Music

Things to think about when buying speakers

The No. 1 question I get from readers is something along the lines of "What's the best speaker?" Some readers include a price range, which is a huge help, but there are a lot of factors that should be considered when selecting a speaker. Or to be more precise, a speaker system.

Speakers "play" the room, so room size and acoustics should be taken into consideration when buying speakers. The pair of 8-inch tall speakers that might sound great in a 10-by-12-foot bedroom probably won't cut it in a 25-by-40-foot living room, where you … Read more

Is HTC One launch ad funny or mortifying?

Finding true love is as difficult as finding an original needle in a sewing establishment.

No art form has ever made that more poignant than "The Bachelor" and its sister show "The Bachelorette."

For weeks and weeks, potential partners are examined, touched, whispered to, held and discarded, until, somehow, a lasting happiness emerges. Oddly, so many of these couples break up around four minutes after the show is over.

Still, the wise people behind the apparently rather fine HTC One thought it would be a good idea to compare choosing a phone to choosing one's … Read more

Twitter's music site goes live, kinda

Twitter's new music site went live this morning.

Well, almost. Users can currently log in with their usual Twitter credentials, but there are no features as of yet.

According to AllThingsD, only a select few will get access to the service over the coming days, with Twitter planning a more extensive rollout after that.

Reports that the service was set to go live began circulating last night, and were fueled earlier in the week by celebrity Ryan Seacrest, who bragged about having access to it in a series of tweets.

Twitter yesterday confirmed that it had purchased music discovery … Read more

Amazon's Bezos defends heavy investments in Prime, Kindle

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos today defended the company's stance on heavy investments in certain areas, saying it's focused on its customers, not its rivals, and that it believes its strategy is the best for the long term.

For years, Bezos has demonstrated a preference for plowing resources into initiatives to build market share but take years to generate profits. That seeming indifference to near-term profits worries Wall Street, with many expressing reservations over the years about the impact on margins. Amazon is believed to make little, if any, money on its gadgets, instead relying on customers to … Read more

Crave giveaway: Pure Sensia 200D Connect portable music system

Congrats to Kurt H. of Baltimore for winning a pair of Coloud Boom headphones in last week's giveaway. This week, we've got another great prize for audiophiles.

We're giving away a Sensia 200D Connect portable wireless audio system from Pure, a British maker of digital radios that's aiming to crack the streaming-audio market as well.

The football-shaped Wi-Fi digital radio also streams audio from Pure Music, Pure's Web-based on-demand subscription service that will hit the U.S. later this year, or from your music collection on a PC, Mac, or network storage device.

In addition to displaying radio, music, or podcast info, the 5.7-inch color 640x480-pixel touch screen can be used to show album art, weather reports, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, and photos stored locally or on Picasa. … Read more

Twitter confirms acquisition of music service We Are Hunted

We Are Hunted announced today that it has been acquired by Twitter, confirming a CNET report that the music discovery service was already being integrated with the microblogging site's music products.

In a tweet, Twitter also confirmed the acquisition.

Welcome to Twitter! "@wearehunted: We want to share some news with you. We Are Hunted has joined Twitter. wearehunted.com"

— Twitter Comms (@twittercomms) April 11, 2013

As a result, Wearehunted.com will shut down and user accounts will be closed, a note on the music site's home page explained.

"While we are shutting down wearehunted.com, … Read more

BlackBerry is the phone people want least, survey says

Me, I'd never buy Birkenstocks.

"I am a prehistoric intellectual" is just not a message I want to send.

Everyone has their peculiar aversions to certain brands, people, and practices. So, in an interesting psychological twist, Raymond James' research arm decided to ask people which cell phones were, to them, the least attractive.

Yes, which cell phones would you rather shave your head bald, pierce both eyebrows and one bottom cheek, and walk through a freezing garden naked than buy?

I am grateful to AllThingsD for not having an aversion to this survey, one which offered severe … Read more

Great Gangnams, Batman! Psy to debut new single on YouTube!

I have no wish to excite you excessively.

I feel I can succeed in that with this post. For I just wanted to suggest something you might want to do, should you be awake at 2:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday.

Entertainment options are not necessarily legion at that time. So you might want to turn to your laptop, turn away from your usual 2:30 a.m. Web sites, and wallow in the glory of YouTube.

For there you will find Psy, the cheery performer who made you so much more attractive with his "Gangnam Style" overture, debuting his new single. … Read more

Flying iPad lodges in woman's bumper?

You are driving your car. You see something flying at you.

What do you do? What do you think? Do you assume the aliens have arrived? Do you you decide that this is mere debris from a passing truck, so as long as it doesn't hit the windshield you'll be fine?

Well, that depends on if you're in Georgia. For in that state, iPads allegedly fly.

You might sense that my senses have flown to foreign parts. Before you judge, I will just ask that you peruse this report from Atlanta's ABC57 News.

There, you will … Read more

Samsung Galaxy S4 launch ads: Not a whiff of an iPhone joke

Should you play nice when you're doing well? Or should you seek the jugular, machete in hand?

It seems now that Samsung is in a confident position, it no longer needs to mock Apple. BlackBerry might be another matter, of course. That brand has a business which Samsung covets.

But when it comes to launching the Galaxy S4, Samsung is steering a course very much down the middle of taste, the road and, who knows, America.

I am grateful to Business Insider for pointing the way toward three new ads to celebrate Samsung's next big device.

They are … Read more