News Archive for 09/01/10

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Sony MDR-XB and Speakers

01/10, 2:35pm

Sony shows bass-heavy earphones, PC speakers

One of the final components of Sony's CES 2009 launches includes sweeping changes to its digital audio offerings, starting with its headphones. The MDR-XB series is the company's first to stress bass and contain drivers skewed towards dance and urban music. Three earcup models, the XB300, XB500 and XB700, have drivers between 30mm and 50mm in size and are cushioned for long listening sessions. The XB20EX and XB40EX are in-ear models and contain drivers between 9mm and 13.5mm.

Sharp iPod and sound bars

01/10, 1:30pm

Sharp intros three iPod docks, 2.1 sound bars

Sharp's CES introductions have continued with a major expansion of its iPod speaker dock line as well as two new 2.1-channel sound bars for home theaters. The DK-AP7N (not yet shown) is a folding yet subwoofer-equipped dock tailored both to listening to iPods and home as well as travel use; battery power lets it play sound for up to five hours before returning to an AC adapter. The stereo has DSP hardware that theoretically improves the quality of compressed audio as well as video out for supporting iPods.

Sony iPod Speakers 2009

01/10, 1:00pm

Sony launches '09 iPhone-, iPod-specific speakers

As part of its larger CES campaign, Sony has upgraded its iPhone and iPod audio line with several new audio systems. The LBT-ZX99i and LBT-ZX66i (shown) Muteki systems upgrade older models and are geared to playing iPhone or iPod music loud and for gaming thanks to higher-powered speakers and a new Game Sync Mixing mode. As the starter model, the ZX66i still outputs 560W with four hybrid mid-range/subwoofer units and dual tweeters; the ZX99i expands to 720W with larger woofers and tweeters.

Fuel cells reach consumers

01/10, 11:30am

Two firms announce competing fuel cell phone chargers

Long-awaited fuel cell technology is about to reach consumers, and two companies are showing off competing technologies at CES. Medis Technologies is using alkaline technology in its squeeze-to-activate power packs, while Horizon Fuel Cell Tehnology is using compact hydrogen-based cylinders about the size of conventional flashlight batteries.

Z.buds: no more tangles

01/10, 8:50am

Z.buds tangle-resistant iPhone earbuds/mic [video]

Designers at Zagg audio think they've found a niche in the crowded market for iPhone earbuds: eliminating tangles. Z.buds are equipped with stiffer, yet sturdier nylon cables that are not likely to bunch together into a tangled mess, the company says. A quick hands-on demo at CES shows the technology does appear to work -- the Z.buds were hard to tangle even when wadded up.

iPhone runs Windows

01/10, 3:10am

Citrix shows Windows on iPhone at Macworld [video]

Developers at Citrix have been doing some guerilla marketing at Macworld Expo, holding impromptu demonstrations of forthcoming app allowing iPhone users to run Windows. The app is actually an iphone version of the company's XenDesktop thin client software. The virtualization software supports most Windows XP and Vista applications.