1. SONY BRAVIA A1E
No fewer than seven trademarked technologies are built into Sony’s Bravia A1E smart TVs, which are available in 55", 65", and 77" models. The most important of these involve the image quality and the sound, which is projected from the entire Acoustic Surface™ screen. The OLED screen has a resolution of 3,840 × 2,160 pixels. Picture processing is enhanced by HDR (high dynamic range) compatibility, and the 4K processor is an X1™ Extreme with X-Reality™ PRO dual processing, Live Color™, and Super Bit Mapping™. Motionflow™ XR reduces blur for sports and other events. There are 13 picture modes and four sound modes. The sources of the Bravia’s digital IQ are the various internet and network connections. These include Wi-Fi 802.11 and Bluetooth 4.1 support. Smartphone connectivity is managed by built-in Chromecast, Photo Sharing Plus, Miracast™ (screen mirroring), and TV SideView for iOS and Android. The operating system is Android, and there’s 16GB of on-board storage. www.sony.com
2. SAMSUNG GEAR S3
The Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch comes in two models, the Classic (formal wear) and the Frontier (sportswear). Both have 4G LTE connectivity to your mobile data service, enabling texting, emails, and phone calls without your phone. A microphone and speaker are built in. You can even control smart devices in your home and use your credit card with Samsung Pay on the watch. You turn the external steel bezel to navigate among the functions and apps. The Samsung Gear companion app enables Bluetooth pairing with Android or iOS devices. Along with GPS/Glonass, the sensors built in include a heart-rate monitor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, barometer, and gyro sensor. Both models are durable, with a military-grade standard rating of 810G and an IP68 water- and dust-resistance rating. www.samsung.com
3. MIKME WIRELESS MIC
The MikMe is a very capable, but not inexpensive, small recording microphone that operates with a single push-button. You can stream the recordings to smartphone video using wireless streaming or directly to your mixer or DSLR camera. An app allows you to sync, mix, and edit the video and audio. The 2.75" × 2.87" × 1.4" unit weighs less than six ounces and houses the 1" gold-plated true condenser polar cadioid condenser microphone with frequency bandwidth from 18 to 22,000 Hz. The 16GB of internal memory provide 370 hours recorded in mp4 or 34 hours as a WAV file. The rechargeable battery will give you up to 3.5 hours when recording with Bluetooth. Wired connections include a microUSB and an audio-out mini jack. www.mikme.com
4. SANDISK iXPAND BASE
SanDisk has combined the daily task of charging your iPhone with effortless backups for the videos and photos you took during the day. The new iXpand Base automatically saves copies of your photos and contacts when you plug in your phone to charge. Charging is fast on the 15W base, and there’s a range of capacities, including 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. You can restore the backed-up files to your phone by just plugging in and tapping restore. The top of the iXpand base is soft grippy rubber for the phone to rest on, and the cord wraps back into the base when not in use. www.sandisk.com
January 2018
