It’s been right around a century since Intel has provided any sort of hard evidence that Larrabee (a next-gen hybrid CPU / GPU) was more than a figment of anyone’s imagination, but thanks to a die shot throw up Will Ferrell-style at the Visual Computing Institute of the Saarland University, we’d say the speculation is definitely back on. Intel’s Chief Technology Officer, Justin Rattner, was responsible for the demo, but when PC Perspective pinged the company to inquire further, it suggested that the image we see above may not necessarily be indicative of the final shipping product, but that Larrabee was “healthy and in [its] labs right now.” Sweet, so how’s about a date in which that statement changes to “in shipping machines right now?” Hmm?
The folks at Boston Dynamics have already made quite a name for themselves in the world of creepy robotics, but it looks like they’re not ones to keep all their know-how to themselves, and they’ve now lent the University of Pennsylvania’s Kod*lab a hand with this new RiSE V3 pole-climbing robot. That, as you’ve no doubt surmised, is a followup to RiSE V1 and V2, which were developed without the help of Boston Dynamics and were more suited to climbing flat surfaces than poles. In addition to a vastly different leg mechanism, this latest model also makes use of some brushless DC motors that increase the power density to let it climb poles at rates up to 22cm per second, which the researchers say make it well-suited for a wide range of tasks. As you can see for yourself in the video after the break, the bot mostly seems to work remarkably well, although it’s obviously not quite ready to tackle critical jobs all by itself just yet.
The folks at Boston Dynamics have already made quite a name for themselves in the world of creepy robotics, but it looks like they’re not ones to keep all their know-how to themselves, and they’ve now lent the University of Pennsylvania’s Kod*lab a hand with this new RiSE V3 pole-climbing robot. That, as you’ve no doubt surmised, is a followup to RiSE V1 and V2, which were developed without the help of Boston Dynamics and were more suited to climbing flat surfaces than poles. In addition to a vastly different leg mechanism, this latest model also makes use of some brushless DC motors that increase the power density to let it climb poles at rates up to 22cm per second, which the researchers say make it well-suited for a wide range of tasks. As you can see for yourself in the video after the break, the bot mostly seems to work remarkably well, although it’s obviously not quite ready to tackle critical jobs all by itself just yet.
What a very unhappy birthday week. Its original charter, with the credo,”we must avoid problems which befall large corporations,” and the drive to “create and introduce technologies which large corporations cannot match” is exactly what Sony needs to follow now. We think Sir Howard gets it, but is that really enough?
There will be no judgment in this post. No sound snobbery. I’m simply asking the age-old question: At what bitrate should we encode MP3s? And I need your help.
This test is occurring in two parts. In part one, I’m sampling three songs chosen from vastly different genres, encoded from CD and transcoded into the various popular bitrates available for MP3s (64k, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, and 320kbps). I tell you what I hear, then you sample the files yourself, and tell me what you hear.
Part I - My Test I’m sitting here with Pioneer’s brand-new VSX-1019AH-K receiver, a $500 model that actually pulls the MP3 data off of USB drives and iProducts for decoding within the receiver itself. (According to Pioneer, this “Advanced Sound Retriever” technology restores sound lost in the MP3 conversion process, so I figure it’s the best MP3 experience I’m gonna get.)
The sound is being sent through 14 gauge Monoprice speaker wire to twin Definitive Mythos STS Supertowers ($3,000/pair). We wanted to assemble an ideal, nice home audio system that could make MP3s sound their best. We feel that this combination of superb speakers and MP3 decoding reaches a reasonable benchmark for the reasonable enough price of around $3,500. Since most readers including me aren’t going to run out and buy anything nicer, it represents a decent ceiling of audio quality. Pure Prairie League - Woman My first pass, I couldn’t hear a difference beyond 128. And it was a little worrisome. But no judgment, that’s the rule! I took another pass…things did seem to get better…but was I imagining it?
So I skipped from 128 to 192. Then I could hear an improvement as the instruments were unchanged but the vocals grew more lifelike. Songs encoded beyond 192 sounded different in terms of balance, but not necessarily any better. I wonder if, since the song was “digitally remastered,” studio technicians compressed the audio to begin with. My conclusion: 192
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. It was a total shock. I could hear the differences in bitrates, all the way to the top, the first pass through the list. I had assumed, whatever, some electronic type music. It won’t matter. But even the jump from 192 to 256 was dramatic on my system, with every enhancement giving me more detail in the laugh and a richer, wetter bass line. My conclusion: 320
Bizet - Carmen Suite #1 During my quick first pass, I didn’t hear a difference beyond 160. Skipping intervals, I found no improvement going from 160 to 192, but a noticeable improvement from 160 to 256. The middle just feels fuller, with a far more lifelike reverb to the low to mid horn section. I’d like to say that I heard a difference up to 320, but I’m willing to chalk that up to the power of suggestion. My conclusion: 256
Also, I compared the 320kbps recordings to their uncompressed WAV counterparts. The only difference I could hear was in the Pure Prairie League’s Woman. The vocals and high level instrumentation felt ever so less harsh. It’s a bit ironic, as that was the song I had the biggest problem distinguishing bitrates in the first place.
Back when I tested my ear in college, I found the cutoff to be 160, and have since encoded all of my music at that level (though it’s become less of an issue now that MP3s are more often downloaded than ripped from CDs). Now, however, it’s pretty apparent that with more hard drive space and a nicer audio system—my earlier testing was just on a set of decent computer speakers—it might be worth reassessing my encoding rates. In just these three songs, I found a huge fluctuation, and not in any way I intended. Honestly, I figured that Carmen would require the best bitrate to assuage my ear.
Now, I wouldn’t encode lower than 192kbps, and I’d be tempted to push the boundaries to 256kbps and 320kbps on the music I planned on listening to very closely, though my laptop’s hard drive would probably hate me for it.
Part II - Your Test Enough with me talking, now it’s your turn. You’ll find the files you need below alongside an accompanying poll. Please don’t vote based upon past experience or my subjective impressions, and feel free to test on any system you like (as long as you note it in the survey).
Oh, and the easiest way to peruse the files quickly is to click the first audio link, let it load in your browser, then just change the bitrate number in the filename up in the address bar—fast and easy to do any side-by-side comparison you like. Well, at least on your crappy computer speakers.
But I think we’re clear on the sound quality front. The HifiMAN HM-801 is a digital audio player, yes, but its modular design allows for a portable amp to be popped right inside.
The lower half of the player is taken by a removable Burr-Brown amplifier, but can be easily removed and replaced with another amp, assuming the new amp fits. It’s a pretty barebones PMP otherwise, though—we’re talking no video support, not even any internal memory (supply your own with SDHC cards). It does support FLAC and WMA lossless, because really, what’s the point otherwise, but this is one PMP aimed squarely at the audiophile market, especially with a price of $700 (or $600 if purchased before its release in June). An included, modular amp is a very cool idea, and certainly a lot of today’s PMPs could benefit from the boost it would provide, we just wish it had a little more mass-market appeal. [Head-Fi via Engadget]
When iPhone 2.0 launched, Twitterific was the Twitter app. Beautiful, clean, simple. Then Twitter apps exploded, and several months later, it suddenly seemed a little too simple. Twitterific 2 plays feature catch-up.
The original Twitterific was designed around reading—so that’s what it was (and still is) good at. Twitterific 2 takes that core and layers stuff on top of it. In order to keep things looking clean, it hides everything behind buttons, so it feels like there’s a lot of drilling down every time you want to do something, which ironically makes the otherwise exceptionally eye-pleasing app feel cluttered and busy.
But feature parity is finally here: You can now do basically anything you can with Tweetie or other full-featured apps, like actually follow and unfollow people, split the timeline up between your regular one and replies, drill down into threads, search—though it’s stuck in an odd place—check trends, see people nearby, etc. Two awesome, unique features: Marking tweets is like favorites, except it’s private, it has a compressor that shortens both URLs and text, which squeezing the most you can out of 140 characters.
It’s still the best reading experience of any Twitter app, strictly from an eyeball point of view, but I wish it managed to add all of the new features without losing some of the focused, streamlined feel of the original. The free version is a decent alternative to Twitterfon, but if you’re debating between spending $3 on Tweetie or $4 on the paid version of Twitterific, Tweetie wins. [Twitterific]
From tomorrow, customers of Vodafone, the second largest wireless carrier in the world, will be able to text and call from over 35 countries at no extra charge. Attention American carriers: Be more like this.
The service, called “Passport”, will be available as a three-month summer trial, and can be activated for free from users’ phones. Customers will be able to travel to just about any country that Vodafone operates in and tap into the minute and text allocations from their regular plan, or in the case of pay-as-you-go customers, call and text at their usual domestic rate. Data roaming still applies, but come July it’ll be capped at about $1.40 per megabyte as per new EU regulations.
As someone who’s stuck in concurrent T-Mobile contracts in two separate countries, I take this news kind of personally. Steep roaming charges make some sense when you’re jumping between carriers, but they’re stupidly frustrating when you’re paying way more for services from a different arm of the same company.
This obviously doesn’t mean much for Americans (although Voda does own a 45% stake in Verizon), but it does represent a precedent we should all push for. Aside from steep taxes (as in the UK), it’s mainly plain old price gouging—of carriers by other carriers, or of customers by their carriers—that keeps prices so high. [Telegraph]
Using a oscilloscope for your projects is often an expensive endeavor. At the low end you are talking several hundred bucks at least—but this DIY version fits in your pocket and only costs $33.
Features:
•Max sample rate - 2M/s，8 bits •Sample memory depth - 256 bytes •Analog bandwidth - 1MHz •Vertical sensitivity - 100mV/Div - 5V/Div •Vertical position adjustable with indicator •Input impedance - 1MΩ •Max input voltage - 50Vpp •DC/AC coupling •Horizontal - 5μs/Div - 10m(minute)/Div •Auto, normal and single trig modes •Rising/falling edge trigger •Trig level adjustable with indicator •Hold/run feature •Built-in 500Hz/5Vpp test signal •Frequency counter features with independant F and T read-outs (only for TTL level input signal) •9 - 12V DC or AC power supply •Dimension: 110mm X 65mm X 25mm (no case) •Weight: 70 gram •With Panels
The “Digital Storage Oscilloscope” may not be as fully featured as traditional models, but you definitely get a lot for your money. Plus, it’s open source so you can include the firmware in your tinkering. The oscilloscope comes in a kit version for the aforementioned $33, as well as a pre-built version for only $49. [Seedstudio via Retro Thing via Wired Gadget Lab]
The big Computex show in Taipei is just a few weeks away and that means laptops, tons and tons of laptops. Specifically, CULV thin-and-light laptops that Intel’s hoard of dutiful manufacturers have positioned between netbooks and super-expensive, ultra-portables like the MacBook Air or ThinkPad X301. Engadget Chinese is at the unveiling of MSI’s full range of X-Slim laptops. We’ve already seen the X320/X340 up close, but this is the first time we’ve received official specs on the 14-inch (1366 x 768) X400 and 15.6-inch (1366 x 768) X600. Both feature Core 2 Solo CULV processors, an HDMI jack, hard disks up to 500GB in capacity, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, and a 2-in-1 card memory reader. The X600 adds eSATA, options for 6 or 9-cell batteries (compared to the X400’s 4 or 8-cells), and bumps the graphics from integrated GMA 4500MHD to ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330. Now we’re just waiting for the ship dates and prices which should start at $699 to about $1,100.
Update: Official press release says to expect these before June is through.
Sony’s posted a full-year loss 
There will be no judgment in this post. No sound snobbery. I’m simply asking the age-old question: At what bitrate should we encode MP3s? And I need your help.
But I think we’re clear on the sound quality front. The 
When iPhone 2.0 launched, Twitterific was 
From tomorrow, customers of Vodafone, the second largest wireless carrier in the world, will be able to text and call from over 35 countries at 
Using a oscilloscope for your projects is often an expensive endeavor. At the low end you are talking several hundred bucks at least—but this DIY version fits in your pocket and only costs $33.
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