Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Panasonic’s Lumix GX1 takes a step backwards in order to move forwards: the camera may look much like the three-generation-old Lumix GF1, but manages to squeeze both the advanced controls and feature set of the Lumix G3 into its premium-build body.

Premium build

And very premium it is too. The GX1’s aluminium chassis body is finished with metal buttons and a raised leather grip to the front (though it feels more like rubber than leather to us). We’re yet to see a better-built compact system camera.

The build is complemented by a series of external controls that make the camera all the easier to use: there are two physical function (Fn) buttons and two more “virtual” function buttons on the touchscreen LCD. Add one-touch buttons to handle AF/AE lock, display, AF/MF, movie, iA (intelligent Auto) and Q.Menu (quick menu display on-screen) and almost all settings are just a button press away.

The Q.Menu makes great use of the touchscreen feature as it’s possible to drag and drop multiple settings in or out of the menu, much like a Smartphone’s apps can be reordered to suit. Whether you chose just three or four options or multiple screens with dozens of settings – the choice is yours.

Add a built-in flash and a hotshoe and the GX1’s room for expansion makes it a different beast to the consumer-targeted GF3. A new accessory port on the GX1’s rear means a 1.44m-dot electronic viewfinder (DMV-LVF2) can be added – though the extra cost will quickly stack-up and the resolution and size isn’t as class-leading as Sony’s 2.44m-dot OLED viewfinder.

One thing is clear: the ‘X’ series will be for more demanding users where physical controls and room for expansion are a must, compared to the ‘F’ series’ point-and-shoot style.

Keeping focus

Panasonic’s eye is on the ball when it comes to autofocus. Not only is the “lightspeed” autofocus system of the G3 ported over to the GX1 it’s even been improved to obtain focus in under 0.1sec. The GX1’s the variety and ability of focusing modes are also the best of any Lumix G camera yet.

In addition to the 23-area auto, face detection and subject tracking modes, there are two user-controlled options in the form of 1-area and pinpoint. Both work on the premise of positioning the focus area anywhere around the screen. There are no restrictions – the very edges of the frame are accessible – to obtain a more precise focus. Pinpoint goes one step further by zooming in on the image to actual size prior to capture to ensure the exact area is in focus – perfect for keeping eyes in focus in portraits or intricate flowers accurately focused in macro mode. And, of course, this is where the touchscreen comes into its own: the ability to press onto the screen itself makes adjusting a focus point’s position not only far quicker but far more accurate too.

Unlike previous G-series models the GX1 adds a new AFF (flexible) mode to its usual AFS (single), AFC (continuous) and MF (manual) focus options. In a nutshell AFF is halfway AFS and halfway AFC – though the camera will only continuously focus if the degree of subject movement prompts the camera to ‘think’ intelligently about maintaining focus.

The 1080i HD movie mode also reaps the benefits of the GX1’s capable autofocus. Continuous focus glides between focal lengths with ease and the accurate focus rarely drifts beyond the necessary focal point. However it is a shame to not see 1080p capture and as there’s no microphone input the in-built stereo microphone is the only way to record audio. Although the GX1 isn’t designed to be a movie-only camera, these shortcomings see competitors offer better moving-image capture.

Image Quality

The GX1’s 16-megapixel sensor is the very same as that found in the Lumix G3, though small tweaks provide the GX1 with an extra stop of high ISO sensitivity, ranging from ISO 160 through to ISO 12,800 at full resolution.

Image quality doesn’t differ between the two cameras otherwise, resulting in good quality images from ISO 100-800 that are still usable from ISO 1600-3200, though the ISO 6400-12,800 settings do suffer from muted colours, softness and excess noise.

Stick to the lower ISO settings as the GX1 delivers impressive image quality. It may not quite outsmart a larger-sensor DSLR, but then the smaller size of the Micro Four Thirds sensor means both a smaller build and selection of smaller lenses.

Power zoom

Among the variety of GX1 kit options is a new 14-42mm power zoom lens. This small lens extends to full size only when the camera is turned on and doesn’t use a zoom or focus ring – instead two small toggles to the side of the lens make it feel more like controlling a compact camera.

This one’s a bit of a Marmite deal: you’ll either love it or hate it. Traditionalists may feel the design is ill-suited, the toggle zoom is slooow, plus the additional ?150 price premium does make the ?758 kit expensive. The standard 14-42mm kit is a more reasonable ?599. Of course the smaller size of the power zoom is its biggest plus point. As we Brits like to say, “horses for courses”?as far as that’s concerned.

Verdict:

What’s not to like about the GX1? It looks wonderful, its build is superb and the layout and controls are fault-free. Autofocus is very impressive, the variety of focus options are capable and the image quality, while not the very best a compact system camera has to offer, is still pretty darn good. Besides, the image quality reflects the smaller size of the system and is a good balance between system size and final image quality.

Add the power zoom lens, however, and the ?758 asking price does mean the camera is a little pricey. There are cheaper compact system options out there, but none are as well-built or effortless to use. The GX1 is one of those excellent tools that just lets you get on with taking pictures.

Panasonic Lumix GX1 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:05:41 +0000

Related articles

• Panasonic Lumix GX1 with X-series lens appears in leaked photos (slashgear.com)
• Panasonic announces GX1 firmware update (techradar.com)
• Hands-on with the Panasonic Lumix GX1 (digitaltrends.com)
• Hands on: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 (techradar.com)
• Hands-on review: Panasonic Lumix GX1 (stuffmideast.com)
• Panasonic Lumix GX1 First Photos Leaked (geeky-gadgets.com)

With all new Apple laptops comes a new port – Thunderbolt. It promises to deliver super-fast transfer speeds to Thunderbolt drives or devices, so getting a file from A to B isn’t something that takes you longer than getting across town on a Friday night in rush hour.

So can the super-fast, super-expensive Little Big Disk solve your storage needs?

Design

It’s called the Little Big Disk because it is just that – an oxymoron – Big in file size, small in actual size – geddit? Anyway, random naming jokes aside, the small drive measures 85×40x145mm in size and weighs 650g. That’s surprisingly heavy for the size of the box, and that’s most likely down to the fact that it is made of metal. The metal is clever though, its ribbed design acts as a heatsink to save firing-up the internal fan constantly.

The front of the unit features the only button on the drive, and it just so happens that it glows blue when on. We suspect blue was chosen because red would remind you of HAL9000 and give you the hebegebies.

Memories of the scene “What are you doing Dave…” who echo in your mind every time you went to delete a file. Frightening.

Back to the design of the Big Little Disk and the back of the hard drive casing features the power socket, and two Thunderbolt ports. Frustratingly there are no other interfaces like Firewire or USB and that means that if you’ve not got a Thunderbolt port on your computer you’re stuffed.

While that might seem like a stupid statement on a drive clearly advertised as designed for Thunderbolt, it means that if you want to plug your drive into your colleagues computer you had better hope they had upgraded to a brand new Mac.

Thunderbolt and the daisy chain

Thunderbolt technology was initially developed by Intel and originally called LightPeak. You can have up to six Thunderbolt devices connected to each other in a big daisy chain. That can be six hard drives, a couple of monitors (depending on which Mac you have), or a combination of the two.

While we weren’t able to test the system with multiple Thunderbolt hard drives, we were able to test it with a standard monitor with a DVI to DisplayPort adapter. While our MacBook Air took a few seconds to recognise the connection, it works as it should.?

Performance

While the Big Little Disk looks pretty, we aren’t too fussed about looks here. We want performance, and the knowledge that the drive is going to perform.

Rather than opt for a standard hard disk drive giving you a 1TB of data, here you get two 120GB SSD drives that work together to deliver 240GB of storage. That will either be on-par with the hard drive in your computer – if you are a MacBook Air user – or faster, if you are a MacBook Pro user who hasn’t upgraded to an SSD already.

For testing purposes we used a 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 MacBook Air with 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM running the latest build of Mac OS X – version 10.7.2.

LaCie promises average data transfer rates of around 480MB a second and we easily achieved this. It took us under five seconds to transfer a 1.45GB file from the MacBook Air SSD drive to the Little Big Disk. On the return it took six seconds.

Transferring a 43.71GB iTunes folder with 8008 files took us 3 minutes 16 seconds. That’s damn fast.

Our final test was to see how quickly we could create a Time Machine image of our system with the drive connected. The system backed up our 143.73GB image with almost 1m files in 57 minutes.

Software

In the box you’ll get a handful of LaCie utilities including Intego and LaCie’s own Backup Software even though the drive is Time Machine compatible. MacBook Air users be warned this comes on a CD.

Verdict:

There is no doubting the speed capabilities of the Little Big Disk. File transfer whether it is a single file or multiple files are fast. Thunderbolt certainly lives up to its claims.

On the design front, the Little Big Disk is small, stylish, and will look good on your desk, although we did notice some light leakage from the power light at the side of the device. Something we didn’t expect on a device this highly-designed.

So what’s the catch? Well the small drive isn’t very portable. The accompanying power pack is still pretty large, and there aren’t any other transfer options as a backup.?Then there’s the price. In the UK it’s ?750 ($899 in the US) and that’s a hefty prize for something that will expand your storage, especially if you aren’t too fussed about the speed.?Laughably, you don’t even get a Thunderbolt cable for that price.

If the price or portability isn’t an issue, then this this is certainly the best way to expand your Mac with a drive that will be as fast, if not faster, than your current internal offering. Just make sure you know how you’re going to use those blistering transfer speeds, because if it is just to store your MP3 collection this new super fast tech will be wasted on you.

?

Tags:
Hardware Hard drives Storage LaCie Lacie Little Big Disk

LaCie Little Big Disk – Thunderbolt Series originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

You’ve eaten too much, you’re feeling rather fat, and you need to do something about it. In steps Fitbit Ultra promises to track your movement before displaying it all on the accompanying website for you to digest.

So can something so simple really help you shave off the pounds? Or is it a device you buy during the madness of new year resolutions, and stop using two weeks in to January? To find out, we lived with the Fitbit Ultra for almost a month.

Design

The Fitbit Ultra is,?essentially?a high-tech digital pedometer in a small matte black clip. It’s really tiny, with dimensions of just 55×19.5×14mm and it weighs a?minuscule?11.34g. The idea is, it can be slipped into your pocket or, more likely, worn on your waist. For women Fitbit recommends you place it on your bra in between your cleavage, the idea is, to keep it central where it can be most accurate.

The device itself has a small OLED display that lights up when the single button is pressed. It allows you to scroll through the data from the device itself, but that’s just one way to see how you’ve been getting on.

In Pocket-lint’s case we’ve been wearing our Fitbit Ultra on our waist, underneath our belt. It’s small enough to not to bother you, and light enough for us to have actually forgotten that we were wearing it at times.

That has its pros and cons. On the plus side you aren’t going to notice it, and that’s a good thing. On the down side, we found is?diminutive?size meant we forgot about it occasionally when switching trousers either at the end of the day, or when going for a run.

On the go data

While most of the data that you collect is best viewed online at Fitbit.com, you will be able to view some of the data on-the-go, via the device.

That list includes steps, distance covered that day, floors climbed, calories, a clock, something to encourage you (i.e. make you laugh), and a flower that grows the more exercise you do.

It’s quick, at-a-glance stuff that lets you know how much you are walking, and it is surprising how quickly you can notch up a mile, just mopping around the house. The Fitbit has a battery that can sustain it for as long as a week too, which means you can collect plenty of data before recharging.?

Syncing

There are two ways to sync the device. You can either plug into the included docking station, when it comes to charge it, or just walk somewhere near the cradle when it is plugged into your computer. The Fitbit Tracker syncs wirelessly to the base station (included) using 2.4 GHz radio transmitter. That’s a lot easier than faffing with Bluetooth and a lot less power consumption too.

Sync occurs automatically, anytime your Tracker is within about 15 feet of any base station, and relatively motionless. The base station plugs into your Mac or PC’s USB port and your computer just needs to be switched on for it to happen.?It certainly makes the syncing process a lot easier.

Sleep time

If you aren’t walking here, there, and everywhere, Fitbit Ultra can also track your sleep, as long as you are prepared to wear it on your arm.

There’s a Velcro strap in the box and it’s pretty uncomfortable. The system works by monitoring when you are still, and therefore asleep. In practice we found it not only uncomfortable to wear, but also rather pointless. ?

Fitbit.com

So you’ve got the bug, you’ve decided to wear the Fitbit Ultra all the time, but what data to you get? The accompanying website lets you view and manage the data you are collecting.

In a move to “gamify” your exercise you will get to earn badges, medals, and virtual awards. These come in the guise of goals that you have to complete and doing so gets you pat on the back.?As default you get a challenge to walk 70,000 steps a week, walk 35 miles, or climb 70 floors.

?

The game element is?enhanced further with the ability to?add your friends who are also using fitbit and see how you are fairing on a shared leaderboard. And there’s nothing like the knowledge of your mate beating you to spur you on.

Aside from the gaming side, the website is a fully comprehensive affair.?You’ll get graphs on your steps, your distance, the floors you’ve climbed – it actually includes any time your altitude increases – and if you want to take it further: your weight. You have to enter that manually, along with the time you’ve slept, if you wear it in bed.

The whole site is incredibly easy to manage and incredibly easy to understand and use with plenty of ways to visualise the data to let you make the most of it.

Giving you more

While the Fitbit Ultra gives you walking stats and the like, there is also a focus on getting you to change your entire lifestyle to make it “fitter” all around.

That means that whilst the device won’t track what you eat, or your weight, the site encourages you to track that information yourself and enter it online.

That means it can give you better overall stats, and help you achieve your ultimate goals. But it will require a lot more work on your part.

Food tracking is easy or hard depending on what you eat. If you’re a “make your own food at home” kinda-person, tracking calories can be a real pain. If you eat ready meals with all that data on the back – not a great idea – then it is easy as pie.?Sadly we are of the former of the two, and we don’t own a set of scales either.

We do however use Runkeeper.com, and the you can connect the two services together to have your data from the Fitbit Ultra pumped into the running website.

Walking more

Very much like one of those electric meters that have been all the rage of late, showing you how you use the electricity in your house, Fitbit Ultra does the same. Whether or not that means you are going to walk more, or take the stairs more, is up to you. We haven’t found ourselves opting for the stairs because of the Fitbit Ultra, however we have found it interesting to see how much we’ve been walking and how much exercise we are doing without realising it.

Verdict:

The Fitbit Ultra is a fantastic low-effort way of tracking your movements and exercise you do on a daily basis.

What you do with that information will determine whether you’ll find the Fitbit Ultra amazing or a complete waste of time.

If you know that you are an active person already, then you probably don’t need the Fitbit Ultra. If, however, you are on the cusp of changing your lifestyle, and getting up off the sofa, then this could just be the kickstart you need.

Tags:
Sports Fitness Sports Fitness equipment Fitbit Fitbit Ultra

Fitbit Ultra originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:29:26 +0000

We all like noise when it comes to headphones. But only the noise coming out of our earbuds, we’ve no time for ghastly outside noise such as traffic, noisy commuters and helpful people shouting at us when we’re about to walk into a lamp-post.

So, to keep the peace, we thought it best we took the Sony MDR-NC13 noise cancelling headphones for a spin. Noise cancelling tech is becoming ever more common, with advances in technology meaning that the feature is often available in smaller in-ear buds, rather than just over the head cans, and at a price that isn’t going to break the bank.

The NC13s tick both of these boxes coming in at a price that shouldn’t top ?45 online (despite their ?82 RRP).

The noise-cancelling tech works by sensing outside noise using tiny, built-in microphones, positioned on the earpieces, and sending out an “equal-but-opposite cancelling signal”, effectively blocking continuous noise. Sony claims it will cut outside nonsense down by 87 per cent.

Design and Practicalities

“Fugly” would probably be too harsh a word to describe the NC13’s look. So we’ll go with “different” instead. But, as Pocket-lint’s teachers and parents always told us when we were growing up, different is good. The difference, at least in terms of comparisons with other in-ear buds, comes by the way of the rather obvious housing for the 13.5mm driver unit behind the buds themselves.

Their size and positioning give the impression that the buds may be uncomfortable and heavy and, whilst they’re certainly bigger than your average in-ear setup, there’s no noticeable strain whilst they are stuffed in your lug-holes and, with the three different sized bud options included, you’re bound to find a decent, if not perfect, fit.

You will need to make use of the clip on the back of the noise cancelling engine room though, as this part is rather bulky and will weigh down the (rather long, it has to be said) chord. It’s where the AAA battery that powers the technology is housed. It also contains an on/off button and a red LED light which should help you to remember to turn it off. The battery life is said to be up to 100 hours and we won’t argue with that. We’ve accidentally left it switched on overnight a couple of times and it is still good to go the next day.

Sound Quality

Good, but not spectacular. But these are not designed with audiophiles in mind. We tested the NC13s on an iPhone – and fiddled about with the EQ to get the desired result – directly into a laptop running 320kbps streams from Spotify and finally, plugged into an amp playing back a lossless audio file.

Bass is deep and not too shaky, the mids and trebles really come through when they need to and there is a definite warmth to the sound through the earpieces that defy their size. Once you get the EQ setting right that is.

Noise Cancelling

The noise cancelling tech on-board the NC13 earphones isn’t the greatest that we’ve come across, but at ?45 or less, it certainly does the job. It doesn’t cut out background chatter, loud traffic or the like too well, but then that that’s not really its job. It is tasked with making ambient, consistent noises more tolerable and, tested against the hum of a modern electric train and the annoying whir of a desktop PC, we have to say they worked with aplomb.

However, having the noise cancelling switched on does come with a slight cost – in that some loudness and warmness is emitted from your tunes. It’s not massively noticeable and, after a few seconds you’ll probably forget, but a slight drop in quality is definitely there – so we thought it best to warn you.

Verdict:

The Sony NC13 earphones are a good, mid-level option that offers some, if not comprehensive, noise-cancelling and a decent sound performance. Also, you don’t have to worry about the buds running out of juice as you can use them as regular ‘phones without the microphones in operation.

The design is not the NC13’s strong point, the ear buds themselves look rather bulky and the control box is pretty hefty considering it has no mic or remote options – just a power button for the noise cancelling.

But again, we have to come back to the price and at less than ?45 you can’t really go wrong. Although there are plenty of earphones in the same price region, some with a slightly better sound but no noise-cancelling tech, so be sure to asses whether the hum of an aeroplane or your office’s air conditioning is really that much of a burden to you first.

Tags:
Headphones Sony Sony NC-13

Sony NC13 noise cancelling headphones originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Back in October, Pure, the radio specialist, officially announced Pure Music; a streaming service that sees it going head-to-head with Spotify. Although you won’t hear a Pure employee mention the S word, the similarities are obvious and it is impossible not to compare the two. Pure, however is keen to stress that its music streaming platform is built for an already existing ecosystem. That ecosystem is, of course, the numerous internet radio devices that bear the Pure name, as well as its online “Lounge” portal and its mobile app offerings too.

Building on the success of last year’s FlowSongs platform, Pure Music has again teamed-up with 7Digital to offer access to its extensive catalogue, but this time around it doesn’t require users to pay for individual downloads.

For ?4.99 a month Pure Music offers unlimited streaming across multiple devices. There’s a web-based player on the Lounge website, mobile apps (iOS available now, Android coming soon) and, of course, the service is available on all eight of the company’s internet connected radios.

One differentiating factor from Spotify is the tagging service, introduced with FlowSongs. This means that when listening to the radio, if you hear a tune you like, you can tag it and then explore the artist and stream their music. It worked well FlowSongs too, which scored a very respectable 8/10 in our review. The tagging service works almost flawlessly, which isn’t surprising as it’s all Shazam-powered and, with Pure Music, makes for an easy playlist creating tool.

The streaming service works on 3G and Wi-Fi and there are no limits to the amount of devices that you can hook-up to your account. Pure will be monitoring IP addresses though, so you won’t be able to share an account with your buddies.

The main event – the desktop player

Looks-wise, the web player looks a bit like Spotify’s paler cousin; with a white and grey theme going on. All of the usual ingredients are there, like playlists, recommendations, the ability to share tracks via social networks, email and so on.

In terms of navigating around the client, you’re looking at the same point and click based fun that you’re probably already accustomed to with the wealth of music players out there now. If you see an artist name that you like click it, and you’ll get top tracks, singles, albums and so on. There are recommendation tools on-board too, for similar artists and genres. There’s artwork where available and where not, a silhouette of a band looking suspiciously like Oasis. No bios as of yet, but hey – there’s always Wikipedia for that type of nonsense.

The front page has a few banners and tiles trying to lure you into certain sections: top tracks of the year, Christmas songs, movie soundtracks, highlighted albums and so forth, and there’s also sections for best selling artists and personal recommendations. From within these sections you are still afforded the usual array of options, such as adding tunes to playlists, sharing them or, if available, buying them. Once a song is purchased, or even just added to a playlist – you’ll be able to access these on your Pure devices and apps.

There’s nothing new about Pure Music’s UI and nothing too revolutionary about what’s on offer. But it does the job and is a decent standalone browser-based music player which, essentially, works well as a slave to get the tunes you want on your Pure radios and via apps.

The Music

Of the 15 million songs available on the 7Digital-provided catalogue, Pure states that “the vast majority” are streamable and that licensing deals will extend the offerings over time. We didn’t have many issues in not being able to find artists that we wanted; we did a test of around 50 artists from a wide genre and time-frame and the majority were all present and correct. However, we must stress here that we’ve been testing a preview version of the platform and the availability of songs to stream, download or both may differ when Pure Music goes live.

For now, the songs are purchased as DRM-free MP3s encoded at 320kbps that you can move to any computer or MP3 player, and 128kbps MP3 files for streaming. The platform is set to evolve though; we’re told that a lossless format will arrive along with launches in more countries – for now it’s UK-only.

On Pure radios and the apps

If you’ve got a Pure radio this is where the fun starts. Because, as well as the old FlowSongs tagging service, and the playback of songs that you’ve paid for – you can now access Pure Music so long as you cough up your monthly fee.

Yes, it’s clunky as hell trying to find anyone using a Pure radio’s control options (even on the touchscreen of the Pure Sensia) but if you’ve already created playlists using the desktop client then you’re away.

The mobile apps (iPhone tested) work in much the same way, although it is much easier to find artists, albums and particular tracks obviously. AirPlay worked without an issue as well, although there’s no caching, as per Spotify’s app, so you’ll always need a data connection to stream your music.

Verdict:

It’s impossible not to compare Pure Music to Spotify. As much as the company wishes that we wouldn’t, and, as such, it’s impossible not to mark the digital radio specialist’s effort down a touch on the few aspects where it falls a bit short.

Pure Music isn’t solely a music streaming service, but that’s certainly a large part of it, and as such, it would be nice to see the streams at a better quality than 128kpbs MP3s. Spotify, as a comparison, uses the Ogg Vorbis format for streaming at three quality ratings; q3 (96 kbps), q5 (160 kbps) and q9 (320 kbps) with the top level available for Premium users. As mentioned, there is talk that the quality of the platform’s streams would improve over time and we hope this is the case.

The next aspect where the service falls a bit short of its Scandinavian rival is the usability of desktop client. Sure, Pure Music’s web based platform is easy enough to use, but the fact that it’s web browser-based does mean it comes with certain limitations. You can’t carry on streaming a song, for example, and browse for more tunes without the song being cut mid-flow as the page refreshes – although there is a pop-out player to work around this. And if your browser crashes thanks to another rogue tab, it can bring down the whole show.

However, those slight faults shouldn’t take away from what is a brilliant service, especially if you’re already using Pure’s internet radios. The ecosystem, and the fact that you can access and stream tracks on any of your Pure web-connected devices and apps, means that, for half the price you pay for your Spotify subscription, you’re getting incredible value for money. Searching for artists and tracks using your Pure radio’s interface and controls may be a painful affair, but the fact that you can chuck over playlists from your browser and access your tagged and purchased tracks instantly means that you never really have to do this anyway.

Pure Music definitely has a whiff of “work in progress” about it, but it’s still a fantastic platform that will perhaps appeal to first-time streamers, especially those already on-board the Pure bandwagon, rather than tempting existing Spotify fanatics.

Pure Music is due to go live before 2011 is finished, we’d thoroughly recommend that you take it for a spin.

Tags:
Software music apps Music streaming Pure Pure Music

Pure Music originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Get ready with those new year resolutions. If one of them is going to include trying for a fitter, healthier you in 2012, Jawbone is here to help. Jawbone is best known as the maker of excellent Bluetooth headsets and a great portable speaker, the Jambox.

Its latest innovation is a wristband with built-in motion sensor. The idea is that if you’re trying to be healthy, just being conscious of your daily activity is likely to increase how active you are. The Up aims to be your fitness assistant.

What is it, exactly?

It’s a light, comfortable rubbery band that flexes open to put it on and off your wrist. To make the most of it, you need a smartphone. Right now, there’s an iPhone app, with Android to follow. There’s no Bluetooth on board this doohickey, so you connect it to your iPhone by popping off the little silvery Jawbone cap that sits on one end of the band.

Inside is a headphone connector that plonks into the phone so you can synchronise the Up’s data. You see, every step you take is noted by the Up, and recording the number of daily steps you take is one of its main functions. You can decide to start off low with a 5,000-steps-a-day target, or aim higher with 10,000, say. Synchronise the Up with your phone at the end of the day and it’ll give you the good or bad news. Manage 100 per cent of your target and the screen shows the achievement bathed in sunbeams.

If you’re going cycling, where your arm may not move much at all, you can use the iPhone’s GPS to measure your exercise accurately. And you can create challenges which other Up users can contribute to – walking to the moon (or the equivalent distance, obv) seems a big ask but if there are 1,000 of you, it’s doable. The idea is that communal challenges inspire you more.

Keeping track of sleep and food

There are two other elements Up manages – food and sleep. Food is average at best: when you have a meal, take a picture of it on the phone’s camera and a couple of hours later the phone will ask you to judge whether you’re energetic, stuffed, tired etc. The plan is you’ll get a clearer idea of what makes a good and nutritious meal.

Better is the sleep element. Press the end of the bracelet and it’ll switch to sleep mode, measuring your movements in that context. It knows when you’re awake, lightly asleep or deeply asleep just from the motion sensor. This gives you a clear analysis when you transfer the data the following morning. It’s excellent, confirming that you really did have a good night’s shut-eye or that you have good reason to feel bleary-eyed if you didn’t.

Wakes you up gently

And there’s another neat wrinkle: you can set a smart alarm. The best time to wake is when you’re coming out of deep sleep into lighter sleep. So if you set your alarm for, say, 7.30am, it’ll start monitoring your movements for the half hour before that. As soon as it senses you’re going from deep to lighter sleep, the bracelet starts vibrating. It has woken us with utter reliability, and has the advantage that if your significant other is waking later, this is a silent wake-up call that needn’t disturb everybody.

The problem is that in reality, it has almost always woken us 30 minutes before the alarm time, so we now set it 15 minutes later than we need to get up.

You can only set the smart alarms at 15 minute time differences: greater precision would be better. On the other hand, there have definitely been times when it has woken us at just the perfect moment, sleep-cycle-wise. If you have problems feeling lively in the morning, it may help.

A few little niggles

It’s a very cool device that has a lot going for it. But there’s one big downside and that’s the band itself. The silver cap that hides the earphone jack pops off easily. We’ve already lost one, and nearly lost a replacement cap about 20 times. It’s just not secure enough. Sure, it’ll work without the cap but it doesn’t look so pretty.

And the other end of the band has four sharp edges to the tip which scrape down the lining of your sleeve as you take a jacket on or off. It’s not hard to remember to take it off before you make this movement, but a less abrasive end would have been better.

Verdict:

If you need a nudge to become more active, the Jawbone Up is great to use, offers lots of detailed information. It can really help you to stay conscious of how active you are, what you’re eating and the quality of your sleep.

It’s light, comfy to wear for extended periods (make sure you get the right size) and even comes in a bunch of colours to suit your taste.

Tags:
Fitness Health Jawbone Jawbone Up

Jawbone Up originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Get ready with those new year resolutions. If one of them is going to include trying for a fitter, healthier you in 2012, Jawbone is here to help. Jawbone is best known as the maker of excellent Bluetooth headsets and a great portable speaker, the Jambox.

Its latest innovation is a wristband with built-in motion sensor. The idea is that if you’re trying to be healthy, just being conscious of your daily activity is likely to increase how active you are. The Up aims to be your fitness assistant.

What is it, exactly?

It’s a light, comfortable rubbery band that flexes open to put it on and off your wrist. To make the most of it, you need a smartphone. Right now, there’s an iPhone app, with Android to follow. There’s no Bluetooth on board this doohickey, so you connect it to your iPhone by popping off the little silvery Jawbone cap that sits on one end of the band.

Inside is a headphone connector that plonks into the phone so you can synchronise the Up’s data. You see, every step you take is noted by the Up, and recording the number of daily steps you take is one of its main functions. You can decide to start off low with a 5,000-steps-a-day target, or aim higher with 10,000, say. Synchronise the Up with your phone at the end of the day and it’ll give you the good or bad news. Manage 100 per cent of your target and the screen shows the achievement bathed in sunbeams.

If you’re going cycling, where your arm may not move much at all, you can use the iPhone’s GPS to measure your exercise accurately. And you can create challenges which other Up users can contribute to – walking to the moon (or the equivalent distance, obv) seems a big ask but if there are 1,000 of you, it’s doable. The idea is that communal challenges inspire you more.

Keeping track of sleep and food

There are two other elements Up manages – food and sleep. Food is average at best: when you have a meal, take a picture of it on the phone’s camera and a couple of hours later the phone will ask you to judge whether you’re energetic, stuffed, tired etc. The plan is you’ll get a clearer idea of what makes a good and nutritious meal.

Better is the sleep element. Press the end of the bracelet and it’ll switch to sleep mode, measuring your movements in that context. It knows when you’re awake, lightly asleep or deeply asleep just from the motion sensor. This gives you a clear analysis when you transfer the data the following morning. It’s excellent, confirming that you really did have a good night’s shut-eye or that you have good reason to feel bleary-eyed if you didn’t.

Wakes you up gently

And there’s another neat wrinkle: you can set a smart alarm. The best time to wake is when you’re coming out of deep sleep into lighter sleep. So if you set your alarm for, say, 7.30am, it’ll start monitoring your movements for the half hour before that. As soon as it senses you’re going from deep to lighter sleep, the bracelet starts vibrating. It has woken us with utter reliability, and has the advantage that if your significant other is waking later, this is a silent wake-up call that needn’t disturb everybody.

The problem is that in reality, it has almost always woken us 30 minutes before the alarm time, so we now set it 15 minutes later than we need to get up.

You can only set the smart alarms at 15 minute time differences: greater precision would be better. On the other hand, there have definitely been times when it has woken us at just the perfect moment, sleep-cycle-wise. If you have problems feeling lively in the morning, it may help.

A few little niggles

It’s a very cool device that has a lot going for it. But there’s one big downside and that’s the band itself. The silver cap that hides the earphone jack pops off easily. We’ve already lost one, and nearly lost a replacement cap about 20 times. It’s just not secure enough. Sure, it’ll work without the cap but it doesn’t look so pretty.

And the other end of the band has four sharp edges to the tip which scrape down the lining of your sleeve as you take a jacket on or off. It’s not hard to remember to take it off before you make this movement, but a less abrasive end would have been better.

Verdict:

If you need a nudge to become more active, the Jawbone Up is great to use, offers lots of detailed information. It can really help you to stay conscious of how active you are, what you’re eating and the quality of your sleep.

It’s light, comfy to wear for extended periods (make sure you get the right size) and even comes in a bunch of colours to suit your taste.

Tags:
Fitness Health Jawbone Jawbone Up

Jawbone Up originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Personal TV is here. Sort of. If you’re the type of person who endlessly fiddles with a TV’s settings mid-movie to howls of abuse from your co-habitees – largely to undo others’ ruinous work, obviously – Toshiba’s 37UL863 might just be the TV for you.

Using face detection tech from a built-in camera, this lounge-friendly 37-inch LED TV saves preset picture parameters and other customised info, instantly loading them whenever you slump in front of it. Customised settings can include login details and various tweaks in Toshiba Places, a newly refreshed online hub of ‘smart’ TV that offers several, err, places for video, photos and social media accounts.

We’ll come on to the success or otherwise of these two features, but know that the 37UL863B’s other features together make-up a thoroughly advanced TV.

HD and edge LED

Edge LED-backlighting is key to its success, though just as important is its Freeview HD tuner which should be de rigueur in 2011, though missed off some of Toshiba’s other offerings this year. And, for free-to-air satellite fans, Freesat HD – an increasingly hard to find add-on, and one that’s strangely not trumped-up in the 37UL863B’s marketing.

Freeview HD is treated sumptuously, with a thoroughly comprehensive electronic programme guide giving broadcast information across multiple channels at once while the current channel continues underneath. It’s helpful, too; the set even produces a message that reads thus: ‘A higher quality version of this service may be available. Do you wish to change channel to this service?’, which is a slightly wordy way of saying ‘Fancy watching a HD version?’. Of course we do, though an upscaled version of Cash in the Attic wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for.

USB recording

We quickly found the USB recording option, which makes it possible to record live broadcasts – as well as set timers for recordings – straight to a hard disk linked to the 37UL863B via USB. Doing so doesn’t exactly create a PVR-like environment, but it does also bring “+” features like pause/rewind live TV.

Better still, all this trickery is operated by a surprisingly sleek remote control. Longer and more slender than most, it features an aluminium slider that clicks into place to cover the pause/FF/RW and number buttons, making operating the top controls – principally the directional buttons and the channel and volume rockers – much easier. It can be slid down to rest on the bottom, exposing the number keys, but can’t cover the top buttons. It’s a nice feature, though it’s made more useful by the remote’s long design, something that without the slider would be difficult to operate with one hand.

For those who refuse to use anything without a touch-sensitive screen, the Toshiba TV Remote App is available for smartphones. We attempted to use it an iPhone 3GS, but it wouldn’t link up with a TV despite it being on our network. Perhaps it needs an iOS5 refresh?

Sockets and inputs

The 37UL863B’s ins and outs are rather generous, with four HDMI inputs and two USB slots – one of each placed on a side panel – and with component video in tow, too. Audio is via analogue phonos (two sets) or optical digital audio, with a headphones jack also on the side panel. Also there is a common interface slot for adding subscription TV to the Freeview tuner, and a composite video input.

Probably the most important connections though, are its Ethernet LAN and built-in Wi-Fi. Smart TV is an area that Toshiba has lagged behind in for the past couple of years, but it’s got its act together just in time; more than a quarter of all TVs sold this year can connect to a network. Still, the refreshed Toshiba Places won’t please everyone.

Toshiba’s smart TV

It’s easy enough to use, though a touch too busy in look – and suffers from the opposite problem regarding content. We weren’t able to get through to BBC iPlayer or YouTube from the dedicated VOD screen, though these two icons are also on the TV’s main user interface and both worked fine when accessed from there.

Besides, there’s little to get excited about in Places, which comprises the kind of ‘extra’ features no one really wants. Viewster, Box Office 365, Dailymotion, Aureo, Meteonews. It’s all a tad underwhelming.

The same could be said of the personal TV function, which as well as not being that useful unless you’ve got a load of different logins in Places, doesn’t recognise faces all that well. It’s a good idea though, and one we expect to see returning next year in an improved second-gen guise.

Networking and USB playback is a disparate experience in that the file formats handled aren’t the same, though we did manage MKV from a USB thumbdrive and AVI via DLNA from a netbook.

Picture and sound quality

The 37UL863B proves a great all-rounder with both Freeview and Blu-ray, and offers a nice smaller option for living rooms keener on restrained, plasma-like richness rather than the eye-popping brightness of most LCD TVs. Here, the colours look natural and brightness is toned-down nicely. ‘Cinematic’ is probably how best to describe its images, something that prompts us to recommend this to film fans, despite its immaculate behaviour with Freeview, too.

Don’t buy the 37UL863B expecting reference-level picture from Blu-ray, because you’ll be slightly disappointed by the occasional motion blur, light spillage from the LED-driven backlight, so-so contrast, and lack of detail in black areas of the image. But in terms of price, size and tech, the 37UL863B is on the money.

Sadly, that’s more than can be said for the speakers despite a ‘spatial’ surround sound mode that is at least a diversion from a lacklustre audio performance.

Verdict:

Armed with Wi-Fi, an almost plasma-like richness and BBC iPlayer, the 37UL863B will do a sterling job in living rooms looking to upsize and get online – and on a budget.

Nicely priced and with a slinky remote in tow, this 37-inch Edge LED doesn’t ever approach ultimate picture perfection, but remains a good value attempt at a TV with extras. It’s also one of the few TVs around with a Freesat HD tuner, which is here on top of Freeview HD.

Tags:
Televisions Toshiba Toshiba 37UL863

Toshiba 37UL863 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:01:31 +0000

The Klipsch Image S4a are specifically designed for Android devices, which makes them something of a rare breed. “Made for iPhone” has been around for a number of years, but “Made for Android” hasn’t. It’s only really in 2011 that we’ve seen the move to accommodate Androider’s needs through the likes of the Philips Fidelio AS851.

The Klipsch Image line does also cover those Apple products, as well as generic PC uses, coming from a line of headphones that are no stranger to quality, so we have high expectations. But will these meet the demands of the discerning Android user?

Design

The Klipsch Image S4a are designed with a bend in the body. This means the in-ear element is slightly angled from the body of the headphones. Although we’ve seen more substantial cable connections on headphones, the s4As feel solid enough. The bodies are light but feel like they will withstand a certain amount of abuse.

The earphones can be worn in two ways, either conventionally by plugging straight into the ear, or with the cable looped over the top of your ears. The latter route fits the angled design of the monitors, so they fit into the recess of your outer ear, rather than projecting forwards.

Looping the cables over your ears also means increased stability and this is suggested as “sport fit”. There is a slider on the cable that can be used to reduce cable movement and keep everything in place. However this may not be the most practical, as the in-line mic and controller is then held tight against your neck and isn’t as easy to get to.

You get a range of different tips in the box, special oval tips designed to increase comfort over long periods, which should help you get the perfect fit for your lugholes.

Don’t worry, be Appy

There is a control button on the Klipsch Image S4a, which uses a series of presses for different actions. This isn’t all natively supported by Android, however, so to unlock the full potential of these headphones you’ll have to download an app. Inside the packaging you’ll find a QR code.

Strangely this QR code doesn’t take you to the app it’s asking you to download, but to the Klipsch website, so it’s not really worth the effort. However, searching for Klipsch on the Android Market works fine.

This app then enables the button controls, and lets you customise various features. You can have a default music app that launches when you connect your headphones, you can set what a double press does and so on, as well as defining the speed of a double press. This is well worth doing, as initially the double press wasn’t detected for us – lightening fast, you see. Conveniently there is a “custom” setting that will detect the speed and set the app accordingly.

After that, things work as they should. You simply use the headphones and everything works. Should you decide not to use the app, you’ll find that you probably only get play/pause functions, but essentially, the headphones work perfectly well with other devices. Should you also happen to have an Apple device, you’ll find the single button works as it should, but obviously there are no volume controls.

Despite the lack of proper volume controls, volume can be changed on your Android device with a long press of the button. This cycles through different volumes, so whilst it isn’t as direct as simply pressing a button to step up or down a notch, the end result is more or less the same in an round-about sort of way. The Klipsch app also lets you define maximum and minimum volumes, as well as the starting volume, so you’ll never find yourself deafened.

Sweet beats

If you’ve never used oval tips before you might find them a little unusual, but we didn’t have a problem fitting or wearing them. They were comfortable, although at times we had to give them a wiggle as they felt they were a little too deep into our ears. They did an excellent job of isolating external noise however, which is the more important point.

That sets up the Klipsch S4a to a great start, leading onto great all round performance. Klipsch have something of a reputation for great headphones and that’s true of the S4a too. Bass is handled with skill, making these a good choice if you enjoy a lively low range. But this isn’t to the detriment of mid and high range. It’s a sound profile that we like very much. They perhaps aren’t the most accomplished of in-ear headphones when it comes to clarity, but they leave us little to complain about.

The volumes they will produce is certainly louder than we’d ever want to listen to, so we’re grateful the app can be used to set a limit. They’re also more affordable than some at ?89, which sounds like a sweet deal.

Verdict:

Good performance and an app that really helps, the Klipsch Image S4a are a set of headphones that will do your Android device proud, whilst not sacrificing compatibility with other devices.

That said, we did note that they didn’t work properly on the Samsung Galaxy S – something we’ve experienced before and something worth checking before you part with your cash.

The lack of a proper volume control is also a bit of an irritation in reality. Although the single button press gets you where you want to be, having used the S4a for about a month, we’re left wishing for a regular volume rocker.

Definitely worthy of consideration if your music device of choice is Android-powered.

Tags:
Audio Headphones Klipsch Klipsch Image S4A Android

Klipsch Image S4A originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Whether or not you’ve been impressed by 3D enough to have it at home, would you seriously consider buying a big, expensive TV that couldn’t flirt with the third dimension at all?

Panasonic has taken this quandary of modern times, and thus designed a plasma to suit. Measuring 50-inches in the diagonal and boasting online features galore, the ST30 doesn’t come with any 3D glasses.

Optional extras

That explains the low price, then. Unfortunately the 3D glasses needed for this active shutter 3D plasma screen cost north of ?100. The add-ons don’t stop there, either. Despite the inclusion of Viera Connect, an enticing mix of on-demand fare from YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Acetrax, Viewster – and even a selection of games – the ST30 has only a wired option for connecting-up to a broadband router.

A WiFi dongle is available for lodging at one of the set’s two USB slots, but that’ll cost you another ?70-or-so. Oh, and did we mention Skype? To satiate your desire to make video – in HD, no less – calls to friends will cost another ?100+ for a Panasonic-made kit.

Happily, you can say a great big ‘no thanks’ to all of this frippery and enjoy an increasingly rare breed of TV; a cut-down, bare bones, and rather brilliant plasma from a big brand, which does what it needs to – and a little more besides – for a reasonable price.

Strong in all the right places

Core duties are completed with the minimum of fuss. For starters, there’s a Freeview HD tuner that seems essential on a Full HD screen as big as this. It’s not got a very attractive EPG in tow, but it works fast and simple recordings can be made to a hard disk over USB.

While watching we did wonder if, indeed, a tuner sporting those paltry few HD channels is strictly necessary, for the ST30 upscales standards definition very well. Detail drops, of course, but some resolution enhancer circuitry manages to smooth jagged edges and keeps the picture noise to an absolute minimum.

2D Blu-ray also shines, and though we’re not convinced it matches-up to a similar-sized LCD TV in terms of crystal clarity, there’s a smoothness and rosy colour palette that could only come from a good quality plasma. Contrast is good, for sure, though Panaosnic’s GT30 and VT30 plasmas do better; shadow detail can be on the low side, though there’s no arguing about the deepness of those blacks.

Optional 3D is solid

Over to 3D and the ST30 also does a sterling job. It may be an optional add-on, but there’s no way part of its fee isn’t going towards making sure 3D is up to spec, should you choose to make use of it.

It’s not always comfortable to watch; fast action sequences can cause headaches as picture elements whizz around your eyes and cause flicker. Judder is also more apparent than on 2D, but for most Avatar we had few problems – and the panoramic shots around Pandora were gorgeous. Donning those specs deepens black levels a tad too far for our liking, but colours fly from the screen, without the brightness problems of most LCD TVs.

Sounds fine

Audio is nothing special, but when is it ever on a flat TV? But Viera Connect most definitely is. It’s one of our favourite smart TV hubs now it’s got BBC iPlayer built-in, and though it does have a ‘euro’ feel to some of its apps, we can see a bright future for Viera Connect. Better looking than rival platforms and faster to respond to the remote – not to mention the Viera Remote smartphone app – all it needs is Lovefilm and more VOD-based services to succeed. And we love its expanding marketplace that comes complete with paid-for games like Asphalt 5.

All awesome stuff, but there are some disappointing omissions. Some will hate losing a Freesat HD tuner when compared to higher-ranking, pricer Panasonics, others the plain chassis design, or the 3D/WiFi/Skype accessories.

What we disliked most was the lack of DLNA networking. We managed to play a host of video files from a USB stick shoved in the ST30’s back connections panel, including MKV and AVI types, but it’s not possible to have them stream from a PC or Mac. That expensive WiFi dongle is purely for Viera Connect, then. It’s a corner cut too far or on otherwise well judged attempt.

Verdict:

If you can’t decide if 3D is for you or not, Panasonic’s latest giant plasma is the ideal starting point. While you save up for 3D specs, the ST30 will wow you with colourful, and sharp images from Blu-ray, Freeview HD and digital files via USB.

It lacks the finery of pricier plasmas from Panasonic, and the cost of accessories can mount up, but as it stands this is a good value plasma that will be an upgrade far enough for many living rooms after a cinema-like experience.

Tags:
Televisions Panasonic Panasonic TX-P50ST30 Home Cinema Plasma televisions

Panasonic TX-P50ST30 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:01:56 +0000