Dolby announced on Wednesday that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Waterloo, Canada-based Research In Motion in the U.S. and in Germany. The suit seeks the recovery of financial damages resulting from RIM’s infringing products, and it also looks to halt sales of multiple BlackBerry devices. The patents in question cover “highly efficient digital audio compression technologies” that minimize storage space occupied by high quality audio files. Dolby claims that RIM uses these ...

We reviewed SRS’s iWOW 3D accessory for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch three weeks ago and at that time, we were pretty much blown away by the device. Since then, nothing has changed — in a nutshell, we can no longer listen to music on our iDevices without the iWOW 3D plugged in and pumping. But hearing is believing, and SRS Labs was nice enough to send through a few units so we can share the love with our readers. That’s right, we’re giving away five SRS iWOW 3D Deluxe packages along wit...

If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have insisted that no ear buds in the sub-$1,000 price range sound better than my trusty Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10vi headset. I would have been wrong. I still insist that no buds I’ve tried sound better than my 10vi buds — and I have tried many, many pairs — but now I add the caveat, “when coupled with the iWOW 3D.” (more…)

Apple made a lot of beige boxes back in the 1980′s, but for some reason, if you ask someone about their first computer, the Apple IIgs often comes up. The IIgs was originally released on September 15, 1986, and was one of the first Apple computers to use a 16-bit microprocessor. Running at a blistering 2.8 MHz, the “g” and “s” stood for “graphics” and “sound” respectively. The IIgs packed an 8-bit Ensoniq wavetable sound chip that offered 32 separate c...

Sorry, but it’s true. There is absolutely no viable reason a camera phone should be able to silently snap a picture that outweighs the privacy issues camera phones have brought about. If after reading that last sentence you find yourself scanning your mind in search of a way to refute it, you’re probably a scumbag and you should seek help. The go-to argument for silent camera phones, the ability to assist law enforcement by photographing a crime, is a bad one. If you see a crime taking place you s...