Shure 215K Sound Isolating Earphones

I've had the Shure SE215-K Sound Isolating Earphones with Single Dynamic MicroDriver for over a year now and it has been quite an impressive performer. Here's a short review of this interesting product that has provided me with some peace and quiet at my workplace.

What's in the box?

The SE215-K comes in a sturdy white and cyan colored box with a window showing the translucent blue earphones.

Included in the box is a pouch; a small plastic bag containing - extra foam tips in different sizes and a cleaning tool; and the Shure SE215-K earphones.

The SE215-K earphones

The SE215-K comes with translucent blue housings. You can see the drivers and circuits under good lighting. I found them very pleasing to the eye. 

 

The cleaning tool is used to dig out any ear wax that may have accumulated on the inside of the foam tips after some use.

In my usage for over a year, I have not had the chance to use the cleaning tool as my ear does not really have a lot of wax.

The cable swivels and is removable - just carefully pull it out. The connectors appear to be gold plated.

To reconnect just firmly push it back in until it clicks.

The Fit

These earphones hook onto your ears in an unconventional way. There is a stiff wire that curls around the top of your ears while the foam tips expand into your ear, sealing out any outside sound. Compared to an active noise cancelling earphones, these actually do quite a good job of blocking out any sound. I use these in the office and it does block out a fair amount of office chatter, especially with some music playing. These are very comfortable once you get them on. They do take a little time to put on because of the way it hooks around your ears. So if you need to take them off often while using them, you will find it quite frustrating. 

The Sound

These have a fair amount of bass in them. I found the bass tight and not overwhelming. Instrument separation was ok for an earphone. Sound stage was surprising good for an earphone. I find myself using these more then my Creative Aurvana In-Ear3 (which I still keep at my workplace) despite the more elaborate way of putting them on.

Conclusion

The SE215-K is quite worth the price I paid in terms of comfort and sound. I did find putting them on and taking them off to be quite a hassle. They sound good connected to my iPhone 6 Plus without any external amplification which means I don't have to bring about an extra bit of gear. The included pouch is quite handy for keeping the oddly shaped SE215-K with the stiff wire/hooks. It has replaced the Aurvana In-Ear3 which I had been using previously.

New iPad (2012 version) - What's cooking Tim?

When the new iPad was launched earlier this month, I immediately got one. I was in the market for another iPad. The new graphic processors and retina display swayed me to get this over the iPad 2.

The iPad performed wonderfully for a few days and then suddenly it decided to flicker its bright LED backlight intermittently.

iPad broadway LED lights

This became a constant problem as the screen became too bright to work on. It almost looks like a broadway stage if you turn it on its side. The set was deemed unusable and I returned it.

Soon after, I started reading about the excessive heat from the new iPad. There is even a picture of an iPad frying an egg. While I had my iPad, I did notice that it was warmer than the old iPad 2 but it was not so obvious if you have installed a back cover. There was also a case of dropped synchronization from my colleague when he tried to sync with a PC.

So while I am a heavy Mac user and am rather committed to the Apple ecosystem; I will be waiting for production of the new iPad to stabilize and for any other issues to surface before I get another iPad. So, if you have a new iPad, please test it fully to ensure that it is in good working condition. I am currently back on the old iPad 2.

More Apple iPhone 4 & my free apps

After posting my previous iPhone 4 post on free apps, I have added a few more free ones!

1. Genius Scan : A camera for recording documents like a flatbed scanner.
   


2. Vint Shift : A camera with tilt-shift lens simulation.
   


3. Morelomo : A camera with lomo effects.
   


4. Runkeeper Free : Helps keep track of your running.
   


5. X Invasion 2 Lite : Nice little flight simulator.
   


6. Grammar Jammers Primary Edition : Teaches basic grammer.
   

Multitask Apps

I've also discovered that double clicking on the big iPhone 4 front bottom button will show all multitasking programs running in the background. You can quickly switch between them. To kill them you just have to hold it long enough until it shakes. To get back to your apps page, just click the button again.

Create folders

To create your own folders just hold the apps icon till it shakes and then pull it together with another icon to form a folder. The phone will suggest a folder name which you can change.

Apple iPhone 4 & my free apps

Currently using an Apple iPhone 4 and keeping the Omnia 2 for GPS and as a spare phone. The "grip of death" seem to be a little overly hyped and I have not had any dropped calls so far. Maybe because Singapore is saturated by 3 phone companies broadcasting their signals. Most of the time its full bars and the worst I got was 2 bars of signal strength.

My son loves playing games and reading children books on it. I must admit, one of the reasons for getting this phone was to keep him entertained while I am driving or on the Internet.

Here's what I have installed on mine - all free:

1. Gorillacam : Adds some cool features to the camera like self timer, timer lapse, digital anti-shake, bubble level, grid and 3 shot burst mode!
   
2. Facebook : Direct link to facebook for updates including photos
   
3. iBooks : Read and buy ebooks
   
4. The Straits Times : Keep up with the local news
   
5. Channel News Asia : Keep up with the local news
   
6. New York Times : Keep up with world news
   
7. Razor TV : Local Internet TV
   
8. Hungry Go Where : Food guide
   
9. Stanza : Read ebooks, epub, pdf, txt, cbr, etc. Even allows you to load your own ebooks from your hard drive - through iTunes!
   
10. Carparks SG : Real time car park lot information
    
11. Traffic Cam SG : Keeps track of local traffic
    
12. Comic Touch : Adds comic touches to your photos including speech bubbles!
    
13. Adobe Photoshop Express : Yup, a mini Photoshop app! Free!
    
14. Windows Live Messenger : Who would have thought.... Microsoft Messenger
    
15. Runkeeper : App for running. Keeps track of distance covered
    
16. Angry Birds Lite : Good game, up to 12 levels free!
    
17. Cooking Mama Lite : Simple game for the wife and kid
    
18. Puzzle Bobble Lite : Classic game
    
19. Read Me Stories : 7 free stories.
    Update: It expires after 7 days too.
    
20. Ice Tycoon : Game in which you serve ice cream to different customers
    
21. Feed Me! : Educational game with 2 free stages. Free stages covers the alphabet, number series, simple math, simple logical problems, associations. The kid loves it.
    Update: If you click on any of the Buy options, it gets stuck there if you don't buy it. You can delete and re-sync it back to "reset" it. Its cheap though, so I may buy it one day.
    
22. Can Shooter : Game in which you throw cans into a bin
    
23. Little Bella's - I Close My Eyes Lite : One animated story
    
24. Tap Tap Revenge 3 - Game which looks a little like guitar hero
    
25. Asphalt 5 Free - Car racing game
    

I switch to Airplane mode when I pass the phone to my kid to play. Here's how: Settings - Airplane Mode - On.

And to further prevent in-game purchases: Settings - General - Restrictions - In-App Purchases - Off. Your have to turn it back on for things like iBook because its considered and in-app purchase. I leave this off by default.

Its been a fun phone so far. I've also linked my office email to this. Its a pity I cannot open Word or Excel documents unless I purchase an app. Yes, 50 emails waiting...

Grado Prestige Series Model SR60i

Bought a pair Grado Lab Prestige Series Model SR60i headphones for those times when I cannot blast my speakers. These are retro looking headphones but are often rated highly by various sources - just do a Google on Grado SR60i. Made in Brooklyn, New York.

They cost S$120 (excluding GST) in Singapore. I bought them from Jaben Network, Adelphi. The shop is run by a bunch of friendly folks who allow you to sample various headphones and headphone amps. After trying out both the SR80 and the SR60i, I found the SR80 sounded pretty powerful and has a wider feeling but not much different from the SR60i. I decided to get the SR60i as I found the sound to be "good enough" for my ears and save a few dollars - $50 to be exact.

Now, I am at home playing my collection of music and the clarity is amazing! The bass is punchy without sounding muddled. They fit well on my head and I found the full sponge to be comfortable. I can listen to this all day! I'm loving these headphones and would highly recommend them.

My wife loves them too. I wonder if I need to get another just so we won't fight for em.

The box is rather big but flat.

The box is sealed and opens like a flat cake box. You find the headphone with its thick soft cable, 3.5mm gold plated jack-plug and 6.3mm gold plated adaptor, foam padding and warranty sheet.

The retro looking can.

How it looks like out of the box. Looks old school but sounds amazing!

Lenovo Ideapad S10 - Upclose!

I just bought a Lenovo Ideapad S10. It's one of those new netbooks which is running on the Intel Atom processor. It's really small and portable - the LCD is only 10.2" but running a resolution of 1024x600. It came with a 6-cell battery which last over 4 hours. Here's some close up shots of this amazing device.

Lenovo Ideapad S10 in the free Pink/Gray sleeve

The Lenovo Ideapad S10 - White

Left side

Right View - a lot more ports

The right side also contains the Kensington Lock slot

The "elusive" 6-cell Lenovo Ideapad battery

The 6-cell battery pack adds an extra 2 rubber feet

Its angled and lifts the back portion of the S10. This leaves a gap for more airflow but does change the side profile of the netbook.

The OneKey Recovery button is unique to the Lenovo Ideapad S10 netbook. A powerful and also dangerous feature. Be sure to set a password to prevent accidental reset to factory setting - thereby deleting all your data.

The uhm... Power Button...

Integrated Webcam

I took these pictures with my old Canon Powershot G3 digital camera that was lying semi-retired in my drawer. The pictures were then transferred to the Lenovo Ideapad S10 via a USB compact flash card reader (the onboard card reader only reads SD sizes or smaller). These pictures were then edited in my Photoshop Elements 5.0 on the Lenovo Ideapad S10 itself. Finally, this blog entry was also written on the Lenovo Ideapad S10. I did this to try out how useful a small device like a netbook would be for simple photo editing and text typing. It worked surprisingly well.

The keyboard layout is a little small for extended typing but that is to be expected. The screen is also kinda small for editing large pictures.

My Lenovo Ideapad S10:

• Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
• 2 GB RAM
• 160GB Harddisk
• 6-cell battery
• Microsoft Windows XP SP3

Amazing Screen Spanning Doctor!

Just installed Screen Spanning Doctor on my iBook. What this does is to enable the use of the iBook screen as well as an external monitor/LCD as a seperate display!

What's more, I can now set the external display resolution to the full screen resolution. Meaning my iBook can remain at 1024x768 while my 19 inch Viewsonic LCD can be at its 1280x1024! Since my LCD can select between analog input (VGA port) or digital (DVI), I can share it with my windows PC.

Anyway, what Screen Spanning Doctor does is to enable the graphics card and OS X's ability to support 2 monitors. On an iBook this has been disabled. Probably to encourage customers to "upgrade" to a better Apple product.

One of the best free downloads ever.

Upgrading RAM on a iBook

I bought a fairly new used iBook recently and decided to upgrade the RAM. Went down to Sim Lim Square based on a tip off from a fellow Mac Users Group member on where to get the RAM. Since my iBook is a 12 inch 1.33 gHz PowerPC, it required PC2700/333 SO-DIMM RAM. Fuwell at Sim Lim carried these in 1GB and 512mb modules. I decided to get a Twinmos 1GB PC2700 SODIMM DDR module.

The following is an account of how to upgrade the RAM of an iBook. Please do take caution when handling the delicate interiors of your iBook. I will not be responsible for any damages done in your iBook. Be careful when handling microchips. Earth yourself before handling them. Follow it at your own risk.

Ok, with the disclaimers in place, it is fairly easy to upgrade the RAM of an iBook. In fact, the instruction manual even mentions it. Have a small Phillip screwderiver (cross head type of screwdriver) ready, here we go.

The first step is to remove battery. Do this with a coin to unlock it. Next, you will remove the keyboard of the iBook. There are 2 catches on the keyboard that releases it from the iBook. Also make sure the center lock is in the horizontal position (by default it should be in this position)

When the keyboard is removed, just place it face down on the palmrest. Do be careful about the keyboard cable. The cable should still be attached after placing the keyboard face down.

Once the keyboard is out of the way, you will notice a metal plate with lots of holes in it. This is the covering of the RAM slot. There is also a laser etched diagram and instructions on the left hand side, describing how to install the RAM. There are 4 screws on the metal plate. You will need to unscrew them with your Phillip screwdriver. The screws should still be attached to the metal plate after you unscrew them. Another thoughtful bit of Apple engineering to ensure that you will not lose those screws.

Carefully lift the metal plate once the 4 screws are losened. Be extra careful not to damage the keyboard cable.

You should be able to see the SO-DIMM RAM slot. Note the instructions on the left hand side.

Here is the Twinmos 1GB PC2700 SODIMM DDR RAM removed from its package.

Insert the RAM at an angle of about 30 degrees (you do not have to be exactly at that angle). Take note of the notch to align your RAM module. Make sure it goes in all the way. It should stick there at an angle.

Now, slowly press down the RAM module to let it click in place with the 2 catches at the side. You may need to slightly push out the catches to help it click in place. Once done, it should sit horiziontally and firmly in place. The side catches should align nicely with the notches on the side. Do not force it in. Re insert the RAM module if you have to. It should click in place quite easily.

Now, put back the metal plate with the holes and screw in the 4 screws. Just make sure the screws are firmly in place. Do not over tighten as it might damage the screw heads. Put back the keyboad, make sure the keyboard cable is folded the same way. Click the keyboard catches in place. Put back your battery.

Ok, now the RAM is installed. Just boot up the iBook. To check the RAM of the iBook, go to Finder-Applications-Utilities-System Profiler. My iBook now shows 1.5GB in memory. =)