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Category Archives: music players/speakers
Apple AirPods 2 Review: Is it worth upgrading or not?
Do you own Apple’s wildly popular AirPods true wireless Bluetooth buds? If you do, you are now on the horns of an upgrade dilemma: do you step-up to the company’s second generation AirPods 2 ($199)? At first glance, Apple’s AirPods augmentations … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, cell/smartphones, ear/headphones, Gear Brain, music players/speakers
Tagged AirPods, AirPods 2, Apple, Bluetooth, ear buds, earphones, headphones, iPhone, true wireless
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True Wireless Earbuds: AirPods and Alternatives
You may be excused if you thought that Apple’s AirPods are the first and only so-called “true wireless” earphones—completely cordless in-ear “buds” that connect both with each other and to your smartphone via Bluetooth—since their distinctive white sticks seem to … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, ear/headphones, music players/speakers, Sound & Vision
Tagged AirPods, Apple, BackBeat Fit 3100, BackFit, Bluetooth, Bolt BT700, ear buds, Earin, earphones, Edifier, Elite Active 65t, IQbuds, IQBuds Boost, Jabra, Momentum, Nuheara, Phiaton, Phiaton Bolt, Plantronics, Sennheiser, Sennheiser Momentum, Soul Emotion, true wireless
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12 Techiest Tech Toys from Toy Fair 2019 (Plus 1)
Amidst the usual multitude of plush toys, licensed action figures, toy, RC and ride-in/on vehicles, construction kits, books, games, and other indoor and outdoor playthings at Toy Fair 2019, taking place at New York City’s Javits Center this week, are … Continue reading
Posted in Gear Brain, music players/speakers, VR/AR
Tagged 2001: A Space Odyssey, Android, AR, Artie 3000, augmented reality, Carpool Karaoke, coding, Coding Critters, e-bike, HAL9000, Hidden Side, Karaoke, LeapFrog, LeapStart, Learning Resources, Lego, Mensa, PaiBotz, Professor Maxwell, robots, Rubik's Cube, Single Machine, Stanley Kubrick, STEAM, STEM, Toy Fair, virtual reality, VR
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A/V In ’18: 5 Foundational Changes & 11 Newsmakers
Traditionally, A/V product categories don’t tend to be very newsworthy outside of the latest updated versions of existing products and technologies. But 2018 unusually saw five major foundational changes in audio and video. See the rest of this 2019 recap … Continue reading
Posted in ear/headphones, IFA, music players/speakers, smart home, Tech History, TV/4K/UHD/8K, TWICE
Tagged 5G, 802.11ax, 8K, A/V, AR, ATSC 3.0, IMAX, IMAX Enhanced, LG, smart speakers, Sony, TCL, true wireless, VR, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6
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7 Companies That Owned The Smart Home Conversation In 2018
Two trends dominated the smart home category in 2018. On the product side, there is the growing battle for voice assistant ecosystem supremacy between Amazon and Google. Not only has there been hockey-stick growth in the number, as well as unit sales, … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, music players/speakers, smart home, TWICE
Tagged Amazon, Belkin, Control 4, Facebook, Lenovo, Ring, Sonos
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The Best Bluetooth Speakers
Bluetooth speakers come in all manner of sizes, shapes, colors and sound quality. So how do you choose which Bluetooth speaker makes sense for you? Much depends on where you’ll be listening and how much you want to pay. My … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, cell/smartphones, music players/speakers, Techlicious
Tagged Altec Lansing, Bluetooth, Bluetooth speakers, JBL, Marshall, Riva, Sbode, Sony
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The Best True-Wireless Earbuds
Wander around any urban center and you’ll spot a surfeit of the white stick Apple AirPods sticking out of people’s ears. They are the market leader in a new category of Bluetooth headphones dubbed “true wireless” because there is no … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, cell/smartphones, ear/headphones, music players/speakers
Tagged AirPods, ANC, Apple, Bragi, Dash Pro, ear buds, Earin, iPhone, IQbuds, Jabra, Mobvoi, Monoprice, noise canceling, Nuheara, Plantronics, Rowkin, Sennheiser, TicPod, true wireless
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Review: Riva Concert Takes On Sonos One
In the world of $200 Alexa-enabled smart speakers, everyone is competing with the acknowledged audio quality and multi-room king of this category, the Sonos One. The latest – and perhaps most worthy – contender is the new Riva Audio Concert ($199, due … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, Gear Brain, music players/speakers, smart home
Tagged Bluetooth, Bluetooth speakers, Riva, smart speakers, Sonos, Sonos One
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Review: Netgear Orbi Voice combines a router with a smart speaker
Merging two different devices into a single product is not usually a good idea. If something goes wrong with one — the entire item is useless. That’s something Netgear has avoided with the Orbi Voice, an Amazon Alexa-enabled smart speaker that … Continue reading
Posted in Gear Brain, Internet/Social Media, music players/speakers, smart home
Tagged Netgear, Orbi, Orbi Voice, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi mesh
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Flashback 1998: A Compressed History of the Digital Music Player
A momentous occasion in the evolution of recorded music occurred 20 years ago when a California district court ruled to allow the sale of a curious new portable music player in the face of opposition from the Recording Industry Association … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, music players/speakers, Tech History
Tagged Apple, Diamond Multimedia, digital music, iPod, iTunes, Jukebox MP3, MP3, MusicMatch, Rio PMP300, RioPort, Sonic Blue, Sony
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