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Beyerdynamic T1: Mercedes-Benz of headphones

You can buy a set of great full-size headphones for $100 from Grado or Sennheiser, but if you want to pick up one of the world's best headphones, be prepared to spend more than $1,000. Granted, no one needs a $1,000 headphone to listen to music or a $140,000 Porsche Panamera Turbo sedan to drive to work, but they're nice things to have. That's why we cover them on CNET.

Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, Grado, and Ultrasone's latest attempts to advance the state-of-the-art are really expensive, but before the introduction of the T1, Beyerdynamic's top models all carried an MSRP of less than $400. With the Tesla T1, Beyerdynamic joined the $1,000-and-greater club; it sells for $1,295.

Steep prices haven't stopped the high-end headphone market from booming, and Beyerdynamic can't keep up with the demand for the T1. It's hand-built and tested in the company's headquarters in Heilbronn, Germany.

Its padded leather headband and soft earpads provide high comfort levels, and while we were testing the T1 over some rather hot and humid late spring days, the headphone remained comfy for hours on end. The T1 comes packed in a very impressive aluminum storage case.

According to Beyerdynamic, the T1's transducer is the first to produce more than one Tesla of magnetic flux density (hence the T1 designation). A more powerful magnet better controls the diaphragm's movement, which should produce lower distortion.

Most of the T1's outer earcup is covered with a finely woven wire mesh, which allows the user to hear outside sounds. Actually, the T1 is classified as a "semi-open" design, so it partially limits how much sound the wearer would hear, compared with open Sennheiser and Grado designs. The T1's thick cable is just shy of 10 feet long (118 inches) and it's fitted with a 6.3mm connector. Beyerdynamic doesn't include a 3.5mm adapter for use with iPods or other portable devices.

I listened to the T1 with three different amplifiers: an Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver, Woo Audio WA6-SE vacuum tube amp, and Burson Audio HA-160 solid-state headphone amp ($699). Beyerdynamic's headphone amp, the A1 ($849), would likely be a serious contender, but I didn't have a chance to try it. … Read more

Count your PDFs

Traction Software's Rapid PDF Count is a simple tool that can save you time and frustration by showing you how many pages are in a PDF document with a click. It also counts words and characters, displays the number of files and the size of each, and more.

This efficient tool opens with a nag screen in the trial version. The main interface is small and sparse but cleanly laid out, with a file menu and a spreadsheet-like file display. You can drag the count headings to reposition them, an essential feature, we feel. The Setup menu calls up … Read more

20-app showdown: iPhone vs. iPad

A few weeks back we put together some screenshots of games on the iPhone versus their iPad iterations. It was a resounding hit with the exception of our execution, which was to shoehorn the lovely, full-size comparisons into a little under 600-pixel-width screens. To make amends for this, we're giving it another go. But this time we're taking a look at some popular non-game applications, as well as bringing it to you in pixel-for-pixel goodness.

You'll find that not all of the apps on this list are necessarily better than their pocket counterparts. In fact, in a few cases they look or function a little worse. There are, however, quite a few that offer a dramatically different experience than what's available for smaller screens. Read on to see what we dug up.

Editor's note: To see the full-size version of each screen, you just need to click on it. Hitting the back button in your browser will bring you right back to the story. You can also click through these in slideshow form by hitting the link just below this text.

1. Evernote (free, universal) Evernote is an office favorite and one of the few note-taking and archiving apps that's a free download on just about every platform under the sun. As you can see, the difference in the amount of notes you're able to see is quite dramatic. Not shown are the extra options you get when creating a note, including being able to record audio as you type, as well as actually see what you're typing since the keyboard doesn't get in the way as much.

2. Box.net (free, universal) We got a preview of the Box.net iPad app ahead of its launch. The obvious benefit (as seen below) is that you can see the source list of a folder alongside its content. When held sideways, this list stays on screen--that is, unless you want to hide it. As mentioned in an earlier look, the iPad version is miles ahead of its pocket-size sibling in ease of reading and skipping around but is currently missing a way to upload files to your account. Both versions are also missing a way to store files locally--something we've been told is coming.

3. eBay (free: iPad version, iPhone version) For skimming things like item descriptions and checking out the close-ups of a used gadget you want to buy, the iPad version of eBay is far more efficient. It's also got a neat way to narrow down how much you want to pay for items in the search results by selection a portion of a timeline--just as if you were editing a movie clip in QuickTime or on the iPhone 3GS. Sadly missing from the iPad version, however, are push notifications. This means you won't be able to get a quick heads up if you've been outbid on an item. You're also unable to view other items from a seller, which can be a good way to tell if you're barking up the wrong tree on what you think is a one-of-a-kind piece. … Read more

Leave your mark

Watermarks are an important part of image processing if you want to share your images online without the fear of having them ripped off by unscrupulous strangers. uMark Professional is an extremely versatile, yet easy, way to leave your mark on your images, letting the whole world know that they belong to you.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, with its features arranged in four separate tabs. Users simply select the image or images they want to watermark and then adjust a series of text and logo options. uMark allows users to enter text and then specify its … Read more

The 404 557: Where we just add water (podcast)

Wilson's taking a three-day weekend to recuperate from last week's Apple madness, so Natali takes his place to kick off this week of Apple-free episodes...not. Just when you thought Apple would let someone else have the news spotlight, out comes Stop the Madness Steve Jobs, an open letter written by developer Jack Freeman about Apple recently changing the requirements in the iPhone OS terms of service, limiting the programming languages developers can use to create applications.

According to the letter, "these new terms will shut down many current developers, and disallow many popular game engines and other "middlewares." The article also pleads with Jobs to filter the current app store based on quality of the end product instead of the programming methods. There's no petition to sign, but Jack encourages all supportive developers to comment on the letter and forward it to friends!

Meanwhile, in Droid country, a YouTube channel called DROIDshortcuts is showing off codes that let you use the phone to access very "special" features including changing traffic lights and improving your billiards game.

The most controversial app lets you detect a woman's bra size with a simple swipe of the handset. The video demo posted shows a couple guys walking into a "random" bar and asking the bartender's permission to "scan" her female parts with the Droid, although we're pretty sure this is old technology--version 1.0 didn't even need a phone; it was just called using your eyes.

Finally, we have some bad news for fans of "Arrested Development"--the much-discussed movie adaptation might actually be dead in the water, or at least that's what star David Cross recently said to a reporter, claiming too much time has passed since the series finale. It's not an official death sentence, so we'll just have to assume that the movie would've been a crappy, stretched-out version of the series anyway. Hopefully.

EPISODE 557 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Open RAR files on a Mac

RAR Expander is a free utility for expanding archive files with the .rar format (typically received from PC users). The Mac OS used to come bundled with software that could expand .rar files, but now you need to install a separate program--such as RAR Expander--if you need to work with them.

RAR Expander doesn't have a particularly pretty interface, but it expands files quickly and reliably. All you have to do is choose Expand from the app's File menu (which is the only command in the app's File menu), browse to find the .rar archive that you … Read more

File fanatic

After months--or years--of use, our computers often become cluttered with unnecessary files that take up valuable hard drive space and negatively affect system performance. We know that we need to perform file maintenance, but that's a task that easier said than done. TreeSize Personal is an easy way to see exactly what's taking up space on your computer and figure out how to deal with it.

The program's interface is a little cluttered at first glance, but it's fairly easy to figure out. The main features are organized in tabs that allow users to view the … Read more

The 404 545: Where we've got an intern for the day (but he won't get us coffee) (podcast)

404-listener Blake Stevenson heard us fanning out on The Sandlot during yesterday's episode, so he whipped up a 404ified poster for today's blog image. Thanks Blake!

It's almost the end of the work week, so Natali Del Conte is on the show and she's bringing the dirty starting with the queen of filthy pop, Lady Gaga. According to video analytics company Visible Measures, the diva has just become the first artist ever to achieve one billion online video views thanks to her three hit singles: Poker Face, Just Dance, and Bad Romance. If you're new to Gaga fandom, you have a lot of homework to do, because the one billion doesn't even count her live performances, video diaries, and popular interviews--not to mention her upcoming 3D concert DVD. Speaking of which, anyone have extra tickets to the sold-out MSG show in July?

On a completely unrelated note, law enforcement can now expose and track pedophiles by their typing habits. Apparently the typing speed and rhythms of these predators are unique and researching are currently investigating ways to identify the typist's age, sex, and culture within TEN KEYSTROKES! We're fully backing any new methods that put these idiots behind bars, but with no explanation of exactly how pedophiles type, we can't help but be skeptical with their findings. How about casting a smaller net and focusing on the dude asking for a WEP password at Chuck E. Cheese?

Be sure to stick around to hear Natali and the guys debunk 5 myths about the male body, starting with this foolish rumor about shoe size. The days of being too ashamed to ask a shoe salesperson for your size 7 loafers are over!

All this and more stories guaranteed to leave a bitter taste in your mouth, plus a new "E-mails From the Public" segment that forces us to question our potty-mouth promos. Talk to you tomorrow!

EPISODE 545 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Outline disk usage with Grand Perspective (review)

The last time I needed an exercise in frustration, I tried using the Finder to locate files that were taking up the most space on my disk. While the program is great for navigating the filesystem and locating items, when getting information on files or folders, or setting the Finder to automatically calculate file sizes, the "Calculating size..." process can sometimes pause for several minutes, and sometimes for tens of minutes. After the sizes are eventually calculated, the system will only list them and not really give you a good feel of which are using the most space. The utility Grand Perspective does a good job at tackling this limitation.… Read more