Jakks Pacific Spy Net Ultra Vision Goggles

Pros Provides functional night vision. Records photos and videos. May encourage ninja-like behavior.

Cons Poor camera quality. May encourage ninja-like behavior. Bottom Line The Jakks Pacific Spy Net Ultra Vision Goggles are functional toy night vision goggles that we all wish we had when we were kids.

By Will Greenwald

When I was a kid, night vision goggles were $15 glasses with LED lights and green lenses. Nowadays, kids can get actual night vision goggles. The Jakks Pacific Spy Net Ultra Vision Goggles are functional infrared goggles reasonably priced at $59.99 (list). They let you see in the dark, watch people with various fun video filters, and record anything you see with a built-in camera.

Goggle Design
The Spy Net Ultra Vision Goggles are a large hunk of black plastic with a lens and two arrays of infrared LEDs on one end, two eyepieces surrounded by a rubber shield on the other end, and a series of gray, orange, and green switches on the top surrounding a black power switch and a cover for a microSD card slot. A thin strap hangs from the sides of the goggles, letting you wear them around your shoulders. The underside holds a screwed-in battery door that covers a compartment for four AA batteries.

Like real night vision goggles, the Ultra Vision Goggles use a camera sensor and LCD screens to put a picture in front of your eyes. Since these goggles are a toy, it means the image you see is very low-resolution, and because the goggles are several inches long with the relatively narrow camera on the far end, they heavily skew your perspective and it's easy to bump into things.

Plenty of Controls
A green lever on the top of the goggles switches them into night vision mode, which makes the camera extremely infrared-sensitive and puts a green filter on the picture. This isn't just a visual trick, though; the goggles are sensitive enough to let you see in complete darkness. The right array of infrared LEDs constantly illuminates (invisibly) anything close to it, and a light switch on the top turns on the left array of infrared LEDs that have a slight red glow and can illuminate with infrared objects further away. I used the goggles in a completely dark room, and I could see it clearly with the left array turned on. The red LEDs illuminate objects too much if they're close, though, and the invisible LEDs work better in certain situations.

Photos and Videos
The goggles can capture video or still pictures in VGA (640-by-480) resolution, which is enough to give kids some fun mementos of their adventures. The image quality is predictably terrible, getting very blurry at the slightest movement, or simply because the subject shifted and you forgot to adjust the focus. In this, VGA is a functional resolution, because it's just small enough to make poor details forgivable.

The Jakks Pacific Spy Net Ultra Vision Goggles land on the ever-expanding list of toys that would have been awesome to have when I was a kid. They're a bit pricey (about as much as a PlayStation 3 game), and they might encourage your children to ambush you in the dark, but the goggles are incredibly entertaining for what, just a decade ago, would have consisted of just green lenses and a flashlight.

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How to break the 4K bottleneck and bring super duper ultra HD to homes

There’s no doubt that TV makers are excited about 4K television. The sets, which offer four times the detail of today’s high-definition sets, are appearing in increasing numbers and consumers too seem convinced by the technology, which must be a relief to the industry after the cool reception that 3D TV got a few years ago.

The most obvious barrier to wider 4K adoption is price—the sets cost thousands of dollars more than high-definition TVs—but it’s not the only problem. Among the cables and interfaces on the back of the new TV is an equally important problem: how to get 4K content into the TV sets.

At this week’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, TV and video equipment makers are showing prototypes of several new technologies that will bring 4K content into the home and transport it between devices.

Martyn WilliamsOne of the many 4K sets unveiled at this year's IFA using the HEVC codec.

One of the biggest steps was the launch of HDMI 2.0, a new version of the “high-definition multimedia interface” standard that is the de-facto method of sending HD video between devices.

HDMI 2.0 doubles the maximum bit rate to 20 gigabits per second, allowing 4K video at up to 60 frames per second, and should start appearing in 4K products later this year or early next year.

This could be especially important to the short-term success of 4K because initially consumers will be restricted to watching prerecorded content streamed from players alongside the TV.

Getting a live 4K signal into the living room is a more complex task, not least because it requires broadcasters to replace their production systems. Many have only just completed multi-million dollar upgrades to high-definition so they won’t be looking to scrap the equipment any time soon.

To date, the only regular 4K broadcasting in the world is taking place on a promotional channel via the Eutelsat 10A satellite in Europe. Run by satellite operator Eutelsat, the channel demonstrates the stunning picture quality possible with 4K and also the current problems faced by broadcasters.

Martyn WilliamsThematic channels may be the first dedicated 4K channels.

4K signals, by definition, carry a lot of data and getting that compressed, transmitted and decompressed in real time requires a lot of processing power.

Eutelsat has got around this problem by splitting the 4K signal into quarters, each equivalent to a conventional HD channel, and sending them simultaneously over satellite to four receivers that decode them and stitch the signal back together.

While it works, it’s not the future of 4K broadcasting.

Instead, broadcasters are planning on using HEVC, a new video codec that can compress a video signal much more efficiently than the H.264 codec used in much of today’s high-definition broadcasting.

At IFA, satellite operator Astra and pay TV operator Sky Deutschland were demonstrating a 4K stream encoded in HEVC and sent over an Astra satellite. The stream had been encoded in advance—real-time encoding still is very difficult—but it was being decoded in real time in a set-top box from Technicolor.

No broadcaster has yet committed to 4K, but industry insiders at IFA were generally agreed that the first steps in 4K broadcasting would probably be on a small number of thematic channels or events. Feature films are an obvious candidate because many are already shot at 4K and the technology is likely to be employed in major sporting events, such as the World Cup and Formula One.

Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service.
More by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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Spec standoff: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 vs Sony Xperia Z Ultra

When smartphone leader Samsung Electronics introduced the original Galaxy Note, it didn’t have much competition, but since then interest for smartphones with 5.5-inch screens—and larger—has grown. So, the new Note 3 faces plenty of competitors, including the Xperia Z Ultra from Sony.

Here’s a look at how the Z Ultra, launched earlier this year, measures up to the Galaxy Note 3, announced on Wednesday at the IFA tech conference in Berlin, based on the basic specifications from each company.

How big can a smartphone become is a question both Sony and Samsung must have been asking themselves while developing their respective products. Sony decided to go with a 6.4-inch screen, while Samsung decided to be a bit more cautious at 5.7 inches. Both screens have a screen resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels.

The bigger screen on the Z Ultra comes at a cost; the device weighs 7.4 ounces, while the Note 3 is lighter at just under 6 ounces. The Note 3 is also smaller: 5.9 by 3.1 by 0.32 inches compared to the Ultra’s 7 by 3.6 by 0.25 inches.

Like many new high-end smartphones, both the Note 3 and the Z Ultra have quad-core processors running at 2.3GHz and 2.2GHz, respectively. A 3G version of the Note 3 will be powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 5 Octa processor, which has four ARM Cortex-A15 processors running at 1.9GHz and four additional Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3 GHz.

Buyers of the Note 3 can choose between 32GB or 64GB of integrated storage; there is also a MicroSD card slot for additional storage. That compares to the Z Ultra, which has 16GB of integrated storage plus a MicroSD card slot for additional storage. The Note 3 also has more RAM—3GB versus 2GB.

Smartphone vendors have recently given the cameras on their smartphones more attention in an effort to differentiate their products. The Note 3 can record 4K or Ultra HD videos at 30 frames per second (fps) using its 13-megapixel camera, which could be useful, as long as you are one of the few who can afford a 4K TV set.

The Z Ultra has a more traditional 8-megapixel camera that records video in 1080p.

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Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra

Pros Extremely well-ventilated tower. Multiple power supply support. Plenty of storage.

Cons Very high price. Benefits will only be appreciated by a small number of potential buyers. Bottom Line If you need a PC tower that can handle dual-socket workstation systems or three to four video cards, the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra should be on your short list.

The Blackhawk Ultra PC Case from Rosewill is designed to push a lot of air. Most full-tower ATX cases will ship with three to four fans, typically arranged for front intake, side intake, rear exhaust, and top exhaust. The Blackhawk Ultra ships with seven. Everywhere you'd normally think to put a fan, there's already a fan on this system. Multiple front fans, multiple top exhaust fans, rear exhaust fans, and an enormous side intake fan coat the interior. There's even room up on the side panel for another giant fan, and there's an unusual spot for an exhaust fan directly behind the CPU.

The next thing you'll notice is that this case has a huge interior. Rosewill advertises that it can hold up to HPTX, a form factor that very few motherboards have ever used. Here's what that means in relation to the other various form factors: ATX, Extended ATX (E-ATX), and Enhanced Extended ATX (EE-ATX) should all fit this case. Rosewill specifies a 13.6-inch by 15-inch maximum board size, which is going to cover virtually every workstation and consumer board built in the past decade. Only a handful of products are going to be larger, which makes the Blackhawk Ultra a credible two-socket tower case if you're looking to buy one.

The Blackhawk Ultra's aesthetics are trim and conservative—it's not as striking as the black-on-white Rosewill Thor V2-W or the NZXT Phantom 630. The front is a mesh grill with four 5.25-inch drive bays. The last bay has a 3.5-inch pop-out section for anyone who needs to mount a floppy drive(!) in the 21st century. All of the USB ports and jacks are mounted on the top of the case. Two USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.0 ports are placed up top, with a standard pair of audio in/out ports, the power button, and the reset button. The deep notch just behind the top panel isn't just for show— there's a hot-swap SATA port inside it for easy hard drive mounting. Both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives are supported. That's a smart feature, particularly if you have an internal HDD you use for backup but only access intermittently.

Other features of the Blackhawk Ultra include the option to mount a secondary power supply at the top provided you remove one of the pre-mounted fans and a set of fan control hubs that are already wired and ready to go when you unpack the system. The case supports up to 10 PCI-E cards and has space for up to seven radiator hoses. There's room for ten 3.5-inch hard drives, and up to 14 HDDs if you use the 5.25-inch drive bays for internal storage. Converter kits for doing so are also included.

Working inside the Blackhawk Ultra's voluminous interior is easy, but there are a few niggling points that need to be addressed. First, there's the fact that the power supply routing holes at the bottom of the case are obnoxiously small. That's annoying, particularly since a case this huge is clearly designed for major enthusiast needs. Routing through the tiny holes at the bottom of the chassis was genuinely difficult, and needlessly so.

One of the advantages of the Blackhawk Ultra's fan-crazed design is that it allows for dense component configurations without risk of overheat. Packing 10 hard drives into the side bays will effectively choke the benefit of the front exhaust fans, for example—which is why there's an additional fan mount in the 5.25-inch drive bays, too. The side panel's grille is large enough to mount up to nine 120mm fans (it comes with a single 230mm fan by default). The power supply bay at the top of the case can also be used for a small internal radiator, if you've got no need for additional power or a redundant supply.

One downside to the Blackhawk Ultra is the dearth of fan filters. In a system with nine fans, proper filtration is essential, but the Blackhawk Ultra has just a single filter for the PSU fan. That's a major oversight for a case designed to move this much air volume. The Blackhawk Ultra is a positive-pressure case that maintains a higher air pressure inside the chassis than outside, but while this reduces the growth of dust bunnies, it does not stop them. Positive pressure cases still need fan filters to avoid regular cleanings, and the Blackhawk Ultra doesn't have any.

The other thing missing from the Blackhawk Ultra is a fan control knob. This is a feature the lower-priced Thor V2 offered, which is why it's a bit surprising to see it absent here. With seven fans and two fan hubs, this is a case that cries out for fan controls, and preferably more than one.

Rosewill has attempted to compensate for this by picking fans with good noise characteristics. While it's somewhat louder at idle than I prefer, relying on 230mm fans has ensured that the sound is full-bodied, not the high-pitched whirring that characterizes smaller fans. Temperatures are excellent, as one would expect from all the cooling, but the volume is higher than most other cases until you really load the Blackhawk Ultra up.

Whether or not the Blackhawk Ultra is a great case option depends a great deal on what you want to do. For most enthusiasts, there are frankly better options. The Thor V2 offers most of the benefits of the Blackhawk Ultra, and it's much cheaper. The NZXT Phantom 630 is one of the best cases we've tested (stay tuned for the review), and at $40 cheaper, it might be the better option if you're an enthusiast with fairly modest needs.

If you need a case that can handle a giant motherboard, lots of external radiator tubes, a secondary power supply pay, or you really like the cooling and integrated external HDD options, the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra is a great case. It's true that there aren't many people out there who actually need 10 hard drive bays, but if you happen to be one of them, you need a case that can handle them. The small power cable cut-outs and lack of a fan controller are issues that make it more difficult to recommend the Blackhawk Ultra without caveat, but if you need a chassis that can handle a massive motherboard, go for this one.

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