Hasta La Ideas

Acoustic bliss in an orgasmic sense. That’s the best way I can describe a speaker to you since you can’t hear it. Audio is totally subjective. My review is based on three basic points – how it looks, how it sounds, and how it compares. The Libratone Loop has already won almost every major design award in our industry so it stands to reason the accolades along with the $499 price tag means a really good speaker. Hit the jump for my review!

By far the Loop’s design is the most brazen. It looks handsome propped up with the included stand but was meant to be wall mounted. With a myriad of colors to choose from – seeing a wool covered circular object on a wall instantly changes any space into a modern setting. It’s not something you see everyday and visitors will probably mistake it for art or even an odd lamp before guessing it were a speaker. This is the epitome of Scandinavian design – minimalism with just a touch of warmth and any semblance of boldness usually comes from color.

The saucer shaped disk ingeniously hides components that generate sound belying its diminutive size. Libratone calls it Fullroom sound. In layman terms, that means sound spills out at nearly 360º. From one speaker, you can fill an entire room with hi-fi audio with a surprising amount of bass. OH GOD the bass! I love me some bass. Bass is one of the key markers of a good speaker. The Loop rumbles without rattling. The mids and highs are well balanced even with the volume cranked up. Once you get past the initial setup, you can stream via AirPlay, DNLA, or directly via USB.

It’s expensive but if you’re an audiophile – the price shouldn’t be a surprise. There are a few off-name brands that make pretty decent speakers at half the price, but for this level of engineering and quality, the only other company that competes is Bowers & Wilkins. I had a chance to play with the B&W A5 which also happens to be $499. It’s also Airplay enabled and sounds amazing. Setup on the A5 is a little more straight forward. You just download an app and push a couple of buttons and you’re done. The Libratone also has an app but requires you to mess with your wifi network. Fortunately once you set it up, you never have to touch the app again. B&W designed their speakers to optionally work as a group. You can buy multiple A5′s and control them all from one place. The Loop is meant to operate alone. Besides that one caveat, choosing between the two comes down to aesthetics. The Loop looks like modern art. The A5 looks like a very expensive piece of technology. Which would you choose?

Designer: Libratone, Buy it here

TRANISM is a weekly vlog series on YouTube from your favorite editor!

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Libratone Loop Wireless Speaker Review was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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There are books available for adults on the whys and wherefores of getting organized but there are not that many for young children.

Franklin the Turtle is a Canadian book series that first appeared in the mid-1980s. I love this entire series of books. Franklin is amiable, cheerful, and enjoys playing with his many friends. These wonderfully illustrated books are written to engage beginning readers.

Specifically, Franklin is Messy recounts how Franklin misses opportunities to play with his friends because he can’t find his costumes or toys. Franklin gets exasperated at not being able to find what he needs as he attempts to do some tidying himself. His parents offer assistance and together they create storage solutions adapted to Franklin’s needs. I won’t spoil the ending by revealing Franklin’s perspective on his organized and tidy room!

When I organized families, younger children would often be intimidated and nervous that a professional organizer was going to overhaul the house, and possibly throw out all of their treasures. I felt that Franklin is Messy was so well written that I took it with me whenever a client had children under eight years old. I would have the kids help me clear a space on the floor and I would sit with them and either read the book to them or have them read the book to me. Often, I would tell the pre-teens to sit with us too — so their younger brothers and sisters would have familiar company.

Usually, as soon as we finished the book, the children would start organizing on their own. Sometimes it was because they wanted to find lost treasures like Franklin and other times it was because they understood that a tidy room meant more time playing with friends.

Franklin is Messy has been translated into over 30 languages and views the benefits of getting organized in a brilliant, well written way that children can relate to in their own lives.

For those who prefer to watch rather than read, the books were adapted for television in the mid-1990s. In this Youtube video, the Franklin is Messy story starts at 11:40.

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It is rocket science and it is earthshattering and YES it is innovative engineering. Ha! I have always wanted to say these lines to the skeptics out there who tend to crush form and function kinda ideas. For the Dash7 Pocket-sized Portable Wireless Soundbar by Soundmatters it took the creative genius of nuclear physics, astronomy, physical chemistry graduate and NASA Project Manager – Dr. Godehard Guenther! Bottomline: with the Dash7 Soundbar, you are assured superior sound quality teamed with Good Design.

I had a chance to talk with Dr. Guenther about his passion for technology, design and the Dash7, and this is what he had to say…

Me: You are often called a Renaissance man, can you elaborate why?

Dr. G: Well I do have many passions – music, problem solving, art, cooking, sailing, piano, photography and I guess I’m a bit unusual in that my training, experiences and passions drive me to develop some rather unique product solutions.

Me: We read your tag line on Soundmatters: Simply. Better. Can simple be better?

Dr. G: Our products are typically pretty sophisticated on the inside, as far as circuitry but we strive to make them as simple as possible to use and produce.

Me: Can you tell us about how Soundmatters came about?

Dr. G: The products we did at my previous companies, a/d/s/ and Braun, looked and sounded wonderful but were targeted to the affluent audiophile. I felt that with some of my patents, there was an opportunity to shrink the size and lower the cost of great sounding speakers – especially in the personal/multi-media space, where poor quality audio was the norm. So I started up Soundmatters, initially strictly as an R+D firm, then adding our own brand to pioneer our new designs in the market.

Me: Your education background is very radically different from a typical Industrial Designer, how has that helped you with the processes in your company?

Dr. G: Well I don’t really consider myself an Industrial Designer… just an engineer with what I hope is a strong sensitivity to what makes a product enjoyable to use. We have maintained strong relationships with a number of great traditionally trained Industrial Designers, whom we work with on our projects.

Me: What makes Soundmatters different from the other products out there in the market?

Dr. G: The patented technologies for our acoustic drivers, and the years of experience in utilizing them in a synergistic manner with state-of-the-art electronics and enclosure materials to create customer friendly audio systems sounding much, much better and larger than other similarly sized products.

Soundmatters didn’t invent the Bluetooth speaker, just the ones that sound good.

The Dash7 combines the most advanced highest performance version of Soundmatters legendary Twoofers (tweeters that also woof). Designed to be pancake-flat, these ultra power neodymium drivers provide a uniquely wide frequency range. The patented rechargeable BassBattery not only delivers up to 12 hours of playback but augments the powered Twoofers by ingeniously doubling as a passive bass woofer.

Specs:

• At just 3/4″ height and 7.1 oz., Dash7 goes anywhere – using patented state-of-the-art audio technology to turn your tablet, phone or laptop into a personal amphitheater
• With extended Bluetooth range, Dash7 streams stereo music/movie soundtracks, also providing clear speakerphone/conference call capability with it’s built-in echo/noise canceling microphone
• Recharges via USB or included high-power international charger with US/EU/AU/UK adapters

Designer: Soundmatters [ Buy it here ]

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Rocket Science and Dash was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Mention Kickstarter in a room and see how people start off with their two cents on the pros and cons. The bottom line on this topic is that crowdfunding is here to stay and innovations like the Auris Skye are in our hands thanks to the concept. The pain of getting seamless WiFi connectivity especially when you move from room to room is a thing of the past. The device is a receiver for your Music Dock that Streams Music Using Airplay or DLNA.

If you ask me, then I’ll brand the Auris Skye as my music buddy, the one that that gives me the freedom to enjoy high resolution audio quality. Marking a new generation of WiFi music receivers that works well with AirPlay or DLNA, you can only imagine my excitement of hooking up my iPad and iPhone or iTunes to it. Android and Windows Phone users need not fret as Auris Skye has you covered.

I asked the Co-founder and CEO Jay Shah, on what drove him to bring us such innovation; he said that his team and he had identified several limiting factors in popular music receivers. These included pairing issues, low operation range, poor sound quality and limited compatibility. To overcome these challenges, Jay and his team immersed themselves in a year of R&D to perfect the technology that eliminated these problems. The end result is the super popular Auris Skye.

From a design perspective, I think we can safely give Jay’s team a full ten-star. The receiver is sleek, intuitive and easily slides onto the 30-pin docking station. The whole point of giving freedom to your music, reverberates in the fact that you can play your music from any compatible device (like an iPhone) and move with your groove!

Details:

• For the first time only, simply add skye to your WiFi network, and follow the connection instructions on the free skye control app.
• From there, you can stream audio wirelessly from your iOS, Android, Windows phone devices and Mac/PC in your WiFi network with AirPlay (for iOS) and DLNA (for Android and Windows) support while staying connected to the Internet at the same time.
• Skye uses Apple Lossless technology to keep every note beautifully clear
• WiFi technology also means that you can freely roam throughout your home without worrying about keeping your device close to the speakers.
• You can stream music to multiple docks one at a time or stream simultaneously with iTunes on a Mac or PC Lossless.
• No need to charge the Auris Skye as it simply pulls power from your music dock.

So if you’re a free bird like me who likes to listen to high quality sound with tech-savvy finesse and utter freedom, then get your Auris Skye here, today!

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Auris Skye: Music And Freedom As It Should Be was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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The following is a sponsored post from Staples about a product we believe in. For the past few weeks, I’ve been aggressively testing this product and the review is based on my first-hand experiences. We agreed to work with Staples because they sell so many different products in their stores, and our arrangement with them allows us to review products we use and have no hesitation recommending to our readers. Again, these infrequent sponsored posts help us continue to provide quality content to our audience.

When I was younger my grandfather told me, “Man was not meant to sit.” At the time I thought his cheese was slipping off of his cracker, but contemporary medicine backs up his claim. Dr. Camelia Davtyan, clinical professor of medicine and director of women’s health at the UCLA Comprehensive Health Program, recently told the LA Times, “Prolonged sitting is not what nature intended for us.”

Score one for gramps.

Today, my job requires me to spend tremendous amount of time seated behind a desk, so I want a chair that’s comfortable, supportive, well-made, easy to use, and not out to kill me. I’ve been testing the Staples Vayder chair ($399) for a couple of weeks and can say, a couple of quirks aside, it meets my needs and looks great doing it.

Assembly

Seriously, this could not be easier. In fact, I hesitate to call it “assembly,” as “snapping a few pieces together” would be more accurate. The chair ships in eight pieces: the seat, the base, the gas lift (or piece that sits between the seat and the base), and five wheels. It also comes with a small pamphlet that explains the three-step assembly process and usage details in English and French.

The wheels and gas lift snap into the base and the seat fits into the top of the lift. The whole process took me less than 10 minutes to complete. I will note, however, it’s not super easy to line up the bottom of the seat with the top of the lift by yourself, so if possible get someone else to act as your eyes and guide you. Also, one of the wheels only went about 95% of the way into my base, but the first time I sat in the completed chair it popped in the rest of the way.

Controls and adjustments

Of course, I plopped down into the Vayder before reading the instructions, and found myself sitting bolt upright. Fortunately, Staples makes it easy to configure the chairs six adjustment options for a custom feel. The control levers are made of plastic and bear icons that suggest their function. Most are easy to reach from a seated position, so you won’t need to move around to change things.

Seat hight is simple enough and raises or lowers the seat. Tilt Lock lets you lean back or forward and lock the seat back into one of four positions. For me, one click backward is perfect. To use it, just flip the lever down, move your back and then flick the lever back up to lock it into place.

The arm hight adjustment is something I kind of laughed at until I’ve tried it. When I was in college, I had a job filing and my chair’s arms were so tall I couldn’t get my arms on them and under the desk at the same time. The arms on the Vayder chair move up and down by several inches, and the armrests themselves also move forward and back.

Other adjustment options include back height adjustment (this is the adjustment you can’t make while seated), which lets you raise or lower the back support piece, and a slide seat adjustment that lets you move just the “bottom” of the seat, for lack of a better term, forward or back.

Finally, the tension adjustment is the most interesting. Both the chair’s seat and back are made of a mesh upholstery that’s supremely comfortable (more on that in the next section). Tension adjustment is completed by turing a cylindrical handle just beneath the seat. Move it forward for firmer feel, backward for more relaxed.

Comfort

This chair plain-old feels good. The mesh upholstery breathes so you don’t get hot as you would on a typically upholstered seat. I’ve got the mesh set to be pretty firm, and it feels great, especially against my back. The wheels roll nicely without making a lot of noise and I’ve never been uncomfortable, even after two weeks of 10-hour days. Plus, it just feels solid.

In conclusion I like the Staples Vayder a lot. It does have some quirks, like that stubborn wheel and the fact that assembly is a hassle if you’re by yourself, but those are minor quibbles. My real-world experience with the Vayder has been great and I look forward to many, many more hours in it.

And look at that, I got through this whole post without making one “Darth Vayder” pun.

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