Just how many different technologies can get involved with making vibrations in the air? Quite a few, according to Sony. The SRS-BTV5 is an unusual little product and one easily missed, but well worth giving a bit of attention. In a nutshell–or should I say, eggshell–what we have here is a wireless speaker intended to give your mobile device a bit more aural oomph. How much more? Surprisingly, a lot more. Don’t be deceived by the device’s lack of a companion and assume it pumps out mono sound. As it turns out, the spherical shape that makes the BTV5 so interesting and attractive isn’t just for looks. It is this design coupled with some technical Sony wizardry that enables the speaker to have rich audio in full 360 degrees. Basses are respectably bassy on the one end and on the other end the device handled large choirs like a champ. Audio never noticeably clipped in testing, even with volume at 100% on both source and speaker. Speaking of which, this little guy is loud. Loud enough to f...

It’s been a strange thing watching over the past few months as information on the Xbox One and Playstation 4 has come to light. In the past, console hardware was always vastly different between competitors who attempted to use creative setups to get the most possible power out of lowest-possible-cost components. It would seem those days are no more, as both Microsoft and Sony revealed that their next generation consoles will run on x86-64 hardware—the same technology as desktop computers—with strikingly similar specs besides. This is why a while back I ran a post predicting that the two consoles would cancel one another out and PC gaming might again take the lead. But since then we’ve had E3 and a slew of new information what with all the Xbox One debacles that cost two Microsoft employees their jobs. But as controversial as Microsoft’s new console might be right now, it is far too early to count it out for the generation. With time, the initial Xbox One problems will likely become jus...