Jon L. JacobiFreelance contributor, TechHive
Jon is a Juilliard-trained musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time (late 70s) computer enthusiast living in the San Francisco bay area. jjacobi@pcworld.com
Nuheara IQbuds Boost review: Fine tune and augment your hearing experience
These Bluetooth headphones sound great with music, and they can help compensate for minor hearing loss. Think of them as hearing aid lite.
Polk Audio Command Bar soundbar review: Good sound, with Alexa at your service
The Polk Audio Command Bar mixes well-balanced and beefy sound (the latter courtesy of the included subwoofer) and Amazon Alexa. It works, but Alexa can be recalcitrant when the bar is producing sound.
The Tascam 202 MK VII USB cassette deck is the best we've seen for digitizing audio cassettes (in good condition), but at $500, it's a very expensive option.
Aukey SK-S1 Bluetooth speaker review: Classy looks and sonic goodness (at least at low volume)
This pretty little near-field speaker will sound great on your desk, but it's not the right choice for parties or taking your tunes outdoors.
TCL 55R617 4K UHD Roku TV review: Great color and HDR for a very modest price
The 6-series' color and HDR are astounding for this price range, but weak motion handling and problematic backlighting remind you this isn't a high-end TV.
The Bluesound Pulse Mini sounds great, will mesh with other Bluesound speakers, and plays music from a wide variety of sources. But its out-of-box experience and controls leave something to be desired.
With HDR requiring considerably more brightness from OLED elements, will lifespan be significantly reduced? Can OLED's reduced luminance over time still provide the HDR effect?
Samsung 65Q7FN 4K Ultra HD TV review: (Relatively) affordable quantum dot color
The Q7FN doesn't offer quite the brightness or HDR impact that Samsung's higher-end QLEDs deliver, but its picture is still marvelous and the "disappearing" design is arguably the best in the business.
Best NAS box for media streaming and backup
If you rip and library your own media, there's no better tool for storing and streaming it than a NAS box. These versatile storage devices also serve as the perfect personal, secure cloud for backing up your PCs and other devices.
QSAN XCube XN3002T NAS review: Classy, clean, and fast—but better suited to the enterprise
Network-attached storage has a place in the home, and this box covers all the basics in style, but it's missing a few features consumers will find essential.
Cyberlink PowerDVD 18 Ultra review: Still the best, and now a little bit better
There is no higher-quality video player available for Windows. It's a bit pricey, but PowerDVD Ultra is also the only software that can play Ultra HD Blu-ray discs on your computer.
Anker SoundCore Boost Bluetooth speaker review: This little box delivers more thump than you'd think
For the price, this 12-hour box sounds very good. It has the punch that many speakers in its class lack, as well as a surprising amount of thump.
When you want to stream from older audio equipment that doesn't understand Bluetoth, all you need is this handy, dual transmitter box. It's also useful for computers without Bluetooth audio output.
DarbeeVision DVP-5000S video processor review: A clever, but pricey fidelity upgrade for 1080p video
The DVP-5000S sits between your HDMI source and display and uses a stereoscopic processing trick to create greater apparent detail in 1080p and lower-resolution video.
Anker SoundCore 2 Bluetooth speaker review: Good sound in a super small, very affordable package
Compact, with good sound for its size, the SoundCore 2 is a bargain at $39.
Articles by Jon L. Jacobi
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