iFrogz Earpollution earphones my review

BLASTmedia
11313 USA Parkway, Suite B-302, Fishers, IN 46037
P 317.806.1900 x 115
F 317.806.1422
http://ifrogz.com/earpollution/
http://ifrogz.com/proddetail.php?prod=EPToxix

Strengths: They come in a variety of colors. Great prices. Extremely fashionable. Stylish and good looking. High fidelity sound at a ood price. Over the ear models are very light and comfortable. Earbuds and other styles as well.

Weakenesses: Not as clear on the vocalization part (based on my iTune setting) but pretty good though.

Ratings:5/5

Reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS(dreric1kansas@aol.com)

I have had all types of earphones over the years. While I don’t own an iPod, I’ve used earphones extensively fwith my iMac computer and iTunes, on my laptop and on jets.I am not an “earbud person” but prefer the” on the ear fit because for me, these feel more comfortable. When I look for a good earphone, I look for ones that are comfortable, light weight, have good fidelity and are good the price. Well I am happy to say that all these factors are in the excellent category.

I heard about these new iFrogz Earpollution line of earphones which launched in November 2008 ( Before then, iFrogz only offered the D-33 earbuds, but no other earbuds/headphones). . Based in Logan, Utah, it is a leading developer of accessories for iPod™ and other consumer electronics with the expressed intent to individualize the look of music lovers iPods and additional music related devices. EarPollution is the name for the new features which include three different types of headphones : eardbuds, on-the-ear and DJ-style. These are currently available online and in retail stores and there are different types to choose from to meet your needs. These affordable earphones come in a variety of fashionable colors (silver, gold etc). Each type of headphone in the new EarPollution line features three or more different styles that vary in function as well as look. All of the new headphone styles give crisp, clean stereo sound.

Providing unique styles have been a trade mark of this company’s designs of accessories. There are a three types of Earbuds: D33 – Noise isolating with a snug, secure fit and rich, deep sound. Each package includes three ear fits and a convenient travel case; Plugz – Noise isolating headphones that provide a crisp sound and the comfort of direct-to-ear delivery. Each pair includes three ear fit pieces ; Metal Drumz – Noise isolation with a sleek metal direct-to-ear delivery. Each set features clean stereo 20 sound and dynamic bass. I am not an earbud fan and so I let my wife test those out. (She liked the fit ).

insert ifrogzearpollution.jpg

There are several option/ characteristics for the earphones that make them highly desirable for use with iPods, MP3 players, for music, listening and other activities.

insert ifrogsearthphonetypes.jpg

Earbud style earphones includes the following:
D33 ($19.95) are noise isolating with a comfortable, secure fit and give a rich, deep sound. Each package includes three ear fits and a convenient travel case.
Plugz ($14.95) are noise isolating headphones that provide a crisp sound and the comfort of direct-to-ear delivery. Each pair includes three ear fit pieces.
Metal Drumz include noise isolation within a sleek metal direct-to-ear delivery. Each set features clean stereo sound and dynamic bass. The speaker is wrapped with a chrome accent and each 3.5mm jack is encased in a stylish metal sleeve.

On-the-ear has these features.
Toxix ($19.99)– Stereo headphones offering a stylish and comfortable fit. I particularly like the way they are adjustable to fit your ears and the way I wanted them to fit around the padded phones. I liked the simple grey fashion color.
ThrowBax ($29.95) – Offer a little more options and are stylish, retro design and comfortable with a fit which yield a deep bass and smooth stereo. Metallic coated speaker cups easily adjust for a perfect fit along the metal side rails. Each pair also features padded ear cups for extra comfort and noise isolation.
Nerve Pipes – Feature chrome multihued accents and contrasting color. Comfort cushion ear cups, a foldable headband and rotational hinges adjust for the perfect fit. Each pair offers deep rich bass and smooth stereo sound.
Fallout – A traditional fit offering smooth tones and dynamic bass. Each pair features comfortable cushion ear cups for extra noise isolation, chrome accents and contrasting color.

insert EqualizeriTunesAcousticsetting.jpg

I don’t have the expensive top of the line Bose acoustic ear canceling headphones headphone, which is supposed to be (one of ) the best so I can’t provide a direct comparisons. However I did a lot of research and bought the popular Sony noise canceling headphones MDR-NC6 ( which at that time were a little more then 2 times the price of these). These have a slight thin padding over the ear cups while the earpollution ones don’t have a pad over the top. I would compare these to the Toxix earphones with the a nice inner reservoir which contrasted with the Sony’s fit of a padding over the reservoir. The Sony also uses a battery that can turn off/on the noise canceling. This is on the right side of the headphone while t he ear jack connects to the left side. The Toxix also has this configuration with the ear jack on the left (seeing which one is left/right is a little more difficult to see but is evident after l looked more closely.

Insert my19songstesting.jpg

I am not a musician by any means. I only can do a little dabbling with piano and that’s it. My children are much more musically inclined and know more then I do about music. They know and hear the subtle parts of music, instruments and harmony when they play their instruments and listen to their music on their iPods. I enjoy music and the musical scores that are my favorites. So I have to go with my what I hear. I also have to admit that I wear hearing aids because I have lost some of the” high end noise” capabilities. I use hearing aids mostly when working with students in the classrooms and in public. When I listen to music, it is 90% of the time with headphones on my Imac. I can hear the subtle sounds and basically am focusing on the music now and what pleases my ears and the sounds I expect to hear when I listen to my music. I don’t use the hearing aids when I listen to the music with the earphones. I am hearing what comes to me through the headphones.

I had to set up a way to test the earphones while playing my music on my Imac and my iTunes. I chose 19 of my songs and put them on a playlist and then whittled the list down to one song to compare for this review. That one that I selected for the final decision was Arrowsmith’s Armegedon because of the musical score, voice accentuation and the full range of instruments employed

Basically to test the fidelity, I made the following settings on my iTunes by first setting my iTunes to the following:

iTunes > Windows (setting) > Equalizer > Acoustics.

I put the earphones to the test by listening to my favorite (no snickers please) music that I enjoy and felt would highlight the different instruments, music and voices to compare and contrast. I listened to a range of ones that I liked for this testing playlisting. I then compared these to my other earphones.

I finally narrowed it down to one song to test Arrowsmith’s Armegedon. This song has the drumming in the background and with the music flashing back and forth between the different sides of the headphones. Full range of orchestra instruments to listen to and “zone in on”. I wanted to see whether the earphones would transmit certain sounds that I expect to t hear. The tingling of the triangle instrument in the background near the end, the vocalization, the violins and more. Then I rated the song by listening through the earphones alternating each pair and then trying to decipher and write down the differences if any. I did this 10 times for each headphone for this Armegedon song.

Conclusions:

This was tough as they are both good models. I basically was evaluating the earphones on three characteristics that I selected as I felt these are what and most people look for when they order/buy headphones.

(1) Style and comfort : Toxix 10/10 (exceptional) with Sony 9/10 (good).

For style, the iFrogz are more stylish and have more colors.These headphones are light, smart looking and are versatile. The ear buds have different parts to them which create even more comfort. Each pair also features comfort cushion ear cups. They both were adjustable although the Sony’s were a little easier to adjust as the track was not as “sticky”. Comparing I give the Topix 10/10 to the Sony functional not splashy but nice 8/10. The Toxix are little lighter but I really like the padding with the Sony. While that makes them slightly heavier they are very comfortable and I love them too. Hard to decide but the edge goes to Topix.

(2) Fidelity : Toxix 9/10 (exceptional) with Sony 10/10 (good).

Sony I could hear that the piano was a little cleaner. I noticed with the drums blending in really clearly. With the Sony, I could hear the subtle low piano sounds in the background in the beginning and then followed later with the drums over it with the choral instruments. There is a tingling instrumental in the background as the words flow along. I could hear the tingling trailing off in the end.The violin with a little clearer. More music was coming out of the left ear. Lots of the tingling in the background which was very clear and distinct. Not as much base. I felt that the sound resonating from the reservoir made it more melodic. There seemed to be less bass sound and much more of the subtle instruments in the background and I could hear the bugle like instruments clearly. The tingling triangle was there at times throughout. There was a lot of resonance back and forth with the two sides of my headphone. The violins were really melodic and stretched and you could hear the violins going all the way until they lowered and died out. It took many trials but I noticed that the vocalization was very clean. It melded with the symphonic sounds well.

I felt that the Topix had more base sounds in the beginning. The piano was really evident in the beginning and was a little cleaner with the drums and the violin in the beginning. Some of the sounds were a little shrill. There was a lot of blending of the instruments. Horns were in the background. I could hear the tingling and could hear the violins in the background. The piano sounds were clear. I seem to notice the bugle type instruments better. I could hear the "tingling triangle sounds" but it was a little muted. Had a little more base throughout. I liked the stereophonic blending between and back and forth both sides. The instruments in the background were not as evident. In the end the music trailed off with the triangle blending. I finally targeted that the vocalization was definitely not as clean.

This was really tough. The headphones are both tremendous and sounded great. It took 10 trials to find out which had a edge. The edge in fidelity goes to Sony because the vocalization was much cleaner. The lead singer had a much clearer tone even when it seemed like he was “screaming”. It sounded less “hoarse”.

(3) Price (for performance): Toxix 10/10 (exceptional) with Sony 8/10 (good).

So the final tally is Toxix (29/30) to Sony (27/30). But your tally might depend on your musical needs and more.

There are many reasons to buy one headphone over another. I chose my three top preferences. What I like is that both these earphones provide the music that is very engaged and easy for listening. They are both comfortable with little differences between the two. With the Toxix, being lighter, I almost forget I am wearing them. In fact, if they have a model someday that is not tethered to the device, these might be ideal. The Sony is a little cleaner sounding with the vocalization. If I would fly on a jet as I will do soon, I will take the Sony because of the noise cancellation capabilities to test those and possibly compare to these at that time. But that’s in the future.

Lastly, both earphones are great sounding but the edge may go with you if you prefer different colors and styles. Check out the Toxix earphones are great buy for the price, acoustics and their styles. They would go well with any music device, many iPod/ MP3 player colors . If I were you, I would run out, find them, try them out and/or buy them. I think you will be as glad as I am. Plus I did not have to “break my bank” to hear some cool, soothing music!

Model Releases: A Digital Photographer’s Guide to

Model Releases: A Digital Photographer’s Guide to
reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Author: Dan Heller
Publisher: Wiley Publishing , Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NY 0703 Released: March 31, 2008
Pages: 288
$30 USA
$ 33 Canada
ISBN-10: 0470228563
ISBN-13: 978-0470228562

Strengths: Comprehensive information about model releases. Full color and additional hints abound through the book. Excellent model photographs highlight nice examples. Vertical tabs at the side of each page highlight main part of the section. Nice yellow like sticky notes are strategically placed throughout the book and the pages, to portray tips and highlight specific concerns or ideas that are relevant to the chapter/ pages or text.

Weaknesses: None

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 5/5


Introduction

Taking photos of people, places and many types of visuals, for publication, is commonplace. However in many lines of work, the necessity and use of model release forms is misunderstood, to say the least. Sometimes the nuances are not quite understood or well defined in many cases, by photographers or the places of business themselves. The book Model Releases: A digital Photographer’s Guide, helps to clarify the meaning of much of the process and update advanced in print media and more in recent years.

The author has been a freelance photographer and photo industry analyst. His works have been featured in publications from news and business media to fine arts books. This book is the result of over five years of his research to model releases. He is well versed in the changing trends that have transformed books, the press, music and much more, in recent years. His knowledge is transmitted to this book in a very readable and understandable way.

The seven part book covers a wide range of important topics within its 288 pages. The titles of the parts of the book highlight the necessity of model releases. These are : Everyone’s doing it ; So what’s wrong; What’s a model release ; Understanding “use”; Analyzing the need for a model release; Dealing with photos of property; The business of Licensing. The book makes it much easier to clarify when releases are needed and not needed. What buyers need in the way of model releases, and those who don't need releases are summarized. Also included is information for marketing and licensing all your photos, whether they have been released or not. Also the author does the best he can in accumulating years of information and distilling helpful information in one book.

The book is relevant to those in the United States and abroad. The author helps to define in clear terms, what should be initiated and followed through, under many situations and circumstances. He is clear and concise so that misinformation does not occur and clarity of the releases are understood. The well illustrated text is a very comprehensive book available on the subject, covering everything you would to know about model releases. The releases pertain to people, places and additional circumstances. Much has changes in light of a photographer's role in the creation of photographs that may be uses on or in conjunction with the internet, with digital photography. newspapers, books and magazines.

Conclusions

This important book is both insightful and a pleasure to read and understand. The book is useful for everyone from professional photographers whose work involves photography to those amateur photographers who take vacation pictures on vacation, take photos of at their children' s teams/games, schools or more. This book also includes information about models themselves and what they can learn about their rights concerning how they can protect themselves and when that is not possible.

The importance of this book is highlighted by the fact that a well known technology firm “stole” (or should we say “did not secure properly”), music from my daughter’s business/ firm. Whether it was on purpose or not, she had to set them straight and went through the proper channels. This was an interesting event and it served to highlight what should and needs to be done. In addition, a firm in Africa wanted to use one of my photographs for their greeting cards. To make a long story short, I had to find that person and that firm, after they used my photographs, as the individual did not forward my payment. If I would have the information from this book, I would have know the proper course of action to protect the transaction. This book would have let me know, in advance, the proper procedures so that the situation would have not occurred. Now I am better prepared. And you will be too if you read this well prepared book.

Whether you are in business, work with photographs at your home, business or use photos for personal use or involved in possible interactions with businesses, schools or more, this book is well worth reading. There is something to be said for knowing and understanding your rights, as well as the rights of clients and businesses and anything that relates with and dealing with photography and photorgaphs. That way you can make the best decision about your photographs that possibly will end up in businesses, books or elsewhere.

Goodbye Golive

I am not a fan of Dreamweaver. This program is probably in my top 5 worst application computer software related programs. It was infuriating to decipher and figure out and make it work, even with a books, which did not help. I think that in many ways it is the software. But now I am vindicated but Dreamweaver being the standard will thrive while the one I like and have used Golive, will soon be "dead". Read on

golive stuff
www.macuser.co.uk/reviews/120423/golive-9.htm

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Bible

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Bible
reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Authors: Ted Padova and Kelly L. Murdock
Publisher: Wiley Publishing , Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NY 07030
Released: October 1, 2007
Pages: 1296
$45 USA
$54 Canada
ISBN-10: 0470130679
ISBN-13: 978-0470130674

Strengths: Enormous in-depth guide. Screenshots are fairly readable. Introduction to the new application interfaces (except Dreamweaver which did not change) has a good set of toolbox windows. Understanding Version Cue and Adobe Bridge is included.

Weaknesses: Black and white instead of color. Hard to read. Special notes are all rectangular and don’t stand out. Does not talk about MacIntosh users. Mostly text laden. The look of the text is very drab and is some of poorest I have ever seen. The guide structure could use more numbers or something to break up the plethora of text. The Parts of the books (sections) focus on using the Creative Suite tools instead of focusing on the applications.

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 3/5

Web creation and publishing has evolved over the years since HTML was once the only way to publish on the internet. Now there are many new programs, applications, software, and other tools that can help web publishers, novice to advanced. In addition new versions of the software are arriving yearly which can make keeping up with web publishing efforts more difficult. Assistance might be needed to start, develop or advance web building skills, especially to speed up your efforts. If so, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies, may be a book to answer your learning needs.

Ted Padova, has written Adobe related books while Kelly Murdock has also authored books and worked with web design, graphics and multimedia. They have pooled their efforts to develop a comprehensive huge guide book for computer users who wish to develop graphics and web design while using the six application Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesgn, and Acrobat.

This massive 882 page book includes an introduction, a series of tutorials that span seven sections and a big index. This Black and White tutorials covers nine parts that guide you through 38 chapters. The readings and tutorials are meant for helping to create dynamic websites. Utilizing the latest web design tools, these authors outline a series of tutorials to complete necessary steps to start, develop and finish websites. Along the way, this guide utilizes the six applications, to “ walk “ the web user through the six different applications which most web professionals use on a daily basis. However learning about these applications are scattered throughout the Sections.

Each section of the book is a book in itself. The authors attempt to create an user friendly guide that offers in-depth instruction. But there is much that keeps this from happening for me and possibly others, depending on how you like to learn.

The sections of the book (called Part) are: Getting to know the Creative Suite 3, Getting Started with Design, workflows , working with objects and images, workin with type, Using creative Suite and Microsoft Office, Working in Creative desiggn workflows, Document repurposing, Creative Suite documen delivery workflows and Printing and digital prepress. This method focus is applying skills instead of focusing on the applications themselves. And for the most part, I would applaud this approach but it seems that the way the book is written, make this approach less learnable.

The book is written with a PC computer in mind and includes Microsoft Office. While I use Macintosh that did not bother me. It is the fact that the authors did not include any information about Macintosh users was a little baffling. Screenshots are employed and they are PC oriented. This is fine but there is little or no information by the authors to define how Macintosh users or the PC user who has switched to a Macintosh, can use the book.

Most of the book is text laid out in the paragraphs. Screenshots are readable for the most part with “ Line pointers” used within the screenshots. These help the reader “see” more precisely what the tutorials are targeting during the instruction. But these don’t appear in many sections of the book. This makes the tutorials more difficult to understand, as the reader has to sometimes “fish around”, to find and try to connect between, what the authors are saying and the reader is perceiving. It would have been better if more of the text or information were laid out in Tables and Illustrations form, numbered or something else to cut down all the text.

Conclusions:
While I am sure the authors are very competent, they have created a book that “falls farshort” in many ways. I have designed and created websites for several years. I am always trying to improve my efforts, but when a book makes the job more difficult, instead of assisting how to use the application, there is trouble. When starting out, I found that Dreamweaver was and still is, a very finicky program to understand. In many cases, no matter how much I tried, with the program and using books, I still could not understand and get the job done. It was a combination of the book and the application and perhaps my learning style. Starting out as a novice, at that time, I needed less text, in some cases, better targeted screenshots and better layout of the instruction.
I thought that this book had potential. But the text and how it “looks”, is some of the poorest I have ever seen, for an instructional book. It basically looks, feels and reads like a college textbook instead of a user friendly guide, for website and software application users. Whether you are a PC or MacIntosh user, I feel that you should look elsewhere to find help with the learning and using Creative Suite 3 and its applications.

The Macs are back with Jack, Cloey in 24

Cloey is working on Mac laptop while trying to orchestrate Jack's way out of the building with Tony. Cloey is using 9 different screens on the Mac to watch what is going on in all the rooms, corridors etc. 

Converting resumes and other files to pdf etc.

\
It is that time of the year when resumes are being created, printed and readied for jobs and employment. Many employers today want/need your resume, references, applications, letters of support, transcripts and other papers, your resume(s) uploaded to the place of work or institution, usually in either word or pdf format. You could go to duplication business or place but why not do it on your computer. I found several ways.
(1) You can use a scanner to convert your files.
(2) To find some free converter, use google and type in free pdf converters. I found this one.
http://www.freepdfconvert.com/It worked well but if you have big files, the pdf file has to be loaded to the desktop through the downloading of zip file. For some reason also, one has to wait 30 minutes to do it again. So I looked for another source in Appleworks and OSX (Leopard or before) .
(3) For OSX, find your document in Word, text, format. Click on it and then under FILE> PRINT check the PDF format (see above to the left). Save the file to the desktop or your hard drive etc.
(4) Another way is to first open your document in Textedit by clicking and then hit click Open Apple-O. The document will expand in Textedit for format and a window opens up.
(5) Appleworks - open your document, then instead of saving, click on print. Click on pdf format and save where you want in pdf format.
Either way then upload your files. One of these ways might save you some time and money. Happy job hunting and finding!

and expensive iPhone

And I thought the iPhones were expensive. This one really is

http://www.buymeaniphone.com/2009/01/11/most-expensive-phone-ever-made/

Planetarium on your iPhone or Mac

I have been using Starry Night software for quite a number of years to help me track and photograph comets and much more. Now the company has a cool free dashboard widget which you can upload to you iPhone or Mac. With it you can view the sky that night and more.
Download it and try it.

Dreaded spinning beach ball slowing you down- here's w

Your Macintosh is operating but all of a suddenly the dreaded Spinning Beachball appears. Waiting, waiting and waiting is maddening and wastes a lot of your time. Want to see what is going on?
(1) Go into the activity monitor (follow this hierachy)
HD>Applications>Utilities>activity monitor
(2) You will see this view of the activity monitor (left)
(3) Look at all the applications etc that feed on your ram, CPU power and morecheck out the real memory
(4) what is cool is that if you have the activity monitor in an open window, you can actually see how the numbers % are changing.
(5) find the one that has the highest percentage and either turn it off if needed or delete and do that for others.
(6) For example, if you have too many widgets (HD>Applications>Utilities>Dashboard) you might be using to much memory at certain times which slows down your Macintosh. I found that when the Clock's Widget that I had installed on my computer's Dasboard would display run quite often to update the time, it robbed my cpu of a good % power. And since it updates very often, it would rob power, unbeknowst to me, frequently. (I turned it off by taking it out of the Widget display area, thus saving memory and cutting down on the dreaded beach ball time. This is what I did.
(7) Open the Widgets display on the Desktop, inside the Dashboard Widget area.
(8) Click on the "+" on the bottom Left hand corner. There is a row of the Widgets on the bottom.
(9) There is a little "x" on the top corner of each Widget. Clicking on the "X" , the Widget will disappear from the desktop. Turned "off", the CPU won't rob power all the time or frequently from the CPU.
(10) You can always import, delete and find more Widgets. But for now speed up your CPU by not robbing it of memory so that the spinning dreaded beachball will go away or at least not hang around so long.
Comments, suggestions, ideas welcome

Macintosh in Telescope/ Observatory

I opened up my MacLife issue 2/2009 and found a nice article P.50-52) "In a galaxy far, far away" by Leslie Ayers. It's about David Illig of Maryland and his very nice observatory and telescope system. His four macintosh computers, Canon 50D, two telescopes help his digital imaging and deep sky endeavors. He used Equinox software (never heard of this one) and Starry Night Pro (which I love). Very in depth and nicely written with photos.
I can't find the article online but you can take a look at it in bookstores with the MacLife magazine

Dr. Eric Flescher (kcstarguy@aol.com), Olathe, KS: Lat 38.834, Lon -94.778

Is Vista finished?

First there are TV commercials from ordinary people (apparently people who have never seen a panorama, graphic or color) who extoll how Vista is so great. Now the latest report is the Windows 7 is coming out in beta and you can get a download and test it out.