Creative Following, Not Leading

Creative needs to push the envelope, and not just redo what others have out there already. This will not build them market share. This will require hefty rebates to get their products noticed and sold.

Creative Zen's Nano Plus flash player looks like it's going to be pretty run-of-the mill for the personal audio player market: 15 hour playtime, FM tuner, and a storage capacity for either 256MB, 512MB or 1GB worth of your favorite tunes. Where it does stand apart is its availability in 10 colors. If you're looking for fashion vs. features this May, this might be the MP3 player for you.

Analog TV Ending Soon?

Congress had decided to stop analog in favor of digital TV next year. Many of us have been putting off that new TV purchase until it gets worked out.

Depending on the outcome of discussions in Congress, television as we know it may end at exactly midnight Dec. 31, 2006.

That’s the date Congress targeted, a decade ago, for the end of analog television broadcasting and a full cutover to a digital format. If enforced, that means that overnight, somewhere around 70 million television sets now connected to rabbit ears or roof-top antennas will suddenly and forever go blank, unless their owners purchase a special converter box. Back when the legislation was written, New Year’s Eve 2006 probably looked as safely distant as the dark side of the moon. But now that date is right around the corner and Congress and the FCC are struggling mightily to figure out what to do.

Congress, however, left itself a loophole in the 1996 legislation, and could actually let the cut-off date slide by. But powerful lobbyists now are pressing legislators to set a “date certain” for the analog lights-out. The debate over when to throw the switch is a strange brew of big money, high technology, homeland security and a single, unanswerable question: just how angry are the couch potatoes going to be? It’s also a textbook example of why the future almost never happens as fast as technologists promise.

It all started back in the Eighties, when the Japanese shocked American consumer electronics companies with trade-show displays of high definition television sets that delivered razor-sharp images and stunning audio. Everyone from Congress to the Wall Street Journal raised outcries: America’s favorite technology was being taken over by the then-fearsome Japan Inc. As a result, a group of American companies formed the “Grand Alliance” that leapfrogged the Japanese technology by inventing digital HDTV. Thus, early on, HDTV invoked not just pretty pictures, but national pride and economic development. (Ironically, Zenith, the most all-American commercial participant in the Grand Alliance, is now South Korean-owned.)

One drawback to the U.S. version of HDTV was that to make it work, all broadcast television (not just high-definition) would have to convert to digital, meaning that every American television set manufactured since 1946 would be rendered obsolete. To ease the transition, Congress generously gave all television broadcasters additional channel space so that they could keep broadcasting their analog signals while they installed and launched their digital channels. The deal was that they would give up their old channels when the transition was done. That part worked: Over 1400 broadcasters now transmit in digital as well as analog, reaching 99 percent of the U.S. television market.

During the same period consumers were supposed to buy digital television receivers. That part didn't work.
The only digital televisions on sale thus far have been big-screen, high-priced HDTV sets. Not until next year will manufacturers start selling smaller-screen sets with digital tuners — and under current law all sets won’t have digital tuners until 2007. Thus at present there are only about 30 million televisions with digital tuners in American homes, out of a total of several hundred million installed sets.

That’s where the Congressional loophole comes in. Congress can ignore the end-of-2006 cut-off if fewer than 85 percent of households have digital television sets.

But Congress needs to do something nonetheless. For starters, there’s the remarkable fact that Americans are still buying over 20 million analog sets each year, all of which could be obsolete rather quickly. If Detroit was selling cars that used a type of gasoline that would soon no longer be available, consumers would expect to be informed. Thus analog sets clearly need some kind of warning label, and proponents of a “date certain” say this will make the labels far more meaningful: i.e., “This television will no longer receive over-the-air signals after December 31, 2006.”

The really big question: What will happen to all those old-fashioned television sets we’re still buying when the analog transmitters go off the air? To continue to receive free broadcast television via antenna, you’ll have to buy a digital converter box; cost estimates range from $100 or so in 2006 down to $50 by 2008. (Those converters won’t turn older sets into fancy high-definition sets; they will only restore conventional TV service, in digital format. The picture quality will be fairly comparable to today’s analog version, although there will be some improvements for people who use antennas — no “snow” or “ghosting.” On the other hand, when digital signals are weak, there is often no picture at all.)

Many analog television owners won’t need a converter: 85 percent of Americans now get all their television from cable or satellite providers, so for the most part the change-over won’t affect them. (A lot of those households, however, also have second and third sets in basements or bedrooms that do rely on over-the-air signals.) The real problem is the 15 million or so U.S. households whose only television service comes over the air. For these people, predominately lower-income and disproportionately black and Hispanic, the cut-off will be bad news indeed.

Most discussions in Washington contemplate some sort of free or subsidized converters for low-income households, paid for by the government, perhaps with the help of broadcasters or consumer electronics manufacturers. Estimates for the costs of that subsidy range from under one to several billion dollars — the cost declining as the cut-off date is moved further into the future. Proponents argue that the cost of the subsidy is small compared to the economic benefits, although last year the Bush administration indicated it was not in favor of subsidized converters.

If consumers aren’t ready for the transition, and the government is going to get stuck buying a billion dollars of converter boxes, why not put it off indefinitely? The broadcasters don’t seem to be in any hurry: They have both their old analog channels plus the opportunity to experiment with digital broadcasting. But consumer electronics manufacturers are pushing Congress hard. Switching everyone to digital TV could be the biggest bonanza the industry has seen since the mid-Eighties, when the advent of audio CDs fuelled an enormous upgrade market.

In addition, both Silicon Valley and your local police force are lobbying for an early analog cut-off. The reason is simple: when the cut-off happens, TV channels 52 – 69 will no longer be needed, freeing up broadcasting spectrum for other purposes. Public safety workers have been promised four of these channels — a commitment even more pressing in the wake of the 9/11 Commission’s finding that the nation’s first responder communications systems need a major upgrade. And companies like Intel and Cisco want to use other parts of the newly freed spectrum for very powerful wireless broadband networks that could offer seamless high-speed Internet service virtually everywhere in the U.S. Other advanced uses will materialize.

Already, cell phone pioneer Qualcomm plans to use some of the spectrum to build an advanced video network for mobile phones. And finally, there’s a bonus for the U.S. Treasury as well—much of the new spectrum will be auctioned off to the highest bidders, raising billions of dollars.

So what’s Congress going to do? The next move belongs to Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, who is expected to introduce a cut-off bill sometime in the next few months. Barton, R-Texas, is a firm proponent of setting a “date certain,” though he is not necessarily wed to the December 31, 2006 deadline. In public comments, however, he has made it clear that he favors a date sooner rather than later — as do other key congressional figures, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who won an award for “Best DTV Government Leadership” last month from a major consumer electronics group. Possible legislative scenarios range from an aggressive decision to enforce the 2006 cut-off to a more gradual, region-by-region approach that might even extend to the end of this decade. The latter would severely frustrate technologists, but provide plenty of time to ease consumers into the new world.

How will it turn out? At the moment no one really knows. Back in 1996, when the digital television transition was first proposed, media analyst Gary Arlen observed wryly that “it will be easier for Congress to take away Social Security than television sets.” Ironically, now Congress is worrying about both things at the same time — and neither problem seems to have a painless solution.

The Big Boys Duke It Out

The "big boys" I'm referring to are the large hard drives. Their size is growing faster than just about any other PC component. Here's a nice comparison article.

The good old magnetic hard drive, with its rotating platters and flying heads, is still the mainstay for mass storage, even as other technologies seem to emerge. Refinements in platter materials, head technologies, and magnetic substrates allow hard drive companies to stay ahead of the cost and performance curve. With Hitachi and Seagate announcing plans for perpendicular recording technology, capacity and performance should continue to increase.
Hard drive technology is advancing rapidly, as digital media proliferates. Most of us will have multiple hard drives in our homes, including tiny drives less than an inch in diameter in handheld devices, compact drives in notebook PCs, high capacity drives in our PCs, and even bigger drives in DVRs. Rotating magnetic media is the storage medium of choice for our digital stuff.

Today, we'll be taking a look at three high capacity desktop drives: the 250GB Western Digital WD2500SD, 300GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10, and a 400GB Seagate 7200.8. Drives from Maxtor and Seagate use its latest platter technology, while Western Digital's drive uses its 80GB per platter technology built on a more rugged platform suitable for reliable RAID 0 operation.

The Maxtor and Seagate drives both offer better performance than their earlier-generation models. Western Digital's RAID Edition drive continues the company's tradition of shipping high-performance drives, even if the data densities aren't up to that of the competition today.

If you really plan on running RAID 0, then you might consider the WD2500SD. It's built to more-robust standards than normal desktop drives—an important factor when running RAID 0. After all, if you have two drives holding all your data, you'd prefer neither to fail.

The Maxtor seems to offer the best balance across a wide range of environments, and 300GB is generally enough capacity for everyone. It's also a great deal, currently, with prices well under $200 on the net.


If you need that extra bit of capacity, though, the Seagate 7200.8 is well worth considering. It's pricey, though, at around $325 online. On the other hand, you also get the best warranty in the business today, at five years, so that's worth a bit extra.

In the end, all three of these drives offer differing blends of performance, features, and capacities. Depending on your needs, you're not likely to go wrong with any of them.

Interesting Robot Concepts

Who knows if any of these concepts will stick, but they're awfully fun to look at.

An employee of Japanese robot maker "tmsuk" displays the company's "Roborior" during a Monday experiment of the robot's remote control abilities between London and Tokyo using 3G mobile communication technology. Roborior is equipped with NTT DoCoMo's FOMA mobile phone system to communicate through video phone. Tmsuk plans to introduce the robot to the Japanese market with an expected price of 280,000 yen (about $2,667).

Nokia vs. iPod ???

This may seem like a strange matchup, but Nokia is moving into portable music player territory with their cell phones. They think they can pass iPod, but I doubt this will be as easy as they think. Of course, a phone with a built in camera, and music player will be the Swiss army knife for the new millenium.

Nokia unveiled its N91 multimedia phone, which will have a 4-gigabyte hard drive that can store thousands of music files. The phone, which will also run on high-speed 3G and wireless LAN networks, is due out by the end of the year.

Nokia said its other new phones, the N90 and the N70, will have two-megapixel cameras with high-quality Carl Zeiss lenses. The N90 will be in shops in the second quarter at a price of around 600 euros ($784), while the N70, also a 3G phone, will hit the shelves in the third quarter. Apple's original iPod retails for about 319 euros in Europe while Canon's cameras start at less than half the cost of the N90.

Ultimate Set Top Box

Pioneer has cooked up a combo DVD recorder, VCR, and hard drive recorder box. This would definitely get the spot above my TV, except it's only availabe in Japan. Anyone going to Tokyo and can pick me up one?

Pioneer Corporation announced today the introduction in Japan of the DVR-RT7H, the company's first combination VHS/ DVD recorder with built-in HDD offering a variety of easy dubbing features among VHS, DVD and HDD.

The Japanese market for DVD recorders has been enjoying rapid growth, and the DVD recorder has become the standard video recording device for the home. Especially, a combination VCR with DVD recorder (including models with a built-in HDD) has captured as much as 40% of the market.

Pioneer's first 3-in-1 combination recorder is equipped with One-button Auto Dubbing feature, which allows easily converting video archives of VHS to DVD . The DVR-RT7H also contains a wealth of other DVD recording features, such as up to 24 hours of continuous recording onto a single-sided Dual Layer DVD -R ( DVD -R DL) disc(1) and a maximum of 100x dubbing (HDD to DVD -R), the fastest in the industry(2). Thus, this combination VHS/ DVD recorder can fully meet a wide range of customer needs.

USB Accessories

For the computer geek who truly has EVERYTHING USB, there are a few more accessories to be had out there. The fan would be nice with summer coming....

Will you replace your USB light with retro USB lamp? How about throwing out your desk clock for a stylish pixel USB-powered LCD clock that also doubles as a USB extension cable. Or have you considered a cubic, bus-powered USB speaker piece with a distinctive touch and a built-in USB hub?

Benq 1625 Review

The Benq 1625 drive has been a favorite of mine. Benq has been making some really good optical drives lately, and the 1625 adds Light Scribe support. If I were in the market for a drive, this would be at the top of my list.

BenQ has shown us again why they are considered to be one of the optical storage industry's leading innovators. With the DW1625, they've introduced one of the first LightScribe enabled DVD writers. Using the drive's laser, LightScribe lets users burn graphics and text onto the tops of specially coated discs. While this will appeal to many, I won't hesitate to point out the DW1625 isn't for everyone. As a first generation drive, it was designed primarily to showcase its LightScribe capabilities. In the process BenQ has had to make some sacrifices in regard to performance, a fact that probably won't go over well with enthusiasts.

Like the DW1620, the DW1625 is able to write to DVD+R media at 16x. At this speed, it took BenQ's new drive a little more than 6 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. While this is pretty impressive, the DW1625 wasn't as fast with other types of recordable media. As you saw in our tests, the drive's 8x DVD-R and 2.4x DVD+R DL writing speeds put it at a notable disadvantage. Just don't hold your breath waiting for an upgrade. According to our contacts at BenQ, they currently do not have any plans to increase the writing speed for either media type.

When it came to media compatibility, the DW1625 gave us some mixed results. While BenQ's new drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed, it would not write to any 8x DVD+R media at 16x. I have to admit that this was a little surprising considering BenQ's previous 16x DVD writers had this capability. The DW1625's writing quality was pretty good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially with Ritek's DVD+R DL discs. Knowing BenQ though, they're already tweaking the writing strategy in the next firmware.

The DW1625 performed pretty well in our DVD read tests. It read both single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at speeds as high as 16x and had some very good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for BenQ's new drive either. In our tests, the DW1625 read DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media at a respectable 8x.

When it came time to read and write CD's, the DW1625 performed as expected. In our tests, the drive was able to read all types of media at 40x and had some good seek times. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 40x. As a writer, the DRW1625 performed reasonably well. While it had no problems holding its own in our rewriting tests, its 40x CD-R writing speed did put it at a slight disadvantage. Nevertheless, the drive's writing quality was very good.

Like BenQ's previous DVD writers, the DW1625 isn't short on features. Along with Seamless Link buffer underrun protection, the drive supports things like bitsetting and BenQ's Write Right Technology. While Write Right does help improve the writing quality, some of its features can increase the total burn time. Fortunately, you can disable it using the included QSuite utility. To top it all off, BenQ has included a great software bundle containing a number of applications from Nero.

Of course, the DW1625's biggest feature is its LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. While an alternative to markers and stick on labels, it's still too early to say whether or not this new technology will take off. Two things that might prevent LightScribe from doing so are the long printing times and the lack of color. Fortunately, media allowing faster printing speeds is already in the works and, according to BenQ, the DW1625 should support it. Color LightScribe media is also being developed and is expected to hit the market some time next year.

While affordable for a LightScribe capable drive, the DW1625 is still more expensive than most normal 16x DVD writers. The OEM version of the drive can be picked up for as little as $90 on Pricewatch. Otherwise, if you'd rather go the retail route, prices start at about $120 and go up from there.

Camera Phones Getting Serious

Would you believe a Nokia cell phone with a Carl Zeiss lens?

The mobile phone industry is trying its best to rival low end digital cameras and the latest Nokia might just do the trick. The Nokia N90 multimedia boasts a Carl Zeiss lens, 2 megapixel resolution, 20x digital zoom (ahem!), auto focus, flash, macro mode and video capture. The flip and twist N90, reminiscent of the Panasonic AV series, houses a RS-MMC card and its PictBridge-compatible, and Bluetooth-enabled for wireless printing. The interface looks quite advanced for a mobile phone and the N90 also provides on-phone editing capabilities. The N90 multimedia is expected to become available in the second quarter of this year.

Compare Chips

I just spotted this over at Tom's Hardware. Want to compare benchmarks on 2 different chips. Just select the 2 chips and the behcnmark and the chart is displayed. Very fast and powerful. I'm sure I'll be referring to it as needed.

It's finally here - a true performance comparison between AMD and Intel processors. This will allow ambitious users as well as OEM partners and especially dealers to compare their systems with our reference values. What's special about this is a feature that it lets you directly compare two different CPUs of your choice. Simply select the desired models and a benchmark, and the appropriate chart appears. The two CPUs are displayed in the diagrams as specially marked red bars. Shown at the very bottom is also some important additional information: the absolute and relative difference between the two models. If you click on any of the bars on the chart, a pop-up window appears with data about that particular test configuration we used.

Archos AV 400 Review

Sometimes you need to leave well enough alone. All the iPod fans pushing for a video iPod should read this review.

Archos' AV 400 already did it all: digital recording, TV capabilities, MP3 play and more. Now, for $300 more, you also get wireless, game console and PDA capabilities - which don't necessarily add up to justify the PMA 400's $799.95 price tag.

Will Your PC Run Longhorn?

Longhorn, Microsoft's new operating system, has a trick up its sleeve. While previous OS's either ran or didn't this one will be different. Depending on the power of the computer, this will determine the features that the OS will run. In the end, we'll probably need a new computer to get all of the bells and whistles of the new OS. Some things never change.

At last year's WinHEC, developer sources said that Microsoft was going to recommend the "average" Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market.

Hacker Deletes Hard Drive

There is truly no end to some folk's stupidity.

A CHAT CHANNEL spat ended when a wannabe hacker was duped into deleting his own hard drive.
The 26 year-old German claimed he was the baddest hacker in town and threatened to attack a moderator on #stopHipHop's RC Channel because he thought he'd been thrown out.

He demanded the moderator cough up his IP address and prepare to be hacked.

The moderator sent back a bunch of numbers and there then followed a period in which the moderator assumes all manner of hack tools were unleashed at the IP address.

Finally the hacker declared success."I can see your E: drive disappearing, he gloated, "D: is down 45 percent!" he cried, before disappearing into the ether.

It seems he'd been hot enough to hack his own address.

Build Your Own MP3 Player

Yes, this is serious. Maybe you're into building your own hardware, or you just can't give Steve Jobs $400 for that iPod to listen to your music. Whatever the reason, just because you put a hard drive into a case, this project is not for the faint of heart. Good luck if you decide to put this together.

This is small MP3 player. It's cheap and of excellent quality. An MMC has only seven pins and is currently the cheapest flash memory on the market! SD cards are now fully supported!
Powered by a single AAA (HR03) 1V2 Ni-Mh battery. Runs on a 18LF452 at 20 MhZ.

Up to 256 kBps bitrate at 44,1 kHz supported. VBR may peak at 320 kBps. ID3 v2.3 tags supported.

Full user control (volume, track, skip) with a Micro joystick.

Real Time display of bitrate, sampling rate, elapsed time, songnumber, ...

LCD contrast adjustable.

Voice Recording in PCM-format could be added later!

500 GB Hard drive

It seems like we just got 400 GB hard drives, and now 500 GB hard drives have arrived. If you are the ultimate digital pack rat, than this is for you. The drive is also notable for its use of the SATA II interface.

Hitachi's new Deskstar 7K500 drive marks several milestones in the storage industry: It's the first desktop hard drive to reach 500GB and one of the first to use the speedy new SATA II interface. In terms of how it stores data, though, the Deskstar may be among the last of its kind, as drive manufacturers begin to approach the limits of how densely they can pack data using today's standard recording technology.

Demand for greater capacity continues to rise due in large part to a growing need for music and video storage on PCs and consumer electronics devices. To meet that need, storage vendors are turning to new recording technologies. The first of these, perpendicular recording (see "How It Works: New Drive Technology" ), will debut from Toshiba this year.

Longhorn For Laptops

We're getting a glimpse into some of the new features they're planning for the next version of Windoes. codenamed Longhorn. Some of these features include new management for power including drives with ultra large cache (as described below), and auxiliary displays as on cell phones.

Microsoft plans to address some of these shortcomings in Longhorn, the new version of Windows that's scheduled for release next year. To address the power issue, Microsoft is pushing laptop makers to add features such as flash memory-equipped drives, reducing the number of times a computer must spin a power-hungry hard drive.

Other planned changes include the addition of a "mobility center" that will serve as a single control panel for all manner of laptop-related settings. The concept is similar to the Security Center Microsoft added to Windows XP with Service Pack 2. Microsoft showed off its ideas for the mobility center last year, but Mitchell said the idea has advanced much farther.

Turion Review

I stumbled upon this first review of the AMD Turion processor. It is basically a reworked AMD Mobile 64 chip. Its performance slots it in between the old (1 mb cache, 400 bus) and new (2 mb cache, 533 bus) Pentium M chips. No Centrino slayer here, but as clock speed ramps up at least it can keep pace with the Intel offerings. This is something AMD has not been able to do in the notebook processor department in forever.

The Acer Aspire 5000 is the first Mobile AMD Turion 64; system out of the gate. In addition to the new 1.6-GHz Turion 64, our test unit came with 512MB DDR memory and a 60GB hard drive, all for a value price of $1,099 direct. It's not for multimedia enthusiasts, but this value system will satisfy anyone looking for a straightforward mainstream notebook.

OC Freak has reviewed the latest LiteOn DVDRW drive (1673). An excellent review. A shame the drive is lackluster at CDR writing, as that has traditionally been a strong point for LiteOn drives!

To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: “Acceptable DVD-Writer at 8x Writing speed, but 16x writing still needs improving. And very poor CD-Writing quality doesn’t make this drive your first choice.” Lite-On: Next time – try to head in the right direction only, instead of improving some things and breaking others.

Toshiba 5372 Review

CD Freaks has come out with their review of their drive. Always the most comprehensive on the web, but slow in coming because they test it so much.

To sum it all up, the best we could say is; “A good reader and good CD-R burner that functions ok as a DVD burner, but needs write quality improvements and increased media compatibility”. Hopefully Toshiba can fix some of the negative points found in this review and make the SD-R5372 an even better drive!

Hybrid Hard Drive

Samsung may be onto something. They've got a prototype notebook hard drive with a 1 GB buffer. And I thought my Western Digital with 8 MB of cache was great. The drive only has to spin a portion of time saving power. Probable application will be in notebooks, but it would also extend battery life in an MP3 player.

"The traditional hard drive takes up about 10 to 15 percent of the battery power of your notebook," Greenberg said. Thus, in a notebook with a four hour battery, the hybrid drive could extend battery life by about 36 minutes.

The companies also said the drive could help accelerate boot-up time.

Overclocking

A nice article on the basics of overclocking by Technudge's Bill O'Brien.

Trying to get more speed from your CPU by overclocking it isn't illegal, immoral, cheating, or depriving anyone of his or her just revenues. Once you own the processor you can do what you want -- hang it on the wall, place it on a table as a small trivet, or hunt through your motherboard's BIOS options for as many ways as possible to make it work faster. Take note: Overclocking voids your warranty. But a sane approach (or, as I like to call it, "lazy") should keep you out of major trouble.

Gaming Mouse Review

If you want the ultimate gaming mouse, and can live with a cord, check out this review.

Although at a MSRP of US$49.99 you might deem this mouse to be a little on the pricey side, but as with any higher end computer product, if you want to best, be prepared to pay for it. This mouse packs the precision, the features, the comfort and the quality a gamer will require to allow them to accurately game for years without a single issue. I have yet to have a single issue with any Logitech product. You buy it, you use it, you enjoy it like it isn't even there.



That is a sign of an excellent product. One that performs so well and flawlessly that it almost dissolves into your desk. Seriously, when is the last time you have taken a good look at your mouse other than when it starts to act up? With the MX518, just game to your heart's content and forget about it.


Pros:


- Excellent Quality
- Very Comfortable
- Looks Good
- Superb Precision
- Easy Installation


Cons:


- Availability (Will get better as time passes.)
- On-the-Fly Optical Resolution feature kind of useless
- Price is a little high

LightScribe Writer Roundup

If you're marker is drying up from labeling discs, check out this review of LightScribe drives. The results look so much more professional.

LightScribe technology offers PC users creativity, simplicity and professionalism. According to HP, LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling delivers:

*Silkscreen-quality labels with the precision and fine detail previously only available on professional and entertainment industry labels. No more messy, marker-scrawled labels
*A no-hassle way to burn labels direct to CDs and DVDs. No adhesive labels that require aligning and tomping. No more voided disc drive warranties when the adhesive label delaminates in the drive
*Freedom to print when and where the consumer wants, without using a printer
Durable disc labels
*The ability to make simple or complex labels of uniformly high-quality. Labels can be as creative as consumers wish with text and graphics designed to express their unique styles

A Different Sort Of Mouse

If that mouse is giving your wrist pain, check out this excellent review of the Vertical Mouse. A little pricey, but cheaper than a hand surgeon!

This product is designed for the desktop computer user who suffers from RSI, or is at risk for developing it. While a retail price of $74.95 is expensive for a corded optical mouse, niche products always carry a premium price. Just like “fat free,” “no salt,” or lately “no carbs” are more money than the “regular” variety at the supermarket. As a mouse, the product is solid, comfortable, and the included software fine tunes the controls to your needs.

Dual Core Prototype System

Would you believe it gets the 4800+ designation?

WHO IS GOING TO launch dual core Athlon 64 X2s when they come out? Hewlett Packard for starters, and its box is going to look a lot like the picture below.
Nothing official was said, but a quick look at the system properties showed it was a 4800+, that means 2.4GHz with 2x1MB cache. The wording on the sticker near the bottom says (HP)Proto# 05-0331 for what it's worth.

2nd Generation Digital SLR's

It looks like there are two new digital SLR's coming out. One from Nikon, the other from Canon. the "prosumer" market will be pleased as both cameras are long on features- and have very competitive sub $1000 price tags.

By far the most important advantage of a digital SLR, though, is that it takes much, much better photographs. You can take supersharp portraits with softly blurred backgrounds, just as the pros do. You get good results even in terrible lighting, thanks in part to a smart self-adjusting flash. You get every manual control known to man (exposure, shutter speed and so on). And you can extend your range with interchangeable lenses (telephoto, macro, fisheye, whatever).

Notebook Problems

Here's an article detailing how the future generation is going to have many upper extremity and back problems from working on cramped notebooks. Ah, the price of progress in an enlightened society.

No nationwide studies document the trend, but anecdotally, doctors and physical therapists say that as portable computers become cheaper, more powerful, smaller and lighter, and as wireless Internet access becomes ubiquitous, thousands are suffering persistent back, shoulder, wrist and neck aches.

The culprit: The keyboard and screen on laptops are too close to each other.

"When you use a laptop, you can make your head and neck comfortable, or you can make your hands and arms comfortable, but it's impossible to do both," says Tom Albin of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, a national think tank that has issued a standards report on ergonomics of computer workstations.

Too Many Wires

Kind of a "mea culpa" piece. Two take home messages:
1- A Dell Axim is NOT a "chick magnet."
2- A Leatherman pocket tool is far more useful than any handheld computer.

I admit it - I'm a gadget freak. PDAs, Blackberries, WiFi cards - if it has wires and eats batteries, I'll probably buy it. I walk around like a techno warrior, pouches filled with electronic weapons. And I love it, to be sure - but there is a downside to having tech... several, actually.

The truth is that tech isn't sexy - all the advertisements of women swooning to your MP3 player or admiring your shiny new PDA are deceiving you. I carry all of the stuff in the picture above on my belt, and let me tell you, I've never been approached by an attractive woman saying, "Is that a Dell Axim x50V on your belt, or are you just happy to see me?"

What's strange is that my most useful gadget is surprisingly low tech: the Leatherman multitool. It helps me slice open packages and pry open computer cases. It doesn't use batteries, and it always just works - unlike my Blackberry, which goes for hours without receiving a signal, or my Dell Axim, which turns on spontaneously as if possessed by ghosts.

New Gateway Computers

Gateway is unveiling their spring lineup of computers. It includes a $1000 Media center PC, and a lot of Celeron processors, even in the mobile computers.

The Gateway 832GM Media Center desktop, which starts at $999, and comes with a 64-bit capable, 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor 630, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a DVD burner, a television tuner and premium stereo speakers. The Gateway 830GM Media Center offers similar components, including the Pentium 4 630, but it comes without a television tuner, which helps Gateway offer it for a lower price of $879.

• The Gateway 507GR will come with a 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor 530, 512MB of RAM, a 200GB hard drive, a DVD burner and Windows XP Home Edition for $699.

• The Gateway 6010GZ notebook, which is based on a 15.4-inch wide-screen display, will include an Intel Celeron M 360 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, a CD-burner/DVD-ROM drive and 802.11g wireless for $999. The Gateway 6510GZ adds a Pentium M and a DVD burner and costs $1,249.

• The 5.25-pound Gateway 3522GZ will offer a 14-inch wide-screen, an Intel Pentium M 725, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive and a DVD burner for $1,199.

Chip Shortage

Seems like both Intel and archrival AMD have something in common. Neither are actually delivering on their latest notebook chips. History repeating itself....again.

A full quarter after launch, and a full delay before the launch means probably that the notebook guys' idea of execution means that Sonoma sits on death row while the world+dog waits for this triply announced marvel.

Customers of Intel and AMD - and these are OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) must be sputtering feathers, although of course if you are a really, really special customer you might be able to get a notebook. Consumers can go hang, we suspect.

Nokia 8801

When flip phones gained their popularity, Nokia was left out in the cold. With the introduction of the 8801, Nokia could be getting back into the game. It features a slick, sliding case, rather than the hinge.

According to Nokia, the 8801 is built more like a luxury watch than a phone, with a scratch-resistant glass screen, a stainless steel and resin casing and a sliding hinge that's tougher and smoother than the hinge on your average phone. Hit a button and the screen slides up, revealing the keypad.

Google Sightseeing

With a name like "Google Sightseeing: Why See the World For Real?" it kind of says it all. Take a virtual vacation away from it all. Above, you can see the Empire State Building.

Google Sightseeing takes you to the best tourist spots in the world via Google's satellite imagery.

Benq 1625 Review

There is a review of the Benq 1625 drive. This is currently my favorite DVDRW drive.

So what were its most impressive features? Well, BenQ drives are speedy rippers since they do not have a rip lock. The ripping results were quite impressive. But in my opinion, the most impressive is certainly its load times. No other drive can load discs as fast as a majority of the BenQ drives I've personally used. They also are known for their overall excellent write quality. This was certainly no exception with the DW1625 and its write quality was quite good, particularly with DVD media.



Despite its excellent all-around performance, I simple could not get by its lack of next generation features. This is the only reason this drive failed to earn our highest recommendation and "Extreme Excellence Award". However, if they do once again pull through and release a firmware upgrade that will at least increase both its double layer write speed and DVD-R write speed, as well as improve its overall DVD media compatibility, it will certainly be a review I will revisit and has the potential of earning our highest recommendation. Regardless, BenQ has done well and continues to provide quality drives to the consumer market that certainly do impress. For this, it does earn our recommendation.

House Calls From Your Doctor- High Tech

Remember to ask your doctor about this.

In the past, the company's doctors had talked with patients over the phone, but now MyMD is giving 1,000 of its top member doctors iBooks and iSight cameras, hoping they will be able to do some of their consulting via video conference. As the traditional model of health care continues to become unwieldy, with some patients enduring long waits to see a doctor for a few minutes, concierge practices are becoming more common. Some doctors are reducing the size of their practices in order to be available, on call, to concierge patients. With minor issues, much of the consulting can be done over the phone.

But now, MyMD is hoping to lead the way toward video conferencing as an integral part of such services, and because of the relatively low cost and high quality of cameras like Apple Computer's iSight -- around $130 -- the company is hoping many of its customers will also be able to purchase them.

Patients don't have to buy new cameras and laptops. The service also works on Windows PCs using inexpensive webcams or camcorders, and AOL's instant messaging service. Cheap USB webcams don't deliver the iSight's high-quality picture, but they still get the job done.

So hook up that webcam!

New Play Station Portable Selling Well

The new Play Station Portable is having quite brisk sales.

Sony Corp. sold 500,000 units of its PlayStation Portable handheld video game device in the first two days after its North American release, about half the units the company had aimed to provide retailers, Sony said on Thursday.

New Internet Suffixes

The two suffixes approved are the .jobs and .travel extensions. Expect it to be a while before we see web sites with either of these. Anyone for www.jobs.jobs?

The Internet's key oversight agency gave final approval Friday to two new Internet suffixes: ".jobs" for the human resources community and ".travel" for the travel industry.

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It could take months, though, for the domain names to start appearing in use, as companies running those names now must set up registration and other procedures.

Approval came as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ended meetings in Argentina. ICANN staff has spent the past few months negotiating contracts with the companies following the board's preliminary approval of those names last year.

Negotiations continue on two other names already given preliminary approval: ".post" for postal services and ".mobi" targeting mobile services.

The board did not yet act on a contract to run the ".net" directories beyond June 30. An outside company had recommended that VeriSign Inc. be given a six-year extension.

DVD Player Penetration

The DVD player can now be found in 75% of US homes. So this is why Blockbuster is taking the DVD's off the shelves.

According to Parks Associates, approximately 30 mln US households have a broadband connection, 50 mln have either digital cable or direct broadcast satellite (DBS) television service, 18+ mln households have a data networking solution, and 75% of US households have a DVD player. As the number of advanced products and services increases, also boosting the number of companies involved in these digital markets, both the complexity and potential for these markets have escalated.

Organizing Digital Photos How To

Over at Popular Mechanics they have a how to guide on organizing those many digital photos filling up your hard drive.

"It's only after scrolling down a list of hundreds of JPEG files with numbers for names that one understands the dark potential of a digital camera to generate chaos. Save money on film? Sure. Delete the worst shots as you go? If you're disciplined. Organize your pictures efficiently? Well, that takes a bit of know-how. The fact that they're not paying for film seems to bring out the artist in some people, causing them to take more shots than needed. So while it may just be a good idea to organize prints into albums for the shelf, eventually it becomes really necessary to create computerized albums."

CNET Top 20 List

I just noticed this for the 1st time today. CNET keeps a top 20 list based on searches on their site for electronics. This week's hot item is the Nokia 7280 pictured above. And of course there are links to their coverage of the particular product.

"Each week, we look at the products readers are searching for, clicking on, and asking about and put them in the CNET Weekly Hit List. Your clicks determine their position on the list. This week, a set of iPod speakers failed to make the list, while the Nokia 7280 remains unstoppable. Which hopefuls will make the list next week? You decide. "

More Mini News

A followup to what I posted last week. There are more musings about the new Zen Micro update. It is speculated it may not be so micro. Creative should really get serious and update their Zen line- it competed with the original iPod. It is looking like the fall electronics season for the holidays may have some new models from Creative.

"It didn’t take much hunting on the Creative website to find what looks to be a new Zen player described, with a 20GB hard drive, a 1.65″ LCD screen, 11 hour battery life, all of the Micro’s other features (touchpad controls, FM radio, voice recorder, FM recorder, USB2, sync with Outlook contacts, calendars, and taskst), and packaged with earphones, USB2 cable, a power adapter (even though it charges over USB2, I’d think…), both a belt-clip and desktop stand, and carrying pouch. There’s no mention (as yet) of the battery being removable. And note that the relative sizing in my picture is based on a (50-50) assumption that they’d keep the touch control pad the same dimensions, just enlarge everything else."

Major Modding

Serious computer enthusiasts know that the best computers come in home made cases. Sure, it's a lot more work, but that's what makes it uniquely yours. If you want some inspiration, or to just be impressed, check this out.

"Modders descend from a line of hackers that includes the Homebrew Computer Club, which in 1975 began meeting in a California garage to experiment with modifying the first personal computer, the Altair 8800. Club members Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs went on to form Apple Computer to sell the machine Wozniak created. But despite its auspicious beginnings, DIY computer building caught on slowly. It was not until the late 1990s--when parts became cheap and geeks could share tricks of the trade online--that modding took off. Today, magazines and competitions are dedicated to the craft, and CompUSA stocks modding gear such as LEDs and water-cooling units."

Best CD/DVD creation Suite

Over at PC Mag they have a nice article on the best optical media creation suites. I've always been a fan of Nero's suite. PC Mag gave the nod to the Roxio suite, which I always find a little simplified and dumbed down. I have had good results with the Cyberlink product as well.

"For our money, Roxio regains its top spot among suites, garnering our Editors' Choice designation. But Nero remains a strong choice as well, especially for power users looking for deeper control over CD and DVD settings. In addition, Nero's networking features position it as a distributed media delivery platform that could ultimately integrate Media Center Edition PCs, portable media players, wireless networks, and online resources like Internet radio and music download sites. Buyers interested in a more videocentric suite, meanwhile, will want to look closely at the Sonic MyDVD and Ulead entries."

Best Audio Players

Over at PC World, they have a top 10 list for the best audio players. The top choice in the larger category is the iPod Photo. It wasn't a sweep though. In the smaller hard drive category, I was surprised to see the Rio Carbon.

"Both of the top large-capacity players are from Apple Computer. The 30GB IPod Photo??the most expensive unit in this group at $349--offers a terrific color LCD screen that enables you to look at images synced from your PC's photo library. It also delivers improved battery life over previous IPods, plus quick operations, intuitive menus, and easy-to-create playlists. (A 60GB version costs $100 more.) Closely following the IPod Photo in the rankings is its sibling, the 20GB IPod, which shares the same impressive features except that it lacks a color screen and image-playback support. The third-place IRiver H320 used to be a good deal compared with the IPod Photo; but though IRiver has cut the H320's price since the device first appeared, Apple has reduced prices on IPod Photos more substantially."

Google Is Watching

This week, Google added satellite maps to its offerings. Perhaps they're running out of features to add. Soon Google will be synonymous with the internet.

Open Source Bios?

Some folks out there believe that the "little guys" should have access to the bios of their computer motherboards. After all, look at what LiteOn almost open source firmware did for their optical drives. I don't think Dell and Intel are going to see it that way. After all, we have to protect the end user.

"Now, for the first time, some critics want to force the industry to abandon its hallmark secrecy. As the BIOS becomes more powerful, these critics argue, consumers must be allowed to freely develop their own alternatives to ensure that they keep control of their devices--and that means they need unfettered access to information."

First Look At Dual Core Chip Performance

Over at Extreme Tech they have the first test results of the Intel dual core chips. I will say, for all the hype they have received, I was less than impressed. I'm not sure a chip is really faster if we have to rewrite the code.

"What is clear is that for certain application mixes, and certain usage models, dual core CPUs are substantially better. And that advantage will increase over time, as operating system schedulers get smarter and the use of multithreading in applications increases. The dual-core advantage won't be felt only in computer-intensive apps, but increasingly in our everyday computing lives, and perhaps the dream of systems that are responsive to our needs all of the time will be realized"

New Cameras From Nikon Soon

Nikon recently leaked news that they are releasing a new digital SLR camera- the D50 in the near future. The affordable digital SLR will be soon.

Handhelds In India

Not only are handhelds not doing well in the US, but they haven't taken off in India either. The Simputer was supposed to bring computing to India's poor and rural areas, but few have been sold. I guess, even in India, a good ol' desktop is hard to beat for price/performance ratio.

Best Buy To Eliminate Rebates

We've all purchased that "great deal" computer product, only to be frustrated months later when we didn't get our rebate. Best Buy has had enough with this also. They've decided to eliminate it also, although it isn't IF they will lower the prices. Other retailers are expected to follow.

"In response to customer complaints, Best Buy Co. Inc., the world's largest electronics retailer, promised Friday to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years. Best Buy's rivals, including Circuit City Stores and CompUSA, are expected to follow suit."

I'm sure the US Postal Service is celebrating.

The PC Cow- How To Build One

Our friends over at Extreme Tech are working overtime to tell us all how to build a PC into a cow. The crucial step in the build is choosing the type of case, I mean cow. Complete parts list available here.

"Ultimately, the Bovine 3000 is not for everyone. For starters, it needs grass. Lots and lots of grass. Plus there are "resource contention issues" where we want to use the PC, but the cow wants to go online to play CounterStrike Source. Negotiations between us and the cow were still ongoing at press time. Still, if you live on a farm, and have ever thought to yourself, "Hey, why not overclcock one of my cows?" Then the Bovine 3000 has your name written all over it. The acquisition costs are a bit steep, as this is one of the few PC systems in existence that actually requires regular visits from a veterinarian. But the increased dairy output, plus the system's ability to run sans shore power make it very appealing for those in rural areas that don't have dependable electrical service. Of course, this is also a system that can on a whim just decide to walk off when you're in the middle of something important. But for the bovine-inclined, it's an acceptable set of tradeoffs."

Digital Camera Blockbuster

Over at PC Mag, they have a very comprehensive review of the current offerings of the latest digital cameras.

"Don't believe the hype. The right digital camera for you might not be the one with the most megapixels or the heftiest price tag. It should meet your needs at a price you can afford—and that might have little to do with its specs."

They have it divided into: compact, ultracompact, super zoom, digital SLR, enthusiast and hybrid.