Signals

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Signals
Sansui, and Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 21, 2019  |  1 comments
Some stories tell you about one thing. The good ones are entertaining and/or accurate. But the very best stories are multi-layered, fitting small pictures into big pictures, with one brilliantly informing the other to show deeper meanings. To demonstrate what I mean, I'd like to show you a YouTube video posted last week, and a figurative map drawn in1869.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Your Call is Important to Us. A Representative Will Be With You Shortly.
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 07, 2019  |  2 comments
You call them. They put you on hold. That's bad enough. Then they play the cheesy on-hold music. That makes it worse. But even that's not as bad as the actual sound quality of the music. Oh. My. Lord.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Are Phones Finally Faltering?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 23, 2019  |  4 comments
I don't particularly like phones. I do not camp out in front of Apple stores. I use my phone as infrequently as possible, which isn't very often. I leave home without it. I am not a phone guy. Mainly, I disapprove of phones because they are anathema to high-quality audio and video playback.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Just Don't Call Them Hearing Aids
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 09, 2019  |  2 comments
You are a multi-billion-dollar audio corporation. Starting small, you grew big, then you bought out your competitors and got even bigger. You dominate entire segments of the audio market. Good work! But where do you go from here? How do you get even bigger? You create an entirely new audio category.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Is the Taycan the Sound of Things to Come?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 27, 2019  |  3 comments
The Taycan is Porsche's newest, almost-ready-to-debut car. It's all-electric, so the sound of its exhaust will be unlike that of any other contemporary Porsche. But it's not the exhaust that might be its most interesting sound. It might be its built-in Apple streaming.

Continue Reading »
Signals
The New Corvette Looks Good. But Will it Sound Good?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 13, 2019  |  3 comments
For the first time, the engine is mounted amidships: 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8, 495 horsepower, 470 lb-ft of torque, 0 to 60 mph in under 3 seconds, top speed of 194 mph with optional performance packages. It is the most powerful and quickest base-model Corvette ever. And it has the most powerful Bose sound system ever in a sports car.

Continue Reading »
Signals
The Coming Boom in Home Theater
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 30, 2019  |  1 comments
I have a theory. Well, it’s not really a theory. It’s more of a hunch. Actually, it’s not even a hunch. Just a tingling. But sometimes my tinglings are surprisingly prescient. Here’s my tingle: Thanks to societal shifts, in the coming years there will be a huge resurgence — a boom — in the popularity of home theater.
Continue Reading »
Signals
PewDiePie Lights Up Your Dashboard
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 23, 2019  |  3 comments
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The most innovative developments in home theater won't happen in the home. They'll be in the car. Now, Tesla has announced another incremental step in that evolution: YouTube streaming to your dashboard.

Continue Reading »
Signals
My KEF Speakers Sound Much Better than Amazon Echo, But They Can't Save Me From Dying
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 09, 2019  |  1 comments
You are asleep in your bed. You suffer cardiac arrest. Your smart speaker calls for help. It may save your life.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Another Disc Bites the Dust
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 25, 2019  |  4 comments
All good things must come to an end. Once the coolest thing ever, once the “must have” feature of 1989, once the proof that you too were hip, car CD players are now driving down a particularly lonely highway. Much like 8-tracks and car cassette players before them, car CD players are heading for oblivion.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Your Phone Might Help Save Your Kid's Hearing
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 12, 2019  |  0 comments
As everyone knows, an ear infection is nothing to joke about. And as every parent knows, the plight of a toddler with an ear infection can be downright scary and diagnosing it isn't easy. There may soon be an app for that.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Does Anyone Care About Privacy Anymore?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 06, 2019  |  1 comments
Apple has a long history of creating compelling advertising like the legendary “1984” commercial that contrasted its maverick standing with the conformity of its competitors. In January Apple rented a billboard to deliver a message to attendees of the annual CES trade show: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
Continue Reading »
Signals
Your Smart Speaker is a Dunce
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 28, 2019  |  3 comments
You can use your smart speaker to play music, tell you a joke, and even make phone calls. But you can't use it to call 911. That's not so smart, is it?

Continue Reading »
Signals
The Supreme Court Deals Apple a Setback
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 14, 2019  |  5 comments
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a potentially serious blow to Apple. The justices decided that a consumer group could move forward with its class-action antitrust suit against Apple. An unfavorable decision in that case could cost Apple hundreds of millions of dollars, upend the apps marketplace, and even rewrite the economics of streaming music.

Continue Reading »
Signals
Logitech's Alexa-Powered Harmony Express: A Remote You Can Live With
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 23, 2019  |  1 comments
Once upon a time, when you wanted to change channels on your TV, you had to actually get up, walk across the room, and twist a dial. While you were there, savvy users also wiggled the rabbit ears a little bit, and for good measure, whacked the side of the (wood) cabinet. Times have changed.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X