Crave

(Credit: Casio)

Casio's going full force after consumers shopping for digital cameras in the $100-$200 price range. First, the company announces the Exilim EX-Z450 and EX-Z90, $199.99 and $149.99, respectively. And then Monday, it announces the $179.99 EX-Z280 and $119.99 EX-Z33.

The Z280 (pictured right) is a 12-megapixel ultracompact with an f2.6-5.9 26-104mm-equivalent wide-angle lens with a 4x zoom, sensor-shift image stabilization, 2.7-inch LCD, and Casio's newest image processing engine featuring a dual-processor design for lower power consumption and better photo results. It also gives you 720p HD-quality video capture and the latest iteration of Casio's green-screen Dynamic Photo function. A very compelling package for what will probably street at around $170.

With a more entry-level feature set, the Z33 is a 10-megapixel model with a 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD. It does the basics I expect to find on a camera at this price--VGA movie mode, face detection, lots of scene modes--but its also very thin at 0.7 of an inch and weighs roughly 4 ounces with SD card and battery. Plus, it has built-in compatibility with Eye-Fi's SD cards for wireless transfer of photos.

The EX-Z280, available this September 2009, will be offered in a silver body color (though Casio has photos of gold and pink versions so maybe those colors, too). The EX-Z33 will also be available in September in black, light pink, vivid pink, silver, and blue.

Casio Exilim EX-Z280 and Z33--photos

It feels like we just rounded up all the latest Netbooks a couple of months ago, but there are already enough new models out to do it all over again. This time around, we're seeing some new players in the market (Toshiba, Fujitsu), as well as some new takes on the genre from old hands (Asus, HP).

Trends we're seeing include thinner systems, bigger keyboards, and a push in toward lower prices. The HP Mini 110 and Acer Aspire One are $329 and $299, respectively, while the average price of a similar Netbook was around $499 late last year, falling to $399 in the past six months.

Later in 2009, we expect to see a new generation of Netbooks that will attempt to add some lift to falling prices by adding features such as high-resolution screens and dedicated graphics processors.

Click through to see a half-dozen of the newest Netbooks for Summer 2009. ... Read more

Who doesn't love a nice Netbook?

It's taken the computer industry a little while to fully embrace the charms of the under-sized Netbook, although with big players such as Dell and Lenovo on board, as well as major retails like Best Buy and Amazon, these small laptops are more popular now then anyone could have anticipated.

We've even finally come to an industry wide agreement on what to call these products, which were originally dubbed mini-notes, sub-notebooks, mini-laptops, etc., before we all settled on "Netbook."

In perhaps the final step towards mainstream acceptance, the eagle-eyed gang over at Laptop mag just spotted Netbooks getting their own category over at Best Buy, complete with an "official" explanation of what it means to be a Netbook:

"A netbook is a streamlined mobile device designed for the Internet, so you can stay connected on the go. Get up-to-date news, the latest scores and weather information, access your e-mail and social networking sites, and enjoy digital videos, photos and music.

"Netbooks may look like laptops, but they don't have the full capabilities of a computer. Instead, a netbook specializes in mobility and the Web, so it's great for travel or as a supplement to your main PC."

(Credit: Acer)

At Computex 2008 in Taipei, the biggest buzz is about the developing new market for mini-laptops, sub-notebooks, "netbooks"
--whatever you want to call them. They're smaller than traditional laptops but larger than PDAs. Tech hearts are also going "buh-boom" over the revolutionary new chips running these tiny PCs of joy. To see what's being shown off at the international trade show, click here.

Stalwart indie label Sub Pop has been on a particular roll of late, and that continues with local Seattle group Fleet Foxes. The group makes a strangely sublime sort of country-pop, one built around antique arrangements, soulful lyrics, and gauzy gospel-folk harmonies.

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Merely buying a great subwoofer is no guarantee you'll wind up with great bass. There are too many ways to squander its performance potential, that's why putting in the extra effort to achieve proper subwoofer setup is crucial. This two-part guide will tell you everything you need to know about getting the most from your subwoofer.

Part I: Placement & Positioning

Part II: Connectivity & Fine-tuning

Subwoofer Setup Part I:
Placement & Positioning

REL's $798 T2 sub

(Credit: REL)

Finding the right spot in your room can make a dramatic difference in the way your sub sounds. Corner placement is the de facto strategy for most people, possibly because it's out of the way and almost always produces the most bass, but corner placement may not yield the most accurate bass (and/or smoothest transition to the satellite speakers).

With small (8-inch tall or less) speakers it's best to keep the sub within three or four feet of the front left or right speakers. Once the sub is a lot further away it's just that much harder to maintain the illusion the bass is coming from the speakers and not the sub. And that goes double for small home theater in a box subwoofers, keep them as close as possible to the front speakers. Oh, and don't be shy about volume when you're finding the right spot for the sub, turn it up so it's easier to hear what's going on down there.

Some placement experimentation may be useful here, play a CD with lots of deep bass and keep repeating the track as you move the sub to all of the visually acceptable locations in your listening room. You'll be amazed just how different the bass will sound in different locations--some will be muddy, some will sound louder, and some will reduce the bass volume. The goal is to get the best balance of deep bass and still have mid and upper bass in equal proportions. In some rooms that's not all that hard to achieve, but I've heard my share of "problem" rooms where the bass always sounds boomy/muddy.

In those cases try this method: move your couch or chair out of the way, or into another room, and start with the sub in the listening position. Yes, I know that sounds like a crazy idea, but it's just for test purposes. Now play music and movies with lots of bass, and take a little stroll around your room, stopping in the spots where you'd like to place the sub. As you move about you'll notice the bass' apparent loudness and definition changes from place to place.

When all else fails, try locating the sub as close as possible to your couch or chair, in what I call the "end table" position. That location can work wonders.

Larger speakers are generally easier to match with subs, and small speakers and/or speakers with 4-inch or smaller woofers, can require more fine-tuning to get right.

Subwoofer Setup Part II:
Connectivity & Fine-tuning

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

The Hsu Research subwoofer's rear panel pictured on the right is fairly typical. To non-audiophiles the maze of connectors can be intimidating, but in most instances the single cable "Sub In" hookup is the easiest and best sounding method. You can see the Sub In here on the Hsu's rear panel; on other subs the input may be labeled "LFE," "Direct," or "Bypass" (the red and black speaker level inputs and outputs' uses may be covered in a future blog).

To use the Sub/LFE input you'll need a long interconnect cable; most consumer electronics dealers stock these cables or try Radio Shack. How long is long enough? Measure the distance between your A/V receiver and sub and remember to include the distances up and down over doorways and furniture. Buying a cable that's a foot or two too short is a drag, and after you've opened the package you may not be able to return it for a refund or exchange.

Next, turn the sub's frequency/low pass crossover control knob to its maximum, highest numerical setting (you're going to rely on your A/V receiver's internal crossover control to route the mid and high frequencies to the speakers and the bass to the sub).

You'll find the receiver's crossover setting in the speaker setup menu, and on some receivers you'll be presented with a wide range of settings from 40 Hertz up to as high as 200 Hz. Your speaker and/or subwoofer's user manual may offer specific guidance in this area; otherwise use the Audiophiliac's crossover recommendations--for small speakers with 2 or 3 inch woofers, try between 150 and 200 Hz; for midsize speakers with 4 or 5 inch woofers, use 80 or 100 Hz; and with large bookshelf speakers or skinny floorstanding speakers, try a 60 or 80 Hz crossover.

If you're lucky enough to have large floorstanding speakers with 8-inch or larger woofers, you may wish to run them as "Large" speakers, without any crossover. But your center and surround speakers will still likely work best run as "Small" speakers, and benefit from the crossover settings referred to in the previous paragraph.

One of the other subwoofer controls is marked "phase." It's provided because the speakers and the subwoofer sound best when they are "in-phase" --meaning their woofers move in and out in synch with each other. To check if your sub's phase is correct, play music with lots of bass, listen for a minute or so, and have a friend sitting by the sub flip the sub's 0/180° phase switch slowly back and forth. The "correct" setting is the one that yields more bass. You may have to try a few different recordings before you hear any difference, and it might help to turn up the sub's volume level a bit for this test. If you don't hear any difference between the "0" and "180" degree settings, just leave the phase control in the "0" position.

Setting subwoofer volume is next. Precisely matching the volume levels of the left, center, right, and surround speakers is important, but bass volume is more subjective. Some folks like to feel the sub working the room all the time--and some prefer to only hear the sub's contributions with big special effects driven movies or dance music. A Sound Level Meter (such as Radio Shack's Model 33-4050) can be a big help when setting speaker level, but it's nearly useless for determining the sub's correct volume level. The "by ear" method works best.

DVDs' bass tends to be fairly consistent from one disc to the next, but CDs' bass will vary a lot more. Adjust the volume (on the subwoofer itself or the receiver, whichever is easier) as you play through a stack of discs. I can set the sub's volume level with DVDs in 10 minutes or less, but with CDs I might be fiddling around days.

Auto setup A/V receivers can do a fine job with speakers, but most are less adept with subs. Actually most auto setup receivers do a lousy job with subs. Try readjusting the receiver's crossover setting, check phase, and volume level. If you don't like the change, rerun the auto setup to return to your original settings.

That's it for this how-to guide. Please send your subwoofer questions and queries my way via the comments section below.

Britain's second generation of post-punk is no longer a new and thrilling thing; the trade-off may come as it gets smarter and more refined. These Oxford lads make sinewy vocals stick with rhythmic punctuations as fine as their town's native comma--a good thing, no matter what Vampire Weekend says.

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Once upon a time there were no iPods, iPhones, Xboxes, Blackberrys, or Tivos. Really, I'm not kidding. There were PCs, though. And they were really expensive. But we didn't have anything else to spend our money on, so that was OK. We paid $2,000 for our PCs and liked it.

Back in those days, there were three microprocessor companies--Intel, AMD, and a little Texas (it's an oxymoron, I know) company named Cyrix. If you don't recognize the name, that's because Intel had such a lock on PC makers back then that Cyrix's processors were sold primarily through the third-party reseller channel.

It's a popular misconception that Cyrix "cloned" Intel's processors. Cyrix's processors were actually all original designs. In fact, Cyrix's manufacturing partners--initially Texas Instruments, later IBM and ST Microelectronics--licensed Cyrix's designs for their own branded processors.

As a vinyl collector, I've always held Sub Pop in high regard. Not only does the iconic Seattle-based label release a lot of LPs, it doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them--I've bought some records from Sub Pop bands for the same price or less than the CD costs.

Last week, Sub Pop began selling MP3 downloads, and its catalog has rapidly expanded, now encompassing more than 200 full-length albums. The price is $9.90 and the format is 192kbps MP3, meaning they can be played on any application or device, unlike downloads from iTunes or the Zune Marketplace.

No single-song downloads yet, and these album downloads are not exclusives--the latest Kinski record, Down Below It's Chaos, is not only offered in higher-quality AAC format (and DRM-free) on iTunes, but it's only $8.91. But the Sub Pop download store will get more exciting, with rare, out-of-print titles becoming exclusive downloads on the site.

This strategy won't work for most of the major labels, as listeners probably aren't even aware which label holds their favorite bands. But for indie labels with strong brands that connote a certain sound--think Matador, K Records, or Constellation --this could be a smart way to do business.