YugaTech | Philippines, Technology News & Reviews » Tech Toys & Gadgets

JBL MX100: iPod Dock and CD Player System

yuga — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:41:48 +0000

This has been in the box for about a week now and I’ve only gotten the chance to do the un-boxing today (lots of other stuff in the line to unbox around here). First up is this JBL MX100 which is a stereo system with an iPod Dock and a CD player in tow. See our unboxing photos after the jump.

The JBL MX100 is one big-ass iPod Dock (I mean it’s an 18-lbs gorilla of a music system). It’s got 2 integrated speakers, each with 30-watt power rating. All I can say for now is that it’s pretty loud.

Aside from an iPod Dock which plugs in from the bottom left side (see photo), it’s got a CD player that supports CD-RW and an FM Tuner. There’s TV output via S-video and composite so if your iPod if iPhone 3G plays a movie, you can view it from a TV connected to the dock. It also comes with a remote that not only controls the sound system but also the playback of the docked iPod.

Will have to do some more testing before I can get the full review out but if you’re interested in this system, be prepared to shell out Php34,990.

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Archos 5 Internet Tablet

yuga — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:50:44 +0000

To many, it’s still unclear how the internet tablet fits in the scheme of things but I think it will be going in the same direction as the popular iPod Touch. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet should fit the bill.

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet has some pretty nice specs:

4.8” TFT LCD @ 800×480 pixel resolution
8 – 32 GB Flash Memory + microSD card expansion
160 – 500GB HDD option
720p HD movie playback
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.0
FM receiver
FM transmitter

Of course, there’s a built-in web browser for internet surfing, an email client, IM and DailyMotion.

Supported video formats include MPEG-4, H.264, MKV, WMV and M-JPEG. Photo viewer support JPEG, GIF, BMP and PNG while audio formats include MP3, AAC, WMA, AAC, Flac and Ogg Vorbis. There are optional snap-on devices for audio/video recording as well as a TV tuner.

The flash model is as thin as 10.4mm while the HDD model is 20mm thick. Music playback time is 22 hours on a single charge and 7 hours to play videos. Retails for around $300 at Amazon.

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Nook eReader: Barne’s & Noble Kindle-Killer

yuga — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:31:12 +0000

The Kindle has a brand new rival — Barne’s and Noble introduced the Nook e-Reader to compete with Amazon. At $259, it’s priced competitively too.

The Nook comes pre-installed with Google Android OS and will comes with a 3G SIM from AT&T.

Aside from that, there’s also a built-in WiFi. Internal storage is just 2GB but that can be bumped to 16GB via microSD card. Display is also 6″ just like the Kindle.

Amazon quickly responded and gave back $20 in rebates to all those who ordered the International version of the Kindle. It’s now just $259 too. Let’s not forget Sony has its own line of eReaders too.

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Will WiFi Direct kill Bluetooth?

yuga — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:15:14 +0000

Last week, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced Wi-Fi Direct — a peer-to-peer wireless networking method that could replace what we commonly know today as Ad Hoc networking mode.

With Ad Hoc, we can usually share internet connection of one computer to other computers thru the built-in WiFi. One such example is our tutorial here — How to share 3G Internet over WiFi.

The new protocol (Wi-Fi Direct) will allow any device that implements the standard to connect directly to another device to send and receive data. It feels like the standard it gunning at Bluetooth. Imagine being able to share the internet connection of your mobile phone to all other devices via WiFi? You can also transfer files at the same time.

If Bluetooth has a normal transfer rate of about 2Mbps, WiFi Direct could reach 54Mbps or even higher. On top of that, wireless connections can go even further, in the hundreds of meters perhaps. Only drawback could be the amount of power it consumes compared to running Bluetooth.

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Zune HD Review

yuga — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:19:20 +0000

Microsoft’s new Zune HD is slowly becoming a solid competitor to the widely popular iPod Touch and while already in it’s 2nd generation, the Zune HD is still playing catch-up.

The weight and dimension of the Zune HD is just right. Out of the box, the Zune HD is pretty slim and light (40% lighter than the iPod Touch) with a glass front panel coupled with a single slender button at the bottom.

At the back is an aluminum plate, in brushed-metal finish, tucked with exposed screws. The construction is pretty solid and the design is more skewed to edge corners rather than curvy ones.

The navigation is really neat and fluid but needs some time to get used to. Instead of icons, the menu is composed of enlarged texts and some visualization. Playback controls appear with a single tap but you can play forward and back with a (horizontal) flick of a finger. Instead of a timeline, fast-forward control is activated with a sustained tap. Likewise, the volume can be controlled by tapping or flicking the screen up or down.

It’s got something going on with a number of pretty nice features the iPod Touch doesn’t have:

OLED Screen + HD Video-Out: Being able to output 720p resolution to your HDTV is a neat advantage. And OLEDs have better color range and viewing angle. True enough, the display doesn’t bend to a bluish haze when viewed at an angle (near the 180-degree angle).

HD Radio: Despite the very few HD radio stations here in the Philippines, the Zune’s HD Radio can pick up a wide range of FM stations at SD. Apple says they don’t want to put an FM radio tuner on the iPod Touch because they’re positioning it as a gaming device.

Wireless Sync: USB cable missing? The Zune can transfer and sync media files from your laptop or PC over WiFi. (If only it can also charge the battery wirelessly.)

Did I say the capacitive screen is multi-touch too — so the pinch, flick and other multi-gesture functions are there. Very handy when navigating the built-in web browser. The touchscreen is very responsive and snappy that it’s indistinguishable with the iPod Touch.

For those curious how the Zune HD fares against the iPod Touch in terms of specs, see comparative chart below:

As for sound quality, the Zune HD has a nice volume range while the bass is more solid and sounded fuller. The earphones that came with it is decent and though it’s not impressive, I thought it was better than iPod earphones. When used with an in-ear earphones (SoundMagic PL11), the audio quality (especially the bass) is even more prominent. What I appreciated with the basic Zune earphones is the length of the cord (about 1.5 meters).

Video playback is smooth and crisp. Jumping from video to video or forwarding clips is snappy with no noticeable lags. The display brightness needs to be put in the “high” setting in order to appreciate the video experience. I didn’t have the AV dock so I wasn’t able to test how the 720p output fares when hooked up to an HDTV.

The Zune HD is not without its shortcomings. There are a number of things I thought that needed improvements:

External Speakers: As a PMP, I thought the Zune HD needs to have some external speakers. It’s not a big deal though but I expect Microsoft to add this feature in the upcoming models.

Improved Browser Functions: While the multi-touch gesture really made the browsing experience with the Zune HD very comfortable, the lack of basic features gave the impression that the browser is crippled. No bookmark management, no tabbed browsing, not even browser options. The browser cannot even render videos from YouTube.com (no Flash plugin).

App Marketplace: There were less than 10 apps that I was able to download from the Zune Marketplace — this is the biggest disappointment so far. I was expecting a bit more — not even apps for Twitter or Facebook.

What’s most interesting with the Zune HD is that it was priced by Microsoft very competitively. At about Php10,500 (see here) for the 16GB model, it’s very near the price of a 16GB iPod Nano and cheaper than the 8GB iPod Touch. Now there’s your value for money.

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PowerMat demos Wireless Charging of iPhone

yuga — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:43:08 +0000

In the very near future, we’ll be seeing more of these wireless, inductive chargers like this PowerMat. See video demo after the jump.

Hat tip to b3bang.

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Amazon to ship Kindle to the Philippines

yuga — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:01:07 +0000

Amazon has just announced it will make the Kindle available world wide with an international shipping to over 100 countries, including the Philippines.

The Amazon Kindle (the 6″ international GSM version) will retail for $279 or just over Php13,000 at current exchange rates. Of course, this does not include customs and other taxes.

For the Philippines, it will be available for shipment on October 19 but you can pre-order it now.

The map below shows 3G (dark purple) and EDGE/GPRS (light purple) coverage for the Philippines. Accessing this network via the Kindle will be free. There are no monthly fees too. However, subscription for blogs and the experimental browser is not available in the Philippines.

This also means you can now download and buy the ebooks (over 290,000 of them) plus US magazines and international newspapers even if you don’t have any US-based credit card.

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FiiO Headphone Amplifiers

yuga — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:51:32 +0000

I’m not really good with auditory perceptions so when I was asked to check out these heaphone amplifiers by FiiO (fee-yo), I was a little hesitant because I thought I’d need a good set of ears to figure out the difference.

To those who are a bit particular with the sound quality of their headphones or music players, FiiO amps are supposed to help increase the volume and over-all audio quality.

The amps are small devices that goes between your media player and your headphones. There’s a TI (Texas Instruments) chip inside that processes the signal to give it a boost and make the output better.

What I did was hook up my Zune HD to an X-Mini (at 50% system volume) and record it on Audacity using a Samsun CU10 USB microphone (at a distance of 1ft). I did the same thing with the FiiO attached to it. Check out the graph from Audacity below.

The wave signature on top is the normal one and the one at the bottom uses the FiiO.

There’s a noticeable improvement in the sound quality especially with the bass while over-all volume has also increased. Listen for yourself:

Pretty interesting device that’s targeted to a niche market (audiophiles). The FiiO E3 is the smaller one (has a AAA battery inside) and costs Php500 while the FiiO E5 (the Shuffle-like one) has a Li-IOn battery inside, separate volume control and bass boost switch (retails for Php1,200). If interested, contact Tabby Tiu of Tiukung Enterprises (fiiodealer@yahoo.com.ph or 0922-5186266).

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Zune HD in the flesh, unboxed

yuga — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:53:52 +0000

The Microsoft Zune HD that I ordered from Amazon just arrived and it’s pretty cool so far. This is probably the very first one to arrive here in the Philippines. Check out some unboxing photos after the jump.

I got the black 16GB model which is priced at $219.99 at Amazon (that’s about Php10,500 at 48:1 exchange rate). I also paid under Php900 for the shipping from my USMailBox address in the US to the Philippines. That’s a total of under Php11,400 (similar to the price of an iPod Touch 8GB).

Full review to follow.

Note: If you’re looking into getting some affordable shipping (with a US postal address) to the Philippines, I use MyUSMailBox. Email them at sales@myusmailbox.com and mention YugaTech to get a 3-month free trial (that’s Php600/month waived membership fee). This is what I used for ordering the Zune HD.

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LTO to implement RFID tags on motor vehicles

yuga — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:12:22 +0000

News about the Land Transportation Office (LTO) implementing RFID tagging on all motor vehicles this October has been making the rounds of the evening news today.

When I first heard about it on the car’s radio, I was surprised — wow, the LTO is going hi-tech. That should be nice. However, some sectors are blocking this move claiming privacy issues.

Nevertheless, from a technical point of view, I think this move by LTO offers more advantages than disadvantages.

This technology is not really new to Philippine highways. The ePass that thousands of cars use to drive thru tollways (NLEX and SLEX) is powered by RFID.

This October 2009, the Department of Foreign Affairs will also implement RFID on all new Passports (ePassport). If you renew your old green passport, it will be replaced with a brown RFID-tagged passport.

Private schools are already using RFID in student IDs for borrowing books and also gates in the campus have RFID ID Scanners (e.g. Claret School of Quezon City and Colegio de San Juan de Letran).

The clothes that you buy in Bench and other apparel stores are also tagged with RFIDs. Those steel gates at the entrance serve as an RFID scanner.

If the same technology is used for all registered cars, it could be a convenience in so many ways:

Renewals of vehicle registration could be made faster/easier.
It could also be used to easily identify stolen vehicles.
All cars can be readily equipped with ePass too — the lines would be faster at the toll gates especially during peak hours. This can also be implemented in parking lots too.
No need to go to LTO to pay traffic violations. Your RFID could be charged directly (contactless payment) after citation — no more confiscation of driver’s license. That could practically eradicate kotong (what’s the English equivalent?) since traffic cops can no longer blackmail you into going to a 3-day driving seminar in exchange for a small tip.

RFID works like a short-distance radio signal, normally around 10 feet or 3 meters. As such, it cannot be efficiently used to track objects the way GPS can. The issue about privacy is a legitimate concern though.

I still think it’s a good move, though. From reports I’ve heard, the tags will cost motorists around Php400 a pop. I thought that’s a bit expensive since RFID tags are really cheap nowadays.

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Microsoft’s Courier is a Foldable Tablet

yuga — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:34:22 +0000

Looks like Microsoft is in its later stage of development of a foldable tablet PC called Courier. Gizmodo has the scoop on a set of photos and demo video.

It’s still hush-hush so there’s not a lot of details on this product. Some even hinted this could be vaporware. See demo video below.

In any case, this looks really cool.

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Cruising with the Honda Jazz

yuga — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:41:53 +0000

When I was asked to bring home a Honda Jazz and take it for a spin in the next couple of weeks, I thought I should start creating a car or automotive category.

But then again, I am no car expert. So if ever my review comes out at the end of the month, it should be from a point of view of a regular or newbie driver.

I thought of doing some sort of an unboxing post by wrapping the car in a dozen makeshift balikbayan boxes but decided against it for environmental reasons.

This entry is just a sort of fair warning to my regular readers here that some time in the near future, they might bump into a lousy review of a Honda Jazz in this blog. But hey, cars are like tech toys for the big boys (that’s why this is under the Tech Toys and Gadgets category). My biggest problem so far is finding it a regular and safe parking slot.

Anyway, the photos here are of an Alabaster Silver Honda Jazz 1.3 5-speed AT. This 5-door hatchback costs about Php760,000.

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Edimax NS-2502 SATA NAS Server

yuga — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:58:53 +0000

If you’re looking into some home network storage and is always craving for more space, check out this dual-bay Gigabit NAS Server from Edimax.

Been looking for some network storage solution for some time now but since I already got an external HDD, an Apple TV and HDX 1000 NMT (that’s a total of 1.5TB of storage), I never found any more use for a NAS.

However, the Edimax NS-2502 SATA NAS Server some some pretty nifty features that’s making me reconsider. Not only is it a network storage device, it’s also an iTunes Server, Media Server and BitTorrent client. That means you can download your torrents directly into the server without the need for a computer.

The NS-2502 has two drive bays so you can get as much as 4 terabytes (2×2TB) in there. The NAS hooks up to your router via RJ45 (LAN cable). The device can be managed via the browser in a password-protected local IP.

It also comes with a USB port in the front so you can actually attach another USB device there and copy the entire contents into the NAS with a single push of the button. It supports a number of file formats –CIFS, NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, ext2, ext3 file systems.

The NAS isn’t cheap by any means and retails for about Php7,350 without the HDD.

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The 500GB Freecom ToughDrive

yuga — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:16:46 +0000

Portable hard disk drives have reached half a terabyte these days and this Freecom ToughDrive 500GB isn’t only big in capacity, it’s also tough and ruggedized.

This 2.5″ mobile hard drive is encased in tough plastic mold and rubber (silicone) so it’s pretty well protected from bumps and even long drops (I think the plastic end might suffer from cracks if that ever happens). Freecom claims it can withstand drops of up to 2 meters.

The attached USB 2.0 cord is also covered in soft rubber and can be tucked/concealed into the drive’s side. The hard disk drive itself is manufactured by Samsung (total capacity is 499+GB so computation is on base 10 instead of the previous base 2). Also comes with a USB cable extender.

An NTI Shadow backup software is included and there’s built-in password protection too. This one retails for about Php5,530 in stores for the 500GB model.

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Sony unveils new wireless e-Book Readers

yuga — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:48:30 +0000

This is not the first time Sony introduced an eBook reader in the market but because of the Amazon Kindle’s relative success in the US, the Japanese company is putting back its weight in.

Three e-book readers were announced earlier today (although one is still labeled coming soon).

The smallest one (the Pocket Edition) has a 5-inch display with 512MB of internal memory and weighs just over 200grams. It can virtually carry 7,500 pages of e-books and has a price of $199.

The Touch Edition has a display screen of 6 inches, still 512MB of internal memory but can be expanded with a Memory Stick Pro Duo SD card. It also sports a touchscreen, audio player and picture viewer. Weighs about 280 grams and costs $299.

The 3rd one, to be released later in the year is the Reader Daily Edition — a 7-inch screen with 3G wireless and to cost $399.

The Kindle and Kindle DX has some pretty good competition now.

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Asus uBoom and uBoom Q Speakers

yuga — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:30:01 +0000

Asus is making a lot of stuff nowadays but this would be the first time it’s entering the multimedia speaker category. The Asus uBoom sound-bar speaker series was announced last week.

The first one, an Asus uBoom, is huge and weighs at about 3kg and almost 2 feet long. Total power output is 24watts (rms) and plugs in via USB.

The second one is much smaller at under a foot and weighs about 0.4kg with a power output of just 2.4watts. Both speakers connect via USB 2.0 to a laptop/notebook and also charges it at the same time so there’s no need for a separate power cable.

No details on the price or release date yet.

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Zune HD now on Pre-Order at Amazon

yuga — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:45:29 +0000

The new Zune HD will start shipping on September 15, 2009 and is now ready for pre-order at Amazon for just $219.99 (~Php10,500).

I just pre-ordered one today at Amazon. Hopefully, it will arrive here before end of that month.

The Zune HD comes in 16GB ($219.99) and 32GB ($289.99) models. Some feature highlights:

Touchscreen – the Zune HD has multi-touch navigation, a 3.3-inch screen and 16:9 OLED display (480×272 pixel resolution) screen.

HD Radio – the Zune will have an integrated HD Radio receiver so you can tune in to HD radio content (too bad we ain’t got one in the Philippines).

HD Video Out – it will support 720p HD movies via the AV Dock (dock sold separately). Downscaled to 480×272 on the player.

WiFi – synchronize your song collection wirelessly or stream music over WiFi. Also has a full web browser for surfing.

Available colors in black and platinum.

Note: If you’re looking into getting some affordable shipping (with a US postal address) to the Philippines, I use MyUSMailBox. Email them at sales@myusmailbox.com and mention YugaTech to get a 3-month free trial (that’s Php600/month waived membership fee).

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Cheaper Sony PlayStation 3 Slim announced

yuga — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:23:15 +0000

The original PlayStation 3 was way too expensive when it first came out. That’s probably one of the main reasons why it lagged behind the Nintendo Wii and the XBox 360 in sales. So Sony has come up with a newer but cheaper one — the PlayStation 3 Slim.

My guess is that it won’t be officially released in the Philippines (just like its predecessor) but that should not stop anybody from getting one in the grey market when it comes out this September.

The new PlayStation 3 Slim is 36% lighter and 33% smaller and best of all it will retail for just $299. Comes with a 120GB HDD and WiFi. Will be out worldwide on September 1.

In the Philippines, the success of a gaming console highly depends on how much *cough* *hacked* titles are available in the market. Most of the consoles are already unlocked when you buy them in stores (GreenHills).

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