Bose Quiet Comfort 3 Noise-Cancelling Headphones Hands-on

By John BiggsPrepare yourselves for another Battle Royal between the Bose Haterz and the People Who Like Bose. The QC3 Noise-Cancelling headphones are an interesting mix of Bose fidelity and excellent noise-cancelling circuitry.

Priced at $349, the headphones are considerably smaller than the QC2 they're replacing. About 3 inches in diameter, they're clad in a nice alloy and have a built-in rechargeable battery and removable audio cable that can double as cellphone headphones. The ear cups are soft and tender, clad in faux leather.

Sound quality was quite good. They "simulated" an 85-decibel plane noise and played a little Dave Matthews Band—I know! Can you believe it!—and the bass response was quite impressive for the size. The front end of the audio, aside from nice isolated stereo, was a bit murky but considerably more impressive than any earbuds or even some lesser noise reducers we've used. The noise reduction itself was very impressive. You can even wear them as a pair of earplugs.

Overall, during our brief encounter, I would say these headphones are worth the premium price point. The 20-hour rechargeable battery alone is a nice touch and they're a considerable upgrade from the QC2.

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VRX Makes The Ultimate Xbox 360 Driving Setup a Reality

BY JASON CHEN
Remember the Ultimate Xbox 360 Racing Setup? VRX cuts all of that do-it-yourselfness out of the equation with their VRX Triple Screen Limited Edition 001. Here's what you get.

Four Xbox 360 Elites, four copies of Forza Motorsport 2 (you need a copy in each in order to enable multi-monitor support), an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive, Xbox 360 camera, Xbox 360 wireless headset, a Zune, the Xbox 360 Steering Wheel, three 37-inch Sharp Aquos 1080p LCDs, a 7-inch rear-view LCD, Bose Acousimass 10-series surround sound, Harmon Kardon surround sound receiver, vibration feedback systems, aluminum mountin bracks and various other racing seat/setup gear to make the system a standalone beast.

How much will this cost? Let's just say you probably can't afford it. Email them for details if you just won the lottery.

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Bose Invades Your Car with Hard Drive-based Media System

BY LOUIS RAMIREZ Love them or hate them, Bose wants to be your car's media control center with the just-announced Bose Media System. What's particularly interesting about their system is the way it's controlled—via the device's two knobs (which have built-in proximity sensors). The two-knob set up lets you pick songs or cycle through the unit's functions, which include AM/FM radio, satellite radio, or CD playback. The unit also has a built-in 30GB hard drive, which holds your tunes as well as navigation data. You also get built-in Bluetooth and a USB 2.0 input for plugging in your MP3 player. No word yet on pricing, though it doesn't look like it'll come for cheap.

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India Rejects $100 One Laptop Per Child Project

BY JASON CHENNigeria may have ordered 1 million of the OLPC laptops, but India isn't saying "Thank you, come again" to Nicholas Negroponte and his band of MIT hooligans. The Indian Ministry of Education said the laptop was "paedagogically suspect" and that "We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."

He goes on to say: "We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside America, there is not much enthusiasm about this." Harsh words, as Nigeria probably doesn't like being called a minor country.

Although Nigeria ordered 1 million, they won't be getting their shipments until other countries jump in and push the total order number up around 5 or 10 million units.

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Microsoft to Develop Cricket Umpiring Technologies

A bat is a bat, even if it flat, right? Microsoft seems to think so. Cricket officials have been receiving criticism from the International Cricket Council because the Indian umpires weren't too keen on international standards. This is where Microsoft steps in. Talks have began with Microsoft to develop a system that would raise umpiring standards for cricket across the globe. Matches would be recorded by six cameras and then a special program would analyze the video to make sure everything is all standard-like. They are currently in the final stages of negotiations. Good news for the cricket community worldwide, too bad the sport hasn't caught on in the states, yet.

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Researchers in India Say They Can Build a Laptop for $10

Those industrious Indians are so smart. To hell with that one laptop per child (OLPC, pictured above) project whose notebook price started at $100 and now costs upwards of $175 and climbing—Indian researchers say they can bring one in for a fraction of that cost, a mere $10 for a fully-functioning laptop PC. The idea is floating around the halls of Indian government agencies, and supporting the project is state-sponsored integrated circuit design and manufacturer Semiconductor Complex. There are a couple of design proposals on the table from engineering hopefuls, but it's just a whole lot of talk thus far, much of which is predicated on upbeat predictions of manufacturing and distribution techniques bringing costs down to that rock-bottom $10 level. Sure, the laptop will be loaded with free open-source Linux software, but unless that semiconductor manufacturer tosses in all the hardware for free, too, this $10 laptop malarkey goes directly into the "insert miracle here" file.

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Solar Laptop Charger Gives More Than Just A Laptop Juice

Though the Solar Laptop Charger & Portable Power Kit is billed as a great way to charge your laptop in a pinch, its honking 300-watt power pack features a standard plug that will have everything from power tools to blenders operating portably. If you can find about six square feet of space, just unfold the solar mat, plug it all in, and you're good to go. Charge time can be a little steep: 11-12 hours for a full charge. With a full charge, a 25-watt laptop should get around 5-6 hours of use. The entire solar kit carries a hefty $478.95 pricetag. If that's too much for you, it's worth noting that the XPower Powerpack 300 Plus and Sunlinq Portable Solar Panel are available separately, for $119.95 and $359.99, respectively. The XPower Powerpack 300 Plus alone is handy enough, as it doesn't need the panels to charge and can even jump-start cars and fill a tire up with air.

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Proporta Laptop Battery Gives You Extra Laptop, USB Juice

If carrying around an extra laptop battery isn't enough, take a look at this Proporta Portable Laptop Battery. It's an external battery which has multiple types of connectors to fit all sorts of laptops, but also has the capability to charge USB gadgets as well. With the somewhat generous 6000mAh charge, you can make sure both your iPod and your Lenovo is juiced up enough for whatever it is you have to have your laptop for.

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Stranglehold Demo Ready To Shoot Up Xbox Live

We got word from the kids at Midway just now letting us know that the demo for the John Woo endorsed shoot 'em up Stranglehold would be hitting Xbox Live any day now. It's currently going through the certification process at Microsoft HQ, but Xbox 360 owners should be dual wielding amid a flock of doves soon. The demo will feature a number of unlockable bonuses that will ensure you'll get your money's worth with the copious amounts of replayability. It also happens to contain the first multiplayer footage of the game ever. Now how much would you pay for all this? Hopefully zero dollars, because it's free. Duh.

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