Category: Tech news

Researchers at Cornell University are hard at work on a project that sounds odd at first, but is in fact a perfectly natural extension of existing 3D and computing technology. They’re making an engine for producing the sounds of colliding objects by simulating the materials of the objects themselves in a virtual space, and then calculating the forces and vibrations that would be produced. Academically it’s a challenging proposition, but it has plenty of practical applications as well.

The simulation of noise propagation perhaps would be most easily applied in 3D games, which despite having nearly photorealistic models, textures, and lighting, still rely on a limited cache of pre-recorded sounds to play when, say, a table tips over. By simulating every object on the table and tracking the physical effects of collision with the floor, other objects, and the resulting reverberations, a more realistic and accurate sound can be created on the fly — or at least that’s the theory.

Right now the researchers acknowledge two obstacles. First, the physical world needs to be simplified greatly in some cases in order to provide a workable amount of data. A ball hitting the floor is one thing, with only a few factors to calculate, but what about a stack of dishes rattling against each other on a table that has been jostled? The number of contact points must be reduced so thousands or millions of different interactions don’t have to be tracked separately. At the same time, they must have enough to produce a realistic sound. It’s a balancing act governed by the amount and type of objects and the computing power they have at hand.

And it seems that not everything can be generated completely from scratch just yet. Their demo at SIGGRAPH has the stack of dishes mentioned above, but apparently soundtracking flames it isn’t so easy. The low-frequency part they’ve got, but for the rest had to base their models based on recorded fire sounds and then “paint” them onto the low end. That said, most common sounds are predictable in the same way physical interactions are predictable (being that they are themselves sums of physical reactions), and it’s just a matter of getting the tools to do so.

Parallel processing hardware (like graphics cards or many-core CPUs) will be necessary to make these calculations on in real time, though: simulating the fire noise takes hours just for a short clip. But the very idea is compelling to anyone who’s heard the same “glass breaking” or “ricochet” noises in games or even movies, where the catalog of sounds is limited.

Right now it’s still in the labs, but this is definitely the kind of thing that gets turned into a product and sold. A company like Nvidia or Havok would love to get their hands on this. Unfortunately there’s no video, but if one becomes available after it’s shown at SIGGRAPH, we’ll put it here.

Twitter images, the Twitter photo hosting service we broke the news of in late May, has now rolled out to all Twitter users, according to Twitter Public Relations representative Sean Garrett.

Users who did not have the feature before will see a camera at the far left of their status update box, beckoning that they upload an image. You can choose an image from your desktop under 3 MB and it will get embedded to your Twitter status like below. If you feel like you’ve made a mistake you can just click on the X to delete and pick another image.

Photos uploaded through Twitter will be hosted through Photobucket and appear as a pic.twitter link and image for those who follow you and a “Click to display media” message for those who don’t. Users will not be able to see images from Protected accounts.

Users who feel ambitious can add a hashtag to their images and the images will show up in Twitter’s new fleshed out Photo and Video search feature, visible to the right side of your tweet pane when you click through to search for hashtags. You can also use the shortcuts “sv” and “sp” to search for photos and videos directly from the Twitter.com homepage.

Twitter tells me it has yet to enable the feature for its mobile apps, and the ability to tweet directly from the iPhone camera will waiting for the launch of iOS 5 in the fall.

Twitter plans on launching user Galleries, another feature that has yet to be enabled. As of yet all the individually uploaded pictures are one offs, but Galleries will eventually aggregate all pictures a user has ever uploaded including those from services like Twitpic and Yfrog.

While the baked in upload functionality launched to everyone today is seamless and simple to use, the eventual launch of Galleries (where all user photos can be viewed in one place) will herald Twitter’s true foray into the photo-sharing business and the real threat to third parties like YFrog. Until then we wait.

Just a couple days ago, we heard about Intel’s plans to offer a new reference bill of materials for their “ultrabook” class of laptops. Essentially it’s a new blueprint with the aim of putting these new thin-but-powerful laptops (if they ever appear) under a thousand dollars — putting them in direct competition with the 2.38-pound gorilla of the laptop world, Apple’s MacBook Air.

As the meeting was supposed to take place next week, I think we can be sure that Acer’s newest ultrabook, apparently leaked to a Vietnamese tech blog, isn’t made with the new mold in mind. The device pictured has a 13.3-inch screen, a Sandy Bridge generation Core processor, and comes with a HDD standard and SSD optional. No doubt that hard drive contributes to the 3-pound weight, though the case is aluminum, not the fiberglass we heard rumored. HDD included (I presume), it’s nearly as light as the 13″ Air, and it could be lighter without.

Interestingly, the most-used ports are located on the back, a design I thought we left behind some years ago. On the sides are headphone and card reader ports; on the back are USB, HDMI, and power.

The 3951 is certainly svelte, and the specs seem solid, but will it hit that all-important $1000 price tag? Sohoa estimates the price at 16-20 million VND, or ~$750-950, but the source isn’t clear. It’s possible — but I don’t think these will be made in large quantities, partly due to the shortage of aluminum milling workspace (they couldn’t make a million of these), and partly because of the upcoming Intel revision. Best to just wait and see.

[via Tom’s Hardware]

Not everyone agrees with Nicholas Carr that the Internet is wrecking our brains. Take, for example, UCLA Brain Research Institute professor Dean Buonomano, the author of Brain Bugs: How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives. While Buonomano accepts that there is a “price to be paid” for the benefits of the Internet, he believes that our brains will eventually adapt to real-time networks like Twitter.

Brain Bugs is an interesting book for both entrepreneurs and marketers. Given that the brain acts as a “computational device,” Buonomano says, it actually controls everything about us – from our associations to our appetites to our buying decisions. And it’s the flaws in our brain, those brain bugs, he explains, that offer the best introduction to how we behave and what we desire and buy.

What Twitter is Doing to Our Brains

Why Our Brains Aren’t Always Very Good for Us

How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives

Well, now you may have two Facebook-related apps to download to your iPhone today. The first is Facebook Messenger, a new standalone app that lets you jump straight into your Facebook Messages. And the second is MyPad.

MyPad, for those who haven’t used it before, is a third-party Facebook application that includes many of the site’s core features, but is optimized for the iOS interface. The app has been available on the iPad since January (when it was called Facepad), and today it’s released a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

MyPad has had a lot of success on the iPad. Cofounder Cole Ratias says that the application has been installed on over 5 million iPads, and it draws 2 million weekly active users (and 3 million monthly). Since launching Twitter support a month ago, the app now has 1 million users that have connected their Twitter accounts.

But will MyPad be able to repeat its success on the smaller form factor?

There’s a big difference between the iPad and iPhone, at least as far as Facebook applications are concerned: Facebook still has yet to release an official iPad application. It’s been long rumored and we’ve even seen leaked builds, but all Facebook apps for the iPad are still being made by third parties. In other words, MyPad hasn’t had to directly compete with Facebook yet.

That isn’t the case on the iPhone, where Facebook has been the most popular app of all time (and has been available since 2008). But even despite the competition, Ratias is confident that users will try MyPad too, even if they have the official Facebook app installed. MyPad includes a nifty multi-pane interface that lets you swipe between different portions of the app without losing your spot (it’s a lot like Twitter’s iPad app — see the screenshots to get an idea of what this looks like). And the sidebar makes it easier to jump between different parts of the app without having to go back to a main menu.

Ratias also had some promising stats to share around the app’s game distribution platform, which launched in June. MyPad is leveraging its sizable userbase to give exposure to partner games (MyPad gets a cut of the revenue from a game’s subsequent in-app sales). So far, the games section has been driving 100K installs per month — and Ratias expects that number to go up as the app integrates features like Top Apps lists (right now the lists are all static, so users don’t have much reason to keep checking them).

The Vizio Tablet is finally here after its initial debut at CES. Vizio wants desperately to control your home theater experience and the company’s new Android tablet is an integral part of that, acting as the central hub of Vizio’s V.I.A. (Video Internet Apps) Plus ecosystem. Acronyms aside, this means that Vizio’s HDTVs and its tablets will share the same interface and apps, keeping things uniform and easy to use.

As far as specs are concerned, the Vizio Tablet is an 8-inch WiFi-only slate with 2GB of internal storage built right in, and support for a microSD card. The tablet features Bluetooth connectivity, HDMI out, and has a battery life of up to ten hours, says Vizio.

Obviously, the specs on this bad boy aren’t going to change your life, but its price tag may be enough to win you over, at an MSRP of just $299. The Vizio Tablet is currently available at WalMart, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Amazon, along with other similar retailers.

If you were thinking of dumping that old laptop, hold on a second. Apple has just updated its trade-in policy, and you can now bring in any Apple product, as well as any desktop or laptop, for free recycling or even store credit. Yes, any desktop or laptop, including PCs — and it won’t cost you a dime.

Thanks to some keen eyes over at MacRumors, we now know that this is how it’ll go down: You can now trade in your iPad and/or iPhone for its “fair market value” (determined in store, by Apple) on an Apple gift card. Apple has done this for a while with desktops and laptops, both PC and Mac, but is now extending the offering to iPhones and iPads.

But remember, this only applies if your hunk of old technology is fit to be used in something new. If it has no monetary value at all, it goes in the recycle pile. But no worries — Apple has easy, pain-free plans for that, too.

It used to be that when you brought in old computers and displays that were worthless, you could recycle it for free if you were buying a Mac. If you weren’t buying a Mac, you had to pay $30 for a shipping fee. Now, whether or not you’re buying a Mac, any brand of computer or display will be recycled for free.

Most brands have some sort of trade-in program for their old products, but just like Apple, they offer credit instead of cash. So if you aren’t an Apple fan and don’t really need credit towards Apple gear, it’s worth the two seconds it’ll take to look up the manufacturer’s trade-in program details and get credit towards a brand you like. Other third-party programs like Gazelle also make it pretty easy to trade-in your old stuff for cash.

But where ever you choose to dump your old stuff, try not to aim for the trash can. The planet could use a break.

Yesterday, following Robin Wauters announcement that he is “quitting” phone calls (which came hot on the heels of MG’s experiment in curtailing email use), Paul declared that he was quitting breathing.

How did the experiment go? See the video below, in which he and Sarah discuss the curious trend of pundits abandoning technology and ask whether communications overload is really a problem, or just a matter of us using it wrongly.

There is a problem with wagons, and that problem is this: For most of America, they are Dork Central.

Some of us — those raised on old Chevy Nomads and five-door BMW M5s — take issue with this. Some people take so much issue, in fact, that they embrace the dorkiness with both arms, driving wagons as a low-level form of civil disobedience. (A friend of mine in San Francisco is currently stuffing a Ford V-8 into his Volvo 245 simply because he thinks it’s funny. He is not wrong.)

Regardless, wagons make sense. For most people, sense-making is not cool. Sense-making is the IKEA parking lot and two car seats in back, and no one ever got laid because their cam-lock furniture screamed rebel hellion. (Side note: This is an injustice. Am I the only one who thinks Billy the Bookcase is a sexy mother?)

Blame the moms of the pre-SUV world, many of whom carted their brood around in sensible, dead-eyed land yachts. But the last generation to grow up in wagons — the children of the Reagan administration — is now in its car-buying twenties. The SUV has essentially displaced the wagon as family transport of choice. Into this high-riding, four-wheel-drive fray dives the low-slung 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon. And it is most decidedly cool.

As Honda — Acura’s parent company — tells it, this is an experiment. Wagons haven’t sold well in America for years, and the Big H expects to move just 4,000 TSX Sport Wagons here annually. For perspective, consider that Acura sold 3,824 examples of its MDX SUV in May of 2011 alone. The goal, it seems, is to figure out whether or not Americans will actually pony up for a premium, European-style sport hauler. Because the TSX is essentially a rebadged version of the European Honda Accord, this can be done cheaply, without racking up huge development costs. And because most journalists love wagons — insert obligatory 550-hp Cadillac shout-out here — Acura was virtually guaranteed positive press.

The best part is, the TSX wagon deserves it. For $31,820, you get a good-looking hauler that offers a spacious, modern interior and a strong, efficient powertrain. The TSX sedan’s 2.3-liter, 201-hp four is the only engine choice. It comes bolted to a five-speed automatic and cranks out a respectable 22/30 mpg city/highway. As with the TSX four-door, the back seat is comfortable for full-size adults and the chassis is a nimble, corner-dancing companion on winding roads. You tend to forget that the TSX’s ample rump is there, so willingly does the car bound and leap over twisty pavement.

Still, every wagon is defined by its wayback, and this one is no exception. The rear cargo area will swallow 61 cubic feet of stuff with the seats folded, 26 with them up. The rear load floor is flat, and there are tie-down points out the wazoo. Thanks to all the rear glass, visibility is even decent. You could ask for more than this, but you’d probably be asking too much.

There are negatives: You don’t get access to the TSX sedan’s excellent 3.5-liter, 280-hp V-6. This pays off in fuel economy, but sometimes leaves you wanting for low-end grunt. For cost reasons, there is no manual-transmission option, no available all-wheel drive. And if you live outside a major metro area, you will probably have to special order a car; with just a few thousand Sport Wagons allocated for U.S. consumption, rural dealers are unlikely to stock them.

All in all, though, none of that really matters. Good-looking, fun-to-drive wagons are thin on the ground in this country, and we should be glad the TSX five-door exists. Honda’s grand experiment will likely fail — crossovers and small SUVs are too hip now to be replaced by such a subtle beast — but that’s beside the point. Several thousand people are going to buy these things, forgetting what wagons once were and dwelling instead on what they could be. If the rest of the country doesn’t get it, that’s just their loss.

WIRED An affordable, thoroughly modern hauler that doesn’t make you feel like Clark Griswold. Chassis dances. Looks the business. Just $1,350 more than its sedan counterpart.

TIRED No manual transmission. Nav system is frustratingly unintuitive. Your mother will probably like it.

All Photos: Sam Smith/Wired

At long last, Rdio has an iPad app.

Fans of the $10-per-month mobile music streaming service now get a nice, big dashboard that’s fully optimized for Apple’s tablet. The app, which we tested for several days prior to its release, has just been made available in the App Store.

It’s a recommended download. If you’re a subscriber and an iPad owner, I needn’t twist your arm here. If you have an iPad but haven’t yet dipped into the world of carte blanche streaming music, this app makes an excellent case that it’s time to pony up.

The release really couldn’t have come soon enough. You could access Rdio on the iPad previously, but you were stuck using the blown-up version of the iPhone app. It got you from A to B, but it left you wanting.

Perhaps more importantly, Rdio, now one year old, is the first of the big streaming services to release an iPad app, and it should give Rdio a bump in mindshare and marketshare.

Spotify has the hype and the traction, but it doesn’t have a dedicated iPad app. It really needs one — Spotify’s desktop and mobile clients are terribly crowded, and tablets are a better fit for its design approach.

MOG has neither the cultural heat nor an iPad app, though it’s definitely working on the latter, and presumably, the former.

So at least for now, the Rdio experience is more enjoyable on the iPad than what the other kids have on offer. Sure, Spotify’s catalog is the deepest of all of them, but Rdio is growing quickly and just hit 10 million songs. Also, Rdio understands something that Spotify doesn’t: the joys of a simple, intuitive user interface.

Gone is the pixelated shitstorm of the blown-up Rdio iPhone app. In its place is an elegant and animated UI that takes full advantage of the iPad’s ample screen real estate.

Search for something, or tap on Heavy Rotation, New Releases or any of the filtered views. You’ll see a nice, big grid of album covers. Tap an album cover and it flips around, showing you a scrollable list of tracks. Tap a song to play it instantly. You can also add a song or album to your collection — and sync it to your iPad — with an additional tap or two.

One final bit of advice: A subscription to Rdio’s mobile service costs $10 per month, and you will need a subscription to use any of the company’s apps for various mobile devices, including this one. But if you buy that subscription in the iPad app, you’ll be charged $15 — the company is hiking the price to offset the revenue Apple takes from in-app subscriptions. If you want to subscribe and pay just $10 a month, buy your subscription directly from Rdio’s website. The company also has a desktop-browser-only plan for $5 a month.

WIRED Nicest native app for music streaming yet. Gives you access to the best features of Rdio’s smartphone, desktop and web-based players. Stable and fast. Take that, Spotify.

TIRED Menu for New Releases isn’t deep enough. Access to social sharing features is limited. Web client is still the most flexible option. My iPad doesn’t fit in my pocket.

M-Audio is positioning its Venom keyboard as “virtual analog” device. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The big trend in synth design is to fire up the Wayback Machine and accurately recreate the sounds of the beloved ’70s and ’80s analog synths, then roll up the results into one does-it-all keyboard. Incorporate modern touches like USB and MIDI ports, microphone pre-amps and digital audio outputs and you’ve got a package ready to serve any GarageBand or Pro Tools jockey.

The Venom does all of that, and it does it for around $500. Stand-alone synths or software-and-controller combos usually cost at least that much. So given the added versatility, the Venom is relatively affordable — especially considering the quality of the sounds within.

Rather than rely on digital synth modeling, M-Audio has used raw samples of the original instruments to give the Venom its voice. Taiho Yamada, the designer of the Venom, wheeled out dozens of specimens from his vast synth collection (and called in a few favors from friends) to gather samples. These samples of vintage synths — Moogs, Arps, Oberheims, Rolands and the lot — form the foundation of the Venom’s sonic palette. Yamada’s team also sampled some bizarre old hardware. A Harvestman Zorlon Cannon, which employs the same kind of tone generator used in the Atari 2600, was used to achieve some chiptune flavors. An old, tube-driven Hewlett-Packard test oscillator yielded a pure and glassy sine wave. A circuit-bent Roland TR-808 supplied some crunchy drums.

The samples — 41 waveforms and 53 drum sounds — are all played back over the Venom’s three oscillators. There are also dozens of unique creations, all adding up to 512 single-voice patches and 256 multi-voice patches. You want it, you’ve got it: monophonic and polyphonic lead sounds, fat bass tones, arpeggios and thick synth pads.

You’re equally spoiled for sound modeling options, including 3 LFOs, an AMP modulator, multiple frequency cutoff filters, an arpeggiator (syncable or tap-tempo) and on-board effects for adding echo, delay, chorus and distortion.

Though the Venom retains the sonic character of each original instrument, what can’t be sampled is the vibe; specifically, the long-term behavior of the old synths’ oscillators. Analog oscillators can drift around, introducing funky inconsistencies. The Venom adds these wobbly bits back in, altering the sample start points as much or as little as you’d like.

When it first arrived, I took the Venom out of the box and dug right into it by dialing through the presets. Even moving quickly, this took me a couple of hours. The sound library runs deep. Along with the expected Roland or Moog leads and soft Arp Odyssey washes — most of which, but not all, sound great — are a bevy of really aggressive, thoroughly modern sounds. Throbbing blobs of squelchy acid bass, glitchy drums, bubbling arpeggios, those high-pitched Dr. Dre whines, and a dozen or so patches that sound lifted straight from the Tron:Legacy soundtrack.

That aggressive, Daft Punky, Crystal Methody character was a determined decision on M-Audio’s part, Yamada says.

“Some of the larger companies tend to stick with tradition, only using Minimoog basses and brass sounds,” Yamada told me in a phone interview. “I felt like a lot of that was covered already. Once we had the vintage sounds down, I wanted to take Venom in its own direction and make it modern.”

To my ears, some of these “modern” sounds are straight-up cheesy, and at first I skipped right over them. But after getting comfortable with the Venom’s modulation stage — which took a while, given only four assignable control knobs, a mod wheel and a crowded LCD display — I was able to go back and tweak them until I’d gotten something I actually liked. And because I built these sounds using a starting point I never would have chosen myself, I was being pushed to be more creative, which felt gratifying.

Not that you need much encouragement to get creative. With 12 voices at your disposal, you can pile on the waveforms, detuning effects, octaves and filters. When you’re playing a multi-voice patch, you can alter each different instrument sound using the multi-control pads located just above your left hand. It’s nice when you want to apply mods to the melody but leave the drum loop untouched. I’ve never seen this done so easily on an inexpensive keyboard, only on expensive synths and in multi-track software.

I used it as an input device. You can plug mics and instruments directly into the Venom and use it as a plain, low-latency USB audio interface. You can also plug in an external source using the RCA jacks. I fired up a few simple iPhone drum machines and, for yucks, BeBot. By cranking up the input signal, I got some really nice distorted drum noises out of it. I also went crazy with the effects, turning my guitar tone into something that sounded like the TARDIS was materializing in my bedroom.

The Venom’s construction is what you’d expect from M-Audio: plastic, and lots of it. The case is large, even unnecessarily so, but still rather lightweight. The 49 keys don’t really have any weight to them either — no piano action here — which is a bummer since the keyboard ends up feeling more like a toy than a tool.

Another thing I didn’t particularly care for is the Venom’s tendency to go dark. Too many of the stock sounds have a gritty, industrial flavor — especially the drums, the synth basses and the multi-voice patches. It evokes images of an S&M club in Rotterdam circa 1996. Maybe that’s your thing, but I’d prefer more proggy and poppy sounds.

If you really want to get lost, a DVD of Vyzex, the Venom’s software sound editor, comes in the box. Here, you can dissect the stock waves, create your own patches, arrange your favorite sounds into banks, and build complex effects chains. Not surprisingly, I was much more comfortable doing my editing on my Mac than I was on the Venom’s hardware.

After a month of use, the biggest drawback for me was still the feel of the thing — it’s big, plastic and sort of cheap, which wouldn’t be as bothersome if M-Audio had used some of the Venom’s extra real estate to add a few more manual knobs. There’s still too much dancing around on the scant controls for my taste.

But otherwise, the Venom is a versatile machine. There are no classic piano, organ or acoustic instrument sounds within, but if you’re making unabashedly electronic music, it knows a lot of tricks. I’d especially recommend the Venom for anyone building up a home studio, given its low cost, the strength of the software editor, the compatibility with ProTools and Abelton Live, and all the fun you can have plugging in iPad and iPhone apps, instruments and microphones.

And while it won’t totally satiate your lust for a real Moog, a vintage Oberheim, or a Nord Lead, it will help you hold out a few more years until you’ve saved your pennies.

WIRED A big, 49-key synth packed with scores of vintage samples. Modern sounds are especially suited for dance, industrial, hip-hop and techno. Desktop software lets you perform invasive audio surgery. Doubles as a low-latency software interface. Inexpensive for how much it does.

TIRED Construction and materials cut too many corners. Vintage samples are ample, but some lack the warmth of the real deals. Some of the “edgier” sounds are grating and cheesy. It could use more knobs and a bigger LCD.

Hear the Venom

Here are some samples I recorded, a few of what I consider to be the synth’s strongest sounds.

First up are some of the bass sounds. First is a classic Moog bass with the oscillators set to pulse ever-so-gently. Then I sent some other gloopy low-end sounds through the arpeggiator.
Listen:

[dewplayer:http://www.wired.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/venom-bass.mp3]

Next are some of the Venom’s stock drum loops. Some presets are just full loops. Others let you edit each individual voice in the drum machine. Here, I just played loops but manipulated the filters and oscillators to get some woozy hip-hop and electro flavors.
Listen:

[dewplayer:http://www.wired.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/venom-drums.mp3]

The Venom is great at mimicking ’80s sawtooth synths and vintage dance stuff. I like these moody leads. You’ll hear a little bit of echo, some ring mod and filter adjustments throughout.
Listen:

[dewplayer:http://www.wired.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/venom-softsaws.mp3]

When the original Motorola Droid charged into the smartphone world, it shook things up.

The Droid’s arrival was notable not because it was an extraordinarily kickass phone, but because it was the first serious Android-powered challenger able to stand up against the market-dominating iPhone. Plus, the fact it worked on Verizon gave it better network performance and better call reception than all those iPhones stranded on AT&T, and the physical keyboard made it the more appealing choice for thumb-jockeys eager to ditch their BlackBerries.

The Droid 2 improved on the platform, with a better keyboard and faster guts.

But in its latest incarnation, the Droid 3, Motorola’s marquee smartphone really shines. The handset, which runs Android Gingerbread, is equally suited for work or play, with a larger screen, an even better keyboard and enough brawn to give you a satisfying experience across a variety of apps and games, including those using Flash. It only runs on Verizon’s 3G network — no 4G LTE for this guy — but can manage most streaming services.

The Droid 3 sticks with the line’s signature squared-off silhouette, but it’s bigger: a luxuriously large capacitive qHD touchscreen — four inches this time around, and covered in Gorilla Glass — tops off the moderately bulky 0.5-inch-thick case. It looks slicker than the older Droids. The chrome ledge at the bottom is less-prominent compared to past models.

Of course, the Droid 3 has the slide-out QWERTY keyboard with the familiar, slightly raised keys of the Droid 2. This time, there’s the added convenience of a row of numerical keys along the top. The sliding mechanism feels solid, finishing with a satisfying click upon opening or closing, but it’s not as snappy as those of other handsets. There’s a notable, but not problematic, resistance to the action.

On-screen typing is easy enough. Both the software keyboard and standard Android navigation keys have a pleasant degree of haptic feedback when pressed.

Inside the phone, a dual-core A9 1GHz processor keeps apps, web browsing, and word processing (with the phone’s pre-installed QuickOffice app) running smoothly. The Droid 3 comes with 512 MB of RAM, which is a bit odd since comparable dual-core phones out there more typically pack 1 GB these days.

The user interface seems more polished. Like its cousin the Motorola Photon 4G, the new Droid has the “minimal mode” home screen and the slimmed-down version of Motoblur, Motorola’s skin for Android that serves as sort of a social networking dashboard. It combines all your social feeds so you don’t need to visit dedicated apps for each service, which I liked. There was an odd quirk with the UI, though: when opening up an app for the first time, the screen sometimes flashes to black or white before it loads. Close the app, open that same app again, and there’s no distracting screen flash.

The 8-megapixel rear facing camera’s 1080p HD video recording quality is superb. If you’re shooting video in a low-light scenario, you can switch on the bright LED flash. In both still and video mode, you’ve got a host of options to customize the camera capture: a brightness slider, effects like Black and White or Solarize, audio modes such as Outdoors or Subject (which is great for interviews), or still scene settings like Night Portrait, or Sport. There’s also a full Auto setting.

The speakerphone, located near the bottom rear of the device, delivers crisp, loud-enough audio when you’re playing music or playing back video. The speaker is rimmed at the top with a small lip, so if the Droid laying screen-up on a flat surface, sound won’t get smothered.

Battery life is about what you’d (at least hope to) expect from a smartphone with a big screen: it’ll definitely make it through the day, but you better remember to charge it when you get home or it’ll die on you the next day.

The phone comes with a Vodafone SIM card, so you can make and receive calls outside the United States. Vodaphone is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, with service in over 200 countries. You’ll be responsible for data roaming charges while traveling, but at least you won’t be stuck in Wi-Fi-only mode.

However you feel about the new user interface, the new Motoblur or the bevy of apps that ship pre-installed on the Droid 3, it is an Android phone, so there are infinitely many ways to tweak and customize the experience to your liking.

But there’s a lot to like right out of the box.

WIRED Large keyboard is comfortable enough for extended typing sessions. Useful predictive text suggestions make long messages a breeze. Lightly rubberized back provides a non-slip grip, as do the similarly rubberized keys.

TIRED The 960 x 540 resolution screen looks nice, but it’s no Retina Display. Dynamic range during calls sounds a bit clipped and tinny, like the lower frequencies have been rolled off. No 4G LTE? For shame.

Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired

When my wife runs off with the review gear before I even get a chance to check it out, I know it’s gonna be something good.

In this case, she saw the slick-looking Audio-Technica ATH-AD900 headphones, planted ‘em on her dome, and never looked back. When I finally did retrieve them, it didn’t take long to see and hear the appeal of these crazy-comfy cans with the bright, punchy sound.

The AD900s have a lightweight, honeycombed aluminum frame that seems plenty durable, and to complete the sci-fi look, 3D “wing supports” that float above your head for a self-adjusting fit. While you can’t make the headphone bands tighter or longer, they seem to fit no matter how big your nugget. And with well-ventilated, plush foam ear cups, they can stand up to long listening sessions without causing ear fatigue or (the cursed) sweaty lobes. The long, sturdy cord lets you roam around the room sans snags (good for you air guitar jocks), and the gold-plated miniplug is a nice touch too.

With open-air cans, the noise carries far beyond your own ears, so these aren’t going to make you any friends in a cubicle village or café. But open-air headphones are great for comfort and generally sound more natural and bright than closed ones.

The AD900s are no exception. They produce excellent treble and midrange, which results in a lively, energetic sound that is well-suited for most styles of music. The bass is OK, but not prominent by any means, so these are better for rock, pop, jazz and acoustic styles than thumpin’ hip-hop, R&B or funk albums. The AD900s have a surprisingly big soundstage, which gives you a sense of being surrounded by the music, but with enough space that all the instruments can be heard. The sound clarity and detail, even at low volumes, is impressive.

A lot of full-size headphones like these are meant to be used with a dedicated headphone amp and don’t perform well when connected to a mobile player. But these run at 35 ohms of impedance, so when I plugged them into my iPod, I only had to turn it up to about 70 percent volume to get a full, heady sound.

All in all, the AD900s are a good value if you’re looking for a well-built pair of open-air cans that provide a clean, up-front, and well-balanced sound.

WIRED Comfy like a La-Z-Boy, but much more lively. Large 53-mm drivers give a frequency response between 5 and 35,000 Hz. Lightweight, durable design. Ear fatigue not an issue.

TIRED Bass-heads need not apply. Wearing these, don’t be surprised if people peg you for a Trekkie.

Photos by Jim Merithew/Wired.com

A photon moves at the speed of light, shines brightly and has a resting mass of zero. That said, it’s a damn good name for Motorola’s latest Android phone.

The Photon brings 4G speeds and dual-core processing power to Sprint customers. An all-around powerhouse Android phone, the Photon is a good fit for the data-hungry and app-enthusiastic among us.

It’s the latest in a trend of increasingly powerful handsets debuting this year. All of the major U.S. networks — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile — are pouring money into expanding their high-speed networks, while hardware manufacturers keep pace by introducing more and more 4G-capable phones. To boot, each newly released high-end device comes with increasingly powerful processors for speedy app navigation. Chips like Nvidia’s Tegra 2 are practically de rigueur for Android phones this year.

The Photon is no exception to the rule. Using the Wi-Max-ready radio, I averaged download speeds of up to 13 Mbps on Sprint’s network during the testing period in the Bay Area. Page-load times were cut into fractions of what we’ve seen on rival networks like T-Mobile or AT&T. The last phone we’ve tested that was this speedy was HTC’s Thunderbolt, which runs on on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

With its 4.3-inch screen and considerably large physical dimensions (2.63 by 4.99 by .48 inches, plus some funky angled corners), you’d expect the Photon to possess some degree of heft.

And yet, it doesn’t. At a mere 5.57 ounces, the Photon’s weight is in accordance with its namesake. The chassis is made almost entirely of lightweight plastic, the biggest piece of exterior metal being the kickstand. While it’s nice not to lug a brick in my pants pockets, the phone seems almost too light for its chunky shape. Still, it’s no eyesore.

The Photon has powerful insides to match. Like the Motorola Atrix that debuted earlier this year, it’s sporting Nvidia’s 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor. And like the Atrix, the Photon is zippy. Backed by a gig of RAM, applications launched swiftly, and I zoomed in and out of menu screens with relative ease.

There is, of course, the power issue. Alternating between casual and heavy use — which included making phone calls, watching YouTube videos and listening to streaming music on Spotify, all with the 4G antenna switched on — I clocked around seven hours of battery life before the phone went dead. If you’re out and about with little time to charge and lots of calls to make, that’s an abysmal window of time. Remember to tuck that power cord in your back pocket.

Motorola’s recent smartphones came with a custom Android skin grafted onto the desktop — dubbed Motoblur — which tried to make the main menu screens more “social.” Many users (myself included) have complained that Motoblur felt too chunky and awkward to navigate, almost an unnecessary layer slapped onto the operating system.

Luckily, the Photon comes with a stripped down version of Motoblur. It feels less invasive than before. It’s not ideal — like, say, a stock version of Android would be — but it’s better than what it once was.

Of course, the phone also works well as a phone. Call quality over a week of testing in the Bay Area was exceptional, with nary a dropped call occurring. And it’s a viable option for the jet-setting type; the Photon comes equipped with a GSM antenna, letting you make calls on networks outside of the U.S.

In all, the phone’s few shortcomings are eclipsed by its processing brawn and fleetness of foot. After a week’s worth of use, I’m positively charged.

WIRED Brawny phone on a fast network is great for data-gobbling apps. Ships with latest version of Android (Gingerbread 2.3.4). Kickstand for movies and physical shutter button for 8-megapixel camera are nice touches. Fast, fast, fast.

TIRED Sucks battery like a Hoover. Annoying UI is annoying. Optional $100 “Webtop” dock (shown in the photo at top) is a waste of your hard-earned cash.

Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired

There’s one at every group ride. You know, the guy who shows up on his Bridgestone MB-1 sporting a 1982 RAGBRAI jersey, laced into some old-school Nike Poobahs and wearing a state-of-the-art helmet from the 7-11 Cycling Team era.

Now, I ain’t no anti-retrogrouch by any stretch of the imagination — I will occasionally don an ancient Giordana Mickey Mouse jersey and I don’t believe the road to happiness is paved with carbon fiber — but I do draw the line at vintage helmets.

Protecting what little brain waves you have left with a good skid lid should be top priority. All the major manufactures — Bell, Giro, Louis Garneau, Specialized and so on — are making helmets at every price point. Technology improves every year, so today’s helmets are safer, lighter and more comfortable than your beloved early-’90s brain bucket. So, it’s time to ditch the retro relic and replace it with something from this century.

One prime example: the Oasiz, one of Lazer’s mountain-specific offerings. It was developed in conjunction with cycling phenom Brian Lopes. I got to test it this summer, and I especially liked its innovative sizing contraption, its magnetic fastening device, and the visor incorporated directly into the helmet’s frame.

But those weren’t the first things I noticed about the Oasiz. Rather, it was all the extra protection at the rear of the helmet. It’s bulging and substantial, but the helmet is still surprisingly lightweight.

The sizing system, which Lazer calls “Rollsys,” is quite ingenious. Just pull the helmet on and spin the adjustment wheel on the top. Within seconds, you’ve dialed in a snug and even fit. This allows you to cinch down your helmet on the fly during more treacherous stretches of trail and back off the pressure while rolling along — not that I condone such behavior.

And though I initially fought with the magnetic strap closure, dubbed the “Magic Buckle,” I learned to appreciate its simplicity. After some practice, it became a one-handed operation.

My first day with the helmet was spent on a “fun ride” at Sea Otter on a surprisingly hot afternoon. Three hours in, the only things I wasn’t complaining about was my helmet. The bike didn’t climb very well, the singletrack was trickier than I remember and the sand was deeply annoying. But my helmet fit perfectly and didn’t overheat, thanks to the ample venting.

The Oasiz is marketed as an all-mountain helmet, but I sported it on a couple of commutes and even did a few longer road rides with it. I found it be very much an “adjust and forget” piece of kit.

So the next time one of your mates lines up with a lid whose memory foam has gone Alzheimer’s on them, tell them to get a new helmet. For their noodle’s sake.

WIRED Rollsys technology allows for quick, one-handed adjustments. Magnetic closure is a snap (ha). Optional extras: insect net keeps the bugs out, insulation keeps the cold out. Brian Lopes wears one.

TIRED Made for the mountain trails — while it works on the road, it’s bulkier than most road helmets. Color choices are a little bland. Miguel Indurain never wore one.

Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired