Serious Storage

If you've got a need for serious storage, than this is the drive for you. Who can't get excited about 400 GB on tap to house even the largest MP3 collection? And with USB 2.0 and FireWire connectors, the info is easily accessible.

Seagate has always been in the forefront when it comes to drive capacity and one of their highest capacity 3.5-inch hard disk drives has made it into an external solution. The squarish external drive unit features both USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 (1394a) interfaces and comes with a single pushbutton in the front for instant backup. The silver-black design of the drive chassis has adequate ventilation areas on all sides, giving the drive plenty of room to cool itself. However, unlike some of their competitor's designs, the drive is built entirely out of sturdy plastics, which does not help much in terms of heat management although we don't see much of a problem given the size of the chassis.

Flirting, the Wireless Way

I doubt the inventors of Bluetooth would have seen this one coming....

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- The restaurant, like all Riyadh eateries, has taken precautions to prevent its male and female diners from seeing or contacting each other.

Circular white walls surround each table in the family section, open only to women alone or women accompanied by close male relatives. Other male diners are on lower floors.

Yet despite the barriers, the men and women flirt and exchange phone numbers, photos and kisses.

They elude the mores imposed by the kingdom's puritanical Wahhabi version of Islam -- formulated in the 18th century -- by using a 21st century device in their mobile phones: the wireless Bluetooth technology that permits users to connect without going through the phone company.

MobiBLU DAH-1500i Reviewed

This may be the answer to the iPod Shuffle. After all, it's even smaller, and has a screen.

What's just slightly bigger than a caramel, lets you rock out to radio hits or 1GB of your favorite music, can make its own recordings, and is available at Wal-Mart? The bite-size, full-featured MobiBLU DAH-1500i is billed as the "world's smallest" digital audio player, and we're pretty sure that's true—for now, at least. And it does a lot more than just play MP3s. We're so impressed with the DAH-1500i that while we were testing it, our iPod shuffle started whining and giving us puppy-dog eyes.

New Lexar MP3 Player Reviewed

If there was a "no frills" section in the Wal-Mart electronics section, this should be there. Than again, with the strange problem, it probably would end up in returns.

Overall, the Lexar LDP-200 player has one major thing going for it- price. For $49, plus the cost of a memory card, there really is nothing else out there. I’ve recently seen 1 GB memory cards on sale in the $60 range, so for just over one hundred bucks total, you can have a 1 GB MP3 player, with a screen. I don’t know of anything else with that kind of capacity in that low price range. The nice blue screen, included quality earbuds, and standard AAA battery power sweeten the deal.

For a low price, I would be very willing to live without a carrying case, no included software, and limited equalizer options. I didn’t even miss a built in microphone, or FM radio. I can even live with only two supported music formats (MP3 and WMA) as these are the only two I really use anyway.

Unfortunately, there are significant shortcomings. The spontaneous shut off has me concerned about the overall quality of Lexar’s unit. Also, the audio, on playback over quality speakers in the car or the Altec-Lansing setup, reveals a lack of bass and depth despite the equalizer.

In short, unless I was very cash strapped, I would rather spend a few more dollars, and get a higher quality product. Lexar’s LDP-600, while more money, has a lot more features and offers significantly more “bang for the buck.” While the LDP-200 has great potential, it appears to end up on the cheap side of inexpensive.

This review was linked to by Technudge, and Gizmodo.

The LDP-200 was also reviewed by CNET.

Make no mistake: The Lexar LDP-200 is intended for digital music newcomers or those who want a low-cost, no-frills, lightweight secondary device to use while working out. You can tell just from looking at the device that it's designed for simplicity. The only controls on the front are a power button, a playback/volume joystick, and a menu button. The left side features the SD card slot and a hold switch, while the right side sports the headphone and USB ports. The blue backlit screen is easy to read, and the menus are easy to navigate, largely because there are so few features to wade through.

At least CNET's unit didn't have the spontaneous shut off "feature."

Bluetooth Headphones

I have a Bluetooth mouse, but I've had my eyes out for Bluetooth headphones. The 10 m range is just about right for this type of device.

In October, Plantronics Inc. will start selling the Pulsar 590, a pair of rechargeable Bluetooth-enabled headphones. The company sent me a pair to try and suddenly I can't live without them.

They offer nice styling and killer sound quality extended over a range of about 50 feet from a small transmitter that can be connected to the miniplug audio output jack of any device.

The headphones cost $150 alone, $200 with the transmitter.

Students Trade In Books For Laptops

Why carry around a whole bag full of books when a laptop can have all the info, and so much more?

VAIL, Ariz. - Students at Empire High School here started class this year with no textbooks — but it wasn't because of a funding crisis. Instead, the school issued iBooks — laptop computers by Apple Computer Inc. — to each of its 340 students, becoming one of the first U.S. public schools to shun printed textbooks.

School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning. Empire High, which opened for the first time this year, was designed specifically to have a textbook-free environment.

New Xbox May Be Too Robust

The new Xbox's specs may be too powerful. As in, what do I need a Media Center PC for if the cheaper Xbox has it all covered.

MICROSOFT'S DECISION to make its Xbox 360 box available for the Yule season is likely to put pressure on PC OEMs, distributors and dealers attempting to sell full blown Media Centre PCs.
Because the Xbox 360 is so highly specced, and so cheap and cheerful compared to Microsoft Media Centre PCs, many households contemplating buying a PC could switch to the console instead.

The nongaming capabilities are:

Nongaming capabilities: The Xbox 360's built-in ability to serve as a Media Center Extender will let users stream digital video, audio, and photos from networked PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition. Microsoft is also promising the "ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, and Windows XP-based PCs." Last but not least, the 360 will double as a CD/DVD player.

Cities Offer Wireless Access

Your local municipality offers garbage collection, water service, and in some cases electricity. Now, they want to get into the internet supplier business. With the way the cable and DSL companies price their services, we may be better off.

Thirteen cities are currently participating in the initiative, called "Digital Communities." Its goal is to give cities technical resources and discounts to help them establish or build out their broadband wireless infrastructure so they can better connect with police and fire personnel as well as with public-works employees such as meter readers and building inspectors.

Labels, Digital Style

The NY Times this week looks at the ways to label things in the digital era.

People like to label things. They put labels on cellphones, digital cameras, CD's and circuit breakers, not to mention file folders, envelopes and name tags. There was a time when people used typewriters to create paper labels and Dymo label makers to emboss plastic labels. But labeling, like most things these days, has mostly gone digital.

New AMD Notebook Chip

A 4000+ 64-bit chip for a notebook is one potent part! I'm eager to see how hot it runs- let's see if it melts the plastic or not.

The company said its Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 4000+ is meant for full-size notebook computers--machines with screen sizes measuring 15 to 17 inches on the diagonal. Already, Fujitsu Siemens and VoodooPC have jumped on the bandwagon and said they would include the new Athlon chip as part of their latest laptop offerings.

Priced at $382 in 1,000-unit quantities, AMD said its 4000+ can handle 32-bit and 64-bit processing jobs and includes 802.11a/b/g wireless capabilities. The mobile Athlon also includes virus protection hardwired to the chip that works in tandem with Microsoft Windows Service Pack 2. In addition to its 4000+, AMD said it now offers five other Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors.

The original press release has a little more info.

A Look At Wireless Keyboards...

Thinking of taking the plunge towards a wireless keyboard or Bluetooth mouse? This article has a nice review of some of the current offerings. I'm not surprised they liked the Logitech stuff, I've been a big fan for a while myself. I looked at the Logitech Bluetooth diNovo Keyboard earlier this year and found it more than worthy.

Wireless Optical Desktops are definitely liberating. No wires to get tangled up in or to trip over. No more cleaning out your mouse ball and rollers. These products set you free. Ok, so they are not "get out of jail free" cards, but you know what we're getting at.

Of all the wireless keyboards, the MX3100/LX700 keyboard from Logitech was probably the nicest of the bunch. Granted, all the keyboards here had their shortcomings, but these two (identical) keyboards were generally the easiest to use, had the nicest feel, and had the longest operating distance. Both Logitech mice were pleasant to use as well—especially the MX1000 Laser mouse (which can be purchased separately if you don't want the keyboard.) Both the Kensington and the Microsoft keyboards were nice because of their ergonomic design and additional functionality.

Regarding BlueTooth mice, the Logitech MX900 took top honors. The included charging cradle/BT transceiver, rechargeable batteries, multi-function buttons, and the nice feel made this mouse a winner. The Microsoft BT mouse was also nice with its "chiseled" like design and mini USB BT adapter. The Kensington mouse was simple yet worked with any BT hub, and it fit easily in either left or right hand.

I enjoyed this review very much, however, it is already out of date as Logitech announced several new products today, including this.

Congrats...To Us!

I just wanted to point out that we reached our 3000th visitor today! Thanks so much to the dedicated readership of our site. Now everyone tell at least two others about this site, and we'll keep growing. Thanks again.

New iPaq Leaked

The new 6700 series of iPaqs are to feature a miniSD slot, and a 1.3 MP digital camera, as well as the new Windows Mobile 2005 OS. Expect to see these on shelves in January.

A slide show available on Thursday, but quickly removed by Friday morning, revealed two new hw6700-series Mobile Messenger devices--the hw6710 and the hw6715--with a 1.3 megapixel camera. The new family of personal digital assistants offers the same functionality as HP's hw6500 series, HP said on the Web site.

The new iPaqs, however, only support a miniSD slot. That could be troublesome for iPaq owners who use larger-size SD cards. The hw6500 supports both miniSD and SD formats.

$600 Graphic Card? No!

In this era of sub $500 PC's, I think the graphics companies, and the fools that pay the price have lost their common sense!

Building or buying a top-of-the-line desktop computer has never been cheap. While prices for budget PCs seem to creep continuously lower (Dell advertises a $299 system, for crying out loud), they appear to be headed ever higher for top-performance models, with no upper limit in sight.

Sneak preview: a prototype board with NVidia's GeForce 7800 GTX chip.The high end reached new heights in June when NVidia announced that its next flagship graphics chip, the GeForce 7800 GTX, would grace cards selling for $600. Not $500, the previous "you've got to be kidding me" watermark, but $100 more. And if you're lucky enough to own a dual-card ready SLI motherboard, you can spend a cool $1200 to load up with two of these bad boys.

New Mice From Logitech Coming

Two items to note. First, Logitech is dividing their desktop mice into a "G" series for gamers, and a "MX" series for office users. Second, the new mice are expected to use the laser technology that debuted last year in their MX1000 mouse. With the laser, the tracking is very accurate, even on glass.

Not only is there a G5 coming, but also a G7 and an MX610. It looks like they are separating the lines into Gx for gaming and MXxxx for the cubicle bound soul-sucked office troglodytes. Personally, I just want a Marble Mouse with a scroll wheel, but if I ever get $99 to my name, the Kensington Expert Mouse looks really nice.