Rolling back computer prices....

This fits into the previous story. Wal-Mart plans to be selling notebooks, on the day after Thanksgiving, for less than $400. Now this is serious rolling back prices.

The laptop in the ad comes with a 2800+ Sempron processor from Advanced Micro Devices, 256MB of memory, a 40GB hard drive, a CD-RW/DVD drive and a 15-inch screen.

The desktop, meanwhile, comes with a 3000+ Sempron, 512MB of memory, a 40GB drive and a 15-inch LCD.

The upcoming computers will likely be among several bargains touted on so-called Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that remains the biggest U.S. shopping day of the year.

The expected Wal-Mart deals are "pretty aggressive," said Steve Baker, an analyst at The NPD Group. "But it sure as hell won't be the last $399 notebook or the only one on Black Friday."

Reportedly, Wal-Mart is often ranked as the number 2 PC retailer in the nation.

Cheap Notebooks

While 1.3 GHz Celeron processors, and 256 MB RAM systems are generally not too exciting, finding out that these notebook systems are retailing around $500 is. In 1997, the $1000 desktop PC barrier was broken (I remember because I bought one), but now 8 years later, a notebook for half that price is is even more incredible. And it looks like prices will continue to drop down at the bottom. This is good news for consumers, and will make families where everyone has their own notebook quite common; why share with the kids at this price?

How low can laptop prices go? Lower than $500, say a number of PC vendors.


The cheapest notebooks could sink to the $400 range by the end of this year and may even drop as low as $300 by late 2006, according to various computer vendors, chip experts, and PC industry observers. In fact, as we went to press CompUSA was selling a Compaq laptop for $425 after $300 in various rebates.

"It used to be notebooks would sell for close to $600 only as a stunt," says Mark Margevicius, an analyst with Gartner Research. But now some laptops have sold for that price consistently, he says.

Due to increases in production, some expensive notebook components have dropped in price, explains Roger Kay, analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. That in turn drives system prices down.

For example, the cost of a flat-panel display, which accounts for over half the total cost of a notebook, has fallen by 70 percent over the last 12 months, according to market research company iSuppli. The cost of other expensive notebook components, such as hard drives and memory, has halved over the past 12 months, says iSuppli.

Cheaper components don't mean shoddy products, say vendors. Low-cost machines are put through the same quality-control checks as any other computer, they say.

"These entry-level models deliver a solid and basic computing experience," says Matt Jorgensen, a Dell product marketing manager.

Apple Shafts America's iPod Owners

It's stuff like this that reminds me of why I don't have an iPod...

Scratched your video iPod? Return it. Cat puked on your 5G iPod? Return it. Don’t like last week’s episode of Lost on your iPod? Go stuff yourself. Apple is allowing the returns of fifth-generation iPods that show any sign of hardware failure (including general abuse) with no questions asked. A nice gesture, right? Kinda makes you reconsider signing up for the class action lawsuits—NOT! Because guess what? This new policy is only for Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. No love for us here in the good old US of A. I guess Jobs figures we’ve got enough crap and enough cash that if something goes wrong with a 5G iPod, we’ll just buy something newer. The official message to Apple’s channel partners reads: “For a short period of time, Apple will be evaluating all forms of hardware failure on the recently announced fifth-generation iPod.” Nothing specific mind you, but I guess this was just preemptive at this point. So, hey, if you’re traveling out of the country and feel like trading in your nasty old 5G iPod, let us know how it goes.

Samsung WriteMaster Drive Reviewed

This is one of the first reviews of this external drive, a joint effort from Samsung and Toshiba. Too bad it wasn't stronger on DVD+R discs, as they are the most common type. External drives have come a long way, although I still prefer a LiteOn in a Belkin enclosure for serious disc tasks with my notebook.

The Samsung WriteMaster is an innovative, external DVD writer. It has no performance penalties in either reading, or writing, by the use of the USB 2.0 interface. Its attractive black and silver case is complemented by the ability to use this drive either in the more conventional horizontal, or the space saving vertical configuration. The drive is nearly silent during use. With the included Nero Express software, users can burn a variety of disc formats. The drive is particularly strong when burning to CDR, DVD-R, and DVD+R DL discs. With so many optical disc formats, no one drive can be exceptional at them all. While this drive does have its weaknesses, a user looking to add DVD recording to their computer, without dismantling his or her case, should certainly consider the Samsung WriteMaster SE-W164 DVD recorder.

Titanium Cruzer Reviewed

Hey folks, first of all, sorry about the lack of new content lately, but this is a one man show, and a vacation was on the agenda. Second of all, my review of the Titanium Cruzer went live. This is a great USB flash drive, with several stand out features from the competition. Be sure to check it out!

In summary, SanDisk’s Titanium Cruzer is a great USB flash drive. With its LiquidMetal construction, slick retractable mechanism and quick speeds, it is the drive to own. Compared to Lexar’s flagship drive, the SanDisk is a comparative bargain. I award this drive the “LD Approved” designation. Just about every computer user needs a USB flash drive, and when I consider price, the Titanium Cruzer is my current favorite. For a small premium above a vanilla ordinary drive, this one has a whole lot more style and speed, but is still affordable.

FireWire Guitar

This is a great idea for a computer peripheral- a guitar that plugs into your computer. Suddenly the electric guitar is so last century. There's also a USB ukulele out there. No word on pricing yet.

"Finally, a guitar you can plug directly into your computer -- no strings attached.

You may never have heard of BridgeCo, but if you've got a FireWire audio interface, odds are their guts are inside. (They make the firmware / hardware platform.) Now they've gone and crossed your FireWire interface with a boutique electric guitar. What does that give you? A FireWire electric guitar, that's what.

Companies have been promising guitars you could plug and play with a computer, but there's always a catch, like a breakout box -- or the thing simply doesn't ship. Heck, we even got a prototype USB-powered ukelele. But this is real, it's at AES here in NYC, and thanks to FireWire, each string can be a separate audio channel."

Wireless Headphones

Those wires on your headphones are so last century. This "Pop Sci" piece looks at some of the latest products to cut the wires on your audio listening experience.

It's a brave new wireless world, yet most portable-audio hounds are still tangled up in headphone cords. Soon, though, you'll have lots of wireless stereo headphones to choose from. The technology isn't brand new, but until recently it was too bulky and expensive to shove into the tiny, splurge-worthy gadgets we love. Expect to see three flavors of wireless earmuffs—Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and magnetic induction— rolling out between now and early next year. These airy headphones will connect wirelessly to audio players, mobile phones, laptops, stereo systems and game consoles for unencumbered musical bliss

While there are current state of the art headphones from Logitech and Plantronics, there's also some new stuff. The new directions include wifi (for some upcoming wifi players), and magnetic induction which promises less interference and better battery life. Stay tuned, this product category is heating up!

Hacking Your PSP Device

Sony's latest handheld gaming device has a beautiful screen, and can play some wonderful games. However, it is capable of more, maybe a lot more with some, oh, how shall we say...tweaking. Actually, it's more like hacking, but tweaking sounds a lot more socially acceptable. Users willing to risk their warranty can get the handheld to display ebooks, play classic arcade games like Pac-Man, and even watch mobile video files.

No thanks to Sony, which is notorious for limiting the functionality of its products with proprietary formats and restrictive protections, the PlayStation Portable is now the must-have gadget of the year, even for those whose lives don’t revolve around the latest first-person shooter. The gorgeous device feels good in your hands, has a stunningly sharp screen, and plays some pretty sophisticated games. It took a bunch of amateur programmers, though, to invent tools that unlock the PSP’s full potential as a portable media powerhouse. Below, learn how to convert any video file—whether home movie, free trailer or recorded TV show—to play on the PSP. (Converting your DVDs is legally murky, although the same programs will do it.) Then turn the page to see how to run free games, such as Tetris and Pac-Man clones, from the PSP’s Memory Stick. But that’s just the beginning. Now that the PSP has been cracked, new tricks are popping up every day. Head to popsci.com/h20 to see the latest creative uses for this multitalented device.

While Microsoft, Sony, and the likes debate their latest digital rights restrictions, it's nice to see the "home brew" movement enabling functionality on a nice device.

Pioneer 110D DVDRW Drive Reviewed

When CD Freaks reviews a drive, its usually the last word on the drive. This review lives up to those high expectations. Pioneer's latest drive does some very high quality writes across a wide variety of media. The write speed on CDR media could be improved, but for DVD writing, this is one of the best drives currently.

The DVR-110D can burn a few selected DVD±R media at higher than the media’s rated speed, and still obtain good burn quality. The DVR-110D can also rip pressed DVD-Video at 16x SL and 12x DL, and pressed DVD-ROM’s at 16x. This makes the drive a useful DVD-Video ripping tool.

The Pioneer DVR-110D can burn Double Layer media quickly, and in most cases with good quality. This drive handled some DL media with good quality that many other drives struggle with.

Another thing worth a mention is the drive runs fairly quietly, and runs cool. This may be important in some environments, especially if the drive is housed in a cramped PC case or a hot climate. The DVR-110D feels solidly built, the tray has a nice solid feel to its action, and the whole drive has a feel of good build quality.

Some great case mods

If you're bored with your beige computer box, and less than enthusiastic about "Dell black" boxes, Extremetech's new series of case mod articles will give you some inspiration. This is strictly BYOB (build your own box) stuff, but the effort will be worth it when your friends are impressed. Check out the picture above, this guy is hard core, the mouse is made out of a boat!

Video iPod Update

It's looking like the video iPod is likely for next week as "the next big thing." Do you think we'll be able to download movies from the iPod store for 99 cents? If I were Blockbuster, and I wasn't part of this, I'd be scrambling right about now.

In a research note released to clients on Tuesday, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said Apple appears ripe to introduce an iPod with video capabilities and revisions to one or more of its Macintosh products.

The analyst believes that after two years of studying the video market and negotiating with content partners, Apple may be ready to go to market with a first-generation video-capable iPod.

"If Apple can charge under $400 and preferably $299, we believe it will sell well. At higher price points, we believe it may be difficult to drive high volume," the analyst said. "We are also picking up indications that Apple could announce an optional external "video-out" module that attaches to an iPod video meaning one can output the video to a TV or external screen."

The newest iPod is rumored to have a 60 GB hard drive, a video out port and Bluetooth support.

Car MP3 Player

If you want to play digital music in your car, but don't want to rip out your stereo, than this is worth checking out. The kit includes a 12 V car power source, and plays the songs via the FM stereo with a transmitter. To keep the cost down, the songs are stored on SD Cards. Great review by "The Gadgeteer."

The Nex3 really has a lot of built-in features and included accessories for such a little player, if you think about it! Perhaps it is because of the bright yellow color, but I kept finding myself underestimating the Nex3 much of the time I was testing it. It looks like a toy to me, but it definitely did not perform like one. While testing, I found myself continuously impressed with the Nex3's features and durability.

The amount of memory the player has is only limited by the size of the user's SD cards. Memory can be swapped in and out, or music can continuously be cycled on and off a single card from the user's computer. I was checking prices on the Nex3+, and it would appear that for $50 more, one can be purchased with a 1GB SD card.

New WiFi Antenna

Many users are less than satisfied with the range of their wireless equipment. After all, unless you're in the Nevada desert with a 10 foot antenna, its hard to get much range out of a 100 mW signal (the FCC limits wifi to this strength). The Japanese are trying to boost this.

Maspro Denkoh Corp., a Japanese manufacturer of wireless communications equipment, has developed a transmission system that can send Wi-Fi signals as far as five kilometers.

The system relies on high-gain antennas produced by the company and is compatible with standard 802.11b/g communications equipment, it said on Wednesday at the Ceatec Japan 2005 trade show in Chiba, Japan.


There are two types of antenna: One is a tube-shaped model about 40 centimeters long, and the other is a much shorter and square-shaped model. Combining two of the tubular antenna -- one on each end of the link -- will result in a transmission distance of about 5 km, while one of each antenna will work on distances up to 2 km, and two of the compact antenna will be fine for up to 1 km, the company said.

This would be a great product, except that it is over $5000. You may not want to throw away your Pringle's can yet. You can read some interesting discussion here about this.

Bluetooth + Wine

I thought the movie "Sideways" was excellent, but I'm not sure that the inventors of Bluetooth would have seen this one coming.

IntelliScanner Corporation today introduced the Wine Collector 150, a personal handheld barcode scanner with included wine management software for Mac OS X and Windows. "By simply scanning the retail bar code found on a bottle of the wine with the USB or Bluetooth wireless IntelliScanner barcode reader, the included software downloads the name, varietal, winery, country, type, color, region, and more with Internet-enabled AutoFill capabilities. Wine Collector 150 is packaged in a custom manufactured wooden wine box, and includes an IntelliScanner barcode reader, Wine Collector software, a starter pack of IntelliScanner Asset Tags, and setup instructions. The product is available in two models: the USB package for US$199.00, and the portable, Bluetooth wireless version for $299.00.

Some more info here.

Digital Music Stereo Reviewed

While many folks (and car manufacturers) have gone the iPod route for digital car audio, Panasonic is taking a different approach. Their stereo can play both MP3 and WMA files from CDR's that you burn on your computer CD writer. This should provide about 10 hours of music per disc. On my last car trip, this definitely would have been a plus, rather than changing discs every 45 minutes. I want one!

The Panasonic CQ-C8400U is capable of playing any audio file I throw at it – from 64 KBPS WMA to 256 KBPS MP3, and had no trouble with variable bit rate songs. What it does have trouble with though is certain brands of CDs and/or the speed at which the CD is burned. If faced with a disc it cannot read properly, sometimes it will start playing a song, they stop halfway through, and other times it won't play at all. I did a fair amount of testing, and it seemed to have trouble with a generic brand of CDs that I was using. When I switched to Ritek CDs, I had no problems. It also worked well with the Verbatim LightScribe CDs

Digital Music Format Primer

Not sure what format to rip your music into for your digital music player? This article looks into the issue.

Ripping CD's can also offer higher quality. ITunes and some other stores sell music encoded at a data rate of 128 kilobits per second. (EMusic, Rhapsody and Yahoo use 192 kbps.) Typical CD's are encoded at a rate of about 1,400 kbps. AAC and WMA use sophisticated data-compression technologies that allow them to maintain audio quality at lower data rates than CD's or even MP3's can, but no one claims that a 128 kbps download is equivalent to a compact disc.

Those who have already ripped a lot of CD's into either the Apple or Microsoft format have the option of converting their music from one format to another. ITunes software, for example, can find WMA files on a computer and convert them to AAC. Windows Media Player does not have a similar ability to change AAC to WMA, but other programs can handle this. For instance, Switch, a free program from NCH Swift Sound (nch.com.au) can convert more than a dozen audio formats, including AAC, MP3 and WMA

The article points out that Switch will convert formats, but the music will take a hit in the process.

The New News.com Website

I was always a big fan and reader of their website. Over the last few months, I've been there less and less. Why you ask? Well, there are some blogs out there (like this one) that are more cutting edge, and entertaining. As technology has evolved, so news.com appears to be trying to as well.

Interestingly, not many remarked on the editorial direction of the site--which is a good thing, because it means that our transition from "Tech News First" to "News of Change" is not much of a surprise. This reflects the evolution of the news we report: Rather than cover technology simply as computing, for example, we now delve into the myriad changes that it has effected in business, law, politics and culture. I do want to underscore one important point: We are broadening our focus and tech coverage, and we will do so with the same relentless pursuit to be the first with big, breaking stories such as this one.

Technology today is all-pervasive. Increasingly, there's a blurring of lines between what is called "enterprise" computing, or business technology, and the consumer world outside work. Today, everything is interconnected on the same technological "platform" that is the Internet, personally or professionally.

New ATI Graphics Cards

ATI announced its 1000 series of cards today. Thankfully, they start at $79, and not the $500 that we've grown accustomed to (but not opened my wallet to). ExtremeTech is among the 1st to run them through the paces.

We kind of feel sorry for ATI. We love competition, and nothing is better for consumers than when Nvidia and ATI struggle to give us ever-greater 3D graphics performance with better features at lower prices. So when Nvidia launched the GeForce 7800 GTX back in June, with full card availability on day one, we were a little upset that it went totally unanswered by ATI. Last month, Nvidia expanded the 7-series line by offering the GeForce 7800 GT, a lower-cost alternative, and still nothing from its Canadian rivals.

1st Look at the LiteOn 1635S Drive

Here's a look at LiteOn's latest DVDRW drive. The quality of the DVD recording looks improved. It looks like CDRW discs are not its strong point.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say:

“Even though the reading and writing performance on CD-RWs is not “up to date” – the drive is still interesting - including the Bitsetting and quality scanning features.

All the Lite-On SHW-1635S written DVD media in this article achieved a quality score of 90 and above. ”

Video iPod????

Those folks at Apple have been hinting at this one for quite some time now. A long anticipated video iPod may be announced next week. Then again, the speculators have been fooled before, so stay tuned.

Apple Computer Inc. has e-mailed invitations to reporters for a special event next week, prompting speculation on the Internet that the company would unveil a long-rumored iPod that can display videos.

The invitation from Apple, which is notoriously tight-lipped about its future products, said simply: "One more thing..."

Many analysts have said Apple is all but certain to introduce a version of the No. 1 digital music player that can also play video. Most models of the current iPods, in addition to playing music, can also display photos and perform other functions with accessories that are sold separately.

"Apple Computer has begun production of a new version of its iPod digital. music player that will be capable of playing videos, AppleInsider has learned," according to a Tuesday post on the AppleInsider Web site. "Sources who claim to have seen the new iPod describe it as being similar to Apple's 60 GB iPod photo player, but several millimeters thinner."

Then again, some folks think that this might be some new powerbooks. Well, Apple has succeeded in creating some buzz, now they just have to deliver the goods.

SanDisk Introduces New MP3 Player

The iPod Nano may not be the only 4 GB flash player for long. Building on their previous experience, they are introducing the m200 player, which tops out at 4 GB of storage, for a competitive $199. So much for everyone claiming they can't compete with Apple's sweet deal with Samsung on flash memory.

"It is SanDisk’s guiding principle to always provide superior value to its customers,” said Eric Bone, director of retail product marketing at SanDisk. “One of the ways we have done this with the Sansa m200 line is to feature support for music subscription services and capacities that include a 4-gigabyte (GB) model for $199.99, made possible with our new 70-nanometer NAND/MLC 8-gigabit chip. When you combine these key features with a compact yet robust industrial design and an easy-to-use interface, we believe the Sansa m200 line will be very compelling for anyone who appreciates music.”

New & Improved

Yes, you are on the same website. I decided to reformat the page to a new and different color scheme. I also felt that the ads were taking too long to load, so we're trying less ads, more strategically placed. I'm hoping this works out better for all concerned. This format also has a more modern look. As always, any and all comments are appreciated.

Expand the memory of your iPod

Need some more room than the new iPod Nano provides. Take a look at this version of "Monster Garage: iPod Edition."

Now you have 200gb of storage space, fill it up with songs! We found in our benchmarking results that the addition of the ATA hard drive adversely affected battery life. However, we believe that this is a small price to pay for an over 50x increase in storage capacity. Using Apple's own bitrate calculations, we can now store over 150,000 minutes of music! You'll never listen to the same song twice. This is such a great advantage over the original model that we urge all iPod Nano owners to upgrade immediately

Logitech 50 mm Speakers for iPod Reviewed

This is a great way to share your iTunes on your iPod. It even has a remote control.

Overall, the Logitech mm50 provided impressive performance, with clear highs, a good midrange, and decent lows. If you're looking for really booming bass, however, you may want a different brand, such as Bose or Altec Lansing. The volume levels for the mm50 were most impressive: Despite its relatively small size (if you take it as an "at home" speaker), it got really loud. You could definitely rock a small party. Just beware of the low-end distortion at the very highest level. Logitech's rated battery life of 10 hours is adequate, especially considering the fact that the battery is a built-in rechargeable. For $150, the mm50 is quite a deal for iPod lovers.

MiniDisc R.I.P.

Those minidiscs never really caught on the way Sony hoped they would. Now they're getting ready to join 8 tracks, cassettes, LP's, and 45's...

You don’t have to be a tech junkie to know that Sony is trying mighty hard to re-gain lost ground. New CEO, new plans for the Playstation, but unfortunately, there is rumbling online that the Sony MiniDisc (MD) format may soon bite the dust. The news is coming from some pretty credible MD folks over at Sony Voice, an independent discussion board on all things Sony

Hammer Time!

I will admit that I hadn't seen a DVDRW drive by Pansonic in the states in quite some time. Well, they're being brought in by Hammer Storage. The drive reviewed is a "super drive" that features DVD-RAM support. Panasonic is generally known for supporting DVD-RAM, but it does not support DVD-R DL media, the latest standard. It features the Ulead storage software package.

The main negative points: The number one problem that we see with the Hammer Storage / Panasonic DVD drive is that the 16x DVD writing is horribly broken. Almost all discs that are burned at 16x result in incredibly high Parity Inner Failure errors reported on Kprobe scans and unuseable discs. We would also really like to see a 12x writing speed option available since the 12x writing quality is much better compared to 16x writing on this drive. The writing quality on DVD-R media needs improvement. The Digital Audio Extraction is slow compared to the competition. Double Layer DVD Video ripping is locked to 4x maximum.

To sum it all up, the best we could say is: “A fine drive for Double Layer burning or CD-R writing, but if you are interested in a drive that burns single layer DVD media at 16x with good quality, then you’ll have to look elsewhere.” Even though the drive is using a Z-CLV write strategy, it is surprisingly fast. It just does not create a useable disc at 16x. The writing quality at 12x and lower speeds is very good. The CD writing is good with a few exceptions. Panasonic could have a real winner here if they would commit to improving the firmware. Perhaps this is because of the chipset or perhaps they haven’t the desire to improve? We have reported the problems to Hammer Storage / Panasonic and we truly hope that a future firmware can improve the writing quality.

It looks like they still have some "tweaking" to do, like building a better drive.