Bowers & Wilkins Zepplin Air

This gorgeous audio dock from audiophile specialist B&W sports a signature design and promises punchy tunes packed with oomph. You can be assured of room-filling sound and strong vocals that will rise above accompanying music, whether you’re listening to jazz crooner Norah Jones or pop rock band Maroon 5. The speaker also supports Apple’s AirPlay technology that lets you play tunes from an iPhone or iPod over a wireless network. A front dock connector is also on hand for folks who wish to hook up their Apple devices directly to the speaker.

Bose SoundDock 10

Some folks may not take too well to its chunky looks, but the SoundDock 10 delivers the audio goodness that matches the flair of the Zeppelin Air. You can expect the same audiophile qualities that are usually associated with a Bose speaker system: tight bass and pristine vocals that maintain their composure even when pushed to the max. To ensure better stereo separation — the bugbear of compact audio docks — the SoundDock 10′s drivers are projected outwards at an angle to amplify the subtleties unique to each stereo channel.

Jawbone Jambox

Don’t be fooled by the size of this tiny boom box. The Jawbone Jambox is one fiery speaker that sounds bigger than it looks. Besides belting out an astonishing amount of bass from its compact enclosure, it also manages to maintain its cool at high volumes. Vocals aren’t too bad either – you can expect clear renditions that remain distinct amidst a busy sound stage in rock numbers from Radiohead. Tunes can be pumped through the speaker via a headphone jack, wirelessly over a Bluetooth connection or Apple AirPlay. While this chilli padi of a speaker won’t replace bigger sound docks and desktop speakers, it offers one of the best portable audio experiences available.

Focal Bird 2.1

Audio purists will feel right at home with the Focal Bird from French audiophile company Focal. The system comprises two satellite speakers and a power amplifier that doubles as a subwoofer. The Focal Bird 2.1 supports multiple audio sources with its array of analogue and digital connectors, and includes a wireless transmitter that lets you “stream” your tunes from an iPhone to the speaker system. The advantage of a 2.1 system is room-filling sound, as well as a strong stereo image that’s almost non-existent on a sound bar or dock.

Logitech has recently introduced its M325 wireless mouse with 72 ratchets so you can scroll through more lines of content with a single flick on the scroll wheel.

Each ratchet corresponds to about one line of content, so fewer ratchets means more choppy onscreen motion when you scroll down a page.

The scroll wheel of most computer mice usually have 18 to 24 ratchets, giving you a scrolling experience that isn’t as smooth when compared to that of a laptop’s touch pad.

Aimed at laptop users, the M325 is small and portable enough to be carried around by telecommuters. The S$39 rodent also offers a firm grip on both sides and will fit snugly into the hands of both left and right handers.

Setting up the M325 is easy – simply plug the Unifying receiver into the computer’s USB port, turn on the mouse and start browsing. The receiver, which can also be used to connect up to six compatible wireless keyboards and mice, can be stored in the battery compartment when not in use.

The M325 can be used with Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems out of the box with no additional software or device drivers required. On Windows and Linux systems, you can tilt the scroll wheel to the left or right to move pages back and forth. On Mac OS X, tilt wheel actions can be assigned to Dashboard, Expose and Spaces functions in System Preferences.

The mouse worked like a charm in Windows 7 Ultimate, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Ubuntu Linux 10.10. On all three OSes, the M325 was smooth while scrolling webpages and offered precise control over the mouse pointer. The only tweak I made was to reduce the pointer speed that was previously set for a three-year-old Apple Mighty Mouse.

Logitech claims the single AA-size battery required by the M325 will last for 18 months. I have no idea if that’s really the case right now since I’ve only used it for a week. On the product packaging, however, Logitech says that “battery life may vary based on user and computing conditions”. In any case, the mouse will enter sleep mode after a period of inactivity to conserve battery juice.

Here’s a chance to win HTC’s Desire HD phone, as well as a host of goodies from our regular reader giveaways.

We have a “seeding unit” of the popular Android smartphone from the folks from HTC Singapore to give away to readers of Techgoondu. Essentially, this is a NEW unit with a “white-box” packing that does not come with accessories such as memory cards. But everything is brand new and we have not even powered it on.

We’ve got other good stuff as well, like Lady Gaga earphones, a Jabra Bluetooth headset and Coolermaster V6 CPU coolers as well. More details on how to win here.

If you’ve seen one Bluetooth headset, you’ve seen all Bluetooth headsets. That was what I thought when I stopped using these gadgets early this year, because I had bought a car that came with its own Bluetooth speaker system.

Thus I saw the AliphCom Jawbone Icon, I was not immediately impressed by what it offered under the hood. In fact, the packaging – sleek enough for a piece of costume jewellery – and the earpiece’s shiny surface made me think this was another one of those pretty gadgets with run-of-the-mill technology.

But was I surprised, when I placed the Jawbone Icon in my ear. Hands down, these are the best small Bluetooth earpieces I have used, whether you’re talking about sound quality, comfort or user-friendliness.

First, the fit. You can either wear this earpiece by simply slotting it in your ear – with the help of several earbuds of varying sizes – or with the add-on clip which hooks the earpiece to your ear, if you are worried about it falling off.

Either way, this little gizmo is a work of genius. The hook, for example, is a simple yet secure snap-on to the main earpiece, and it swivels 360 degrees smoothly, so you can adjust it to work on either ear. Most earpieces I have reviewed come with separate hooks for both ears, because they haven’t got this quite impressive swivel action.

Speaking of fit, the mere 8 grams of the Jawbone Icon means it’s feather-like. I have worn it for an entire afternoon and never felt more comfortable with a Bluetooth gizmo sticking out of my left ear. Key to this is also the Jawbone Icon’s slightly curved shape – it stays snug to your, er,  jawbone.

The thoughtfulness of the design extends to several other features as well. I’m really happy with the sliding on/off switch (many Bluetooth headsets require you to hold down a button) and the discreet activity light (it’s on the inside, so there’s less bling when you wear the earpiece).

On top of this, what I also like are the useful voice prompts which tell you how much talk time you have left before a recharge, for example. The Jawbone Icon can be charged through its micro-USB port and included in the package is a car charger, which you’ll only need probably once a week, because the earpiece can easily last that long if you only make a few short calls a day.

But the star features here is the crystal clear conversations you can have with this small number. In a noisy cafe last week, I made several important phone calls to business contacts even when people around me were yakking at the top of their voices. I could hear clearly what the persons were saying on the phone, and none of them, in the entire afternoon, asked me to repeat a single phrase.

This, claims AliphCom, is the result of its Noise Assassin technology, which uses three microphones as well as DSP (digital signal processing) algorithms to separate speech from noise. Despite the fancy name, these technologies are also present in other Bluetooth headsets – it’s just that AliphCom does them better.

The only real complaint I have against the Jawbone Icon is the lack of traditional up/down volume buttons, for occasions when someone speaks too loudly on the other line.

Another “complaint” is the S$198 Singapore retail price. In the US, the earpiece is selling for US$99, which translates to S$129 at today’s favourable exchange rates, so yes, you might actually ship it over and pay less.

At the US price, I’d recommend the Jawbone Icon without any reservations. This is a deluxe Bluetooth earpiece that will make you junk that free one you got with a new phone in an instant.

The E5 supports various connectivity modes. Besides serving as a wireless AP that supports multiple devices, you can also choose to keep your mobile broadband connection personal by hooking the E5 directly to your Windows or Mac machine via a USB port. The E5 also supports a combination of USB and wireless AP modes.

Setting up the E5 to work with Windows 7 was a cinch and took just a couple of minutes. On Mac OS X Tiger, however, the modem could not connect to the Internet although the required driver software was already installed.

The default network name (SSID) and WPA passwords are printed on a sticker stuck on the device. You can change both of these easily by logging into the admin dashboard, where you can also specify various security and network settings. There’s also a SMS section in the dashboard for you to send and receive text messages while you’re on the mobile network.

The battery life from the E5 is nothing to brag about. I managed to get roughly three hours of Web browsing on the go. The good thing is that the E5 has a removable battery, and can be charged from a USB port – provided you have a laptop with decent battery performance.

Bottomline: If you have an additional data plan on top of what you may already have for a smartphone, the E5 offers a easy way for you to get online with a laptop or tablet without grappling with software and device driver installations required for USB dongles to work.

For those who are not acquainted with iTwin, iTwin is a USB dongle-type device that let’s you share files between two computers anywhere in the world.

It comes as a pair; plug one into one computer and another one in another one, and you can share files between the two no matter the distance between them.

“Think of it as an infinitely long LAN cable connection, except that it’s via a USB device,” said Lux Anantharaman, CEO, at the iTwin blogger launch party a few days ago.

The device, which retails for US$99 (about S$130), was officially launched on the auspicious date of 10th October 2010.

How it works is that it connects over the Internet, but uses AES256 encryption to ensure that the files shared are secure.

It is designed to be “simple enough that my mother can use,” said Lux. “Just plug and play!”

All well and good, but how does this compare to a cloud-based solution like dropbox, which is free (for space under 2GB) and can be shared between multiple users?

Kal Takru, COO of iTwin feels that the solutions are not comparable. For one, iTwin is not a cloud solution, and there’e no mirroring of files on both PCs. Secondly, there’s no limit on the disk size that can be shared.

Fellow blogger DK from Tech65.org, who was also at the party, summarized a most cogent and in my opinion, most astute observation about iTwin: “It’s either going to do very well or bomb terribly,” he said.

DK’s reasoning was that geeks wouldn’t use the device as we’re spoilt by all our dropbox and various cloud-sync solutions. However, the device is excellent for general end users, simply because it is really dead simple to use: Just plug and play!

Thus, how iTwin does depends on its channels marketing push to retail stores. For now, iTwin is available only from their website, but this will change soon, said Kal.

The device currently only supports Windows to Windows (XP, Vista and 7) file transfers, but support for Mac will be added by the first half of 2011.

Singapore needs more home grown companies like this; let’s hope that iTwin becomes a success!

I’ve been wanting to swap out my old Razer Tarantula keyboard for a while now, seeing how the lettering is all gone, and I sometimes have to second-guess where the right keys are. I finally did that yesterday with a Logitech K350 wireless keyboard.

Now, you may think I’m downgrading from a performance gaming keyboard to just another boring wireless typepad. But for me, it’s more like switching to something that suits what I do now, which is, sadly, 95 per cent typing e-mail and articles and 5 per cent games.

Sure, the Tarantula was big and impressive. But the lost paint on the lettering aside, I always preferred quiet and soft keys. I’m not your mechanical keyboard lover who misses the “clik-clak” on his old IBM compatible, so I’m not going for something like the SteelSeries mechanical keyboards.

At the same time, I’m not sure I ever needed the Tarantula’s anti-ghosting features that let a gamer press several keys at once without freezing the keyboard (my ageing reflexes play a bigger part in my character getting whacked online). The most important keys I’m going to use now are A-W-S-D, paired with my trusty Razer DeathAdder mouse in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

And no, I don’t want ultra-thin diNovo from Logitech either, because of a lack of depth in the keys, which always makes me feel that I am typing on a really cheap piece of plastic.

In the end, I settled on a wireless yet “semi-ergonomic” keyboard. The Logitech K350 is a little curved (Logitech calls it “Wave”), yet is not the full-blown version like the Microsoft Ergonomic series.

Having used the excellent Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 in my last job – I had bought it to hook up to my office-issue laptop after suffering from a slipped disc – I was tempted to buy one again.

But in the end, I thought I wanted to finally give wireless a try. Logitech promises up to three years of battery life on the K350 (I’ll update you when the battery runs out). And it comes with this Unifying USB transceiver that’s no bigger than a dollar coin, yet can connect up to six devices.

This means that I can easily hook up another Logitech wireless mouse in future by just pairing it using the included Unifying software (I’m eyeing the Performance Mouse MX, but I haven’t gotten over the heaviness of these critter for gaming).

To be honest, the finishing on the K350 keyboard is not top-notch or as polished as S$100+ rivals. But for S$75 (S$4 discount from friendly folks at Cybermind), I think it’s a pretty good deal.

One of the questions I often get from friends coming up to Hong Kong is if stuff is cheaper here or in Singapore. In many cases, the answer is “not really” or “just a little” – but in the case of the Synology DS210j that I bought for my bro recently, it was a helluva lot cheaper!

At HK$1530 (which is about S$278 at 1S$:5.5HK$), you’d be paying almost 50% more if you bought one from Synology’s dealer in Singapore (Memory World) which has priced it at S$408. Plus according to the Synology forum (post dates back to 2007 though), Synology does provide international warranty.

So why the DS210j? Only the Qnap TS210J II comes close to the DS210j’s transfer rates, but is more expensive. The rest of the 2-bay NAS competition, like the D-Link DNS-323 are generally slower. Oh, and its DLNA compliant too, so fits in with the plan of adding those ‘media extender’ devices to stream video and audio later.

And so far, the DS210j – paired with 2 x 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS HDD – has proven to be a great buy. No nasty surprises – it runs quietly, was easy to hook up to the network and does what it’s supposed to do.

The installation process could have been a tad better documented though. During the initial install, the installation wizard asked for the latest firmware file to flash the NAS, which left me for a sec wondering where to find it. After digging through the install disc, it turns out that the firmware files were in a directory labelled “patches”. In any case, geeks need to stay on top of firmware revisions so I went on down to their website and found a version that was newer than that on the disc.

Mac users will also be happy to know that the NAS popped right up in the Finder (I’m on OSX10.5.8) – leaving nothing to muck around with.

So unless you want to venture the DIY NAS on FreeNAS route that Alfred had shown previously, the Synology DS210j is the best bang for buck in the RAID 1, 2-bay NAS scene – especially if you get it here in HK!

It’s that time of the year again.

I’m talking about when Digital Life rolls out the Dream PC – one of the favourite stories I get to do each year as a techie. This PC is the fastest, meanest and well, “best-est” machine that we put together using the top-end components that every geek would want to own.

Last year, we had an Asus Rampage II Extreme X58-based mobo with an Intel Core i7-965 and Corsair’s Dominator DDR3 memory modules in a monster rig. This year, though the leap has not been as big as from Core 2 to Core i7 or DDR2 to DDR3, we have some awesome graphics power packed in. And we have a biggie in terms of a new case to stuff all those goodies in.

Without giving too much away, here are some pictures of the components, as they were awaiting the big build. Look out for next Wednesday’s Digital Life, which is bundled free with The Straits Times, for a no-holds-barred, state-of-the-art PC that you can build with the best of today’s components.

Targus has recently introduced a series of peripherals aimed at Mac users who tend to be a picky bunch when it comes to design. The Targus for Mac line includes the Bluetooth Laser Mouse (seen above), Wireless Mouse, USB Hub, Bluetooth Presenter, File Share Cable, Privacy Screen and Chill Mat. Techgoondu laid our hands on a few of these products which should go down well with owners of both new and old Macbooks and Macbook Pros.

Bluetooth Laser Mouse

At first glance, this Bluetooth enabled mouse is shaped somewhat like Apple’s Mighty Mouse which I have been using with my 2-year-old white Macbook. Ergonomically, it feels familiar and comfortable to hold and control mouse movements. The grey edges and base of the mouse is made of material that gives users with a good grip.

There are five buttons that are used to control various mouse operations, including two programmable buttons on the left edge. In Mac OS X system preferences, you can control the Bluetooth Laser Mouse’s tracking and scrolling speeds, which tend to be way faster than what I had set for the Mighty Mouse. For more accurate tracking, make sure you lower those speeds if you’ve been using the Mighty Mouse.

While you can still use the Bluetooth Laser Mouse without any software, the programmable buttons do require Targus’ driver software, which allows you to run AppleScripts, launch apps, perform keystrokes or predefined functions such as bringing up the Dashboard in click.

Clearly missing from the Bluetooth Laser Mouse is a mechanical scroll wheel. Instead, Targus has designed a touch scroll where you run you run your finger over an optical unit in the middle to scroll horizontally and vertically. This may take some getting used to, especially if you’re used to a conventional scroll wheel. In the beginning, I found the touch scroll a tad too sensitive, and had to reduce the scroll speed for greater control. The optical unit also serves as an indicator to warn you when battery power is running out via a blinking red light.

The Chill Mat is essentially a cooler pad that helps to lower the temperature of a running laptop, especially my Macbook which tends to get hot after a while. Powered by a USB port, the Chill Mat comes with two fans to cool your laptop and a mesh material underneath that keeps your laps cool. There is a switch for you to turn the fans on or off, but you can’t control the fan speeds. I found working on my Macbook more tolerable with the Chill Mat, though be prepared for battery life to take a hit and to sacrifice one USB port unless you’re using a USB hub.

This compact 4-port USB 2.0 hub will be welcomed by those who are looking for a matching product that goes well with Macbook designs. When not in use, the ports are protected by a wide rubber cable that fits snugly into the edges of the USB hub. As someone who hates wire clutter, it would have been better if there was some way of tugging the USB cables somewhere within the hub.

The Bluetooth Presenter is possibly the gem in the Targus for Mac line. This nifty laser pointer/slideshow controller/mouse hybrid is targeted at those who need to walk across a large room to connect with audiences during a presentation without being tethered to the laptop.

In Mouse Mode, the Bluetooth Presenter can be used as a mouse for you to start and navigate within an application. Like the Bluetooth Laser Mouse, you can program two buttons to run AppleScripts or even start your Keynote or PowerPoint application. Also, the volume control buttons at the side are especially useful when you need to raise the volume when showing stuff from video sharing sites.

At the center of the Bluetooth Presenter lies a touch scroll optical unit that brings up a laser pointer when depressed. Like the Bluetooth Laser Mouse, you control the mouse onscreen by running your finger over the optical unit which will emit a red light whenever the device is out of range. There is a tendency, however, for users to click on the optical unit to register a mouse click, rather than use the surrounding left and right buttons.

In Presentation Mode, you can start and stop slideshows with dedicated buttons at the top, including the ability to switch to a blank screen to prolong your laptop’s battery life if you’re not connected to a power point during a presentation. Bluetooth Presenter works with both Keynote and PowerPoint, but make sure you specify your presentation software in the Targus device settings.

The only problem I had with the Bluetooth Presenter was the need to increase cursor speeds when I’m using it in Mouse Mode since it appears to be less sensitive than the Bluetooth Laser Mouse that’s connected to the same machine. Although I have two mice connected, Mac OS X does not allow any way of specifying different cursor speeds for each mouse.