You probably only read Consumer Reports if a) you are at your grandparents house or b) you are a grandparent yourself. But that’s too bad, because tucked quietly away in the NYC suburb of Yonkers lies one of the biggest and best electronics testing labs money can buy. And what goes on here at Consumer Reports main test facility probably puts most other tech pubs to shame.
We got a chance to look at all of the top dollar gear used to put everything found in CR’s electronics pages in a complete vacuum of testing, basically removing every possible outside variable to test the pure hardware performance. That means anechoic chambers built on their own foundation (at a cost of $2.5 million in 1980) for total sound isolation; industrial-quality cell tower base station generators inside fully RF-shielded rooms that can crank out every possible mobile phone frequency at any strength; a “head and torso simulator” named Pedro, able to be calibrated down to the millimeter for testing every aspect of cellphone call quality possible, and a nameless human finger simulator composed of, well, meat (in action below as well). See our captioned gallery for a closer look:
Unfortunately, what makes CR so exemplary as a reliable testing lab also contribute to its fate to be found mostly on grandmother’s end table next to the bowl of fossilized peppermints. As a non-profit organization, CR doesn’t sell any advertising to anyone, anywhere, nor do they accept any review units or advance loaners from the company—everything they test, from a new BMW to an electric toothbrush, they buy.
While that means employees get pretty sick re-sale discounts on new cars every year, it also means CR is fighting an eternally uphill battle vs. the other tech pubs that don’t keep such high standards, and that CR must keep all of its online content walled within a pay site for subscribers only. The subscribers it has are among the most loyal of any magazine, but the vast majority of them are older.
(The aforementioned human finger simulator gets put to the test on a mower that CR’s resident high-RPM blade expert refers to as “the most dangerous thing i’ve ever tested.” - video edited by BBG)
And due to the natural constraints of a magazine with no ads, the mountains of test data gathered for any particular product end up truncated and distilled into CR’s famous comparative charts, where their scores are rendered in linearly receding bars and crimson doughnut dots. CR’s benchmarks are designed to place all new products on a relative continuum, rating them “fair” to “excellent” in comparison to how products over the last several years have fared with the same rigorously standardized tests. But a problem there, obviously, is that often it looks like CR loves just about everything—this year’s television are naturally going to present marked improvements over what’s been available over the last few years, which tends to stretch the data toward the good end. Kind of like how you have to search forever find a review on CNET with a score of less than 7.0.
Such are the dilemmas of serious hardware testing that makes any type of claims towards ultimate authoritativeness. But it’s also the reason why the old bound volumes of Consumer Reports are the most well-worn volumes in the periodicals room of the public library where I used to work. The data is there, and it’s rock solid. Taking a tour of their labs and meeting the engineers that do the work, it’s immediately apparent that what goes on in Yonkers is among the more vigorous and pure analysis of technology being done by anyone, anywhere.
After all, don’t you just have to trust folks who keep this poster hanging above their main laptop test bench?
Dear Phoenix lander, you always find new ways to both delight and torture us. We listened anxiously for your updates about the weather on Mars, watched you “think” your way out of nearly fatal situations, and marveled at your liquid discoveries. It seems like only yesterday we were preparing for your send off. And what new violence is this you’re doing upon our souls? Oh, that’s right: you’re dying. Not shutting down. Dying. Not quickly, either. And you’re going to suffer from what is essentially a NASA-induced nightmare terminal case of Alzheimer’s now, too. As early as tonight, the NASA team will upload repeating commands designed to “wring a few additional weather measurements” out of Phoenix by placing it in “terminal science mode,” meaning that the lander will repeat the same sequence of actions over and over again, every day before shutting down for 19 hours. The team has also discovered that the craft is now unable to fully recharge its batteries, causing it to lose its memory each night when it shuts down. So the lander wakes up in the morning, does some science, goes to sleep, wakes up again, doesn’t remember a thing, does some science… oh, you get the idea. The Phoenix team doesn’t know how much longer the lander is going to survive, but they indicated that it could be “several weeks.” Please, just let the pain end. Hit the read link for the long, sad story.
At long last, Virgin America is finally bringing in-flight wireless internet access to its flights. On November 22, a beta flight above San Francisco will be the first to test the service, with it then rolling out to more flights after that at a rate of one per week. The plan is to have Wi-Fi available throughout the entire fleet by early next year, making it the first US carrier to do so. There’s no word on whether or not the service will be filtered for porn. Update: They will not be filtering their Wi-Fi. Solo mile high club, here I come! [Virgin America via PSFK]
While AT&T U-Verse lags far, far behind Verizon FIOS in the insane bandwidth race, the boost to 18Mbps downstream for the top tier U-Verse package that starts Nov. 9 nearly doubles the relatively pokey 10Mbps they offered. To put it in perspective though, Verizon has an upstream package that still goes faster than that. And they don’t have those pesky caps looming, either.
AT&T CUSTOMERS CONNECT FASTER WITH NEW 18 MBPS U-VERSE HIGH SPEED INTERNET SERVICE
AT&T Offers More Speed, More Choices With Its Fastest Broadband Service Ever
DALLAS, Nov. 6, 2008 — For millions of consumers with a need for more speed, the broadband choices just got better. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will launch AT&T U-verseSM High Speed Internet Max 18 on Nov. 9, offering speeds of up to 18 Mbps downstream. Exclusively available for AT&T U-verse TV customers, Max 18 is the fastest high speed Internet package available from the nation’s leading provider of broadband services.
In addition to more speed, U-verse Internet customers have the freedom to enjoy their broadband connection in more places — all at no extra cost. All U-verse Internet customers receive access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network with free connectivity at more than 17,000 AT&T Wi-FiSM hot spots. Wireless home networking is also included.
“With our new Max 18 service, customers get another way to stay connected faster,” said Ralph de la Vega, chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet offers fast speeds, at home and on the go with free Wi-Fi, and as part of an integrated quad-play bundle. Max 18 is another way we’re using our U-verse network to provide customers with more choices and innovative services.”
AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet Max 18 will be available to eligible residential customers for $65 a month as part of a bundle with AT&T U-verse TV. Professional installation is included for new U-verse TV customers, and eligible existing U-verse Internet customers can upgrade their package at any time without additional installation costs or appointments.
The introduction of Max 18 arrives at the perfect time for consumers who are going online for their holiday shopping, purchasing home services to accompany new electronics gifts and planning holiday travel.
AT&T’s Internet Protocol (IP)-based network provides customers who bundle U-verse services with advanced, integrated capabilities. For example, U-verse TV and Internet customers have the ability to program their digital video recorder (DVR) while away from home using a PC or wireless device; personalize AT&T U-bar to display customized weather, sports and stock information on their U-verse TV screen; and browse their online photos on a personal U-verse TV channel. AT&T U-verse TV ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction in the North Central, South, and West Regions,” according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction StudySM.
AT&T is the nation’s largest provider of broadband service, with 14.8 million broadband lines in service as of the third quarter of 2008. AT&T U-verse services are available to millions of homes across 15 states.
For additional information on AT&T U-verse — or to find out if it’s available in your area — visit http://uverse.att.com or call 800-ATT-2020.
We hate to tempt you with UK-only products, but the Sony Ericsson Wireless Home Audio System was just too tempting to pass up. Featuring a monochrome OLED display with touch controls, the system can sync with select Sony Ericsson products to stream Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP. In other words, it can play your phone’s music while the cellphone works as a remote.
To get a better sense of scale, the systems’s diameter is just shy of eight inches. It packs a 2.1 speaker system (2×10W and 20W subwoofer) that can play audio from FM or 3.5mm jack when your phone isn’t around. It also doubles as a speaker phone that auto-mutes as calls come in.
There’s no price yet, but you can look to import the MBS-900 early next year. And if you’re interested in more UK-only gear, hit up Sony Ericsson to read about the new W705 Walkman phone. [Sony Ericsson via engadget]
We hate to tempt you with UK-only products, but the Sony Ericsson Wireless Home Audio System was just too tempting to pass up. Featuring a monochrome OLED display with touch controls, the system can sync with select Sony Ericsson products to stream Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP. In other words, it can play your phone’s music while the cellphone works as a remote.
To get a better sense of scale, the systems’s diameter is just shy of eight inches. It packs a 2.1 speaker system (2×10W and 20W subwoofer) that can play audio from FM or 3.5mm jack when your phone isn’t around. It also doubles as a speaker phone that auto-mutes as calls come in.
There’s no price yet, but you can look to import the MBS-900 early next year. And if you’re interested in more UK-only gear, hit up Sony Ericsson to read about the new W705 Walkman phone. [Sony Ericsson via engadget]
Toys ‘R’ Us, the primary provisioner of joy and happiness to children in the world, is branching out into iPods and Eee PCs. Though never a stranger to consumer electronics, Toys ‘R’ Us has traditionally shied away from strict gadgetry — with a notable exception being Zune sales starting last year. Now the retailer will be offering iPods in a little “iPod boutique,” with various shuffles, nanos, touches and related accessories to help you fill those stockings and bolster Geoffrey’s bottom line. The Eee PC will be offered in black and white, with low-end 7-inch Linux and XP versions available for $269 and $299, respectively.
The Economist has a great piece about researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a digital cinema projector that uses lasers as the main display technology. In doing so, these projectors are able to display a staggering 80 percent of the color range visible to the human eye. Previously, the 60 percent range that 35mm film offered was considered the benchmark for other projectors and displays to measure themselves up against.
In the past, laser projectors were never considered because lasers would produce speckle in the picture, thus reducing picture sharpness. But what researchers have done is combine separate red, blue and green lasers together with DLP technology to produce a clear picture. By melding the separate lasers together to produce a white laser, then having the DLP break it back part into RGB pixels, each laser cancels out the speckle created by the others.
Not only that, but in theory, by increasing the intensity of the lasers, these new projectors could theoretically display 90% of the visible color range while still using 35 percent less power than a xenon lamp projector. The only issue now for the budding technology is the initial cost. Considering lasers last much longer than Xenon lamps and movie houses can ditch film without sacrificing picture quality, these laser projectors should be an enticing option. [The Economist]
LG may not have strayed to far from the outward appearance of the XNOTE P300 with its new P310 model, but it looks to have given the “premium” laptop a decent enough upgrade under the hood, with it now finally getting bumped up to the Centrino 2 platform. That upgrade also includes a speedier 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo T9400 processor, 3GB of DDR3 memory, 2GB of Intel Turbo Memory a 320GB hard drive, and some decent enough NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics, not to mention the same LED-backlit 13.3-inch display as before. No word on a price just yet, but we’re guessing it won’t be too far off the €1,599 (or just over $2,000) its predecessor demanded.
In an apparent effort to move every last unit before ASUS drops a $200 Eee PC in 2009, Best Buy has knocked $50 off of MSI’s 10-inch Wind U100. The Atom N270-powered netbook now checks in at just $349, a price that just seems to fit so much better with the term “netbook” than, say, $500+. The real question, however, is: three fifty low enough for you?
You probably only read Consumer Reports if a) you are at your grandparents house or b) you are a grandparent yourself. But that’s too bad, because tucked quietly away in the NYC suburb of Yonkers lies one of the biggest and best electronics testing labs money can buy. And what goes on here at Consumer Reports main test facility probably puts most other tech pubs to shame.
At long last, Virgin America is finally bringing 
While AT&T U-Verse lags 
We hate to tempt you with UK-only products, but the Sony Ericsson Wireless Home Audio System was just too tempting to pass up. Featuring a monochrome OLED display with touch controls, the system can sync with select Sony Ericsson products to stream Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP. In other words, it can play your phone’s music while the cellphone works as a remote.
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