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A cutaway drawing of an Ohm CLS Driver.

(Credit: Ohm Acoustics)

Ohm offers a micro tower that will even fit in cramped rooms.

(Credit: Ohm Acoustics)

I remember listening to Ohm Acoustics speakers ages ago, but I've lost track of the company. Founded in 1971, Ohm Acoustics is still around and still building all of its speakers in Brooklyn.

Ohm speakers feature radical technology, and it's not just that they're omnidirectional designs.

Ohm Micro Walsh tower speakers.

(Credit: Ohm Acoustics)

Quoting from the Ohm Web site, here's how the technology works: "The Ohm CLS Driver is a vertical line source that combines inherently perfect time and phase alignment and uniform polar frequency response....At the source, the sound originates simultaneously from the face of the super tweeter and the top of the inverted cone driver..." Translation: they sound good.

The CLS Driver looks like a downward-facing cone, but its sound radiates up and out, in a near 360-degree radiation pattern. In all Ohm designs a single CLS Driver produces bass, midrange, and most treble frequencies; no wonder it sounds nothing like speakers that use separate woofer, midrange, and tweeter drivers.

During my recent factory visit I listened to a set of Ohm Micro Walsh speakers ($1,000 a pair). They're skinny towers: 36 inches high, 6 inches by 6 inches wide, and deep. Even within the huge factory space, the wee towers sounded huge. Bass wasn't super deep, but it was rich and warm. There's no need to add a subwoofer for stereo systems; and larger Ohm speakers sound much the same but can play louder and make deeper bass.

Generally, I've been a big fan of Windows 7. From the beta to the release candidate to the release-to-manufacturing "official" release, upgrading has been a stable, sane experience. Except for two repeated problems, that is.

From the Devices and Printers window, you can see that double-clicking on a device does not guarantee that Device Stage supports it. Also, notice the lack of driver support for the Ericsson mobile broadband card.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

In some cases, driver compatibility is still an issue. It's not as big as it was with the beta, which suffered from problems that everybody was expecting. However, as you can see from the error warning at the bottom of this image, Ericsson has yet to release a stable driver for the mobile broadband card in my Lenovo T400. The longer that Windows 7 is in the wild, the fewer of these compatibility issues are expected to crop up, but it is notable that there are still some holes that need plugging on the official release day.

Frustratingly, there's not much of a solution at this point. Always run your Windows Update first, and if that doesn't find a fix you can force a driver-specific update search through the Control Panel. Going to the manufacturer's Web site and looking to see if Windows just hasn't detected an official update is the next step, followed by looking for a potentially unstable beta version if you're comfortable with that. You should also check the manufacturer's user forums in case an update was linked to there.

The much-applauded Device Stage is the source of the second snag I've repeatedly encountered. Devices are always detected, but only devices made by manufacturers that have created the requisite XML image files will receive the visually-enhanced Device Stage treatment. Devices such as iPods, iPhones, Zunes, and Windows Mobile phones that have their own manufacturer-made interface experiences won't take advantage of the easy-to-see pictures in the Device Stage, nor will they appear on your taskbar. At least, in my experience they haven't.

Microsoft used to have a list of supported devices on its Web site, but that seems to have disappeared at some point before today. I can confirm that many HP printers are supported, as well as the Sansa Fuze, Clip, Clip+, and View Personal Media Players; the Canon Pixma MP990 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One Printer; the Epson Artisan 800 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer; and the Sony Walkman E Series and S Series video/MP3 players.

If you can confirm that a specific device works in Device Stage, or if you're having problems with one, please let us know in the comments below.

Windows 7 64-bit will soon take over desktop computers.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

Consumers have had the option of 64-bit Windows computing since the release of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition in May 2005, four years after the release of Windows XP 32-bit. At the end of 2006, Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit versions were released simultaneously. Yet chances are you're currently using a machine that runs the 32-bit version of Windows.

This is about to change. Windows 64-bit has started to gain a significant foothold in the past two years as more systems ship with 3GB or more of memory. However, with Windows 7, 64-bit computing is likely to become even more common.

What's the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit computing? In a nutshell, the numbers refer to the amount of bits a computer can process in one computation. They also translate into the amount of random access memory (RAM) a computer can address. A 32-bit Windows computer can address a maximum of 4GB of RAM, while a 64-bit Windows machine can address up to 128GB and even more (64-bit applications can address theoretically up to 16 billion gigabytes of memory). So the higher number of bit means better computing, both in terms of precision and capability.

Despite the potential, the transition to the new platform has been slow. This is because of the high price of RAM and the lack of device drivers and 64-bit software applications. (Drivers are a special type of software that make hardware components work with the operating system. Without the sound driver, for example, your computer wouldn't be able to play music.)

Back when Windows Vista was released, 2GB of RAM, which is the recommended amount to make Vista run properly, could easily cost a couple hundred dollars. (This is one of the reasons Vista failed so badly as a new OS release.) There was virtually no 64-bit application then, either, other than a few game demos, and most hardware vendors didn't provide the 64-bit version of the drivers. Apart from this, 32-bit computers have been able to satisfy most of our daily computing needs.

File this one under "driver tech" instead of "car tech." The State of New York has started offering driver's licenses embedded with RFID chips, or enhanced driver's licenses (EDLs). The news comes on the heels of New York becoming the second state to offer identification that can be shown at the border in lieu of a U.S. passport (which is also RFID-embedded).

(Credit: New York DMV)

The radio frequency identification chip in the EDL will be able to be scanned by authorities to identify citizens entering the state from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. Intercontinental travelers will still need to produce a passport to enter the country.

Authorities say no personal information will be stored or transmitted by the chip, only an identification number. Those who don't necessarily trust the powers that be can opt for a standard license, which doesn't work as a passport, or look into getting an RFID-blocking wallet and an aluminum foil hat.

The new EDLs will be available at a $30 premium over the standard $50 licensing fee. If you think $80 is a lot for a driver's license, consider that the cost of a standard New York license plus that of a United States passport is about $150.

Following up on the success of their FireWire Speakers, LaCie has announced another collaboration with designer Neil Poulton. This model retains the same minimalist design aesthetic but draws power from USB instead of Firewire for plug-and-play compatibility with most PC and Mac computers.

Created with the "en vogue" consumer in mind, the USB Speakers let you forgo standard audio cables and replace them with a single USB cord. All the juice needed to power the set is drawn from the computer's bus, and a single wire connects the left and right speakers.

The speakers are shaped like small, white silos and feature a stylish black and white finish with a matte-texturized overlay covering the 2-inch drivers. The underside of one of the speakers contains an additional line-in port as well as a DC-in for external power (adapter not included). The speakers are available now for $60.

The Linux Foundation is trying to push Nvidia to make its graphics drivers more accessible. The Foundation's beef: closed drivers make Linux look unstable to end users.

Though a statement issued Monday does not cite Nvidia by name, Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Chair James Bottomley cited Nvidia in a phone interview. "My intent is to point out the problems Nvidia has been causing themselves with their binary-only (drivers)," he said. "They are certainly one of the few companies sticking to a binary-only strategy." Binary-only means the drivers are essentially closed.

"We...consider any closed-source Linux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable," the official statement begins. "Vendors that provide closed-source kernel modules force their customers to give up key Linux advantages or choose new vendors."

But Bottomley gets much more specific than this. "Their (Nvidia's) binary module is one of the top causes of kernel crashes, which makes Linux look bad," he said.

"Nvidia does a reasonable job of Q-and-A-ing (quality assurance) of a certain number of configurations but the problem is that their configurations (are) a lot less than what's actually out there on the market," Bottomley said.

In the past, Intel had been the target of open-source advocates, but the chipmaker is now a leading open-source code provider. And graphics-chip supplier ATI Technologies, acquired in 2006 by Advanced Micro Devices, is open source too, Bottomley said. He did, however, cite some outstanding problems with an ATI "FireGL" driver.

"It's basically a reflection of the fact that graphics is one of the most complex and most difficult areas of technology that sits in a computer nowadays," he added.

Nvidia says it provides a high-quality Linux driver. "Nvidia supports Linux, as well as the Linux community and has long been praised for the quality of the Nvidia Linux driver," Nvidia said in a response to an e-mail query.

But the graphics chip maker defends its binary-only policy. "Nvidia's fully featured Linux graphics driver is provided as binary-only because it contains intellectual property Nvidia wishes to protect, both in hardware and in software," according to Nvidia.

"We try to make things open source whenever it makes sense," Nvidia said. The company cited examples here and here.

"To assume that customers won't have access to open-source updates from Linux kernel.org if they use closed source modules is not correct," Nvidia said. "Nvidia's Linux graphics driver kernel module is structured so that all the code that is Linux-specific is provided in source code as a 'kernel interface layer.' When customers upgrade their kernel to get the latest from kernel.org, they have everything they need to rebuild (and even patch, if necessary) the Nvidia's driver's kernel interface layer."

See: Linux developers petition for open Linux kernel drivers and ZDNet report here.

Cars and the Nintendo DS will soon be a less dangerous, and more education experience.

(Credit: CNET Networks / Josh Lowensohn)

Soon drivers manuals made out of paper will be a thing of the past. At least that's what DreamCatcher Games and JoWooD Productions are hoping with the upcoming Nintendo DS title Drivers Ed Portable.

DS owners who purchase the title will get a complete training system for the written portion of their state's driving exam, along with three smaller gaming elements that have been designed to put those skills to use in a safe, virtual environment. The game isn't limited to the U.S. either--there are also training modes for Canada and most of Europe with localized rules that are then reflected in the mini-games.

DreamCatcher Games might be most well known for its shooter series Painkiller, which helped spawn gaming celebrity Johnathan Wendel, also known as Fatal1ty. Presumably Drivers Ed Portable involves less shooting and more parallel parking.

News release (@ Gamespot)

[via OhGizmo]

(Credit: Pink Tentacle)

There are a number of technologies on the market aimed at keeping us from falling asleep, especially while behind the wheel, but they usually involve some kind of device affixed to the noggin. Researchers in Japan, however, are working on a protype car seat that senses when you're about to nod off by monitoring pulse, respiration and other physical changes that typically occur 10 minutes before someone falls asleep, according to Pink Tentacle.

Sensors are embedded throughout the seat to detect those changes and, eventually, some kind of alarm system will be included to kick in when Mr. Sandman comes calling. Unfortunately, scientists are still about five years from developing a version for consumers. But once it's available, we think it should be marketed at Starbucks instead of all those useless products collecting dust now.