The new preamplifier looks amazing.
(Credit: Einstein Audio Components)We're not talking about Albert Einstein, the legendary theoretical physicist; we're talking about Einstein Audio Components, a Germany-based high-end audio manufacturer.
Its advanced audio equipment designs use vacuum tubes. Its latest stereo preamplifier, The Tube MKII, uses a total of (gulp) 19 tubes. That's a lot of tubes! Most tube preamps only use four, five, or six tubes. However, here's the cool part about the new Einstein preamp: only 10 of the 19 tubes operate at any given time. Eight are used all the time, and two are selected for whichever audio source happens to be playing.
The rear panel of The Tube MKII.
(Credit: Einstein Audio Components)This feature makes The Tube MKII the only preamp in the world that lets users tailor the sound from each audio source by selecting the specific "flavor" of tube dedicated to each source. Some owners might opt for "warm" sounding tubes for the CD input, and superdetailed tubes for the phono input. Tweaky? You bet, but I guarantee a lot of wealthy tube-obsessed audiophiles will love that feature.
The 33-pound preamp has two large controls on its front panel: one for source selection and one for volume. On its rear, it has three pairs of XLR inputs, two pairs of RCA inputs, and two tape outputs.
Its build quality is superlative and is reflected in The Tube MKII's $17,800 MSRP. The preamp will make its U.S. market debut at the 2010 CES next month.
A couple of weeks ago, I described how to sync contacts between Outlook, Gmail, and your iPhone. The program missing from this contacts mega-merge was Thunderbird (download for Windows | Mac), and for good reason. Mozilla's free e-mail program is not particularly contact-friendly.
The first time I attempted to use Mozilla Thunderbird's import function to bring my Gmail contacts into the client e-mail application, I was seriously disappointed with the results. Most of the contact information was squished into a single nondescript field for each record. The few fields that did make the conversion were incomplete. The entire process was pretty worthless, overall.
Then I found the free Zindus add-on for Thunderbird. The program brings a subset of contact fields from Google and Zimbra into Mozilla's free e-mail program. For Google, the fields imported include the contact's name, primary and secondary e-mail addresses, phone numbers, IM names, company, title, and notes. (I didn't test the program with Zimbra.)
After you download and install Zindus, a "Zindus" option is added to Thunderbird's Tools menu. Clicking it opens the Zindus Configuration Settings dialog box where you're presented with a handful of contact-sync options, including a Sync Now button.
The Zindus Configuration Settings dialog lets you reset your sync options.
(Credit: Zindus)... Read more
What do you do when some of the biggest names in consumer electronics might be in violation of your patents?
Why, try to take away their right to sell their products in the U.S., of course.
Blu-ray players like this one from Samsung uses technology a former Columbia professor claims she patented.
(Credit: Samsung)Columbia University Professor Emeritus Gertrude Neumark Rothschild says 30 companies are infringing on her patent for laser and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In response, she wants the U.S. government to ban those companies' imports to the U.S. that are in violation. A lot of companies use LEDs and laser diodes for a variety of reasons--Sony uses blue laser diodes in its Blu-ray players, for example, and LEDs are used as light sources in TV and notebook computer screens.
But the list of 30 companies includes many of the giants of the industry: Sony, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Toshiba, Panasonic, Motorola, Nokia, Pioneer, and Samsung.
Sounds like a bit of an uphill climb, right? (Something she probably knows a bit about--Rothschild was the first woman to be named a chair of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science department at Columbia) Well, the U.S. International Trade Commission gave Rothschild a boost when it recently agreed to investigate all 30 companies over her claim.
She also has a history of standing up to the man: Rothschild sued two companies in 2005 over similar semiconductor patents and settled with them out of court.
Circuitboard cufflinks are safe.
(Credit: Circuitboard cufflinks are safe.)Castoff computer parts can make for quirky jewelry, if you feel like flashing keyboard button earrings or circuitboard cufflinks.
Unlike these models of creative recycling, some costume jewelry imported from China contains heavy metals from discarded electronics and could make you sick, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
No lead in these button earrings.
(Credit: Etsy)Some novelty necklaces and earrings are laced with lead and antimony that likely came from e-waste thrown away by consumers in the United States and other developed nations, then shipped to China for unsafe recycling. "Best Friends Forever" necklaces from Claire's mall shops and stud earrings from Kmart were recalled here in recent months. Accidentally swallowing such leaden baubles could kill a child.
Keeping lead close to your heart.
(Credit: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission)The story is a strange twist of fate for the materials inside some of the tens of millions of pounds of computers, monitors, cell phones, and countless other gadgets discarded each year. Watchdog groups want U.S. companies to stop shipping e-waste overseas, where poor people in China, India and elsewhere smash and burn the trash to sell gold, copper and other valuable components, but can get sick in the process from the poisonous metals and plastics. On the flip side, some consumer groups fear that the lack of federal laws around toxic tech in this country will lead to more imports of products rejected as unsafe by Asian and European markets.
When recycling your tired gadgets, it can be hard to tell what their final destination may be. This list of recycling programs from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is a good guide.
According to a notice on its site, the import game company Lik-Sang has gone out of business. The reason? It was sued into oblivion by Sony, apparently. Sony brought lawsuits against the company for infringing Sony's "trademarks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers." This comes shortly after Sony's controversial announcement that they'll use all legal means available to them to prevent the import of PS3s to Europe.
Before it closed down, Lik-Sang was one of the top online stores for importing Japanese games and gaming consoles. Though its prices were at a premium, often up to 50 percent over suggested retail price, it was one of the first sites to sell the black Nintendo DS Lite in America, and offered the original Japanese versions of highly-anticipated games such as Final Fantasy XII and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl weeks and months before their planned U.S. release date.
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