The only most interesting thing announced at the Apple special announcement last week was the new Apple EarPods. Apple has redesigned the earbud headsets that have come standard with every iPod and iPhone since they were released in 2001. I picked up a pair and unboxed them for your viewing pleasure below.

The EarPods look strange, alien and futuristic when you look at them in the package, but after you try them in your ears, the design makes perfect sense. They are substantially more comfortable than the classic Apple earbuds. They don’t fit into my ears perfectly, but after all, these aren’t custom molded to my ears like a pair of Logitech Ultimate Ears. These also aren’t $170 to $1999 either! However, these were designed to comfortably fit as many people as possible, and you can tell when you put them in your ear. Instead of being a big, round globes that you have to wedge into your ears, they are an angular orbs that gently fit into the natural shape of your ear. The EarPods also have multiple sound ports instead of one large metal mesh screen. The multiple sound ports allow the airflow in your ear to occur more naturally and allow for a resonating chamber for the lower range of notes.

The ear pieces are made of hard plastic, which seems at first glance like a bad choice for something that is going to be against your skin for long periods of time. However, the plastic has a glossy smooth finish, and it rests comfortably in the ear without creating the vacuum suction that silicon in-ear headsets cause. It’s nice having something that fits snugly in my ear, but doesn’t feel like it’s going to suck my brains out. This is also helped by the airflow ports that I talked about above. I have managed to use them for around 2 hours straight before my left ear started getting a little achy. My left ear, which I suspect is smaller than my right ear, usually starts feeling achy around 20-30 minutes with most earbuds.

The sound quality of the Apple EarPods is substantially better than the traditional earbuds. If you’re a true audiophile, you’re still not going to be satisfied, so don’t throw away your Bose or your Beats headsets. For the price, however, the sound these put out is pretty incredible. I tested them on Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak, DMX’s …And Then There Was X, Owl City’s Ocean Eyes, Zac Brown Band’s You Get What You Give,  Yo-Yo Ma’s The Goat Rodeo Sessions, and Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night. The bass was much more solid than before, and the trebles aren’t quite as tinny and annoying. As always, the mid-range is where these headsets really shine, but it was more balanced than the older earbuds. On the older earbuds it felt like all you could get out of them was a solid mid-range, painful highs and shallow lows, but this was a well balanced, comfortable blend. If you turn the volume on them beyond the 14th preset volume level, or about 90%, the sound does still get a bit distorted, but not nearly as bad as most other earbuds on the market at the same price point. Also, no one should really be listening to their music that loud since that is far beyond the safe listening volume. I also listened to Tech News Today, The 404, and Deemable Tech to see how podcasts sounded. They also sounded crisp, clear and warm.

The microphone/remote has been enlarged to make it easier to use. It feels much more substantial in your fingers than before. The older version felt like two thin pieces of plastic that could snap if you clicked too hard. The new version feels like a real usable piece of equipment. It is also easier to use the controls without looking at them. Even though it is larger, it doesn’t feel any heavier, although I expect it might have added a fraction of a gram to the weight of the EarPods.

My favorite feature of the EarPods is the case. I have long desired a decent solution for carrying a pair of earbuds in my pocket since I lost my first pair of earbuds that I purchased back in 1998. They were Sony earbuds that came with a winding, hard plastic case. I always knew where my earbuds where, and they were never tangled. Sadly, Sony discontinued the higher quality version that came with the winding case, and the cheap ones were terrible. I’ve tried everything to manage my earbuds so that they don’t end up a mangled mess when I actually want to listen to a podcast or music. The case that comes with the Apple EarPods is the best compromise that I have found in the last ten years since I lost them.

The case is hard plastic, but smooth and polished with a nice, rounded rectangular shape. No surprise, it has an engraved Apple logo on the back. The cover of the case is clear plastic and the bottom is white. The cable wraps around the inside of the case and both earpieces and the microphone/remote have special places to insert them to hold them in place. Everything fits nice and securely, except when you put them in your pocket. Then they jiggle around and make a sound like you have maracas in your pocket. Another irritating thing about the EarPods is that the case is perfectly smooth along the edge that separates the case from the lid. This makes it annoyingly difficult to open. I find myself popping the case like a plastic Easter egg to get it open. I expect this will not be good for the long-term use of the case.

Final score, I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5. If you get a pair with a new iPhone or iPod, you probably won’t want to buy a third-party headset unless you are a true audiophile. If you have a pair of old ear buds and you weren’t fully satisfied with them, but didn’t want to drop a bunch of money on an expensive headset this would be a great buy. However, the case, although I love the concept, isn’t quite perfect. The noise it makes in my pocket is irritating, and it is frustrating to open. It is a really good, first-generation design. I expect it will be refined and re-released down the road. For the price of $29.00, the Apple EarPods can’t be beat. They are available now in Apple Stores, and will be included with the iPhone 5 and the new iPod touch.

On Tuesday, Sony unveiled its next-generation portable gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Sony President of Consumer Products, Kazuo Hirai, said that the PlayStation Vita will “revolutionize the portable entertainment experience.” As the heavily hyped successor to the PSP, the device looks like it will actually live up to the high standards that Sony has already set for its upcoming product.

The PlayStation Vita will feature a high-resolution, 5-inch multi-touch OLED touchscreen, 6-axis motion sensors, dual analog sticks, rear touch pad, dual front and back mounted cameras, built-in GPS, and will run on a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 Processor. Even more impressive, Sony announced that the Vita will give users the ability to enjoy continuous, uninterrupted gameplay by allowing for cross-platform play with compatible games on the PlayStation 3. According to Sony, there are over 80 titles already in development, and the company showed off the capabilities of the system with some of the top-tiered titles like a Diablo-like RPG game called Ruin.

Last but definitely not least, Sony revealed that the PlayStation Vita will start at the low price of $249 for the Wi-Fi only version and $299 for the 3G model, which AT&T will be the exclusive service provider for – much to the chagrin of the audience who openly booed the announcement. Price-wise, this means that the PlayStation Vita will be in direct competition to the Nintendo 3DS, which can’t really be considered in the same arena of portable gaming once the Vita is released later this year, just in time for the holiday season.

Photo via PlayStation

From deadly tornadoes ripping through Missouri to the faulty claims of judgment day’s arrival, this has been quite a hectic month. After being granted a week-long hiatus from writing to enjoy a mini-vacation (thanks again Ray), I return to close out the end of May by revisiting some of the trending topics in the tech world and… well, I might as well throw this out there – Go Mavericks!

The World’s Most Wanted: Osama bin Laden

Meet Cairo, a member of the Navy SEAL team who helped take out Osama bin Laden with the help of high tech doggie body armor, called the Intruder. Costing up to $30,000, the ultralight vest is not only bulletproof, but the Intruder also has a high-definition camera that is mounted on the war dog’s back so that its handlers can see his every movement. Now that’s one badass puppy.

Reconnected: PlayStation Network Back Online

What a complete nightmare the PSN outage has become for Sony, but it looks like they have finally gotten things under control as their latest Press Release may suggest. However, Sony won’t come out unscathed as the company has reportedly lost billions of dollars over the security breach, which has shaken consumer confidence in the PlayStation Network.

Greatest Marriage Proposal Ever?

3 million views in 3 days. 15 million views in 2 weeks. That means millions of women saw this marriage proposal video on YouTube throughout the world, leaving millions of women expecting a similar grand gesture of love. F.M.L.? More like “F.O.L.” for all the guys out there. But hey, at least Matt & Ginny appreciate all the responses you all have given them. Sigh…

Apple Gearing Up for Cloud Music Service

While Steve Jobs is currently on medical leave due to health-related issues, it’s not stopping him from delivering the keynote address at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference next Monday. As for Apple’s cloud-based music service, it looks like iCloud (or whatever they name it) will allow users to mirror their iTunes library as anticipated.

Official Press Release: Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6

CUPERTINO, California?May 31, 2011?Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Photo by CT via CraveSomethingMore

After 22 grueling days of outage, gamers and users throughout the world can finally reconnect to the PlayStation Network after Sony carried out a phased restoration process. Although PlayStation store access won’t be restored until later, PSN’s reactivation restores online multiplayer and chat functions, friends list and trophy comparison functionality, PlayStation Home, and services like Hulu, Netflix, and MLB.tv. Once logging in, PSN users will be required to update to the latest 3.61 firmware and change their account passwords. Details about changing your password are provided below from the PlayStation Blog:

“If using a PS3, your password can only be changed on your own PS3 (or a PS3 on which your PSN account was activated), as an added layer of security. If you have never downloaded any content using your account on the system, an email will be sent to the registered sign-in ID (email address) associated with your account when you first attempt to sign-in to PSN. This e-mail will contain a link that will enable you to change your password. In this email, click on the link and follow the instructions to change your password. Once you have changed your password you can sign-in to your account using your new password.”

Down for over 3 weeks after hackers breached the network’s security, Sony had to rebuild the entire PlayStation Network with more advanced security technology, encryption, firewalls, and early-warning systems. The outage affected over 77 million users worldwide and, even worse, the security breach may have allowed for the hackers to steal personal credit and debit card information from over 24 million user accounts.

Kazuo Hirai, Sony Corporation’s Executive Deputy President, released a video statement on the PlayStation Blog providing more detailed information on the restoration of the PlayStation Network and the new security features being implemented.

To compensate for the long outage and compromise of account information, Sony is offering 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus service, which provides exclusive access to certain games and beta trials. To those users who are already subscribed to the PlayStation Plus service, an additional 30 days will be added for free. Sony Online Entertainment subscribers will also receive a special Welcome Back Program upon return.

At this point though, how many PSN users will even want to return to the network after the massive failure that Sony just dealt with?

From tornadoes and thundering superstorms, to the dry, blistering heat of the approaching summer,  April had its fair share of interesting weather here in Georgia. Much like the annual return of the scorching heat and the pestering pollen, I figured that it would only make sense for me to begin my own tradition as April fades away and May begins to near. As my first month of writing for Deemable comes to a close, I will leave you with some important updates to this month’s articles, as I will continue to do so for each month hereafter.

Android Continues to Surge Past the Apple iPhone

Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, announced on Thursday that they were slashing their earnings forecast for the current sales quarter which ends on May 31. For a company whose devices once dominated its market, RIM is losing badly in the war against the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones. RIM’s new tablet, the PlayBook, did not fare well after debuting earlier this month. RIM definitely needs to make a transition in its product line, or it may not be “in motion” for much longer.

Copycat! Apple Sues Samsung

An eye for an eye. Samsung, after being sued by Apple over the Galaxy line, filed its own lawsuits against Apple in Asia, Europe, and the United States. In the lawsuit that was filed in the U.S., Samsung says that Apple violated patents that ?relate to fundamental innovations that increase mobile device reliability, efficiency, and quality, and improve user interface in mobile handsets and other products.? At this point, the arguments are becoming so broadly generalized that it is almost childish to see these two giants in the tech world sue and countersue over patent infringement.

iSpy: Apple is Secretly Recording Your Location History

After it was announced last week that Apple was secretly recording your location history, both Microsoft and Google-based Android smartphones were also found to be tracking your location history. Google is now facing a $50 million class action lawsuit over concerns relating to the location data. However, Android’s location tracking is entirely opt-in by the user and ties a unique ID number to the device’s data. Apple released a news statement that said, “The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly. We don’t think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.”  Overall though, it really seems like no one cares too much about this invasion of privacy and security.

PlayStation Network Goes Down

Update (4/1) – PlayStation announces that they will begin to restore several services starting this week.

The PlayStation Network is still down nearly 10 days after the initial outage. During this time, it was found that your personal information and potentially your credit card information was compromised by those who hacked into the network. The FBI is now working with Sony and users may be compensated for their subscription-based games and services.

You can read more about the ongoing PSN issues on their official blog:

Q&A #1

Q&A #2

Photo by GloomyCloud via deviantART

Nazi Zombies, you are free to roam the earth for a little while longer as Sony’s PlayStation Network has been out of service since 4/20.

The PlayStation Network is Sony’s equivalent to Xbox LIVE, which allows for PlayStation 3 users to download games, download or stream movies and music, and have access to other services. More importantly, the network serves as the infrastructure for people to connect and play each other in multiplayer games such as Call of Duty. Oddly enough, the network failure happened to coincide with the release of several brand new games including Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, SOCOM 4, and inFAMOUS 2’s beta release. While access to the network is free, content such as Netflix must be paid for by users, leaving them wondering whether they will be reimbursed if the outage lasts any longer.

A little over a year ago, Sony users of the non-slim PS3 had a similar outage on their PlayStation Network that was “caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.” Patrick Seybold, the Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, posted a message yesterday on Sony’s PlayStation Blog that said, “While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running. Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter. Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we’ll update you again as soon as we can.”

While there are an estimated 70 million users on the network worldwide, Sony is unable to clarify how many people are currently affected by the outage. However, players from all over the world have taken their Zombie rage to popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to express their displeasure with Sony. Got some spare time since you can’t own some newbs? Check out some of the tweets found by a quick search of #PSN on Twitter.

– Update 4/23 –

Patrick Seybold has made another post on the PlayStation Blog regarding the ongoing issue:

“An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

Photo by Charlie Sorrel via Wired

I’ve never understood why people hate the rock band Creed so much. While I’m not a huge fan, I’ve always found their music at least palatable. However, from all of the Creed hate I read on the interwebs, it would seem that I am not in the majority. There are over five million pages of search results for the phrase “I hate Creed” and several Facebook pages and groups dedicated to the hatred of all things Creed. Now, apparently even wild life hates Creed.

Earlier this week, a Norwegian boy used Creed to fend off a pack of wild wolves. On his way home from school, a pack of four hungry, but clearly  musically snobbish wolves approached young Walter Eikrem. Thinking on his toes, Walter grabbed the nearest weapon he could find to fight off the beasts: his Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 phone that was blasting Creed’s “Overcome” in his earbuds. He yanked the headset out of the phone and turned the phone up as loud as the little tiny speaker could go. He yelled and waved his arms while Scott Stapp‘s vocals screamed from the little white Android phone. Seeing, and most importantly, hearing all of this, the wolves just turned around and left.

Now, did the wolves really just hate the sound of Creed’s first single in seven years, or is there something more sinister afoot here?  Wind-Up Records, Creed’s label, just happens to be owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which just happens to be owned by Sony,  which just happens to own half of Sony Ericsson, which just happens to be the company that makes the Xperia X8! (OK, when I started that rant, I didn’t realize how many layers were involved. I even skipped Sony Corporation of America.) The Xperia X8 was featured prominently in every story about this young boy’s little convenient miracle. Perhaps, this was all an elaborate setup to create a viral story to promote two of Sony’s interests. I would like to believe that just the wolves were agents working for Sony, (maybe they were prototypes of Sony’s new attack AIBO) and Walter is innocent in all of this, but honestly, even in Norway, what kid is going to admit that he listens to Creed? This whole story smells of a conspiracy, or I’ve been watching too many TV mysteries and I haven’t had enough sleep lately.

Source: Der Spiegel, via Gizmodo

Image mashup by Ray Hollister. Scott Sapp image by kindofadraag via Flickr. Wolf image by Steve Gregory via Flickr.