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ICYMI: We listen to Yamaha’s latest headphones with 3D sound
As we get closer and closer to the end of the year, there are still plenty of interesting gadgets, instruments and devices to review. This week, we’ve got a new addition to the Halo series with Halo: Infinite, which Jessica Conditt says fits right in with the rest of the franchise. Terrence O’Brien played the Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster and reported that the hybrid instrument produces convincing acoustic sounds that echo the original guitar. James Trew used the Analogue Pocket and says it’s the best handheld retro experience available right now, period. And Billy Steele listened to Yahama’s YH-L700A, which he deemed a bit heavy-handed, albeit excellent for movie watching.
The Yamaha YH-L700A headphones have a unique aesthetic and a high price
Billy Steele likes the look of the Yamaha YH-L700A headphones: he says the combination of leather, fabric, matte black and silver accents makes for a refined look while the square fold-in ear cups make them easy to travel with. The noteworthy feature on these headphones is the 3D Sound Field feature, which consists of seven presets to enhance music and movies. There’s also a head-tracking feature which makes the sound appear to be coming from a stationary point.
Billy says this last feature added a cinematic element to movie watching, but he didn’t think it translated when listening to music. The seven presets of the 3D Sound Field likewise worked better for movies and television where they created a spacious sound. While testing the filters with music, Billy reports they felt heavy-handed and didn’t work well across genres. He says the active noise cancellation on these cans is sufficient if not impressive, and points out that the marquee features can be toggled on and off within the app. However, he was disappointed with the battery life – during testing, the headphones managed to last just under 11 hours, which is lackluster when most of the competition boasts closer to 30 hours of battery life. And at $500, they have a high price tag to boot.
The Analogue Pocket offers all the fun of ‘90s portable gaming
James Trew is a long-time vintage gaming fan and is quick to point out that while the Analogue Pocket is the best experience available right now, it’s also not for casual users. At $220, it lets you play most vintage portable titles from Game Boy, as well as Game Gear, while adapters for Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx are on the way. It also has more modern touches, too, like a backlit display. And in addition to being a quality gaming device, the Analogue Pocket can also hook up to a TV and has built-in music making software.
Because of its FPGA “cores,” the Pocket can mimic vintage consoles at a hardware level – no more emulator quirks to suffer through. It’s also functional with original Game Boy accessories like the Game Boy Camera, printers or rumble packs. And it can connect to an authentic Game Boy for a multiplayer experience. James liked the 3.5-inch screen made with Gorilla Glass as well as the save states, but wished the shoulder buttons were better and said some of the display modes obscure on-screen messaging at times. Overall, the Analogue Pocket offers elevated retro gameplay with enough forthcoming additional features to ensure it will get better over time.
Halo: Infinite has fun new mechanics and tools
Jessica Conditt had high hopes for Halo: Infinite, the first open-world game in the franchise’s history. And she admits that playing the new storyline brought back warm, gleeful feelings and a sense of familiarity. However, she also thinks the game lacks surprise and intrigue – much of the innovation into vertical space has been done by other, more recent games, and the cramped map made for contained and linear gameplay.
That being said, Jessica reports she had a lot of fun playing with the newly available mechanics and tools, in particular the grapple hook. From climbing mountains to scaling buildings, the grapple hook provides new vertical space for players to explore. Jessica says that while she expected a lot more from the pioneer FPS title, she also thinks it’s at its best when it gives users a rich environment full of grappling, shielding and in-air headshots. From the maze-like levels, military stereotypes and sarcastic robots, Infinite plays like a classic Halo game.
The Hydrasynth Explorer offers an endless array of synth options
Terrence O’Brien admits up front that the Hydrasynth Explorer offers a remarkable array of features and options in a portable, well-built device. For $600, you get a wavemorphing engine with an eight-note polyphone, three oscillators per voice, a ring modulator, a noise source and over 200 waveforms. There are also two filters which can be in series or parallel to determine how much of each oscillator goes to each filter. He says that the 88-page manual feels like it’s just skimming the surface of what the synth is capable of.
However, you don’t need to master the sound design tools to get started with the instrument – just dig into the 640 presets spread over five banks of 128 patches. During testing, Terrence found the Explorer easy to use thanks to the neatly labeled sections on the front panel. A few things missing on the versatile device are a proper sequencer, full-sized keys, and touch strips instead of pitch and mod wheels. There are also only three filter knobs instead of five. Despite that, Terrence still feels that the Explorer is well worth its price tag given its great sound, solid build and plethora of tools to explore.
Fender’s Acoustasonic Player Telecaster is an (almost) perfect couch guitar
Terrence O’Brien also spent some time with the new Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster, which slashes $800 off the price of the previous model. For $1,200, you get a mahogany and spruce satin finish with a rosewood fretboard, two pickups and a three-way switch with six sound options. Instead of a rechargeable battery, the Player runs on a standard nine-volt cell. Terrence reports it eats through the batteries surprisingly quickly, but remains convenient.
When it came to how the instrument sounded, Terrence reports that while there are fewer acoustic simulations on this model, the two offerings (Rosewood Dreadnought and Mahogany Small Body) cover a lot of ground. He says that he prefers the electric sounds of the Telecaster to the more expensive Jazzmaster, as it resembles the original guitar more and plays better with pedals. Terrence says the two acoustic simulations offer depth and character, and that overall, the hybrid guitar is a perfect couch instrument.
Universal’s Audio Volt is an audio interface ideal for a home studio
Terrence O’Brien deems Universal Audio’s first foray into the budget space a success. The company’s Volt series, five models that run from $139 to $369, are affordable audio interfaces that share a core 24-bit/192kHz audio converter and a preamp with a “Vintage” mode that aims to recreate that classic tube preamp sounds. Terrence tested the $189 Volt 2 and the $299 Volt 276, which are both two-input interfaces.
The differences between the two models are slight: the Volt 2 is simple and utilitarian, but works well with limited space, while the “76” version has a built-in compressor and will require extra desk space as most of the controls are on the top. Terrence says the compressor makes a big difference as it’s capable of softer edges to tame the harsher frequencies. He also felt the metering LEDs on the 276 were easier to see and the wooden sides were a nice touch. While the base models were excellent interfaces at reasonable prices, Terrence said the 176, 276 and 476 stood out from the pack thanks to their compressors, style and ergonomics.
OnePlus launches a Pac-Man edition of its Nord 2 smartphone
OnePlus is known for its special edition phones, and now it's creating another for its latest Nord 2 5G smartphone — but this time, it's moving from iconic cars to iconic video games. The company has unveiled the OnePlus Nord 2 x Pac-Man edition with custom covers, themed wallpapers and even a Lego-like smartphone holder.
The back of the phone has a film with a small Pac-Man logo, and it even glows in the dark to reveal a maze. There's also a translucent themed case featuring Pac-Man and his enemies Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. once its turned on, you get one of eight Pac-Man-themed wallpapers, along with a Pac-Man-themed charging animation, redesigned retro icons/notification sounds and more. The box is also Pac-Man themed.
If also comes with a Lego-like Pac-Man stand you build yourself, provided you order it directly from OnePlus. Finally, it includes a pre-installed version of the 2015 (free-to-play) game Pac-Man 256.
Otherwise, it's the same OnePlus Nord 2 we recently tried, complete with a 6.43-inch 1080 90Hz OLED display, MediaTek Dimensity 1200-AI processor and 4,500mAh, 65W fast-charging battery. On the back, you'll find a triple-camera setup with a 50-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel ultrawide and a 2-megapixel monochrome camera. It goes on sale tomorrow for £499/€529/₹37,999 in the UK, Europe and India respectively, and as with the regular Nord 2, isn't available in the US.
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My favorite summer toy is the GDP XD emulator
People ask me all the time about my favorite gadgets and I rarely have any answers. I’ve been playing with stuff since 2004 and I’m pretty gadget-ed out. But this year I’ve finally found something that I really enjoy: the GPD XD, an Android-based gaming handheld that lets you play multiple emulators including an endless array of homebrew and classic ROMS.
As an early fan of the Caanoo I’m always looking for handheld emulators that can let you play classic games without much fuss. The Caanoo worked quite well, especially for 2010 technology, and I was looking to upgrade.
[gallery ids="1670742,1670739,1670738"]My friend bought a GDP and showed it to me and I was hooked. I could play some wonderful old ROMs in a form factor that was superior to the Caanoo and this super cheap, super awful 4.3-inch device that emulates like a truck.
The GDP, which has two joysticks, one four-axis button, four shoulder buttons, and a diamond of game buttons, is basically a Wi-Fi enabled Android device with a touch screen. It runs Android 7.0 and has a MTK8176 Quad-core+ processor and 4GB of memory. It comes with NES, SNES, Arcade, and Playstation emulators built in as well as a few home-brew games. You can install almost anything from the Google Play store and it includes a file manager and ebook reader. It also has a micro SD card slot, HDMI out, and headphone jack.
To be clear, the GDP isn’t exactly well documented. The device includes a bit of on board documentation – basically a few graphics files that describe how to add and upload ROMS and emulators. There are also a number of online resources including Reddit threads talking about this thing’s emulation prowess. The original model appeared two years ago and they are now selling an updated 2018 version with a better processor and more memory.
GPD recently launched another handheld, the Win 2, which is a full Windows machine in a form factor similar to the XD. It is considerably more expensive – about $700 vs. $300 – and if you’re looking for a more computer-like experience it might work. I have, however, had a lot of fun with the XD these past few months.
So whatever your feelings regarding ROMs, emulators, and tiny PCs, I’m happy to report that I’ve finally been pleased with a clever and fun bit of portable technology.
Years of Howard Stern’s interviews with Trump now gone after DMCA takedown
A Washington, DC startup that recently posted an audio archive of years’ worth of Howard Stern’s interviews with Donald Trump, all before he was elected president, has been hit with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice and a cease-and-desist letter.
On Wednesday afternoon, roughly 48 hours after it was put up, the audio trove has been removed from YouTube and SoundCloud. For now, the transcripts remain on Factba.se, a website created by the startup FactSquared.
Factba.se published a total of around 15 hours' worth of audio—exclusively of the minutes when Trump was on The Howard Stern Show—gathered from nearly 25 years of shows, starting in 1993 and ending in 2015.
Some Finnish Engineers Would Like You To Put This Tiny Square Computer In Your Pocket
Easy Digital Downloads: Installation & General Settings, Part 1
Carefully timed questions can bias moral decisions
Where people look while making a decision is an indicator of their thought processes. Given the choice between a candy bar and potato chips, if you look at the chips more, that’s a clue that you’ll probably choose them.
According to a recent paper in PNAS, this influence can work the other way around, too. If you’re forced to make your choice while you’re looking at the candy bar, you’ll probably choose that option—even if you looked at the chips more overall. That is, external influences can play a role in your decision-making.
According to the paper, this phenomenon can hold true even for decisions a lot more complicated and weighty than what snack food you'd prefer. In a series of experiments that focused on moral decision-making, researchers explored whether eye gaze helps track thinking about moral thought processes and whether it can be manipulated to sway decision outcomes.
Your Android device may be spying on you even when it's 'off'
Much is made of the "Android malware problem", but the truth is, there isn't a very bad problem. That does not mean there is no problem though. Visuses for Google's mobile platform do exist and some folks manage to let phones and tablets contract a virus. Now a new and interesting bug seems to be floating around.
According to security software maker AVG this latest malware comes with a unique feature -- it can spy on you when you think your device is shut off. It does so by mimicking the shutdown screen, but not actually powering off the handset.
Per AVG's Mobile Malware Research Team: "This malware hijacks the shutting down process of your mobile, so when the user turns the power off button to shut down their mobile, it doesn’t really shut down. After pressing the power button, you will see the real shutdown animation, and the phone appears off. Although the screen is black, it is still on".
What happens next is even more frightening. Your phone, which you think is safely off, can make outgoing calls and even take pictures. Other tasks are also within its scope during this time.
To accomplish this the malware applies for root permission and injects the system_server to hook into the shutdown process. Once that's accomplished the Power button begins running the fake shutdown dialogue whenever pressed.
AVG claims it can detect the malware now, but to its credit this wasn't said as a sales pitch. Instead of recommending its software the security firm advises users to remove the battery to ensure the device is really off.
Image Credit: alexskopje / Shutterstock
Segunda Rima com Bunda #262 (Post +18)
Aos amigos que estavam ansiosos, chegou a tão aguardada Segunda-Feira e, com ela, o nosso post com uma seleção especial de bundas. Vejam e apreciem as beldades que separamos para vocês hoje.
Se puder, não deixe de compartilhar e deixar o agradecimento. É o combustível para mantermos essa categoria ativa aqui no Uhull.
Veja também os outros Segunda Rima com Bunda que sairam aqui!
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Segunda Rima com Bunda #232
Olá, amigos. Adivinha que dia é hoje? Nem precisa dizer que é o dia com as melhores bundas da semana do Uhull. Bora ver as belezuras que preparamos pra vocês hoje no Segunda Rima com Bunda!
Se gostou, pode ver outros S.R.B. que perdeu!
Rose McGowan Nekkid Dancing In Her Home (VIDEO)
We ran this video during last week's Reader Finds, but, apparently, not everyone did their homework or wanted to use the pause button, so here is the much ballyhooed Rose McGowan dancing nekkid in her home video. I'm told the short film has deeper meaning than just Rose twirling around like a half or less dressed ballerina and baring her faptastic body. But people have have been trying to tell me to look beyond the flesh my entire life to little avail.
Behold, Rose McGowan, in all her natural splendor. Enjoy.
(For Rose enthusiasts, be sure to See Rose McGowan's 126 Pictures and Videos at Mr. Skin.)