ambient

For those wondering why Apple did not include an ambient light sensor in its latest iPod Touch, a purported e-mail exchange between a top executive and a customer -- ahem -- shines some light on the subject.

Apple news site iDownloadBlog posts what it says is a back and forth between Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller and a customer talking about the lack of a sensor in Apple's recently released fifth-generation iPod model.

According to Schiller's message, which remains unconfirmed, the device is "just too thin" to fit one:

The ambient light sensor does just what … Read more

I don't run without music. I just get too bored. But a few beats into songs by, say, The Knife, and my feet are pounding the pavement hard. I'm also perpetually safety-conscious, though, which means I tend to avoid Portland's beautiful but busy waterfront loop in favor of quiet streets with low traffic.

So I have long hoped for the perfect sports headphones that are durable, comfortable, and let the ambient noise in. Enter AIRbudz, the alternative earbud attachments that Utah-based entrepreneur (and jogger) Tammy Erdel is raising funds for on Kickstarter.

AIRbudz deal with external sound blockage by incorporating air channels into their 3D-printed buds that quite simply let ambient sound stream in. The ambient noise is obviously still competing with whatever sounds are pumping through the headphones, but that sound doesn't appear to be in any way altered or compromised.… Read more

In 2006, Sam Liang of Google started to work on the company's geolocation project. It was his team, he says, that created the back-end technology that enabled the creation of the blue dot on Google's mobile maps: the one that tells you where you are.

Now, six years later and at his own company, Alohar Mobile, he's working on a new blue dot: one that's both more precise and that uses far less battery life.

What he's trying to do is create an "ambient" location tracking technology. (Mark that word: ambient. It's … Read more

You may not have been happy when Apple released the iPhone 4S instead of an iPhone 5, but a lot of case makers were. That's because at first glance their existing iPhone 4 cases seemed to work just fine with the new model, which meant that they didn't have to scramble to create new designs and had a ready supply of cases available for the 4S.

But that was before someone noticed that Apple had made a small but somewhat crucial design change: it moved the ambient-light sensor a few millimeters to the left. That created a problem … Read more

Philips recently released its Ambient LED 17/75-watt-equivalent retailing for $39.97. As it indicates, the bulb gives off roughly the equivalent light of a 75-watt incandescent bulb, but uses only 17 watts of power to do it.

Many sites have been doing head-to-head tests of various LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs coming on the market. However, I'm often asked where someone can find just a "regular person review" on how LEDs stack up against CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) and the soon-to-be-phased-out incandescents without getting too buried in stats on lumens, kelvins, wattage, and the rest of the … Read more

3D Music Player Pro gives you some interesting options for enriching the sound of your music, and it does a pretty good job with only a few flaws. Upon launch, use the plus-sign button in the upper left to add a couple of songs from your music library and test the various effects. Once they're queued up, you can play a song and then touch the 3D Sound button to hear the basic audio enhancements in the app. We noticed a difference immediately in our testing, with the app adding a much fuller and warmer sound to our music.… Read more

Many vehicles on the road today offer ambient cabin lighting, and Ford vehicles have offered customizable ambient light colors for some time. The 2012 Ford Focus' cabin has this customizable LED ambient lighting setup, but also includes a few new features that add quite a bit of functionality to what was once just a styling option.

A new mode called "search light" allows users to, at the touch of a button, change the lighting color to white and increase the brightness of door, footwell, and cupholder lights to help quickly find dropped items. Sure, cars have had dome … Read more

Cardiac patients undergoing procedures at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) starting Thursday may find themselves either immersed in a Disney World setting or the African Savannah, with accompanying audio playing in the background. It's part of a testbed project by the center involving Philips' Ambient Experience to soothe patients through the intimidating clinical process of preparation, examination, treatment, and post-procedure.

The Ambient Experience takes patients on a multimedia ride, letting them personalize the lighting, projected images, and sounds in the examination or lab room. The 10 themes can be selected via a menu on a wireless touch-screen tablet, with more themes on the way. Once picked, the patient's choice is projected on the walls and ceilings and through TV screens, wrapping the user in a multi-sensory setting of his or her own choosing.

So far, the Ambient Experience appears to have had a positive impact on the three patients who earlier sampled it. According to 75-year-old Neo Bee, who was at the cardiac catheterization laboratory to have angioplasty to open her blocked arteries, "I saw birds and kangaroos on the ceiling and there was soothing music, too. I felt calm and relaxed."… Read more

ChatterBlocker is an app designed to help you concentrate and be more productive in noisy environments. It doesn't somehow cancel or block out noise, but rather it's intended to "blur unwanted speech," rendering conversations unintelligible so they won't distract you.

ChatterBlocker plays a combination of voices, nature sounds, and music, in several preset options or using an advanced interface that lets you mix and match. Since the effectiveness of an application like this is so peculiar and personal, this ability to tweak is extremely useful, no matter what particular sound fetish works for you. (Need … Read more