Do audio bit rates matter? With iTunes enhanced-bitrate music coming in a month, we were hoping for a vast improvement. But can anyone tell the difference between a music track encoded at 320kbit/sec, 160kbit/sec and oh, lord, that holy grail of audiophile nirvana, the uncompressed wav? Our friends at Maximum PC decided to put audio compression to the test, enlisting four people to listen music first in uncompressed form, and then encoded with a variable bit rate at 320kbit/sec and the lowly 160kbit/sec. It was easy for everyone to tell the difference, right? Right?
It’s downright humiliating, in fact, that in many cases, we were unable to tell the difference between an uncompressed track and one encoded at 160Kb/s, the bit rate most of us considered the absolute minimum acceptable for even portable players.
Most of the time, even a golden-eared audiophile couldn’t tell the difference between uncompressed and highly compressed audio. These results are roughly similar to the Slate Explainer we referenced a couple of weeks ago. A useful fact is that the compressed files were hard to detect because they were encoded using a variable bit rate, which makes a huge difference in complex musical passages that might suffer from compression. What a revealing test, and a great read! – Charlie White
Do Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off? [Maximum PC]
Okay Brando, you got to be kidding this time, right? There’s no evidence that PC peripheral/junk purveyor Brando got permission from Disney to build these $26 USB Mickey Mouse speakers, but the mouse-eared squawk boxes just might get a chuckle out of those who laugh easily.
Hey, wait a minute. It says right here on the Brando site that these speakers have “excellent audio quality.” Well, I stand corrected. Come to think of it, these might be perfect for those poor souls slaving away in Mickey Mouse organizations, standing in homage to their patron saint of mediocrity. – Charlie White
galleryPost('mm_spkrs', 4, 'Mickey Mouse Speakers');
Product Page [Brando]
Fujitsu has teamed up with TomTom for its first joint foray into the US Sat-Nav market. The AVN2210p is a car audio unit complete with detachable PND that includes GPS antenna, rechargable battery and speaker, so that you can use it separately from the base unit. Maps of the US and Canada are on a separate SD memory card and It also benefits from TomTom Plus.
The audio unit has a satellite broadcasting digital radio with optional tuner, plays MP3 and WMA files on its CD and CD-R/RW player, supports iPods and other DAPs. There’s 5V of preamp outputs and a 50W x 4-channel power amp with three-band equalizer and a low-pass filter, and will support your cellphone via Bluetooth. Cost is around $900 and it will be available next month. – Ad Dugdale
Press Release [Fujitsu Ten via PC Watch]
Details of Minox‘s DC-1022, the successor to its rather fabulous 8122, have been released. The compact 10-megapixel camera lets you choose aperture and shutter speed for yourself, and there are a range of different modes, from sports and animal photography through fireworks and nighttime. There’s also a failsafe automatic mode. Image stabilization is software-based so you should have less blurred photos, even when using zoom.
The DC-1022 will set you back $469 on Amazon.com and it ships starting June 1. There’s a full list of specs after the jump.
There’s been a lot of UMPC talk and action in the latter part of this week. And it’s not stopping today. Size queens among you will be interested to see a spiffy 2008 Menlow-based UMPC parked up close and personal on the left of the oh-already-so-tired-O-seven McCaslin.
There are a couple more pics of 45 nanometer loveliness after the jump—including one of a Menlow board Silverthorne processor compared to a playing card.
Instead of manually checking the water with your hands to make sure it’s not too warm or cold, just plop on this digital bath spout cover and be done with it. The easy-to-read display shows both the temperature in number form and in color form. Once you get your water just right, dump your child inside and get back to blog surfing.
Even though we have no kids of our own, we still really want one of these. We swear we’ve burned our peepees for the last time, Trebek. – Jason Chen
Product Page [Kidsafeinc via Crave via Gearlog]
Most of us with Windows Mobile smartphones made by HTC are still waiting for the official WM6 upgrade ROMs before upgrading. After all, walking up to the store with a bricked phone made by some ROM we found on the Net isn’t our idea of a good time. Good news, as HTC’s just released their upgrade path.
If you’re using the HTC TyTN, the 620, the P4350, P330 or the Advantage, upgrades will be rolled out on their site starting June. But if you’re in the US, you may have to wait longer, as HTC has to hand off the upgrades to the provider for them to brand and certify first before propagating them to you. – Jason Chen
Ufficiale: HTC rilascia gratis WM 6, ma non per tutti i PDA [Solopalmari - Thanks Mike!]
Desktop trebuchet a little dull? Try this desktop pitching machine on for size. It includes 12 soft miniature balls and a collapsible bat. And I thought I was risking my job tweaking my baseball fantasy league at the office; how about an actual game of baseball? Show me one office where a person could get away with this and I will be quitting Gizmodo in a heartbeat. $25. –Travis Hudson
Product Page [Via Nerd Approved]
What do you get when you combine a Roomba, a laser sight and an airsoft gun? Something cats are really, really afraid of. Modder Chris Myers first hacked his Roomba to be controlled by Bluetooth, which he then used to bring him wine from across the room. After getting hammered, he decided to mount a cannon on there instead. Hats off to Chris for his ingenuity. – Jason Chen
Project Page [Isopoddesign - Thanks Aaron!]
There’s a project in the works to build the world’s longest tunnel, a whopping 64 miles long, between Russia and Alaska. Not for the claustrophobic, the tunnel will take from 10-15 years to build at a cost of $10-12 billion. It’s a Russian plan, and they’ll be presenting their project to the U.S. next week for approval. The tunnel will be huge, containing a highway, railroad, and pipeline for transporting oil. To drive through the 64-mile-long tunnel you’ll need to present officials at the entrance with a permit confirming the fact that you have huge balls.
Hopefully this Russian tunnel will be safer than some of their other tunnels. –Adam Frucci
