Brabantia Sensor Bin

Never thought, you would see a bin on a gadget website? Well, here it is the Brabantia bin with a motion sensor activated lid! Look at it, enjoy the view, browser their website and then never think twice about it! Brabantia is a famous Italian design brand when it comes to rubbish bins, but their move into gadget land clearly failed. The idea is great: spare yourself from spreading more bacteria from the bin/rubbish lid to your hands each time you open it. Brabantia's solution to this problem was to create a lid which is activated by a motion sensor. The problem? Well it doesn't always open when you want it to, which is one reason enough to avoid it. The first lid I had was simply broken, so that after some email exchanges I got a new one posted (thank goodness for the 5 year or so warranty!). Perhaps in the future they will be able to make it work and be more sensitive to hand movements and equally important they need to add a faster motor into it. It simply takes too long to open the lid if you have something dripping! Enough about it! Visit the official site or read more at Amazon. I forgot to mention, this thing costs a fortune at around 200 EUR.

The bin's official homepage :)

Multiple Headset Bluetooth Dongle

According to Sennheiser, it is not possible to send from bluetooth dongle to multiple bluetooth headsets with any of the their dongles.  I have also been warned there may be a lag in sound if watching TV via a dongle - in may case that did not materialise.  After spending hours searching the internet for a provider of bluetooth dongles that does indeed support multiple headsets, or at least TWO headsets, I gave up.  The only solution is to buy two dongles and connect them with splitter!  Now, my wife and I are able to listen to music, but more importantly watch movies, through two of my favourite MM 550 bluetooth headsets.  This is a rather crude solution, and definitely not a cheap one if you are using sennheisers BTD 300 dongles.

Now the question is why would anyone spend 800 Euros for bluetooth sound system for two?  The answer is simple, this is the best system out there for anyone with babies or kids and who cannot afford to crank up on the sound on the tv, whether at home or on holidays, without getting a screaming baby killing the whole evening >).  So yes, its expensive, but for any young parent this can be life saver!  Having looked into other wireless solutions (Kleer, radio, infrared) I decided this is the best solution, because after all if you are buying high quality headphones you want to be able to use them yourself with your iphone or computer.  If you chose any other technology, you end up have to two buy to headsets for everyone - now that becomes a bit too pricey for me :)  Any questions - let us know.

Nokia E71 Mobile Phone

This is yet another failed attempt by Nokia to produce a Blackberry like email friendly phone.  The Nokia E71 is a huge improvement on the previous E61 super slow brick, but none the less it remains a Nokia.  What is the main issue with the Nokia E71?  Its the speed of accessing emails and typing new messages, its an extremely painful process.  It takes quite a while before you can actually starting writing an SMS or email.  Perhaps I am just used to Blackberries and biased, but if your main purpose of a phone is calls and email, this is far from the best solution.  Yes, it has all nice multimedia features (3m camera, video recorder, voice recorder, etc) but the menu system is far from being user friendly and intuitive.  Probably the worst gimmick is the "read your messages" feature which I have switched on by mistake in very embarrissing situations, it simply starts reading your messages and is impossible to switch off when in panic!  Just imagine... So no, stay away no matter how cheap you get it!

Sennheiser MM 550 versus Bose QC15 Headphones

Recently I made a big step - I decided to sell my bose headphones and buy a top of range set by Sennheiser, both noise cancelling. The reasons for the decisions are a long story, but in short, it was the wireless bluetooth feature they offer.  Now that I still own both, here is a comparison, not from a audiophile, but a simple user and lover of gadgets!

Sennheiser MM 550 Headphones:

Pros

+ superb sound quality, beats the bose hands down

+ bluetooth is great and works up to 10m

+ works with a cable with dead batteries (a huge issue with my bose)

+ controls iphone/ipod via bluetooth - very sweet

+ cool talk-thru feature where you do not have to take them off to speak to someone

+ built in microphone for phone calls over bluetooh (okay you look stupid, but its fun!)

Cons

- a bit hard on the ears, especially for those with glasses (I guess thats reasons Bose's QC3 on-hear exist :)

- too many buttons to press for 3secs or 5 secs. A simple sliding button would be great for on/off.

- very poor looking case for a expensive set of headphones

Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Headphones:

Pros

+ Noise cancelling is more "feelable" on the Bose versus Sennheiser and somehow more satisfying. With the Sennheiser you sometimes are not sure if they are on or not!

+ they are very comfortable to wear, even with glasses on

+ AA batteries power is great for travelling and those not good at charging units

Cons

- Batteries a must, cable a must - lack the wireless features

- Sound quality is not there. I actually remember that from the first day I put them on - I was expecting a wow effect, but I only got that from the noise cancelling, not the music.

Conclusions:  Both are great headphones for those travelling a lot.  If you want a simple plug and play noise cancelling solution, the Bose will be great.  If you want sounds quality there is not deciding, simply go for the Sennheiser.  The Bluetooth feature is the reason I got them, its fantastic to run around at home/work without pulling your ipod onto the floor when you pick up a print out!  Sennheiser get a few softer cushions and a "normal" on/off switch and we wont be writing any comparisons, because they will be simply in a class of its own!