Meet Dubs, Doppler Labs’ Reinvention Of The Lowly Earplug

If you feel like you’re losing your hearing, it’s because you quite possibly are. In fact, more than six million people in the United States between the ages of 18 to 44 suffer from hearing loss.

To tackle the problem, Fritz Lanman’s new company Doppler Labs is announcing Dubs Acoustic filters, otherwise known as extra fancy ear plugs.

From the website:

We wanted plugs that didn’t protrude out of your ears – making it embarrassing to wear at a club or a sports event – and didn’t get in the way of your listening experience, but we couldn’t find anything like that. So we decided to invent it.

Dubs is the brain child of Lanman and co-founder and Doppler Labs CEO Noah Kraft. The idea here is that a totally mechanical device can be attractive, immersive, and improve the audio experience without sacrificing sound.

The Dubs are built of 17 individual mechanical pieces (made from materials like steel, polymer foams and silicone) that reduce general volume by an average of 12 decibels. This allows you to go to something like Coachella, with fourteen hours of head-pounding music, without feeling like your ears are ringing for the next 48 hours.

“When we were designing Dubs, we thought a lot how we could make them truly immersive,” said Kraft, who has spent his career in the media world, including consulting for Google, where he became passionate for the wearables industry. “We didn’t want them to be like hearing aids that are flesh-toned, but rather wanted them to have a sleek look that didn’t distract other people who are talking to our customers
Screenshot 2014-09-23 08.17.40

The Dubs do just that. They sit in the ear like a black little button, but aren’t visible when you’re facing the wearer head-on.

But perhaps more impressive than the form or function is the price.

To make Dubs accessible to all potential consumers (not just audiophiles, but folks who just walked into a concert), Doppler is pricing the product at $25, with availability starting now from Soul Cycle. Best Buy will also be selling the Dubs starting in November.

As you might remember, Doppler Labs is one of two companies started by Fritz Lanman recently. Doppler Labs, in particular, is run by Kraft, Lanman and Dan Wiggins, with Dubs launching as its very first product.

You can learn more about Dubs here.
Screenshot 2014-09-23 08.17.52

How To Hide Text In Microsoft Word 2007, Reveal It & Protect It

Sometimes what we hide is more important than what we reveal. Especially, documents with sensitive information, some things are supposed to be ‘for some eyes only’. Such scenarios are quite common, even for the more un-secretive among us. You want to show someone a letter composed in MS Word, but want to keep some of the content private; or it’s an official letter with some part of it having critical data. As important as these two are, the most common use could involve a normal printing job. Many a time we have to print different versions of a document, one copy for one set of eyes and others for other sets. Rather than creating multiple copies and therefore multiple printing jobs, what if we could just do it from the same document? That too, without the hassle of repeated cut and paste. We can, with a simple feature in MS Word – it’s just called Hidden and let me show you how to use it to hide text in Microsoft Word 2007. It’s a simple single click process. Open the docum...

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...

Fun Tools to Translate Your Name into Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese calligraphy is an artistic writing style of the Japanese language. Its Chinese origins can be traced back to the twenty-eighth century BCE. Calligraphy found its way into Japanese culture in 600 CE and is known as the karayo tradition. For Westerners, calligraphy is forever fascinating. However, it takes years to learn how to properly draw the signs. Two basic principles must be known to understand Japanese writing: there are different writing styles and different alphabets. Kaisho for example, is a writing style most commonly used in print media. Tensho on the other hand is used in signatures. Other writing styles are Reisho, Gyosho and Sousho. The alphabets include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Katakana is used for writing foreign words. It can also serve to highlight words, in analogy to capital letters as we know them from the Roman / Latin alphabet (Romaji in Japanese). Each Kanji character has a meaning of its own, while Hiragana or Katakana characters merely repres...

Kiran Upadhyay

Search This Blog