Tech2

Every time I visit Vancouver vintage gear dealer Innovative Audio, I find it difficult to keep my mind focused on anything.

For most people, running a 1-meter HDMI cable to their TV is the only connection they need to make to experience a glorious 1080p picture. But mount that TV on a wall, or decide to go with projection, and you have a problem: the wires. Sure you can run HDMI cables through your walls or ceiling (or down to your basement), but sometimes that's just not easy - or possible.

As Daniel Kumin found in his recent "Something in the Air" article, sending HD signals wirelessly is not only possible, it's now practical, and even affordable.

New on the scene is DVDO's Air, one of the more interesting-looking products in this category. Curious how well it stacks up? How convenient. Me too.

I'd expected a kind of This Is Your Life thing, where partygoers would be "treated" to a recitation of five decades of milestones. But the 50th anniversary party for speaker manufacturer KEF at the British Consulate in Manhattan was anything but a long look backward.

Star Wars headphones! Star Wars headphones! Star. Wars. Headphones. STARWARSHEADPHONES. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “OMG WTF this is the most amazing thing ever!”

Wait, it gets better. They’re only $22!

And you’re not going to believe this, but sound actually comes out of them. I KNOW. And wouldn’t it really be something if these greatestheadphonesofalltime actually sounded good too?

Well, yes, that would have been something.

It seems a growing number of people - or at least a growing number of op-ed contributors - have latched onto the idea that technology is bad, scary, and limiting our lives to ones and zeros. "The Flight From Conversation" and "The 'Busy' Trap" being two notable examples. It's something that Nathan Jurgenson calls "The IRL Fetish" (thanks Brian Lam of The Wirecutter for the link).

Jurgenson breaks down the idea better than I can. What I want to do is present the other side. I want to voice my strong and eternal support for the wonder that is the modern connected life.

Because, dammit, it's awesome.

I'm ashamed. I must embarrassingly hand in my nerd card.

This month, for only the second time in my adult life, I purchased a computer. No longer can I haughtily proclaim "well, I build my own PCs." Gone is the geek-cred I felt enshrined me as an elitist in the elitist world of PC gaming. But it had to be done, and I'll tell you, it's awesome.

So let me save you some money, and go through the various bits of the PC I bought, so you know where to spend your money on a PC you might buy, or want to build yourself.

I haven’t tried every audio-oriented app for Android phones, but I’ve tried a bunch. Not surprisingly, the one I like best by far costs $6.99, which for an Android app is a truly Rolls Royce price. Yet it’s also the most insane deal of all time for DIY audio measurement software.