Sharp Tech: Jawbone ICON

by William Martin on February 23rd, 2010

Aliph, makers of the Jawbone Bluetooth, have gotten consistent praise for innovation with their quality ear gear, and with the ICON, their newest headset, Aliph seeks to continue this tradition with what they’re calling “the first truly intelligent” Bluetooth. Is it truly intelligent? Probably not, but hey, that doesn’t mean its bad.

 

It may not be a sentient being, but the product’s “intelligent” design is really more a reference to its impressive customizability. Lets start with style. The unit retains the sleek design of past models, while actually managing to reduce its size. It comes in six different colours, each with their own unique design attributes. For example, the Hero model has a dimpled exterior where the Catch has a polished smooth appearance. Furthermore, each model has its own unique and programmable voice or “personality”. The “Hero,” for instance, sounds like a beefy sports star where as the “Thinker” sounds like a stuffy university professor. The ability to change the voice of your Bluetooth is a feature of Aliph’s new MyTalk applications. The ICON is designed to work with a number of mini-applications that can do anything from customizing the headset’s voice, to dialing using voice-activated shortcuts for important numbers.  

 

All of these gimmicks and gadgets are great, but when assessing any Bluetooth, the ability to actually communicate is paramount. Fortunately, this is were the ICON excels most, sounding markedly better than it’s predecessor, the Prime, with voices’ come out crystal clear on both ends. Each headset also comes ready with Aliph’s patented “Noise Assassin” voice isolation technology, which, though still not perfected, does an excellent job of eliminating unwanted environmental noise. So, not only did they add a whole slew of new bells and whistles, Aliph’s ICON successfully managed to shrink in size while improving in sound quality. No easy feat to say the least, even for an “intelligent” headset.

Sharp Drinks: KRUPS BeerTender

by William Martin on February 16th, 2010

The only thing separating your favourite local tavern from your bar at home is a good draught beer at a decent price. Unfortunately,  most home keg solutions come at a ridiculous expense and are simply too big for personal use. Lucky for you, the BeerTender is just the right size to serve as a perfect personal watering hole.This new product from Krups uses a unique internal carbonation system to ensure that your beer keg remains fresh for up to a month and offers that perfect amount of foam that you can only get with draught. The BeerTender also comes equipped with an LED screen that can actually show you the temperature and exactly how much beer is left in the keg. But the real selling point here is the price. For $120, you can have draught beer. At home. Any time you want. Now if that’s not freedom, we don’t know what is.newegg.ca 

Sharp at the Movies: Frozen

by Alex Nino Gheciu on February 5th, 2010

 Three snowboarders get stuck on a chairlift. It doesn’t seem like the type of premise that would warrant 90 minutes of your time, yet somehow, Frozen is alarmingly (ahem) chilling till the very end.Writer/Director Adam Green wastes little time acquainting us with lovebirds Parker (Emma Bell) and Dan (Kevin Zegers), who are accompanied by Lynch (Shawn Ashmore), the jealous best bud with a ‘no girls allowed’ policy. Soon enough, things get extra awkward as the trio finds themselves stranded mid-air on a Sunday night in a ski park that’s shuttered down until next weekend.If you’re thinking this sounds somewhat reminiscent of “Open Water,” you’re right. Except, instead of treading water and watching sharks circle, these twentysomethings are fighting the blistering cold and trying not to disturb the wolves below. It may not sound that hard, but between frostbite, hunger, blizzards, claustrophobia and botched escape attempts, things get tense and terrifying.Minimalist thrillers like Frozen rely heavily on strong writing and good acting. Luckily, this movie is chock full of both, despite one or two watery-eyed monologues that’ll probably elicit more snickers than sniffles. For the most part, however, our protagonists are too petrified to be melodramatic, and the film effectively convinces us that we’re freezing to death with them. Watch Frozen and you’ll never trust a lift operator again.

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