There aren’t any calibration setting requirements here but you do get adjustments for sound tuning. There is a ‘Trim’ switch which sets input sensitivity in 3 steps. Out of the box, the system comes with Trim at ‘1’ and the sound wasn’t loud enough even when the volume was maxed out. The maximum limit was increased when I switched to the second Trim. The sound bar also comes with ‘Wall-Table’ EQ which tunes the tonal balance of the speaker for table or wall mounting.

On the rear panel, the Harman Kardon SB 16 has another set of controls – Phase Switch, Volume, and Crossover. The latter two have big effect on perceived sound balance of this system. During my tests, I set the volume control 3 quarters of way up and Crossover at 125 Hertz approx. The range is from 50-150Hz. These adjustments can be made ‘by ear’ to produce a smooth blend between sound bar and sub. The manufacturer recommends you to set Phase Switch to 0 and it worked fine for us. There is alternative ‘180’ position which will give you smoother blend in some rooms. You can experiment with the settings and get to your own sweet spot.

Harman says that you can place the wireless subwoofer anywhere in the room but for getting the best sound quality, I would recommend you to stay within five to six feet. During my tests, I saw that the tonal balance was fuller and bigger as compared to any self-amplified (this means you don’t need AV receiver) sound bar that I have tested in some time. The big subwoofer is responsible for it primarily but I never felt that bass was overdone or that subwoofer was trying to hog a lot of attention.

I put the Harman Kardon SB 16 through rigorous sound tests and was impressed by the performance. I was playing some battle scenes and the explosions and gunfire were sounding cleaner as compared to other sound bars that I have tested to date.

Other external hard drive devices offer you a menu of preset ports but with the GoFlex Pro, the manufacturers has decided to cut down the cost by offering ‘personality cables’.  Through this, you can only purchase the connections that you really need for the system profile. I also must applaud Seagate for making the process of taking data backups easier and I would recommend you to get this drive if you need extra storage space for all your data.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex desk is quite an intimidating device as it offers a huge 2 TB of storage space. This is the highest capacity of any storage device to date on a single-volume system. The device comes with a flexible design which makes adding more features or connections really easy. The performance too is decent.

However, I was disappointed to see that the drive has just a USB 2.0 connection and you have to pay extra for other connection adapters. The drive can also easily topple if you use it in a vertical position. Finally, I was concerned about how hot the FireWire external hard drive got during operation.

In spite of all these drawbacks, I would recommend you the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex desk because it is the biggest single volume based external hard drive in the market right now and has the best combination of performance, storage capacity and design.

The last FireWire external hard drive is Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-portable with 1.5 TB storage capacity. This drive is really flexible and is based on USB 3.0 technology. You can use it both on PCs and Macs without any formatting.

The performance of this device could be better and I was disappointed to see that the drive doesn’t come with a USB 3.0 add in card for systems that don’t have this connection yet.

I would recommend you the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-portable if you are looking for a portable friendly storage device. The storage space is quite big and this FireWire external hard drive will easily meet all your requirements.

I hold this company with high regards and this time, it looks like the Aliph has surpassed itself. Aliph Jawbone Icon that I got in my labs has plenty of designs to choose from and it looks like a museum piece. Also, it is the first Bluetooth headset to have operating system built-in. You can program the internal chip to give a richer experience than other Bluetooth headsets. For instance, there is a visual battery meter next to the one in your iPhone. That’s not all, this is the first Bluetooth headset I have ever seen to have Dial or Audio ‘apps’ which you can install through Jawbone’s own MyTalk Web site.

I had some issues with the design but the feature set is outstanding and the quality too has been improved. This is arguably the best headset I have ever seen for this year. At $99, it is not too expensive either. Just like its predecessors, the Aliph Jawbone Icon is the sexiest Bluetooth device in the market right now. It has six designs with different shapes, metallic tone and jewel. The manufacturer has given them different names like Ace, Rogue, Bombshell, Hero, Thinker, and Catch. The one that I got was Ace, it had a mirror finish and clear lens which gave it a jewel like look. The device looks like some kind of a jewelry item when worn in the ear.

The Aliph Jawbone Icon is petite; it is just 1.77 inches long, 0.72 inch thick, 0.95 inch wide and weighs 0.3 ounce. It is a bit curved and sits on the side gently. There is a multifunction button on the top. The horizontal bar is quite wide and opens up to the headset’s width span. It is also adequately raised above the surface so finding and pressing it is easy while on the calls. The charger jack is located next to the talk button.

On the other side of the Aliph Jawbone Icon, you will find a slider power button. Turning the headset on/off is much easier because of this and you will end up saving a lot of precious battery life through this. A small nub below this is the Voice Activity Sensor. The manufacturer recommends you to ear the headset in such a way that the sensor touches the cheek. Voice will come smoothly even though the sensor touches your face courtesy of Jawbone’s new fail-safe acoustic voice detector. There is also a round LED indicator surrounding this sensor.

On the headsets’ back, there is the ear piece. It can be worn along with a special looped ear bud which fits in the ear without the hook or it can be fitted through a nonlooped ear bud, there is a hook here for better security. There are a few choices available for ear bud which let you mix and match for best fit. In my lab tests, I was happy with the default looped ear bud which worked fine for most part but I did need some practice to get it right. You will have to place it with the ear pointing downwards and then you will have to twist it up in such a way that the mic points towards your mouth. The fit is not that comfortable, I felt some fatigue in my ear after a couple of hours of wear.

Aliph Jawbone Icon doesn’t have any volume rocker and the manufacturer says that it is not needed here because the device is equipped with automatic volume normalization. But still it should have been there.

Aliph Jawbone Icon has all the features that you’d yean for in such a device. This device can reject, answer and end phone calls. There is also voice dialing support, last number redial and multipoint access technology. The latter lets you connect two phones with the headset automatically. However, there is more to this headset than these features. For instance, you will find custom audio tones for some functions and also spoken alerts. The audio tones reads the incoming caller ID and when the talk button is pressed (when not in a call), it will tell you the remaining battery life. It also speaks when you voice dial, redial and connect the device to your handset.

The most interesting app on the Aliph Jawbone Icon is the mini computer chip through which the manufacturer builds custom features and applications for the device. One benefit of having a built-in OS is that you get a battery meter for the headset on the iPhone next to the signal strength icon. You can easily tell if the headset needs charging by just looking at the iPhone. This might be a small thing for you but I really liked it especially because I haven’t seen this on any other headset before.

The built in OS lets you customize the Aliph Jawbone Icon with Dial or Audio ‘apps’. This can be done through the manufacturer’s Website. Just attach the device to your PC through a calbe and the MyTalk Website will recognize the headset automatically. Select which Dial or Audio that you want to associate with the device. The Audio applications are just custom audio profiles having different voices. They get the name from the 6 shield designs that I have name above. They range from a sultry female which is the Bombshell and deep baritone male voice which is the Hero. There are four languages to choose from right now, they include Spanish, German, French, and English.

For the Aliph Jawbone Icon Dial apps, you can map speed dial numbers to a service and then it can be accessed by a long press of the Talk button. The services supported right now include

Voice Dial, Jott Assistant (a service which lets you dictate reminders, notes, e-mail, text and also Twitter messages), Directory Assistance, Dial2Do, (a service quite similar to that of Jott), 1-800-FREE-411 (this is a free directory assistance). For Dial2Do, and Jott, you will need an account. The manufacturer calls them ‘apps’, I disagree but it is still great to have such level of customization in a Bluetooth headset. No other device can do this at the moment.

Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset has a pebble like design which doesn’t take up a lot of room in your pocket. The silver and gray color scheme also looks aesthetically appealing. Motorola offers this headset at $100 which is affordable but you can get it cheaper online.

The best feature on this Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset is the PowerFlip foldable microphone. Just like the HS850, the headset will get switched on automatically when you fold the boom mic out. Fold it inside and it will get switched off. Because of this, it is really easy to talk and hang up your calls. You just have to fold the headset up and down. The ear hook is reversible and gives good ergonomics. The ear piece will rest inside you ear and hence you will hardly realize that you are wearing it.

Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset has three buttons, in the middle, there is a bit multifunction button and on each side, you get a volume control button. The multifunction button is used for starting and ending the calls, it can also be used as a pairing button. It will glow blue when you switch it on. The buttons are easy to press but they are a bit small. On the top, you have the charger port.

In my lab tests, the used the Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset with Samsung SGH-D357 and Nokia 7380 and the pairing process was really fast. The phone calls were clear and loud but the quality could have been better in noisy environments. On their side, my friends said there were no problems. They were quite happy with the quality. Apart from the standard reject, end and answer calls, the Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset has call waiting, last number redialing, three way calling, voice dialing and you can also put a phone call on mute or hold.

For charging, Motorola is giving a standard charger for the Motorola H700 Bluetooth headset. But if you already use a Motorola cell phone, you can use a single adapter for charging both the phone and headset. The H700 has rated talk time of six hours and it stand by time is five days.

The design of the Logitech S715i looks really cool, it is two inches thick and 15 inches wide. The device has a bigger footprint as compared to other portable speakers but is still quite portable. You can easily fit it in to a laptop bag. On the front, there are buttons for power and volume. Between these buttons, there is the iPod dock for plugging in your iPhone or iTouch. On the back, there are two jacks for a power adapter and headphones.

On the back, there are two passive radiators which contribute a lot in the good sound quality. On the front, there are three inch speakers, another pair of passive radiators, and dedicated tweeters located on the edges. These tweeters are positioned in such a way that you get better stereo sound as compared to other speakers.

I was also glad to see that the Logitech S715i has a tiny IR remote control which gives you play, pause, skip, shuffle and repeat controls. There are volume control buttons too. Logitech also gives you a cool carrying case along with the set. The speaker set is powered by a lithium ion battery and a single charge will give you around eight hours of music playback at moderate volume level. The sound quality will improve when you are playing music with the charger plugged in.

In case I haven’t made it clear in the beginning, I will say it again. The Logitech S715i is the best portable speaker for iPod/iPhone to date. I have never seen such sound quality on portable set before. There are no bells and whistles like integrated EQ, FM radio, Bluetooth or alarm clock but I won’t complain about it since you get most of this on an iPhone anyways.

I got the Twelve South BassJump portable subwoofer in my labs for test and I didn’t expect a lot from it either. This is just a subwoofer; the bass will complement the sound coming out of your MacBook speakers. The external body of the subwoofer is made up of aluminum and it matches quite well with the MacBook. Your friends might think this is an Apple product. On the bottom, there is a rubber sheet. Maybe the manufacturer has put it there so that the subwoofer doesn’t go straying due to heavy bass.

I plugged in this set to my MacBook and was really impressed with the sound quality that it had to offer. I like MacBook sound quality, they might not be as good as separate 2.1 set but they still sound better than what you get on most of the laptops out there. The subwoofer further enhanced the sound quality of the laptop speakers and the end result was really cool. It doesn’t even feel like the bass is coming from a separate unit. It all feels like one sound. The subwoofers cord is really small and you cannot keep the device at a distance from your MacBook. But this is good because if the subwoofer was far away from the notebook, the music wouldn’t have been unified.

The best part about the Twelve South BassJump portable subwoofer is that the speaker set is powered by a USB cord. The audio signals too are supplied through this cord and you don’t need to connect through a separate wire. There is also downloadable BassJump software which is needed to get the subwoofer going correctly. But I really liked that the software gives you 2 visual gauges and also plenty of customizable EQs. There are plenty of presets which can be tried. I had a great time surfing through these options. The sound was different on each of the preset.

I was glad to see the boost in quality that the Twelve South BassJump portable subwoofer had to offer. I would recommend buying this instead of purchasing a separate set of speakers. The quality is very powerful. I am not saying that it will satisfy audiophiles but believe me; you will never see such quality on external speakers again.

The Twelve South BassJump portable subwoofer is made only for MacBooks and it is disappointing that Windows laptops cannot use it. The price of this device is $60 and according to me, that is excellent value for money.

Urbanears are not fashion centric; I have seen some of their products in the past and I have noticed that they haven’t put any effort to make their products look sexy. I am not saying that the products are downright ugly; they do have a stylish edge. In this case, the style is confined to various colors options which you can choose from. There are fourteen color options for the Urbanears Plattan headphones and not all of them look cool. For instance, I wouldn’t recommend buying a pink set at all, especially to any of my male friends. There are three shades of Blue and my favorite amongst them was the salad green version. I got the black version in my labs for reviewing and it looked quite good.

Urbanears Plattan headphones has an on the ear design and they are designed to rest on your ear. It doesn’t cover the ear which I find a bit uncomfortable. The set has padding along with foam cushion inside which makes your ears feel good. My ears got a sweaty after several hours of use so you should be wary of this.

Urbanears Plattan headphones set has a loop on the sides which let you adjust the cups according to your size requirements. The headband is coated in cloth and also padded for comfort. A single cable descends from the left cup and this cord too is coated with fabric. I really like the cloth covered cables since they make the headphones really sturdy. I have seen a lot of headphones with thin wires wear out after a couple of days of use. Cloth covered wires are very durable and these cords don’t get tangled either. However, headphones having fabric covered cables make the set quite bulky and hence travelers are coy over using it.

The ear cups of the Urbanears Plattan headphones are also coated in fabric and it gives a nice feel when you touch them. The cord has a microphone and volume control button so you can use this set with iPhone or any other music phone having a 3.5 mm jack. This set is priced at $59 and it is relatively low considering the build quality and features that they have to offer. However, the set does sound a bit inexpensive. The bass is mushy and most of my music sounded muddy and muffled because of this. I won’t recommend this to audiophiles but if you are just a casual listener, it is fine.

MEElectronics M11P+ Sound-Isolation In-Ear headphones are quite impressive and the design too is durable. There are three color options to choose from – black, red and silver. The colors relate to the earpiece shiny coating. There is a 52 inch cable descending from each of the earpiece and it is covered in clear plastic. The cloth coating on the inside makes the set ultra rugged. The headphones are also  tangle resistant. On the other end, there is a gold plater L plug which features a reinforced and ultraflexible housing.

MEElectronics M11P+ Sound-Isolation In-Ear Headphones earprices are really tiny and they might be the tiniest ones I have ever seen in my life. Each earpiece has an oblong shape and is really slim. Larger ears might have problems but this set fit comfortably in my ears. The manufacturer gives an array of ear tips for various styles, depth and width needs. You can easily find the best combination by going through the options. I wore this set for a really long time and still found it quite comfortable.

Apart from the huge options of eartips, there are other extras on the MEElectronics M11P+ Sound-Isolation In-Ear Headphones worth noting. There is a tiny module which houses the microphone and call answer button. These buttons are meant to be used with cell phones. You also get a shirt clip for attaching the set to your garment. Finally, the manufacturer gives a hard sided carrying case and also an airplane adapter.

Cheaper models from this manufacturer have impressed my in the past and hence I expected a lot from the MEElectronics M11P+ Sound-Isolation In-Ear Headphones and I was quite satisfied with the performance. This set is recommended for people who yearn for bass and the pair is good on the low ends too. My only complaint was that some tracks had distortion and the bass too was loose occasionally. It overpowered the songs but people who love this, go ahead and get the set.

One positive point about the MEElectronics M11P+ Sound-Isolation In-Ear Headphones is that it doesn’t lack totally in the high detail. Most of the sounds and individual instruments are defined well in spite of the forward low end. I won’t recommend this set if you like crisper, brighter and cooler audio. The mids were a bit too flat for me but the set gave enveloping and warm sound. I played a lot of genres and amongst them, indie electronica, electro-pop, , dance music and hip-hop sounded good. But I will say it again that this pair costs 40 percent than its predecessor and the sound quality doesn’t live up to the increased price.

Thumbs Up:

Design will go well with Mac computers, USB receiver is really tiny and doesn’t protrude out of the notebook, optical sensor is really intriguing, ergonomic and curved shape feels good in the hand.

Thumbs Down:

A bit big and hence cannot be highly recommended as a travel mouse, optical scroll sensor isn’t that good for scrolling.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Targus Wireless Mouse for Mac is 2.5 inches wide, 4.6 inches deep, 1.5 inches high and weighs about 8 oz. The device has a lunar gray color, connectivity is wireless, Interface is 2.4 GHz, Movement Detection Technology is Optical, Movement Resolution is 1200 dpi. Features include four way scrolling wheel and programmable buttons. Compatible OSes are

Apple MacOS X 10.4 or later and Microsoft Windows Vista / 2000 / XP. The manufacturer gives a one year warranty for this product.

Razzle Dazzle:

Targus Wireless Mouse for Mac costs $49 and it has an all white body. MacBooks might have moved to an aluminum body now but the traditional white color for Apple products is still fresh in our minds. This pointer has two standard buttons for the left and right clicks and there are also two more programmable buttons on the left.

Inside Dope:

If you a Mac user, notebook or desktop, then chances are that you are a style conscious person. For such people looks matter more than the performance and hence there are a few companies making stylish accessories for Apple’s computer products.Targus has come up with a new mouse and it is simply called Wireless Mouse for Mac. There’s also a Bluetooth model called Targus Bluetooth Laser Mouse for Mac.

Targus Wireless Mouse for Mac runs on two AA sized batteries and there is a compartment in the pointer for storing the wireless receiver. To access it, you simply have to lift up the mouse top. The receiver doesn’t protrude too much, it only sticks a few millimeters out of the USB port so we would recommend you to have it plugged in all the time.

Targus Wireless Mouse for Mac, is 1.5 inches tall (at its tallest) and 2.5 inches wide. These dimensions make it less than ideal for travel but it is not that bad either. The body curved up in the center and tapers at both the ends.

The best part about the Targus Wireless Mouse for Mac is the optical sensor located between the two mouse buttons instead of the traditional scroll wheel. Its functionality is quite similar to a trackball and Targus calls it “four-way touch scroll”. When we tested it, the sensor moved in all the directions that we wanted it too but it wasn’t that precise in scrolling because it is too sensitive occasionally.

There are no moving parts in the optical sensor and so your fingers won’t get any tactile feedback. This will make it hard to scroll up and down by just a single line or two in the Web document. We were still intrigued by this new technology and drooled on it for hours in our labs. Zipping through the big spreadsheets was really easy.

Nitty Gritty:

We would certainly recommend this mouse its innovative optical sensor. It might get some time to get used to it but you will certainly love it.

Thumbs Up:

Audio quality through Bluetooth is better than its predecessor, sturdy exterior can take occasional accidents, low end response is impressive through the proprietary BassBattery, pairing up is easy.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive.

Razzle Dazzle:

Soundmatters FoxL v2 has the same size as its predecessor; it is 1.3 inches deep, 2.2 inches wide, and 5.6 inches long. If that doesn’t give you a good enough idea, this unit has the same size of king size Knickers candy bar. Weighing in at 9.5 ounces, this unit is definitely not the lightest but we feel the extra bulk has been put on purpose in order to keep the device from walking. For people who don’t know what this is, the speaker has rear firing bass radiator and this power might make the unit move. The construction quality is very much high end and it is very sturdy. This set will surely survive accidental drops. The manufacturer also includes a carrying pouch for keeping away the scratches.

Inside Dope:

We got to review the first version of Soundmatters FoxL Personal Audiophile Loudspeaker with Bluetooth last year, and we were impressed by its large soundstage and small footprint. We recommended the non Bluetooth model since there was some aural degradation in the wireless audio quality. It is been a year since then and the manufacturer has now given us Soundmatters FoxL v2, another Bluetooth version set which improves on the wireless quality of audio and the wireless range to is extended. There is also a built in speaker phone for portable teleconferencing. The cost of this device is $200 which is quite expensive but we feel it is justified by the high end build quality and fidelity.

Soundmatters FoxL v2 looks quite similar to its predecessor and hence you might easily confuse it with the previous model. The latest model has ’2′ in the bottom right side. On the speaker’s front, there are two 25mm dome speakers. The company calls them “Twoofer” as it can produce both low and high frequencies and saves space too. You cannot see them physically; this unit also has 4 digital amplifiers which give aural power of 97 decibels. On the back, there is on/off switch and two more buttons for controlling the volume. You also have a 3.5 mm headphone jack, power input port for recharging the 5 hour lithium ion battery and LED light which indicates the Bluetooth pairing status and power.

Soundmatters FoxL v2 can be paired to a music player through Bluetooth or with a 3.5 mm cable. Also note that the output wattage will increase when you connect to unit to AC adapter. We also saw a slight decrease in volume when the unit is unplugged. Pairing two devices over Bluetooth is mostly a headache but we were surprised to see that it was easily done here. When you switch on the speaker, it will go in to discovery mode and from here, you just have to locate the speaker through the audio player of your choice. We started streaming music from iPhone 3G in less than five minutes. Also note that you can use this device with any gadget that supports Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) protocol. On the front, there is a mic button which lets you answer/reject calls on speakerphone by pausing your music. Playback resumes once you are done.

We heard music through the Soundmatters FoxL v2 for about two weeks before finally writing the review. The sound quality is really impressive especially considering this is a portable speaker set. The bass is stunning for such small speakers. This is because the unit has unique BassBattery layout which wraps the battery in rubber for getting more of low-end vibration. You can even feel this on the surface. There is distortion at high volumes though, especially for tunes which are heavy on bass.

We used “Off the Wall” album by Micheal Jackson and were impressed with what Soundmatters FoxL v2 had to offer. It had a dynamic, wide range along with palpable spatial imaging. We doubt if you will get another such tiny speaker with sound quality like this.

Nitty Gritty:

Soundmatters FoxL v2 has excellent sound quality and we also like portable friendly design. We will recommend you this speaker even if the price is a bit high because sound quality is worth paying for.