Review of Denon AH-C400 (Headset)

Review of Denon AH-C400 (Headset)

Key Features: Dual micro armatures ; Teflon-coated cable; Eight pairs of rubber/Comply foam tips; Carry case
Manufacturer: Denon

What are the Denon AH-C400?

Denon’s latest headphone range is split into a bunch of families. Urban Raver is for young bass-lovers, and the Music Maniac crew that the Denon AH-C400 belong to is for more discerning audio nuts. It’s closer to the traditional Denon approach, where sound quality matters over everything else.

Denon AH-C400 – Design and Comfort

Looks-wise, the Denon AH-C400 have some of the company’s new-school design flavour. The cable’s outer is translucent, with a snazzy-looking silvery core in the middle.

The earpieces are more angular than Denon’s former flagship in-ear model, the AH-C751, too – they were innocuous bullets that gave little away about their high-end status, aside from being made of aluminium.

The Denon AH-C400 are altogether more eye-catching. Decked out in black and silver, with circles here, lines there, they’re nowhere near as plain as their predecessors. We found that they are a little too willing to work their way out of your ears as their ‘arm’ design leaves a fair amount of earphone sticking out from your ear canal.

However, the same can be said of one of their top rivals, the Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10. Comfort still largely depends on the type of tip used, and Denon includes both rubber and foam types, but the headphones make no particular comfort concessions themselves.

What is a more serious design issue is the non-removable cable. We like to see headphones over £150 use removable cables, as it gives you a ‘second chance’ should you accidentally put them through some rough treatment. Many similarly-priced rivals do offer swappable cables, including Shure’s and Ultimate Ears’s.

The cable features a 3-button remote designed for Apple devices

Denon AH-C400 – Sound Quality

The Denon AH-C400 are ‘Music Maniac’ headphones. This range is out to please the more traditional audiophile type.

They use dual armature drivers, which are more accurate but generally less meaty-sounding than the dynamic type seen in lower-cost headphones. However, at the price you can get a pair of triple-driver armature earphones – the Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10.

The Denon AH-C400 are balanced-sounding earphones with none of the aggressive bass-heavy styling that we saw introduced to the company’s AH-D600 headphones.

If heavy bass if what you’re after, you probably want to steer clear as the low-end is slightly reserved, with good depth but no bloat whatsoever. For big bass, look to the Denon AH-C300, this set’s ‘Urban Raver’ sibling, which uses dual dynamic ‘air compression’ instead of the more refined balanced armature type.

Bass is taut and disciplined at mid-level volumes but, bafflingly, there is some mild bass distortion in tracks with prominent low-end when played at very high high volumes. We wouldn’t expect this of a £70 earphone, let alone a £170 one. It’s not tremendously ugly distortion unless you up the volume to dangerous levels, just an audible sign that the dual balances armatures can’t really cope with what they’re being dealt.

This sort of inconsistent performance is seen elsewhere in the Denon AH-C400 too. At mid-level volumes, the tone is excellent. It’s slightly analytical and quite neutral, with unusually good mid-range detail and coherence – even in this ‘high-end’ class.

Without any amplification, the mids can start to sound a little forced and harsh on the ears when the volume is cranked, but are smoothed-out when given a little extra power through a headphone amp.

The Denon AH-C400 are earphones that significantly benefit from amplification, smoothing out the impressive but at times challenging mids and significantly improving the soundstage. If you’re simply looking for earphones you can plug into an iPod and get the best out of, these are not they.

They will still sound great plugged into an MP3 player, but we found the similarly priced Ultimate Ears Triple.Fi 10 a little harder-hitting and fuller-sounding, and its price is veering into triple-driver territory.

Should I Buy the Denon AH-C400?

The Denon AH-C400 are great, neutral-sounding earphones that don’t succumb to the trend of upping the bass in headphones. Their slightly analytical approach will please audiophiles.

However, they do seem a mite expensive for dual-driver earphones, and do start to sound a little forced at high volumes without a headphone amp. We prefer their sound to Denon’s old AH-C751 earphones, which were a little heavier on the bass, but a few issues mean you really need to like their sound signature for them to be worth considering.

Verdict

The Denon AH-C400 are high-end dual micro armature earphones that have a largely accurate, neutral sound. They’re designed for discerning types, not basshounds. They sound best at low-to-mid volumes and don’t have a removable cable, though.

source

Read more »

LG Pocket Photo Smart

LG Pocket Photo Smart

Print Smartly, Enjoy Instantly Pocket Photo
LG SMART MOBILE PRINTER
PD221

* INSTANT MOBILE PRINT
* SMART EDITING
* ENJOYABLE SHARING

INSTANT MOBILE PRINTING

Wirelessly print smartphone photos whenever, wherever.
Even without PCs or cables, you can print memorable photos
just by pressing the Send button.
With Bluetooth and NFC support,
Pocket photo can quickly print your photos with no cable necessary wherever you are.

EASY BLUETOOTH CONNECTION
Print your photo via Bluetooth connection.

SMART NFC CONNECTION

Tag your smartphone to the NFC sticker on the Pocket photo to instantly run the application.

CUSTOMIZED EDITING
Edit your photo with all the functions of LG Pocket photo application

ADJUSTABLE PHOTO FILTER
You can retouch your photo with various filters for a vivid, clear, faded, shiny, blurry, warm, cold
and black & white look, as well as the original image.

POSTING THE D-DAYS
You will never again forget an important anniversary with the D-day icon.

DIY PHOTO FRAME
Make your own photo frame with LG Pocket photo application. Decorate your photos for birthdays, new years, to say thank you and to send invitations.

SHARE YOUR MEMORIES WITH THE PHOTO SPLIT FUNCTION
Share your memorable photos with family and friends with the photo split function.

ENJOYABLE SHARINGInsert dates, venues and memos into your photo with QR code. You can add the QR code on your photo and print it out from LG Pocket photo application. Easily connect to SNS sites such as Facebook, Youtube to share your happiness.

LG POCKET PHOTO APPLICATION
Print photos including memos and QR code with LG Pocket photo application.
Share photos in diverse ways and link to SNS sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

NO NEED INK, ZINKPhoto sheets are prepared with the ink pre-included.

OPTIMIZED PRINT QUALITY
For the best printing quality,
LG smart sheet adjusts the tone of color by cleaning the print head.

PERFECT WALLET-SIZE PHOTOS MEASURING A COMPACT 2 X 3
Enjoy smaller and lighter photos with LG smart sheet.
You can also stick to the original photo size or adjust the size to fit inside the sheet.

HANDY AND MINIMAL DESIGN
Minimal in size and lighter than ever.
Supports three colors of pink, orange and silver,
so you can pick and choose according to your preference.
※ Product color may differ depending on country.

SHARE YOUR HAPPY MEMORIES AT ANY TIME
You want photos for special days like birthdays, proposals and rendezvous with friends.
Then print your photo and share these memories all together.

KEEP YOUR SPECIAL DAY WITH POCKET PHOTO
Share your happy anniversary for longer with your loved ones.
The smartest way to keep in real your precious memory hidden in your smartphone.

AN ALBUM FOR YOUR LOVING CHILDDo you spend extra time printing and editing your photos?
With Pocket photo, you can capture, print and take memos of all the precious moments.
It will be the most special gift for your child.

USE PHOTOS AS INTERIOR ITEMS
Do you put your photos in big size frames? With Pocket photo, you can decorate your house
with edited photos to lighten up the mood.

DIY INVITATIONS
Do you give your photos to studios when making invitations?
With Pocket photo, you can create customized invitations
with the QR code and memos of your choice.

WHEN IN NEED OF ID PHOTO
Do you spend extra money printing ID photos when you need it in a hurry?
With the Pocket photo split function,
you can print out your photos whenever you want, for low prices.

LG POCKET PHOTO APPLICATION
You can search for and download the LG Pocket photo application
at Play Store from any smartphone based on the Android OS system.
※ LG Pocket photo supports only for the Androids OS system.

Enjoy the Instant Mobile Printing, Easy Bluetooth Connection, Smart NFC Connection, Customized Editing, Adjustable Photo Filter, Posting the D-days, DIY Photo Frame, Share your memories with the Photo Split Function, Enjoyable sharing, LG Pocket photo application, No need ink, Zink, Optimized print quality, Perfect wallet-size photos measuring a Compact 2 X 3, Handy and Minimal design, Share your happy memories at any time, Keep your special day with Pocket photo, An album for your loving child, Use photos as Interior items, DIY invitations, When in need of ID photo and LG Pocket photo application.

source

Read more »

2 million Internet accounts on FB, Twitter and others was hacked

Does the password 123456 sound familiar? How about 1234, or maybe just ‘password’? If any of those ring a bell, then think about changing them.

Tucked away on a blog entry at Trustwave, a Chicago-based cybersecurity group, a couple days ago was the news that 2 million Internet accounts have been compromised via the so-called Pony botnet controller virus. That’s a type of spy and keylogging malware that was maliciously installed on computers globally.

Last June, SpiderLabs — Trustwave’s “elite team of ethical hackers” — revealed in a blog that some 650,000 website credentials had been stolen via Pony, version 1.9. The latest theft, described as much and less of a “hit-and-run” operation and more of a “stable and consistent operation”,  was laid out by SpiderLabs in a Tuesday blog posting.

Among the stats,1,580,000 website login credentials and 320,000 email credentials were stolen from a server they tracked to the Netherlands. They first detected that server on November 24. Here are some more numbers that show the domains and number of passwords stolen from each:

• Facebook  FB +0.37%318,121
• Yahoo y YHOO +0.39%59,549
• Google GOOG +0.36%54,437
• Twitter TWTR +0.26%21,708
• odnoklassniku.ru (Russian social network) 9,321
• LinkedIn LNKD +2.25%8,490
• ADP payroll service provider 7,798

As for the inclusion of ADP on that list, the Trustwave blog had this to say:

“It is only natural to have such domains in the mix, but it is surprising to see it ranked #9 on the top domains list. Facebook accounts are a nice catch for cyber criminals, but payroll service accounts could actually have direct financial repercussions,” said the blog.

Trustwave notified companies of the breach and ADP, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter told CNNMoney they notified and reset passwords for compromised users. Google declined to comment to CNN and Yahoo didn’t respond.

John Miller, a security research manager at Trustwave, told CNN that there’s “no evidence” that that hackers logged into accounts, “but they probably did.”

By location, the most compromised accounts appeared to be in the Netherlands — 1,828,452 passwords were stolen — followed by Thailand, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia and the United States — 1,943 passwords were stolen. But, (h/t to reader John Wentworth for outpointing) SpiderLabs said most of the entries from the Netherlands are “a single IP address that seems to have functioned as a gateway or reverse proxy between the infected machines and the Command-and-Control server, which resides in the Netherlands as well. ” This type of action makes it tough to learn about the targeted countries in the attack, said SpiderLabs.

CNNMoney said the hackers started collecting passwords on Oct. 21 and while Trustwave has located the Netherlands proxy server, Miller said several other servers that are similar haven’t been shut down yet.

The lesson here really is to task your brain with a tougher password. Trustwave also compiled a list of commonly the most compromised passwords on this particular hack attack.

1. 123456
2. 123456789
3. 1234
4. password
5. 12345
6. 12345678
7. admin
8. 124
9. 1
10. 111111

Separately, the experts at SpiderLabs said that back in 2006, 1.9% of passwords were five characters or small, and today that number has tripled to 6.6%, though most are within 6 to 9 characters. They were also encouraged to see that when compared with 2006, when only 17% had a password of 10 characters or longer, that percentage is all the way up to 46% for 2013.

Author Thoughts: " Getting money is not all a man's business. To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business life"

Read more »

New research aims to teach computers common sense

Researchers are trying to plant a digital seed for artificial intelligence by letting a massive computer system browse millions of pictures and decide for itself what they all mean.

The system at Carnegie Mellon University is called NEIL, short for Never Ending Image Learning. In mid-July, it began searching the Internet for images 24/7 and, in tiny steps, is deciding for itself how those images relate to each other. The goal is to recreate what we call common sense — the ability to learn things without being specifically taught.

It’s a new approach in the quest to solve computing’s Holy Grail: getting a machine to think on its own using a form of common sense. The project is being funded by Google and the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research.

“Any intelligent being needs to have common sense to make decisions,” said Abhinav Gupta, a professor in the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute.

NEIL uses advances in computer vision to analyze and identify the shapes and colors in pictures, but it is also slowly discovering connections between objects on its own. For example, the computers have figured out that zebras tend to be found in savannahs and that tigers look somewhat like zebras.

In just over four months, the network of 200 processors has identified 1,500 objects and 1,200 scenes and has connected the dots to make 2,500 associations.

Some of NEIL’s computer-generated associations are wrong, such as “rhino can be a kind of antelope,” while some are odd, such as “actor can be found in jail cell” or “news anchor can look similar to Barack Obama.”

But Gupta said having a computer make its own associations is an entirely different type of challenge than programming a supercomputer to do one thing very well, or fast. For example, in 1985, Carnegie Mellon researchers programmed a computer to play chess; 12 years later, a computer beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a match.

Catherine Havasi, an artificial intelligence expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said humans constantly make decisions using “this huge body of unspoken assumptions,” while computers don’t. She said humans can also quickly respond to some questions that would take a computer longer to figure out.

“Could a giraffe fit in your car?” she asked. “We’d have an answer, even though we haven’t thought about it” in the sense of calculating the giraffe’s body mass.

Robert Sloan, an expert on artificial intelligence and head of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said the NEIL approach could yield interesting results because just using language to teach a computer “has all sorts of problems unto itself.”

“What I would be especially impressed by is if they can consistently say ‘zebra, zebra, zebra’ if they see the animal in different locations,” Sloan said of the computers.

Gupta is pleased with the initial progress. In the future, NEIL will analyze vast numbers of YouTube videos to look for connections between objects.

“When we started the project, we were not sure it would work,” he said. “This is just the start.”

Neither Mountain View, California-based Google Inc. nor the Office of Naval Research responded to questions about why they’re funding NEIL, but there are some hints. The Naval Research website notes that “today’s battlespace environment is much more complex than in the past” and that “the rate at which data is arriving into the decision-making system is growing, while the number of humans available to convert the data to actionable intelligence is decreasing.”

In other words, computers may make some of the decisions in future wars. The Navy’s website notes: “In many operational scenarios, the human presence is not an option.”

NEIL’s motto is “I Crawl, I See, I Learn,” and the researchers hope to keep NEIL running forever. That means the computer might get a lot smarter.

Or it might not.

Read more »

Toshiba 9 Series TV

Toshiba 9 Series TV

Ultra-High Definition 4K is slowly working its way into more and more consumer tech, and Toshiba's shown its hand with the introduction of its Series 9 4K televisions. Pocket-lint went to check out the full range of the latest tellies, including the 58, 65, and flagship 84-inch behemoth.

There's something to be said for a super-massive TV. It's hard for it to not be eye-catching and the Toshiba 84-inch Series 9 on display was loaded with a mix of tailor-made 4K content - plus Square Enix's next-generation E3 2012 show-off showreel - to best effect to show brightness, colour and smooth motion. The 800 AMR (Active Motion & Resolution) system did show off the aforementioned Square Enix demo's high frame rate to quality effect - it was smooth throughout though with so much virtual camera movement that our close-up giant-screen immersive viewing experience almost made us feel giddy.

Eye-catching though those elements may be, but we did find there to be some obvious edge brightness from the edge-LED illumination which even in reasonably low light - but not total darkness - was clearly visible to our eyes. The angle of view also isn't substantial without showing off these light peaks yet further.

In another demo Toshiba presented its 58-inch Series 9 TV's 4K upscaling capabilities against a similar-equivalent 1080p panel from 2012. We were hoping for a lot more: the CEVO processing engine's upscaling of the John Carter trailer clip produced all jaggy-edges and the level of image noise was considerably more pronounced than in the 1080p version. The brightness might have been more considerable on the latest Series 9 4K panel, but with those other issues rearing their heads, and given that there's no native 4K content yet on the market, it sounds like a hard sell to us. We're hopeful that there are a mixture of pre-sets and adjustments within the set to tone down and adjust the way the upscaling is achieved will be available - but no word as yet.

We weren't able to see any 3D footage, but Toshiba's Series 9 sets support active shutter glasses technology for 3D display.

Another element Toshiba was keen to push was the introduction of its Cloud TV service, similar to that of, say, Panasonic's Home Screen concept in its 2013 TV range. The Toshiba concept merges apps, dynamic Twitter feeds, personalised logins, parental controls and even a cross-service search mechanism into the one interface.

All that may sound very swanky but - and just like all the other competitors' interfaces we've seen so far - we just can't ever imagine that we'd bother to use the TV to check out a hashtag trend or need to login to find out recommended personalised content. We're more inclined to flick the on switch, tap a button to change channel and enjoy the televised content beyond all the computing-like malarkey.

However the apps do come aplenty: Netflix, Vimeo, Blinkbox, iPlayer, Skype and plenty more big guns are on board which is a definite strong sign. There's no LoveFilm as yet, but that could be a future install.

A Rovi-powered search system is also included which will crunch through all the data that's available to the system - whether via Freeview, iPlayer and so forth - in order to bring up specific search terms. A grand idea, but if data can't be provided - say, from a Sky box via HDMI connection, or with a closed-application that doesn't provide metadata to the system - then some things will be missed out. So it could be good, or it could be entirely washy.

There's also multi-screen connectivity and display which is compatible with Android and iOS devices that will certainly have its uses - it can be used to see what's upcoming on Freeview, set a series to record, change channel and so forth, all from the comfort of your smart device without disruptive menu screens on the TV itself.

Design-wise the Series 9 4K range has a proportionally small-ish bezel, rounded edges and reasonably slim profile. It's by no means the slimmest screen nor smallest-bezel set out there, but it's a far cry from some of the chunky edges of Toshiba TVs of old. A step in the right direction for sure.

Available in the summer, we're yet to be told any of the Series 9 TV prices, beyond that they will be "announced nearer launch" and "competitive". If the Sony 84-inch 4K TV is currently £22,500 we think the Toshiba will need to undercut that price by a fair whack to get a look in.

source

Read more »

PH's Sikat II finishes 3rd in World Solar Challenge

PH's Sikat II finishes 3rd in World Solar Challenge

MANILA -- After traveling six days from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia, Sikat II finished third place in the Adventure Class of the recent 2013 World Solar Challenge (WSC).

Sikat II, the Philippines’ representative to the most prestigious solar car racing event, bested Hong Kong, Turkey, USA, and two teams from Japan by traveling a total of 2,487 solar kilometers.

A solar kilometer is the distance traveled by a vehicle relying solely on the sun’s energy.

Australia’s Aurora Evolution placed first, while Chile’s Antakari landed second place in the same category.

“I feel so proud of the Sikat Solar Team for their accomplishments in spite of the limited resources and their hectic schedules. All the sleepless nights paid off in the form their third place finish,” said Project Manager Richard Li in a statement.

Team manager Dr. Alvin Culaba attributed their success to the dedication of the people behind Sikat II.

“The race is more than getting to the finish line the fastest. The completion of this cross-continent journey is a demonstration of the team’s exemplary work ethic as well as their physical fitness and mental strength," he said.

Mechanical and electronics engineering students and faculty members from De La Salle University developed the Philippine solar car.

Sikat Solar Challenge Foundation, composed of representatives from First Phil Holdings, First Gen, Energy Development Corporation, Sunpower, Ufreight, Shell, and Motolite, supported the development of Sikat II.

Forty-two teams from 24 countries competed in three categories in the 2013 WSC.

source

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Mega

Samsung Galaxy Mega

Samsung’s newest GALAXY Mega delivers a mobile experience that is larger than life! By all intents and purposes, it is a smartphone, especially as it sits comfortably in your hand, but with its majestic wide screen, it looks and behaves like a tablet. Take full advantage of the Tablet UX without being burdened by its size. Plus, it comes chock full of smart services and enhanced connectivity that take this mobile to new heights! Fun, smart, and convenient, the functionality of the GALAXY Mega will fuel your mobile life! Maximize your mobile experience with GALAXY Mega!

USP1. Mega-Sized Portability

The majestically wide screen showcases your visual contents beautifully, while still being portable enough to take on the road with you. Enjoy all the capabilities of calling that are limited in the tablet form, plus enjoy a host of new features including the convenient Mega UX, which helps maximize productivity on the larger screen.

The Mega UX takes full advantage of the large display

Feast your eyes on this mobile’s mega-sized screen! The ideal viewing medium for photos and videos, the mobile remains optimally sized for portability as well as taking phone calls. The Mega UX takes full advantage of the large display, split view and multi window - especially while multi-tasking with Dual View. See more of your mobile world with Samsung’s GALAXY Mega!

※ Multi window available app list (16 ea) : Contact, S memo, Polaris Office,Youtube, Maps, Gallery, Video Player(TBD), Browser, Chrome, Email, Gmail. Facebook, Message, ChatON, Gtalk, Kakaotalk

Fun, Smart and Convenient

With smart functions and services, this mobile comes in handy in any occasion. Traveling to a new place? Receive geographic info for restaurant recommendations or sites to see. The mobile also features various camera modes for fun picture taking. Additionally, GALAXY Mega offers other valuable services including translation so you can communicate internationally without language barriers, or voice commands for use while driving. Smart solutions for your mobile life!

More Ways to Connect and Share

Stay connected in today’s super connected world. Samsung’s GALAXY Mega keeps you interacted, with your friends, interest groups and more - whether you’re sharing content with friends over Wi-Fi, checking what’s on TV (Samsung WatchON), instant messaging on ChatON. With this mobile, you’re mobile reach is wider and more powerful than ever!

source

Read more »