this blog is a visual notebook of inspirations for a group of bandit bloggers. we post things we see and like. our lives don’t revolve around singular topics and neither does our blog. sorry! nothing is in-or-out of context here. enjoy xx
nothing is a consumer technology company founded by carl pei that focuses on minimalist, design-driven electronics. its products include the nothing phone series with a transparent design and glyph lights, as well as wireless earbuds like ear (1) and ear (2).
the nothing 4(a) phone just came out and word on the street is that the build quality on it is excellent.
this question still persists… “does it steal my information?” by tnt
we love it when someone rethinks the ugliness in our everyday. stockholm-designed, the square 1 transforms the utilitarian power strip into an object of quiet sophistication. finished in nomad sand, it dissolves into your environment while anchoring your space with thoughtful functionality.
what distinguishes this piece is its magnetic base—a clever intervention that liberates the power strip from floor-bound anonymity. mount it precisely where intention meets need, secured by the included iron plate with pre-applied adhesive. your workspace becomes unburdened, your charging ritual elevated. you can buy it here for around $70. not bad! by sn
for all their intelligence, they are really stupid… a 110 plug is purposely different than a 220 plug for good reasons… but no, USBC has to be a total shitshow… USBCs all look the same and they range from 480mbps to 40gbps… that is so one cable is eighty (x80) times faster than another!!! with near to zero indication on the cable!!!
USBC 2.0 is slow and unusable at 480mbps
USBC 3.1 gen 1 05 gbps
USBC 3.1 gen 2 10 gbps
Thunderbolt 1 through 4. up to 40 gbps
next time before you buy one be sure you’re buying the right cable as they all look the same. while they all fit, thunderbolt cables are more expensive but only good, if your devices can handle the speeds. if you have a 05 gbps drive or port using a 40 gbps thunderbolt 4, while it will work, will only give you data transfers of 05 gbps. confusing? yes. by jr
original bose 901s – not the greatest audiophile sound for the money, but surely interesting to look at with its horizontal approach and beautiful cabinetry.
in the light of the new hyped-up kith + bose collab reissues of this classic speaker we thought we’d share a bit of its history, as i myself once considered buying a pair, almost a decade ago, but instead opted for a pair of magnepans instead… but here it is non-the-less… “there may be no singular product in modern audio history that has generated more accolades, derision, or pure controversy than the bose 901 loudspeaker. introduced in 1968 by a then four-year-old concern named after its MIT-educated founder, the 901 neither looked, nor sounded, like any speaker that had come before it. with its pentagonal cabinet that faced eight of its nine identical 4-inch, full-range drivers at the reflecting wall behind the speaker, its designer amar bose sought to have it mimic the way we hear in concert halls and imbue its sound with a giant soundstage and spatial realism that was unsurpassed.
amar bose and his 901’s in a clear cabinet
copy of bose 901 series III owners manual
beyond any success of its spatial trickery, the 901 had its issues — the combination of its small cabinet and unusual dispersion pattern required equalization at both ends of the frequency spectrum, and it was (not surprisingly) room and placement sensitive. some sophisticated audiophiles bemoaned a perceived lack of detail and veiled quality to its sound. j. gordon holt, founding editor of our high-end sister publication stereophile, noted in a 1971 commentary that the 901 “produces a more realistic semblance of natural ambience than any other speaker system, but we would characterize it as unexceptional in all other respects.” my own mentor, harry pearson, jr., told me in the early 1980s that he bought a pair of first-generation 901s after reading the positive reviews in the mainstream audio press and was so disappointed that it prompted him to found the absolute sound as an alternative voice.
you are looking at he BACK of the speaker here
in the legend and mythology of the bose 901, the review we’ve reprinted here, written by julian hirsch for hifi stereo review’s september 1968 issue, looms large. it has been suggested by some observers that few factors beyond bose’s own advertising contributed more to the speaker’s huge commercial success. while the review retained hirsch’s usual dispassionate and professorial voice, it was certainly as close to a rave as he ever got. in 1998, when sr celebrated its 40th anniversary and hirsch was asked to reflect on the most noteworthy products he’d encountered, he cited the 901 right alongside such classics as the original shure v15 cartridge, the marantz 10b tuner, and the dynaco a-25 bookshelf speaker. back in ’68, the 901 review appeared without fanfare and was mixed among the several featured each issue in hirsch’s “technical talk” department, which always began with a brief essay (not reproduced here), followed up by a handful of product tests.”
above sound dispersion and positioning – positioning the 901s, which fire backwards, in a standard room can be challenging as the 12-inch gap necessary between the apex of the speaker and the wall places the front of the speaker about 30 inches from the wall. you need to be sure to have a room that can accommodate that. over all a great consumer level speaker system, with some proper positioning and staging however in my opinion “too much electronics” to make this a true pure sound audiophile unit
original hifi stereo review magazine review from 1968
“depending on one’s viewpoint, the bose 901 speaker system might be considered a revolutionary approach to sound reproduction, or simply a workable combination of well-established (and sometimes deprecated) techniques. the bose 901 enclosures house nine small, specially designed drivers that have 4-inch cones and powerful magnetic structures. eight of the drivers are angled to the rear, while the ninth is mounted on the front of the enclosure facing the listening area. this arrangement is intended to achieve approximately the same ratio of direct to reflected sound that exists in the concert hall…” to see the rest of the review by julian hirsch, in the 1968 issue of hifi stereo review magazine, click on the link. by ss
so iconic – the only thing it can be compared to is the monolith
circa 1997 – these are perhaps one of the top 10 best solid state mosfet amps money can buy – they are just under 12″x12″x11″ and weigh just under 60lbs each. each monoblock is rated for a power output of 100W into 8 ohms and 200W into 4 ohms, surely enough for any domestic use. amazing sounding as nelson pass said “one of my favorite sounds i’ve ever made”.
the steel heat sinks on all four sides of each amp disperse the incredible heat – as these babies run very hot!! you literally can fry an egg on top after a few hours of listening. that is not an exaggeration.
pass aleph IIs are absolutely neutral, no coloration can be perceived. the sound is full, round, stable, and deep. the bass is very good, maybe promoting articulation and detail… almost a to a raw violence, but for my tastes i cannot imagine anything better. it has neutrality, or should i say naturality, and precision… you are led to forget about the amplifier, to undervalue it, but as soon as you listen back to another one, you realize how superior this one really is…
beautiful from any angle
effectively, i feel it’s pretty strange to see such characteristics married to a sonority that, while being vaguely tube-like, has mostly a heritage of the positive aspects of solid state, plus that little something, so difficult to articulate, that always distinguish a solid state gear from a valved one – i’d be tempted to call it grain, but i’d be wrong, because we can’t hear any grain here, and the sound watermark is perfect… even female voices are rendered with excellent homogeneity and flow, that can be compared to those coming from a tube gear – yet, distinct from it, in some ways. maybe the definitive difference is in the control and the precision, both better than what can be found in the classic tube world.
pass laboratories aleph II monoblock amplifier owners manual
almost 60 pounds (27kg) each – the front view of the aleph II mono block
don’t even think of trying to lift these amps without some thick gloves and at least one burly friend. there’s no way to avoid gripping the heatsink fins, which feel like dull knives on bare flesh. at 130 lbs each, these are certainly not “one-person” amps.
balanced outputs + 5 way binding post – back of the aleph II mono block
i love these amps and i will probably keep them to the day i die and then pass it one to another care taker. thank you nelson for creating these beautiful monsters. by uh
these are some of the things the ever-ingenious swedes at teenage engineering told us they thought about when making these speakers. playful accents throughout.
a timely addition to the smokey summer to come!
that’s not brautwurst and mergez you’re smelling, it’s miles of canadian black spruce burning to a crisp and sauntering down to burn your eyes and choke your cats. i don’t buy into urban outdoors activities as it stands, unless it’s a bistrot in paris or a brownstone stoop back in 2014 with a box of sunrise mart sashimi in my claws. i’ll bike home and strengthen my lungs as i look forward to blasting “all the things she said” on my 7.2. surround array of ob-4s with the windows open. clapping for the essential workers and yelling “hate has no home here” and “what’s your number, sweetheart” to every cutie that walks by.
nice styling from the modern japanese bellami-HD1 camera with a modern chinon lens – but a total throw-away as a digital camera disguised in “super model” 8mm camera… lame!
real-real… kodak’s latest backtrack on corp stupid decision making – super 8 film and a modernized super 8 camera are back, a pleasant surprise.
camera designed by our friend yves behar at fuse project for kodak
nice stealth detailing on the side
sporting a real super-8 cartridge
and now for some of the old giants… above the dieter rams designed braun super-8 camera for vitsœ
the french beaulieu 4008 super-8, standard issue for all you nouvelle vague enthusiasts
my personal camera which i have owned and cherished for many years, the notorious canon XL-1014 super 8
and my best friends camera which i often use as a b-roll the nikon R-10 with nikkor lens sister to the R-8 (below)
and finally below one of the many renditions of the infamous pistol-grip from the berrics skate mafia
ok so we owe this yet-to-be-issued kodak camera a blind review. note that we have not tested the camera as its still in production and we will post another once we get our hands on one. but top-line we are uber excited to see this amazing tool make a come back, and more importantly to see kodak supporting, and hopefully supplying, the super-8 cartridge films on a regularly available basis.
the good: its a super 8. it takes real film, and hopefully the film will not cost you your entire weekly allowance. its new and using the latest technology. keeping what worked and adding what wasn’t available. like a proper rechargeable battery that will last you the entire shoot. the design is simple and clean. we especially love the kodak revised minimal logo on the side. kodak can now process, scan, and deliver your film in one shot. love the yellow and off-white colors reminiscent of dieter rams iconic choice with braun, bringing back some of that 70’s nostalgia. usb plugs in the back. simple usability making it easy for newbie millennials… don’t forget, like em or hate em, we need those ding dongs if we are to bring some cost efficiency to the film cartridges.
the bad: it looks like a toy. the camera in its design is a reference to more of the 70’s or late 60’s units rather than the early 60’s which we personally prefer. 70’s was the era of plastics but also the era of textures which this camera has chosen to dodge at least. but the casing does not appear to be metal (again this is not factual)… if plastic, knowing mister behar, it is the finest plastic available.
the ugly: wholly shit, where is my pistol grip? how can we shoot super 8 without the pistol grip, so beloved by film fans. we even rigged one on our old hi 8 camera at some point. that said, unlike the old narrow cameras of the 60’s, this little cute baby can be held like a basket-ball for those long smooth hand-held shots, like the ones in “i am cuba” directed by mikhail kalatozov and his genius DP sergey urusevskiy.
in the end we cant wait to get our hands on one and put it to the test. thank you kodak for bringing this art back and mister behar for making it famous. by dd
ok here’s another rant on apple. yes its still better than most things out there (thanks to steve that is). and no they have not invented anything new, that is useful ever since steve left us (ok, in fareness they did change the name of iphoto to photos. that was major! and they did add the “selfie” feature/folder to the latest OS. now that’s wow, i’m sure it fooled the millennials into thinking innovation). now all this we can live with. but somehow it appears as if a bunch of complacent idiots have taken over the asylum at apple breaking things that worked, and ruining the most basic principles of product design and UI. our latest grievance is about the iphone 6s. i mean what sort of an idiotic design intern would place 2 alternate functioning buttons on the opposite sides of a phone, or any product? the sleep button was always on the top right, it worked, they now moved it across the volume button. so now each time we try to turn up or down the volume the counter force pressure on the exact opposite side puts the phone to sleep and vise versa. i mean this does not require a genius like steve jobs to be there. i’m assuming jonathan ives approved this, or worse even came up with it, but to let the product go into production and not see this basic principle is daunting and shameless, especially from a company like apple who invented modern intuitive UI/UX. i simply can not forgive them for this. i know how hard it is to keep up with apples legacy of greatness, so ok don’t, but at least don’t fuck the shit that was already working guys.
On another note, jony boy fancies himself to be dieter rams reincarnated:
braun T1000 radio (1962) and the mac pro (2006)
braun T3 pocket radio (1958) and first-generation iPod (2001)
braun infrared emitter (1970’s) and the isight camera (2003)
but you know what, you can’t just copy greatness and end up with great things. the shits gotta work jony, pretty will only get you so far… by xy
not sure why jony ives gets on my tits so much, maybe it’s his poor rendition of that david attenborough like voice, or his calculated “poor little me… i’ve been working all day and night to solve human kinds problems” stubble and hair cut, or maybe it’s the way he makes the most basic things sound so complex and self important? but he does annoy me much. jony doesn’t just think about things like you and i, instead he “incubates notions”… what ever he does it’s a pivotal shift in the cosmos. the truth is apple has come up with less usable innovations and more jargon. i can’t recall how many times philip schiller used the word innovation before they got to the most amazing feature on the iPhone 6S… the most astonishing selfie button!
this pivotal shift in the evolution of human kind is right up there with apples previous engineering intervention in iPhoto. the iPhoto has not been anything like the old iPhoto… because they brilliantly changed it to simply “photos”… i mean that really changed my life. what seems simple to common folks is actually a very complicated process at apple… well thanx! that was brilliant search optimization guys, now try and search “i have problems with photos” to fix your latest kinks and you now end up with prescription eye glass stores near you. but joking aside, and there are some nice things about the 6S like the 3D touch etc. but apple has messed up really bad in the most basic areas ever since jobs passed. issues that mac users never experienced and where the exclusive domain of PC users have since found their way into apples. perhaps apple should focus on fixing some of these before fiddling with the letter “i”… all of these OSX problems listed below, i have personally experienced first hand, so these must be just a few of the mac OSX problems of the late…
1- the spinning ball of death when you try to shut down OSX yosemite, only to come in the next morning and have to force shut down.
2- iTunes playlist playing in reverse order when you’re using apples own remote app?
3- updating apple software… getting an unknown error on apples own “app store”
4- slow motion videos shot on apples iPhone, and transferred to apples iPhoto (sorry p h o t o s), and back onto your iPhone no longer plays in slow motion?
5- unable to delete some “photos” in “p h o t o s”… now that sounds just wrong!!! let’s see how was it before…. unable to delete some photos in iPhoto. better. thanks for that ingenious idea guys.
6- syncing problems with iTunes and photos… where things do not actually sync. you have to shut down apps, sometime restarting your computer, detach iphone attach again etc. until it finally syncs (never had these issues and i’ve had apple for ever, every mac and iPhone in the past).
7- transferring photos from your iPhone to apples photos and clicking on “delete after export” leaves a bunch of photos on your iPhone.
and this is just what i can remember at the top of my head, fuming after watching the apple september 9th keynote. by dd
jack nicholson will now demonstrate the new august smart lock
come on in… well, not alla youz!
we just received our august smart lock and are very excited to put it to work. the installation is supposed to be quite simple and should fit “any standard deadbolt lock”
once installed that’s all you see on the inside of your door
our august smart lock (a $250 cylinder you install on the inside of your door) is here and awaiting to mate with our lovely door. whats great is that we don’t actually need to remove our lock, because it only replaces our deadbolt’s inside module. once placed in and turned on well have a bluetooth-connected, motorized deadbolt that can remotely lock and unlock the door when we press a button on our phone… or automatically lock as we leave, and unlock as we approach the door… nice! but the best part is you can give temporary keys to anyone you choose, and disable them when you want. you can also schedule access, for say, cleaning lady, baby sitter, or your neighborhood dominatrix to set up. but there are a few caveats; 1- don’t forget, there is some effort required here; i.e any user must first download the app, register an account, take a picture of themselves, then verify their email address and phone number before they can open your door. bit of a hassle? yes. but you don’t want just anyone to get access now? 2- although august claims idiot-proof installation, the install does require a few logical considerations. a) if you have double locks you need to be aware that august only controls one (duh!). also b) the mechanism in the electronic lock has its limits. if your deadbolt is not smoothly operating or it was installed during the dark ages, it could affect the performance of the lock by causing difficulty for the august motor to push the deadbolt through. so be mindful that the assumption is that your deadbolt is in tip top shape, if it isn’t (as was the case with ours) you may want to amend the issue before install.
so what’s so great about all this? why would i want to change my current lock? here are a few good reasons that convinced us as to why we would need a key-less entry lock like the august smart lock;
– well firstly it’s designed by the swiss industrial designer yves behar. we were told you should just get one, to have one.
– need to allow temporary access for your most recently acquired boyfriend/girlfriend with out the awkward key exchange… and retrieval
– your pet monkey is really smart… but not that smart
– need to allow scheduled access to your fancy cleaning crew who own an iphone (don’t they all? besides it works on android)
– need to cut down on key and lock replacements due to fast turn-around of lovely “associates”
– forgot your 5lbs key chain at work
– your “roommate” lost his key again
– pierre and marilou are gonna crash in your ski chalet in graubünden, and you haven’t been there for “like weeeeeeks”
– need to let your guest/air b&b into your apt but cant leave work (will require the $50 august connect wifi plug)
– your super called and said there is fire in your study (that’s where you’re supposed to keep your damn books, which you don’t have)
– finally, how can you trust the kids with a key… when you cant trust them with a f#@kin’ plastic bag?
there you have it…if your still not convinced… then i suppose you don’t need one. stay tuned we’re gonna report back with a proper field test… photo credit: jack nicholson in stanley kubrick’s film the shining written by stephen king. by uh
a visual collective outlet of inspiration
pass laboratories aleph II monoblock amplifier owners manual
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