“Heavy DRM [sucks the very life out of an MP3 player]. Take, for instance, the critically acclaimed Creative Zen Vision:M, with a rated battery life of up to 14 hours for audio and 4 hours for video. CNET tested it at nearly 16 hours, with MP3s–impressive indeed. Upon playing back only WMA subscription tracks, the Vision:M scored at just more than 12 hours. That’s a loss of almost 4 hours, and you haven’t even turned the backlight on yet.
We found similar discrepancies with other PlaysForSure players. The Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder maxed out at 11 hours, but with DRM tracks, it played for less than 9 hours. The iRiver U10, with an astounding life of about 32 hours, came in at about 27 hours playing subscription tracks. Even the iPod, playing back only FairPlay AAC tracks, underperformed MP3s by about 8 percent.”
Tag: hardware
-
DRM drains the batteries of portable players
-
Olive OPUS
“The new OPUS combines the fidelity of a high-end CD player with the convenience of digital audio technology. The breathtaking audio fidelity is courtesy of a customized audio board with four 24-bit DACs and temperature-compensated crystal oscillator. Its innovation builds upon a 400GB hard drive that stores up to 1,100 of your CDs in lossless quality, allowing you to conveniently access all your favorite music.”
-
Tux-shaped computer runs Linux
“Acme Systems is shipping a Penguin-shaped case for a tiny SBC (single-board computer) powered by an innovative MCM (multi-chip module) that runs Linux. The 6.7-inch tall, 30-Euro “Tux Case” houses the company’s “Acme Fox,” a 2.6 x 2.8-inch, 100-Euro, RISC-based board with Ethernet and dual-USB interfaces, and surface-mount connectors for other I/O.”
-
Matchbox-sized Laser Projector With Infinite Focus
“LBO has developed unique laser-based projection technology, which uses computational algorithms and novel optical techniques to allow miniature lasers to display video images in real-time using the diffractive nature of laser light. This overcomes the size limitation of conventional projection techniques, allowing projectors to be smaller than ever before. Understand that there is no glass, no prisms, NO MOVING PARTS, and no need for fans to provide heat dissipation.”
Audioholics via Juha
-
ELP Laser Turntable
“Welcome to the online home of the Laser Turntable! This technological marvel plays vinyl records with master tape sound quality and no wear. The Laser Turntable is perfect for record collectors, archivists and vinyl enthusiasts alike.”
-
Hard Drive Dying Dance Track
“There were well more than 100 entries in this remix competition—and picking the winner was a tough tough decision. It’s clear that the challenge of making music based on the sound of Hitachi hard drives failing was as much a reason to take part as winning the Tokyoflash Equalizer watch.”
-
Sony Introduces Yet Another Flash Memory Format
“As if we didn’t have enough Micro and Mini cards running around, Sony introduces Memory Stick Micro[.]
The ‘M2’ media is approximately one-quarter the volume of ‘Memory Stick PRO Duo’ media, yet only about 1.2mm thick. ‘M2’ media is designed as an externally removable media with a controlled eject function to prevent users losing the media.”
DailyTech via Juha
-
AMD Duron Vaporizing
“They overclock a cpu over 4ghz, remove the heatsink, and boom! “Theres a hole in the motherboard!””
Google Video via Juha
-
iMac Core Duo Video Problems
“It seems like some of the new intel iMacs are showing some “Rev A” growing pains. Certain models are showing graphical errors during common tasks. The problem is most apparent when using Apple’s Front Row media browser. The problem renders Front Row is all but unusable due to constant video tearing, random horizontal lines, ghosting, and other graphical artifacts.”
ConsumerMachine via Juha
-
PC in a bottle
They used to hide bottles inside books once. Times sure have changed…
“I love to tinker with hardware etc. so I wanted to make something quite unique for a case. I have seen many nice and creative cases before but none of them were made out of a bottle. In November I bought an industrial 3.5” SBC board (with Socket370). For the project I selected a 1.5 litre Ballantine’s bottle for case. That was the proper size and shape for the task at hand.”
MetkuMods via Boing Boing
some links addedWonder who’ll be the first to combine this with the cooking oil cooled PC mod.
