Thanks to everyone who entered the Xmod Giveaway! We only had one unit, which means only one winner. A big congratulations to Morgan-William in Brooklyn, who proved it is possible to leave a comment on a post-- and wind up with a cool Xmod from Creative. We're hoping to roll out some more giveaways throughout the year, so stay tuned!Posts with tag Xmod
Xmod giveaway WINNER
Thanks to everyone who entered the Xmod Giveaway! We only had one unit, which means only one winner. A big congratulations to Morgan-William in Brooklyn, who proved it is possible to leave a comment on a post-- and wind up with a cool Xmod from Creative. We're hoping to roll out some more giveaways throughout the year, so stay tuned!Xmod Giveaway
After getting our grubby mitts on the Creative Xmod, we knew, at some point, we'd have to share. So TUAW is giving away one shiny-new Xmod to one shiny-lucky entrant. How do you enter? Simply leave a comment on this post. Just one comment per person, please. No shoving.
For those unwilling to click on the link for Erica's review, the Xmod is an audio enhancer. It is quite nice, either creating a 3d simulation via stereo headphones or speakers, or use "Crystalize" mode to magically enhance those MP3's clogging up your machine. Bottom line, it's pretty neat!
Basic rules apply: open to 18 and over only, 50 US states only, entries are comments to this post only, etc. Full rules after the jump.
Hands on with the Creative Xmod and the Mac
I'm in love with the Creative Xmod. It's this little white box that hooks up to your computer by USB. And it turns your plain ordinary headphones into a virtual 5.1 surround sound system. I used it to watch my copy of Cars. I tell you, those race cars were racing around and through my head. That's how cool the virtual localization was.
The box works by creating virtual speakers that surround your ears. Yeah sure, your headphones only have two real speakers, but somehow the engineers at Creative have figured out how to localize sounds by using advanced digital signal processing that even takes the physics of your head and the shape of your ears into account. It wasn't exactly like being in a theater and really feeling the sound effects with your whole body, but it took the sound experience up to a whole new level of listening.
The XMod hooks right into your Mac via USB. It then grabs any audio playing through the system and runs it through its built-in filters. You hook up a pair of earphones or speakers to experience the effects. The virtual 3D surround sound works particularly well with both movie playback and gaming.
Continue reading Hands on with the Creative Xmod and the Mac
Creative Labs Xmod now shipping
When you hear the name "Creative Labs" you automatically think "Mac," right? Yeah, sure you do. Well Creative wants to change that and they are so confident they can win your hearts and minds that they've not only started shipping a new X-fi audio adapter that requires no drivers, works right out of the box with your Mac and plugs into any available powered USB port - but they're laying out some serious cash for a booth at the upcoming Macworld, too. And just look at that box shot on the right it just screams "I love Mac users! HONESTLY I DO!!!" I think they really mean it. If it weren't for that huge knob in the middle, I'd have easily mistaken that for a 1st gen iPod shuffle.The audio adapter in question is called the Xmod and it makes some pretty heady claims that have me a bit skeptical, but I will reserve judgment until we actually get our hands on one. The Xmod is true plug and play and it is Mac compatible out of the box, provided you have an available USB port (and I am assuming it has to be a powered port, so keyboard hubs are out) and are running Mac OS X 10.4 or later. It claims to enhance the audio quality of your MP3s to "beyond studio quality," making audio sound more vibrant and replacing what's naturally lost during the MP3 compression process. It also claims to give you surround sound on any stero speaker or headphones connected to your Mac. It accomplishes all this using an audio standard that they call X-fi Xtreme Fidelity, which you can read more about here.
I am 100% in favor of having the best audio quality possible, whenever possible, although I honestly don't play a lot of music directly from my Mac. Still, I can't help but be skeptical about how well an $80 USB device can accomplish these lofty goals. The good news is that we here at TUAW HQ will have our hands on one soon so we can see for ourselves just how well the Xmod lives up to the Xmarketing. We'll keep you posted!
