Homeowners can now be filled with that smug sense of self-satisfaction that only comes from saving the environment, while feeling eminently secure at the same time: a security camera powered by only the Earth’s sun.
Mi5 Security has come up with a stand-alone, wireless, weatherproof surveillance camera, the RedEye, capable of running totally solar. The outdoor security camera is portable enough to be stuck anywhere outside, and only begins filming when it detects movement. It comes standard with a 3.3mm wide-angle lens, and has options for infrared spotlights and modem connections.
The RedEye also uses the now-ubiquitious SD card, which means most computers will recognise its files right away.
Posted by
Tone on March 9th, 2010 in
News | | Tags:
camera,
SD,
security
By Brett Gideon
Spend some time looking into Townes Van Zandt’s life and you’ll find darkness, heartache and struggle in abundance. Alcoholism, addiction, depression and divorce followed Van Zandt, so it comes as no surprise that his songs are laced with misery; every rare drop of hope comes with a large bucket of despair. The darkness permeates every song, even when the tone is upbeat. On ‘White Freightliner’, for example, the lyrics deal with death and the forgetting of troubles.
The dark subjects and lyrics make these songs extremely powerful and far removed from the ‘my dog died, my woman left me, my truck done broke down’ country music clichés.
It’s easy to appreciate how Van Zandt became an inspiration to so many musicians – the man could write. One of Van Zandt’s most fervent disciples, Steve Earle, takes the songs and gives them the gritty voice they deserve; wistful, melancholic, desperate and always believably emotional. This performance is not phoned in; Earle is right inside the music from word one and the album cries for repeated listening to appreciate the how well the songs match the vocals.
This is a very ...full story
Posted by
Tone on March 8th, 2010 in
CD reviews,
Reviews | | Tags:
Steve Earle,
Towns,
vinyl
Kyle from Samsung presents their new NX10 camera, which is a smaller camera featuring interchangeable lenses. The NX10 allows you most of the features of a DSLR, in a smaller body, without giving up too much.
Posted by
Tone on March 8th, 2010 in
Videos | | Tags:
camera,
dSLR,
interchangeable,
lenses,
NX10,
Samsung
by Gary Steel
This double set looks like a real labour of love, with its nicely designed and well-written liner notes. More importantly, every song of any consequence (and probably quite a few that are not) is here, and properly remastered, too.
Of course, we’re looking at primitive recordings here, but considering their age, they sound pretty good: there’s even some bass to be heard.
The bigger question is: what were Ray Columbus & The Invaders to New Zealand? They’ve certainly got a prime place right at the beginning of local rock history, but it’s probably a little presumptuous to call them ‘NZ’s Beatles’. Listening to a song like ‘She’s A Mod’ now, it’s certainly as vigorous and fresh and fun as, say, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. But the songs here betray a general ‘entertainment’ ethos that’s a lot less artistically interesting than the Beatles ever were. Plus these guys were never really writers, so they’re at the mercy of the material they could get hold of, and the quality and performances vary wildly in style.
Those performances? One of the greatest things about the Invaders from this ...full story
Posted by
Tone on March 5th, 2010 in
CD reviews,
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Ray Columbus,
review
The new Olympus PEN E-PL1 is truly greater than the sum of its parts, with a surprisingly small camera body packed with technology normally found in bigger, bulkier and heavier professional DSLR cameras and HD camcorders.
Posted by
Tone on March 5th, 2010 in
Videos | | Tags:
camera,
digital camera,
digital photography,
Digital SLR,
E-PL1,
HD camcorder,
HD video,
micro four thirds,
Olympus,
Pen
Kef has a reputation to uphold with its state-of-the-art products. It’s a reputation that’s well and truly maintained with the Reference 207/2, the company’s more-or-less flagship loudspeaker.
Kef has the dramatic Muon transducer at the very apex of its range, but that speaker should be compared to the likes of a McLaren supercar. With its beautifully made wooden box containing superb chrome plated spikes, and the imposing size and masterful build quality, the 207/2s can be considered Kef’s luxury production model.
Each 207/2 weighs an impressive 66kg and employs five drivers: two 250mm bass, one 250mm mid-bass, and the pod-mounted 165mm midrange Uni-Q driver with integral 25mm titanium dome tweeter.
Kef has spared no expense making the 207/2. Each circuit board used in the crossover is physically decoupled to reduce cabinet vibration, while the drivers themselves are also individually loaded and decoupled from each massive enclosure. A tri-wireable four-way design, the 207/2 also features Faraday rings on each main driver to further reduce stray magnetic fields from the voice coil.
Apart from reducing harmonic distortion, each ring serves to increase the dissipation of heat while listening at high volume.
Suffice ...full story
Posted by
Tone on March 4th, 2010 in
Hi-Fi,
Reviews | | Tags:
KEF,
Reference Loud Speakers,
review,
Seagate
The old adage about less equalling more is no truer than in the world of hi-fi. Manufacturers galore have stripped their electronics of superfluous ‘loudness’ controls, parametric equalisers and countless other widgets that do nothing more than present an unnecessary obstacle course to your favourite music.
That’s all fine and good; hi-fi electronics have become less complicated but better sounding because of it. But the same claim can’t be made for the final link in the chain, the loudspeaker.
The loudspeaker scene is littered with multiple-driver designs — two-way, three-way and even four-way speakers are the norm these days. But there is a growing group of smaller manufacturers and like-minded DIY individuals bucking the trend and opting for single-driver designs in the search for purer, crossover-free sound.
Among these is Gemme Audio, a boutique Canadian company specialising in smallish floorstanding loudspeakers, including this exquisite Vivace single-driver model.
Unpacking the Vivaces brought a smile to my face: they are stunning examples of modern speaker art. Essentially backwards-sloping parallelograms, the Vivaces are coated with a premium piano gloss black lacquer that sparkled whenever I switched the lights on in the listening ...full story
Posted by
Tone on March 4th, 2010 in
Hi-Fi,
Reviews | | Tags:
Gemme Audio,
loudspeakers,
review,
test
Honda’s acclaimed short-film documentary about the future with robots (like their Asimo).
Posted by
Tone on March 3rd, 2010 in
Videos | | Tags:
Asimo,
Honda,
robots
PLATFORM REVIEWED: Xbox 360 PLAYERS: 1-8 RATING:Â G GENRE: Racing
Dear Sirs,
I’m writing to respectfully request you rescind any fines or charges I accrued during November of 2009, for although it’s an unalterable fact that I spent significant stretches driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, there’s no denying I had a good line.
During the period in question I found myself under unusual strain, as I’ve been spending long hours before Forza Motorsport 3, Microsoft’s enormous new racing simulator.
Forza led me astray, actually encouraging me to drive irresponsibly. Prior to my involvement with this video game, I was a nothing if not a sedate driver, but with the simple interface, generous assists and customisable difficulty levels, it’s just so easy to become immersed.
It’s possible I was disorientated at the time, perhaps mistaking Ponsonby Rd for Italy’s Amalfi Coast, as the hundred real-world tracks in Forza 3 are pretty convincing.
I also neglected to remember that my 1968 Datsun B wasn’t actually an Audi R8, or any of the other 400 cars in Forza. They’re so realistic it’s unreasonable for me to have to tell the difference.
Besides, surely you can’t ...full story
Posted by
Tone on March 2nd, 2010 in
Gaming,
Reviews |
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