Genius have today launched the GHP-04NC noise-cancelling headphones.

Running off of two AAA batteries, you'll get 50 hours of continuous playback from the headphones with the noise cancelling tech turned on, meaning that your tunes wont get interrupted by external sounds. The ear pads themselves have a swivel point too for the most comfortable fit for long listening sessions/

The headphones also come complete with a 6.3mm gold plated stereo adapter, an in-flight dual plug adapter and a leather travel bag.

You can pick up the headphones now for a very reasonable £29.99, direct from Genius or from Maplin.

Klipsch have updated their Image range of top-end earphones with the Image X10i.

Featuring the same patented oval ear tips of the X10 range, the Image X10i partner solid bass response and noise isolation with a 3 button remote system compatible with the iPhone 3GS, third generation iPod shuffle, second generation iPod touch, fourth and fifth generation iPod nano models and the iPod classic 120GB.

The Image X10i earphones also come bundled with 5 pairs of different-sized ear tips, an ear tip cleaning tool, an airplane adaptor, a 1/4-inch jack adaptor, a protective carrying pouch and a clothing clip.

"These in-ear products are free of compromise at every level," he said. "We've seen great success with our X10 headphones, so it made perfect sense to evolve the product and start catering to on-the-go users who are constantly listening to music and taking phone calls." 

The Image X10i earphones are available for £229.95 from Amazon, Apple or direct from Klipsch themselves.

Audio specialists Klipsch have found their latest Image S4 and S4i headphones so popular,that they are now offering them in revamped white colour.

"These headphones are in such high demand that we thought a new exciting colour option would further broaden their appeal," said Don Inmon, Klipsch director of product development for personal audio.

The Image S4i headphones offer Apple's three-button mic and remote system and moving coil micro-speakers with controlled damping for quality sound playback, whilst the S4 set offer noise cancelling features and an angled nozzle for comfortable in-ear wear.

The new-look headphones will remain at the same prices as before, £69.95 for the S4 set and £89.95 for the S4i headphones.

You can pick them up from either Amazon (here for the S4 or here for the S4i) , or direct from Klipsch themselves (here for the S4 or here for the S4i).

Name: P5 (Bowers and Wilkins)
Type: Noise isolating headphones
Specs: Frequency range 10Hz to 20kHz , Impedence 26 ohms, distortion @100dB I25<0.05% for 80-20kHz <0.2% for 20-20kHz
Price: £245.95 (Apple)

Bowers and Wilkins are well known for causing quite the stir when it comes to their eye-catching audio hardware. Just think back to the iPod dock mentalism that was the Zeppelin. The P5 noise isolating headphones are then unsurprisingly excellent and an audiophile's dream if they've got enough readies going spare.

The subtle retro look of the P5 headphones make them as stylish as they are comfortable. With liberal use of leather and chrome, the P5s are finished to within an inch of perfection. Though slightly larger than some on-ear supra aural headphones, the rectangular foam-cushioned pads sit snugly on the head, fully adjustable with a discrete slider hidden somewhere in the headband. As large as they are for supra aurals, they are nowhere near as daft looking as oversized over-ear options tend to be.

The rectangular pads pop off to reveal a plug for interchangeable input cables. The P5s ship with both a 3.5mm jack lead and one with Apple's in-line remote and mic attatched. The magnetically attached pads are easy to replace, and so these welcome cable connectivity options can conveniently be swapped. However, the teeth that hold the leads in place look a little sharp, and may cause damage to the cables after repeated use. The mic itself is reasonably good, but doesn't feature the noise cancelling tech that many Bluetooth sets now offer as standard.

Bowers and Wilkins made a bold claim when they said that the P5s would reproduce audio "as close to the sound of the original recording as we can possibly take you". Thankfully, they deliver in spades. It's a natural, crisp sound that the P5s throw out that, while perhaps a little bass heavy, lend themselves well to all music genres. There was little to no distortion at even the loudest volume, coping well with bass even for extended periods of time. The headphones do a good job of keeping outside noise out of your tunes even without any active noise cancelling technology inside. Their shape however does mean that those around you will be able to hear what you're listening to at higher volumes, so bear that in mind if you're taking the P5s out on a bus trip.

At nearly £250, the Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphones aren't cheap. But if you're serious about your music, and want to hear your catalogue of songs played back as close as possible to the sound the artists in the recording studio intended, you cant get a much better set than these.

5/5

Related Stories | Review: AKG K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones

Sony have today announced the release of two new sets of wireless headphones, the MDR-RF4000K and the MDR-RF810RK.

The MDR-RF4000K sets have been designed to complement the look of Sony's new "Monolithic" range of Bravia TVs. They feature a small charging dock which the headphones can be folded and tucked away into for storing, as well as a wireless range of 30 metres. 40mm long-stoke drivers provide a frequency response range of 12Hz to 22000kHz.

The black headphones will deliver 7 hours of music between charges, while popping in a single AAA battery will provide you with 10 hours of audio if you cant get to a wall socket. Closed-cap headphones allow for top-notch sound isolation, while there's also an adjustable headband for maximum comfort.

The MDR-RF810RK sets are a little lighter at 220 grams. They have a generous wireless range of 100 metres away from the base station, though that's likely only to benefit those with MTV Cribs-sized houses. Like the MDR-RF4000K, it features a 40mm driver, but a smaller frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz. The rechargeable battery will last for 13 hours per charge, whilst an AAA battery will this time provide as much as 28 hours of audio playback.

Though no pricing details have yet been revealed, you'll be able to pick up the new Sony wireless headphone range in April.

Jays are set to launch a new set of earphones, q-JAYS Custom, moulded to precisely fit each individual user's ears.

The q-JAYS Customs house Jays' dual armature q-Jays earphones, which have been mounted inside a silicone casing specifically designed to fit their owners ear.

Due to the carefully sized moulds, near-complete sound isolation is achieved, meaning that your tunes are uninterrupted by the outside world.

"We meet hundreds of musicians and they often ask if we can provide this type of in-ear monitor to use in live performances" says Peter Cedmer, product manager at Jays. "Live performers are like the Formula 1 drivers of the audio world, they're an extremely demanding group of customers but working in close cooperation with them allows us to develop the very best products."

Jays recommend that the q-JAYS Custom mouldings are reset every four to five years however, which may make these over time a bit pricier than your average set of earphones.

Keep an eye out for these when they're available to order in April. For more info, click here.

Sony have just unveiled their new range of MDR-570 headphones, set to hit UK stores in the Spring.

The Sony MDR-570 over-ear gear will house 30mm neodymium drivers that can handle up to 1,000 mW of input power with a frequency response range of 12 - 22,000 Hz.

Rather than the bulging look of some headphones which, frankly, look a bit naff, these MDR-570 sets look comparatively sleek and discrete, available in black, orange, green, brown and blue colours.

The closed-type MDR-570 headphones look as though they will be fairly comfortable too, featuring pressure relieving urethane cushioned ear pads, as well as a cord adjuster to keep any lengthy cabling in check.

They've yet to be given a price, but you'll be able to pick these up at some time in April.

In the deepest, darkest laboratories of Toshiba HQ, teams of developers have been secretly working on brain-wave reading mind control headphones, and they plan to use them to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Well, not really, obviously. But they do plan on doing some rather crazy things with them.

These sure aren't the headphones your parents told you about. Each pair are equipped with a built-in brain-wave sensor and Bluetooth set-up which, when paired with the appropriate PC software, allows you to monitor your brain activity.

As the software lets you monitor your brain in real time, there is even talk of being able to use the headphones to translate brain signals into input commands for games. You hear that? Mind-controlled games!

The tech is almost ready for release, though Toshiba aren't yet sure if they will be commercially available. As it stands, I'd imagine these would be more useful in the healthcare sector, at least for the time being.

Call me a sissy, but mind control headphones sound a little too "creepy Matrix stuff" rather than cool "Star Wars force power stuff" for me. I'd rather stick with a pair of regular noise cancelling ones, thank you very much.

Via: Tech On

It's that time of year again, where we all rush off to Clinton's for a naff card, a syrupy teddy and a box of Quality Streets for our loved ones. Yep, Valentine's Day rears its sickly head once again, and, like it or lump it, it's here to stay.

But how best to show the extent of your love for that special, nerdy man-child in your life?

If your boyfriend is partial to a bit of tech or some geeky toys, you've come to the right place. Check out Tech Digest's Top Ten Geeky Valentine Presents: For Him. Wedding bells will be ringing in a matter of months with these nifty little gifts, we assure you.

Click the image below to get started

The Consumer Electronics show, the behemoth of tech, the Valhalla of gadgetry, has come and gone for yet another year. But this time, rather than arriving with a bang, it slinked into sight with something more like a whimper.

CES 2010 had really had the wind knocked out of it before it had even got into the ring this year. All eyes were already on Apple and their rumoured Tablet in the run up to the event, despite the fact that Apple are traditionally a no-show at CES, instead planning their own top-secret unveiling at the end of January. Likewise, Google delivered a sucker-punch in the shape of the Nexus One, their flagship handset revealed at their own event on the eve of CES 2010's opening.

To make matter's worse, Microsoft's opening keynote speech (delivered by walking personality drain Steve Ballmer) was pretty darn dull. First a power cut, then a load of waffle on the 2 month old Windows 7, Ballmer hardly seemed to be trying to keep our attention. Though the Christmas release date for Project Natal was welcome news, it revealed nothing new about the device, whilst the partnership with Hewlett Packard for the new Slate device seemed merely like a case of keeping-up with the Joneses. Or should that be the Jobs-es?

But the Las Vegas event wasn't without its highlights. Far from it in fact. Maybe it's the recession, or the generally pocket-pinching mood in the air these days, but for once the most sought after tech wasn't in the realms of dreamy aspiration, but was actually fairly affordable.

Take for instance the brand new 3D TVs on show, of which the Sony BRAVIA XBR-52HX900 (video above, courtesy of Ashley) was the pick of the litter. Finally shaping up to the standards set by its cinema siblings, company reps promised that the average 3D TV will cost little more than a top-end Full HD set. Skype and video calling in many TV sets too will help turn your living room into somewhere the Jetsons could only dream of.

E-readers are also looking to be both big and affordable in 2010. As a comic book fanatic I'd have liked to have seen more attempts at a colour screened e-reader (I'm not including the MSI offering, which is really just a dual-touch screened PC, super-cool as it is). Plastic Logic's Que Pro e-reader looked great though, with a massive, durable screen, and was far lighter than the hundreds of books you'd be able to store on the tabloid-sized device.

There were, of course, tablets aplenty. The dual-booting Viliv P3 may be an underdog in the category, but seemed way more exciting than Microsoft's offering. The offer of both Windows and Android on the same device showed a respect for user choice not often seen in the back-slapping world of consumer tech.

There was still time for fun too. The Parrot AR Drone Quadricopter was fun and fresh, combining real-world toys with augmented reality controls. A little less high-tech but full of retro-chic was the Lasonic i931 iPhone dock/ghetto blaster mash-up. Odd's on its at the top of Flava Flav's Christmas list. And there was still some time for the weird and the plain old dumb, too.

Though less prevalent than other years, there were some great examples of brand new tech on show that were genuinely exciting. A real head-turner and my favourite item of the show was the Light Blue Optic Light Touch. Using a pico projection engine and a touch sensitive sensor, it'll turn any flat surface into a touchscreen. It works ridiculously well despite still being in the development stages, and has almost unlimited potential.

Some detractors say that, recession or not, CES looks to be on its last legs. It's sad, but not unlikely, when you consider the audiences that companies like Apple and Google can command for just a single product launch. However, for emerging companies like Light Blue Optics CES is still vital to gain some exposure, not to mention the fact that such a prominent date in the calendar forces the tech giants to have made some significant, competitive advances in their gear, year-on-year.

So here's hoping the old dog's got a bit of life left in it yet. Hopefully next year will kick off the recessionary cobwebs and kick the show back into high-tech gear. It wouldn't take much to tempt us back to the City of Sin once more.

Click here for full CES 2010 pre-show, day one, day two and day three round-ups.

It may have gotten off to a dull start thanks to the lacklustre showing from Microsoft, but CES 2010 today threw up some really nice surprises. Keep an eye out for the Light Blue Optic's Light Touch here in today's round-up, and be prepared to be blown away.

HTC unveils the Smart, their first budget smartphone
You might recognise this one from last years leaked HTC product roadmap

Dell tease mini Android based tablet, the Streak
It's like an Archos internet tablet. But red.

Sony Z series laptops hands-on video
Ashley gets a quick demo of the new range of Sony laptops

EarVibe vibrating earphones on the way from Tehcnocell
Somehow improves sound quality. Yeah right....

Lady Gaga new creative director for Polaroid
No, it's not a wind-up, she's got herself a real job

Light Blue Optic's Light Touch turns any surface into a touchscreen
Amazing emergent tech, and the most exciting spot of the day so far in my opinion

Samsung's animated OLED identity card is equal parts cool and creepy
Your ID is about to go crazy cool, Bladerunner style

Microsoft's Ballmer announces the HP Slate
The iSlate...Oh? The HP Slate, right...

Project Natal Xbox 360 motion control coming Christmas
You hear that Santa!?

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer opens CES, but does anyone care anymore?
It's a pretty boring display from the PC giants

Sony's new products
In a quick, handy gallery!

Sony Dash personal internet viewer video
Sony do a Chumby

The five hottest e-readers
Another gallery rundown, this time of the best e-readers so far seen at CES 2010

Is this the hottest TV of the year? Samsung's 3D LED 9000
Real-time 2D to 3D conversion on its way

Five things to watch for
Ashley gives his run down on the best things to keep a look out for at this year's convention

Click here for more CES 2010 coverage from Tech Digest

Tech Digest at CES is sponsored by Best Buy. For more CES stories and
videos go here

If you're the sort of person who gets a kick out of the stomach churning-sensation you get when standing next to loud, bass-y speakers, these EarVibe earphones from Technocel might interest you.

Once the low-end frequencies of your favourite tracks kick in, these bad boys start to vibrate in your ear, giving the impression of being up the front at a big gig or a loud club.

Shabba!

Not sure how that could possibly improve sound quality, but Technocel assure us that it really does, and that it's more than just a gimmick.

The earphones also feature a hands free voice kit, useful for when you're bombing down the strip in your Lowrider probably. Or not.

EarVibes will be available from January 15th, priced $29.99 at www.technocel.com.

Click here for more CES 2010 coverage from Tech Digest

Via: Shiny Shiny

Tech Digest at CES is sponsored by Best Buy. For more CES stories and
videos go here

With CES 2010 now well under way, it can be pretty tough keeping track of all the latest announcements. Here's Tech Digest's round-up of the of best Day 1 at CES 2010 so far, including all the news from the LG and Toshiba press conferences.

Toshiba Press Conference
Amazing new Cell Tvs promise to deliver real-time 2D to 3D conversion

Samsung ready N-range netbooks
Massive battery life makes this Samsung range stand out from the pack

LG Press Conference
3D tech is as big on LG's agenda as expected

Immerz KOR-FX acousto-haptic gear lets you "feel" your gaming experience
Slightly creepy, sort of cool new tech promises to fully immerse you in games and movies

Sony NW-A845 Walkman finally gets European release
Super-slim MP3 player hitting stores in February

Microsoft to unveil new HP built tablet?
Rumour has it Microsoft may be preparing to square up against the Apple iSlate

Brits get the Amazon Kindle DX from January 19th
Too little too late from Amazon?

PassivSystems heating control
Economise with this hot Brit-built energy management system

ZOMM Bluetooth leash for your mobile
Never lose your mobile again thanks to this Bluetooth alert system

Saygus VPHONE
New Android handset enters the smartphone fray

Parrot's AR Drone Quadricpoter
Augmented reality app controls this fun gadget copter

Iriver Story e-reader goes wireless and gets a proper launch
A long time coming, but finally the Story gets a happy ending

Six of this year's hottest products
Featuring such gadgetry delights as the Skiff e-reader

Why Apple is the real star of the show
Have Apple stolen the lime-light yet again, without even appearing in Vegas?

Will it be any good this year?
In a recessionary year, Ashley Norris gives his views on what to expect from this year's show.

Click here for more CES 2010 coverage from Tech Digest

Tech Digest at CES is sponsored by Best Buy. For more CES stories and
videos go here

There is nothing worse than having your music disturbed by external sources. Be it the noise of a train rattling through a tube tunnel during the morning commute, a hoody playing a pirate radio station out of a tinny phone speaker at the back of a bus or a road chomping jack-hammer drilling as much into your head as it does the street, regular headphones just can't defend your personal, harmonious music bubble from the outside racket of the modern world. AKG's K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones aim to thwart these sonic invaders, with varying levels of success.

AKG K390 earphones certainly look the part with a shiny black plastic casing and matte trimmings. The elegant curves of the earphones are durable too, with reinforced cabling near the ear piece protecting from any sudden tugs.

The earbuds and sound apertures themselves are a little large, though the earphones do ship with numerous replaceable sizes. Putting the earbuds in at first feels a little like the sensation of wearing ear-plugs, magnifying the sound of your own head as it were. But once you have some tunes playing through them, the earphones have a bright, full sound with good bass response and a clean high-end.

Active noise-cancellation is solid. A trek down noisy Oxford Street and on to a busy tube made no impression on my music, even with the volume down relatively low. The active noise-cancellation once switched on did produce a slight hissing sound that muddied bass frequencies, but overall made a huge difference to the clarity of my music.

However, the active noise-cancelling module is a rather bulky piece. It does fine in terms of features; it's good to see that it has a mute function and a switch for active/passive noise cancellation, and that it gets a decent run out of a single AAA battery. However its size (about 3 inches in length and an inch tall) and weight can make it a little cumbersome. It's placement along the length of cable is also too high, meaning that it cant be placed in a trouser pocket when out and about and in use, which is a shame.

Packaged in along with the replaceable earbuds are a stereo patch cable for connecting up other audio sources and a rather sleek carry case. It's also worth noting that the AKG K390 earphones also work as a hands free kit and do a good job of this secondary purpose.

The AKG K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones do a great job of defending your music from outside intrusion. However, a weighty noise-cancelling module drag the earphones down. They are pricey (you wont get much change out of £150) but the quality of the sound produced still make them a worthy purchase.

4/5

Click here to check out the product homepage: AKG K390 Noise-Cancelling earphones

Sennheiser's new Bluetooth headphones, the MM 100 will use multi-point connectivity to connect to two devices at once, perfect for those who always have their phones and MP3 players on the go.

Using Bluetooth V2.0 EDR, the headset can connect up to a MP3 player and a mobile phone, allowing quick switching between both devices.

The headphones will also support hands free and have a battery life of 9 hours, rechargeable via USB.

Sennheiser are always pretty reliable when it comes to sonics, with the MM 100 set to feature a wide dynamic range and natural sound reproduction.

The MM 100 will cost around £129.99, and will be launched by O2 in November.

For more details, click here.

If you want to make your millions don't bother spending days perfecting your Phone app. No the business that will really make money for you one day is around designing cool-looking hearing aids.

Lets' face it, since the invention of the Walkman and its offspring the iPod, several generations of teenagers have blasted their ears with music that is way too loud for them and are subsequently well on the road to going deaf. So anyone who invents a hearing aid that doesn't look like a Bluetooth headset for the terminally unfashionable is sure to hit pay dirt.

Saving future generations from such a fate is the mission of Griffin Technology. It has come up with a plan to ensure that youngsters don't damage their hearing until at least they hit the big 1-0 with the very sensible MyPhones- earphones aimed at kids with a volume cap of 85 decibels. Apparently that is the maximum sustained volume level recommended by many regulatory agencies. Also the earphones are supra-aural, which means that they sit outside the ear with no parts entering the ear canal and are even safer for youngsters.

In case kids do listen them and ask difficult questions about why The Saturdays seem a bit on the quiet side Griffin has created a cunning diversion by enabling parents to suggest to kids they customise their earphone's shell cap. Clever stuff!

The MyPhones go on sale inn Apple stores very soon and will retail for £29.99.

Everyone knows that German firm Sennheiser makes great headphones that look and sound great too. I swear by my pair of PX100s for listening to my iPod. This pair though look much more serious and come at a much more serious price too (a cool £140). A foldable set of headphones they are intended as professional monitoring headphones for audio professionals such as sound engineers and musicians. Sennheiser claims they offer high sound pressure level and extended frequency response. They are also provided with a zipped carrying case.

Sennheiser is to debut a pair of in-ear phones with a mic aimed at gamers who want a lightweight unit that is good for music too.

According to the maker the £69.99 PC 300 G4ME's in-ear design isolates annoying background noise meaning that the owner can concentrate on zapping extra-terrestrials or listening to tunes without distractions.

The unit includes a trio of soft silicone ear sleeves that come in different sizes. These apparently aren't just about ensuring a snug fit but they also enhances the system's bass performance

Other features include an Omni-Directional microphone for in-game communication, in-line volume control, a travel pouch and two metres of extension cable.

They will be available shortly.

More info here

Can you optimise earphones to suit a certain type of music? Internet radio company Radiopaq thinks you can. It not long ago launched its Custom Tuned Earphones which it claims are configured to create a balanced reproduction of sound to suit the music you listen to. You choose the type of music you want to listen to - Rock, Jazz Classical or Pop - and then the earphones apparently make the most of the big warm sound (Rock) or the dynamic sharp experience (Pop) etc.

Now the earphones are available in a specific permutation for the iPhone and include an inline remote and microphone that allow users to answer phone calls when the music is playing. This is controlled by one button which switches the music on and off when the call comes in.
The microphone, which is constructed from metal, is also multi-directional so users don't have to speak directly into it.

The earphones are £49.99 and are available now via Amazon and Radiopaq's website.

If you went to Glastonbury last weekend, or even if you just soaked it up on TV with the Beeb, you may have been aware that Mike Skinner of The Streets made a crop-circle impression of his face on a field near the festival site.

In the image he is sporting a pair of headphones. The same headphone he wore whilst he was performing. The same pair of headphones he described had become "part of my soul" on Twitter.

So what headphones were they? Well, they were none other than the Sony MDR-XB700s.

The XB700s have a powerful, ultra-low bass response and a driver unit that reproduces low frequencies accurately. The XB stands for 'eXtra-Bass' and these headphones are aimed at the bass-heavy music fan. That's a lot of 'bass' in one paragraph but I think you get the picture.

They're manufactured from synthetic leather and the king-sized ear cushions reduce sound loss. The urethane cushion spreads pressure evenly, providing comfortable wear over extended listening periods. The XB700s have a frequency response of 3-28.000Hz and the driver unit is a 50mm dome type.

Keep checking back on TD and we'll give these headphones the once over in the not too distant future.

Sony Centres will sell you the XB700s for £100 although you can get them a bit cheaper if you search around. £77.49 on Amazon for example.