I get to listen to music as often as possible and got accustomed to earbuds from few years (started with the earphones provided with SonyEricsson mobiles). I find it very hard to get back to conventional ear-phones from the ear-buds I currently use (Noise-Cancellation is the major factor for preferring earbuds over earphones). With hands on experience with many of the brands & models available in the Global market, I’ve decided to test 3 of the affordable EARBUDS and select the BEST EARBUDS for my frequent use. Get on with the detailed review if you are planning to buy a high-performing and low priced earbuds:
EARBUDS: V-MODA Bass Freq, J-BUDS J2 Premium, SKULLCANDY Ink’d earbuds…!
MUSIC: Give Me Some Sunshine (3 Idiots), My Love Is Gone (Aarya’2), With Or Without You (U2)
GADGETS: Lenovo ThinkPad, Nokia XpressMusic Mobile, Ipod Touch (3rd Gen)
LOCATIONS: Bedroom, Balcony, Train, Bus, Cab and Open Streets
VOLUME: Mid to High volumes…
ANALYSIS: Each of these noise cancellation earbuds are here to stay and we will easily fall in love with them after their 1st usage. The way they cut down the external noise, reproduce the deep treble/bass, give us realistic vocals is truly amazing. Though they are priced from 20$ to $70 (actual price), we can buy them cheap on Amazon or any other online stores. They are comfortable and very easy to carry. All the 3 models come with 2 extra pairs of Foam Tips (totally 3 sizes of S/M/L) by default. And, the fun thing is that each of them come in different color shades (with each model having over 10 color combination).
FINAL VERDICT: V-MODA BASS FREQ EARBUDS are the best earbuds under $25 with an awesome balance between high frequencies (treble), lows (bass) and the middles (vocals). The Noise Cancellation can easily be compared with the costlier versions. The foam tips are of highest quality (among the 3 models tested) and the comfort of wearing the buds is also mentionable. I’ve been using the same model from past 2 years (just got a new one) and surprised to see that it still rules the affordable earbuds’ category. The reproduction of bass for all the 3 tracks tested is just admirable and it comes without any compromise on vocals or treble.
*** V-MODA BASS FREQ EARBUDS *** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ***
Skullcandy‘s Ink’d earbuds are also a good pair to own/use. The major difference being the bass reproduction and foam quality. JBuds‘ J2 earbuds can improve a lot…!
Note: You can always fall back to the famous and ever reliable SENNHEISER‘s CX-300 earbuds if you are not impressed with the above reviewed 3 models (lesser known brands)…!
This is a detailed cost comparison of the just launched GOOGLE PHONE: NEXUS ONE with Apple’s iPhone over a period of 24 months (2 years)…! At the end of 2 years, an average iPhone customer might end up in paying 50% more than a NexusOne customer… hmmm, pretty interesting data…!
Google phone: NEXUS ONE is being launched in USA today (5th Jan). It will be sold exclusively on Google Website and we will have a detailed review of NEXUS ONE soon! As per the latest updates, it will take some more (in months) time for the Google Mobile to get launched in India for the technology enthusiasts… For now, HTC’s G1 (1st Google Phone) is the only alternative in India… Few pictures of the released NEXUS ONE (source: Engadget.com)
SPECIFICATIONS:
DISPLAY: 3.7-inch AMOLED TouchScreen, 800 x 480 Screen & 100,000:1 Contrast Ratio
CAMERA: 5 megapixels, LED Flash, 2X Digital Zoom, 720×480 pixels’ Video Recorder
VIDEO PLAYBACK: H.263, MPEG-4 SP & H.264 AVC codecs/formats/types are supported
AUDIO PLAYBACK: MP3, AAC, AMR, MIDI, WAV & Ogg Vorbis formats
DIMENSIONS: 119mm Height, 59.8mm Width, 11.5mm Depth & 130 grams of Weight!
WIRELESS/CELLULAR: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, GSM/EDGE/3GS, A2DP Stereo Bluetooth
OS/CPU: Android 2.1 (Eclair) OS & Qualcomm’s QSD 8250 1 GHz Processor
MEMORY: 512MB RAM, 512MB Flash Memory & 4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)
BATTERY TIME: 7 to 10 hours of Talk-Time & 250 to 290 hours of Standby-Time
BATTERY for MEDIA: 5 to 6.5 hours of Internet, 20 hours of Audio & 7 hours of Video
SOFT KEYS on FRONT: Back, Home, Menu & Search
Best Mp3 Player -> iPod TOUCH
Best Mobile -> LG's enV TOUCH
Best Plasma/LCD Tv -> Panasonic's TC-PV10
***BEST MP3 PLAYERS:
***BEST MOBILE/CELL PHONES:
***BEST LCD TVs:
Source: Cnet
I got to download some great quality videos from internet last week and they were all .asf files. ‘.ASF’ extension files are Microsoft’s copyright protected material. A search over the internet has shown that WD TV (Western Digital HD Media Player) doesn’t support these files and the firmware to play these files is due for release. As I wanted to view .asf files through my WD TV, I’ve started downloading all the crappy “.asf to .avi” conversion tools (with malware, virus attached to them) and almost got my PC’s downfall. It has taken me some 4 hours to get these tools and try with various applications like: AsfTools, VirtualDub, TMPGEnc MovieStyle, etc. But, none of them were successful or easy in converting my files.
Then, a small idea of ‘why not try playing this .asf file directly on WD TV‘ has solved all the issues. The funniest thing is that my Western Digital Media Player does play even these .ASF files and I can watch them on TV now. Wow, WDTV plays almost every file format in this world without converting them. I should have not wasted my time, mind and made my PC vulnerable to viruses if I had known earlier that WD TV plays .asf files…
Feels good in hands
This 5800 XpressMusic mobile is Nokia’s latest version of Music Phone with touch-screen capability. Though the company price is tagged at whopping 21,000 in Hyderabad (INDIA), it’s available for 17000 from various retailers around the city. The mobile is decent with some really good features. But it also comes with some major flaws and if corrected, it will be a mobile to stay…
WHAT I LIKED:
THINGS THAT DON’T IMPRESS:
WD TV Pack (Box)
Western Digital is well known for its Storage Devices (both the External & Internal Hard Drives) world-wide. As the media players like: Ipods, DVD Players, PMPs & Blu-Ray players are getting popular and users are getting bugged with writing all their data on to DVDs, etc for playing them, Western Digital has come up with a great solution/product.
WDTV is the HD Media Player from Western Digital that acts as a bridge/interface between your storage device (like: USB Flash drives, Internal & Eternal Hard Disks, etc) and the Display unit (like: LCD Tv, Plasma Tv, regular Color Tv & the Monitors). We can play all our media collection (Video, Audio & Pictures) from the hard drive and get them projected onto our TV.
how does WDTV work?
More than anything, WDTV is capable of playing numerous Video/Audio formats at various high resolutions (upto 1080P).So now, we can watch all the Blu-Ray Rips & Full HD clips (downloaded from Internet) on our LCD Tv without investing on an over-expensive Blu-Ray player. It’s time to copy back all your old collection to any of your Hard Disk, connect it to the WDTV and enjoy the Video/Audio.
WDTV plays most of the VIDEO FORMATS like: MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264), MTS, TP, TS and even the VOB files.
AUDIO FORMATS include: MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
how does WD TV look?
A Hard Disk or a Flash Drive will be connected to the “WD TV HD Media Player” through an USB port and inturn, the WD TV can be connected to a TV’s HDMI or Composite input. If you have a receiver in between, you can always pass-through the HDMI signal through it for original audio (DTS/Dolby) re-production through your 5.1/7.1 speakers.
As of now, the WD TV have the controls only on the remote but not on the player. Adding to that, WD TV doesn’t have the feature of skipping through a movie.
WD TV weighs around 300 gms, size is a bit above an I-Phone and the cost is around 6,500 rs in the Indian market (99$ on Amazon though)….! The market for HD Media Players is just heating up with few other prominent players like: Popcorn Hour A-110. We are yet to see the best and for now: WD TV is highly RECOMMENDED!
I’ve been researching a lot to buy an LCD/TFT monitor and not satisfied with the connection options they are providing. My basic intention behind buying a 22″ LCD monitor is to use it as a TV for time being (until I buy Panasonic 42″ Plasma screen) and then use it as a monitor. None of the brands like: Samsung, BenQ, Viewsonic, Acer & LG has a model which offers Digital (HDMI/DVI) connections and also the Analog TV (Composite/Component) connections at the same time. Though they have models for multi-purpose (like: Samsung-T220HD, LG-M228WA, Samsung-244T), they were not available in Indian markets. Pretty sad…!
But, I’ve found some great LCD monitors in the Hyderabad Computer market for small pricing (when compared to LCD TVs).
Samsung LCD Monitor (not TV)
Finally, I’ve decided to go with Samsung-2233SW as it has solid performance (as per many reviews) and awesome looks. I will be using an external TV tuner card for converting the composite video out (from my Airtel Digital Tv) to VGA input on the LCD monitor. Adding to that, I will connect all my Digital Video sources like: CPU with DVI out, IBM Laptop with DVI out & Pioneer DVD player with HDMI out to my awesome ONKYO-606 HD Reciever and connect the video out back to DVI input on Samsung LCD. All the audio outs will anyways be connected to my reciever.
Pretty hopeful about the decision. Anyone can post some other options (if they have one).
Note: 22″ LCD Tvs are priced @ 16000 to 21000 in the market (from Samsung, LG, Sharp and Sony)
NEW: ACER has launched it’s High-end H233H LCD Monitor with HDMI & DVI connections @ a price of 11,500 rs! Great deal…!
If you are planning to buy a Satellite TV for home, now-a-days you have a lot of options like: Tata Sky, BIG Tv, Dish Tv, Sun Direct, Hathway & Airtel Digital Tv.
Airtel Digital Tv User Guide
Sticking to my instincts, I had gone for Airtel and I just want to give out few advantages of buying Airtel. I’d gone for South Starter pack as it’s offering all the basic channels for women @ home and I will not be having time to watch TV for other channels. The pack came for 2000 rs and with 12 month free subscription. The remote was awesome and even the set-top-box looks great.
Activation Voucher
The setup was fast enough and the channels started working even before the activation! The technical people came home @ 9 am and the installation was completed in 2 hours! They are super cool (drilled the doors to make way for the cable). After few days, I’ve connected the audio to my 10 year old Pioneer stereo receiver and the new Onkyo Tower speakers!
Impressive Features of Airtel Digital TV include:
* Free WORLD SPACE Radio Channels like: Spandana, Gandharv, Shruti, Spin, Moksha, Umang, Sonar, Up Country & Farishta! That’s enough to take an edge over the other players..!
* Audio was great and especially the Worldspace sounded awesome.
* Remote was great and that too Airtel gives us an Universal Remote Control with which you can combine your TV’s remote with that of Airtel Digital Tv
* My 2000 rs for the whole year looks more than worth with the quality and features set combined!
Though TATA SKY looks great with more features, the affordability gives an edge to Airtel Digital TV. And, the good news is that Airtel Digital Tv is being offered free with all the latest SAMSUNG LCD TV’s.
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