred, but then it turns out that even Nintendo is prepared to bulldoze your childhood in exchange for some cash? Welcome to 2014, where you can drive a Mercedes-Benz in Mario Kart 8 and witness the horrifying nightmare that is real-world Mario in the advert below.
Filed under: Gaming, Transportation, Nintendo
Source: GLA
Motorola encourages creativity in Moto 360 Design Face-Off contest
Earlier this year, Motorola unveiled its vision for the future of smartwatches and now it’s opening up a design contest to see ideas for watchfaces that will take the iconic round watch into the 21st century.
In the Moto 360 Design Face-Off contest, all are welcome to enter, but only one person will win and receive their very own Moto 360.
All submissions must be either a JPEG, PNG or GIF and created from one of the official PSD templates, which you can get here. All submissions are due by 3 p.m. CT June 10.
Check out the Moto 360 community on Google+ for more details and to view submissions.
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