The Gadgets Page

Several companies were demonstrating analog watches that incorporate flash memory and MP3 players. While I prefer digital watches, I suppose there’s some appeal in a watch that looks classy and businesslike but still plays your tunes. Here’s a roundup of three companies’ MP3 watches.

XONIX MP3 Watches

China’s XONIX had a selection of USB storage and MP3 watches. They range from plastic to classy metallic. Some of the plastic ones have a fold-out USB cable, while the metal ones use a connector.

They also offer a digital model that looks nice, although I’m not sure about the sideways display.

KJB Security Solutions

KJB Security Solutions also offered an analog MP3 watch, the MP1700, although they mostly focus on other products. It has 256 MB of memory.

eClipse (NTREN Technologies)

Last but not least, nTren Technologies offered a variety of styles of watches, all analog. Unlike the others, these come in a decent flash memory size—512 MB and 1 GB. They charge through the USB interface or an AC adapter, and last about 10 hours on a charge. Windows and Mac OS are supported.

Conclusion

These are all relatively low-tech watches with MP3 players tucked inside, but they’re sure an improvement over the giant Casio MP3 player watches that were available a few years ago. A watch probably isn’t the best place for an MP3 player—imagine your watch connected to your ears—but I guess it might work for some people. Regardless, it’s great to see MP3 player technology becoming so tiny it can fit in a normal-sized watch.

At your typical electronics or department store it’s easy to find all kinds of headphones—in-the-ear types, tiny earbuds, and various strange shapes that don’t fit anyone’s ears. (Are you listening, Nike?) It’s becoming harder to find cheap headphones that are shaped like plain old headphones, but fortunately Sony still makes some nice ones.

Sony’s MDR-V750 headphones are a low-end “studio” model, which means they’re not really pocket-sized. They’re still small and portable compared to my MDR-7506 studio monitor headphones, and much cheaper ($30).

Design and Fit

These are shaped like a smaller version of the larger studio phones, but still fit my ears nicely. The vinyl cushions are circular, with a hole in the middle, which prevents them from being too warm, although they’re still warmer on the ears than lightweight models.

The V250 headphones won’t be winning any design awards, since they’re the same shape as HAM radio operators were using 50 years ago, but it’s a tried and true design that works. The headband is wide and sturdy, and adjusts in size for a good fit.

The earpads can fold 180 degrees away from your ear, which is nice for temporarily opening an ear to listen to what’s going on. Unfortunately, unlike the larger 7506’s, the headphones don’t fold into a more portable shape.

Sound Quality

They may not be as portable as some, or look great with your tiny iPod, but these headphones do sound great. The bass response is very good, and with the closed design, ambient sounds are blocked very well. The high end also sounds great, and there’s none of the mushy midrange tones I associate with cheap headphones. It’s very easy to isolate different parts of complex music.

I’m not an expert nor have I hooked them up to a spectrum analyzer, but the frequency response curve sounds realistic and pretty close to neutral—nothing exaggerated, which is important when you’re using them to monitor music you’re producing yourself.

Features

These headphones have a nice bonus feature: a built-in volume control. Unlike many inline controls, it seems quite sturdy, and the sound is great both at low and high volume. There’s also a stereo/mono switch, which comes in handy when you’re mastering your own music and want to test different listening conditions. It’s also a fun toy to fiddle with while you’re listening to music with a strong stereo separation.

The supplied cord is not detachable, as is standard for cheap headphones, but it is long and unusually thick, and looks like it can take a beating. A 1/8″ standard headphone plug is attached, and a 1/4″ adapter is supplied for plugging into non-portable equipment.

Conclusion

Sony’s MDR-V250 is a great set of low-priced headphones for studio use or casual music listening. The volume control is a nice feature, the sound quality is about the best I’ve heard on headphones under $100, and you can’t beat the price.

The beginning of the year is always a good time to look back at the past year. Since I haven’t found any interesting lists of gadgets released in 2005, here’s a PC World article that looks back a bit further:

• PC World: The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

While the obvious iPods and RAZR phones are there, the list also includes some classic gadgets you may remember—or your parents may—like the first Sony Walkman portable stereo, the PalmPilot 1000 PDA, and the first mass-produced transistor radio, pictured at right. And don’t forget the TRS-80 Model 100, the laptop computer I spent my teenage years dreaming of owning.

As with all “top 50″ lists, it’s open to second-guessing—I for one think there are too many gadgets from the last decade on the list, and what’s the silly robot dog doing there?—but it’s fun to take a look back at the gadgets that were so exciting when they first appeared.

Live from CES… Filed under: Site News — Michael Moncur @ 6:00 am

Laura and I will be attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, and posting daily items of interest here and at Starling Fitness. CES posts will begin on Wednesday, January 4th.

CES is where many companies announce their latest gadgets, or show off concepts for future products. As usual, we’ll try to stick to “real world” gadgets that you’ll actually see on the shelves soon, but we might cover some of the pie-in-the-sky gadgets too.

You shouldn’t expect total coverage of CES here, of course—it’s a gigantic show, and we’re covering it with a staff of two people. What you can expect is our perspective: each day we’ll post about a few new gadgets that we found the most innovative or interesting.

Enjoy the CES coverage! Comments (0)